I played forge test a good deal today. I had fun, at times, and got highly frustrated, at other times. Let me start off by saying that 343 picked a great selection of maps (Although Dispatch is better than Relay, in my opinion.) So, then, why did I get frustrated? Well the smaller maps bring the poor aspects of Halo 4 into more confined spaces. By this, I mean the bolt shot, ordinance drops, and armor abilities run rampant. EVERY SINGLE MAP feels like it was designed for game types without ordinance drops and load outs. Ordinance drops and load out weapons cough bolt shot **cough DMR cough feel like they have absolutely NO place on certain maps (The bolt shot has no place, as a load out weapon, on any map whatsoever as anything besides a static weapon spawn.)
The first map I am going to look at is Simplex. This map is GREAT. I have played a good deal of MLG V1 customs on this map. It was designed for these setting. I am sorry, but the Jet Pack ruins this map (Honestly, it really hurts every map in the game.) It makes traversing the map and reaching top-mid much too easy. It also breaks lines of sight and creates too many vantage-point advantages. Camping with the Bolt Shot in corners is also detrimental towards the flow of the map as is camping with camo. Getting weapons such as the rocket launcher or shotgun breaks games on this map. That simple roll of the die turns the tide of the game too easily on this map. Every time I played on this map, I wished I was playing V1 settings.
Next, I am going to look at Shut Out. Ahh, the good-ole lockout remake. This map, once again, is ruined by default, Halo 4 settings. Each game I played on this map turned into a camp fest with cross-map DMR shooting from sniper tower to BR tower. Beyond that, every confined space was dominated by the Bolt Shot. The Bolt Shot makes sword control meaningless and takes advantage from Shotgun control (Spawning with a pocket shotgun is a terrible addition to Halo.)
The other maps seem to face similar issues to those that I have previously discussed. The spawns on Scythe seem to be inconsistent. I get spawn killed way to much on this map. I don’t know if terrible spawns are due to the teleporters? Each map is WAY too small for ordinance drops. A decent ordinance drop on each map can really throw the balance of the game too far off. Rockets, Incin, Shotgun, etc. are all too powerful to simply be given to people based on pure luck on each of these maps.
I would love to see preset load outs and a lack of ordinance drops for game types played on these maps. Such additions would be highly beneficial to overall game play and map flow.
I am happy to see 343 interacting with the community and asking for feedback. The forge test playlist is a great idea. I hope to see it make multiple comebacks in the future.