I really love Halo. I did my best to defend the rights of 343 when they chose forever to reveal the first gameplay. I gave the announcements of AA’s and mods a chance. I played at RTX and enjoyed it. I even bought the lackluster LE. And somewhere between the lines of crappy marjeting for day-one DLC exclusives between different outlets and the overall game itself. I could feel tension that Halo 4 may be either be my favorite Halo or my least favorite.
Today, it is drawing ever so closer to the latter. And I’d like to explain why.
Let’s start with the campaign. Halo 4’s campaign was designated as the triumphant return of Chief. This is true. But we were promised a Halo-lengthed campaign along with incredible story telling. I’d like to express that Chief went from hardly talking at all to being a complete chatterbox. Almost ruining his rep as that badass silent type. But that’s hardly the issue. Overall, I enjoyed the campaign, but it felt far too short. Shorter than Halo 3 (which is one of my biggest gripes for Halo 3) But with Reach and ODST being so short, this hardly surprised me.
And the Didact is effectively like Skorge from Gears of War 2. He looks cool, is a total badass and his introduction sent chill up my spine. But the CoD-esque “press RT to win” was just as anti-climactic as Skorge’s super easy boss fight.
Seriously, I’ve been killed by Grunts tougher than the Didact. You can argue that this was the only way to fight him for he’s too powerful, but I feel that 343i took the wrong step to deal with him. Hell, 343 Guilty Spark made a better boss than Didact!
Spartan Ops is the replacement for Firefight. Why? It is more in-depth than Firefight, it actually has you going to places rather than allowing you to sit in a corner and shoot fish in a barrel. But without the scoring system, Spartan Ops hardly has replay value. And the story for the first half felt like it didnt even go anywhere and the reused maps is just so…boring. Especially the copy pasta MP maps.
Now let’s talk about the new baddies, the Prometheans. I love their mechanical bug-like designs. But fighting them is…meh. There are only a few things I hate more than a chicken Knight that teleports after I’m about to thrash it, thrice. And the Watchers are just as irritating as Drones. And the Crawlers…I actually like the Crawlers. They are the only versions that dont feel too frustating to fight. Easy headshots, it takes skill to prevent them from surrounding you. Another thing is we were lead to believe that the Promies would become a dominate threat. Near the end of the campaign maybe, but once we get into Spartan Ops, we mostly deal with the Covies, and it seems like the Promies act as servants to the Covies.
But let’s talk about the biggest flaw. Multiplayer. I don’t even think I need to explain all of the issues. And it’s sad for me to say this because of how devoted I was. But my patience has reached it’s end. For starters, what’s the point of bragging about a equal balance of weapons when most people understand that the DMR and the Boltshot are OP? The maps are dull and boring. Forge is just as plain as Reach’s except the color gray has been replaced with tan and brown. Lag is a huge problem. And being put in a horribly uneven match because of the Join in-game progress have all led up to some of the worst scenarios in Halo history I have ever dealt with. So until the TU I no longer intend on playing Halo 4’s multiplayer. If at all. I’m sick of the camo campers spamming boltshots. I’m sick of my AR/SR/BR being beaten by the DMR at close range. I hate the DMR in general. I hate jetpacks and camo abusers. It’s gotten to the point where I hate to say it, but I miss my copy of Reach.
EDIT: My apologies, I meant to write this in the matchmaking section.