A possible reason why 343 did what they did

Games Other Halo
1

Halo 4.

It is either called the greatest Halo ever by a few, or a failure by many others.

One of the reason people dislike the game is because of several new game mechanics, such as Sprint, armour abilies (not new but were slightly alter in Halo 4) and ordnance. Quite a few of us find it hard to see why 343 added these features to an almost perfect formula.

After playing some Legendary Slayer recently, it dawned on me why 343 tried to make Random Ordnance a standard setting.

Take Haven’s Legendary Slayer settings, initial spawns are at opposite sides of the map with a BR close by. The top middle section has a rocket launcher and there is a sniper rifle at the closed ramp.

If a team can control top middle, they have viewpoints on all the primary weapon spawns that they need to control the map. Because in two minutes those weapons respawn in the same spot, if you control top middle, you can reach the BRs and Sniper with ease, crushing any opponents trying to get to you.

This was how Halo has been played since the CE days.

However, the problem is that if you can get a firm grip on top middle, or another power position, the game is practically yours.

So, 343 decided to change things to even the playing field by changing the weapon spawn locations, in the hope of creating hotspots that constantly move around the map, instead of a team just entrenching themselves in one location, only going out for more ammo.

But, because the Ordnance is Random, and not scripted, many players tend to ignore the new hotspots and just carry on fighting all over the map. Other new game mechanics, such as custom loadouts and personal Ordnance make having the random ordnance useless.

Had 343 just added random ordnance and not the other new mechanics like custom loadouts, random Ordnance might have worked. Maybe gametype such as this (with no personal ordnance or custom loadouts) may appear in the future and we can see if random ordnance is a really bad thing.

2

I see your point.
We can only know if we try it ourselves.

However, static weapon spawns are a very important part of Halo.
And many veterans, including myself, view Random Ordnance as a negative feature.

3

Legendary Slayer still doesn’t play like previous Halo games, so I wouldn’t call it a good comparison. The maps have a lot more open space, so BRs dominate, making the ARs almost useless. Halo 2’s SMG had much better full-auto range than Halo 4’s AR, so it was a lot better (and quicker) at taking down BR users. Halo 2 and 3 also had higher weapon despawn times, so you could pretty quickly ditch the SMG/AR for either a newly spawned or dropped weapon. Then Sprint allows you to move across a map in just seconds, so once you clean up enemies from an area, you don’t have as much time to regroup and recollect yourself before enemies reappear.

I’m not necessarily complaining. But many people are saying, “classic Halo is there, it’s called ‘Legendary Slayer,’” and these people cannot have played previous Halo games, or they would know it’s still pretty far from it.

EDIT: 343i did what they did because they wanted to make the game more accessible to unskilled (“casual”) players. Many players do not want to learn the strategies–spawn locations, weapon spawn locations, powerful map positions, etc. Call of Duty is so successful because you spawn with everything you could possibly need. You don’t need to defeat anyone to get a Rocket Launcher or additional ability. You don’t need to learn or memorize any strategies or tactics about the game. Halo 4 tried to go that route too, and it didn’t work out very well for two reasons:

  1. Call of Duty is still better at casual gameplay because Halo 4 still requires some elements of strategy and practice. It still doesn’t appeal to “casual” players as much as Call of Duty does.
  2. Because of the dumbing-down of map and power weapon control with POs and the random advantages given by AAs and perks, it lost some of its loyal fanbase.

If Halo 4 was a standalone game with no previous followers or existing fanbase, it would have appealed to almost no one.

4

> many people are saying, “classic Halo is there, it’s called ‘Legendary Slayer,’” and these people cannot have played previous Halo games, or they would know it’s still pretty far from it.

its as close as we can get for halo 4. lets hope halo 5 is better