Let me just say first how excited I am for H4. I have been a huge fan of the entire Halo series. I have played every Halo game save for the Anniversary edition. Anyway, with that said I thought I would share some ideas I had about what would be cool to see in H4. These are my own personal opinions and I have no illusions about them actually being in the game. Now, without further adue.
Single-Player:
So, as we know, Master Chief is going to be on a forerunner planet. This got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be cool if the Chief could use Alien tech to upgrade and customize his Armor/Weapons? He could find parts scattered throughout the levels, and use them in special upgrade booths ala Dead Space. Speaking of the levels, I thought it would be cooler if the levels were a little more open. Not open-world mind you, just a little less liner. So there would be more levels like the ONI base one in Reach, or the Reunion Tour one in Halo:CE. That way, players might be able to explore a little more.
Multiplayer:
I loved the loadouts in Reach, but they felt very limited. It really just felt like I was only picking what armor ability I wanted, and that was it. So, I was thinking, what about a Call of Duty esque loadout system? Now, before you say “No, we don’t need it like CoD” hear me out. This loadout system would allow you to create your own loadout. What type of AA you want and what gun you want. However, there would only be a few guns to choose from. This means that the most powerful weapons would still be on the map. So you won’t see people running around with Swords or Rocket Launchers as soon as they spawn. The guns you could choose from would be the BR, AR, Pistol, and Shotgun. Yes, the shotgun too. I know that technically it is a power-weapon, but I thought that maybe there should be some type of CQC weapon to start off with. You could even maybe customize said weapons. Change out scopes, increase mag-sizes, stuff like that. However, like I said, the most powerful weapons would still only be found on the map.
This customization would also include being able to modify AAs. Maybe, instead of a Drop Shield that regenerates health, it could regenerate shields. Or amplify your damage for a short time. Or maybe with Armor Lock, you could still move around at half-speed but it would only decrease damage by half, and not make you completely invulnerable. Basically, this would further allow you to customize the way you fight. Also, I think it would be cool if they made these AAs be more apart of the way the Armor looks. It would allow for more telegraphing of what a persons AA is, sorta like what they did in H3 with the weapons showing up on players backs. It wouldn’t have to be a massive tell, just something small about the armor that looks different depending on what they are using. Say, with Armor Lock it would have these glowing blue cables on the armor. And with Active Camo it would have slightly reflective hexagons on the armor. Just small things that would allow the more attentive players to know what they are up against.
Anywho, just some small ideas I had. I look forward to whatever response you have.