The TU/ZB update was not a bad thing for Reach but it was not enough. What it did give was a faster rate of gameplay as well as a familiar feeling for competitive gameplay and weakening armor lock to make it not stop gameplay as much.
The playlists in Reach are severely divided. Some divisions are good to give people more choices but too many can ruin a game and divide a community.
Many people have gotten used to the DMR and others still prefer the BR.
Those who absolutely hate the DMR, I believe, hate it because of its small reticle, bloom, and how there isn’t much of a strafing system.
The small reticle creates a minor frustration with aiming and strafing.
Those who hate the BR, I believe, do so because of players needing to lead their shots in Halo 3 as well as how lag affects bullet registration.
Many people hate armor abilities because they stop gameplay completely, give the player a way to get weapons faster, allow unfair accessibility to areas/weapons, and stray away from the default run-and-gun Halo aspect.
I feel Halo 4 is in good hands with 343industries because they have been solving many of these core issues.
With abilities: Armor Lock has been removed and while sprinting people will slow down as they’re being shot. They’ve also confirmed that each ability has been modified one way or another. Forerunner vision is not an Xray, a wall hack, or a way to see people. They say it’s some sort of sonar. I recommend waiting to see how the other abilities will be modified.
With weapons: both no bloom as well as hitscan have been confirmed for the BR and the DMR meaning there is no longer the necessity of leading shots or lag with shot registration.
With Spartan Ops: Firefight may be removed but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there in some form. Spartan Ops is a secondary co-op(2-4 player) campaign which is updated weekly for free where you and your friends do missions as Spartan 4s. These missions could include killing hordes of covenant or maybe stealth missions, you never know.
With Infinity: The ship supposedly creates environments for training purposes for Spartan 4s. Most of multiplayer will take place on this ship which can be a great concept especially for drawing players into Halo 4’s storyline and hinting towards an advanced version of forge. This ship apparently will be seen or mentioned in the main story.
With loadouts: It’s been confirmed that power weapons such as snipers, rocket launchers, etc will not be available in loadouts. Think about that for a moment. Instead of us always having to resort to the Assault Rifle/SMG as primary we can use a BR, DMR, or even have a say in the matter.
With so called random weapon drops: weapons will still be on map but instead of them spawning in the same place they will come down as ordinance in spots that can be timed out/predicted. This really isn’t that big of a change except that it’s more friendly for those who have trouble timing weapon spawns.
With instant respawn: It’s already confirmed that this is an option and that regular respawing is available. In Halo 3 and Halo Reach people had to get a modded gametype for instant respawn(Octagon). Instead, they’re giving it to us.
And finally, there’s a great chance that both sprint and ordinance can be disabled considering the mention of classic slayer variants and the ability to customize ordinance.
Thank you for those who read my opinions.
Feel free to express yours as well as commenting on my own.
TLDR:
Many of the things hated in Reach are either changed, removed, or not discussed yet with Halo 4.
The BR will shoot more like it did in Halo 2 with hitscan and without having to lead shots.
The DMR will have no bloom and a slightly different rate of fire to balance out with the BR and other weapons.
Halo 4 firefight may still be in Spartan Ops in some form.
Halo 4 shows great potential in improving how regular slayer plays out, still allowing us to customize our experience, and drawing people into its story.
