Exclusive Improvements on Halo Xbox One

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Great to see your reading my thread!

Before you all go madhatting on me here, I would like to put up a couple of suggestions, what I personally mean should do the trick, for the upcoming Halo on Xbox One.

For an easier read, I think it’s best for you, and me, that I list them up. Feedback is much appreciated.

Firstly, I would like to add some suggestions on the campaign, the graphical and sound wise side of the upcoming title. The other part is all about the multiplayer. I haven’t included Forge or Theater.

-Campaign-

  1. MUSIC:

Starting off I would like to say that I was a bit disappointed about the soundtracks on Halo 4. The tunes themselves are great, it is more about the instruments. Bring back the simple bassist and guitar-soloist. Get that old school techno-sound, it shouldn’t be all about the orchestra. I wouldn’t enjoy Halo if it turned down the same road as Hollywood. A tune I would recommend you to hear is Impend: Halo 2.

  1. GRAPHICS:

Graphics on Halo 4 are GREAT… From a distance… I am shocked that zooming in on the background reveals the pixels quite tremendously. Even with the Magnum zoom. Would love to see the cardboard graphics gone.

  1. ENEMIES AND ENCOUNTERS:

New enemies are great, though not when they’re the same enemies only with different skins. Knights aren’t that different from Elites. Feel free to get wild and crazy with new ways to kill and outsmart John’s foes!

  1. VEHICLES AND WEAPONS:

More vehicles and weapons, duh! Alot of the weapons, this goes for multiplayer also, has the same purposes besides killing. Assault Rifle, Marksman Rifle, Rocket Launchers, just with different themes. Please don’t give us the illusion we’re having three times the choices we’ve actually got.

-MULTIPLAYER-

  1. AIM:

Aim Assist and bullet magnetism. Enough said.

  1. SPRINT:

I would like to see sprint gone, many here would maybe disagree. But in big team battle, one should get punished for dying. You lose your spot in the lane, then you’re forced to walk or hire a ‘‘cab’’. Much more satisfying and you’re more catious. On smaller maps you’re too easily engaged by several enemies at the same time right after a spawn, and of course, the amount of assassinations ingame are multiplied by four… And have crouch back on the left stick again.

  1. CONTROLLER:

I would like to see the ‘action-button’ have more options in multiplayer. (Right Bumper/ X-button). It already has alot of use already, but what if players were given the ability to arm traps, climb walls, grab objects other than weapons or interact with teammates.

  1. LOADOUTS:

Drop the perks and loadouts… Please. The actions and ‘‘perks’’ should be defined by situations happening in the game then and there, not by premade choices. It doesn’t give any depth in a competetive match, it only forces you to play a few ‘set-in-stone-abilites’ 'til you die and are forced to take another one and then you realize the encounter has now changed entirely. Plus, I feel both the gamers and you are having a hard time balancing it.

  1. DUAL-WIELDING:

Bring it back! Using a grenade and a headshot is a quick and easy solution for a clean kill. Though not everyone has the ability to do so, give them the ability to choose another way/newbie-method to get those pesky critters away by having to choose different combinations of death-dealers! It also makes splitscreen more fun with uneducated friends. The Rock, Paper, Scissor combination of weapons should be a way to get your enemy down. The Assault Rifle duels are all about who held the trigger first.

  1. DAMAGE:

Weapon damage weaker/more health… The only beatdowns I see now are players sprinting into a fight. In my days it happened alot more often that people got engaged in a shootout and went closer to each other to get that executing beatdown.

  1. WEAPON PLACEMENT AND MAPS:

It has always been the nightmare of an oldschool Halo player to Veto slayer to hopefully get that Battle Rifle, but then tragically end up with Oddball or VIP. But when the callouts for weapons are all about power weapons, then we have a huge problem.

What kind of fear or excitement is it by staying at the edge of the map while pinpointing enemies at a range to get that Fuel Rod or Sniper Rifle? One should have regular weapons spawning on the map also, not only power weapon callouts. The power weapon should be rare and powerful, yes. Though not continuously dropping in your lap and then make the A-bomb feel useless. Let people wander around the map not only to find enemies, but to look for weapons that are of better use for your situation. And I mean, it’s handy with a mini-nuke, but it should be rarer to see power weapons on the map than SMG’s. (I know they don’t exist in Halo 4, but you get my point).

  1. UPGRADES:

Make them pickup! Invisibility and Damage boost! All of them! Bring back gadgets!

  1. LANGUAGE:

(English speaking countries do not need to worry about this one). I’m terribly tired of having to change my region settings to not having to read some god-awful Norwegian translated medal messages or narrations in general. They are badly translated and I certainly feel that the world has come so far education wise that I don’t need them shoved up my face like a moron. This goes for the campaign too.

Thanks for reading!!

Hope you will post your thoughts down below:)

2

Well with most of your points I agree.

-The music in Halo 4 is really good but unfortunately not implented properly. In campaign it is sometimes hardly audible and in the menu is no variety of Halo’s beautiful background music.

-The enemy AI should not be a bulletsponge. I think it is annoying that you have to put two sniper rounds into an ordinary elites head to kill him. Also the Promethean Knights are not really fun to fight most of the time. I shoot nearly an entire clip into one only to watch him teleporting away and appearing with a full shield again.
The enemy AI needs less health but should act more intelligent and varied and less predictable and maybe even attack in larger groups.

-Duall-wielding has definitely to return.

-Vehicles should not be so prone to regular arms fire. The iconic warthog has to return to his old power and should not be an easy double/triple kill on wheels.

-The current ordnance system needs a huge fix or has to be removed. It has added a lot of chaos, randomness, unblance, camping, frustration and probably some more negative aspects to slayer. Sometimes I have the feeling every other is walking around with a power weapon. There are games in BTB where 4 people from the same team all have snipers or lasers at the same time. That is just wrong.
If personal ordnance stays, it should be at least kind of like it was in the Global Championshsip. It should only give you grenades and ammo for your loadout weapons, nothing more.
And maybe for the people who like the current ordnance system there could be a gametype like ‘Infinity Heavies’ that gives you power weapons and power ups.

The things I do not agree with are:

Remove of personal loadouts:
I think the only things that are harming the current loadout system are the plasma pistol, stickies, the boltshot, Perks and that you have to unlock the items.
AAs can fit when they improved/change and balanced properly in my opinion. I think they add a nice variety to gameplay.
I personally like the idea of loadouts because every one can fight with his favorite weapon from start on. However, as long as there are playlists/gametypes with forced classic loadouts and settings as well, I think every one will be happy.

Sprint:
I like Sprint. Honestly I wished for it since Halo 3 when I was playing BTB. Nevertheless, I am aware of the fact that Sprint is not working on small competitive maps but in BTB it can fit in my opinion.
The only problem I have with Sprint is its combination with Instant Respawn.

> But in big team battle, one should get punished for dying.

What do you mean by that? Is dying not enough punishment? :stuck_out_tongue:

Things I like to add:

The menu design:
Halo 4’s menu design is kind of dull in my opinion. I think Reach had it right in comparison. Halo 4’s menu lacks of beautiful background images and music. I think especially the Searching Lobby is just plain uninspired and boring designed.
Sure the menu design is not affecting the main parts of the game but it is still the first impression that you get of the game. It is how you are presenting your game.
Besides who would not like to enjoy looking at Halo’s great concept arts and listening to its beautiful music while you are waiting in the Searching Lobby or just ‘chilling’ in the menu.

3

I think the biggest issue is that average kill times should be lowered, as right now, the game is too fast and people are hitting the optimal killtime with minimal to no effort. I believe optimal killtime should be 1.5s or somewhere around that time, while average killtimes should be 2.5-3s considering the average player. This lies with aim assist and weapon damage, which really need to be tweaked.

Other than that, good CQC maps, if that means taking away sprint or whatever needs to be done, do it, because Halo 4’s elongated corridors to accommodate sprint made for boring CQC gameplay.

I expect the graphics to be top notch, 343i have some of the best tech guys, ex-Crytek and ex-MGS employees as well as Corrine Yu. I’m confident they’ll handle the rest of the game well, especially considering the tech isn’t limiting them, we’ll get a longer Halo game, proper theatre and better forge tools.

4

> > But in big team battle, one should get punished for dying.
>
> What do you mean by that? Is dying not enough punishment? :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s a little something I’ve noticed up through the years, and especially in games. You can never really be happy with out sadness, or feel joy without disappointments. So when I say that you get a punishment by dying, something so frustrating as having to go back from spawn once again to the killzone, one will usually be more engaged and you really don’t want to die again.

Counter Strike does this well with the one-life per round type of game. Same goes for Gears of War. Battlefield has the you have to walk/wait to get to the fight again. If you’re not punished for your mistakes, you won’t learn anything from them, really. And your thought about your actions will be monotone, same goes for the learning curve. And in a game like Halo, it is sure as hell annoying to wait on the spawn timer for example, but by having to walk in a slower pace than sprinting, you won’t think about it as a punishment there and there. The spawn timer on the other hand is a dumb and annoying way to get punished for a death, it only gives frustration. It’s a hard task to do, but in Halo 3 it was quite fun to wait with others for a Warthog to spawn on Sandtrap to engage your enemy.

I hope this ain’t such a blurry and now well formed text… Just got home from work and I’m le tired;)

5

> > > But in big team battle, one should get punished for dying.
> >
> > What do you mean by that? Is dying not enough punishment? :stuck_out_tongue:
>
> It’s a little something I’ve noticed up through the years, and especially in games. You can never really be happy with out sadness, or feel joy without disappointments. So when I say that you get a punishment by dying, something so frustrating as having to go back from spawn once again to the killzone, one will usually be more engaged and you really don’t want to die again.
>
> Counter Strike does this well with the one-life per round type of game. Same goes for Gears of War. Battlefield has the you have to walk/wait to get to the fight again. If you’re not punished for your mistakes, you won’t learn anything from them, really. And your thought about your actions will be monotone, same goes for the learning curve. And in a game like Halo, it is sure as hell annoying to wait on the spawn timer for example, but by having to walk in a slower pace than sprinting, you won’t think about it as a punishment there and there. The spawn timer on the other hand is a dumb and annoying way to get punished for a death, it only gives frustration. It’s a hard task to do, but in Halo 3 it was quite fun to wait with others for a Warthog to spawn on Sandtrap to engage your enemy.
>
> I hope this ain’t such a blurry and now well formed text… Just got home from work and I’m le tired;)

I think I understood you.

Firstly I want to say that I think that such ‘punishments’ for a death like in your mentioned games, would not work in Halo because all games play different. As an example and comparison I will take Battlefield because I think Counter Strike is a completely different game and I can’t speak for Gears because I have never played it.

Battlefield’s ‘BTB’ has very large teams playing against each other on massive maps and over a long duration. When you die and respawn on the end of the map and have to walk miles back to the battlefield, it has no actual influence on the game outcome because you have a huge amount of teammates and the game lasts pretty long.
Halo’s BTB is fast paced competitive because it is way smaller. The single individual has an huge impact on the game outcome. To ‘punish’ a player for his death like in Battlefield could change the game dramatically in disfavor for the players’ team.

That’s why I think the respawn countdown in Halo fits just right. You wait 5 seconds (in that your team could really need you), respawn outside of the battlefield and try to get back into the fight as fast as you can get to support and combine with your team again.
But Halo 4 made the mistake to add Instant Respawn. You die but in the same second you are right back into the fight again. Because of that it doesn’t even feel like you died. It’s like your team haven’t even lost you. Your death has no meaning or consequences anymore, except to be a point for the enemy. And because of Sprint this effect gets even stronger.

Besides, I don’t think that the intention of all those ‘time punishments’ after you died, is to actual punish you for your death. I think the intention is to calm you down a little, to shortly analyse what went wrong or what happened, to think out a new strategy and to give your death a meaning before you get send back into the action.
The Respawn Countdown does all this for me in Halo but Instant Respawn takes it all away.

6

I agree with you on your graphics point, while the lighting makes the game look great, when zooming in and looking at objects up close, it looks horrendous.

With better technology, I would hope we see a substantial improvement in the graphics department of the game.