Warzone Firefight was a tremendous addition to Halo 5, but it is not the firefight I wanted, and these last few days it has really bothered me. In Halo: Reach, firefight was a game mode that I could spend hours playing, what 343 has done is take a survival based mode and turn it into a quick “simulation” that has EIGHT people racing around using randomized vehicle REQs to simply get a higher score than everyone else. This is no longer a game of teamwork but just chaos of who has the better certifications and that results in the situation being reduced to us, the players, being way overpowered compared to the AI enemies. You do die but really it has almost no downside (other than losing a REQ card that you will get back anyway) because there are seven other people killing enemies. Warzone Firefight is not a challenge. You do lose a match every so often from either a ridiculous boss at round 2 or ridiculous time limit when no one wants to use their REQs, but overall you win close to every time and when you look at the scoreboard at the end, you find yourself thinking, “Darn I wish I frantically killed more enemies so I could score more and satisfy only myself” instead of something gratifying like, “Yay I helped my team make it through the firefight!”. REQs and vehicles have indeed assisted in making the game play boring and repetitive. Power weapons cost the same amount of requisitions as vehicles except for vehicles are basically power weapons that give you unlimited ammunition, greater to MUCH greater mobility, much more damage resistance, and effectively way more damage. The only use I have found in power weapons is the chaingun turret against banshees because they only cost 2 requisitions and you cant buy anything better vehicle-wise if you haven’t unlocked a higher requisition level yet during the match. There was one day where I said, “screw it I want to use power weapons in firefight and not just puss my way through enemies with a Ghost Ultra every time”. I played three games using power weapons only and I felt extremely useless. I would die or run out of ammo before I made a difference and then I wouldn’t have enough reqs for another gun. I scored in the bottom four players every match and that puts it in perspective for me because I regularly end matches in 1st place with my Phaeton and Ghost Ultra certifications. During the fourth game of guns-only playing, I decided that I wasn’t having any fun and it wasn’t worth it. I also think that eight participants is too many, especially in a vehicle-centered environment. I think the game could and should require a lot more teamwork and strategy to try and overcome the waves of enemies thrown at you and that isn’t possible when there are so many people doing different things. I could still see eight people being a really fun mode but it needs to be more challenging and not as SHORT. When the game ends, you realize that it is only five quick waves of enemies with the last wave having two waves of bosses. I do enjoy the competitive factor that has people fighting for first place but that isn’t what firefight is. To conclude my rant, I think that firefight should be more challenging by eliminating the REQ system from the game mode, making the game more gun-based, changing the player count to 4 or 6, and rethinking the enemy wave system to resemble a firefight closer to that in Halo: Reach. I don’t hate this game mode, in fact I enjoy playing it, but by no means is it a real firefight game mode.
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> Warzone Firefight was a tremendous addition to Halo 5, but it is not the firefight I wanted, and these last few days it has really bothered me. In Halo: Reach, firefight was a game mode that I could spend hours playing, what 343 has done is take a survival based mode and turn it into a quick “simulation” that has EIGHT people racing around using randomized vehicle REQs to simply get a higher score than everyone else. This is no longer a game of teamwork but just chaos of who has the better certifications and that results in the situation being reduced to us, the players, being way overpowered compared to the AI enemies. You do die but really it has almost no downside (other than losing a REQ card that you will get back anyway) because there are seven other people killing enemies. Warzone Firefight is not a challenge. You do lose a match every so often from either a ridiculous boss at round 2 or ridiculous time limit when no one wants to use their REQs, but overall you win close to every time and when you look at the scoreboard at the end, you find yourself thinking, “Darn I wish I frantically killed more enemies so I could score more and satisfy only myself” instead of something gratifying like, “Yay I helped my team make it through the firefight!”. REQs and vehicles have indeed assisted in making the game play boring and repetitive. Power weapons cost the same amount of requisitions as vehicles except for vehicles are basically power weapons that give you unlimited ammunition, greater to MUCH greater mobility, much more damage resistance, and effectively way more damage. The only use I have found in power weapons is the chaingun turret against banshees because they only cost 2 requisitions and you cant buy anything better vehicle-wise if you haven’t unlocked a higher requisition level yet during the match. There was one day where I said, “screw it I want to use power weapons in firefight and not just puss my way through enemies with a Ghost Ultra every time”. I played three games using power weapons only and I felt extremely useless. I would die or run out of ammo before I made a difference and then I wouldn’t have enough reqs for another gun. I scored in the bottom four players every match and that puts it in perspective for me because I regularly end matches in 1st place with my Phaeton and Ghost Ultra certifications. During the fourth game of guns-only playing, I decided that I wasn’t having any fun and it wasn’t worth it. I also think that eight participants is too many, especially in a vehicle-centered environment. I think the game could and should require a lot more teamwork and strategy to try and overcome the waves of enemies thrown at you and that isn’t possible when there are so many people doing different things. I could still see eight people being a really fun mode but it needs to be more challenging and not as SHORT. When the game ends, you realize that it is only five quick waves of enemies with the last wave having two waves of bosses. I do enjoy the competitive factor that has people fighting for first place but that isn’t what firefight is. To conclude my rant, I think that firefight should be more challenging by eliminating the REQ system from the game mode, making the game more gun-based, changing the player count to 4 or 6, and rethinking the enemy wave system to resemble a firefight closer to that in Halo: Reach. I don’t hate this game mode, in fact I enjoy playing it, but by no means is it a real firefight game mode.
I miss odst and reach firefight,wzff is an abomination and a cash grab
When it was announced I had hoped it would be the reach firefight but warzones version just isn’t the same
Please use paragraphs next time…
Now that that’s out of the way, here are my thoughts. I understand the motivation to want to make it to first place on the scoreboard, which really makes it feel more competitive than it should be. I think a good way to solve this would be to give req point rewards based on win or lose, without so much emphasis on individual performance. I can’t say for sure whether it’s already like that or not, but that’s probably how it should be. Maybe. I mean, I do find it fun to try to get that daily win pack. Although, in Reach’s firefight I would still occasionally feel that drive to get a higher score than the other players, so it’s hard to avoid either way.
Also, not caring about the scoreboard is easier when you remember that the scoring is hardly fair. It’s possible to damage a boss to an inch of its life, die for some -Yoink- reason, and not get any credit if your teammates finish it off while you’re waiting to respawn. As long as that’s a thing that can happen, I don’t think the scoreboard is worth caring too much about.
And yes, most power weapons are useless in WZFF. It’s tragic.
One last thing: I disagree that it should require more teamwork and strategy. This is the most casual of casual gamemodes, and I think there are enough modes where you’re supposed to party up and use mics and be coordinated in order to win. WZFF should be a mode where you can relax and play solo.