Halo 4 review from a "competitive" player

Games Other Halo
1

I was a little worried about this game prior to yesterday, things I had read and heard were not that great from a competitive standpoint. After playing the game from about 1PM until 10PM yesterday, I feel like I have a good grasp on the game to share my thoughts as a very competitive player from Halo 2 and Halo 3.

The general gameplay in Halo 4 is absolutely amazing. It is smooth like butter, running around, jumping, crouching all feels how Halo should. The jumps I think I can make, I can make them and the physics just seem perfect. The weapons appear to be balanced very well; I’ve almost only used the BR, because that’s my favorite weapon. A 5 shot kill is very doable and with a 5 shot I can take out virtually anyone from a medium range. However from a short range the AR is strong enough to beat it sometimes, but not all the time. This was a grip of mine in Reach and 3; the AR ALWAYS won in short range.

Another thing that I have loved is the ability to place grenades seems almost seamless. I can’t count the amount of grenades I put under someones feet just leaving a quick BR to the head for a kill. I was great with grenades in H2, but in 3 and Reach it just didn’t seem to have the right physics.

I am even surprisingly pleased with infinity slayer; I had a lot of fun with that. It was competitive, the ordinance drops were good additions, and the perks and builds are a good addition to the game. Prom-Vision is OP, but it isn’t unstoppable either.

So if the rating stopped there, I would be giving a 10/10…however it’s the MM system and non gameplay things that I wasn’t a fan of. I joined with a party of 3 people and was split up onto two different teams. This to me should NEVER happen. I joined with friends to play with them, not against them. Also the join in progress system forced us into games that had already begun several times. This is nice in theory, but it removes any sort of competitiveness from these games. I think there is something to starting a game out from scratch and going to the end. The join in progress to me should only be either an option, or for friends to join friends.

Then there’s the menus, to me they were just a little wonky. If you’re not the party leader you don’t know what’s going on, all you can see are the big trading card looking figures of everyone on the party. It was just a little weird to me.

Overall, I love the gameplay, I HOPE it gets more competitive, but the gameplay being where it is surely is the most important thing.

2

I approve this message. Love it. Just a few tweaks and we are there

3

Good post. A couple tweaks, custom game options and game types and this game is about perfect.

4

The join in progress should only be in certain playlists like flood, ctf, btb, ect. games with many players essentially.
The menus are pretty weird, I would have been totally okay if they used the reach interface again. Reach had it perfectly done to see all the players and what was going on.

5

Haven’t managed to get hold of the game yet (won’t be home until Friday), but from what I’ve seen, I tend to agree with you.

The UI seemed a LOT smoother and sleeker in Reach (going through menus and viewing teams in that game was like a little treat), but that’s not too big a thing I suppose.

And I honestly thought join-in-progress was an option you could toggle on/off? I really hope they add the option of choosing to wait a little longer and get matched in a game from the beginning.

But overall, really looking forward to Friday - very jealous of everyone playing right now. Campaign first, then I’ll be hitting a bit of multiplayer!

6

> Another thing that I have loved is the ability to place grenades seems almost seamless. I can’t count the amount of grenades I put under someones feet just leaving a quick BR to the head for a kill. I was great with grenades in H2, but in 3 and Reach it just didn’t seem to have the right physics.

REALLY??? Good god, I need your skills. Grenades are s*** in halo 4. they have a blast radius the size of a tick, the worst damage I’ve ever seen, and take an eternity to blow up… No joke, I threw a plasma at a guy, and he managed to jump away from it and shoot somebody that had full shields with an AR before it blew up… This is pretty much the only part of your review I STRONGLY disagree with.

7

You see, I actually like the look of the new menus. It seemed all the other Halo games shared the same style or theme when it came to menus. Same with matchmaking medals. I like the fact most of the icons are different and even some of the names, like Snapshot. It is a little confusing at times, but nothing too serious. A change of pace is always nice in my opinion.

I have yet to find a game that’s already in progress. I hope they change that or that it’s really rare, because that’s one of the main things I hate about Call of Duty. I’d rather wait a few more minutes searching for a game than be thrown into one that’s almost over, on the losing team. That’s not a quality online gaming experience.

I haven’t played the game too much yet, but I enjoy what I’ve seen so far.

8

> > Another thing that I have loved is the ability to place grenades seems almost seamless. I can’t count the amount of grenades I put under someones feet just leaving a quick BR to the head for a kill. I was great with grenades in H2, but in 3 and Reach it just didn’t seem to have the right physics.
>
> REALLY??? Good god, I need your skills. Grenades are s*** in halo 4. they have a blast radius the size of a tick, the worst damage I’ve ever seen, and take an eternity to blow up… No joke, I threw a plasma at a guy, and he managed to jump away from it and shoot somebody that had full shields with an AR before it blew up… This is pretty much the only part of your review I STRONGLY disagree with.

I think that may be the part of it I like…you are right that they don’t have a very large blast radius, but they are consistent. Maybe that’s what I meant more than anything. I prefer small, strong blast radius where if it’s under them it’s a one grenade, one BR kill.

It took me a while to figure them out though, I was struggling at the beginning with the small blast radius.

9

They’ll probably have some sort of ranked system for you “competitive” types later.

10

Nice review. I’m looking forward to seeing more Halo 4 at MLG events!

11

> They’ll probably have some sort of ranked system for you “competitive” types later.

They may, but no matter what type of player you are, do you want your party split up?