After playing Halo 4 for a week I would like to present my thoughts on the multiplayer. Firstly I would say I believe it is better than Reach which to be fair I really don’t rate however not as good as halo 3. My reasons for this are listed below along with explanations under positive/negative aspects of Halo 4 multiplayer.
I do not believe that Halo has to stay the same nor do I believe it has to change. I believe that the core gameplay experience of halo should be preserved and that the game should be enhanced and evolve however this process for me should ideally result in it becoming more skillful, diverse and harder to master. I think it is easy to implement flashy new game mechanics however there is a risk for these to water down and simplify the gameplay rather than deepen and expand it.
I would appreciate if people read my points and actually refute them should you disagree rather than post generic comments such as “you don’t like it because you suck”, “Halo has to change because… it just does” (present a supporting argument please).
Positives for me are as follows:
-Rifles have more effective range and are more consistent in terms of spread and bloom (would rather have a sensible rate of fire and no bloom)
-Rifles being a more central part of multiplayer is to me a good thing
-Compared with reach armour ablities are not as overpowered
-Choice of starting weapon. Although different I don’t mind this aspect as long as starting weapons are sensible which mostly they are.
-Beatdown lunge has been reduced. This is good as close range fights lean more toward skillful play than tie beatdowns now.
Negatives for me are as follows:
-Too much aim assist (the reticle sticks to opponents). Weapons are hitscan also so providing the reticle is red, however little of it is touching your opponent, even 1mm, the shot/s will register. This makes for quite a wide effective target, I would say 2-4 times the size of the effective target in halo 3. In halo 3 the BR was not hitscan and required quite precise aiming and leading of shots which was very skillful, it would have been even more so without the excessive spread and the randomness of said spread.
-Slow strafing speed making it near impossible to srafe fast enough to make yourself a challenging target
-The above 2 already result in most 1v1 encounters being very close or even ties with little opportunity for players to outskill their opponents.
-Sprint. The basic movement speed is very slow so that sprint can be implemented. A fast default movement speed without sprint is better because it enables effective strafing, increases your ability to out maneuver your opponent in all sorts of situations and enables you to shoot while chasing someone. In my opinion sprint is more of a gimmick that developers seem to think they need to include as its in other games. A further negative of sprint is that it makes weapons such as the sword overpowered as players can sprint beatdown with the sword.
-Way too much aim assist on sniper weapons. It is incredibly easy to headshot opponents. The halo 3 sniper was perfect, there was a lot of skill required to be accurate with it, being good with the sniper was a true achievement.
-Not being knocked out of scope. This eliminates skills such as no-scoping, quick scoping with sniper and shooting long range out of scope with other rifles or quick scoping them each shot. Also makes sniper a bit overpowered and long range battles more of a who shoots who first.
-The maps are ok but they are not great, there were maps in halo 1, 2 and 3 that played much better. They are better than reach’s maps though.
-Ordinance drops while new and initially interesting take away from game balance and the level playing field central priciple of halo. They also make map control and strategy less important, taking away core halo skills and replacing them with little in the way of new skills and a layer of randomness. This is also beginning to promote camping and more static play as players get used to the game.
-Power weapons and power ups in my opinion would be much better on the map. There is less potential for them to be abused this way and it results in more strategy and a more level playing field. I wouldn’t object to trying out power ups such as speed boost and damage boost on the map, I think they have potential to be good.
-Tactical packages and support upgrades are further gimmicks in my opinion. They may have been the result of good intentions however they result in normal abilities being taken away from the player so that they can be given back with the use of these. I don’t feel they contribute anything positive to the gameplay and rather result in the loss of key abilities such as picking up grenades from enemies.
-Camo. This is a cheap AA that facilitates people hiding especially with sniper or close range weapons and picking up cheap kills.
-Hardlight shield. This is just a lite version of armour lock, annoying and actually quite overpowered sometimes.
-Jetpack. Nowhere near as bad as reach however takes away from certain skills such as difficult jumps that required practice to master.
-Promethean vision. Simplifies the game as you are constantly aware of the enemy’s positions. Makes for a much less sophisticated and tactical gaming experience.
-Various other adjustments such as taking away the death X seem to me pointless changes that remove integral parts of halo.
-Join in progress does not work well at all. I play more games with uneven teams than even teams and lose multiple games due to joining a game where my team is down by a huge margin. Enabling players to leave in the pre-game lobby results in most of these uneven matches however the absence of a skill rank also results in lots of players not really caring about winning or losing therefore quitting, standing still sometimes etc.