With the very rare exception, the most important aspect of any video game is its gameplay as if a game isn’t fun to play then it won’t hold an audience.
The Halo franchise has seen numerous additions/alterations to its gameplay over the years, but something that few people ever seem to think about is how these things affect gameplay. Duel wielding takes away melee/grenades, equipment/armor abilities add an element of random chance, sprint forces maps to be designed around it which creates design limitations, etc… Few people seem to take these facts into consideration when praising changes and additions due to equating new experience with good experience or, even worse, looking at things strictly from a fiction standpoint.
It’s possible to add to a game while improving upon it - vehicle hijacking, for example, only adds to the experience as it gives splattering a weakness - however, additions shouldn’t take away from the experience in any way and changes should only be used to fix previous issues. If something doesn’t need fixing, then adding to it should be all that’s done.
Please take this into consideration.
If adding new mechanics is usually bad (and I agree that it usually is), then where do you stand on the constant changing of universal mechanics like guns, grenades, melee, scoping/ads, motion tracker, etc.? Those things change every time a new Halo launches, and sometimes even get a tuning within a single title. Or, if you’re Halo 5, multiple tunings. Are those kinds of alterations just as annoying, or are they okay because they give us new challenges as the game evolves?
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> If adding new mechanics is usually bad (and I agree that it usually is), then where do you stand on the constant changing of universal mechanics like guns, grenades, melee, scoping/ads, motion tracker, etc.? Those things change every time a new Halo launches, and sometimes even get a tuning within a single title. Or, if you’re Halo 5, multiple tunings. Are those kinds of alterations just as annoying, or are they okay because they give us new challenges as the game evolves?
I’m fine with simple things like weapon tuning and alterations to grenade blast radius etc. as, in general, the games aren’t negatively impacted too badly in those instances. In some cases, like lowering the amount of grenades you can hold, actually improve the game by limiting grenade spam.
I’m not too concerned with, say, going from hitscan to projectile as much as something like adding in perks.