Throwdown

Games Other Halo
1

Well it’s here, Throwdown. Said to be passed down by the competitive gods themselves however the question is: Is Throwdown a soaring competitive dream or is it just another milestone in the graveyard of failures that is Halo 4?

I went into Throwdown with mixed feelings. As much I longed for a playlist which was actually good the small critic within my mind was already telling me that the playlist was going to fail along with the rest of the game (Team Doubles is excused). However I decided to put my contempt for 343 aside and decided to give them one more chance to prove that I hadn’t just wasted £40.

The first game I played was enjoyable, the map played well and looked nice - Shut Down I believe which is a remake of lockout, not blackout to those who go around saying that - you know who you are! - and overall I surprised myself by actually having fun. For reasons unexplained (dinner) I had to leave that game 10 kills from victory but I was now intrigued and eager to give it another go.

+Call back to classic Halo
+Classic maps are fun

I commonly believe that it is the second game which decides if you like a playlist/gametype or not. I find when playing through something for a second time its flaws become easier to spot and Throwdown was no exception to this. After one minuet it was me vs three other people and straight away I had found flaw number one.

-No CSR and little quit ban allows players to quit with little consequence.

Aside from this the gameplay remained consistent and enjoyable until I lost the sword to an enemy then things got bad. Sprint. Sprint is something I have always said that will hamper competitive games and Throwdown is proof of this. Sniping running players is hard enough but trying to avoid death in a narrow corridor (like in Shut Down) and a Spartan with a sword is sprinting eagerly towards you ready to cut you -Yoink!- off; you are left with little choice but to die and try and enjoy re-spawning. I’m sure Walshy would agree but I doubt 343 can even remove sprint as this point.

-Sprint causes frustrating gameplay and promotes nooby techniques (sword sprinting, running away and luring).

This is where I’d like to talk about ordinance for a minuet. Before today I was constantly complaining about how ordinance was in Throwdown. Interestingly after playing a few games I can now safely say that ordinance has had no effect on gameplay whatsoever. So I guess I don’t mind it being in the playlist however I also fail to see why it was put in the playlist (unless 343 couldn’t remove it as well?)

+Ordinance no longer decides the outcome of battles
-Is ordinance necessary?

I continued to play. Extraction was fun, encouraging map flow and teamwork which is always a plus. Can’t say the same about the Deluxe Throwdown as Promethean vision turned the map Adrift into ‘lets all wait around the corner’ for both teams as nobody ever moved. CTF might have been nice however I played the Deluxe version so that quickly went out of the window…Come to think of it why is Deluxe even in Throwdown? I think I speak for nearly all hardcore/competitive players when I say we think AA have no place in competitive Halo so please stop trying to force them down our throats 343, we don’t want them!

+Extraction is brilliant
-Deluxe, suckz

Another thing - what’s up with the radar? It’s a bit misleading, especially when playing it for the first time. I mean allies only? Why not just get rid of it all together so it won’t be a detraction?

-Bizzare radar?
-No teamate indicators

Despite all of the issues above this playlist still remains enjoyable. It has to be the best (if not joint best with Doubles) playlist in Halo 4.

+Best playlist in Halo 4

<mark>EDIT: From the looks of the poll it looks like my connection was bad so ignore the lag comments. As my name suggests I do have a TERRIBLE connection when I play.</mark>

I was surprised to find myself thinking, ‘Good lord! Perhaps I didn’t waste all of my money after all! This is pretty intense at points. I’d really like to play this playlist all day!’. And I would have liked to say I did play it all day, if the connection wasn’t so -Yoink- awful. Terrible, TERRIBLE amounts of lag. At times the game was rendered unplayable and I could see I wasn’t the only one. Other players had a nasty habit of teleporting, running into objects and assassinating me from no where. And so I chose not to play Halo 4 today and instead I chose to get a multi-kill with a sentry gun in Black Ops 2.

-Lag, LAG and LAG

To conclude: Good playlist, has many flaws and can be unplayable due to lag.

But as ever, I am curious to hear the communities thoughts on the matter so go ahead and post something below. Keep discussing forum!

Better to be red, than dead.

2

Theres nothing wrong with it.

3

It’s decent , but not as good as it was mildly hyped up to be .

4

> It’s decent , but not as good as it was mildly hyped up to be .

Agreed. It could have been so much more if it had just stuck to the original trilogy.

5

My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.

6

> My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.

Same here.

7

I believe Deluxe is more of an experiment and that’s why it only comes up in the 3rd slot. I imagine if it’s not perceived well it will be removed.

I also believe the ally only motion tracker is there because it’s the only way to add the “X” death marker. I like the idea. Haven’t played it yet but it will be nice for when I hear footsteps in my headphones to take a quick look at the motion tracker to see if it’s a teammate instead of turning around.

Get friends. It will solve the teammate quitting problem. Why would you want to go into a competitive playlist alone?

8

> > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
>
> Same here.

I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.

9

> > > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
> >
> > Same here.
>
> I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.

JIP would work here especially for CTF.

10

> > > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
> >
> > Same here.
>
> I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.

How would you suggest fixing the quitting problem? Quit bans don’t work. See Reach. Taking away XP doesn’t work. See Halo 3. A visible ranking system might help a little but people will still quit. The best solution is to play with friends.

11

If you want 343i to see the response Team Throwdown is getting, any feedback should go here.

12

> > > > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
> > >
> > > Same here.
> >
> > I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.
>
> How would you suggest fixing the quitting problem? Quit bans don’t work. See Reach. Taking away XP doesn’t work. See Halo 3. A visible ranking system might help a little but people will still quit. The best solution is to play with friends.

CSR - competitive skill rank visible in game + a 2 game quit ban in competitive playlists.

13

> > > > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
> > >
> > > Same here.
> >
> > I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.
>
> JIP would work here especially for CTF.

True but it isn’t very competitive. Furthermore by adding JIP you could end up with games starting with uneven teams which is really frustrating.

14

I didn’t have any problems with the playlist except for the people that quit leaving me in sore spot. Thanks quitters, I appreciate that.

15

One thing that would make it a million times better is communication. I swear the gametypes that actually require a mic are filled with people with no mics and the gametypes like Flood or Regicide that don’t require a mic have people with mics.

16

> > > > My experience has been that my teammates have quit the first minute of the game.
> > >
> > > Same here.
> >
> > I had this happened to me in my second game - they have no motive to finish the game and no consequence for quitting.
>
> How would you suggest fixing the quitting problem? Quit bans don’t work. See Reach. Taking away XP doesn’t work. See Halo 3. A visible ranking system might help a little but people will still quit. The best solution is to play with friends.

I don’t think you can just give a blanket statement saying that quit bans and xp penalties don’t work because they didn’t in Halo 3 and Reach. The quit ban in Reach was ridiculous. You had to quit like 5 games in 20 minutes to get it and even then it was like a 10 minute ban. And Halo 3 only penalized people 1 xp. I think if you quit a game it should take away the amount of credits you would have earned by finishing that game. And if you continue to quit in a short amount of time it should give you a timed ban that increases every time you quit that day.

17

fix the motion sensor then it’s perfect, i play halo because you can see where enemies are.

18

> fix the motion sensor then it’s perfect, i play halo because you can see where enemies are.

The motion sensor isn’t broken… It is only there to show allies since 343 for some reason decided to remove the X over your head when you die.

Motion trackers are a crutch and have no place in a competitive playlist.

19

> > fix the motion sensor then it’s perfect, i play halo because you can see where enemies are.
>
> The motion sensor isn’t broken… It is only there to show allies since 343 for some reason decided to remove the X over your head when you die.
>
> Motion trackers are a crutch and have no place in a competitive playlist.

Same with AA.

20

Every time I see a post from you it’s a complaint, are you ever happy?

Get some friends or a team and go play it.
Who goes into a competitive playlist alone?
The playlist is fine, it’s just your own mistakes that are making it bad for you. Like I said, play with a team or just some friends if you are worried about people quitting and play better.