I love the overall package Halo 4 offers, but the game would of HEAVILY benifited from an open/closed public beta. Single player is top notch. My only complaints in that department are that it should have been at least 2 missions longer and that the terminals SHOULD have been there directly(adds A LOT to the story, going to waypoint when your immersed in a game is highly counter intuitive ). I will admit tho that spartan ops is somewhat delivering on the extended story front (cg needs to be a lil bit longer)
When it comes to theater, spartan ops, forge and war games tho, there are some SERIOUS over sights that really need to be addressed. I enjoy all those aspects of the game immensely, but as a hardcore day 1 one fan of the franchise I can honestly say that at times it legitimately seems like I am playing a beta. Listed below are my number one criticisms per game mode, that need to be addressed to benefit the longevity of the game, the community, as well as future titles.
WAR GAMES
Teammate Location Hud Indicators: This is the first and foremost thing in war games that must be adjusted. Kinda boggles my mind how wrong you guys got this, but here we go. First off, they are just a bit to small to properly read and recognize( I game on a 56’). When your teammate is firing on/ being fired at by someone it NEEDS to be more pronounced like it was in all prior games. The visual feed back for this at the moment is downright terrible. Same thing applies for when your teammates die, there waypoint needs to stay there for at least 2 seconds with instantly recognizable visual feed back that there dead and approximate location. This currently doesn’t happen at all, just an x on the radar. THIS SUCKS, really ruins proper team playing.
Netcode: Not having too many issues myself, but it’s not as good as it could be. Nuff said.
Xp Cap: I don’t mind that there is one, but it needs to be looked at from an actual gamers perspective and FIXED(AND SOON). It was originally 75-150k a day. Now its 150 ish. Double it. Period. If I can hit it under 4 hours with no double xp thats BAD. Plain and simple. Also stop penalizing players who complete commendations/ challenges while xp capped. It’s seriously making people turn there xboxs off/play call of duty. Its really stupid and counter productive for someone to work there balls off to win 117 games, only to get nothing because you guys imposed a ridiculously low credit cap with no warning or explanation as to what happens when you are capped. Every single person I have played with agrees with me more or less, even randoms.
Join in progress: Great feature for when you are trying to join your friends mid game when ppl quit/ lag out, atrocious when you jump into regicide or any team game with A friend to only join with 5 minutes left and be placed on the worst possible part of a loosing end. Heres a simple fix, don’t allow matchmaking to join in progress at all, only allow friends/parties/ recent players to join in progress via the join session in progress on the xbox dash itself.
Plasma grenades: Not sure if it’s the netcode or me, but I have countless sticks that just magically phase through people(way more frequent then any other halo game)
Splatters: Extremely inconsistent as to what can and can’t splater someone. Seems like this mechanic really needed more time in the oven.(again this issue is arising way more then in past halo’s)
Thruster Pack: I’ve been using only this since launch. I’ve tried all other aa’s and feel that this one is SLIGHTLY under powered. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t, when it does work, it barely does most of the time. If you guys keep it as is, let it thrust twice. I honestly would prefer a buff tho that adds just a LITTLE more trust and movement speed to it and keep it at one use. ALSO WHY THE HELL CAN YOU NOT THRUSTER INTO AN ASSASSINATION ???!???!?!?! This really needs to be addressed. If you are sprinting at small distance behind someone who is also sprinting, the truster should be able to boost in, close the gap, and assassinate/back smack. That’s just game play 101. I’m sure everyone else would agree. It’s not exactly like this would be the easiest thing to pull off as well. As it currently stands it’s a little broken.
Team Swat: I don’t play swat much, but ALOT of the community does. Do not shoot yourselves in the foot and remove this playlist. Keep it, merge oddball and king of the hill into an objective playlist with some other games if you really have to keep the amount on playlists small.
FORGE
LAG: I created awesome map’s on each of the forge maps provided. They lag really hard in split screen or 8 player plus games. This didnt happen in halo reach or 3 nearly as bad
Fine adjustments: You guys probably heard enough -Yoinking!- about this already lol.
Magnets: The whole mechanic feels really wonky and under developed.
Theater
CAMPAIGN/Spartan ops: REALLY 343?!?!?! Common man, this is a SERIOUS omission. So many cool/bad -Yoink-/ funny moments that will never be able to be shared or properly remembered. Really can’t believe you guys axed this.
Viewing with friends: Not a huge deal for me, but the community is crying for it.
SPARTAN OPS
Glitches GALORE: Many game breaking bugs to outright funny ones. Regardless they happen a little too much for me. Feels grossly unpolished at times.
Performance : Could use a lil improvement. Overall not bad tho considering the amount of things going on. This is me nit picking tho lol.
Other then those issues I mentioned, stellar job 343. You guys honestly impressed me and have my respect/faith with the franchise. Just please, listen to the real fans and fix the things that really must be addressed.