Not much is known about what Halo 4′s multiplayer holds in store.
We’ve all heard quotes here and there from 343, we’ve all seen the limited snippets of gameplay, but this hasn’t changed the fact that we, the Halo community, are almost totally in the dark over the details that will play the biggest role in defining the game’s success or failure. We do, however, know one thing:
Change is coming.
Yes, the good people at 343 have been insistent that Halo 4 will have the familiar feel you’d expect from a Halo title, but they’ve also made it clear that a number of big tweaks are inbound.
On March 5th, 343 was brilliantly selective in what they chose to reveal as a first glance at Halo 4′s multiplayer. They showed the return of the universally beloved Battle Rifle, they indirectly confirmed that bloom wouldn’t be returning, and they showed commitment to a multiplayer experience completely independent from campaign in the name of gameplay. Even the one thing that may have come across as controversial to some—the inclusion of sprint—is still far from foreign to players. In other words, the studio was sure not to kick the hornet’s nest. This was the public debut of the direction 343 is taking the franchise’s gameplay, and they played it intentionally and brilliantly conservative.
Looking past what’s been stated outright, what’s more important in putting together the puzzle that is Halo 4′s multiplayer are the pieces that have thus far been kept out of the spotlight: the things we can infer from last year’s E3 teaser, the things we can infer from quotes from 343, and the things we can gather from looking closely at all the Halo 4-related information at our disposal.
It’s when we look at these pieces that we begin to see that the big, perhaps monumental changes 343 has in store have yet to be outright revealed.
For those who have been keen on paying attention to every tidbit of info that’s come our way, a number of questions, or perhaps inevitable confirmations and clarifications, still loom on the horizon.
Will jetpack-esque “thrusters” be a default feature of the game like the teaser trailer, armor appearance, and reveal stills would suggest? Are we going to see interchangable weapon attachments added to the weapons most of us have been using for years? Will armor permutations in some way have a tangible impact on gameplay?
These kinds of mechanics—static jetpack-thrusters, weapon attachments, and non-cosmetic armor permutations—would in a number of ways represent a challenge to fundamental aspects of Halo’s multiplayer gameplay that have remained constant for over a decade.
History has shown us that big gameplay changes and Halo don’t always mix well, and this specter creates quite a lot of room for concern.
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