Armor Abilities, in Halo Reach, were an interesting idea, but ultimately flawed in execution. They provide too much impact on gameplay, especially active camo and armor lock. here’s what I feel would balance them out for Halo 4 (if they make their return), as well as some other things I hope are touched upon:
1) ‘Deflector’ instead of Armor Lock Instead of full-body coverage, I think instead the energy projection should form a half-spherical barrier around the front, top, and flanks of the player, leaving their rear as a weak spot. My complaint is not of balancing, but simply causing a ‘bump’ in gameplay flow and slowing the game down to a crawl.
2) ‘Passive Camo’ instead of Active Camo – Being invisible is just plain unbalanced, regardless of whether or not everybody can choose to do so. The radar scrambling effect is also a benefit, not a drawback, to using it–the enemy can’t pinpoint your position via radar, either. My proposed alternative is inspired by Metal Gear Solid 4: Upon activation, your armor adopts the pigment and texture of whatever you’re looking at. Example
3) Bring Back 1-50 Ranking System – Let’s face it, with ranked playlists comes tryhards, cheaters, and modders; but let’s face it: They’re around and about anyways. If 1-50 is brought back, we have that incentive to play for again, as well as a proper numerical representation of what ‘the system’ perceives our skill to be.
4) Tie-ins with other canonical Halo characters – I know that the games are self-contained and, at worst, overrule pre-existing non-game canon, it doesn’t mean that the next Halo games can’t introduce characters from other Halo media as a nod to fans of the universe. They already did this with Dr. Halsey in Reach. What happened to the Spirit of Fire crew? What happened to Jun? Where’s my Kelly?
5) More Maps on Release – I’m not asking for a ridiculous amount; but Halo Reach’s map count on release left a lot to be desired. Mind you, I’m aware that there were a few Forge World variants as well; but after the first few weeks, the monochromatic grey and green left a bad taste in my eyes. All I ask for is two to three more maps than Reach had on release to spice up the visual variance a little. Hey, why not just remake some of the better Forge World maps in Reach into full-fledged maps?
6) Avoid CoD Syndrome – The market is flooded with all kinds of Call of Duty wannabes, and Halo takes it upon itself to stand out from this crowd. This is half of what makes it so popular, is the classic arena-style gameplay and colorful space epicness. I feel that Reach took a step in the wrong direction; and if Halo 4 continues down that path, I feel that it will get lost in the mass of shooters and to me, at least, isn’t the wisest design decision. This also includes the tone of the story (Herp Derp gritty dark) and the color palette as well. ADS has no place in Halo either (neither canonically or gameplay-wise).
7) Better DLC integration. Whether you like it or not, DLC will be coming to Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo 6. Now, I agree that players who don’t purchase the DLC shouldn’t be locked out of playlists for not having content (other than DLC-specific playlists a la Anniversary), but as it stands now, the players who spent the money and went the extra mile don’t have much of an opportunity to make use of their DLC outside of one or two playlists. At time of writing, nothing in Reach is Noble or Defiant required, and even with the matchmaking algorithm updates, I still only see DLC maps every 20 games or so in Team Slayer (yet to see any in BTB). I understand this is a tricky spot to balance between the adopters and non-adopters, but it has to be done or DLC sales will drop.
If 343 Industries can hit all these keys for Halo 4, I think Halo 4 will launch as the most successful Halo title to date, and set the IP back on track to the glorious sci-fi epic king of the Xbox.