So after seeing many of the videos and information for Halo 4, my only question after most of it is…“Why? What need and purpose does this fulfill in Halo that was missing before?”
I mean, its not like Halo 4 is all bad; 343 seems to have paid a good deal of attention to making the core experience of Halo - Campaign, Gunplay, Maps etc. - better, but there are so many things added that seem to serve little purpose beyond “Change for the purpose of change” and “Because we said so”. In particular some of the decisions for multiplayer are baffling and could only be made by someone who lacks even a basic concept of risk/reward and advantage/disadvantage.
Of course, its not just Halo - it seems be mulitplayer games in general having this problem lately. Take for example, Black OPs II - most people who play CoD games will tell you that the Treyarch games are generally counted on as the more competitive, no-frills, straight-laced and serious of the MP games in the series. But watching any of the videos for Black OPs II, it would seem to most of us that Treyarch has lost their ever-lovin’ minds and started shoveling things in will-nilly.
Some games have escaped this - Battlefield 3 is a notable example. But so many of the things in Halo 4 leave me scratching my head, and its hard to trust 343 with this; particularly after they’ve made some really stupid decisions in the past regarding Halo: Reach.
To me, the two biggest things that encapsulate this problem perfectly in Halo 4 are the change to the Master Chief’s armor, and Promethean Vision.
What purpose did completely changing the Chief’s armor serve? What does it add to the game? We understand it was in need of a graphical update to be in line with the rest of the game, but what you’ve done to the Chief’s armor constitutes a near-complete redesign of the character. Not to mention snaps the canon over your knee like a twig. To understand how radically they changed the armor, bring up a picture of the Chief in Halo 4. On the left, hold up a picture of the Chief from Halo 3 - on the right, hold up a picture of one of the SPARTANs from Halo Wars.
Who does the new Chief look more like? (Correct Answer: A Halo Wars SPARTAN, albeit a thinner one)
Promethean Vision on the other hand, is an utterly baffling decision that should resulted in the person suggesting it being dismissed from the room and mocked by their colleagues. Lets be frank about exactly what Promethean Vision is:
Promethean Vision is an on-demand WALLHACK with impressive range, short recharge, that tells you exactly what your opponent is doing, where they are, and even what they are holding/using if you are perceptive enough. It comes with no real drawbacks, and gives you a massive awareness advantage that is virtually insurmountable by anyone not using Promethean Vision.
So tell me, what does Promethean Vision add to Halo? What long-unfulfilled, empty space in the gameplay of Halo does a WALLHACK serve? How is this ability in anyway not overpowered? How does this ability not eclipse every other ability in the game in every way - either you have to use this ability, or you have to use its direct counter. There aren’t other options, unless you like getting your -Yoink- kicked - Hardlight Shields, Thrust Packs and even Jetpacks mean nothing to the awareness that Promethean Vision gives you.
Only 2 games have ever really balanced the “Wallhack” - Shadowrun and Blacklight. Shadowrun in that it wasn’t terribly powerful, and you had to make big sacrifices to use it. In Blacklight everyone has it, you are completely vulnerable while using it, it doesn’t do much other than give you a diamond that says “Enemy Here”, has a long recharge, and takes a while to activate/deactivate, and has limited range compared to the size of most of the maps.
And if you notice when people playing the demos and the game challenge/ask the 343 rep about these kinds of things, their reply is a fancy version of “No comment”, “We wanted it this way” or a a stuttering “U-u-uh…um…well…you see…we feel it adds depth to the gameplay” non-answer; which to anyone who knows anything about psychology (particularly of the social nature), marketing and human behavior is a MASSIVE, BRIGHT RED SIGNAL FLARE for someone who is lying, unsure of their answer or the effect it will have, or someone who thought they were sure of their answer, but when faced with outside logic suddenly realizes how bad their logic and answer are.
But I suppose all that doesn’t matter, does it? We’ll all have to buy Halo 4 this Fall, because if we don’t we only have Battlefield 3 or Black OPs II to play until Cortana knows when for MP, because everything else will be dead or gone by then.