I know your feels OP. The true Halo fans were hoping for a fun and balanced yet competitive new instillation in the Halo series with this new trilogy coming out. We were hoping for the BR to return, playlists like team doubles and team snipers, some of the guns that were changed in Reach to return to the way they worked best in the Halo’s before it (sniper rifle, magnum, shotty), a fix to that horrid cR system Reach had implemented and instead return of the Truskill 1-50 system, a solid campaign that would be challenging yet enjoyable, and overall a good multiplayer experience.
What’d we get? A game that feels far too much like a Call of Duty space spin-off rather than a rebirth and breath of fresh air into the Haloverse after the sad excuse that was Reach.
Snipers still have that odd weight and pea sized reticle with bloom, the magnum feels next to useless, vehicles in both control and design are awkward for the most part and lack maneuverability they once had, we have yet again armor abilities to make gameplay easier for newcomers, sprint to make things easier on newcomers, heavy spartans that can barely jump or strafe at decent height and speed which again makes for faster kills and faster gameplay to keep kids interested, removal of unique and interesting hiding spots / jump spots, a ranking system that is still essentially the cR system and rewards players by who plays non stop rather than who is actually skilled, allowing even some of the worst players who’ve never touched a Halo game to be far ahead of much better Halo vets, REMOVED WEAPONS FROM SET SPAWNS ON THE MAP, added ordinance drops…I’ll stop there.
The whole game feels like they took Halo and dumbed it down so that it’d play more like a COD style generic shooter so that they could expand their market pulling in more casual gamers and young kids and reward online gaming addiction over player skill so that they could force their game to have longevity by having ranks keep going and going with little BS armor unlocks along the path so you feel like you’ve done something.
This game without a doubt will die down just as Reach did, nobody wants a damn COD style ranking system or that mess of a cR system Reach used, what everyone was hoping for was good old Halo we all loved. Weapons on the map with timers for respawns along with well designed maps that flowed nicely and had choke points and common combat zones so that strategies can be implemented, teamwork can be utilized, some new gametypes mixed in with classic favorites, the 1-50 Truskill system so your rank actually means something rather than putting more hours in than someone else, forget it I’m cutting that off right here its too early in the morning for me to be pretending 343 understood the Halo community even for a moment.
Best way to look at Halo 4 compared to Halo’s before it is this: Look at Cortona as a representation of the Halo universe we’ve all grown to love over the years under Bungie’s care. When 343 took over and Bungie put Cortona in their hands, 343 responded by having us witness the death of Cortona.
TLDR; Bungie took great care of Cortona and Chief (the Halo universe being Cortona and the Halo Community being Chief), and when they trusted 343 with holding onto Cortona and Chief for them, we trusted 343 because we trusted Bungie but 343 ultimately has killed Cortona (The Halo universe) and left Chief (the community) for the most part feeling alone and empty inside, looking back on the past fondly while knowing the future will contain no foreseeable good.