Equal Playing Field: An Open Letter to 343i Warning: long reAd)

Games Other Halo
1

Again, warning: Long Read.

“One shot red2” ,“One shot going into blue, coming out the front” , “by my x, back of red. I put a couple into him.”

The locations don’t matter. The call outs are something mostly only dedicated and high skilled people know. That’s not the point. What all those examples have is the reference to the “one shot” or the how weak an enemy is. It’s knowing that all your teammates have the same weapon, the pistol and/or the DMR. Because we all spawn with those. That’s why those call outs are made. It’s not just locations. It’s also having this knowledge that your team can finish the enemy off. Of course there are the obvious exceptions but at the risk of this running too long, I won’t go into them. You get the general idea, right. Halo is not Call of Duty. It’s not what people want. If that were the case, then I believe the online battlefield of Halo would have turned barren a while back, in 2007. I don’t think Halo is Call of Duty. But the cues Bungie took from it for Halo Reach, lead me to be afraid for Halo 4.

This isn’t a complaint fest. This isn’t a features list of new things I want in the next game. This isn’t something new that probably hasn’t been said numerous times in these forums or other places across the internet. This is a life long fan writing an open letter to 343 in hopes that it doesn’t fall of deft ears. To express, not just for myself but on behalf of many members of the online community, why Halo should, no, needs to be Halo again.

Now, I know Bungie is not developing Halo 4. I know it’s 343. I also know there are Halo vets like Frank and knowing that has always made me feel good about the future of my one of my favourite franchises. I also realize we really haven’t seen jack on Halo 4, most of all the multiplayer so it’s not as if I’m scared about what I’ve seen. No, what scares me is that fact that Reach exists and the fact that you guys may think the next game should be an evolution of that.

“Guys, remember when Halo used to be Halo?”
-An online friend of mine.

Take a look at my game stats and it doesn’t take long to see that 98% of my current matchmaking is being played in the Anniversary playlist. More specifically, Classic. I love starting a game and not choosing a load out. Knowing there won’t be armor abilities. Not even sprint. It’s so fresh. It’s faster paced than Reach. It’s so new- wait. It isn’t. It’s what Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 and even Halo ODST were. This is Halo! This is the way it was meant to be played! I’m playing more Halo Reach than I ever have before. All thanks to Anniversary. I’m back to playing everyday, hours on end just like I did with Halo 2 and 3. It’s no coincidence. I’ve gone back and tried normal Reach playlists. Unless its something like action sack, I don’t want it. You can feel the difference. And I’m not alone. Many of the people I play with online with for numerous games at a time voice their opinion. They like this. They liked CE. They like Halo 2. They liked Halo 3.

2

“It’s about controlling things like an over shield or camo. You shouldn’t be able to just spawn with it. Halo has always been an equal playing field.”
-Another online friend of mine.

If you come away with only one thing from this letter, let it be this. Maybe you’re sitting there nodding your head, agreeing. Picking up an over shield or camo and using it the right way can turn the tables real fast in a game. It’s about knowing the time it was picked up and knowing when it spawns again. It’s the same as controlling a power weapon such as the rocket. Having someone with armor lock changed the game. Not for the better. It wasn’t Halo. Some things shouldn’t change.

“I’ve always liked Halo because it’s more than just putting a couple bullets into someone. It takes more thought. More strategy.”
-Another online friend of mine.

I agree with that completely. You won’t find many fans who don’t. Guess what? I actually like Call of Duty. I really enjoy it. There’s a certain feeling you get. I put in countless upon countless of hours into Call of Duty 4. I played World at War. I played Modern Warfare 2. I put many, many, many hours into Black Ops. I’ve played Modern Warfare 3 for a few hours and then I said no more. That’s a whole other letter entirely. The point is, I don’t hate Call of Duty. I hate it in my Halo.

Armor abilities are essentially perks, let’s be honest. They change the traits of a given player. That works for Call of Duty. It doesn’t mean it does for Halo. Even sprint. Game critics of course marveled at the fact that now you can run in Halo. But what do they know? They play it for a few hours and move on to the next game. That’s their job. To those of us who invest time into our online career, we see sprint as almost an annoyance. Sure, its great way to move around but when it comes to the way it changes gameplay, it’s frustrating. To have someone run away at the last second. To have someone with the sword or shotgun run at you.

I’ll admit. There is a certain element of strategy when it comes to armor abilities. But what it does do, is it no longer makes Halo that, Halo. Even something as simple as jet packing. It’s good to get to places but more times than not, you have cases of stupidness when senseless teammates go jet pack crazy and end up dying in a few seconds. Over and over. Do you know the definition of insanity? Armor abilities are cool but it’s just a matter of knowing their place.

3

I liked Halo 3’s equipment. It felt like a natural addition to power ups. Having something like a bubble shield, worked. It never felt cheap. One of the reasons being that it was a one time use. You had to wait to pick it back up and it was available to all but it didn’t mean everyone could have it all the time. You had to control it. It made sense in Halo’s equation.

A couple days ago, I tried playing MLG. It was the first time I played MLG in Reach. To no surprise, the most popular in votes went for NS which means no sprint. MLG players weren’t a fan of armor abilities either it seemed. But once in game, I noticed something. They had armor abilities such as evade placed on the map. You had to pick them up Equipment style. Hmm. It worked. I had only seen this in custom games so it was surprising to see in matchmaking. It felt like a power up. It just worked. Food for thought.

“They better bring the real ranking system back in Halo 4”
-Another online friend of mine.

A Reclaimer, a Forerunner, an Inheritor, etc. doesn’t necessarily mean anything but the fact that you’ve invested a lot of time into Halo Reach. Hell, even my Noble doesn’t have to mean anything to someone who’s a lower rank. It means I’ve accumulated a lot of credits. Granted, I know people such as myself who are high ranks and are ridiculously good. But I’ve played high ranked people and destroyed them. I mean they didn’t even came close. Ranking in Reach doesn’t always mean your rank. It did in Halo 2 and 3. Getting to a 50 was damn hard. Keeping a 50 was even harder. Some people will say they liked Halo 2’s better. Some like myself will say they liked 3’s better. Few will say they like Reach’s the best. It’s Call of Duty. You put in the time, no matter how bad you do, and your rank goes up. Of course, doing better will help it go faster, but eventually, everyone will get there.

“I played with this one Reclaimer today who had very little multiplayer kills. I looked at his commendations and they were all Firefight. He was a Firefight Reclaimer!”
-Another online friend of mine.

“Well at least we have Halotracker.” To those who don’t know, Halotracker.com is a stat tracking site with ranking a lot more in tuned with traditional ranking. The images they use for the numbers 1-50 are exactly that of Halo 2. Get off the Call of Duty train and get back to the ranking that matters. Please.

4

“The Halo 3 BR is the best.”
-Me

This is simple. Get rid of the bloom. We didn’t have it with the CE pistol. We didn’t have it with 2’s BR nor with 3’s BR. Halo was better for it. When people complained, they we’re just angry they got out BR’d. Not because of bloom. Obviously you guys are aware of this and are listening to the community or else we wouldn’t have the Title Update. It’s a small step in the right direction. Look, if You want to give us a new rifle, sure. You don’t necessarily have to bring back the BR. Just don’t let something like bloom affect your shots.

“…We have represented that weight with player physics, without interrupting crosshair and shooting accuracy.” this quote, from the Halo Bulletin: 2.15.12. This gives me hope. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

This letter has gone a little too long, I know, but to fully articulate my thoughts, I had to put it all out there. Give reasons. And like I said, hopefully it doesn’t just get lost in the shuffle. Even if it is a long read, especially for a forum. I’m sure the “nice blog” and hate comments are incoming.

My final thoughts. Keep armor abilities, just know where to put em. Let us have them in customs or forge or the campaign. A separate playlist. Just don’t make it the core of multiplayer. Continue using credits. Just don’t tie them into ranking. Let us unlock stuff. I enjoy customizing my spartan and making him look like he’s from Halo 2 or 3. But keep in tune with what Bungie started. It should always just be cosmetic. Get rid of bloom. Remember what made online play for Halo 2 and 3 so good. Make Halo, Halo again. And please, for the love of God, if things are really changing to the extreme, remember us fanboys and give us a Classic playlist in 4. With all that being said, I’m really exited for Halo 4, especially the campaign side of things. Gotta love The Chief!

-With Love, Yianni.
Golden Greek 117

“…Halo has always been an equal playing field.”

5

Lol, I don’t think anybody is going to read the whole thing…

6

Haha. I know. That’s always the risk you take when it comes to forums. Oh well. It really isn’t meant for the general populace. It’s more for 343. Maybe, fingers crossed, they’ll see it.

7

Could you put an introductory paragraph in your first post?

Anyway, your points were fair enough. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what 343 plan to do.

8

I would strongly suggest reconsidering your thesis and rendering it in a more concise manner, perhaps including some sort of conclusion. In general, the most convincing arguments tend to be the simplest.

9

You warn people about the long read, twice I might add, and they still complain about it. Look guys, there’s a reason to my madness, so to speak. If I were to shorten it, it would sound like just any fanboy whining about what they want from Halo 4. It’s not that. I explain my thoughts, give reasons. Show you where I’m coming from and what brought me to all this. If i were to just make it short, I’m sure you’d be asking for why I think the way I do about these topics. With this, it’s all explained. I think there’s too much emphasis today on short, to the point posts. This isnt a newspaper or magazine where you have a limited word count. It’s as if people no longer have the patience to read something. They need it to be short. Oh well. Read it or don’t. I’m not forcing you to.

10

I agree. Starting everyone off without armor abilitys is the way to go. If you pick them up like halo 3 equipment then it adds an element of strategy. Just like over shield and camo. It dictates how a team should set up and play, while also giving the losing team a chance to catch a break and perhaps make a clutch play. And the BR is a good start weapon because it promotes skill while also not making the game play like call of duty which people are complaining the anniversary pistol is doing. I personally love it but I can see how you novices (novi?) would hate it because you die almost immediately when I start shooting. For people who don’t want to read the too long post, I tried to write in a complete response to summarize his main points.

11

I think they should make a separate playlist that contains all game modes, but one with AAs and one without.

12

Yeah you are pretty much right. I too like call of duty but not in my halo. Halo is the level playing field of FPS. That is the essence of halo. The equiptment in H3 was on the right track but it was poorly executed. Abilities are trash. I think Halo needs some sort of equiptment type item but it needs to be picked up on the map, not spawned with. Atleast for online anyway. Hey btw, Halo 2 had the best BR dude!!!

13

Forgot to mention that the strategy in Halo has changed because of AA’s. The game used to be about getting together with friends and making strategies such as different team members going for different power weapons and powerups (overshield, camo). Sadly this was removed when bungie decided to let you spawn with the equivalents to these.

14

Great post(s). I think this is what many people (I daren’t say the majority for fear of being hated on) think.

Halo 4 has the ability to incorporate everything from previous titles. It’s just a matter of choosing which ideas make the foundations.
As an analogy:

“With Reach, Bungie had great ideas and innovations, a 100 storey skyscraper. However they made the first floor out of plywood.”

Despite all the Armour Abilities, awesome forge mode, customisation, etc., they didn’t use the classic feel and simple mechanics that made all its previous titles so popular.

Halo needs to fulfil its niche as an Arena Shooter and not try and be something else.

As you Americans say: “Well that’s my two cents.”.

15

I agreed with just about everything you said in your post’s.

I too want Halo to be Halo again.

16

While there are particular parts in the post I don’t agree with, I definitely agree with the main point. And to be honest, I wouldn’t call that too long. If someone doesn’t read it because of the length, it’s their loss. I’ve written multiple posts as lengthy, most probably not getting the attention they deserve.

Anyhow, Halo definitely needs to become what it once was, a pinnacle of console FPS. Something, no matter what kind of fan you are, you can be proud of. Halo started to lose its competitiveness with Halo 2, it sounds like a good idea to change the direction of that. I want another Halo game like CE. A game I can look back and say “those were the days Halo regained its glory”.

17

I’ll be frank.

I feel your half way there. The overall feel of Halo 3 would be great.
But i feel the main issues are loadouts and bloom.
The 0-50 ranking system was also a big contributor to Halo 3’s success, but it wasn’t without its issues. De-rankers, rank locking and rank boosting plagued Halo 3 near the end.

Halo 3 will be a great model to base Halo 4 off, but i dont want Halo 4 to be a carbon copy of Halo 3. Innovation is still needed.

18

I know what this thread is, a long intro to a Reach bash.