Hello, this is my first time posting on this forum. I come here out of frustration, frustration stemming from how much much potential this game has, but does not utilize. There are countless issues in the game that are crippling gameplay and quickly killing the replay-ability of this game. I have always been a huge fan, I started with CE and continued through Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach. I enjoyed each of them greatly. I’m a good player, and I am competitive, but I’m in no means “MLG” and consider myself a casual. These are my concerns:
Campaign
Apart from issues with offline play-throughs not earning armor, I thought 343i did a wonderful job. There was a lot of humanity in all the characters, and I, as well as all my friends, truly were touched by the ending. Nothing wrong here!
Multiplayer
This is where the game gets rough. To start off, matchmaking is slow, and it seems like when my friends and I want to find a game, it takes us a while, sometimes up to several minutes. There is no option to restrict who’d you like to play with, and I have been finding myself playing with other nationalities (We can’t communicate) and this often results in laggy play sessions. I have nothing against other cultures, but obviously it is hard to play with someone across the globe speaking another language. Furthermore, in game, I find there to be severe lag in most BTB games which kills the fun. I have a great connection, and have 0 issues thus far until Halo 4. Spawning is terrible in tactical games like SWAT and Snipers, often times I find myself spawning out in plain sight and die almost immediately. Killcams are horrendous, especially in the aforementioned gametypes. I don’t camp, but it’s annoying as sin to be killed in Snipers only because the enemy used the killcam to find you. I don’t mind killcams in other game modes, but SWAT and Snipers have no need for that. Join in Progress needs cleaning, as I have found myself dropped into incredibly lopsided games several times. I’m not a stat -Yoink!-, but I hate to see my W/L take a hit because I dropped into a 50-400 Sniper game.
Customs
There are little to no options in games here. Race is gone, the flood is so broken old games like fat boy are no longer reasonable, VIP, and other fun modes are completely absent. 343i really trashed the customs games crowd with this release. Hopefully a TU can bring some relief soon!
Spartan OPS
I understand design takes a while, but there is no need to repeat the same few maps over and over. Don’t get me wrong, Spartan Ops are a ton of fun, and I’m glad we have them, but a little more variation would help support the story. Also, on that note, it would be great if missions actually progressed the story more, with interactions and better objectives. Kill this and activate that missions don’t do much to explain what’s going on.
Forge
I truly enjoy forge. It looks great and plays well. Thanks 343i!
Conclusion
With tweaking of some modes, Halo 4 could possible be one of the best installments. However, until then, I feel as if the current state leaves much to be desired.