okay, i have been reading the forums the past several days and have decided to collect my thoughts on several matters and address them as clearly and as concisely as i can with the knowledge we have so far.
I will attempt to address in as decent a manner as I can, both concerns and questions. Most of this will be an opinion piece, gathered from my 9 year halo career.
- Preface:
-When I began playing Halo CE, a few things stood out to me that made it different from other comparible shooters.
-The first was the movement mechanics. Unlike Quake and other shooters of that type, the movement speed was more controlled. The jump height felt just right, and the strafing system was well-coordinated.
-The second was the weapon mechanics. Everything had its place in the sandbox. Strong utility weapons (i.e. the pistol), well-placed power weapons and solid starting/pickup weapons. Registration was fantastic and rewarded both consistency and aim.
-Through years of Halo 2, many of these mechanics and positives were embellished and improved upon. New utility weapons and fantastic map-design made this game a worthy sequel.
-There were issues, however, with this title comparatively. The most prevalent was extreme bullet-magnetism, but the overall feel of the first game was still very much in play in this title.
-When halo 3 came out, I immediately noticed that there was a downgrade in the availability of quality maps (compared to the first two titles) and the favorite utility weapon, the battle rifle, had been downgraded in 2 senses-firing speed and bullet-spread. For the first time, the series had entered a level of chance to the weapon mechanics. This effect was compounded by bullet-registration problems that weren’t apparent in the first games.
-Halo: Reach expanded on the issues of the previous title further, slowing down movement speed to a crawl and capitalizing on chance with bloom. What did this do? it slowed down the game and emphasized trigger-spamming as if you timed your shots they could still be liable to miss even at a mid-ranged distance.
-Compounding those core issues, they added Armor Abilities; of which, some (Armor lock) were game-breaking and others were almost pointless (hologram/camo-radar jamming).
2.So what did I learn about Halo as a series?
-There are 3 undeniably important gameplay elements to the core halo experience.
-Proper movement speed
-Weapon consistency
-Map quality
-Without those three things, a Halo game will not live up to standard.
3.So what can we look forward to in Halo 4?
-The registration issues that plagued Halo 3 were technically removed from Reach with the re-implementation of Hitscan. That will be back again.
-Movement speed has increased, seemingly more like Halo 2 on the spectrum
-Reticule bloom has been removed, deterring the perils of chance and randomness in a firefight.
-The two maps shown and dissected look very well built, and can be used to measure the possible quality of other maps. If so, then things look good on that front.
Since I have covered this, how am I looking forward to Halo 4?
-With the three elements that I have outlined supposedly improving, things are looking up for the series. I’m not going to say that it’s Halo: CE reborn, but the fundamentals
are there for a very competitive and fun game.
-Most of the complaints on this board and others have been about things that we know little of and with the ever-expanding customization options of Halo, we can get around it to the core of the game.
-Not every new thing is going to be implemented across the board. Instant respawns has been ruled out of objectives, and has only been confirmed for a specific FFA gametype. Random weapon spawns apparently isn’t random, and may not be in all gametypes. These things need further information before a thorough analysis can be done, but with what we have heard there isn’t much to be afraid of in context.
Now, most of this is supposition, granted, but I have been a veteran of this game for a long time and, for the first time in a while, like most of what I am hearing. I hope that this post connects with someone, and possibly help them be more patient in awaiting new information and clarification on current info.