By now us purists know Halo C.E was the best of the series right? We also know that compared to PC shooters C.E was a slower paced game, yet it was competitive and provided a lot of “twitch” skill that required practice to master. Over the years however Halo has bogged down to an unbearable pace. Mainly, because of overall player movement and fluidity and some other gameplay decisions like longer kill times.
So what happened…
Halo 2 got slower but the maps were nicely constructed and the BR was a decent successor to the pistol, but Halo 3 made you feel like a freaking tank and the BR sucked. Pace was significantly reduced in Halo 3.
Reach introduced sprint, and jetpack, but it still felt much slower than Halo C.E because of the bloom functionality. Now, i know Sage wanted to introduce a ShadowRun cat and mouse feel to Halo Reach but the problem is it slowed the game down significantly. In ShadowRun you could teleport through freaking walls so the gameplay was fast and frantic. Not to mention you could get revived if you died so the whole game was blazingly fast and competitive which made longer kill times and bloom ok (it was also round based like Gears of War).
The ShadowRun implementations didn’t really work in Reach. Armor lock was obnoxious, the sprint should have been a default setting, cloak was abused, and the maps were never optimized for jetpack use. Nothing really worked right in Reach even though I feel it was a much better game than Halo 3.
Halo 4 needs to focus on PACE as one of it’s core components to improving the Halo experience. After just getting back from the COD MW3 launch i polled 15 people on what they found more enjoyable about COD.
I kid you not literally 10 out of the 15 at least mentioned PACE as one of their biggest reasons for enjoying COD over Halo and i have to agree with them.
PACE IS HUGE. Halo has felt too slow for too long. I know there are other components such as more skill based weapon choices, better graphics with less blue tint, competitive maps that aren’t built in the obnoxious forge palates, 60fps and higher HD resolution, etc.
But pacing to me has to be one of the most important aspects that 343 needs to address.
Anyway, I think it goes without saying that the pace needs to pick up, but will it? I personally don’t think so. Bungie seemed pretty insistent on slowing it down, plus with the community’s love for gimmicks that slow it down even further (equipment and AAs) I’m not too sure it’ll ever pick up.
> > Serge
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> I think you mean “Sage”.
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> I already corrected it.
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> Anyway, I think it goes without saying that the pace needs to pick up, but will it? I personally don’t think so. Bungie seemed pretty insistent on slowing it down, plus with the community’s love for gimmicks that slow it down even further (equipment and AAs) I’m not too sure it’ll ever pick up.
I’m ok with equipment as long as it’s balanced. There are ways to use equipment and still maintain a fast pace. Other games have done it… like i said ShadowRun, and COD does similar equipment based things (though some of it does bog the game down with camping).
Overall player movement needs to pick up. That’s just a fact. If 343 argues this in anyway they have already failed. It’s one of the main complaints thrown at Halo for some time now.
> > finding the right balance in pace is very difficult, we won’t know until next year what the pace is going to be like. so we have to wait and see.
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> Ok. I guess?
>
> But overall player movement? is that even questionable at all? It needs to be increased.
I agree, Halo needs to be sped up, but nt to te point where it hasthe CoD, twitch instinct insta kill feel.
A huge part of halo, is that there are actual gun fights that last a few seconds.
Being able to look at your target, know he sees you, know he’s shooting you, and know he’ll kill youif you don’t get the upper hand soon is what makes Halo, Halo.
Halo is not a first see first kill game (aside from swat) and it should not be made into one.
[This is the opinion of {Kendreth} and an opinion alone]
Now when you say pace do you mean game pace or kill times? Because Halo has always had a strategic and medium paced flow with medium kill times until Reach came with sprint+bloom and changed that up a bit. I agree that Halos kill times could go down simply by removing bloom on weapons and returning default movement speed to normal and removing sprint. But Halo has a UNIQUE and distinct game pace to it changing that with Reach did not go well, I think by returning to Halo 2 movement speeds/jumps heights the medium game pace for Halo would return which suits the medium kill times.
jet pack, AL, sprint, and bubble all slow reach down EVEN FURTHER. without AAs the game already plays SUPER slow, with them its even more slow. slow is dull.
if only we had the adrenaline pumping skill gap induced gameplay of halo 2 again. that game was famazing.
No bloom.
Not class-based .
Greandes, Melee and Weapons.
Medium paced gameplay.
Fast moving speed and jump heigh because of the absense of jetpack and sprint.
I agree. The pacing needs to make the game feel like either Halo CE or Halo 2 again.
Perfect kill times should be somewhere in between the CE Magnum and H2 BR. Average kill times should be noticeably longer.
Movement speed and strafing need to feel fast and fluid. We’re Spartan super soldiers; moving quickly and gracefully is one of their notable aspects and benefits gameplay nicely.
Shield recharge and jump height are two other aspects which need to mesh well with kill times and movement speed.
Finally, map design will also aid in pacing. Maps should be designed in such a way that they offer different scenarios without encouraging a cessation of movement. A good flow is key.
> Perfect kill times should be somewhere in between the CE Magnum and H2 BR. Average kill times should be noticeably longer.
CE pistol was 3SK, H2 BR was 3.3333SK (round up to 4). The difference between them is you had to lead shots with pistol and BR was not semi-auto.
The sandbox needs to be CE sandbox. All weapons are useful in their own niche. Not like 2, 3 and Reach where half the weapons are TOTALLY useless.
I totally agree with OP. Need faster kill times and a faster pace. The “dance” of Halo won’t go away, it will never be as fast as modern shooters, but it needs to get back to its roots.
> Halo is not a first see first kill game (aside from swat) and it should not be made into one.
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>
>
> [This is the opinion of {Kendreth} and an opinion alone]
I agree. Halo can already play like COD when you play it in SWAT mode which i can’t stand. Still, the pacing needs improvement, the kill time needs to be sped up, and most importantly PLAYER MOVEMENT needs to be increased.
I think my main issue is with player movement. In the last two Halo’s you feel like a freaking tank, a turtle, not a super soldier.
Games like Halo C.E, ShadowRun, they made you feel like a mini-god where only the best players or hell the best teams could only take you down.
Halo these days make you feel like a little worm that without proper camping and caution you’ll be destroyed… and a lot of times by much lesser opponents.
> > Perfect kill times should be somewhere in between the CE Magnum and H2 BR. Average kill times should be noticeably longer.
>
> CE pistol was 3SK, H2 BR was 3.3333SK (round up to 4). The difference between them is you had to lead shots with pistol and BR was not semi-auto.
>
> The sandbox needs to be CE sandbox. All weapons are useful in their own niche. Not like 2, 3 and Reach where half the weapons are TOTALLY useless.
>
> I totally agree with OP. Need faster kill times and a faster pace. The “dance” of Halo won’t go away, it will never be as fast as modern shooters, but it needs to get back to its roots.
Uh, I know all that already. Shots to kill is irrelevant. It’s the perfect kill time vs the average kill time which dictates both pacing and skill gap. And all weapons could benefit from such a gap, hence making them useful in their respective niche.
> > > Perfect kill times should be somewhere in between the CE Magnum and H2 BR. Average kill times should be noticeably longer.
> >
> > CE pistol was 3SK, H2 BR was 3.3333SK (round up to 4). The difference between them is you had to lead shots with pistol and BR was not semi-auto.
> >
> > The sandbox needs to be CE sandbox. All weapons are useful in their own niche. Not like 2, 3 and Reach where half the weapons are TOTALLY useless.
> >
> > I totally agree with OP. Need faster kill times and a faster pace. The “dance” of Halo won’t go away, it will never be as fast as modern shooters, but it needs to get back to its roots.
>
> Uh, I know all that already. Shots to kill is irrelevant. It’s the perfect kill time vs the average kill time which dictates both pacing and skill gap. And all weapons could benefit from such a gap, hence making them useful in their respective niche.
This has the been the main problem with the Halo sandbox I believe from the start. Weapons like the needler,PP,plasma rifle, AR basically all of Halos niche weapons lack a aiming skill gap and therefore will never be accepted into competitve gameplay and never scale with player skill. They are one dimensional weapons, and while they have had their place in the game and add strategy they fail to fit into a competitve envrionment with precision weapon starts. They need new uses and versatility or they will forever be viable in AR starts where there is no viable precision weapon present on spawn, but fail to hold up in precision weapon starts.
I think Bungie designed Halo with AR starts in mind and not utility weapon starts and thats why the niche weapons are not very viable in utility weapon starts. So while people who like AR starts have a close to perfectly balanced Sandbox, people who like utility weapon starts are limited in the viable weapons available on the map. New weapons need to be introduced fit for utility weapon or the current niche weapons need to be changed in order for both AR and utility weapon starts to be perfectly balanced and for utiility weapon starts to offer more weapon variety at even the highest competitve level in Halo which is MLG.
> > > > Perfect kill times should be somewhere in between the CE Magnum and H2 BR. Average kill times should be noticeably longer.
> > >
> > > CE pistol was 3SK, H2 BR was 3.3333SK (round up to 4). The difference between them is you had to lead shots with pistol and BR was not semi-auto.
> > >
> > > The sandbox needs to be CE sandbox. All weapons are useful in their own niche. Not like 2, 3 and Reach where half the weapons are TOTALLY useless.
> > >
> > > I totally agree with OP. Need faster kill times and a faster pace. The “dance” of Halo won’t go away, it will never be as fast as modern shooters, but it needs to get back to its roots.
> >
> > Uh, I know all that already. Shots to kill is irrelevant. It’s the perfect kill time vs the average kill time which dictates both pacing and skill gap. And all weapons could benefit from such a gap, hence making them useful in their respective niche.
>
> This has the been the main problem with the Halo sandbox I believe from the start. Weapons like the needler,PP,plasma rifle, AR basically all of Halos niche weapons lack a aiming skill gap and therefore will never be accepted into competitve gameplay and never scale with player skill. They are one dimensional weapons, and while they have had their place in the game and add strategy they fail to fit into a competitve envrionment with precision weapon starts. They need new uses and versatility or they will forever be viable in AR starts where there is no viable precision weapon present on spawn, but fail to hold up in precision weapon starts.
>
> I think Bungie designed Halo with AR starts in mind and not utility weapon starts and thats why the niche weapons are not very viable in utility weapon starts. So while people who like AR starts have a close to perfectly balanced Sandbox, people who like utility weapon starts are limited in the viable weapons available on the map. New weapons need to be introduced fit for utility weapon or the current niche weapons need to be changed in order for both AR and utility weapon starts to be perfectly balanced and for utiility weapon starts to offer more weapon variety at even the highest competitve level in Halo which is MLG.
AR starts also promote moving out and looking for a better weapon.
