Halo 4:
Lets travel a little over a year ago when Halo 4 first hit the sales floor rewind sounds with watches and clocks in background
Traveled on to a local gamestop in which i was on unemployment pay at the time, so money was tight… I ended up trading in Halo 3, Halo reach and Halo Combat Evolved HD just to get this game, so yeah! I was really excited about this game and wanted it in my life. I finally purchased Halo 4 and waited till the next day to join up with 3 friends who bought and of course as any halo vet would do LAN PARTY!!!
We ordered ourselves 45 bucks worth of chicken express so we were well covered on
food and drink for the night along with some cold ones to kick back with the MC.
Xbox turns on and all the normal sounds of signing on happen and we all press the famous “A” button at the same time.
After all the introductions of companies involved in the game was done the beautiful halo 4 screen pops up in which all of a sudden is a giant message that pops up from 343 pretty much in my words saying “ummm hey yeah its Halo… we worked really hard on it and I know we’re not bungie so please give this a chance I promise you we didn’t screw it up, soooo… um ya… press “a” and begin the new halo… in which we didn’t mess up… bye”.
I stayed optimistic after that awkward interruption by 343 but hey I don’t blame them for that message I’m positive disney will be doing the same thing with star wars laugh out loud Anyways we start the campaign and you know what I actually enjoyed all of it… The story was a whole new direction but it was spicy… sure it wasn’t no Halo 2 storyline but for a whole new company I would say they did great with the storyline. Into the story I get introduced with all the new forerunner weapons and the gloss of the newly polished weapons that make halo 3’s weapons look like an N64 game (I love halo 3). Getting to use those guns was impressive and I loved the incineration cannon as well. Beat the campaign on legendary in which I’ll say was a fun campaign but not as challenging as legendary on the others before it, but who said a hard game is a fun game.
So after I beat the campaign with satisfaction and my sympathy for MC’s loss I decided to play some multiplayer at my house. Surprisingly enough there were 50,000 more people on halo 4 than black ops 2 which to me was impressive and a sign that its finally Halo’s moment to shine again. Going to have to say it was a different world to me… It felt like they took halo reach and mixed it with watered down Call of duty. I mean don’t get me wrong COD is a well known and popular game that is changing shooters much like Halo CE did, but it seemed like they took the cheesiest COD qualities and watered down the good ones. I will say that I liked the Idea of loadouts meaning you could switch between the BR, DMR and AR without having to veto or vote maps with those weapons. I like how there are plasma pistols in loadouts keeping the enemy from overpowering you with warthogs like in Halo 3 and yes yes yes I know but I do I do indeed like that you can sprint in the game, sorry but we needed to leave those primitive go slow like in the goldeneye 007 days. So it seems like i’m very positive about this game… Well I do have my complaints as well. The COD elements I describe are a few things that get on my nerves. Lets start with watered down good qualities: Like I said I like loadouts. Perks I would say aren’t much for me they seem too weak, atleast COD allowed you to level them up and when you had them on your loadout you could tell. I do like the perks that come with the specializations but most of the perks are weak or lame except for mobility and dexterity some of the biggest newb you could use in this game, but hey its the most effective. Ordinance drops are a good quality in which just like perks have a great potential but once again are very watered down. We all have our opinions of how the perks/OD’s should work or not work at all so I don’t feel like beating this dead horse any longer than it should. So the cheesy qualities of COD in this game and maybe another game b4 cod has done this but its the first for me. Killcams?? I used to joke with my friends who loved COD and said “halo will have killcams (j/k)” and we would laugh and laugh because lets just face it there’s not too many epic ways to kill somebody in halo if anything there are comedic ways to kill people in halo but none deserve a killcam, trust me teabagging is enough for both parties satisfaction and disgruntlement. Another cheesy quality is quickspawn… really? now that just makes your life less valuable to the team since you can spawn so quick. I liked that in previous halo’s that if you wanted to run out like rambo away from the team and try to kill on your own then you would be punished after killed by waiting a few seconds before you could come back to the game in which for me enriches a mulitplayer game with the need to survive and how to beat the team without dying as much. so to me it takes the fun out of team work an people feel less inclined to do so. Quickspawn also took out alot of time for some halo vets who like to “-Yoink!-” their enemy. I mean come on I know some of you don’t like it but lets just face it Teabagging is to Halo as Tortillas are to Burritos.
I could go on and on about the COD/Halo merger and I’m sure there’s some people who could agree and lots who are ready to go off on me claiming there is nothing COD in Halo but trust me buddy you’re in denial. Its so obvious and you know what shooters will copy innovative shooters but most games try not to be obvious about it or if they are going to be captain obvious they make that quality 10x better one upping the competition rather than watering it down for the competition to snicker at.
Much with all said and more can I say that I hate halo 4? I could go on and on and on COD COD COD… but the answer is no. Even with the new gameplay mechanics that upset the crowd and blow up the forums to this day about to me isn’t what makes me want to put down the game. I’ve adapted to the new gameplay and enjoy it, i try to vote for maps that don’t allow quickspawn… Infact i found the gameplay in multiplayer fun and enjoyable…
But however to enjoy the game in multiplayer was a big challenge. For a little over a year I could say I’ve spent the most time ever in lag on halo 4 than with any… any… game I’ve played. I’ve also heard of lag switch kits cheaters use. Honestly Lag is what made most of the players stop playing and the numbers drop so much and honestly got me exploring new games. I still play halo time to time again but still lag lag lag… and trust me everything connection wise is superb at my house I’ve done all the checks and what have ya. Also the lack of maps and adapting map packs to playlists started to get me bored of the same thing. atleast reach forged their own maps to keep ya entertained. Honestly I felt ripped off. I haven’t gotten to play a Castle map at all and hardly see any other maps unless its on a playlist I don’t care to play. The load time to find players has me outside smoking cigs and joining a match halfway through. I still play Halo 4 but I get mad at it like a bad dog I don’t want to put down. Lagging is no fun and not fixed and maps don’t have enough “reach” across the list. I just hope 343 does better with the new one.
