Hey ya’ll,
I’m a long term Halo fan who is just now returning to the franchise. Almost 10 years ago, I picked up an old, original Xbox and bought these two strange games called Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. I instantly fell in love with the franchise, and I bought an Xbox 360 as soon as possible to finish out the trilogy with Halo 3. I became addicted to the multiplayer in Halo 3, and the skill ranked play lists kept me coming back for hours upon hours. I even bought Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST just to consume all the franchise had to offer. Some of my best memories were the tense battles of ODST’s firefight mode, playing through all the campaigns on Legendary difficulty with my best buddies, and painfully climbing up in rank on Halo 3’s multiplayer. My best friends and I loved Halo, and we constantly talked about the lore and played the games at each other’s houses.
When Halo: Reach was announced, I was floured with pure hype. When I got my hands on the game, that was the first time I ever was disappointed by the Halo franchise. Reach was very good, but the campaign was just alright. The firefight mode paled in comparison with the challenge and fun of ODST, and the multiplayer was somewhat watered down in skill compared to Halo 3. What redeemed the game and made it still great was the Forge mode. My goodness, I spent hours upon hours just exploring the best community created maps. They were so fun and interesting, and they were endless! My best memories from Reach is that of my buddies and I making our own map on Forge World and then just spending hours fighting each other on it.
However, then Bungie left the series and gave it other to 343industries. I remember buying and playing through the Halo: CE anniversary addition and finding myself hopeful that 343i could continue the series into greatness. When Halo 4 was announced, I was brought to levels of hype that even trumped Halo: Reach. I was so excited to continue the story of Chief and Cortana. My friends and I had been theorizing over the Legendary ending of Halo 3 for years, and we were finally going to get our answers! I also looked forward to Halo 4 correcting all of the mistakes and corruptions of Reach. The armor abilities watered down the skill of Reach’s multiplayer, and the lack of skill based playlists really dampened by excitement to stay in the multiplayer. In Reach, Bungie abandoned the focus on skill of Halos 1-3 and refocused the series on customization. I loved the vast array of armor components and unlockable content in Reach. Bungie took the fun focus of Halo 3’s unlockable content, and then greatly expanded it. I loved Reach’s unlockable content, but it was not worth being the main focus of the multiplayer. I was patiently awaiting Halo 4 to restore the franchise.
Boy, was I disappointed. The campaign of Halo 4 was very good. I didn’t really like the Prometheans; they were just alright. Compared to fighting the Covenant of the Flood, the Prometheans were just bland. Overall, the campaign was still good, and I loved the emotional impact of the story. I really do wish the Didact was kept as an ongoing villain, for I think what became of him was a real waste of potential. Especially that ending QTE, what a waste! At least have a boss fight with the Didact like having a boss fight with Tartarus in Halo 2. It was such a boring and anti-climatic ending in terms of gameplay. However, the story ending was riveting and truly great.
Now let’s address the multiplayer. ARG!!! The first match I played I instantly felt like the multiplayer was even more watered down and easy than in Reach. The transition from Halo 3 to Reach to Halo 4 is so disappointing. There is a succession of lowering skill in the gameplay. The ordinance drops evaporated much thought and skill that used to be in the multiplayer, and the custom loadouts erased the wonderful fight over weapons that existed in Halos 1-3. My goodness, the decision to add endless sprint was a disaster. Halo maps are not built for sprint, and sprint only takes away from the tactics of using guns, melee, and grenades. The armor abilities were kept and expanded, and they only served to make the multiplayer even more casual. 343i literally saw the success of COD, and then thought it was a great idea to copy it. 343i just had to bow the knee to the almighty developers at Infinity Ward and Treyarch and comprise Halo even further than Bungie did.
Halo worked because it was unique compared to COD or any other FPS, and 343i thought of expanding the gaming population by conforming Halo to COD rather than staying unique. Bungie started the corruption of Halo with Reach, but 343i chose to journey deeper down the rabbit hole of corruption rather than climb out of it. Bungie shifted the main focus of multiplayer from skill to unlocking customization objects, and 343i evolved Bungie’s mistake into an even worse situation. In Halo 3, armor unlockables were a fun, secondary objective, and unlockable content was subservient to skill. You earned new armor content by getting better and better in skilled gameplay and thus completed skilled based achievements. Reach made trivial, unlockable content the main focus, and then Halo 4 only continued it. What matters first in a game? Gameplay matters first above all.Visual armor unlockables and personal loadouts should not be the main focus. An even playing field like in Halos 1-3 where a player must outwit and overcome other players solely based on personal skill is what makes a good Halo game. Anything else that tries to take the main focus of a Halo game is a mistake and a comprising corruption. Halo is about fair and even skill, while COD is about endless level rank ups and unfair customization. I should be able to beat you because I am better at using my assault rifle than you are, not because I have played for hours to unlock greater hit damage or a more powerful gun. Why Halo 3 was so much fun is that in the skilled playlists, as I ranked up in skill I was paired against players who had my skill. To gain a greater rank, I had to not play more in quantity but rather play more in quality. COD will reward you solely on the quantity of your playtime rather than the quality. Reach and Halo 4 adopted that quantity over quality of COD rather than sticking with the quality over quantity of Halos 1-3.
What else is there to say? The Forge Mode of Halo 4 was pitiful in comparison with Reach. Why should I forge in Halo 4, if forging in Reach is just so much more enjoyable. Spartan Ops was monotonous and boring. The only reason I went through it was for the story. Other than that, it was purely a chore. Why would I want to play a lesser version of the campaign? Playing Spartan Ops only made me rethink of the great moments in Halo 4’s campaign. Also, isn’t Spartan Ops just an obvious copying of Spec Ops from Modern Warfare 2? At least the Spec Ops in MW2 were varied and exciting. Great, another thing copied from the COD franchise. I would much rather take the firefight mode from ODST and Reach than Bland Ops. (Yes, I realize firefight is copied from Gears of War but at least it was fun). Even though 343i added all these patches to try to save Halo 4, I just could not continue with the game like Halo 3 or Reach. It was just too uninteresting and boring compared to earlier titles. Less skill means less challenge which means less interest. Halo 4 was a mixed bag of good and bad; it was just okay.