To start off, this is not a rant against the mode, I am not losing because I team with strangers all the time or what not. I have only played 2-3 games alone. Other then that, I have played with at least one friend, at most we have filled up to 5 out of 8 slots, (we could fill all of them, but not everyone is on at one time). This is also not going to bash the new players. key word, “new”. Not everyone starts game a game launches and we have to respect that. This thread is based purely off of the mode itself.
The mode has a solid foundation, I have played 43 games now, only 13 of which were wins. That’s a 0.302 win% or about 1 victory for every 3 games played. While this is not terrible, its not the greatest either. While some can be blamed on fumbles, much can be blamed on the mode as well. In fact, let me list them off.
Increased Respawn: On a paper this may have seemed like a good idea, the idea behind it is good, there is logic as to why they did this, but it is completely redundant. If the rounds are already getting harder as you progress, why add another thing that holds us down? Its like trying to jump over a pit that gets longer with each success, but with every win, they also add a wall on each side that gets taller. making it harder because you now have to jump that pit and the wall to succeed. Its pointless and only hurts the mode more then it helps. If 343 does not want people spawning in so fast, set the respawn to 10 or 15 seconds for all rounds, not to long, not to short, right in the middle.
Faction difficulty: There have been many times where our team could have won, but we don’t, why? was it because the boss was a bullet sponge? no… how about a useless teammate? sometimes… The real reason is the swarm of 50+ enemies that spawn in front of them every 10 seconds. and let me tell you, both factions are bad, but the Prometheans are the worst. Defend the garage or armory? can’t do it if we spawn 50+ meters away and the enemies are already teleporting and capturing it. Kill the three Wardens on urban? can’t if tons of Knights and splinter turrets keep killing us. What I am trying to get at here is that the factions need to be reasonable. I would say the covenant are, minus those MLG sniper jackals. The Prometheans are another story, they are way to strong and have the added bonus of having weapons that track. 343, I know they are your babies, but tone them down. Just a bit?
Round Difficulty: Still built into what is said above, some of the rounds need to either be retooled or kept out of the early rotation. Getting the Solider commandos with their manti or the Banshee raiders in round 1 or 2 is nuts! what will a dinky pistol or BR really do to a mantis that has hyper accurate aim and regens its shields and health after 5 seconds of no fire? not much, let me tell you that. And don’t even get me started on the Banshee Raiders on Urban. There has to be some reasoning done when randomizing the rounds, is it good to get different rounds? of course, but we should not be getting rounds out of our REQ capabilities so early on in the game.
Waypoints: We need more! yes, this may sound very newbie, but hear me out. There have been many games where we lose during a round 3 “kill the grunts round” or something like that because we have to spend the first minute and a half looking for them. trying to find enemies on a large Warzone map takes time, time that could be used to kill them. Why can we not get an “incoming” waypoint of screen? I mean, there are times where we legitimately think that the game broke and they just didn’t spawn in at all.
Spawn Position: This is really an issue with Both Firefight and Assault. We are spawned to far away! why can’t we have a buddy spawn system where we spawn to the person who is not in danger? give us the option where to spawn instead of spawning us 100 meters away from are target of destination every time.
These are the things I think need some tweaking or in the increasing respawn times case, completely removed. I think this is a great mode, but I don’t think it is done yet, it needs some help.