IF YOU WANT TO SKIP TO THE POINT, START READING BELOW THE LINE
I’m going to start with me, so you understand where this is coming from. I’ve bought and currently own every Halo, except ODST which was sold a while back. I’ve splurged on limited editions for Halo 2 and Halo 3, along with a legendary for Reach because I’m just a sucker when it comes to these games for some reason.
I played each one regularly until the release of the next. I was one of those weirdos who got all the vidmaster achievements so my Halo 3 armory would be complete. Now, about a few weeks after Reach came out and I’d unboxed my legendary (finally trying the WAY overpriced version to satisfy curiosity), put on my flaming helmet, and finished campaign, I just stopped wanting to play. I didn’t touch Reach for 2 years. Sold my copy and would never have played again unless my Xbox hadn’t RRoD’d and I replaced it with a holiday bundle which included drumroll Reach. When Halo 4’s release was coming up and it was only a matter of time before it was mine, I booted up Reach for the first time since a month after launch.
I was instantly drawn back in. Like crack. I did nothing but play SWAT and leveled from a Warrant Officer to nearly General on that playlist alone. Then Halo 4 came out and it was everything I expected and more. I’m not what you might call a “pro player” so I was personally thrilled with the campaign and multiplayer alike. Still can’t stop playing it even if I want to. All my friends picked up a copy and they had the exact same impression. I used to poke around the old Bungie forums, so I came by these fine forums and to my surprise I’m met with a wall of threads all titled things like “WTF 343?! Y U RUIN HALO?!” “Nerf Boltshot or I quit” “Nerf DMR too, but boltshot more” and just people generally complaining about anything they can over a game that I couldn’t find enough criticism to form a sentence. And I’ve been published as a critic. Personally, my Halo addiction has returned with a vengeance and I’ll be playing infinity multiplayer for years to come, regardless of how many people like the game enough to keep playing it.
When I came back from my 3-year hiatus for Halo 4, I realized that the complaining and negativity was exactly what made me disenchanted with Halo before. It’s not that I can’t handle people who disagree with me - I can. I just find that so many of these complaints are blown out of proportion with anger (LOL IRONY, this thread is a complaint thread, too). Again, that’s just my opinion. All popular games have their passionate fans and Halo players have yet to send death threats to 343i like the DMC crowd did to Ninja Theory.
Okay, fine. People have a right to be upset if that’s the way they feel. In the interest of free speech, they also have a right to express their dissatisfaction if they can do it in a mature fashion. My problem is the general negativity that floats over the Halo fanbase like a particularly annoying rain cloud. I would say 1 in 50 threads here are for neutral discussion of Halo 4 or they try to say something positive. Doesn’t matter though because the positive threads always get overrun by the majority of people who have something to complain about and are not satisfied until they reiterate their point in every thread where it would be deemed on-topic.
I’m not just talking about the forums here, this extends to matchmaking. When I’m not playing with my friends, my microphone is not plugged in. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t because trash talkers make me all angsty. 9/10 times, the other person with a microphone only opens their mouth to complain about tactics other players are using, how the game is broken because it did not rule a standoff in their favor, etc.
Now, without delving into specific game mechanics and reducing this thread to another case of bandwagoned complaints of what’s trending to disapprove of in Halo 4, let me say again that this has been going on with the release of each new Halo. It isn’t new. When Halo 3 came out, people took issue with the melee mechanics. When Reach came out, a lot of people complained about those changes too. When Halo 5 comes out, there’ll be a whole new list of things to be upset about, I promise.
A lot of these complaints stem from gamers who have mastered the game and its unique physics to such a degree that having to re-adapt for the next game seems unfair. CoD has avoided this problem as it grew and Halo shrunk. How? By releasing a new one every year that is a carbon copy of the previous game with slightly updated graphics. CoD players don’t really need to relearn anything to play the sequel. Even the game’s engine is recycled. Each Halo game has had a brand new engine built from the bottom up to RESEMBLE the previous Halo’s, but also update them. Things are changed each time to suit the improved graphics, fine-tuned/altered gameplay mechanics, and make the game unique despite all of the similarities that are required for it to feel like Halo.
Most FPS players don’t appreciate the work that’s put into that, but I do. They only want the newest Halo to be every bit beloved to us as the one that preceded it and there is no better philosophy for a company to follow, even if they misinterpret what we want from time to time.
This is about a game series we have which I personally consider to have one of the richest stories and lore of any sci-fi tale be it TV, movies, or other video games. An FPS environment that is welcomes both competitive and casual play in a way that no other game before or since has been able to match. Fellow Halo players, why do we feel compelled to bicker and be negative all the time?
AFTERTHOUGHT: After reading the first couple of responses (and they were wonderful!) I think I know why I’ve bothered to type out paragraphs upon paragraphs about this. I’m tired of CoD being on top. I want my friends to love Halo again so I can play online with them. I want the series I love to be considered a contender in the modern game market and not a has-been title that can’t cater to public interest. All this negativity is getting in the way of that because here we have a Halo that has slam dunked the majority of reviews it got, but its own fans are walking away from it not 2 months after it hit shelves. I was hoping for more conviction, I guess. Even if a lot of people here aren’t on the same page as I am, a new Halo game will always be welcome on my shelf. 