Hello all I’m BattleBroVolks aka Volks and I’m here to discuss the Good the Bad and the needed and way for developers to get what they need to improve their game without outlandish attacks.
Lets start with the good. The good is, is that Halo 4 is a well rounded game for the average gamer and the competitive gamer. This is done with what I call ‘the skill of entry’ and is often left out. This means the game is too easy or is inaccessible to new players and only to vets.
For example a new player starts to play and quickly understands the core mechanics of Halo 4 and becomes a good player, and the reason why this works is the core mechanics are very simple. However on the Competitive level the core mechanics are broadened out leading to players having to go further into not just the individual player but the team level the map level and the weapon level.
All of this can be learned easily but takes awhile to master which is great for a competitive game. And to be honest Halo 4 does this the best. Why do you ask? Custom loadouts are the answer; they allow for very early on to allow the player to understand the weapons and experiment with new tactics to get kills etc. However when put onto the competitive level this can lead to each member filling a role in a team leading a very complicated strategies.
On the weapon level Halo 4 excels at making the player feel powerful no matter what they are carrying. This is done with perfect imbalance allowing for weapons to be powerful but not upsetting the the balance of the game entirely. This allows for new tactics and play styles to existence without breaking the core mechanics. Call of Duty tries this but the main problem is that their are too many guns to use leading to many imbalances which break the game.
And on the map level they do well; they bring the heat with very well crafted maps with plenty of avenues to engage your foes. This leads to great games for the average gamer and fantastic ones for the competitive gamer.
On the single player side the story was very well delivered. I haven’t played a console shooter in a while that didn’t feature some cold war nut job trying to attack the US. The Didact is a really good villain not the mustache twirling villain like we see today but one you can understand and level with, he’s very similar to Andrew Ryan or Enclave their vision is dangerous but has a good reason for such beliefs.
Now lets get to the bad part of this forum; now I’m not saying 343i are bad people and trust me all developers make mistakes especially this being their first game on their own.
First is going to be some form of competitive play, this could fall under my needed category but I feel if Halo is going to break back into the competitive scene they needed more for the competitive gamer. This could have easily added in and it could have been some form or arena but I feel they needed their own playlist or something. Ironically Black Ops 2’s league play is a great example but I don’t see Black Ops 2 in MLG with the maps they have.
Second, the campaign was criminally short; eight hours is a very poor excuse for a campaign. I can understand having to juggle campaign and multiplayer but you need to understand you could have done so much more withe campaign if you put more time into it.
Third custom games are jokingly dumbed down. Seriously I like flood but vanilla infection is something WE need as a community. As well their are other gametypes that are missing such as race, assault which are good gametypes of their own.
Now for the third part; the needed. This is stuff that could be used to improve Halo into the future and be able to be back on top of the gaming community as not only a good competitive shooter but a piece of art.
For starters something along the lines of live streaming and some sort of league play. These were implemented in Black Ops 2 and in Starcraft 2 well and could be used in Halo very well. Streaming for Halo has always been expensive with some sort of spectator mood it could lead to Halo taking the throne again as a competitive shooter king. And to top that off with a league mood or something like that would only insure its place.
Second Spartan Ops has potential but it could easily evolve into its own campaign if you treat like a campaign. Right now I feel like its firefight but with a story to it. Not to say its bad its pretty awesome but you need to add more narrative and have player action drive the story as well.
Well thats all folks, hope you enjoyed this thread please relpy favorite and share it. The Emperor Protects.