Why would they continue with this? I agree that they won’t look back, but only because they’re stubborn and think their way of playing is best, which is evident by them trying to get more players on Reach when releasing Halo Anniversary without MP. Clearly their features aren’t very alluring, otherwise the population of 4 wouldn’t have dropped by over 75% since release.
Sprint? There’s no need. It gives the illusion of speeding the game up, when in reality if they just upped the movement speed people wouldn’t be able to sprint away from fights and would be punished for poor positioning. In addition, at about 120% movement of what it is now, the games pace is fine, PLUS it would help solve the maps problem, making smaller maps viable again. Anyone saying “Spartans should be able to sprint” should be banned. Canon has NO place in MP, it should all be balancing.
Ordinance, while I don’t care much about it, is unbalanced as a whole. Random weapon spawns? I haven’t played since mid-December since I don’t bring my Xbox to school, but I would say over half of my spawns for ordinance were the needler/grenades/speed boost combo. Other people get rockets, sniper, incineration cannon, all of which can turn the game.
Armor abilities in theory was a decent idea, but they break the maps. Jetpack breaks the maps by destroying any kind of high ground/defenders advantage. Promethean Vision? It helps combat camping, but the camping is only as rampant because of invis being destroyed as a powerup and added as an AA. Can’t tell you how many times i’ll be running into a base that is fine, but all of a sudden I get bolt-shotted by an invis kid, or shotgunned, or sniped.
This leads me into my next point, that loadouts are silly. Before, everyone started off equal. Your spartan could be just as effective being a sniper, as a pilot, as a heavy gunner (turret, shotty, rockets, laser, etc), as anything else. Now? Your pinned into a role with loadouts. Say you want to be a driver? Great, equip the vehicle specializations that make your vehicle stronger. It’s a bummer you have to do this instead of using reload and resupply specializations. In past games, you could just pick up the ammo or grenades.
As a result, the game is less balanced overall. Without the vehicle specializations, you’re easily killed. With them, you’re locked into a single role and will most likely lose as someone who’s specialized with the flinch stabilization and the resupply specialization.
The premise of Halo was everybody starts equal. Weapon spawns and good map design foster movement, and teamwork is needed to hold that map control. Now? Weapon spawns are gone, the maps are awful thanks to sprint and just poor design, and the teamwork. Well, that’s hard to affect as a game designer.
edit; Forgot to mention, but in loadouts, you can spawn with a shotgun. Overall gun balance in this game is average, we have multiple guns that do the same thing. We have the carbine, which has been useless for 3 games now. The BR, which is useless compared to the DMR. The DMR, which hits everyone from miles away and never misses, and finally, the Light Rifle, which… What does it do exactly? It has a slow kill time, augmented only by it’s extra damage while scoped.
That’s 4 guns just for one niche, the rifle mid-range fight. You have 3 guns for short range assault combat (AR, Suppressor, Storm Rifle [Why did the plasma rifle even need to be changed]. You have 3 pistols, 2 of which are incredibly similar (plasma and boltshot). If the boltshot gets nerfed by not being a 1shot kill, it will literally be the same as the plasma pistol, minus the homing and will therefore be redundant and useless. 2 shotguns, though I don’t know why we need 2? 3 Sniper rifles, 1 of which is the easy mode 1-shot body kill. 2 rocket type weapons, once again, why do we need the incineration cannon? Finally, the plasma launcher, laser, brute-shot-esque weapon from Reach, and I forget what else. All of that is so complicated! I would settle for WAY less weapons if the balance was good, but there’s certain situations where it’s ALWAYS better to go 1 weapon.
For example, the Boltshot is as good as if not better than the shotty’s, plus I can spawn with it! The DMR outclasses every other mid-range rifle at all levels. The boltshot is also better than most of the pistols, since the plasma pistol’s lock-on is super nerfed, and the magnum. Well, it’s only useful if you’re stick carrying the flag since it has a smaller range than DMR/BR/LR/Carbine.
This brings me to objective. WHY is it all insta-pick up? WHY do we have a flagnum? The flag was fine. Flag-throwing was a skill in H2-H3, it let EVERYONE know where you were at the cost of speed, it was a tradeoff. Sometimes you could make a sick jump, or pass the flag from mid to top (Onslaught anyone? Midship? Etc). Now you can’t drop it unless you die. Why bother picking up the flag if you won’t be able to help your team cover your escape? Instead, it just -Yoinks!- you over for being near the flag.
Oddball? I have less of a problem with this, but again the auto-pickup is ridiculous, and it feels like the throw is delayed or slow. It would be much more competitive if you could drop it and shoot instead of having to slowly throw it.
This game is a -Yoink-. I really, really wanted to like it after hearing amazing things from my friend, who’s not even a big Halo player! Instead, I played it for 2-3 weeks and then went back to Halo 3.