Halo 5 vs Halo 4

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

In my opinion Halo 4 was better…and I hate Halo 4 in alot of ways but there are no microtransactions in it, and the maps feel like Halo maps for the most part. I was playing spartan ops the other day, a gamemode that was pretty much universally hated and I noticed the few things it did right like having a larger variety of weapons, fighting alongside ai, and the map style (a more wide open natural landscape with forerunner structures seemingly built into to cliffs, the unsc bases weren’t the best but still better than the ones in Halo 5), did not return in Halo 5. However the things it did wrong returned (I.E. palmer being annoying and bossy, overall lame charachters and dialogue, cookie cutter dialogue (tell me “that location” or “still a few more covies to clear out” one more time! Also the overall lack pf seriousnes. It felt like a TV show made to entertain ten year olds.

As far as the campaign I think everyone will agree despite it being the most linear campaign of a Halo game so far Halo 4 still did the overall story and gameplay better even if it was a weaker entry into the series.

For the multiplayer Halo 4s was aweful because of the lack of maps especially for smaller gametypes (unless you bought the dlc which few people did) and then the way the loadouts were done wasn’t right (remember active camo/boltshot corner campers?). I actually liked the idea of loadouts but only being able to choose a primary weapon and only in a certain gamemode (I think the warzone loadout system is a disaster, mainly because of the REQ system). People may say all these bad things about Halo 4s multiplayer and how vehicles were worthless due to the amount of ordinance drops and plasma pistol spamming but is halo 5 really that different? The enhanced mobility makes it easier than ever to run away from vehicles and to take them out, plus spartan charge is the new noob combo but a hundred times worse.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts, please be respectful to everyone.

2

H4 only does better in story and having game modes ready at launch, everything else was garbage. Getting nitpicky on halo 5s maps (which share the same style as h4 and for whatever reason is not “halo” cuz h4 is right??? Or using Sarah Palmer as an excuse. What if I like Sarah Palmer? I actually think I’m one of the few who actually took their time to understand her as a character and willing to look past her “I’m better than you” personality.

in short, halo 4 was to CoD like for me to enjoy and it still regressed halo, h5 is still doing the same but it’s much better than h4 which really isn’t much to brag about.

3

I’ve enjoyed pretty much every Halo so maybe I’m too much of a fanboy. I played a ton of Halo 4, but I love me some Halo 5 more. It all comes down to these deciding factors:

  • skill based ranks - higher ceiling (152 SR in H5 is infinitely more difficult than the equivalent in H4) - better map rotation (paid DLC in H4 split population) - better checks on sprint (shields don’t regenerate) - loadouts/ordnance are optional (Warzone) - more game modes (even though not at launch)
4

> 2533274824807326;1:
> In my opinion Halo 4 was better…and I hate Halo 4 in alot of ways but there are no microtransactions in it, and the maps feel like Halo maps for the most part. I was playing spartan ops the other day, a gamemode that was pretty much universally hated and I noticed the few things it did right like having a larger variety of weapons, fighting alongside ai, and the map style (a more wide open natural landscape with forerunner structures seemingly built into to cliffs, the unsc bases weren’t the best but still better than the ones in Halo 5), did not return in Halo 5. However the things it did wrong returned (I.E. palmer being annoying and bossy, overall lame charachters and dialogue, cookie cutter dialogue (tell me “that location” or “still a few more covies to clear out” one more time! Also the overall lack pf seriousnes. It felt like a TV show made to entertain ten year olds.
>
> As far as the campaign I think everyone will agree despite it being the most linear campaign of a Halo game so far Halo 4 still did the overall story and gameplay better even if it was a weaker entry into the series.
>
> For the multiplayer Halo 4s was aweful because of the lack of maps especially for smaller gametypes (unless you bought the dlc which few people did) and then the way the loadouts were done wasn’t right (remember active camo/boltshot corner campers?). I actually liked the idea of loadouts but only being able to choose a primary weapon and only in a certain gamemode (I think the warzone loadout system is a disaster, mainly because of the REQ system). People may say all these bad things about Halo 4s multiplayer and how vehicles were worthless due to the amount of ordinance drops and plasma pistol spamming but is halo 5 really that different? The enhanced mobility makes it easier than ever to run away from vehicles and to take them out, plus spartan charge is the new noob combo but a hundred times worse.
>
> I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts, please be respectful to everyone.

This isn’t an original sort of thread, by any means, but I will always take up an offer to show my appreciation for Halo 4.

The story was my favourite so far (just a little more so than Halo 2) and the sound design was just phenomenal (the AR in Halo 4 is still the best sounding yet). Campaign level design was linear as you said, and the Prometheans were fairly static and predictable unfortunately.

Microtransactions are a hard pill to swallow, but 343 have done well implementing them so that they aren’t too invasive (the junk in the REQ pool is the real issue in my opinion).

Multiplayer was okay, definitely the weakest link, although, BTB was pretty good, and honestly better than Halo 5’s, though Halo 5 has better balance and overall gameplay.

Spartan Ops was bland, but was still pretty fun if you did it all solo-legendary.

Overall, the characters *are what really stood out to me (Palmer in not so much a good way) with my favourite easily being the Didact (which is why I am very unhappy with 343 currently).

Halo 4 was an excellent game, bit of a departure from the franchise though, but it definitely left me with a good impression overall, better than Halo 5 at least.

5

> 2533274923562209;2:
> H4 only does better in story and having game modes ready at launch

Those aren’t minor points for the Halo franchise. Both are important for the integrity of the series.

6

H4 story was my favourite in the series

To assume everyone shares your beliefs is very naive.

7

> 2533274817408735;5:
> > 2533274923562209;2:
> > H4 only does better in story and having game modes ready at launch
>
> Those aren’t minor points for the Halo franchise. Both are important for the integrity of the series.

Yea, but not enough to hold it together when the multiplayer was awful and the art style of everything changed along with the gameplay.

8

> 2533274923562209;7:
> > 2533274817408735;5:
> > > 2533274923562209;2:
> > > H4 only does better in story and having game modes ready at launch
> >
> > Those aren’t minor points for the Halo franchise. Both are important for the integrity of the series.
>
> Yea, but not enough to hold it together when the multiplayer was awful and the art style of everything changed along with the gameplay.

I disagree. As I hold story and narrative in the highest priority for my enjoyment of games, I found Halo 4 to be an overall enjoyable experience, despite the inspiration the gameplay took from other FPS titles. With Halo 4, it didn’t take 3 months after launch for me to get into it. I don’t miss Ordinances, and I can live without having dampened footsteps and Active Camp always on my character, but people act like Halo 4 multiplayer died fast because it was too much like CoD. It may have been more CoD-ish, but I was still finding quick MP games in Halo 4 even 1 year after launch. I think Halo 4 held up just fine, flaws and all.

9

i only see halo 4 been better in the story. H5 after all the missions i didnt get that feel of achievment that i had from reach and h4.

10

I feel like halo 5 is twice as polished as halo 4. Better graphics (although should be expected on newer console), better play control, and the feel,accuracy, and damage of the guns is much much better.

11

Halo 4 had a bit better campaign. Multiplayer wise it had a better BTB than H5. Dominion was really fun.

12

I find that Halo 4 had the best campaign in a Halo game, story wise anyways. Perhaps not the most entertaining battle sequences versus the previous Halos, it most certainly did have the best story. Halo 5 was like a virtual comic book in terms of story. Dialogue was forced and characters served as little more then plot devices. The game-play was also far less exciting in the campaign (no matter how much you despise Halo 4’s). There was never a sense of urgency, or some sort of grandiose scale.

Multiplayer and graphics wise, Halo 5 is much better. Also, I find that Halo 5 has some of the best movement mechanics in a Halo game as well.

13

Pretty sure we had a thread that already talks about this in the past. Anyway:

Microtransactions are not inherently bad. They are just very open to abuse, and everyone is hurt because of it when it is abused. This is not much different than buying map packs and DLC, which given Halo 4’s history (14 Day Buy and Play), it was not handled very well, and the game continued to suffer.

Spartan Ops was hated and for good reason. It was a replacement of Firefight, the story was almost non-existent for the first Season, you basically did maps forwards and backwards. More importantly, there was zero challenge to it. Elites will just fire their Fuel Rods and Knights will fire their Incineration Cannons and you can die 100 times, but you’ll just come right back until you whittle their health down. 343i probably could have saved more time and energy by just making Firefight out of it.

Loadouts is against the very idea of Halo. It prevents equal starts in a match, and games come down to “who spawned with what weapon when.” Not only were you able to choose any loadout weapon, but you could spawn with the Plasma Pistol and Plasma Grenades, which pretty much stunted BTB in its entirety. On top of it, you had Ordinance, which basically means you spawn random power weapons at your feet without even having to be a particularly good player.

I know you’re going to say that Halo 5 does this too, spawning with loadouts and power weapons, but the most fundamental difference here: Warzone was not a serious competitive playlist. That’s why there are things like REQs and AI involved. Halo 4 had this in every playlist up until they made playlists without Ordinance late in Halo 4’s life, but by then it was far too late.

14

Halo 4 is better than 5

15

Halo 5 definitely does multiplayer better than its predecessor, but there are some cases in which it actually does worse. For one, the level of armor customization is objectively worse now, even if there are hundreds of helmets, armors, and visors to collect. The UI is also worse in my opinion, but it fails to fully function at times (such as when you look at the scoreboard while moving and the frame rate plummets). The base map selection is also lacking. There are some solid maps, like Bigship, but other than that map and like 6 others, everything else is still either a forge map or a remix (no, I am not counting Warzone maps, since they are unable to be edited or used for other gametypes). I’m all for quality over quantity, but Halo 5 feels like it has neither to me.

Halo 5 also fails with methods of unlocking armor. Yes, I’m one of those players who likes having certain items tied to achievements or completion of a tough objective. While H4 required you to really grind for some pieces of armor, it still rewarded you with some armors for leveling up, completing the campaign on legendary, and so on. In H5, literally everything aside from exclusive/paid for emblems and skins must be bought through REQ packs. And you don’t even have control over what you get out of the packs. Complete randomness just does not sit well with me.

Forge is clearly better now by a longshot. This is not debatable. Custom games, however, are a different story. There are still gametypes that are missing, some of which came out in Halo 4 (such as Ricochet).

I’m not a big fan of theater mode. In addition to still not having campaign theater, it has been completely redone for the worse to be more in line with the Xbox DVR. Some people may like this, but I don’t.

As for campaign: this is the one area where H4 absolutely stomps on H5. The former’s story still isn’t too great, but it’s miles better than the latter’s. Plus, there was Spartan Ops, which in a way continued the story and had those nice mini-movies. H5 seemed to disregard everything that occurred in its predecessor, starting with the first mission. Then it abruptly switches to Blue Team for one mission, and back to Osiris for the next five. Can’t forget the constant Warden fights, either.

In a nutshell, Halo 5 does everything right that Halo 4 did wrong and vice versa.

16

Halo 4’s story was pretty solid and fun. Multiplayer was ok, they had good intentions but it didn’t feel fluid.

Halo 5 story was garbage and it couldve been a great campaign but they rushed it and didn’t put too much thought or detail into it game play wise. Multiplayer is a step up from H4, feels more fluid and streamlined.

Don’t like non BR starts. Limiting fireteams in warzone was a catastrophe. Connection issues continue to plague multiplayer, even more so a year into H5 release which is unacceptable. Lack of maps, theatre, gametypes was also not thought about in detail. H5 could’ve been great but they rushed alot of aspects of the game and didn’t live up to its potential.

17

They both improved on things from the past and added new things. I had plenty of fun in h4 and thought many things were great about the game. Halo 5 is great but the story could have definitely be better.

18

Every time I hear someone say they thought Halo 4’s multiplayer was better than Halo 5’s I can’t help but wonder if they were one of those players that really thought that having a DMR / Active Camo / Pocketshotgun at spawn in a “arena” setting was beneficial and awesome and so feel that H5’s is worse because they can no longer do that, having to be forced to start a game equal to everyone else. Jetpacks, Promethean Vision, Active Camo, that horrible horrible horrible Survivor ‘perk’ (And tbh, perks in general)… This is the multiplayer that’s superior to Halo 5’s?

Yeah, Halo 5 has its moments where it’s utterly infuriating. It has connection issues; though so did Halo 4… Black Screen of Death was so common no matter what your connection… But on the other hand, if you disliked people spawning a game with DMR’s and Armor Mods you could just avoid it easily by not going into Warzone. Halo 4, the whole game was plagued by that.

Still, I loved some parts of H4’s multiplayer, like Dominion and Extraction. H4 had its flaws, Halo 5 had its flaws, but to me H5 I’ve been having the most fun in a multiplayer setting since Halo 3. Halo 4… Well, while I enjoyed it for the most part it was definitely my least favorite of the bunch multiplayer-wise. If you were to ask me which game was better, I’d just say “H4 had the better campaign, H5 had the better multiplayer and Forge”. Oh right, and the better Custom Games and Infection. Remember how limited Halo 4’s custom games were? That was a shame.

19

> 2533274798310573;16:
> Halo 4’s story was pretty solid and fun. Multiplayer was ok, they had good intentions but it didn’t feel fluid.
>
> Halo 5 story was garbage and it couldve been a great campaign but they rushed it and didn’t put too much thought or detail into it game play wise. Multiplayer is a step up from H4, feels more fluid and streamlined.
>
> Don’t like non BR starts. Limiting fireteams in warzone was a catastrophe. Connection issues continue to plague multiplayer, even more so a year into H5 release which is unacceptable. Lack of maps, theatre, gametypes was also not thought about in detail. H5 could’ve been great but they rushed alot of aspects of the game and didn’t live up to its potential.

Remember Halo 5 was built from the ground up and it has tons of content now.

20

I like Halo 5 better than Halo 4 because in Halo 4 the elites are way too aggressive towards you on any difficulty.