i have lost all faith in 343. they do NOT know what they are doing and know nothing about halo. competitive gameplay is all but removed. stop trying to cater to casuals. you just end up making a game that neither likes. halos fanbase was huge because it was so balanced and competitive. making it easy for the campaign kids so you GAVE THEM POWER WEAPONS?
i dont know if you have noticed but the population has dwindled to almost nothing what it was at launch and declines by the day. halo 3 2 years after relase had over 200k active players. halo 4 has less then 40 k max just 5 months after release. there are SO FEW MAPS that everything gets boring quick because the same maps are played over and over again, ragnorok and exile 25 times in a row
everything has been changed. no big wide open maps. no btb ONLY INFINITY SLAYER. no big team objective. forge is small and confining and very limiting. very unbalanced gameplay and weapons. encourages camping. most of the competive aspect has been thrown out the window. no competive skill ranking system or matchmaking system ( so many games are horribly unbalanced therefore making casuals give up quickly your intended audience, which would much rather play cod in the first place)
over a dozen playists which makes maps repeat over and over because they are split into so many diffferent gametypes, halo 3 and even halo reach did a better job. btb kept things fresh because it was split between assault, 8 VS 8 CAPTURE THE FLAG!!! heavies, btb snipers, etc etc etc. it wsnt just slayer on just 2 maps over and over. thats why so many played for so long, because it was fresh and balanced and competitive. i started as a casual and the LEARNING CURVE wasnt so hard as 343 claims. also NO MEANINGFUL PROGRESSION SYSTEM OR VISUAL RANKING SYSTEM. that provided many halo players a reason to keep playing.
heres copy of a post from somewhere on here which sums up my thoughts nicely…
Sadly disappointed. I hate the fact that games nowadays are being made to appeal to the masses rather than the true fans. If you try to appeal to the masses like CoD, you’re going to lose your fanbase (which for Halo, is huge), and you’re going to attract nearly no one from the CoD or the casual gaming community. Why would they play Halo 4 when they have Black Ops 2? Such a shame. It’s all about the money now, and 343i thinks they know what they’re doing, but they don’t.
I do like Forge Island, I’m content with it, it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty awesome in my opinion, and hey, it’s free. The X markers are almost non-existent, a little white x that shows up for half a second that you don’t even notice unless you’re within 20 feet of your dead teammate. Sigh. And what’s this about backend tuning? Apparently now they can just tune weapons to their liking without us knowing what weapons will be changed and how? Ugh.
I’m definitely losing interest in Halo, and so are a lot of other people, and I hope 343i knows this.