I previously did a thread providing feedback on warzone and now I would like to do one on the REQ system.
Note: As in the warzone thread if you aren’t going to be part of a meaningful discussion then please just pass by this thread. This thread is for in depth discussion on the REQ system and how it can be improved. Do not start a flame war or attack other users. Any opinions on the subject are welcome but they need to have explanation to go with them. So please don’t respond with “REQ system is unfair and killed Halo.” If you have that opinion tell us WHY. That is the key word, WHY. Now let me begin.
The Good: I like that the armor, visors, and helmets aren’t locked behind insane credit walls like they were in Halo: Reach as well as having the ability to spawn whatever weapons or vehicles I feel like in warzone. It is an awesome feeling when you spawn in with a wraith or scorpion or some big bad power weapon. The requisition system allows you to unlock permanent reqs with ease and fairly frequently. The REQ system also allows players a lot of freedom in how they factor their play into a match of warzone. Unfortunately for me, this is where the good ends.
The Bad: The biggest problem I am seeing with req points is the RNG aspect of it. One player might get a legion of basic mongoose reqs while another player opens a legion of scorpions. Now say those two players alone face off with those reqs, well Halo has coined the phrase “Tank beats everything” so I think that isn’t even a point of discussion. In the warzone matches I’ve played I have started to pick up on the point where people either start holding back because they are running out of reqs or start having far less impact because they have run out of high level reqs. After my last match the only heavy vehicles I have left at this point are a single Mantis and Banshee. Its pretty easy to tell in a match which team has had better fortune with the req RNG or simply have a larger collection of cards at that point in time. This leads to largely one sided matches if one team has a far superior pool of reqs each of its individual members have at their disposal. The req system creates an imbalance of power because of its RNG. One team may be blessed by what D3 players call RNGesus by being able to throw tanks, banshees, wraiths, and other vehicles aplenty during a match where the other team is trying to answer them with ghosts and mongooses.
On another note with armor and visor unlocks this can lead to a lot of frustration with trying to unlock a specific set of armor pieces and visor colors. Say a player wants the Hell-jumper armor. They might open pack after pack getting items they dislike and will never use while not seeing it perhaps for months or maybe even longer. Because it is all RNG there is never a feeling of accomplishment with the unlocks. In Halo 3 you unlocked the Hayabusa armor for finding all the skulls. Halo 5 to my knowledge offers no such reward to its completionists other than the achievement. Also it nets nothing for those who complete legendary (just got that done myself a couple days ago with a friend). I like to look at Destiny when I see how people like RNG in a shooter. People have expressed great hatred for the cryptarch due to the frequency of getting trolled by RNG. It doesn’t work like it does in a Hack 'n Slash RPG like Diablo. In Diablo, Sacred, and other ARPGs players feel accomplished for finding those items because the loot hunt is the purpose of he game. Killing a swath of monsters makes you feel like a badass and finding all those big powerful weapons and armor makes slaughtering all those poor monsters worth the time spent. The loot hunt isn’t the purpose of a shooter, especially ones without RPG elements. It works in something like Borderlands because of how the game was designed. It doesn’t work in things like Destiny and Halo because the loot hunt isn’t there primary purpose. Well I guess in a way it is in Destiny but the way it was designed created the problems they face but that is a problem they get the honor of figuring out. RNG elements feel out of place in Halo when it comes to the permanent unlocks. When we see players in something like Helioskrill we know one of two things. They either were lucky enough to get it through reqs or they went through hell beating MCC on Legendary. For most people from what I’ve gathered the latter is the more likely case.
The Ugly:Because of how the req cards work, and how inevitabally it will be controlled by the players that play Halo religiously compared to those who play it casually, I think that when BTB comes to Halo 5 that warzone is going to be crippled. When a player looks at the collection and sees all of the mongooses and other low tier cards they have compared to what they face in warzone they will go straight to BTB where they don’t have to hope that they have the right card in order to use a vehicle they want to. Will they have to race others to get a hold of that tank, mantis, wraith, banshee, etc? Yes they will, but they will likely have more fun racing others to claim that vehicle or tank than they will getting pummeled by said vehicles because they didn’t have the req card to answer it. Everyone has a shot to get the same pieces of equipment and same vehicles on the map. I think BTB with how the req system currently works spells bad news for the longevity of warzone. BTB has no RNG involved in the gameplay whereas warzone does because of the req system. I am interested to see how others feel on the subject of req cards.