After very short exploration of the avilable gametypes i realized something… A there are way too few of them and B half of them are just renamed versions of old core gametypes. most would say this game has Slayer, CTF, Breakout, Strongholds… 4 core gametypes… but the reality is that this game only really has 3 gametypes.
those three gametypes? Slayer, CTF, Territories… going to have a big impact on how well forge is received this time around…
excluding warzone which is essentially firefight with two teams and objectives, and is differant enough to be considered its own gametype… even the req system really doesnt feel horrible… tho i will openly admit that i am a avid hater of RNG systems.
lets go into some details…
Breakout is 100% Invasion CTF or slayer gametypes (depending on your “flag” setting) on dedicated maps with the limited lives rule freely available to be set as desired in previous games being hidden as a excuse for it to be a unique gametype instead of just making a Matchmaking playlist with the name. its a terribly camouflaged attempt to make the old gametypes “hardcore” for a certain fanbase which is a bit off putting when revealed for what it fully revealed feels like… and thats a lack of confidence in those gametypes and the fan base. they really handled this poorly in my opinion.
Strongholds… Think back to halo 2 and then look back at this and you will see that it looks like Territories and plays like territories… see a pattern there? the only differences from how it plays in halo 2 is cosmetic and and a requirement to have more than one before you start “scoring”. they replaced the flags with big pylons and view obstructing radius circles, they use “score” instead of “time” as how you reach the winning number, … why not just have Territories and add that nice new min flags under control option? i get that people kind of didnt like how they locked in 3 which kind of soured the gametype then, but thats no excuse for renaming the gametype over and over to hide the fact it is what it is… at least Halo 4 had a good mash up on the idea, adding in base functions and such to the core concept of gaining score via control of a contestable location on the map… which i see they removed here… leaving only the original idea under new name…
then we have slayer and CTF… which for some reason have to be seperated from vairants with rules you cant change… Neutral flag was a CTF option in the old days, why is it a completely separate game type now? are we trying to hide the fact that if you were to go back to the first halo and play either with only one life per player you would literally have exactly what we now have in breakout? this hiding of previous options that allowed core gametypes a lot of differant versions of the same idea is a really bad running theme…
a overall downgrade to only 3 core gametypes from the 9 of previous titles… not at all what i was expecting in my return to Halo Mutliplayer…
i would not mind the reduction as much if they were not doing this “Fresh coat of paint” style nonsense in the making of breakout and Strongholds…
its all almost a bit insulting… so much is just renamed to hide the fact that a lot of it all has been removed…
i didnt play Halo 4 on launch… in fact i had intentionally avoided the game after being such a crazy fan for the series because i was afraid that it would be butchered out of bungies hands… i did eventually try the multiplayer and more recently got the MCC as my Xbox one bundle… i was happy that apart from the weapons no longer being on the map (ordinance system lol) the gameplay was mostly unchanged. in fact i though the new domination thing was a cool idea and in hindsight would have loved to try it at launch. do note as i explored the Halo 4 maps i did feel that most of them were oversized for the classic gametypes and how they used to play… i even remember that kind of being a minor issue on some halo Reach maps but not to that extent.
so when today (having beat the campaign yesterday) i decided to explore multiplayer i was really stumped… i honestly dont know how well Warzone will makeup for how butchered the other gametypes are. considering the game has suddenly dropped twice today for me…
i have to say the removal of the old system of choosing Core gametype and picking from variants has done nothing good for Halo 5… most importantly, its going to get messy if they add any more to that already small page… of gametypes. even worse for anyone who often hosts custom gametypes, and has 25 or more…
while yes outside of Matchmaking those gametypes rarely see use (and when included into MM were not always well recieved) they did see heavy use in Custom games, and custom games have always been the mother of invention. Hell thats how we even got the infection gametypes… because of a custom team slayer game using rules the players themselves had to enforce.
oh and on the note of infection/flood… i remember when it could only be played by starting a custom Team game, and always wondered why there was no version where it played like normal team slayer but where the goal of eliminating the other team simply just brought them over to your side… but then that was early on with the zombie craze so yeah… basically just a themed version of slayer even back then… maybe give us a “move to enemy team when killed” option in Team slayer? that would allow a infection gametype with more than just 2 sides… and could be interesting in custom games… imagine a team slayer gametype where everyone starts on their own one person team and each time you kill someone they are forced to join your team until only one team exists… yeah i doubt it will happen too…
we can still play old fashioned zombies in custom games tho… we do still have a during match change teams option right?
Right?!
no?
wth 343? are you even paying attention?
and where is my ability to set bottomless clips in custom gametypes?! i was totally going to make a FFA slayer where everyone just runs around spamming needler rounds for lots of pinksplosions again! What happened to my “spread the love” gametype?!
oh and i love how all the breakout maps, are forge maps acting like they are full development maps… really classy 343.
i hope Halo 3 anniversary does better in getting back to what halo multiplayer is about… because i cant really see Halo 5 getting out of this current state without a total redo of its systems… and no company would make such a effort because the game will be dead before they could possibly implement it.