Back in Reach and Halo 4 many argued they have strayed from Halo’s beauty. Why? How?
Let’s face it. Halo 2 and 3’s beauty came from its Competitive Edge. These demanded cooperation and skill to play.
And Halo 5 comes close to these games. Sure, The only thing it could use would be the Ranked Playlist.
Otherwise the Multiplayer is great. It is dynamic and team based. Halo 4 and Halo: Reach were victims of extreme accessibility. This is a habit that has expanded too much, making games “more accessible” actually easier to master in order to attract players. This is why COD is so viral, it’s a game that anybody can buy and easily understand how to play it on day 1. The reason many players miss Halo 4 and Reach was because the accessibility they granted is not present on Halo 5. No more armor abilities and no more custom loadouts.
-No more Armor Abilities- Both in Reach and 4 there were certain abilities that granted very extreme advantages. Highly advantageous places you can only reach with jet pack, Promethean Vision to see everyone on the map, armor lock to save you when you make a mistake, camo (with a glitch to make you invisible even to radar). These abilities more than often gave the deciding touch between winning and losing, making players more reliant on them.
- No more Custom loadouts, (this is great) in Halo 4 players very often ignored many of the map provided weapons in favor of their loadout weapons also with the weapon drop was more rewarding for losing players than winning players, winning a game by pulling a comeback out of Power Weapon really ruins ones over all experience. Sometimes when losing a game I’d get Binary Rifles out of drops when winning usually got a Needler or Shotgun.
Now we have Spartan abilities that truthfully aren’t really OP. Spartan Charge is not a 1 hit kill from front. Stabilization makes you an easy target. Ground Pound has a very limited range and not hard to predict. Thruster which is just a simple dash, Clamper LOL and the usual Sprint.
When you grant accessibility to a game you must also make note that you are jeopardizing those who want to truly polish themselves on the game, since there isn’t much to polish.
Halo: Reach Multiplayer was a lot of fun and great. Not to much to say here. What really impacted is that it had to compete against the Modern Warfare Series which completely dominated the industry.
Halo 4’s multiplayer is by far the easiest i’ve ever played and enjoyed. Why? Because it was incredibly easy. I deliberately and obssesively abused promethean vision. It was the best ability. When I first used it. I was like, you just gave me a tool to see everyone on the map! wherever they are?! Do you have any idea of how much of an advantage this gives? Sure there are methods a player could avoid it, but what of the rest of the team? Did everyone had to go with all the stealth perks to avoid it? Then you’d compromised so many other tactics. Hence there was no true way to avoid it’s dominance
.
This is why Halo 5’s Arena is like going back to Halo 2 or Halo 3 multiplayer. Weapons are map based, you gotta learn to adapt and make do with what the map provides, you have to predict and guess where the enemy is. This means more team play. You gotta learn your weapon spawns, the game is even polite enough to announce power weapon spawn times.
So far there isn’t a Social Playlist and Ranked Playlist.
Which are important. These are what kept the peace between casual players and the hardcore play to win players. Players who take the game to competitive levels had Ranked to polish and practice their skill. And Casuals had Social where they could play happily and not worry about players being all competitive on them.
Warzone is tons of fun and a great gametype. A successful combination of MOBA with FPS gameplay. Demanding coordination and skill vs the random factor of REQ dominance. I recommend to have a full fire team (12 people) to play it. It’s less frustrating this way. Other than that it’s a great gametype for those who want a Social Playlist and like to play with Custom Loadouts.
To those who are complaining of little content. Chill guys, we got FREE DLC!
