Before you disregard my idea just because it’s a battle royale, please hear me out. Over the past couple of months I have been playing the various battle royale games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, Blackout from black ops 4, etc. And to be completely honest, I enjoyed my time playing them. However, after thinking about why I stopped playing and asking people that hate the battle royale genre, I think I have found a way to make battle royale games fun. In the text below I will highlight some key concerns I have heard from people concerning battle royale games, and in which ways I propose they are fixed. The game I have in mind is an ODST battle royale game, I will explain how this will help fix the BR issues while still making sense. One last point, I do want this to be a conversation, so if you have suggestions or comments, don’t be afraid to leave them. Now, let us begin.
Gameplay
Probably the biggest critique I see against BR games is the sense of luck involved. It can be extremely frustrating dropping somewhere and finding no guns for the next 5 minutes, meanwhile, some kid finds the best weapon in the game in a matter of seconds and kills you instantly. Luck is something BR games use a lot of, will you get a good gun at the beginning of the game? Will you find shields? Will a kid build a 30 feet high tower and camp there the entire game? Who knows! Nothing is certain in these types of games, and although some people might say that’s what makes the game exciting, to the majority, it’s frustrating. So what I propose is taking the luck out of the game and make it solely be based on skill. In the next few points I will tell you my ideas as to how this can be achieved.
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Loadouts
My first point is to allow players to start the game with two guns of their choice. If you played Halo 3 ODST you know that ODSTs can insert guns on the side of the pods so that when the pod lands, they can be easily unmounted. Now you might be thinking, “well can they pick any two guns from halo?”, and to this I say no. Only a selected few “starter” guns will be allowed to be chosen, such as a battle rifle, a magnum, plasma rifle, etc. By doing this, the game is more fair; If I land and I have the battle rifle and you, the enemy, have a magnum, it means that those are our best weapons from the bunch and so it makes the playing field more balanced and fair when the bullets start flying. -
No Loot
My second point is to get rid of loot all together. There will be no chests, no care-packages, no guns laying on the ground, etc. Instead I propose a point system, much like in Halo 5’s Warzone mode. Instead of allowing lucky noobs to find the best guns and loot, players will have to earn everything they have. How are these points earned? Simple, by playing the game. Each time a player gets a kill, completes an objective (more on this later), revives a teammate, or something else, the player will earns points. After a player earns points, he/she can then go to a designated terminal and spend their credits on weapons, ammo, healing materials, vehicles, etc. Obviously some stuff will cost more than others. But this does two things for the game, it adds a sense of reward for actually playing instead of hiding, and it adds risk to the game. Let’s say you have 2,000 points but the sniper rifle is 2,500 points. Do you risk getting a few more kills for the gun or instead spend the points now on some not-so-good guns but potentially win the next fight? This puts the choices in the player’s hands instead of RNG.
One more thing, another annoying thing in Fortnite or Apex is picking up loot after getting a kill. Let’s say I’m looking for this specific gun and so I kill 15 people in the hopes that they have it, but all they stuff they have is worse than what I have. Then what? There’s no sense of reward for the various kills I got other than some exp when the game is done. So instead, when a player gets a kill, the player will be able to pickup the dead player’s credits. That way, if you kill those 15 people, you can then go spend all of those credits on something really good. But this also adds more risk, in the example about the sniper rifle in the last paragraph, knowing that if you die someone else gets your hard-earned credits can lead to a player having to double think not spending the credits. Furthermore, by allowing players to buy the guns they want, there’s none of this " I’m really good with the sniper rifle but I spent the whole game looking for one and didn’t find one" while someone else found one and kills you from far away. If you notice, most players will always go for the same guns during every match of a BR game. So why make them wander around looking for them while someone else has their best guns already? Just give the player the guns he/she wants and let the fight be a fierce and exciting one where they are both giving it their all. -
Ranks
My last point involves matchmaking. I have no clue why no other BR game has implemented this before. It’s EXTREMELY frustrating playing a game in which everyone plays like they’ve never played a game before in their lives, but then the next game you play against someone that’s 20 times as good as you and kills you without even trying. A ranking system adds more to the game. It’s not all about the “wins” you have, because in reality, wins tell you nothing. Sure maybe you won 30 games but in all of those you hid until the very end, while someone else only has 3 wins but they are extremely good but are always in a fight. A ranking system would make the game more fair and more fun. Bad players can feel the excitement of being in the top 5 and actually standing a chance, while a really good player can feel the excitement of playing with people as good as them. And I know you might be thinking, “well this would only split the player base and make games harder to find”, and I think you are right. So instead, have both a quick-match in which you get put into a game as quickly as possible with other people in quick-match, and a competitive mode in which you are ranked.
If you have made it this far, thank you. I put a lot of thought into this and I would absolutely love a game like it. The truth is that halo needs to innovate to stay alive. A lot of the player base has left and there needs to be something new that brings them back. I hope even a few people read this and enjoyed it. Whether this will get anything going is unlikely, but I just wanted to speak my mind. I do have more ideas about the game such as the objectives, classes/abilities, etc. If you guys would like to hear about them I would be more than glad to share. But until then, thank you for your time.