KEEP IN MIND ANY CHANGES I’M HINTING AT ARE FOR HALO 5. I UNDERSTAND IT IS TOO LATE FOR SOME OF THESE IDEAS TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN HALO 4.
I hate to dredge up old news, but by now most of us have seen the article in which 343 describes how they hired people who hated Halo and all that jazz. No need to discuss it in great length, as I want this to be as short as possible while still covering all of my bases. Essentially, those of us who would prefer a more traditional Halo or who have been critical of some of the fundamental changes that were implemented with Halo 4 have been called a “vocal minority”, which I tend to disagree with.
The idea I wish to propose is that at some point, 343 should add an optional poll upon the launch of Halo 4 (much in the way they have pop-up announcements for matchmaking updates, etc.) and question people on a few key areas that seem to be controversial in the Halo community:
Loadouts.
- Keep them.
- Get rid of them.
Personal Ordnance.
- Keep them.
- Revert to weapon pickups on the map.
Armor Abilities.
- Keep them.
- Get rid of them.
- Make them function similarly to equipment from Halo 3.
Skill Based Ranking System.
- Keep and show it in-game.
- Get rid of it entirely.
- Keep it, but only show it on Waypoint.
Descoping or flinch?
- Descoping.
- Flinch.
And of course, more options could (and should) be added. This is just my personal wishlist for the poll. I kept my options binary between yes/no to avoid confusion. IMO when you start introducing options like “Keep loadouts, but make them balanced” people tend to flock to an answer like that, but in reality it never works out. Loadouts weren’t balanced in Halo Reach, and they aren’t in Halo 4. The same applies to the other categories. It’s easy to say “Let’s just make it balanced”, but in reality it’s much, much harder than that.
It is my personal opinion, and I don’t mean to take a crap on anybody else’s, that when people pick up Halo, they have an idea of how that game should play already in their head. And to a lot of players, Halo 4 doesn’t seem to measure up to that idea. There is NOTHING wrong with admitting a certain design decision was wrong. For the people who enjoy things not generally considered “traditional” Halo, don’t worry. I understand how having something like active camo available to you upon loadout is fun… The IDEA of spawning with active camo sounds great, but it plays horribly. It slows the game down by its very design - instead of being camo all the time as you were in previous games, you’re only fully utilizing the ability by standing still or crouching.
I’m picking at a super specific example here, just to prove a point. Don’t think I have anything against you if you use active camo. The point is, all these things that sound great and might occasionally play without a hitch generally add up to a less than desirable Halo experience for many, as showcased by the HUGE drop-off in population as of a few weeks after release.
I would love to hear a response from 343 about the idea.