I note a lot of threads/comments on this forum complaining that H4 “ruined” the Halo experience, b/c it’s too random due to personal ordinance, AAs, tactical packages, support upgrades, and different loadouts in general, or that it is too derivative of other FPS games, or that its too different from classic halo games and this perceived lack of sameness makes H4 “not Halo.” I note a lot of community members lamenting that this or that weapon is OP and should be nerfed back to corresponding versions from the earlier games. In essence, a lot of complaints and demands about how and why H4 should revert certain aspects to how they were in H3 or H2.
Then, inevitably, those with opposing viewpoints counter with the argument that “if you want H3, just go play H3.” The general responses I’ve seen to such argument are in the vein of: “I don’t want to have to play an old game. I want the old formula innovated rather than substituted with staples from other popular FPS games. I want the old experience updated, and not just repackaged with shinier graphics, etc.” The problem I have with this argument is that no one ever seems to suggest anything that they actually WANT in a new game that would “innovate” the old formula without borrowing elements that some deem incompatible with the Halo style. No one ever suggests how they would have “innovated” H3 gameplay uniquely when making its successors. Instead, its just whining and crying about such and such feature is NOT wanted in the new game.
So my challenge is this: if you don’t like H4 and want it to play more like H2/H3 but innovated into a new experience, what are your suggestions for things you WANT, that are new and different from H2/H3, as opposed to things that are in fact implemented in H4 that you don’t want? If you can’t suggest any “innovations” to the H2/H3 formula, then the argument stands: go play H3 and stop complaining!
Because the truth is, a lot of people enjoy this game immensely. I am one of those people. I played the hell out of H3, but got quite bored with it by the time COD:MW2 came out, and when I tried going back to H3, it was just so slow, repetitive, and frankly, boring, that I physically couldn’t bring myself to play it anymore. I was overjoyed when Reach came out as it implemented great new features while maintaining Halo feel (i.e. you still have to move around and pull your trigger more than once to kill someone, so battles can be won on more than an “I saw you first” basis). I played the hell out of Reach, experimenting with and mastering essentially every AA (except armor lock, which I never used), and found that the new features added enough variety that by the time H4 came out, the experience had not become stale and repetitive to me like H3 had. Nonetheless, I really welcomed H4, and found its experience to be even better than Reach, and even thought it played more like H3 than Reach did, keeping the best features of both, and adding even more variety that will surely prevent the experience from becoming stale and repetitive and hence, me playing, until H5 comes out.
So I know some of you don’t like variety. You want everyone to have the same weapons and character/armor traits, and want to know exactly when and where every weapon will spawn so you can play essentially the same game over and over and over again, using the same tired tactics that every longtime player has long ago mastered. If you are like that, please, enlighten me as to what you want added to the H3 experience that won’t ruin the game? As I already said, if you don’t have any meaningful, narrow, specific suggestions, then just go play H3. Because honestly, remaking an old game over and over again with updated graphics and slight tweaks to weapon functionality, is a waste of the developers time (and the players, as well, IMO).
tl;dr: if you don’t like H4, and don’t want to play H3 with only new graphics, what do you want to ADD to the H3 experience, as opposed to what you want to REMOVE from the H4 experience.