To be honest it seems like all people notice are the negative things about Halo 4 but the game wasn’t all that bad. People need to remember that 343 is not Bungie, so why does everybody have such high expectations. The Halo 4 campaign has opened opportunities for 343, they already said that they will continue the chief’s story, and possibly make games about new characters as well, (perhaps one the revolves around Bornstellar and the forunner empire), but either way the game was good for a first attempt. The game had many positives and negatives. So far CSR doesn’t seem like it is going to work because its not visible in game and custom games was an epic fail but only time will tell us if they can fix these issues. On the positive side they have introduced Spartan ops, many new multiplayer playlists, and a somewhat balanced and successful loadout system. Just remember 343 is listening to us, but they won’t be able to please everyone. Also they are still updating and developing the game. There is still how and they can still fix CSR and custom games and the other issues but it is going to take time and we need to be patient.
Forgettable Campaign, overly flawed multiplayer, disappointing Spartan Ops, downgraded Custom games, Forge and Theater…I’d reckon it could be seen as bad as some people think.
My greatest complaint with Halo 4 is this, What exactly did 343 innovate with Halo 4?
Perhaps someone can try to answer it, but I know most can’t. How do I know this? Why else would so many people leave Halo 4 after shortly playing it? When Halo 3 launched it was the first major FPS with Theater mode and Forge. Two completely new gamemodes, and Firefight was introduced with ODST 2 years later.
Reach elaborated on those gamemodes making them better, but at the same time they forgot to stay focused on the gameplay that formed the base of Halo’s MP.
Halo 4 very slightly elaborated on Forge, but also scraped tons of Custom Games options, severely limited Theater mode and offered no improvements for it, and went even farther from the base gameplay Halo had become famous for.
Everything about the campaign was perfect. SpOps was good, but Palmer needed to be muted. I actually played matchmaking with someone with the gamertag PalmerSucks (look him up, not joking.) That guy was soooo annoyed by hearing Palmer talk, he actually spent $10 to express that. If THAT isn’t a message, then I don’t know what is. Palmer aside, I still like what I got with Halo 4. Yes, I have gripes about matchmaking, but there are also things I like about it.
> Everything about the campaign was perfect.
Where are my Scarabs?
> Everything about the campaign was perfect.
Except for the part where large sections of the plot are never explained or expanded upon.
There needs to be a neutral option.
This branch of Covenant probably didn’t have access to Scarabs when they left High Charity to live on their own planet. The story has been explained in the books, which is the way its been for years. Read the books (or the Wiki) if you want the background. If you think about it, the game is directly from John’s perspective, so when he learns (or doesn’t learn) plot points, neither does the player. All he knew when he woke up was bad things were happening and the Covenant were involved. Reading the books explains why that happened, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
I definitely didn’t like Palmer either, and actually wanted her to die in order to save majestic, but that didn’t happen, the matchmaking had many flaws and customs games was ruined, I feel like they wanted to focus mainly on campaign in Halo 4 considering that it was the return of Master Chief, and ended up making cuts to custom games, theater, and matchmaking in general just to finish the campaign. My biggest wish is that even if they cant fix this game, then at least they learn from it and make Halo 5 the way Halo was meant to be, with Social and Ranked playlists, custom games like halo 3’s, make some repairs to forge and theater, and then continue the campaign the way it was made in Halo 4.
> This branch of Covenant probably didn’t have access to Scarabs when they left High Charity to live on their own planet. <mark>The story has been explained in the books, which is the way its been for years. Read the books (or the Wiki) if you want the background.</mark> If you think about it, the game is directly from John’s perspective, so when he learns (or doesn’t learn) plot points, neither does the player. All he knew when he woke up was bad things were happening and the Covenant were involved. Reading the books explains why that happened, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
Except 343 Industries said nobody should or would have to do that. Nobody should have to do any extra research just to understand the game. Maybe you’d give the finger to people who don’t have time to synthesize five novels worth of text, but I’d expect better from a game developer.
> This branch of Covenant probably didn’t have access to Scarabs when they left High Charity to live on their own planet.
But they have access to a bunch of Lichs, which have never been seen before that they inexplicably acquire. While they also have a Harvester, which is essentially a really big Scarab, but it does nothing but act as scenery.
> If you think about it, the game is directly from John’s perspective, so when he learns (or doesn’t learn) plot points, neither does the player. All he knew when he woke up was bad things were happening and the Covenant were involved. Reading the books explains why that happened, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
Except it should make no sense to John and he should’ve been debriefed immediately on what was going on as soon as he reached Infinity.
Not explaining key plot points isn’t good, keep in mind most don’t read the books they play the campaign and expect the game to pick off from Halo 3 and explain what happens. It doesn’t.
UNA PROBLEMA
Ignorance of these forums and ideas of the players. They are kind of ignoring playlists and not updating Flood, Dominion, Regicide, and possibly more. EVERY playlist deserves equal attention.
Other than that, Halo 4 is very cool. Better forging, more mysterious campaign, and darn, Action Sack, Flood, SWAT, Multi-Team are so fun to play!
> To be honest it seems like all people notice are the negative things about Halo 4 but the game wasn’t all that bad. People need to remember that 343 is not Bungie, so why does everybody have such high expectations. The Halo 4 campaign has opened opportunities for 343, they already said that they will continue the chief’s story, and possibly make games about new characters as well, (perhaps one the revolves around Bornstellar and the forunner empire), but either way the game was good for a first attempt. The game had many positives and negatives. So far CSR doesn’t seem like it is going to work because its not visible in game and custom games was an epic fail but only time will tell us if they can fix these issues. On the positive side they have introduced Spartan ops, many new multiplayer playlists, and a somewhat balanced and successful loadout system. Just remember 343 is listening to us, but they won’t be able to please everyone. Also they are still updating and developing the game. There is still how and they can still fix CSR and custom games and the other issues but it is going to take time and we need to be patient.
sorry but the game is terrible…
PLUS we’ve been waiting for upgrades since reach.
John knew more about the situation than the crew of Infinity, which was almost nothing.
Is reading a book that much of a chore? The first three books fill in gaps between the original trilogy, and it took until the eleventh terminal in Anniversary to find out how Guilty Spark came in to Halo 2. Is that such a big deal?
What it comes down to is, it makes sense to me, I don’t care if it doesn’t for anyone else, I am a happy customer.
> Is reading a book that much of a chore? The first three books fill in gaps between the original trilogy, and it took until the eleventh terminal in Anniversary to find out how Guilty Spark came in to Halo 2. Is that such a big deal?
To the average fan, yes it would be a chore. It is an unnecessary step and 343i themselves said the books weren’t required content to know. And the 343 GS example is rather poor…everybody knew he just went to the gas mine on Threshold. Yes, it was a shock that he survived the destruction of Installation 04, but we never saw him die to begin with. All the terminal showed was him going to the mine, info we already knew.
If the game cannot convey its own story, then it is a bad story.
> > This branch of Covenant probably didn’t have access to Scarabs when they left High Charity to live on their own planet. <mark>The story has been explained in the books, which is the way its been for years. Read the books (or the Wiki) if you want the background.</mark> If you think about it, the game is directly from John’s perspective, so when he learns (or doesn’t learn) plot points, neither does the player. All he knew when he woke up was bad things were happening and the Covenant were involved. Reading the books explains why that happened, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
>
> Except 343 Industries said nobody should or would have to do that. Nobody should have to do any extra research just to understand the game. Maybe you’d give the finger to people who don’t have time to synthesize five novels worth of text, but I’d expect better from a game developer.
Except the game was indeed understandable without the novels. They play the role they always have. Supplementary knowledge. You’ll understand the context of Halo: Combat Evolved even better if you read through Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood first. You’ll understand why and how John got back to Earth and how they knew a Covenant invasion was coming if you read Halo: First Strike.
Similarly, you’ll understand Ur-Didact in Halo 4 even better if you read the Forerunner Saga, and you’ll understand the politics leading up to humanity becoming the galactic superpower if you read the two Kilo-Five novels. But without all of that context, the game’s story is still consumable as a standalone. I really don’t see how the novels are necessary knowledge for Halo 4.
> On the positive side they have introduced Spartan ops,
Decent concept, but forgettable. And it’s been months since any new missions have come out.
> many new multiplayer playlists,
Having the same basic playlists as any other title is a requirement, not an accomplishment.
> and a somewhat balanced and successful loadout system.
Not going to debate about the concept of loadouts themselves, but the current loadouts are flawed. There’s only a handful of viable options.
> Just remember 343 is listening to us, but they won’t be able to please everyone.
They aren’t even close to pleasing half the playerbase. Yes, people are going to moan and complain regardless of what they do, but they really are failing to cater to anyone. I’ve seen some effort here and there, but it’s not enough. Maybe that’s not entirely their fault, maybe we won’t get a polished product until Halo 5 is released due to limitations. But they could still do better.
> I really don’t see how the novels are necessary knowledge for Halo 4.
Erase the novels completely from your mind.
Erase the terminals as well.
Who exactly is the didact?
Why is he angry?
Why are the covenant now suddenly attacking?
There’s very little character development outside of the chief himself, and very little explanation for the events going on in the game. All we know gathered from the dialogue and cutscenes is the Didact is a forerunner who is pissed off at humanity because of some unexplained events during the flood war, and that the covenant have suddenly decided they don’t like humanity anymore.
The in-game plot is poorly written, even if the novels and terminals are perfectly fine.
> <mark>Except the game was indeed understandable without the novels.</mark> They play the role they always have. Supplementary knowledge. You’ll understand the context of Halo: Combat Evolved even better if you read through Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood first. You’ll understand why and how John got back to Earth and how they knew a Covenant invasion was coming if you read Halo: First Strike.
>
> Similarly, you’ll understand Ur-Didact in Halo 4 even better if you read the Forerunner Saga, and you’ll understand the politics leading up to humanity becoming the galactic superpower if you read the two Kilo-Five novels. But without all of that context, the game’s story is still consumable as a standalone. I really don’t see how the novels are necessary knowledge for Halo 4.
To some people, not to everybody. I read all the books before, but the game is still flawed anyway for not properly incorporating that info in a way everybody could understand. The mere fact we had to wait 5 months just so the Didact’s motivations made sense and were explained is simply a testament to the games inability to tell its story.
If what I was saying was crazy, then how do you explain 343i at the GDC panel acknowledging and confirming the criticism that players who didn’t read the novels and such feeling as though they weren’t getting the full story was valid?
You might be too stubborn to admit or see any other perspective than your own, but at least 343i can…at times.
The only other option that I could see would be if the game had an extra 30 minutes of videos to watch, and I bet a lot of casuals would lose interest in sitting through a 10 minute video explaining the Didact’s motives. The most important things to know are properly conveyed in the game- Chief is in trouble, a new enemy enlists the Covenant, and Chief needs to stop it. If you want to know the back story then just read the books. Casuals won’t read the books, so who cares?