I had a few random thoughts i thought i would share. As far as i am aware, 343 hasn’t officially said anything about ‘perks’ but a few online sources have hinted at this being included in Halo 4 multiplayer. While everyone is busy flaming hate I am wondering what kind of ‘perks’ can be added to Halo while still feeling ‘Halo-ie’ if that makes sense… 343 has said that they want to ‘reinvent’ halo MP as well as stating that they want to ‘cater to different play styles.’ In my mind this makes ‘perks’ actually relevant and exciting really. These perks don’t have to make your spartan ‘better’ they just have to make him ‘different.’ Perhaps a sacrifice of armor for more speed or the opposite. Or perhaps a Jump-pack with downward thrusters at large expense to fuel etc. Im also pretty sure that 343 doesnt want to emulate COD’s unlock system, and will find a way to make gear available to anyone based around their play-style.
Ive always wanted to make ‘my own armor’ and each successive Halo installment has increased the number of visual armor permutations but it still basically ammounts to playing dress up with your spartan. I want the feeling of tuning an F-1 racer with an assult-rifle. 343 themselves have even said that they want to give you this same kind of feeling of being inside the spartan suit. I think this would also give you the feeling of the suit belonging to you instead of just being GI suit you’ve hopped into, it would provide the feeling of having withered battles with you and progressed with you (kills scratched in armor, modified huds etc).
What kind of ‘perks’ would you like to see in Halo 4?
I’d like to see Armor Abilities, strictly in Custom Games, with the ability to combine 2 at once. Thruster Pack and Sprint turns you into a jet (not literally, but you know what I mean)
I’d also like to see parkour elements. Grabbing on to ledges, lowering or un equipping your weapon, etc.
I want assassinations too. I liked Reach’s assassinations and I hope they return
Yea some limited pakour would be pretty sick, especially considering 343 has mentioned they want to make you more mobile, but i think you might end up becoming monkey instead of a jet if your not careful hah.
I enjoyed assassinations but i felt like the kind of got in the way of my good old fashioned melee in the back assassination if that makes sense. They are fantastic for illustrating a point to ones opponents which is always fun
I also think small ‘tweek’ perks would be awesome for halo. The ability to add maybe +5% speed or whatever would give you some customization but not really break the normal flow of game play. Those 5% changes added with armor abilities could make some fun stuff happen though…
If I was to add perks and ground them in what we already know, I think I’d just make them into passive benefits for armour customization. All the armour variants have descriptions about their in-universe functions. EOD, for example, is to deal with dangerous explosives. And I wonder if maybe 343 could make that actually the case – that if you wear EOD stuff, you get a bit of a resistance to explosions. Then you could say that Pilot gives benefits while you’re in an airborne vehicle, EVA gives benefits when you’re in zero-G, and Scout gives benefits when you use lighter weapons. That sort of thing.
I like all these ideas. Perks don’t have to be perks in the CoD sense of the word. What about an ammo perk, you could trade weapon availability in your load outs for more ammo? Or sacrifice speed for armor, maybe a helmet gives you a “marksman” style bonus. Things like that wouldn’t break the game so much as long as they’re minimal. I think where CoD goes wrong sometimes is that the changes are too profound and players can choose so many of them. While variety is great, you shouldn’t have so much that is compromises game play.
