I’m seeing a lot of people writing about pick ups being really bad and I’m just curious to see if everyone really feels that way.
Personally I’m a big fan of the Halo 5 multiplayer, but I really enjoy the classic multiplayer too. After playing Halo 3 again in the past few days, I really didn’t mind the pick ups and I kinda enjoyed them because it aloud you to change the way a game is played, and not every encounter is the same.
If it was up to me, I would really like there to be a couple permanent abilitys (such as in Halo 5 with thrusters for example) and then pick ups as well (like Halo 3 with the grav lift). What I don’t want is armor abilitys that have to be swapped out like in Reach and Halo 4.
On the contrary, pick-ups in the vein of Halo 3 are what many like me (those who prefer “Classic Halo”) would prefer in place of Spartan Abilities. It leaves the basic Halo gameplay intact while adding a piece of the sandbox on top. It is a true evolution of the classic gameplay, rather than tossing it aside like what Halo 4 and 5 did. If Halo Infinite went that direction, you’d have a lot of Classic fans satisfied (not all, but a lot).
I always thought this was a controversial opinion, but I’ve never enjoyed the equipment in Halo 3. Most it was pretty…meh. Mostly just get-out-of-jail-free cards, with the EMP ball obviously being the best. But you have no idea if a player has one or not, whereas you can literally see a Plasma Pistol in their hand, and if they’re overcharging it (to EMP shields or vehicles). I’ve always preferred Halo 2 Multiplayer, and equipment is part of that reason. You can at least see the Armour Abilities on the back of the Spartans and Elites in Halo Reach and Halo 4, and then in Halo 5, every player can do the same things. So, I prefer Armour Abilities and Spartan Abilities to Equipment, for their greater predictability (preferring SAs to AAs), but my real preference is to not have any. Over-shield and the like are different, as you can once again easily identify these in a gunfight.
None of them will make or break the game for me though. I’m more interested in the amount of content, the story, and customisation. Pretty much everything else other than gameplay, because no matter what, I’m pretty likely to at least enjoy it. I’ve felt for a while that the best compromise would be to have gameplay as it was in Halo 5’s Mythic Arena playlist.
People have a problem with the Equipment options that were presented in Halo 3, and take that as the main reason we should never see pickups in Halo again.
Pickups as a concept are the best way for Halo to innovate it’s sandbox IMO. I am in the classic camp, and having the Grappling Hook as a map pickup sounds awesome to me. Bubble Shields? Gravity Lifts? Any armor ability could easily become a single-use map pickup that respawns in the map. Hell, they can have unlimited uses (think Halo 2 Energy Sword) barred by a cooldown, as long as you drop it on death so someone can pick it up, that’s totally fine.
The biggest advantage to map pickups is that they are limited to the map and can be swapped out with other items or outright removed from multiplayer if they are overpowered. People like the jetpack, I couldn’t stand it in Reach because people could spawn with it and break map sightlines. Make it a map pickup, now it’s something worth chasing to navigate around the map in unconventional ways. Hell, make it a weak spot for players using it, so that it can be disabled giving it more risk/reward, and have it drop on death just like every other pickup. Now these elements of Halo that the Classic community hate can be incorporated into the sandbox in a tolerable fashion.
The biggest issue Classic fans have with these changes to Halo is that they affect the base player traits. If you remove them from spawn and instead place them on maps, they suddenly become less of an issue. Don’t like jetpack? Vote for a different map(provided we get map voting, please 343 give us voting) or remove it in forge and play the map differently. Hell, we’ve seen 343 change up placements of items on maps during Halo 5, they could go in and remove the Jetpack, replace it with a grapple, or a thruster pack, or any other Equipment item.
I hope this is how Infinite plays out. Equipment was an awesome idea, and it’s execution was far from perfect. 343 has shown that they can have some awesome ideas if they are put in the right direction, and I’d love to see how 343 could innovate equipment
> 2535419441797248;3:
> I always thought this was a controversial opinion, but I’ve never enjoyed the equipment in Halo 3. Most it was pretty…meh. Mostly just get-out-of-jail-free cards, with the EMP ball obviously being the best. But you have no idea if a player has one or not, whereas you can literally see a Plasma Pistol in their hand, and if they’re overcharging it (to EMP shields or vehicles). I’ve always preferred Halo 2 Multiplayer, and equipment is part of that reason. You can at least see the Armour Abilities on the back of the Spartans and Elites in Halo Reach and Halo 4, and then in Halo 5, every player can do the same things. So, I prefer Armour Abilities and Spartan Abilities to Equipment, for their greater predictability (preferring SAs to AAs), but my real preference is to not have any. Over-shield and the like are different, as you can once again easily identify these in a gunfight.
>
> None of them will make or break the game for me though. I’m more interested in the amount of content, the story, and customisation. Pretty much everything else other than gameplay, because no matter what, I’m pretty likely to at least enjoy it. I’ve felt for a while that the best compromise would be to have gameplay as it was in Halo 5’s Mythic Arena playlist.
I’m so torn on Equipment. I was lucky enough to be in the H3 Beta back in the days. I loved the multi then. Including how Equipment worked. Then the game comes out and it plays slightly different but enough for me to not like it as much as H2 or the Beta. And Equipment just felt weird after a while. Like I felt it grew into a bit of a gimmicky thing. And then AA and SA were natural evolutions of that. Which all of them I accepted but I can also live without them.
So here’s what I hope:
Competitive playlists being like classic Halo.
Equipment/Abilities + Sprint being present in certain Social lists and Firefight/Warzone.
Anyone remember Red Faction : Guerrilla?
I loved the “ability backpack” feature that the multiplayer had. Thought it added another dimension to something in between power weapons and grenades/starting weapons/melee.
I like it.
Abilities was always (imo) a terrible decision, both in terms of balance & just “in universe” realism. Equipment in H3 was a very well thought out & implemented addition to the sandbox, so I’m EXTREMELY glad if this rumour is true. Abilities just seemed really cheap and un-earned.
I strongly feel this once change will affect Halo’s MP for the better moving forward, it’s been a steady decline since H3.
Edit: Where did this “news” even come from, anyway? Seems too good to be true.
> 2674012278771805;5:
> > 2535419441797248;3:
> > I always thought this was a controversial opinion, but I’ve never enjoyed the equipment in Halo 3. Most it was pretty…meh. Mostly just get-out-of-jail-free cards, with the EMP ball obviously being the best. But you have no idea if a player has one or not, whereas you can literally see a Plasma Pistol in their hand, and if they’re overcharging it (to EMP shields or vehicles). I’ve always preferred Halo 2 Multiplayer, and equipment is part of that reason. You can at least see the Armour Abilities on the back of the Spartans and Elites in Halo Reach and Halo 4, and then in Halo 5, every player can do the same things. So, I prefer Armour Abilities and Spartan Abilities to Equipment, for their greater predictability (preferring SAs to AAs), but my real preference is to not have any. Over-shield and the like are different, as you can once again easily identify these in a gunfight.
> >
> > None of them will make or break the game for me though. I’m more interested in the amount of content, the story, and customisation. Pretty much everything else other than gameplay, because no matter what, I’m pretty likely to at least enjoy it. I’ve felt for a while that the best compromise would be to have gameplay as it was in Halo 5’s Mythic Arena playlist.
>
> I’m so torn on Equipment. I was lucky enough to be in the H3 Beta back in the days. I loved the multi then. Including how Equipment worked. Then the game comes out and it plays slightly different but enough for me to not like it as much as H2 or the Beta. And Equipment just felt weird after a while. Like I felt it grew into a bit of a gimmicky thing. And then AA and SA were natural evolutions of that. Which all of them I accepted but I can also live without them.
>
> So here’s what I hope:
> Competitive playlists being like classic Halo.
> Equipment/Abilities + Sprint being present in certain Social lists and Firefight/Warzone.
Gimmicky! Yes, that was the word I was looking for, rather than “meh”. It felt mostly redundant. Unfortunately, I was 6 during the Halo 3 beta, so had no idea it existed, nevermind not being able to play it. But even at the age of 7, when Halo 3 came out, I knew I preferred Halo 2’s gameplay. Now, I recognise my distaste for Equipment, and find that it usually just makes the fight grind to a halt, and when it is a useful piece (Power Drain), you can’t tell if a player has it or not, while you can definitely see if they have a Rocket Launcher or Sniper Rifle. It feels cheap.
Whichever way it goes, I think the gameplay has to be consistent across the game (aside from Custom Games). Any player should be able to go from one playlist to another, and not have to play the game differently. It’s like if a book alternated between its written language, say from English in some chapters, and then Spanish in the rest. I’m for a consistent experience, rather than trying to appeal to everyone. 343 would have to make two games in one, in terms of assets, map design, and most importantly, weapon balancing. They’ve had a pretty big budget, but that’s more reason to focus on one gameplay field, else everyone gets half the content they would otherwise get.
Pickups were not perfect, but they added a bit of spice which I enjoyed. The cool thing about them was that everyone was affected by any given powerup (except the turret). For example, someone could throw down a power drain, but the same player could not simply charge through the power drain in the hopes of getting an advantage over their opponents.
> 2533274824050480;9:
> Pickups were not perfect, but they added a bit of spice which I enjoyed. The cool thing about them was that everyone was affected by any given powerup (except the turret). For example, someone could throw down a power drain, but the same player could not simply charge through the power drain in the hopes of getting an advantage over their opponents.
This. It was balanced, fair & well implemented. I really don’t see how these arguments against equipment, the same old arguments from years ago, hold any weight. They’re feeble at best. I mean no offence to anyone…but the arguments ARE feeble.
> 2533274799621457;10:
> > 2533274824050480;9:
> > Pickups were not perfect, but they added a bit of spice which I enjoyed. The cool thing about them was that everyone was affected by any given powerup (except the turret). For example, someone could throw down a power drain, but the same player could not simply charge through the power drain in the hopes of getting an advantage over their opponents.
>
> This. It was balanced, fair & well implemented. I really don’t see how these arguments against equipment, the same old arguments from years ago, hold any weight. They’re feeble at best. I mean no offence to anyone…but the arguments ARE feeble.
Not offended here to be honest but I feel that if we want classic Halo back we should actually go back to gameplay without a fourth addition to the Golden triangle of weapons, grenades and melee. That’s the most pure Halo in a way so I’d take that over Equipment.
Then again: I wouldn’t mind a fourth element in that ‘triangle’ (square) but I’m not sure if I find Equipment better than what Reach have us or some of the H4 things. I do know I’d rather only see them in more social lists than competitive lists.
But hey, that’s just me! Let’s just see what we get tomorrow 
> 2674012278771805;11:
> > 2533274799621457;10:
> > > 2533274824050480;9:
> > > Pickups were not perfect, but they added a bit of spice which I enjoyed. The cool thing about them was that everyone was affected by any given powerup (except the turret). For example, someone could throw down a power drain, but the same player could not simply charge through the power drain in the hopes of getting an advantage over their opponents.
> >
> > This. It was balanced, fair & well implemented. I really don’t see how these arguments against equipment, the same old arguments from years ago, hold any weight. They’re feeble at best. I mean no offence to anyone…but the arguments ARE feeble.
>
> Not offended here to be honest but I feel that if we want classic Halo back we should actually go back to gameplay without a fourth addition to the Golden triangle of weapons, grenades and melee. That’s the most pure Halo in a way so I’d take that over Equipment.
>
> Then again: I wouldn’t mind a fourth element in that ‘triangle’ (square) but I’m not sure if I find Equipment better than what Reach have us or some of the H4 things. I do know I’d rather only see them in more social lists than competitive lists.
>
> But hey, that’s just me! Let’s just see what we get tomorrow
I think that’s fair. For the time being, H2A’s multiplayer is by far and away my favorite and that feels very modern without tampering with the classic formula.
I do want to see deployable equipment items return. I also want to see armor mods return that can allow things like boost, stabilize, ground pound, etc. But, I’d like to see those armor mods restricted to particular environments instead of being treated as standard abilities within nearly all environments. Maybe they could even be treated as pick-up items within some environments. Personally, I’m hoping that the standard abilities include sprint, slide, and clamber. Plus, I’m a big fan of the smart-link concept in how it allows the zoom mechanic to be applied to the full weapon sandbox, so I’m hoping to see that concept return. I also hope that all arena environments maintain the “even start” concept like Halo CE - H3 + H5 had.