So, we all like to go off complaining about the most current Halo games, and say that the old Halos were better because of this, that, and the other thing. But have we really singled out the one element that made each Halo unique from the others that we actually liked about it? As well as looked back at the glory days and talked about that one thing we didn’t like, and were glad to have fixed or at least would like to have fixed in the future? The goal of this thread and it’s relation to Halo XB1 is to give 343i an idea of dos and donts from each Halo game, things to re-implement, and things to adjust, or try to avoid bringing back in future titles.
I don’t want to see any smart remarks about how you didn’t like “All of Halo 4”, or anything. Think clearly about one single element of the game one mechanic that you either thoroughly enjoyed, or was the epicentre of your complaints towards the game. That one thing you got major satisfaction out of, that you felt helped define the series at that time for you. And one thing that simply ticked you off every time it had an affect on the game. Be it something purposefully designed into the game, an unexpected glitch, or something specific in the physics. And please try to center this around competitive multiplayer, and not the Campaign, Firefight, or Spartan Ops.
Here’s my personal list.
Halo CE:
I loved the way UNSC and Covenant weapons were all very distinctly different. As time went on the weapons became more and more similar, to the point of having several weapons effectively cloned off of one another now with differences so subtle they won’t make any difference, and usually one just lording over the other(s) in power. A great example from CE is the balance between the AR and the PR. These two weapons behaved in completely different ways despite filling the role of “Primary Assault Weapon” for each faction. However in Halo 2, and 3, the SMG, Plasma Rifle, and Spiker were only marginally different from one another. And this became worst with the AR and Plasma Repeater in Reach, and the AR and Storm Rifle in Halo 4. The balance wasn’t totally perfect, some (like the Needler) could have been better or a little bit harder to dodge, and the Magnum might have played more balanced as a 5 shot kill, just to give some breathing room to the other non-power weapons but they were all unique and filled each role in different ways.
I disliked the power and physics of Grenades in Halo CE. While it was still balanced in that most weapons had radical killtimes, it always sucked to get killed when a frag lands perfectly next to you and you don’t react quite fast enough to get out of the way.
Halo 2:
I absolutely loved the accidental success of Button Combos. While these were glitches, and some were unfair and in need of patching (such as butterflying, rapid-fire BR etc), several of them actually added depth and a competitive skill gap to the game. It would have been nice to have animation cancelling become an actual feature within the series itself, built around using button combinations to speed up reload times, melee animation resets, grenade throwing animation resets etc. But all revolving around difficulty, requiring precise timing, and skill especially for maintaining your aim and control while you’re doing it.
At the same time there were glitches I disliked. I couldn’t stand Superbouncing, while it was fun to do in Custom Games to escape maps, it was simply unfair for a player to do in a competitive match. Things like bouncing outside of Headlong or Ascension just caused grief for the players stuck on the bottom of the map having Sniper fire rained down on them.
Halo 3:
I adored Bullet Travel. I think in a game with dedicated servers this feature should definitely return. I’d rather it come back without the repercussion of a very slow movement speed. The bullets shouldn’t need to go quite as slowly as they did in Halo 3, but there should still be an emphasis on leading your shots for success.
And at the same time, I couldn’t stand the inconsistency related to the BR’s spread. The BR’s inconsistency is often misblamed on Bullet Travel, but Bullet Travel can be mastered, Spread was the main problem keeping the BR’s killtime random even for the best sharpshooters. While I believe in a high difficulty cap for primary weapons (just looking at CE’s Magnum, and Reach’s ZB DMR and Anniv Magnum), where player error comes easily. I don’t like the idea of putting a lot of time into mastering a weapon only to have it behave randomly in my hands. Yes I was able to improve from an averate 7-8 shot kill to an average 4-6 shot kill, but that’s still a 3 shot gap, and I know I was a good shot by the time I’d played Halo 3 online for a year or so.
Halo Reach:
I really liked the Grenade Launcher. This is probably the only time I’ll emphasize liking a single weapon, just because it exists, as opposed to the whole sandbox or specific nit-picking of this or that about the gun. But the Grenade Launcher was a brilliant weapon. Satisfying, skill requiring, balanced, and unique, the Grenade Launcher fit the sandbox extraordinarily. Certain other weapons unique to Reach gained love from me too, the Focus Rifle, and the Plasma Launcher. But the Plasma Launcher, while a lot of fun against Infantry and a superb Falcon/Wraith killer, wasn’t my favourite, and the Focus Rifle severely needed a rework (Low aim assist, fast killtime, fast overheat would have worked much better for the weapon IMO, and a “Headshot” mechanic so long as you hit the head after shields were drained)
Absolutely hated Bloom on utility weapons. Bloom crated really bad inconsistencies once a player started spamming. While I did like the aesthetic bloom on the Sniper, and wouldn’t mind seeing that return to act as a shot timer on weapons like the DMR and Carbine, or spread indicator/timer mix on the BR, a utility weapon should always fire from the zero bloom point. On Automatics it works brilliantly, however aim assist could stand to be adjusted so that bullet magnetism only triggers inside the bloom radius, and not the maximum (or in the case of H4 TU) half/maximum of the outer reticle. That way focusing on center reticle placement while firing bursts would become even more crucial.