Hello,
I don’t know if anyone at 343 will ever read this. I’m actually assuming that no one from 343 will ever read this. But in the slim hopes that they might, Im literally on my hands and knees begging for you to put a major refresh into the Team Doubles playlist.
This playlist, is one of the most beloved modes in Halo history. There is no such thing as Halo without ranked Team Doubles. In the past Halo has always done this playlist justice and it has always been one of the most popular, fun and competitive ways to play the game.
Right now, Team Doubles has to be one of the stalest experiences in all of Halo history. Honestly, the playlist is at an all time low.
In Halo 3, the Team Doubles playlist had between 8-15 maps in rotation at all times. Halo 5 currently has 5…
In Halo 3 the Team Doubles playlist had a variety of interesting game types which greatly affected gameplay style and strategy. We had Team Slayer with an AR/Pistol start, Team BRs with a BR/AR start, Team Snipers and Shotty Snipers for Slayer matches. We also had an added layer of variety with the addition of Objective gametypes as well like Oddball, King Of The Hill, 1 Flag and 2 Flag CTF.
You could literally play the Team Doubles playlist for 2-3 hours and never get the same map/gametype combo. It was an amazing experience and one of the reasons why I fell in love with grinding for my 50 in the playlist. It was a beautiful way to experience the joy of Halo.
Right now in Halo 5, you only have 1 game type. Slayer. Not Team Br’s, not Snipers, not objective. Just straight up slayer. The pistol is the most dominant weapon in the game and therefore every other weapon in the sandbox is completely useless. Other than a sniper, it makes no sense to pick up a DMR or Carbine or BR and there are no other power weapons currently in play like the Beam Rifle, Shotgun, Scatter Shot, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Caster or even Plasma rifles. It’s just you, your pistol and the annoying other team who’s using the noob combo at the speed of light.
There is a serious, and I mean FATAL, lack of diversity in this playlist and it makes the game extremely stale to play. I know that the Halo 3 days are over but I don’t see why we can’t take some elements of what made it successful and implement them in Halo 5 now.
It is frustrating beyond belief because this playlist used to have many other great maps in rotation like Coliseum, Eden, Tyrant, Molten, Overgrowth and Mercy. I even liked a few of the community doubles maps that were added in randomly These Walls, Veil and Hazard. They were weird and quirky but different and encouraged different types of gameplay.
I’m not sure if this lack of diversity is solely because this playlist is now HCS/MLG. I really hope it isn’t. I don’t understand why we would cater one of the most popular playlists in the history of the game to a small subsection of hyper competitive players. And even if we kept the same game mechanics and gametypes, it shouldn’t be too hard to add extra maps in right?? I mean seriously, we currently only have 5 maps to play on…You hit every map in less than an hour…how does that not get boring to the average player when the only gametype available is pistol slayer?? Can someone PLEASE explain this to me? Make it make sense.
HCS/MLG settings will always have a place in halo but in my experienced opinion, it deserves its own separate 4v4 playlists. I thought this was the purpose of Team Arena. I thought it was supposed to have the same settings that are played in tournaments to give players the chance to practice and compete. So why are these settings in Doubles??
Doubles needs to have the same criteria as normal ranked playlists. It needs radar, it needs a variety in the sandbox of weapons to use and it needs more maps in order to keep your gameplay experience fresh and interesting.
Doubles is my favorite playlist, I want to keep playing this until Infinite comes out and I want to have fun while I do. Here is what I am asking for the new season of H5:
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Remove HCS settings and bring back normal radar gameplay - it is highly frustrating solo queing doubles with a teammate that has no mic only to be bum rushed by 2 sweaty champs for 8 minutes. Give me the ability to defend myself if my teammate isn’t equipped to help me survive.
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Please add additional game types to the lineup. Even if you can’t do objective, please just give us the ability to play multiple iterations of slayer. Team Slayer can be Pistol/AR start, Team BRs with the H2 Br/AR start (so what its a laser beam, people can 5 shot pistol at 300+ yards), Team Snipers and Shotty Snipers too. - Just this one tweak would breathe a HUGE breath of fresh air into this playlist and we’d get a surge of people playing the game. I would LOVE objective as well and from my knowledge most of these maps have had objective play in 4v4 playlists in the past. I am certain that this can’t be too big of ask to have iterations for doubles.
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PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add back the additional maps into the rotation. Plaza is great, Empire is fun, the Rig is dope and Truth and Heretic are cool too but I am sick and tired of having the exact same experience every. single. time. I que up a game. We want Eden, Coliseum, Hazard, Veil, These Walls, Tyrant, Molten, Overgrowth, Mercy, Cybercide, and Monarch. I want this experience to have VARIETY!
I want Halo to be fun to play again and I’m doing my best to stick with it. I LOVE playing doubles, my best friend and I run it every night trying to get back into the game and grind to champ so that we can be ready when Infinite drops. But right now, we are stuck with a boring experience. All it needs is a simple and thoughtful refresh.
I hope that you will take these points into consideration moving forward. Thanks for reading and I wish you all the success in the world moving forward into Infinite. I cannot wait to play this game.
- Dom