“People may think they’re the neighborhood heroes, think they can hang with me… you won’t be able to.” Tsquared, 2006
This quote perfectly describes the mindset of most Halo players in the HCE+H2 Days and present to a lesser extent. Everyone loved playing Halo with their buddies competing against each other in friendly(and sometimes not so friendly) competition to see who was king of the neighborhood. It was all about who was better with the pistol, who could use all the weapons and power-ups on the map most effectively,who was getting sniper, who could best who in BloodGulch CTF or Chill Out Slayer it didnt matter what game settings it was everyone wanted to embarass each other and have bragging rights the rest of the week until you LAN’d again all while having fun playing the game. This is the mindset that was the driving force behind the creation of MLG and Halo as the flagship/premiere game, this is the driving force behind why people lugged their TV’s and Xbox’s over to their friends house every week to LAN, this is the driving force behind why people went through the trouble to play HCE on XBC and still do, this is the driving force behind why so many Halo fans love the first two Halo games multiplayer and dislike Reach, ultimately this is the driving force behind Halo multiplayer and FPS games as a whole and their success in a way. It was an infectious competitve mindset that drove people to play Halo multiplayer and want to get better and prove they are the “neighborhood heroes” to their friends and enemies.
So why do so many people that play Halo feel this way? In Halo, a balanced system exists. Each player starts out exactly the same, on a leveled playing field. It is then left to the players skill to dominate the map, control sight lines, and assertively hold the power weapons. Map geometry also can be used usefully by the player, as well as the less restricted movement. Game mechanics like jumping, strafing, and higher health adds to the skill required. These extra variables (which are not random in any way) can completely be manipulated by the player. Assume players of equal skill: the player who is jumping will win. The player who is strafing verses the one who isn’t will win. The player with more health will win. However, with players of differing skill, the one who can use these extra variables to his advantage, even if he has lower health, can come out of the battle as the victor. This is what promotes competitive gameplay in Halo. A testimony to this is MLG’s consideration of Halo as the ultimate competitive shooter in the Halo 1 to Halo 3 era for console shooters.
With Reach, the competitve mindset and frenzy for Halo multiplayer is not there. The game is simply not the Halo we all grew up playing and love and pales in comparison to previous Halo titles on a competitve level. There is many factors that contributes to this, but I will name a few. Game mechanics like AA’s ruined the level playing and symmetrical starts of Halo and thus the balance and satisfaction of knowing you beat your opponent on a 100 percent even playing field is not there. People sprint away to make up for their mistakes too often, people roll around like silly gymnasts, people spam camo and gain a unbalanced advantage as well as annoy everyone around them by jamming their radar, people fly around in the air removing the need for strategic map movement and map control, the game has no competitve edge whatsoever and is not fit for that gameplay and gamers realize that. Second is bloom, Halo has always stressed gun accuracy and consistency and while the DMR bloom has been fixed now in some playlists its still random and inconsistent in Default Reach making the DMR a inconsistent weapon. At closer ranges 1v1 DMR battles become coin flips, and skill no longer determines these battles sometimes but luck. This takes the entire aspect of the need for accuracy and consistent aim away from Halo(Not just the DMR but the AR and others also) and more importantly the sense of control from the player to determine his fate and replaces it with confusion and frustration from a unfitting and broken game mechanic. Lastly, there is no longer a visible skill-based ranking system and clan system to feed the competitve mindset of Halo players and get competitve matches and form clans to get better at the game as a team and play other clans through clan matches.
Halo 4 must be a competitve Halo game and return to the model of the Halo trilogy in order for it to be sucessful and revive the essence of Halo multiplayer to the series. It needs to be the console game people play for competitive gameplay again, there needs to be that frenzy from gamers to want to hop on Halo and own some noobs while having fun playing the game. Even CoD is beating out Halo in promoting their game that way now which is a disgrace with their whole “Noobs vs Veterans” and “COD Elite” taglines which feeds the competitve mindset of most FPS gamers. Halo 4 multiplayer should be promoted and play like THE FPS you play for friendly competition between friends, it should be the console game everyone wants to be good at. Everyone should want to be a 50 or a General in a playlist, everyone should want to be like Walshy or want to have a team/clan with their friends like Final Boss in H2+H3 because thats how it was with the Halo trilogy people wanted to play Halo competitvely and we saw it as THAT game and still do and thats the main reason the multiplayer was so sucessful.
TLDR: Halo was the first true competitve FPS for console and the most popular one, the way to get Halos hype back is to bring that competitive gameplay back with Halo 4 and get people psyched and in a frenzy to play Halo multiplayer again. Remember this video from H2? It shows the true passion for Halo multiplayer and this is how H4 should be promoted and designed for. Bungie explains and understands 100 percent why people love Halo multiplayer here its about competing with and against your friends in a great competitve Halo game and the fun that comes with that.(Video link below)
