Its been a few months since Guardians was released and I have given the REQ system time to grow on me but to be honest it hasn’t. To start off I am not a fan of random reward systems but whether I want it or not it is the system in Halo 5. The main reason that I don’t like the system is because it is completely RANDOM. I’m less concerned with this as far as weapons and vehicles go but rather with armor. In my opinion the ability to customize your spartan’s appearance has been one of the coolest things to do since it came out with Halo 3. I liked the idea of being able to show progress or accomplishments through my spartan’s armor which could be done from H3 to H4. While each game’s armor reward systems were different they were all better than H5. Achievements were the way in H3 for the cooler armor, and I thought that was a rewarding system because to get what you wanted you had to put in work to get the achievements which sometimes included the need to do it with friends (for recon or otherwise). From there we move onto Reach, where you had to put in the time and save credits for the armor that you desired. Reach took customization beyond just armor but other attachments that looked cool and served a “purpose” for your spartan (things you couldn’t actually use but they were described as being beneficial). H4 took an approach that combined time and challenges through the game and waypoint. To get the armor you wanted you had to meet the level requirements for most armor but for others you had to complete special challenges to get the more exotic armor. If you played enough to get to the max level you were then able to receive a specialization of which upon complement you would have another full armor set. Guardians on the other hand lacks such sense of reward but replaces it with mere luck. There are no challenges to get armor besides racking up enough RP to purchase countless REQ packs to have just a chance to get the armor that you desire. Or you could spend you own money to buy the packs instead of having to wait for that random drop. With this in mind if you ever see someone with a cool set of armor there is no longer a wow factor, because you know they did squat to get it, they just got lucky. And lucky is what you have to be in order to get the full set of armor you want because chances are you wont find the helmet and armor from the same REQ pack. It is even possible that you may never get the armor that you want, instead you will have to settle with something less. In my opinion Halo Reach executed the armor system the best with Halo 3 coming very close behind it (because realistically you can only make so many achievements for pieces of armor). Even though you had to save credits for what you wanted at least you knew when you would be able to purchase it, which was when you became the level for that specific armor. You would not see a new player with a set of Mark V armor (my personnel favorite) which made you a little special, somewhat comparable to a veteran status. Back to the REQ system, sure it does help make future DLC free for players but I believe the cost of that is too great. It seems to me that there will always be a certain armor from the BASE game that I will never obtain. To add onto that with every new DLC that comes out there will be even more armor sets I may never get even though I might like how they look. I am not interested in paying for REQ packs so that leaves me with the annoying grind of collecting RP in order to buy the countless REQ packs which may or may not give me what I want, its kind of like the lottery if you think about it, except even though you might not get what you want you may find the plasma pistol it gives you to be of use someday in warzone. While I may have a grudge against the REQ system it is here to stay for Guardians. I’m hoping they will make an even better system in Halo 6, perhaps a mix of H3 and Reach could be good. But until then good luck to you on your quest for whatever you want from the REQ system, it may take awhile.
I agree OP. A random loot system is not as appealing to me as a fixed achievement-based system. It’s hard for a player to differentiate himself from others when nearly every piece of customization is based on luck of the draw (aside from the emblems you get for completing commendations). Whenever I see someone with a cool legendary set of armor, I just thing to myself “wow, he must grind Warzone all day”. Not really much of an accomplishment there.
However, I’m glad they’re starting to tie some armor to achievements lately with the Achilles set and whatnot. They should keep doing that.
I like customizing my Spartan too… kinda why 343 did this. They know we wanna, they know some people will pay money for packs and they know that people with addictive personalities will pay for their games a dozen times over… Brilliant if you wanna pad the budget for Halo 6… yeah some people might think it’s unethical, but they aren’t forcing people to pay for something they need to to survive.