Certain aspects of Halo 4 are not quite what they should have been. These are just a few critiques off the top of my head that I haven’t heard being talked about:
End of game stats and highlights should be richer. Why not show the top medals, the MVP, and the best players highlights in the post-game lobby. The title says top performers but it just lists the two team’s scores. Of course the two top performers are going to be the only two teams that played. I could go on a rampage with a killtacular and no one would know about it without me boasting about myself. This was a feature in the last two games so why not include it in a more in depth way in this game. The tech is better and the methods are already established, so why cut this out.
I love the new color palate for medals. That is, I love the colors for all the medals except the multi-kill medals. I just wonder why the multi-kill medals did not receive more vibrant and contrasting colors seeing as how they are some of the most exciting medals to get. Most of the time I almost can’t even tell the triple is any different than the double kill medal. I’m glad they changed them up but the colors for the multi-kill medals were not the best choices. This has caused the overall experience of getting multi-kill medals less rewarding.
While I’m on the subject of medals why take out the “stick” medal. Now the medal is simply plasma grenade kill. Sticking someone with a plasma grenade is not the same as a normal grenade kill and should be kept up with differently. This is so obvious. Hopefully I am just overlooking something here but this just doesn’t make sense seeing as how the “stick” is a staple of Halo multiplayer.
Or at least it used to be. It might just be me but plasma grenades have taken a back seat in this game. The damage seems to be weaker, the blast radius seems to be smaller and the graphic of throwing them is just not as formidable as it used to be. It’s almost as if they are smaller. This is just an off the top of my head thought so I could be wrong. I will say a positive of this is that it does seem to take more skill to stick people.
Why, oh, why are the weapon skins so limited and weapon specific? Why limit this feature? Not only should each specializations weapon skin be available for any weapon but there should be super rare skins tied to commendations, ranks, and achievements. Why do this with armor and not weapon skins? Especially when weapon skins alter a player’s in game experience Weapon skins should be more prevalent in the game as well as more versatile and vibrant…bottom line.
I originally thought the armor mods associated with specializations were above and beyond the normal loadout system. Unfortunately, they are only additions to a player’s current loadout system. Therefore you have to deselect a current armor mod in order to select the new one. The main problem with this is that most of the specializations aren’t better than the armor mods that you already have. While I can understand the balance of gameplay is at stake when dealing with these specializations and it may not have been possible to add additional gameplay modifiers without breaking the balance of the game the reality of unlocking specializations has proven to be underwhelming. Or in other words, you work your way to a 50 thinking you are going to experience something new to be met instead with the “same old thing”. In reality it isn’t a “specialization” it’s just another tactical package. It just makes you say to yourself “oh, that’s all it is, dang.” The bottom line is that the process fails to deliver the different experience which the name implies.
I know it’s only the third week since the game launched and I’m positive they will do this soon, but I would really like to see the pre-made forge maps included in matchmaking.
I would have liked to see more in depth details about network status at least on par with Reach.
Why take away from, and not add to, each player’s Party Details while they are in a game. This is just frustrating and feels outdated.
My service record does not seem streamlined or intuitive. I was hoping to see more in depth stats than previous titles. I want stats that I didn’t even realize I wanted. With better technology there should be better features or at least you would think.
The bottom line is that with better technology you would think that the awesome features we have come accustomed to would continue down a progressive path becoming more in depth, more intuitive and better. However, as with many of the complaints that surround this game, many of the features that seem so obvious have not progressed but instead they have regressed, which leaves a lot of us shaking our head.