I don’t know anyone here who’s “unwilling to adapt.” Many of us have been with Halo since CE. The BR was added and the pistol was nerfed, and we adapted. Dual-wielding was added and we adapted. Vehicle boarding was added and we adapted. Players who were holding the objective moved slower and no longer could drive vehicles and we adapted. Vehicles became destructable and we adapted. Interactive maps were added and we adapted. Man cannons were added and we adapted. Equipment was added and we adapted. We adapted because even though new features were added, the game played more or less the same.
Do you really think that the only way that Halo can adapt from Halo 3 is with Infinity settings? Of course not. I want new features and mechanics just like everyone else, but I want the core of the game to remain the same.
Perks don’t necessarily introduce imbalance to the game, since they are pretty well balanced in Halo 4. The problem is unpredictability. My opponent could have any combination of faster shield recharge, unlimited sprint, an extra grenade, extra vehicle health, faster AA recharge time, increased motion sensor range, motion sensor while scoped, faster reload, wider grenade explosions with resistance to my grenades, longer machine gun firing time, faster Ordnance drops, reduced flinch, reduced footstep noise and visibility in Promethean Vision, or the ability to automatically eject from his vehicle when it’s destroyed. How could I possibly know which perks my opponent is using? How can I plan for what I don’t know? How can I strategize for what I can’t plan?
Perhaps a player tried to sneak up on a Sniper, not knowing that he had Awareness. Perhaps a player who was 2-shot went up against a retreating opponent who was 1-shot, not knowing that Recharge caused his shields to already partially regenerate. Perhaps a player moves into a position after two grenades are thrown, not knowing that his opponent has a third because of Grenadier. Perhaps a player attempted to flank, but was detected long before he thought he would’ve because his opponent had Sensor. Don’t you see how unpredictability can make the game more frustrating than interesting, and more chance-based than ever before?
The problem with PODs is that it is entirely possible that through random chance, my opponent may get a better or more appropriate POD than I will. Perhaps in Ragnarok, he will get a Sniper Rifle while I will get a Sticky Denotator, or he will get Plasma Grenades while I get Pulse Grenades. In either case, my opponent gets a weapon that, though balanced with my weapon, is more appropriate to the map or gametype we are playing. I will have to work harder to get kills with my POD than he will with his. Who gets what advantage is decided by nothing except the game itself. The players have no say in what weapons they get in their POD, so I never had any ability at all to gain a Sniper Rifle or Plasma Grenades. Thus, it is entirely possible for a team to win because overall, through the game’s intervention and not by skill or ability alone, they had more appropriate weapons than their opponents and therefore their kills were made easier.
Another problem with PODs is that they eliminate the on-map pickup metagame. It used to be that teams had to fight over a particular area to gain a power weapon, and whoever gained that power weapon gained an edge in the game. This added an extra layer of depth to the game: though the primary objective may have been to capture the flag, hold an area, or simply eliminate the enemy players, controlling the power weapons was like a secondary objective that made the primary objective easier to accomplish.
With PODs, there is no secondary objective. Players focus solely on the objective and power weapons will come to them without any teamwork or extra thought necessary. The only intelligence involved is deciding when and where to obtain their power weapon handout. Not nearly as much strategy, teamwork, or thinking involved.
Thus, while Infinity settings can be fun sometimes, they are dumbed-down versions of the previous Halo games and are not competitive. Players like me enjoy competitive and strategic gametypes, so of course we won’t enjoy noncompetitive and less-strategic gametypes such as Infinity or Fiesta as much. If you like Infinity and think it’s fun and interesting, great! But your style of gameplay is not better than mine, just like mine is not better than yours. And just because I don’t like certain new features doesn’t mean I don’t want any new features ever.