Alright I am going to try not to rant too much. Obviously, what I am posting is mostly opinion. I am NOT claiming that everything I am posting is a fact. If you want a TL:DR version here it is: This game can be the best Halo and hold a huge player base for a very long time with just some changes.
Ranked playlists: This is a must in my honest opinion. Ranked gives competitive players a spot to be just that, competitive. It is also a great space for ‘casual’ players to improve their gameplay. It also allows them to start to become competitive or play with players who are around their skill level. Although it is just a number (1-50) it was always so rewarding to see that number go up and feel like you were improving as a player. In comparing Halo 3 to Reach, I had very, very few quitters in Halo 3 when playing ranked. I then moved on to Reach only to find that as soon as someone starts getting stomped, they instantly leave the game. I had SOOOO many games with leavers that it just got too old. I have read that they are bringing back ranked, but making it only visible to you on halowaypoint. Why even bring it back if that is what your intentions are? Yes, there were cheaters, boosters and people who bought/sold accounts. But honestly that 1 bad game once in a while from someone who didn’t deserve a 50 or from getting stand-byed was still worth having the ranking system we had. In fact, most of the cheaters I ran into were soon banned after.
Social Playlists: I don’t know about you, but there are times where I just want to relax and have some fun/mess around when I am playing. Right now, I can’t do that since everyone is thrown into the same bunch of playlists. Some games you get the ‘try-hards’ who set up and obviously call out all game, while other games you get the relaxed people who are just trying to drive that mongoose around the map and get that splatter. My W/L has been above average (~75%), even with me having those games where I just want to mess around. It has gotten to the point though, that 90% of my games are against the ‘try-hards’. Meaning I don’t get to have those relaxed games anymore.
Playlist options: I don’t understand why we are being limited on playlists. There are very obvious fan favorites, such as Team doubles, snipers and swat. There is nothing better than late nights with a good buddy playing doubles into the wee morning hours. There are also very fun game types like multi-team, BTB objective, VIP and even assault that could all get a ton of attention. They could throw CTF, oddball and king of the hill all into a playlist called Team Objective and free some spots up for other playlists. As of now there is very little population in any of those playlists, in fact you can usually add all three of them up and still have a smaller population than Swat. Regicide does not feel like FFA at all. It is more like rush for the king and then clean up around him. I got forced into a game that was already going on for some time (1st place had 115 points), by just focusing the king (bonus points) I was able to catch up and win pretty easily, which should not be done in FFA. This whole waiting a week for a new playlist is crap when they are playlists we should already have.
Better/More Maps: To be brutally honest the maps are a huge disappointment. I’m not sure why every 4v4 map has to be BTB size just because we have sprint. I am also tired of playing the same 3 maps over and over and over and over. Haven, Ragnorak and Exile are all that gets picked. Why is that? Well mostly because we barely got any maps with our game, but also because most of the maps are just blah. Why on earth are we all ready to pay for a new map pack already? Why in the hell didn’t those maps come with the game? How is it that map quality goes down has a franchise continues to progress? There are community forgers that make GORGEOUS maps that play phenomenally. They make these maps with the little tools you give them, yet your team of developers give us what? Maybe they need to hire some of the forgers to be their map designers. I would probably be blown away with what they could do not being limited to forge tools. So many fond memories of maps from Halo 2 and 3 and it’s just saddening that none of these maps have that appeal.
Other Stuff: Removal of the join games in progress. What on earth is the purpose of this function? 90% of the time people are thrown into games where they are down by 20 kills because people rage quit. How is it fair that we get forced into a game that has little to no hope of victory?
-More functions in forge!!! Community forgers can honestly save this game map wise. Forge has been a huge success since its release in Halo 3 yet I feel it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Why are we not able to change the texture of walls? People make amazing maps but to be honest it gets REAL OLD looking at that dull silver color every single map. You gave skins to guns, is it honestly that hard to add a texture change option to the objects?
-Fix the file share system. I want to be able to download those gorgeous maps from the most downloaded section.
Obviously this game has only been out for a little over 2 weeks and can improve drastically with a little time. I feel like a lot of these things should have been addressed before the game even came out, as the community has been screaming for them. 343i I know you want your game to be successful so why not listen to the community?!?!? There were many things brought up by the community for Reach that Bungie chose to ignore and to be honest that game died relatively fast. Overall it feels like a good game that has sooooo much potential to be great. But I am already starting to feel bored (especially playing the same 3 maps) when games like H2 and H3 lasted me so many years. I could go more in depth on some points and even add other points but I have rambled enough. I really do hope 343i listens to the community so this game and thrive and survive.