Halo 4's content. A good sandbox or not?

Let me start of by saying I love Halo 4 despite its flaws, and have a ton of faith that 343i can make Halo 5 a truly amazing experience. But I have, and still have one huge problem with Halo 4, it’s lackng content. I know that there should never be content for the sake of content, but look at Halo 4’s sanbox compared to its predecessors, it is truly lacking. Here is a list of some things that I came up with.

-UNSC air vehicle
-Covenant ground support (Spectre, Revenant)
-Brutes (Jiralhanae)
-Drones (Yanme’e)
-Flood
-Engineers (Huragok)
-Weapons (SMG, Sticky Launcher, Spiker, Falmethrower, Incendiary grenade, Plasma Rifle, etc.)
-Firefight
-Theater FOR ALL MODES
-Playable Elites and their awesome customizable armor
-Custom game options (Grenade regeneration, etc.)
-The Jiralhanae vehicles (Prowler, Chopper)
-Elephant in MP
-Less options for armor (Wrist, Utility, Armor Effect)
-In-game CSR
-Classic characters (Lord Hood, Thel 'Vadam, Rtas 'Vadum, ODSTs)
-Scarabs
-Nameplates (http://www.halopedia.org/Nameplates)
-7 wood (A classic weapon for Halo golf)
-Forge World

Am i just nit-picking, or are you guys dissapointed to see some (if not all) of these things return? I know the canon doesent allow for some of the mentioned things (Brutes, Chopper, etc.) at-least have the Jiralhanae vehicles in customs.

Maybe there is a deeper reason for the lacking content, time constraint? Memory? I don’t know what it was, put please 343i, if you read this please don’t keep a bunch of the cool Halo sandbox content out of Halo 5, add it in. Thanks.

The sandbox is abysmal in this game. Definitely in my top five issues with this game.

> The sandbox is abysmal in this game. Definitely in my top five issues with this game.

To me, the sandbox almost makes it feel as if it’s not a full fledged sequel.

Only one opinion? Alrighty then…

It’s a little on the small side, and some of these decisions are just going backwards. Why make theater worse than it is? Why not bring back the falcon, or hornet, or make a new UNSC air vehicle? It just makes no sense.

Didn’t you hear? 343i says its canon. So stop yer complaining and be thankful they worked their butts off to give you this game!

/fanboy comment

Yes, vehicles are lacking. Most likely due to map size. As for weapons, they probably didn’t feel like balancing the smg and plasma rifle with the other weapons, and apparently they though duel wielding was the scum of the earth.

> Let me start of by saying I love Halo 4 despite its flaws, and have a ton of faith that 343i can make Halo 5 a truly amazing experience. But I have, and still have one huge problem with Halo 4, it’s lackng content. I know that there should never be content for the sake of content, but look at Halo 4’s sanbox compared to its predecessors, it is truly lacking. Here is a list of some things that I came up with.
>
> -UNSC air vehicle
> -Covenant ground support (Spectre, Revenant)
> -Brutes (Jiralhanae)
> -Drones (Yanme’e)
> -Flood
> -Engineers (Huragok)
> -Weapons (SMG, Sticky Launcher, Spiker, Falmethrower, Incendiary grenade, Plasma Rifle, etc.)
> -<mark>Firefight</mark>
> -Theater FOR ALL MODES
> -Playable Elites and their awesome customizable armor
> -Custom game options (Grenade regeneration, etc.)
> -The Jiralhanae vehicles (Prowler, Chopper)
> -Elephant in MP
> -Less options for armor (Wrist, Utility, Armor Effect)
> -<mark>In-game CSR</mark>
> -Classic characters (Lord Hood, Thel 'Vadam, Rtas 'Vadum, ODSTs)
> -Scarabs
> -Nameplates (http://www.halopedia.org/Nameplates)
> -7 wood (A classic weapon for Halo golf)
> -Forge World
>
> Am i just nit-picking, or are you guys dissapointed to see some (if not all) of these things return? I know the canon doesent allow for some of the mentioned things (Brutes, Chopper, etc.) at-least have the Jiralhanae vehicles in customs.
>
> Maybe there is a deeper reason for the lacking content, time constraint? Memory? I don’t know what it was, put please 343i, if you read this please don’t keep a bunch of the cool Halo sandbox content out of Halo 5, add it in. Thanks.

<mark>Firefight</mark> - was replaced by Spartan Ops even though spartan ops is a mix between firefight and objectives.

<mark>In-game CSR</mark> - will be added in April

> -UNSC air vehicle

Agreed. Miss the wonderful Falcon.

> -Covenant ground support (Spectre, Revenant)

Weird thing is, Karen Traviss mentions those in both of her books. Seems weird to have them mentioned if you’re not going to include them.

> -Brutes (Jiralhanae)

Aside from the Brute Chieftains, they were never really that fun to fight.

> -Drones (Yanme’e)

Can’t help but feel like the Watchers and Crawlers are the spiritual successors to this enemy.

> -Flood

Again, never that fun or interesting to fight.

> -Engineers (Huragok)

Again, Watchers seemed to have replaced them.

> -Weapons (SMG, Sticky Launcher, Spiker, Falmethrower, Incendiary grenade, Plasma Rifle, etc.)

SMG and the Plasma Rifle have been replaced by the SAW and Storm rifle.

> -Firefight

Indeed.

> -Theater FOR ALL MODES

This is one of my biggest issues.

They also added a bunch of crap to the sandbox, so its evens out some.

I dont miss anything in Halo 4 that was in previous Halos.

All I miss is Halo.

> Wh1plash96 Said

> Firefight - was replaced by Spartan Ops even though spartan ops is a mix between firefight and objectives.
>
> In-game CSR - will be added in April

Firefight was replaced by SpOPS in 343i eyes, you cant customize SpOPS, AT ALL.

The CSR will only be visible in Halo Waypoint, thats it, not in-game where it belongs.

Quick question, how do you quote with the persons name?

As Ramir said, the sandbox is honestly awful.

There are so many things missing and the new editions were all either bland, useless or unsatisfying. The DMR is shockingly easy to use and has ruined map movement and rendered the other precision weapons pretty much obsolete at all ranges with no niche. The automatic guns are all too similar and are completely useless on more than half of the maps in the game and outclassed on all of them.

The vehicles have zero learning curve and aren’t fun to drive. Only having 1 aerial vehicle (a bad new version of the banshee) has ruined air combat. No “melee vehicles” (the chopper) has removed a entire class of unique vehicle.

In summary, the weapons and vehicles are both bland and lacking in number, which fundamentally makes the game boring.

Can I ask what the desire is for a UNSC vehicle if it serves no purpose in the sand box that other vehicles already do?

This is an honest question, why would I want a Hornet if it’s just gonna do the same exact thing a banshee does? Isn’t that the idea of a sandbox? Unique weapons and vehicles that all have an individual niche.

I think the sandbox is fine.

“Isn’t that the idea of a sandbox? Unique weapons and vehicles that all have an individual niche?”.

Thinks about DMR.

Elites so we can have invasion, definitely firefight and the ability to view all the modes in theatre (is there a reason why it’s not an option?), I basically agree with all of this.

> Can I ask what the desire is for a UNSC vehicle if it serves no purpose in the sand box that other vehicles already do?
>
> This is an honest question, why would I want a Hornet if it’s just gonna do the same exact thing a banshee does? Isn’t that the idea of a sandbox? Unique weapons and vehicles that all have an individual niche.

The UNSC air vehicles allowed players to fly TOGETHER and could even be used to transport a couple of team members across the map.

> Can I ask what the desire is for a UNSC vehicle if it serves no purpose in the sand box that other vehicles already do?
>
> This is an honest question, why would I want a Hornet if it’s just gonna do the same exact thing a banshee does? Isn’t that the idea of a sandbox? Unique weapons and vehicles that all have an individual niche.

The Hornet played nothing like the Banshee.
One was a faster, ridiculously agile, slightly weaker one-seat fighter
The other was a slower, stronger, three-seat VTOL gunship
Same thing applies to the Falcon, though I’ll admit it was significantly less OP than the Hornet, and well-balanced with the Banshee

The Covenant medium vehicles usually had more seats than the Warthog in exchange for some firepower and speed (non-boosting), and in the case of the Revenant, it acted as a Chopper replacement (though I would by no means consider it a worthwhile replacement for the Chopper OR the Specter/Prowler)

The vehicles you might consider “redundant” or “pointless” are neither of those things, and they all had their place.

Edit: if any one vehicle should be removed due to redundancy or filling a niche that’s already filled, it should be the Mantis.

> The UNSC air vehicles allowed players to fly TOGETHER and could even be used to transport a couple of team members across the map.

So an aerial team vehicle? Okay that makes sense.

@Ducky

Not what I meant. If I’m going to kill someone from the sky does it happen the same way?

Someone can easily tell you the differences between a plasma and a frag, they function very differently and have their own niches. Hence why their in the sand box, if the plasma grenade was just another version of the frag even if it bounced more it fills the same niche and has no place in a sandbox.

I feel like they removed more features than they added.