Hollow rewards that eat away at your soul.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I will attempt to explain to the best of my abilities why I hate the REQ system with such frothing fury. This is just my opinion, I understand that some people love this system of progression.

First I would like to say that my hatred is really only restricted to cosmetic unlocks, but this hatred burns strong.
Now to get the full experience out of this post you must read the rest in Mr. Plinkett’s voice.

Lets begin, shall we…

Number one: Nothing has any meaning
Think back to the days of Halo 3. When you saw someone with Hayabusa or Recon armor you immediately knew what that person when through to obtain such lofty ornamentation. With Halo 5 nothing means anything. When looking at a cool set of armor in Halo 5 all you can think is, “Well they got lucky with their packs”. The only things that unlock through action seem to be emblems, and this game has the most baffling emblem system ever. Feel free to tell me how much of a dumb stupid idiot head I am and reveal that the legendary armors are unlocked by actions rather than a slot machine.

You know what, I started this talking about the REQ system but now I realize that It is customization that holds my ire. Lets just start griping about customization now.

Number two: Who put the lobotomy patient in charge of customization
Why can’t I change the three colors on my emblem independently? Why do you have to decide what combination of colors I can have? If I want neon green, neon blue and neon pink Just let me pick those colors. If I could choose colors like a sane person maybe I could overlook the fact that you can’t create custom emblems anymore, but I can’t. As far as emblems are concerned there is a no creativity allowed rule in Halo 5.

Number three: LIES
There are not 175 armor sets in Halo 5. You might think I’m the liar, but just wait. Recruit and Recruit Proven are not two different armor sets, they are the same armor with different decals. The way armor should have been organized in Halo 4 and 5 is: Base armor–>Armor skins for that base. This could have eliminated clutter in the menus, and in my opinion, been a better organizational system for the armor in these games. This is not done so 343 can lie about having 175 armors in the game. LIES!

Number four: Who let the lobotomy patient design armor
I thought Halo 4 had the ugliest armor in Halo. I was wrong. OH MY GOD, WHATS WRONG WITH YOUR FAAAACE!?

You can stop reading in Plinkett’s voice now, I’m sorry I made you do that.

Fortunately for Halo 5 all the lack understanding in customization seems to have been a product of the gameplay focus in multiplayer. Arena feels like the best halo multiplayer since 3, and warzone is a fun twist on the Halo formula. The only real complaint I have with gameplay is the lack of some more traditional modes (Oddball, Assault, Grifball), and the lack of BTB at launch. Unfortunately, some of the decisions made in customization perplex me to no end. I would like to see some changes in this area, but even if it remains the same I think the multiplayer is good enough for me to tolerate it, for now.

2

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would be nice if you have reasoning behind it. Simply saying something is ugly makes you come across as really whiny.

I’m going to have to disagree with you on the “nothing has any meaning” front. There are different item rarities, and while it’s more based on chance than the Hayabusa armor was, it’s still cool to rock a legendary or mythic armor and helmet.

The problem with armor in every Halo game is that if you want to truly play as your customized spartan, you have to play FFA so you won’t be colored blue or red. Given, I don’t know a way around that, but it’s just an observation.

3

> 2533274828691302;1:
> Number two: Who put the lobotomy patient in charge of customization
> Why can’t I change the three colors on my emblem independently? Why do you have to decide what combination of colors I can have? If I want neon green, neon blue and neon pink Just let me pick those colors. If I could choose colors like a sane person maybe I could overlook the fact that you can’t create custom emblems anymore, but I can’t. As far as emblems are concerned there is a no creativity allowed rule in Halo 5.
>
> Number three: LIES
> There are not 175 armor sets in Halo 5. You might think I’m the liar, but just wait. Recruit and Recruit Proven are not two different armor sets, they are the same armor with different decals. The way armor should have been organized in Halo 4 and 5 is: Base armor–>Armor skins for that base. This could have eliminated clutter in the menus, and in my opinion, been a better organizational system for the armor in these games. This is not done so 343 can lie about having 175 armors in the game. LIES!

The emblem customization being scrapped was pretty crappy. It doesn’t allow for much customization, but I can live without it. The clutter of the armor system at this point is very problematic. I agree with you that Recruit and Recruit Proven are NOT two different armor sets, but instead one is a variation and as such they should have made a selection menu based off of this fact. Instead I think its safe to assume that they didn’t do it this way so that they could tell us that the game had 175 pieces of armor, when in actuality it really doesn’t. It has 90 pieces and 85 variations of those 90 pieces__*__. Now don’t get me wrong, even with the reduced numbers due to slight variants there is still a lot of armor in the game overall.

*This is an example. I don’t know the exact math, just a guesstimate.

4

> 2533274798798628;2:
> Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would be nice if you have reasoning behind it. Simply saying something is ugly makes you come across as really whiny.
>
> I’m going to have to disagree with you on the “nothing has any meaning” front. There are different item rarities, and while it’s more based on chance than the Hayabusa armor was, it’s still cool to rock a legendary or mythic armor and helmet.
>
> The problem with armor in every Halo game is that if you want to truly play as your customized spartan, you have to play FFA so you won’t be colored blue or red. Given, I don’t know a way around that, but it’s just an observation.

I was doing a thing from RedLetterMedia, it was supposed to come off as whiny. Watch the Plinkett Star Wars review and you may see what I was going for, or maybe my humor fell flat and made me look like a crazyman.

I find the art direction of the armor in Halo 4 and 5 to be displeasing. This is just my preference, I just think that some of the armors go a bit too far into science fantasy than science fiction. I like my armor to be realistically proportioned and looking gritty, like it has seen some use.

I still stand by my opinion that Item rarity means nothing when the item is earned through a slot machine randomizer. If you have a legendary armor all it means is you got a lucky random drop as opposed to doing something amazing. The reason for this randomized loot system is probably because coming up with hundreds of unlock conditions for each set of armor, visor, stance, weapon skin would have required a stupid amount of work. Still I wish some things where unlocked through conditions.
An example: The other day I maxed the BR commendation, wouldn’t it have been cool if I got a selection of weapon skins for the BR instead, or in addition to, the emblem?
I get the attraction of the pack opening thing, its fun to get surprises. I just prefer being able to work toward a goal to get a reward.

Like I said at the end this is a very solid game, and my annoyance with the REQ system has not soured my experience to the point of me putting down the controller.

5

The armor is overall ugly. The roundness and smoothness of the armor is the new style, I get that, but man, I loved the old boxy tank looking mjolnir armor. I’m missing those looks.

6

> 2533274828691302;4:
> > 2533274798798628;2:
> > Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it would be nice if you have reasoning behind it. Simply saying something is ugly makes you come across as really whiny.
> >
> > I’m going to have to disagree with you on the “nothing has any meaning” front. There are different item rarities, and while it’s more based on chance than the Hayabusa armor was, it’s still cool to rock a legendary or mythic armor and helmet.
> >
> > The problem with armor in every Halo game is that if you want to truly play as your customized spartan, you have to play FFA so you won’t be colored blue or red. Given, I don’t know a way around that, but it’s just an observation.
>
>
> I was doing a thing from RedLetterMedia, it was supposed to come off as whiny. Watch the Plinkett Star Wars review and you may see what I was going for, or maybe my humor fell flat and made me look like a crazyman.
>
> I find the art direction of the armor in Halo 4 and 5 to be displeasing. This is just my preference, I just think that some of the armors go a bit too far into science fantasy than science fiction. I like my armor to be realistically proportioned and looking gritty, like it has seen some use.
>
> I still stand by my opinion that Item rarity means nothing when the item is earned through a slot machine randomizer. If you have a legendary armor all it means is you got a lucky random drop as opposed to doing something amazing. The reason for this randomized loot system is probably because coming up with hundreds of unlock conditions for each set of armor, visor, stance, weapon skin would have required a stupid amount of work. Still I wish some things where unlocked through conditions.
> An example: The other day I maxed the BR commendation, wouldn’t it have been cool if I got a selection of weapon skins for the BR instead, or in addition to, the emblem?
> I get the attraction of the pack opening thing, its fun to get surprises. I just prefer being able to work toward a goal to get a reward.
>
> Like I said at the end this is a very solid game, and my annoyance with the REQ system has not soured my experience to the point of me putting down the controller.

Fair enough. I really like the REQ system. Not the best, but I like it. And I do agree that the gritty look is awesome. Reach nailed that. But I still enjoy these armors.

7

Agree I bet 90% of armor won’t be used because it is ugly. Also I agree the coolest armor should be for actually completing something I.e. Hayabusa and recon in halo 3 the best game btw :slight_smile: halo 5 is best halo game since h3 imo