So… spent the first six months of Halo 4 wanting my old team slayer play lists back. Played Infinity because it was the only dish on the menu… eventually even a turd sandwich tastes good (I’m not dogging the game type, just doesn’t fit my preferences).
Finally get Legendary slayer and I absolutely love it! Its not perfect, but to a starving man ground beef will taste as good as a steak. Two things are killing the play list for me:
map selection- only five maps available. Solace NEVER gets voted and I honestly can’t blame anyone. Sprint means you can’t play moderate lines of sight effectively and the extended radar range means you cant use cover to move into your opponent’s territory. Snipers on Adrift are already a disaster
population - population is dipping down below 200 right now. Even during the peak evening hours, the skill matching is atrocious. It gets terribly tiring to go into the play list solo and constantly get reamed by full teams that are nowhere near as good individually as you, but your teammates manage to go something like -35 combined. When you play for three hours and get two reasonably evenly matched games, the play list is dead regardless of preference
So given those two frustrations, I decided to pop back into Infinity for some variety, hoping that the 2,000 population would yield some decent games. Yeah… tastes like a turd again. Having got a taste of traditional Halo, I simply can’t deal with the Infinity settings any more. Everyone with precision spawns, pod, invis, and promethean vision is just too much. It fundamentally breaks the game that i love and creates a new one that I have been tolerating up until now.
This isn’t a blind rage rant. I’m going to keep playing the game as long as it has Legendary. I’ll just deal with the HUGE negatives for now. This isn’t some kind of ultimatum pretending that losing me would be a huge blow to the fortunes of the company. I’m just voicing my opinion as one loyal customer of the franchise that amounts to little more than $60 added to the opening day sales figure.
If Halo 5 does not include traditional slayer game types at launch, I will not be purchasing it. The new direction simply does not represent the product I am looking for.
> shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
Smaller population and lackluster servers… I feel his pain. Halo was once the pinnacle of arena-based shooters, but has now regressed into a lukewarm compromise between its former glory and gameplay elements from other popular games. As for his worth as a customer, his feelings resonate with many of us. That needs to be taken into consideration. Also, the flaccid player retention rate of Halo 4 (even swifter drop than Reach) is a testimony that whatever crowds or focus groups 343i were attempting to gain with this “new direction” were not worth the deviation of what gave Halo its identity in the past, nor the betrayal of the fans that have been playing the games for years.
> shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
With the population of Halo 3 as low as it is, I’ve had major connectivity issues every time I’ve gone back to try to play it.
I should probably pop reach back in to see how that goes. Regardless, my complaints with invis still hold true in Reach. Armor lock and especially jet pack become a problem to replace the Halo 4 Promethean vision and nerfed jet pack.
Is the Halo Reach team slayer population any more healthy than the Legendary slayer population in Halo 4?
> > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
>
> With the population of Halo 3 as low as it is, I’ve had major connectivity issues every time I’ve gone back to try to play it.
>
> I should probably pop reach back in to see how that goes. Regardless, my complaints with invis still hold true in Reach. Armor lock and especially jet pack become a problem to replace the Halo 4 Promethean vision and nerfed jet pack.
>
> Is the Halo Reach team slayer population any more healthy than the Legendary slayer population in Halo 4?
Last time I checked, it had about 800-ish players, but I can’t say what the usual population would be.
> > > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
> >
> > With the population of Halo 3 as low as it is, I’ve had major connectivity issues every time I’ve gone back to try to play it.
> >
> > I should probably pop reach back in to see how that goes. Regardless, my complaints with invis still hold true in Reach. Armor lock and especially jet pack become a problem to replace the Halo 4 Promethean vision and nerfed jet pack.
> >
> > Is the Halo Reach team slayer population any more healthy than the Legendary slayer population in Halo 4?
>
> Last time I checked, it had about 800-ish players, but I can’t say what the usual population would be.
I’ll have to give it a go then. Perhaps the skill and party based matchmaking is marginally more effective. I run sprint in Reach any way, so its not like my personal play style changes that much. Just have to deal with armor lock (did they ever apply the armor lock nerf to team slayer or is that still just in super slayer?) and jet pack bs.
> shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
It’s not so much about “classic” gameplay… at least for me it’s more about actual “Halo” gameplay. I’m fine with Halo evolving and adding new stuff with new releases, but only as long as the new things don’t completely change what Halo is. 343 needs to find a way to keep Halo new and fresh without moving too far away from Halo’s core, which is unfortunately what happened with Halo 4.
People liked Halo so much because it was it’s own unique shooter and it was different from other FPS games. Halo 4 for some reason tried to abandon what makes Halo unique and incorporated features from other games. If I wanted to play a game with custom loadouts and perks etc, I’d go play Battlefield or Call of Duty. But I want to play Halo, and none of those things belong in a Halo game.
> > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
>
> Because he might want something new and familiar at the same time?
>
> Is there really anything wrong with wanting an evolution that respects the core of that which is evolving?
> > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
>
> Smaller population and lackluster servers… I feel his pain. Halo was once the pinnacle of arena-based shooters, but has now regressed into a lukewarm compromise between its former glory and gameplay elements from other popular games. As for his worth as a customer, his feelings resonate with many of us. That needs to be taken into consideration. Also, the flaccid player retention rate of Halo 4 (even swifter drop than Reach) is a testimony that whatever crowds or focus groups 343i were attempting to gain with this “new direction” were not worth the deviation of what gave Halo its identity in the past, nor the betrayal of the fans that have been playing the games for years.
Halo was never the pinnacle of arena shooters, that has, and probably always will belong to Quake. The only reason Halo was popular in the first place was because it was casualized to make it easy for console gamers. Well, Call of Duty beat Halo at its own game, and look what happened as a result.
> > > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
> >
> > Because he might want something new and familiar at the same time?
> >
> > Is there really anything wrong with wanting an evolution that respects the core of that which is evolving?
>
> That sounds a lot like Legendary Slayer to me.
Really? Well not to others.
Legendary Slayer really doesn’t respect the core of traditional or classic Halo (whether it was intended to or not).
It sure is closer than Infinity, but it is not an appropriate substitue for traditional or classic Halo.
Anyway…
As mentioned in the OP, it comes with other problems, such as poor map selection and a less than desirable population size.
“Just pop in Halo 3” - Does not account for the fact that something new (with a similar “core”) is often desired. Which explains the OP wanting Legendary Slayer to work well, as opposed to just playing Halo 3 instead.
“Sounds a lot like Legendary Slayer” - Does not account for the fact that the OP has problems with Legendary Slayer that are preventing them from enjoying the playlist to the degree that they would like.
> Halo was never the pinnacle of arena shooters, that has, and probably always will belong to Quake. The only reason Halo was popular in the first place was because it was casualized to make it easy for console gamers. Well, Call of Duty beat Halo at its own game, and look what happened as a result.
Quake may have invented the “arena shooter,” but it was hardly the “pinnacle.” Pinnacle means that it was the best; it wasn’t the best, but it did make it popular.
Halo and Call of Duty represent two distinct subgenres of shooters, which is why they were able to coexist and compete for such a long time. When Halo 4 released, it was a Halo that was trying to be more like CoD in its gameplay. If people wanted to play CoD, they would’ve played CoD. But many people bought Halo for Halo’s gameplay and instead got a Halo-CoD hybrid: it has the strategic, teamwork-encouraging, arena-style gameplay of Halo mixed with features of the mindless, teamwork-indifferent, realistic-style gameplay of CoD. By the definitions of their characteristics, they’re opposites.
I don’t like to use the word “casual” because it’s become more of an opinion than a description.
> > > shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
> >
> > Because he might want something new and familiar at the same time?
> >
> > Is there really anything wrong with wanting an evolution that respects the core of that which is evolving?
>
> That sounds a lot like Legendary Slayer to me.
Reread the original post if you think that is actually disagreeing with me.
> shrugs Why don’t you just pop in Halo 3/Reach if you want the “classic” gameplay so bad?
Maybe the fact that I’ve been playing Halo 3 for 6 years and am kind of bored with it. And Reach is NOT Classic Gameplay. Reach was the terrible introduction of most of the things that suck hard about Halo 4 Infinity right now.
At this point, Legendary Slayer and Anniversary Classic are basically the only two things I tolerate in Halo that are new enough for me to not get bored after playing for 10 minutes.
> > Halo was never the pinnacle of arena shooters, that has, and probably always will belong to Quake. The only reason Halo was popular in the first place was because it was casualized to make it easy for console gamers. Well, Call of Duty beat Halo at its own game, and look what happened as a result.
>
> Quake may have invented the “arena shooter,” but it was hardly the “pinnacle.” Pinnacle means that it was the best; it wasn’t the best, but it did make it popular.
>
> Halo and Call of Duty represent two distinct subgenres of shooters, which is why they were able to coexist and compete for such a long time. When Halo 4 released, it was a Halo that was trying to be more like CoD in its gameplay. If people wanted to play CoD, they would’ve played CoD. But many people bought Halo for Halo’s gameplay and instead got a Halo-CoD hybrid: it has the strategic, teamwork-encouraging, arena-style gameplay of Halo mixed with features of the mindless, teamwork-indifferent, realistic-style gameplay of CoD. By the definitions of their characteristics, they’re opposites.
>
> I don’t like to use the word “casual” because it’s become more of an opinion than a description.
Quake neither invented, nor was the pinnacle of Arena shooters.
The invention of Arena Shooters started with Doom in 1993. The pinnacle of Arena shooters lies between Halo CE, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Halo 2. 2001-2005 was the true glory day of Arena shooters.
> Regardless, my complaints with invis still hold true in Reach. Armor lock and especially jet pack become a problem to replace the Halo 4 Promethean vision and nerfed jet pack.
> > Regardless, my complaints with invis still hold true in Reach. Armor lock and especially jet pack become a problem to replace the Halo 4 Promethean vision and nerfed jet pack.
>
> Then go play Anniversary Slayer!
I don’t have the DLC and have no intention of purchasing it to get in a play list that has the exact same population issues that Legendary does.
Reread my original post and you’ll find that my problem isn’t with the actual play list. Its the surrounding circumstances that are combining to undermine the experience.
I love that playlist but I think the AR is too OP. People should be able to have a BR loadout as well. I find myself laughing sometimes at the AR’s range and power.