Okay, we understand what went wrong with Reach, right? A bunch of unceremoniously-added gimmicks that did nothing to enhance the experience, rather, impairs it. Armor Abilities weren’t well-thought out; it’s almost as if Bungie plastered them on in an attempt for ‘innovation’. Unfortunately, this rushed addition had terrible synergy with the maps, which were lazily made and only assisted the AA’s in breaking the game further. It doesn’t help that players regularly spawn with these abilities in loadouts, thus diminishing the importance of the sandbox.
Concepts relevant to the original trilogy were tampered with as well. Jumping almost serves no purpose, which limits a player’s leverage, especially against vehicles. Movement speed was dulled for Sprint to seem essential, though unfortunately, players have a little bit more room to breathe as they now can escape confrontations entirely, and adapt to the despised maneuver of Sprint-Melee. Repeat, and you’re guaranteed to win your fights. The worst of all, and supported by the vocal majority of the fanbase, bloom destroyed whatever was left of the competitive and fast-paced gameplay by basing aim off randomness and pure luck.
For Halo 4 to escape these travesties, first it must:
STEP 1) Retain the ‘core’ of Halo. Which should include:
Aiming(Static reticle, recoil and kickback)
- No bloom garbage.
- Spread and recoil should be present to prevent spamming.
Movement(Moderate default movement speeds, high jump heights)
- A bit faster than Halo 3 should work nicely.
Driving
- Vehicles should not be so vulnerable to DMR or Sniper.
Core game mechanic of a regenerating shield
- Bleed-through can go either way; doesn’t really matter.
Physics
- Case-in-point: The grenades in Reach are limited.
Golden Combat Triangle
- Melee should do a bit less damage (ala MLG), to prevent spammers.
- Grenade radius reduced, fuse time extended
- No Armor Abilities, they mess up the formula
Symmetrical starts(Earn your advantages everyone is on a even playing field)
- Better map design would help as well.
- No loadouts, or weapons near spawn, as they get rid of any incentive of moving through the map.
Power-ups
- Armor Abilities essentially made this redundant.
- Players need to earn kills and power-weapons.
Basic Sandbox guidelines(Everything is pick-up on the map)
STEP 2: Refine these concepts to perfection.
Movement:
- Far too slow in Halo 3; Halo 2’s was good.
STEP 3: Now that we have the general basics down and laid-out, this is where innovation steps in.
Halo 4 needs to remain a Halo game at heart, and keeping the aforementioned concepts untouched provides the old experience. Here, 343 must use creativity to think of new and quality features that will enhance the Halo experience, to make it feel not only an entry of the franchise, but also a completely new one, as well.
