So I’ve been playing other games since I moved away from halo after seeing what 343 have done with halo 4. And I have to say while 343 has done some good with halo, it seems mainy it seems to be lacking against its opposition. So with that I’m going to put in a list of things 343 did well, a list of things 343 did poorly, and a list of things other shooters did better, that 343 could learn from and maybe implement in future titles. Bear with me that this is all in my opinion, and while I cant stop you from disagreeing, I’d like you to actually think about all this first and what it means.
Things 343 did well:
Campaign:
The halo 4 campaign was one of the better campaigns for a halo game in terms of story.
The cutscenes were very well done graphically and the animations felt very convincing.
Multiplayer
New game modes (Dominion, Regicide, etc.)
More customisation (All new/remade armour)
Co-op
New spartan ops mode was a welcome addition to the series
Forge
New lighting engine
Ability to lock parts
New map specific themed parts
Graphics
Redone graphics are definitely one of the best this year, if not the best.
Things 343 did poorly:
Campaign:
Large lack of variation/detail in places.
7 enemy classes really? (grunt, elite, jackal, hunter, knight, crawler, watcher) boooooring. I’m sure there could have been more to mix it up.
Multiplayer
What happened to all the previous gametypes? (race, invasion, territories, stockpile, etc.)
Why is the file share still having problems?
No elites.
Co-op
Removed firefight despite it being a fan favourite gametype, and the only survival type gametype in halo.
Forge
No large areas to forge in, making maps harder to make and in some cases impossible to recreate
Camera glitches while moving close to map edges and solid parts and often causes camera to fall into death zones while placing parts
Active death zones in general, why do they even exist in forge?. A simple “you cannot create in this area” message would suffice.
Theatre
Theatre mode does not record spartan ops or campaign where some of the best videos would have otherwise been found
Things competing shooters did better 343 could learn from (also the games that have it):
Bots for offline play – CoD black ops 2
Prone - CoD black ops 2
Validation in map maker (essentially this has a checklist in the map editor (that can be checked while making the map) stating what needs to be placed to make a gametype work in a map. Including the number of each of these items/spawns/objectives required and the number of the following already placed) having this would significantly improve forging for beginners as they would not require guidance or walkthroughs to know how to create a gametype. Also when 343 release a new forge capable gametype no new guides would be required. - Far Cry 3
Sprint to crouch, slide - Far Cry 3
Time of day, weather effects, water, water effects, lighting, and terrain editing, lets face it this map editor is unbeaten, guess who… - Far Cry 3
Seamless drop in drop out co-op gameplay (would make campaign, and spartan ops better) – Borderlands 2
Now I’m likely to hear the usual reply from the fanboys of halo “just go if you dont like it, we wont miss you”, well honestly I haven’t missed halo 4. I’ll be back to see how spartan ops turns out, and to see if they do anything with the rest of my free preorder map packs. But i’m starting to doubt I’ll ever be back for multiplayer. I think i’ve said enough, please try to be mature and give this some thought.