Disclaimer: This thread isn’t a Halo 4 bashing thread. On the contrary, I want to compare the positives and negatives of each game and advocate change to improve the series as a whole. My intention is to bring up constructive discussion, not to start a flame war.
Since it’s blasphemy to bring up Halo 3 or Call of Duty, I’m going to try a different approach. And don’t worry, I’ll be fair to Halo 4 as well.
People often joke about Halo 4 being Reach 2. I honestly wish that was actually the case. But it’s not. While there are several things Halo 4 does better, there are several things Halo Reach did better as well.
To keep hold of your interest, I’ll bring up Halo 4’s positives first.
1. The removal of Bloom
Bloom was added in an attempt to force players to pace their shots at longer ranges. It would allow weapons like the DMR to be useful at long range, but not overbearing. The problem is bloom often lead to battles at close to medium range being determined by luck and not skill.
Halo 4 was right to remove it, but Halo 4 implemented things that are worse, which I will go into later.
2. Hitmarkers
I feel these are a good idea. They let you know when you are actually hitting your enemy, so you can determine if that frag you threw around the corner actually did something useful or not.
3. Player Progression
Commendations have a bigger role than previous, and it’s easy to get to 130. This means people can get all the rank-related content like perks, weapon skins and armor fairly quickly, but commendations are still something to strive for and don’t have game-changing attributes tied to them.
4. Customizable Loadouts
While I can’t say I enjoy or prefer them being in almost every playlist, nor the current options available in them, I can say I think they are a good concept that brings a new level of customization to the game.
5. Armor Abilities
Armor abilities are much more balanced in Halo 4 than in Reach. Gamebreaking ones like jetpack and armor lock have been nerfed or reinvented into more balanced alternatives. Still, there is room for improvement.
6. Encounter Times
Encounters in some of Reach’s maps felt painfully slow. I would travel all across the map searching for enemies. In Halo 4 I have no issue finding battles, though I will say they can be too fast at times.
7. Spartan Ops
Poorly executed, but it has a lot of potential.
Now, Reach’s Turn:
1. Forge World
Forge world was a MASSIVE forge map that allowed for endless possibilities. You could forge anything you wanted, whether it be a tiny arena map or a wide open BTB map. Halo 4’s forge is limited in comparison, you are confined to making only small or medium sized maps. Every game should have a forge world, if not multiple.
2. The Sandbox
Reach’s Sandbox was somewhat smaller than Halo 4’s, but in my opinion it had more variety. Taking from Halo CE’s mentality, almost every weapon was unique in some form or another. Fan favorites like the Grenade Launcher and Falcon come to mind. It is depressing to see some of those weapons removed in-place of reskins like the Suppressor or Beam Rifle. I feel there was a lot of lost potential with forerunner weapons, they could’ve been unique instead of common archetypes like SMG’s and Rifles. Many beloved weapons and vehicles haven’t returned either. I’m not necessarily saying “copy-past weapons from reach”, but I’d like to see more variety. The Railgun and Sticky Detonator are new concepts, lets have more of that.
3. Art Style
Subjective, I’ve already gone over it, here’s the thread if you’re interested, you probably won’t be sadly. Moving on.
4. Skillful Weapons
I won’t say magnetism wasn’t present in reach. But there was very little aim assist at close range, and none at long ranges. If you hit someone, it’s because you aimed at them, and not because the game pulled your crosshair to them. Getting a shot from across the map with the DMR actually felt rewarding, now you can just spam it for kills. Bloom wasn’t necessary because of the lack of aim assist, but now with all this aim assist it becomes necessary. Guns should have no bloom AND low aim assist, not one or the other.
5. Map Design
Reach still had arena styled maps with a lot of verticality. Reflection and Boardwalk for instance. While AA’s did detract from the experience somewhat, I feel that these maps still play well, and that 343I has overcompensated with their map design. Most maps in Halo 4 are fairly simplistic in their design, I feel this leads to staler gameplay.
6. Player Freedom
You could toggle sprint on and off in Reach. Reach also had the most custom games options of any title, along with the best Forge in my opinion. Players weren’t constrained to what the developers wanted. There were also classic and competitive playlists so people weren’t forced to play the vanilla of the game. These playlists didn’t rely on stripping the game down entirely either.
7. Specific gametypes having specific loadouts.
I feel this has potential, and I would like to see this furthered. What if specific maps had specific loadouts? For instance, disabling jetpack use on maps like hang em high, or Active Camo use on maps that have small, crowded areas? Disabling DMR’s on maps that weren’t intended to be about long range fighting, or AR’s and Plasma Pistols on BTB maps?
What I’m proposing:
Halo 5 should merge the two titles. It should focus on taking the best aspects from both, and leaving the negative aspects behind, and then innovating on top of that.
