Firefight thoughts

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

To me, Halo campaign/firefight has always been about enclosed spaces, swarms of aliens, and near impossible odds. The fun is getting to shoot, nade, pummel and scrap your way through the hoards using your skill, teamwork and the correct weapon choice.

Firefight on ODST and Reach captured these elements perfectly. You start slow, steady, and then the waves get meaner and more intense, until all you see is a wall of extra terrestrials. But you have your power weapons, and with some Spartan resolve and bit of luck, you might see out the assault. Even when you failed, it was fun.

That appears to be gone now.

Having recently joined Xbox One and H5 I was initially impressed with the scale of firefight. The enemy attacked in packs, with cunning and brutal tactics, setting ambushes and flanking your positions. As the rounds progressed, however, the game suddenly, inexplicably, turned into ‘Command and Conquer.’ I was forced to use inadequate resources to pummel big targets from a long way away until their health bar drained. In the meantime I was killed endlessly and forced to walk a mile to re-enact my death over and over.

What happened? Why bother with these bosses? Why not just increase the ratio of foot soldiers and let us scrap it out, backs to the wall, shotguns and bayonet DMRs ready?

I’ll keep playing–because I spent a lot of money on the console and game, and I have fond memories of previous instalments, and a glass-half-full outlook…but surely something has to give?

2

I memorized where most of the enemies spawn on all maps, because I played WZFF a lot.

3

That’s because by design, Firefight with REQs are too easy, especially with 8 people.

REQs provide you with access to a large amount of vehicles and weapons, and even then you have near-infinite ammo for loadout weapons. You don’t have to actually fight for any advantage in battle, you can spawn them at will.

Also, one of the more important parts, ODST Firefight’s objective is to survive. Things aren’t so OP because you’re more focused on surviving now and defeating the enemy second. In Halo 5, you’re so blatantly OP from a design standpoint that the only way to present an actual challenge is to make the enemies even more OP, and give you a time limit on top of them so you’re not steamrolling everything with 8 tanks.

Seriously, everything that’s not a boss dies in under 3 shots from the basic tank. Even Hunters and Knights. Now throw in the Ultra Wraith, or Hannibal Tank, or Phaetons.

I have a lot of gripes with Firefight and I’m very vocal about it, but I understand why 343i did make Firefight this way. Things are going to be either too easy or too hard, and the balance is very fickle.