Hello all, I am fairly new to these forums but after 5 days of working up the courage I am finally gonna post my opinions on the current state of Halo 4 and Halo in general. Now I have been playing halo since Halo 2. I played with amazement in Halo 2, had a blast on Halo 3, Struggled through Reach and now with Halo 4 im left asking myself and my friends “what happened ?” Now don’t get me wrong, I like Halo 4. I still play it regularly but there is something wrong with it. It took me awhile to realize it but now after weeks of talking to my friends and reading these forums im going to write the following,
1,What I feel 343 did wrong.
2,What I feel 343 did right
3,What I feel 343 should do.
Now I don’t intend for this to be a 343 bash, I intend to make constructive criticism and possible solutions for 343. No point in just complaining and bashing 343 without some constructive criticism, it dosent help anyone. Some of the “fixes” that I suggest are obviously impossible to do in H4, so some of these are suggestions for Halo 5. Here we go.
CAMPAIGN
Now I really enjoyed the Halo 4 campaign. It was a good length,good emotional story and beautiful graphics. But what I didn’t like was the skulls. I don’t like how in Reach and in H4 the skulls where already unlocked for me to use, where’s the fun in that. I loved skull hunting in H2 and H3, it added replay value and it was just overall fun going places you other wise wouldn’t go to just to get a collectible skull. Lack of campaign scoring is another issue of mine, again it added replay value to the campaign. What’s the point of spending countless hours making your campaign 343 if your not gonna give us things that add replay value to it. By far this is my least played Halo campaign in the series, ive played the Halo Wars campaign more than H4. So please 343, fix this for Halo 5.
MULTIPLAYER
Ok, this is when I get nervous. Please remember that these are just my opinions so please don’t get mad if you don’t agree.
Personally this is what I think “killed” the H4 multiplayer.
1, First 2 months were extremely laggy
2, Broken File share
3, Not enough maps/map variety
4, Missing playlists and gametypes
5, Missing vehicles/weapons
6, Vehicle combat is awful now
7, Ranking system (or lack of more like)
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The first 2 months of H4 were really laggy. Constant black screens, playlists/maps wouldn’t load, missing loadouts etc. I personally think if you guys had a beta you would have been better prepared. I noticed a significant population drop after the first month, so work on that for next time please.
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The fact that a major thing like file sharing was broken for 3 months is disgraceful, that’s all I have to say on that. Again please be better prepared next time.
3-7. Gonna do these all at the sametime (lol) Anyway these things are my biggest problem with H4 right now. There were not enough maps at launch I feel. And the maps you did have were wasted because you couldn’t get the most out of them. For instance the big team maps are wasted cause you can only play 2 gametypes on them, slayer and dominion. And on infinity slayer all I can play is Haven,Adrift and Abandon cause that’s all everyone wants to play, if im lucky I get Complex now and then. Sure we’ve got the map packs now but you cant even support them properly, it has been 3 months since ive played a Crimson map pack map, 3 months!!!. And I loved those maps but now there wasted. and the same will soon be said for the Majestic maps I fear. This is how I would do the playlists.
Ranked Playlists
Lonewolfs, 8 player FFA slayer
Team Slayer, 4v4 slayer
Team objective, 4v4 objective gametypes
Team Snipers, 4v4 slayer
SWAT, 4V4 slayer
Team Doubles, 2v2 slayer objective mix
BTB Ranked, 8v8 slayer objective mix
MLG/PRO, 4v4 slayer objective mix
Social Playlists
Rumble pit, 8 player FFA slayer objective mix
Social Slayer, 4v4 slayer
Social Skirmish, 4v4 objective
BTB, 8v8 slayer objective mix
Squad Slayer, 6v6 slayer objective mix
Multiteam, 3v3v3v3 slayer objective mix
Invasion, 16v16 invasion (bit crazy but hey,the new xbox could do it)
DLC, 6V6
Crazy Playlists
Action sack, 4v4
Big team action sack, 8v8 (who knows might be fun)
Race, 10 FFA races ( on forge made race tracks)
Rocket race, 3v3v3v3 rocket race
Infinity slayer, 4v4 infinity slayer
Big team infinity, 8v8 infinity slayer objective mix
Now some of you might notice that ive copied the Halo 3 layout and you’d be right I have, cause in Halo 3 the playlists worked. You had the competitive playlists for the hardcore guys and players who just wanted to prove there skills. And you had the casual playlists for the casuals, Everyone was happy. If its done this way then I think everyone would be happy. The people who want the old/classic style of Halo will have there playlists and game types. And the people who like the loadouts, personal ordnance, etc will have there playlists. Everyone is supported, everyone is happy.
Back to maps and gametypes. I don’t not like that 1-flag and all assault gametypes were missing in H4. You need those gametypes for 3 reasons, 1 there awesome, 2 adds variety, 3 there made for asymmetric maps. 2 flag dose not work on Complex or Abandon, One team will always have the better side. 1 flag would work on those maps perfectly.
Vehicle combat is almost dead partly because of the fact that players can now spawn with plasma pistols and stickies. But another reason I feel are the maps, they’re too cramped. You cant really have a good drive on any of the maps the way you could in older games. not only that some of the vehicles are just bad
Mongoose, fine, maybe a wee speed boost
Warthog, bad, gun too weak not accurate enough, armour to weak, too slow.
Scorpian, fine, just underused
Wraith, fine, just underused
Ghost, bloody perfect, good job
banshee, fine, maybe a small armour boost
Mantis, could be better, takes ages to actually get in it,
Hornet, MISSING
Falcon, MISSING
Locust MISSING
Chopper, MISSING
Spectre, MISSING
So please make vehicles better in Halo. Some of my best memories are in a warthog on sandbox in Halo 3, please make vehicles useful again.
Please please please bring back the 1-50 ranking system please. I don’t know how many times we have to say it but please bring it back. And no, CSR dosent count, its just a glorified waypoint extra its not a true ranking system. The rank system in Reach and H4 are awful, they’re just a bar that shows how long you’ve played the game. It dosent tell you how good you are, and there not rewarding.
Halo games have a bad habit of removing things from previous games and replacing them with things that are worse. Stop removing, always add. I want every helmet, armour piece, weapon, vehicle gametypes etc from the previous game, that should be your starting point then add the new stuff.
But I would say the biggest problem is you 343,or rather you lack of communication to us fans. Stop leaving us in the dark. Stop ignoring us. We want to help you look after our universe and make awesome games but you have to listen. Remember your fans, you’re making the games for US your audience and we know what we want.If you’re unsure about something ask us we’d gladdy help
Just my opinion folks