Halo 4 being called a CoD clone

Games Other Halo
1

I understand that halo 4 being called a CoD clone and people saying that halo needs to learn to innovate again.

However i have played video games for a long time, and i remember the days that every FPS that came out was said to be a Doom clone, even if it had very little similarities. Some people even said CE was over hyped and that its multiplayer was blah and copied elements of golden eye,doom and quake.

Some even said Halo CE campaign was a complete ripoff of aliens and that the gameplay and campaign environments were repetitive and stale not innovative.Others said Cheif and idea of spartans was just a cheap knock off of the SPACE MARINES from warhammer 40k. The fact of the matter is games will always take elements of other games and implement it to its own style.

However what Halo did was introduce a game that took the elements of other games and improved on them to make it its own style but made the transition from fps to vehicles almost seemless, intelligent enemy AI with unscripted sequences, and thus won the hearts of gamers. Then it took the mantle from Doom which had stuck with in its ways refusing to adapt and evolve. Games from then on were called Halo clones.

The thing is Cod took elements from other games numerous games, and some would say COD never would of taken off if halo didn’t set the standard for online play. People just see similarities between a game and another Top game of the time and call them clones.

Thing is DOOM is no longer the king of FPS’s and it has changed little from its original premise. Games evolve if they don’t they lose their mantle. I understand why people say they just wan’t the same things that worked in the past, but please back your opinions with hard facts and don’t just say BUT IT TOOK STUFF FROM THIS GAME. Explain

-that maybe scope flinch should be brought back so dmr’s cant just be pot shots all over the map.
-Instant re spawns only in Big team
-Custom lobby

This is 343 first true game as a dev team, be constructive, explain your issue and why it should be fix. More important remember your opinion isn’t a fact its a opinion and not everyone will feel the same.

2

Wait, Halo is in First Person? It’s a total Skyrim Ripoff! < This is the logic most people use when whining about game similarities.

As far as I’m concerned. Halo took a few elements that helped make CoD popular, yet. But that doesn’t mean it IS Cod. Seriously, if you played 50 games of CoD, then loaded up Halo 4, you would immediately find that not a single one of your skills or playstyles carry over aside from the ability to shoot your gun.

Custom Loadouts? Perks? Killcams? Those are features, and they aren’t even features you PLAY. You don’t PLAY Custom Loadouts or Killcams, you PLAY Halo, or you PLAY CoD.

3

Do not dismiss those who find Halo 4 to be in league with COD and its variants out of hand. Their points are genuine, and even I find myself agreeing with them at times. You can’t deny that some of the new features are a bit questionable in this regard. Kill cams? Passive bonuses? Instant respawns to make the gameplay faster? These most certainly aren’t features born of Halo. Their assertions can ring true.

But don’t think I agree with them on all terms. Halo is still very much Halo, and the two titles are quite different. All I’m saying is don’t ignore the blatantly obvious.

4

It boggles the mind how the OP can claim to have all of this experience playing FPS titles and can’t seem to understand that Halo’s success was, in large part, due to the fact that it wasn’t the class-based, cookie cutter style of Battlefield and Call of Duty.

It was precisely the fact that Halo was the spiritual successors of Doom, Quake, and Unreal that kept it unique this generation. There were people who liked Halo because it was Halo, not the “same old, same old” FPS.

The “Doom is old” argument is pointless and makes it sound as though copying COD is an inevitability. WRONG. There’s room for multiple styles of FPS. Halo offered a unique style while COD and Battlefield offered their own style. You could like both for very different reasons, or you could like one and hate the other. So on and so forth.

But that’s done now. Halo is just the same, tired, class-based, COD clone trying to pander to the lowest common denominator. This change WILL come back to bite them on the -Yoink- because we’re already flooded in COD knock offs - Halo will be viewed as “just another” cheap clone that used to be great.

5

I just don’t understand if halo 4 was a true clone,

Take away spartans, instead

-We now play as ODST multipayer consists of fighting other odst, we only fight renegade humans rebelling against the unsc in campaign.
-covenant and Promethean weapons removed from games.
-all versions of unsc weapons added into game from every game multiple AR’s,BR’s rocket launchers snipers and so forth.
-able to call down mac blasts
-take out all alien landscapes game now only involves unsc ships and worlds.
-party sizes increased

  • call in pelican air strike
    -instead of numerous playlists you now only have deathmatch, conquest and few others.
    -No more forge CoD is better we don’t need it
    -Add lot more vehicles to gametypes, multiple tanks so forth

however we we did get was
-ordiances- not really just cod games have had something similar long before cod
-instant respawns- yes this isn’t some magical thing cod came up with
-perks
-sprint- omg that is so COD thing

6

I never said anyone’s opinion was wrong or that these were my own i just mentioned what was said at every time period and backed it up.
I never said that halo didn’t take ideas from CoD or that people were wrong for thinking that.
I just said it is opinion and people’s opinions are not fact.
In fact i believe criticism is good and helps a game improve however apply actual criticism to help move the game forward.

7

> It boggles the mind how the OP can claim to have all of this experience playing FPS titles and can’t seem to understand that Halo’s success was, in large part, due to the fact that it wasn’t the class-based, cookie cutter style of Battlefield and Call of Duty.
>
> It was precisely the fact that Halo was the spiritual successors of Doom, Quake, and Unreal that kept it unique this generation. There were people who liked Halo because it was Halo, not the “same old, same old” FPS.
>
> The “Doom is old” argument is pointless and makes it sound as though copying COD is an inevitability. WRONG. There’s room for multiple styles of FPS. Halo offered a unique style while COD and Battlefield offered their own style. You could like both for very different reasons, or you could like one and hate the other. So on and so forth.
>
> But that’s done now. Halo is just the same, tired, class-based, COD clone trying to pander to the lowest common denominator. This change WILL come back to bite them on the -Yoink!- because we’re already flooded in COD knock offs - Halo will be viewed as “just another” cheap clone that used to be great.

Frak yeah, ‘modern’ FPS games like COD I find dull, boring & full of uber-noobs (80-90%) that rely on perks/loadouts etc that give them a massive advantage. Playing against these kind of uber-noobs on a shooter like H3, Reach, etc, funny how they whine about your kill streak…

With H4, I feel like I might as well join the club & go buy COD:BO2… :frowning:
My only hope is, ID, Epic, etc will seize this & we see a new Quake or Unreal Tournament…

8

Some things,

I never said Halo should and will inevitable become CoD, i said all games take elements from other games even the original halos saying they didn’t is silly.

I don’t like all the elements that was implemented either but just saying it copied CoD does not help when the element has been around for alot longer then CoD

Don’t twist words cause your used to the usual fanboy who just calls you a CoD fanboy.

I said games need to evolve and we should help 343 to evolve the game, by telling them what just isn’t working. Instead of just saying it copied explain why certain things don’t work other than just saying its stupid.

Back up opinions with facts to support it.

I also said how halo CE innovated and surpassed Doom.Please like i said just cause what i said didn’t agree with you don’t just say im wrong.

9

I believe that those people who, in almost every instance, attempt to defame the name of another thing/person/etc… are people who crave attention. They can’t just enjoy what they have and move on.

10

When my friends who don’t game ask me “Whats the difference between CoD and Halo?”

I would always give the same answer about how its so much more of a team focused game, that everyone starts off exactly the same. If you want a snipe, go get it. If you want rockets, go get em… But you will be fighting for them. Fighting against another player who is completely equal.

In professional sports, or any COMPETITIVE arena for that matter, this is always true. BOTH TEAMS ARE ALWAYS EQUAL. Everyone gets the same -Yoink-. Nobody gets to hit baseballs with a giant metal bat, and nobody gets to catch baseballs with a giant mitt. If you cant use the regulation bat, you suck. If you cant use a regulation mitt, you suck. Learn to use them or lose.

Call of duty, I would say. The game rewards selfishness. That there are an insane amount of customizations that lets each player, play the game to their strengths. That there are to many guns/mods/perks/equiptment ect to ever be equal.

Well… I can no longer say that. That single difference changed halo entirely.

That broke the game.

That changed it to a cod clone.

Lie to yourself all you want. But traditional halo is donezo.

PS I like Halo 4. I like CoD.

Im just being real.

11

It’s not fun to play any more. I spent 2 years on halo reach to get to rank field marshall. Im proud to get to that rank and its well spent of my life to get there on Halo reach. There is not a single player who wouldn’t say “it took me a while to get to where i am”. And now i spent 12 hours to attain rank 34 or something. I wouldn’t mind if there were names for the ranks like they always did. What’s up with that? To me rank 50 is like field marshal ish and beyond would be the other ranks like Hero and Mythic. Thats fine how they set it up. But why? why screw over the rank system with beteen 1500 and 2500 (if your amazing!) right at the damn start! it makes no sense. I can understand them trying to be as different from BUNGIE as possible, but why couldn’t they keep it the same with XP and change the names of the ranks.

Whenever I play the game Im always up against people who are WAY TO HIGH RANK than me. Either Im really good or it’s BROKEN.

BACK TO THE TOPIC; the only different between the two games (main points but there are also very little things) are as follows (In my opinion)

  1. Campaign is better in Halo 4
  2. Sparton OPs (the name and load out selection and NOTHING ELSE)
  3. More Game types in Halo 4
  4. More weapons in COD than Halo 4 (but that’s how its always been, im just puting it in anyway)
  5. vehicle usage
  6. ASSASINATIONS (we all love a good assasination now and then)
  7. Forge mode (always good till this came out)
    Thats all i can think of at the moment. In my opinion; the game to me is not worth the cost of a brand new game (Probably 15-20 pounds but im a generous person) Because the campaing is amazing and so is Spartan Ops.
12

these are ridiculous points, the leading fps shooter in the market is call of duty

halo gets beaten by it constantly because their games are awful and halo 3 is nearly 6 years old , so 343 think what will make halo better and lazily copy everything from reach and add cod features- bungie ripped off shadowrun with halo reach but at least that wasnt the lead fps shooter in the market.

343 took the easy way out and saw they could capitalize on cods success but all they did is invite a bunch of terrible new players that will never get better because the game is so dumbed down a 3 year old who likes pressing buttons will eventually reach 130 if given a controller

comparing halo to doom is like comparing xbox to the gameboy but the comparison of the current king of fps to some lowly wannabe is completely justified on this weak company

13

…

Ah…I realize why people call it a Cod clone, but what they don’t understand is why they’re pissed off, and it isn’t because “its a cod clone” because as far as I know, Cod has many great things that can be incorporated well. But nah.

343 kinda took Cod’s good features (Not saying it’s limited to cod, just using it as an example simply because of the population and because I am familiar with both games), wiped it with a bunch of poo, and then input it onto a Halo game, which kinda means that a game with massive potential, able to trump both the current cod franchise (Ignoring the 12 year old squeaky kids who suck at quickscoping, go negative, and generally vy for attention from all the ‘kewl kids’) and the Halo franchise’s population.

I will put in most of the major examples, they are not ranked by which is the worst implementation.

-Killcams. Very useful except it’s so glitchy, with the other person’s reticule a mile away from your body in the kill cam yet showing up as red and getting a kill. If you were mad that you somehow got killed, you’d be even more mad when you see how limited the killcam made it.

-Instant respawn. I have no real qualms with this other than ‘Glitch/lag/bugged so my loadouts gets messed up and shizzle’.

-Universal Sprint. Why we can’t turn it off without modding, I don’t know.

-Weapon skin customization. This complaint extends to armor as well. I still don’t get why we have to pick skins like it’s a completely different weapon/armor.

-Loadouts. Cod allows 10 if a person wanted to have 10. In Halo 4 we are stuck with 5 and only 5, which severely limits it, making us have to change it nearly every time if we wanted more than just 5.

-1 hit kill spawn weapon, AKA Boltshot. I’m not really mad about it, I just find it stupid that the Boltshot can beat the Scattershot.

-Teammate selection. Nearly every game I play alone, I have teammates who are #####. Hatem. Might just be random, but if so, then my luck is low on both H4 and BO2.

-Spartan Ops. I mean, seriously? Black Ops 2 has a massive sandbox map + gametype where we had a big map to traverse while fighting Zombies in rounds that spawn, which gives techniques, and upgrading weapons, etc. And they did all that in 1 disc. Halo 4 has 2; Why we no have something like that? I still hope they give us a sandbox map, objectives, and exploration for future Spartan Ops. Instead of small, Multiplayer-sized playspaces with 1 or 2 boring ‘press a button’ objectives and enemies. That’s why Chapter 3 Ep 4 something like that, the Mantis V Banshee bit, was the most played SO game.

-Campaign. It was great…except they took out theater mode which sucks (Along with SO), and the maps are NOT like in previous Halo games. Remember CE’s Silent Cartographer island? That was great. Sandbox map that could be played just about in any way. If we mixed SO with that map (Or the map for the mission’ Halo’ on the same game) and had constantly respawning enemies and one or 2 objectives that you needed to fight towards, and you could also explore, the game will be amazing.

I really don’t think we can Validate Halo 4 as copying Cod. I’d rather say inspired. And sadly, despite many of the great things, I also feel disappointment.

14

Frankly, I don’t think people are bothered by the fact that those features are of CoD, but because those features don’t fit to Halo to begin with. Sure, had they actually taken features from CoD that support the foundation of Halo gameplay, I would be fine with it. But the fact that the developers selected features, not because they improve the gameplay, but because they are popular, is the problem here. No one really cares about the origin of those features, but that they are features those people don’t like and don’t see to fit in Halo.

15

> But the fact that the developers selected features, not because they improve the gameplay, but because they are popular, is the problem here.

This, and that’s just so unbelievably stupid. I will never understand how a game developer can be this naive.

16

Here is the thing, most of the stuff “ripped off” from CoD really only works for CoD, or it’s ilk. And even then, a lot of that stuff doesn’t even work for CoD.

There is a world of difference between Arena shooters, like Halo, and Run and Gun Shooters, like CoD. The most important one is Arena shooters have equal starts. There is no pick what you want and spawn with it. There are no passive traits that allow for a player to “customize” how they play. Arena shooters are based around equality for all players, emergent game play and, wait for it, skill.

Things like loadouts, xp based unlocks, AA’s, perks, instant respawn and JIP have never been in Halo, nor most arena shooters. There is a reason why they haven’t been. They break balance, equality and the sandbox. Once you allow players to pick and choose what they are bringing to the battle in an arena shooter and try to keep the same core gameplay elements as before and “map styles” and it ceases being an arena shooter and becomes some oddball hybrid/clone that plays to none of the strengths of either an arena shooter or a run and gun shooter.

17

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

CoD hasn’t innovated since the days of CoD 4 really, and look at how strong and well it is doing after how many years of pushing out the same generic crap?

Halo changes everything since detail which made it Halo and no one likes or plays it anymore. Then 343i releases an even more CoD like version of the game and even more people reject it than ever before at a far quicker rate.

Word of advice, if you’re going to innovate - make sure you keep the fundamentals in which made people play your game in the first place. CoD does it and people keep on coming back to play the same stuff every year. Small changes - same gameplay = seemingly no change at all.

But of course, I’m just some guy on the internet aren’t I 343i? Obviously I don’t know anything about making games? Or how to make successful games for that matter (Maybe something you should brush up on). What I do know is that two failed Halo games in a row following that same stupid formula. I don’t understand 343i’s logic at all.

//
Totally realistic Dev team conversation

Project lead- “Oh hai guiz, Reach isn’t doing so well since Bungie released it. We’ve seen a massive split in the community and the population is and has dropped off faster than any Halo game in the past.”

Devs- “So you’re saying we should make another Reach?”

Project lead- “Yeah, I think if we make the game more like CoD all those ignorant Halo fans will leave and we can make lots of money off of those CoD players.”

Devs- “Hey lets totally rip off CoD and say we didn’t!”

Project lead- “Yeah, lets reject all this data saying that another Reach won’t go down too well and lets get started!”
\

18

> these are ridiculous points, the leading fps shooter in the market is call of duty
>
> halo gets beaten by it constantly because their games are awful and halo 3 is nearly 6 years old , so 343 think what will make halo better and lazily copy everything from reach and add cod features- bungie ripped off shadowrun with halo reach but at least that wasnt the lead fps shooter in the market.
>
> 343 took the easy way out and saw they could capitalize on cods success but all they did is invite a bunch of terrible new players that will never get better because the game is so dumbed down a 3 year old who likes pressing buttons will eventually reach 130 if given a controller
>
> comparing halo to doom is like comparing xbox to the gameboy but the comparison of the current king of fps to some lowly wannabe is completely justified on this weak company

shadowrun… good one.

19

These threads never end well. Sorry, going to have to lock this.