Warzone is a continuation of Halo 4

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I’ve been seeing a lot of praise for Warzone, and it makes me wonder, who was the mode targeted for? The title is a general summary, but I go a bit off that topic because it should be obvious.

It certainly wasn’t for core Halo players, because the things Halo 4 was hated on for having are praised in Warzone.

Loadouts, perks, and a modified ordinance system.

I know I’m going to get some replies telling me that you have to get your REQ level up in a match, but it’s essentially the same thing as an EXP/prestige system as you unlock more weapons/perks as you go. And no, it is not hard to get to level 9 REQ’s. In fact, if you go for bosses/kills you can hit level 6-9 in the first 10 minutes. So no, it does not take skill, as anyone who is mildly decent at this game can hit those high level REQ’s.

It fits the instant gratification bill, due to just playing the game bad players can unlock things that will allow them to everyone else much easier and faster ie. The Nornfang.

Loadouts should be clear, and if I’m not mistaken even some perks from halo 4 are carried over into Warzone.

It is also extremely imbalanced, forcing new comers to get destroyed by players who have 60x Ultra Banshees and 128x The Answer’s in their collection, and anyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get something good from RNG.

It begs the question, who is this game made for? Warzone is undoubtedly the biggest part of Halo 5, the updates and maps have the most effort towards Warzone instead of Arena. The weapon balance is also made for Warzone, as the BR/DMR/Carbine all have high aim assist and bullet magnetism for the large empty spaces in the maps. Same with the snipers with there high bullet magnetism and aim assist to help lower level players get kills in Warzone. Warzone even kicked out BTB at launch, forcing you to play Warzone at launch if you wanted to use vehicles, and even the vehicles and the weapons themselves were weak to make space for the variants. (Warthog and Splaser)

2

This part is very true- “the things Halo 4 was hated on for having are praised in Warzone”. Which is also very funny because of the crowd that hates H4. I still would much prefer H4’s BTB, I still play every once in a while. But its hard to go back to the 360 after playing on xB1. I play MCC and vote for H4 when it comes up in BTB. It gets picked often, but its not the same as being able to play it all the time.

But to your question, I firmly believe that WZ is targeting the BTB people, hence why they didn’t have BTB ready at launch. IT is also why BTB currently is terrible. It doesn’t have the same feel as BTB in prior games.

3

I feel warzone was an attempt to try and appease those who wanted a bigger btb like battlefields 32v32. It failed at that if you ask me. I like the idea but it’s execution is just meh. I can easily list many things that can be improved and changed for the better. for now tho it’s a half empty btb with a lot of chaotic randomness to it.

4

The biggest problem wasn’t Halo 4 playing different than other Halos, it’s Halo 4 only playing different than other Halos and then calling it Halo like nothing’s wrong, to the point where they even tried to rank it and play tournaments on it.

Halo 5 has two distinct modes, if you don’t want this section, you can play Arena which functions like the previous Halo games.

I mean, the fact that you have AI that can be manipulated should be a sign.

5

> 2533274825101441;2:
> But to your question, I firmly believe that WZ is targeting the BTB people, hence why they didn’t have BTB ready at launch. IT is also why BTB currently is terrible. It doesn’t have the same feel as BTB in prior games.

I thought this as well, but just how it’s set up doesn’t seem like it would. Adding in mobs and having only a single objective seems different. The appeal is there, but it seems like an attempt to draw in MOBA players and Battlefield players.

6

> 2533274833081329;4:
> The biggest problem wasn’t Halo 4 playing different than other Halos, it’s Halo 4 only playing different than other Halos and then calling it Halo like nothing’s wrong, to the point where they even tried to rank it and play tournaments on it.
>
> Halo 5 has two distinct modes, if you don’t want this section, you can play Arena which functions like the previous Halo games.
>
> I mean, the fact that you have AI that can be manipulated should be a sign.

But the problem is, it seems as if Warzone is the entire focus of the game. Theatre is broken, spectator mode is broken, shady Esports handling, Arena playlists are late, late gametypes, no forge maps in HCS, no forge maps in Arena, no setting differences between FFA and TA, and many other things. It’s like everything else is a side dish when Warzone is the full meal.

7

You make a good point OP. I never really realized too much on the whole H4 hate since I actually liked playing H4(I know, by saying that I have cross-hairs pointed at my head). But know that you mention it, it is true. I never did hate on Halo 4 too much with the load-outs and such, I actually enjoyed it until the 4-burst kill BR update, then after that I frowned upon H4 a bit, but not entirely.

8

I would have much preferred a follow-up to Invasion or Dominion. Warzone is just a random clusteryoink.

9

Its a new gamemode. And thinking about it now… Yeah probably

10

Warzone is something that Bungie wanted to do back before the release of Halo 2. They spent quite a bit of time trying to develop it but could never managed to get there, eventually they got Max Hoberman (Certain Affinity) and a small team (2 other people) to work on the arena style multiplayer. Their original vision though was larger scale warfare - seems 343 finally was able to make something work. Personally I quite enjoy it :slight_smile:

11

Yet, people refuse to accept this point and continue to praise it. I and other people already brought the points you made before, but no one really wanted to acknowledge about Warzone’s problems.

12

Warzone is for fans of Halo Reach & 4, Arena is for fans of Halo CE–3.

Warzone is not perfectly balanced, but it’s just there for some casual fun. Nothing wrong there.

13

> 2533274895603860;12:
> Warzone is for fans of Halo Reach & 4, Arena is for fans of Halo CE–3.
>
> Warzone is not perfectly balanced, but it’s just there for some casual fun. Nothing wrong there.

My only issue with it is how much it affected Arena. It feels as if all resources were sent to fix and get Warzone ready, when Arena was barebones at launch as if it was an after thought.

14

> 2533274813317074;10:
> Warzone is something that Bungie wanted to do back before the release of Halo 2. They spent quite a bit of time trying to develop it but could never managed to get there, eventually they got Max Hoberman (Certain Affinity) and a small team (2 other people) to work on the arena style multiplayer. Their original vision though was larger scale warfare - seems 343 finally was able to make something work. Personally I quite enjoy it :slight_smile:

Really? I’ve never heard about them ever thinking about this.

15

> 2533274970658419;14:
> > 2533274813317074;10:
> > Warzone is something that Bungie wanted to do back before the release of Halo 2. They spent quite a bit of time trying to develop it but could never managed to get there, eventually they got Max Hoberman (Certain Affinity) and a small team (2 other people) to work on the arena style multiplayer. Their original vision though was larger scale warfare - seems 343 finally was able to make something work. Personally I quite enjoy it :slight_smile:
>
>
> Really? I’ve never heard about them ever thinking about this.

Checkout out some of the ViDocs made by both 343 and Bungie and watch some of the MCC panels - basically anything with Max Hoberman on camera, at some point he’ll talk about the original plans that were going on elsewhere and what his small team built up. Really quite fascinating.

Ninja edit: Found this clip form an MCC panel. Original called Warfare, or something like that and it was originally originally planned for Halo 1 :slight_smile:

16

I can agree… warzone plays very close as H4 did… I played H4 again recently in MCC and it was great. They trimmed out a lot of the armor abilities and took out ordnance drops. I am even bold enough to say MCC H4 BTB is better than H5 BTB in game play and in maps especially… heck I enjoy it more than maybe even H3 BTB.