played my copy of H4 last night, here are my first impressons.
campaign; awesome.
spartan ops; not tried it yet.
war games; everything works brilliantly, i feels and plays like halo, i like boxer layout on controls best, i have not found anything overpowered or ‘broken’ yet, vehicles handle well, loadouts are easy to set up and unlock items reasonably fast, and the 3 ‘default’ loadouts are balanced.
more specific things include;
CTF; i know a lot of people have been bashing the new CTF mode but having played it i find it is my favourite of the new game modes, the maps work for it, no one is actively avoiding the flag and actualy play the objective unlike in previous halo’s where CTF was more ‘control the field’ than ‘capture the flag’. the flagnum is a sufficient weapon for running the flag aslong as you aren’t fighting more than one person at a time.
sprint; im not exactly sure on the actul speed increase, i think its somewhere between 40%-60% and only lasts a few seconds at a time, getting shot slows it down and theres no hiding from the motion sensor with it.
thruster pack, saved me from grenades dozens of times and a few splatters, but using it as a distance closer for melee, clearing large gaps or in a fire-fight isn’t very useful as you do not go very far, can’t shoot while doing it and it about half the movement speed of evade from what i can tell.
promethean vision; anyone using this on the enemy team near you lights up your motion sensor with an expanding red ring centered on them, so you know its being used and if the rig reaches you on the MS they saw you if they were looking your way. targets with no obstructions are solid red/green, targets behind surfaces and an outline, and targets in camo are also an outline, but you cannot as easily make out which wall/corner they are behind.
camo, is much better than reach, but when ive seen it used against me, the motion sensor ‘ghosts’ are grey but every now and then one flashes red, THATS THE GUY! sprinting with camo, do not do it, all you do is drain your meter for no effect, moving makes you more visible but not to the excessive degree of reach.
hologram; people have actually fallen for this a few times, yes even me, worth a look if you plan on being a dirty back stabber, literally.
hard light shield; the replacement for armor lock, is incredibly powerful… to the front, but reduced turn speed, not having an effect on vehicles, no jumping and slower movement make this very easy to bounce grenades behind or have a team member flank. but it will stop a laser or rocket without much trouble if you activate it in time.
weapons now.
AR; great up close and in mid range can be fired in ‘short controlled bursts’ for increased accuracy, but you have to get the drop on a br/dmr user at mid to long range to stand a chance, but it wrecks them up close 95+% of the time.
DMR; its a mini sniper, use it at long to mid range and it will be your baby.
BR; mid range all round good rifle, generalt looses to DMR at long range and AR at close, but in mid you should be coming out on top.
carbine; ‘see BR’
light rifle; scoped see DMR, unscoped see BR
storm rifle; works much like the AR, very similar kill times, the difference is the way it does the damage, the AR has to work into shields and eats ‘health’ but the StR eats shields and has to work into health.
suppressor; i havent seen this used yet, its a later unlock.
magnum; damn effective, love this as my back up on my AR loadout.
plasma pistol; still emp’s stuff, but its tracking is toned down, so its a lot hard to ‘noob combo’ with and vehicles will find it easier to avoid, but with sprint if you do land the emp its easier to get up and board them before they troll off again. i haven’t seen much of it used as a side arm like the magnum, but im assuming it has a similar kill time.
boltshot; urg, standard shooting is capable of headshot like magnum, but has a charged mode that makes it a mauler from H3 deadly at just over melee range but useless otherwise.
binary rifle; took some getting used to but once i was 1hk is good, till you fire both shots and have to reload…
beamrifle; head shots kill, 2hk to the body, get good with this weapon and you can fire the whole battery without overheating and get a steady stream of kills.
sniper rifle; same old weapon bang headshot, deal.
needler; do not get caught in the open by this thing YOU WILL DIE! unless hardlight shield.
shotgun; wins the close range weapon award for that was so load i didn’t hear you beg!
scattershot; like the shotgun works only at close range, has a distinctive sound, but can fire faster and makes a mess of grouped enemies better than the shotgun, only 5 shots till reload though.
rockets; move faster, fire slower, track banshees.
incineration cannon; see it coming or hope it misses. one shot per reload, slower to reload than rockets. collateral damage makes it worth it.
fuelrod; haaven’t seen this in MM yet.
the SAW; the warthog chain gun and the AR had a baby, a beautiful, death dealing, bullet spewing, ear loving baby. if you are on a smaller map, or plan on invading a base, then take this with you if you get the chance.
vehicles.
warthog; fun to drive, sounds beast, and if you (or your gunner) are a good shot the gun is effective on infantry, ghosts and banshees (if you can line up a shot).
gausshog; gun is slower than previous versions, just as deadly when it hits.
rockethog; haven’t seen/used
mantis; anyone played mechwarrior? its fun, the chain gun is beast and the rockets work on vehicles, but only track the banshee. stomp that ghost!
tank/wraith; haven’t used these yet, but the wraith did make an appearance in a BTB game wrecked my team, probably because we didn’t see it coming, so i can’t really comment on its effectiveness from just one sighting.
skill based matching and join in progress.
JiP; i have not had to fight on or against a larger team than the other people quit or get booted, they get replaced, i have not joined a game part way through in about 4hours of play.
skill bsed matching; its not visible, i do not care, i care that it works, and from my perspective it is, i have not hard a game where my team wrecked, or got wrecked, without a fighting chance. so balanced skill based matchmaking is in, rejoice! also queue times to find games were a little slow, but theres not many of us online last night as its still early so i do not think this will be an issue come the 6th.
now for the downsides, i know most of you skipped through to find this part!
black screen; it wouldn’t be halo without this, but not being a networking engineer or having the slightest clue how to avoid it all i can say is that it gives me time to rest my fingers between mad fights every now and then.
sitrec (killcam for the uninformed); its laggy, it almost never looks like they actualy aimed at you or sound like they fired when the gun fires, but its getting a day1 patch iirc so meh.
thats it for my first impressions of halo4. hope it helped clear things up for some people.
