Hopefully 343i will read this post.
Okay I’ll be dividing this post(s) into sections
Section A will be Campaign/Spartan Ops, Section B will be Multiplayer Matchmaking, subdivided into gameplay, weapons/loadouts, maps, gametypes, and miscellaneous.
Please don’t post comments along the lines of TLDR, go to COD, adapt, etc. I’m merely offering my opinions on gameplay and possible solutions to things I see as issues.
Section A
A beautifully done campaign in my opinion, but not without its faults, such as the lack of theatre for campaign (and SpOps) and the lack of different setting for different difficulties. For example CE had a longer recharge time for shields on Easy, compared to legendary.
Also the lack of a flashlight is annoying at times, and is also non canon (Same armour, no flashlight…)
Weapon despawning is also frustrating here, but I’ll brteach that topic under Miscellaneous, as it a problem across all modes of gameplay
Finally, there is little out of the map areas, something that used to be an exciting thing for some people, to discover how to get out of the map, find hidden easter eggs, etc. With this gone, part of Halo since CE has gone…
Spartan Ops however, while I do like the backstory it tells, gameplay itself is rather boring and repetitive. To get what I’m saying, I’ll compare it to Firefight.
Spartan Ops, the enemies spawn in the same location, no matter how many times you play the mission. Firefight however, enemies spawned in different locations from time to time, making each game unique and different.
Sadly Spartan Ops lacks this, perhaps for Season 2, something can be done to make it less repetitive?
Section B
Gameplay
Major issues here are lag, blackscreen, personal ordnance and global ordnance.
Lag
Ok, everyone hates lag, but I understand that some lag will always be present in Halo 4, unless playing System link.
The issue here is the amount of lag in some games is unacceptable, the level that you can’t compensate for (ie: by leading your target a little, etc), with no change in host, leading to some players gaining very easy kills.
I don’t expect miracles from Halo 4 about lag, but if the game is lagging, especially for other players in your party, then it is clear that there is a porblem with the server not identifying that a different host is needed.
Finding a solution to this will definitely make more players enjoy the gameplay.
Blackscreen
Issue here is that it doesn’t seem to be consistent with the players in the game, in that some may go to blackscreen, while others may not.
Also, some players return from blackscreen much quicker than others.
The solution needed here, is that all players need to go to blackscreen and leave blackscreen at the same time. This ensures that some players do not get easy kills/die unfairly, when other players are on blackscreen.
Personal ordnance
No issue with the idea itself, however I believe that gameplay could be more balanced if personal ordnance items are ranked into tiers. For example, tier 1 items would be available as the first ordnance, and anything from both tier 1 and 2, available for the second ordnance, etc
Tier 1 items would be shotguns, overshield, speed boost, SAWs, etc, items that still give the reciever an advantage in combat, but are not a game changer, such as binaries, Icannons, etc.
Tier 2 weapons would include anything not ranked in tier 1, such as binaries, Icannons, rockets, damage boost, snipers, and so on.
Also perhaps ammunition for your loadout weapons should be ofered as ordnance as well?
I believe that this is a better system of rewarding players, in that those who achieve a second ordnance, compared to the current system, where one player may only recieve, say speed boosts, needlers, grenades from all three ordnance, where another player may get a binary, ICannon and sniper from three ordnances as well.
This is hardly fair, both in individual and team based games, and I believe the above solution is a reasonable and feasible idea.
Global ordnance
Only issue here is in conjunction with the Ammo support package.
Players who pick up global ordnance, should not have extra ammunition compared to those who simply do not have the Ammo mod.
Other than that, global ornance is a great idea, preventing as much camping for power weapons as in previous Halo titles.
Bullet magnetism/aim assist
The aim assist in Halo 4 is well above the level of previous Halo games. While some degree of aim assist is necessary the compensate for latency issues, the sticky aim assist in Halo 4 has a negative effect in gameplay, making shots hit with certain weapons far too easy. For example the aim assist makes the unscoped sniper kills much easier than in Reach (personal experience here), while the DMR is the jack of all trades weapon, where the aim assist makes shooting at long distances unscoped much too easy.
Bullet magnetism is less of an issue, however, with certain weapons such as the sniper, the difference between the scoped and non scoped shots can be clearly seen. For example, stand a reasonable distance away for another player and unscoped, aim at their head until the reticule is just red. Zooming in now, will show that in fact the sniper is aiming at a point a fair distance above the other players head.
The Assault rifle also suffers from bullet magnetism, making bullets from a fully dilated reticle at fair distances, hit their target more often than they should.
The solution here is to reduce the level of aim assist and bullet magnetism to a level slightly above Reach’s, to compensate for the slight increase in latency.
