Let me start off by saying, at it’s core Halo 4 is a playable game if not actually good.
AT IT’s CORE… But you 343 Industries have slathered a bunch of dookie all over this brick of gold. I like the game and am more than likely to stick w/ it instead of going back to Reach (though the thought is tempting at times, no offense to Halo 4). Anyhow here is a list of things I, a person who technically started as a middle-schooler playing Halo 2 and continued w/ the franchise to this day thinks.
Match Making:
- Random Weapon Drops - I feel this feature really takes the potential heart out of each and every map. Yes, it destroys that age old map control play style that is all important to Halo, but look at it this way. When you think of an old Halo map, one you love or hate - what is one of the first things you think of? Weapon Placement, whether it was the Splaze atop Valhallas pride Rock or the sword tucked away off and under lockout- these were things that made each map special and unique both in gameplay and in memory.
Return predictable spawn times, perhapse get rid of that silly weapon lable on the HUD. Maybe Fuel Rod or Incinerator can ranodomly replace the rockets, or the Scattershot replace the Sword once in awhile. But keep the general weapon type/time reasonable and predictable.
-
Personal Ordinance - Now, I don’t hate it at all. But sadly I think it mostly works because your random weapon drops don’t. For certain I say it belongs in BTB, just in-case you latter decide to tinker w/ it’s existence.
-
Join-In-Progress - I get it, games shouldn’t force you to play them. any normal person would think it absurd if your game put you on time-out for quitting. But why do we quit? To do chores? To go to work? Emergency perhapse? Yes, but frankly if it is life that gets in the way than the in-game punishment couldn’t matter less. Now, most people seem to quit when they are losing a match… Thus alot of people like myself tend to be unexpectantly thrown into games that are horribly imbalanced score-wise.
Let JIP just be a feature to join your freinds who are in a game, not random ppl.
Perhaps punish those who quit frequently like in Reach (maybe make it a tad more lenient if you wish)
- Friendly Fire - While I don’t like turning it off for a list upon list of reasons, I see it CURRENTLY does more good than harm. However you seemed to miss a spot 343, BTB. You see, when I jump in that Gauss Turret, or that Mantis - I tend to get purposefully blown up by my apparently enraged team mates. This angers me, and w/out freindly fire I cannot return the favor.
Make Vehicles immune to team-shooting OR return freindly fire (and the booting system… You better have at LEAST made sure it worked like Reach if not better…)
- Just my opinion - The game feels good, is relatively balanced. I only have a few generalized gripes (not necessarily problems like those stated above) that I feel you may want to fix.
- Instant Respawns: Most games, even board games punish players for doing bad. Punishments only need be simple enough to encourage improvement. Instant respawns don’t do this. They only encourage players to jump back in and die the exact same way they did previously.
- Kills-Times: My biggest general gripe, starter weapons feel too powerful. thankfully they are MOSTLY balanced to one another- they seem to genuinely compete against power weapons and diminish the importance of other things like powerups or even AAs.
Campaign S.Ops sorta: Oh yes, I’m going there. While the story alone I feel was surprisingly the best, the gameplay I would say has a few issues that even Halo CE didn’t make.
-
Enemy Classes - They seemingly don’t matter. At least w/ the Covenant. While Normally ‘Minors’ stuck w/ lowe end weapons, ‘Majors’ having better shields and smarts, Rangers Precision, and ‘Ultras-Generals’ using explosives and Swords… The current covenant in Halo 4 are all over the place, On Legendary all Elites may have fule Rods or Officers may act like Zeaolts busting their swords out in a rage. To me this demens the points in different enemy casts and disrupts that classic Halo flow.
-
Check-Points - In Campaign it seems too easy to respawn off a team mate. While a nice idea I sometimes spawn in gun-fire or worse randomly not at all.
ALSO lack of check-point respawns in S.Ops makes the whole experience feel, non important. There again is no punishment for faliure and no encouragement to play smarter.
- S.Ops Cutscenes: Shooting the elephant in the room, while the prerendered scenes w/ other universe characters are cool I am highly disappointed that my character and team has no room in the direct STORY. I feel Reach went in the right direction of your Spartan being a plot-point as opposed to Halo 4 having him/her some non-existant shadow mentioned obscurely.
At least having some end-scene including my character and team after the last chapter of each mission would get me to want to play. Cause I’m sorta just watching the episodes and going ‘meh’ to the rest.
- Theater: No Theater for Campaign or S.Ops… Again you guys took something extra to the ‘single-player’ experience and removed it.
Let me finish saying I am not COMPLAINING because I feel ‘ripped off’. I only want what is best for this game and the franchise as a whole. Halo is the best FPS IMO even in it’s low points, I just want to do anyting I can to propel it into being honestly recognized by most as the greatest FPS out there in every aspect. I know I didn’t mention Forge or Customs but I think the rest of you can/will take full care of that.
Thank you for your support, you did good 343. I didn’t think you’d make the game half as good as it is but you showed me I was wrong.