So much negativity around the COD-ification of halo, is there anything that halo 4 introduced that the community actually like?
I didn’t like any of the additions they made to the multiplayer gameplay: Personal/Random Ordnance, perks, customizable loadouts, flinch, sprint as a base player ability, the Mantis, etc. Almost everything that’s in Halo 4 that I like was already established in previous Halo games.
The Dominion, Extraction, and Ricochet gametypes are fun, and the Campaign had the best storyline since CE.
They removed armor lock. I guess that’s a +1.
But, in all seriousness, nothing. They contributed nothing that made the game better. However they did add a whole lot of stuff that made it slightly worse, or just plain different.
Smoother gameplay besides the lag tho
I like the addition of challenges, xp leveling but that was introduced in reach and they removed the skill rank as a result
Smoother more dynamic gameplay, better weapon balance, better weapon and armor design (better overall design, not the individual pieces), great lore driven campaign.
Their concepts and designs are in many ways better than bungies, they just had terrible execution.
I don’t know what they did but my first game of Halo 4 was a dream, it FELT different. Smoother, more enjoyable. I love the multiplayer, I just wish they’d do more on the maps/sandbox end of it. The game plays great though.
SpOps, A Campaign more driven by existing lore, better characterization, I like the Loadouts (Carbine and SR/LR ftw), I like the concept of Ordnance but it needs to be reworked, the AA’s (except PV, AC and Jetpack), magnets in Forge (also could use a little rework), JiP (purely so if a teammate quits I’m not forced to lose, so I’ll happily join in a game) and Weapon Tuning feels like it has made Halo 4 the most balanced Halo next to CE
They removed armor lock, nerfed the jetpack, threw out bloom, and got rid of the skirmishers…
Things that I personally enjoyed was that the zombies now appear as flood when playing infection. It was something I always wanted to see to add to the “feel” of the gametype and was really happy when they included it. Don’t get me wrong, though, the limits on what the flood and humans could do are frustrating, but focusing on the appearance of the flood, I thought that was nice. Also, I really liked the armory in this game. I know it gets a lot of mixed results, but I think there are some real gems in there. Now with the Champion DLC, I can’t complain at all with how the armory turned out. I like how they brought back the BR, and then buffed it to its former glory.
Also, the campaign. I loved this game’s campaign, although I found the final battle to be a bit lacking, I gotta say the campaign overall was an improvement. Much more cinematic, and I felt like it was the first time we got to see deeper characterization on the Chief instead of just everybody around him.
> SpOps, <mark>A Campaign more driven by existing lore</mark>, better characterization, I like the Loadouts (Carbine and SR/LR ftw), I like the concept of Ordnance but it needs to be reworked, the AA’s (except PV, AC and Jetpack), magnets in Forge (also could use a little rework), JiP (purely so if a teammate quits I’m not forced to lose, so I’ll happily join in a game) and Weapon Tuning feels like it has made Halo 4 the most balanced Halo next to CE
I’m not too sure if that’s a good thing. While we who are familiar with the lore can follow most things just fine, I’d imagine to newcomers, Halo 4’s story was nothing more than a series of technobabble and fantasy jargon.
Although, I guess you can’t go into the sixth or seventh entry in a series and expect to make heads or tails of the situation.
Also, doesn’t really help that the story shown in the Terminals and in Silentium conflicted with each other so much.
The story seems more emotional than the previous games.
So, that’s a +
What else, what else…
They removed armor lock and bloom
That is all I can think.
what was wrong with bloom?
> what was wrong with bloom?
Its annoying and destroys the precision rifle combat.
The automatic weapons are actually useful and powerful, so that’s nice. I gotta admit, the balance in the weapon sandbox for Halo 4 is actually quite good, on par with Halo 1, maybe.
They improved assassinations by making them faster, thus lowering the possibility of getting it stolen from you.
The story was pretty darn good, despite its flaws. I enjoyed having a deeper and more emotional plot. Though it could use more explanations for those who haven’t read the books.
Overall, however, I wouldn’t call Halo 4 an improvement over Reach or Halo 3. The game has moved away from what made Halo so great, and I hope they go back to the series’s roots in the future.
> what was wrong with bloom?
It requires you to pace your shots to be accurate and most “mlg competitive” kids just could not do that.
They talk about randomness, but you were in complete control, you just had to not -Yoink!- out in a fire-fight, and use the DMR in its intended range.
I can think of two things right now. Removal of descope and made CQC better against sangheili. It’s so much less annoying now.
Campaign.
Graphics.
Master Chief actually talking.
Forerunner weapons.
Finally added a mech!
Uhhhh, that’s about it.
Aside from the Campaign, which I thought was rather well made, the only other feature of Halo 4 which I can chalk up as an improvement would be the vast number of armor customizations.
Everything else was either a setback, such as Spartan Ops, or relatively unchanged.
Personal loadouts are great, and I feel that personal ordinance gave something to motivate you to do well during a game. Honestly, I really like Halo 4.
Shame they took out Armour lock though.
Improvements: Loadouts, combat pacing, automatic weapons being useful for the first time since CE, and the writing in the campaign. Of these I think the writing is the greatest step forward because it can drive the game in spite of just about anything else that could go wrong with it, and so long as they can keep it up (and not fall into that awful imitation of RVB that we saw in SOPS) I’ll be interested in more games.