The trouble with Warzone

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

Here is a list of my numerous issues with Warzone and Warzone Assault

  1. Friendly Service Tags disappearing at range is irritating. Why can’t we at least see our Fireteam’s tags at all times?

  2. Severely depreciated graphics. Some maps seriously look last gen. There is a lack of indoor lighting in many bases, creating a flat look to surfaces. Texture blending is nonexistent on a few levels.

  3. Significantly more REQ points are awarded to the player in Warzone, regardless of performance. If I dominate an enemy team in Arena mode, I’ll receive around 600-800 REQ pts. If I simply participate in a Warzone match to the end, I can earn over 2,000 pts, even if I contribute very little in a losing effort. This seems like bait to keep players coming back to a clearly inferior mode of gameplay.

  4. Poor map design. The spawns and terrain allow players to rack up massive kills on a spawning team trying to hold a base while calmly sitting back in a Scorpion.

  5. Boss NPCs are dull bullet-sponges who just absorb a ton of punishment without any creative techniques to take them down, much like the big enemies from Destiny. They are also easily snatched away by the enemy team with a bullet or two, despite not being earned.

  6. Vehicle spawns are unavailable without Req card. Vehicles are the feature that first drew me into Halo CE years ago. Now the enjoyable kinetic havoc is restricted to limited cards earned in REQ packs. This includes their conspicuous absence in Arena mode.

  7. Warzone mode takes up the space which should have been reserved for classic Big Team Battle, replacing it with an experimental and disorganized game mode that does not feel all the way there. Warzone is not classic Halo “on steroids”, as it was promoted. This is a shakily balanced hodgepodge of unclear objectives, players, NPCs, and random vehicles all jumbled together. A far cry from the epic but orderly matches of Capture the Flag on Blood Gulch or the finely tuned Assault on Valhalla.

For me, that last one is the biggest problem. Large open maps with vehicles are what define classic Halo to me. During production, Halo 5’s developers implied and outright stated that they were trying to return to a classic Halo feeling while simultaneously evolving. The mechanics are definitely evolved and feel smooth but the classic Halo feel isn’t there. Due to Warzone’s chaotic sloppiness, I spend almost all of my time playing Arena multiplayer but Warzone’s existence still affects it by limiting all the playlists to the same few maps over and over again. I supposed we’re expected to join in the Warzone pandemonium for our large map/vehicle fix but for the reasons listed, I really don’t want to. I know a Big Team Battle playlist is scheduled to release in the next few months but it really ought to have been in the game to begin with. When it does come out, however, here’s hoping it functions like classic Halo, without REQ packs and with beautiful, natural maps that don’t even exist in Halo 5 currently.

Please share your thoughts on the lack of classic Halo multiplayer in Halo 5 and feel free to make suggestions to the Warzone critique list.

#2
  1. Agreed.
  2. I have yet to notice this.
  3. Consider the time played for Warzone and Arena matches. Warzone matches can last around 30 minutes while Arena matches are no longer than 10 minutes.
  4. Agreed.
  5. Agreed.
  6. Absolutely and wholeheartedly agreed. Reqs are holding back Warzone from being an awesome gametype.
  7. Agreed. After trying many different strategies I found the only way I win matches is by ignoring the enemy team and my own team and assassinating bosses.
  8. Agreed.
#3

Even with the vics in Warzone unless you have a banshee or phaeton there’s not enough open space to use any other vic effectively. The buildings are isolated with only one or two routes accessible by vehicle and most of that space is too tight maneuver. I get tanks stuck all the time trying to turn a corner.
Warzone looked amazing in the prelaunch videos and I was really pumped to play it, but it’s a massive disappoint.

#4

Totally agree with everything you said. that storm version of that island map looks like something out of the original xbox era. Also it seem like a waste to have eden and empire be so so similar along with regret and truth, when the original maps are so limited.

#5

I’m looking for people talking about maps and you all have some very good points. As I’ve deduced myself over the 50 hours or so I’ve spent between the two, there was never a great reason to divide between small scale arena and large scale warzone. Juse make maps of differing scale with every game type in mind. For instance if you want CTF on say, Bloodgood or Valhalla that requires vehicles to be really fun. There is no substitute for it with current multiplayer. We have these massive levels for this warzone thing but the feel is so different. I would like to see how BTB solves this or fills this in. The biggest issue is the lack of a great vehicle sandbox. The spartan combat is great as are most of the weapons but vehicular game play needs to be brought back to its glory days.