So a little background:
I played and rocked everyone at Halo 1. I loved it. We all began with the pistol, I mastered it, and it was a good enough weapon to fight anyone on any part of the map.
Halo 2 - hated it. I come from a place where I like to aim. I got rocked at Halo 2, and this is why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocyYwLCDyCU
The game took autoaim to a whole new level, and it destroyed it for me. Any kid who was mediocre before, was now an expert because of the autoaim.
Halo 3 - this is the one I decided to use the autoaiming to my advantage as I realized it was in place to make up for latency issues. But, the latency issues were too much for me. I would get screwed multiple times a game - sticky grenades sticking to their bodies and disappearing, sniper shots through the head doing no damage (while the enemy was standing still). I made tons of videos and then quit. System link was still OK, but more autoaim than Halo 3 was there. Also, it was about getting weapons and camping them, picking off people with your BRs who just spawned.
Halo Reach - still some latency and auto aim, but it seemed less. I enjoyed the armor abilities, as I enjoy having to use different strategies against different individuals (that isn’t just based on a weapon system that people can camp to control).
So, Halo 4 so far looks pretty good to me. I like the loadouts and the weapon drops, as it takes away camping and takes me back somewhat to my Halo 1 days where I could start with a weapon in which I could compete with others instantly. I also like the loadouts as it lets you adapt and change strategy throughout the game. With previous games, you would just get spawn killed most of the time before you could grab your weapons and assemble your team to attempt your strategy. I also believe I am seeing more movement around the maps with sprint and without weapon camping. I like this - it keeps the matches dynamic and the battles in various locations. The weapon balance so far is also pretty solid, although I’m still trying to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon, especially the multiple assault-rifle like weapons. If they are similar, then why have them? I feel there must be some situation in which you would use one over the other.
My big issue in only the 15 or so games I’ve played though so far is armor abilities. I don’t like them being so overpowered that they make gunplay and teamwork pointless, but I like the idea of building a strategy around your armor ability. As it stands now, it seems like most armor abilities are just pointless and in the game to “be there.”
Thruster pack: Really? the time delay between it getting over and giving me complete control over my character makes this almost worse than just walking left, right, or back. Running forward does beat it.
Fix: you can tap it to make it do what it does now, but the “recovery” is faster and the movement speed is 50% faster. OR, you can hold it and it will go twice as far. If you tap it, you get another tap.
Hardlight Shield: Too many weaknesses. I felt it was totally balanced until my shield was halfway through charging, I pulled out the hardlight, and my shield stopped charging.
fix: I don’t think it should charge IF it hasn’t started charging yet, but I do think it should continue charging if it has started. I also think the deployment time needs to be slightly faster.
I haven’t used enough of the other ones yet, but it seems these two are really underpowered. I realize people around here HATE defensive abilities for some reason, but it is really nice to have another strategy to fight against and it is nice to appeal to another play style without being overpowered.