<strong>Halo 4: My Big Review</strong>
Intro:
Well a month after the game was released and having played most game types numerous times I thought I would give my opinion on Halo 4 as a game. When the game first came out I really enjoyed it and thought there was only some minor issues that needed fixing. However soon the novelty of a new halo game wore off and further flaws began to eat away at my experience, so I thought I would break this down.
Maps:
One word comes to mind when discussing the Halo 4 maps… mediocre. They aren’t the best maps and aren’t the worst they’re just sort of meh. The stand out map for me is Heaven mainly for slayer but isn’t that much of an accomplishment given its competition. I have found myself playing quite a lot of Big Team Slayer and being a Halo 3 fan Ragnorak is my favorite. Exile can be fun to play however depending if the teams are balanced in skill or not it can be quite unbalanced, with the Red team having a quicker access to the tank and sniper spawning where it can give cover fire to any blue team members trying to rush for it. For me Halo 4 seems to be missing those go to symmetrical maps that where in halo 3 and Reach to an extent. They are great for slayer/ctf and occasionally KoTH. I think that is the biggest flaw in the maps there is no really good symmetrical maps.
Weapons:
This is probably the biggest thing 343 IMO have gotten right. I feel the balance in weapons is really good. With both the DMR and BR being the ‘go-to-gun’ in their respective games I wasn’t sure if they would work together and if people would revert to one of them. However in every game I play there is always a variation in what people use. It really does come down to personal preference now given that one of the guns is single shot and the other a burst it is a hard thing to balance but I think 343 really triumphed here. Most of the other guns I can’t really complain about and the ‘new’ additions such as the incinerator cannon and boltshot add a new dimension to the game that I quite like and they are pretty fun to use. All in all I think the guns are the stand out thing 343 has done well. My only complaint is that I feel the grenades are under powered slightly and their area of effect is quite short.
Ordinance/loadouts:
Before Halo 4 was released I was quite skeptical when reading about ordinance drops and load outs. Mainly because Halo’s multiplayer when compared to other online games has always at its core been about balance. It doesn’t matter what Rank you are as everyone starts with the same weapons and in most game types have equal distance to get to the power ups/weapons. However load outs and ordinance would change this balance as you could now enter a game choosing what primary/secondary weapon you started with, and although armor abilities where present in Reach they would definitely affect this balance. However I have been pleasantly surprised and think the load outs do not alter this balance all that much, although of course they still do. But by being able to unlock most weapons/abilities at lower ranks after a good few games you can play with basically any of the modifications you wish. Ordinance is another matter and although I haven’t really gotten frustrated at them it can be a massive game changer especially if you get needler/grenades/speed boost. Compared to someone who gets snipe/beam rifle/ rocket/ damage boost etc etc It can have a big effect on how the game plays out. I much prefer power ups having a set place on the map as it adds that setting up your team dynamic that is missing massively from Halo 4.
In-game:
Now I am not going to sit and boast and say I am the best Halo player I know I am not, but I think I am not bad. But to me there just doesn’t seem to be any reason for playing and seeing a game out till the end. I am not one for quitting, mainly from playing Halo 3 where quitting could mean losing a Rank and playing on for the benefit of the team, but ranking up by completing games seems rather nonchalant. At the end of the day I play games for fun, and being put into the middle of a game is not fun, especially if you are losing. Depending on the game type it becomes increasingly annoying especially if its Big Team Battle and the opposition is wining and hold all the vehicles etc. Playing Halo 3/Reach players quitting never really got me frustrated and in some cases it was where I had some really good games. Losing a player in those games meant your strategy had to be altered and led to some really fun games. In halo3/Reach players quit roughly once in every 10 games I played if not more. But now I am being put into games already underway in about 1/5 games which is ridiculous. Spawning is rather annoying, although it does have more flow about it, I much rather having to wait to spawn it really does encourage you to die less, haha. Who wants to be continually waiting to play? No-one but it’s the price you pay for dying and not only that I have killed a few people whom I had gotten down to one shot before being killed only to re-spawn instantaneously with them in my sights meaning I can kill then when it should really be 1-0 to them NOT 1-1.
Menu’s:
My biggest complaint about Halo 4 however is the menu’s they are quite frankly awful. For a game with the label of Halo you expect almost every aspect of it to be on the forefront of new gaming experiences, however the menu set-up appears to have taken 5 steps in the wrong direction. The playlist menu is okay (although if playing Team regicide and I leave the lobby after a game and go to re-enter in automatically jumps to SWAT, anyone else having this issue?) but the lobby menu is terrible. Having all the players in that sort of card style is really bad. It makes being able to read and easily recognise anyone’s name (including your own) difficult. Whereas a vertical column with just the persons name/ Tag showing was simple and easier to navigate. Much like Reach a quick left push and then giving the cards vertically would have been a lot better IMO, so you can easily switch between the simple view and the more detailed character view. Not being able to see who is in a party is rather annoying as well, I liked being able to see if the entire team was playing together or who was playing with who etc. But there absolutely no indication of this at all.
Once the game is finished not being able to see who is still in the party from the previous game is really annoying. Like Reach if the names where faded if they had left was a great addition but to take that out is silly IMO. It’s the best way to recognise who you are continually playing with/ against and you get that friendly rivalry from it. I just really dislike the menu’s in Halo 4.
