TLDR: bolded at bottom, but you shouldn’t be lazy and read this.
Halo 4 is a good game but it has some flaws in the multiplayer. Lets talk facts for a second, supplemented with some conclusions I’ve come to based on what I’ve experienced.
There are some new features which mix up the gameplay style from the Bungie halos. Primarily, these are ordinance drops. They allow players to quickly gain access to superior weapons without competing for them on a map. In essence, this is the thing that goes against everything halo.
Killstreaks were a problem in COD, and while I see them as much better in Halo 4, they are still a problem. They are rewarding players for doing well by giving them the tools to do better. This is exactly what imbalance is. You don’t give a guy winning a fist fight a knife to finish the other guy off, that just makes it totally one sided.
Ordinance drops also make the gameplay faster. There are so many new and powerful weapons in Halo 4, you hardly stay alive like you used to be able to. This is a fundamental change from the halo formula. In other halos, getting just a single kill was often a battle on its own. With so many “power” weapons on the maps now, it is easy to move from kill to kill in halo 4.
Don’t get me wrong. I like halo 4. Innovation is good. Each successive halo has added a few features as the franchise has gotten older. Halo 2 had dual wielding. Halo 3 added special power ups like the bubble shield. Halo reach expanded on this to full blown armor abilities. Halo 4 added ordinance drops. Halo 4 also however expanded on a lot of existing halo innovations and I feel that it has become a little too “flashy” and fast paced.
If you just look at the entire array of weapons, armor abilities, and power ups in Halo 4, its overwhelming. They almost have every feature from every halo game, with the addition of some which don’t make sense. Promethean vision for example is just flat out wrong in my opinion. It is an ability that takes out any guesswork and skill of a player in combat, while simultaneously nullifying other abilities.
For many abilities and weapons however, it just isn’t clear about how and when to use them. 343 talks about their sandbox experience and how players have a lot of choices now. I get that, and its an interesting take on halo. But for the sake of a tightly competitive multiplayer experience, I feel that a players options should clearly indicate pro’s and con’s in certain situations. When should I use the hardlight shield vs. regeneration shield? Why shouldn’t I use promethean vision? When is a battlerifle better than a DMR, lightrifle, or carbine?
None of these questions have definitive answers and while 343 may see that as a strength, I see it as a weakness for multiplayer.
TLDR: The halo franchise has thrived on team strategy, controlling power weapons, and controlling key points on a map. These components were facilitated by clear pro’s and con’s to weapons and abilities in past halos. The huge amount of weapons, power ups and armor ability options available to players in halo 4 clouds these strategic components with ambiguity of their use. Ordinance drops eliminate the need to control power weapon spawns on a map, but because they are only awarded to players doing well, they only serve to give those with power more power. In combination, these features detract from the necessity to control things like chokepoints in maps, overall diminishing the halo 4 multiplayer experience.
Yeah, you can argue that there is still strategy involved in halo 4. And there is. My big take home point is that it has been reduced compared to other halos. I’m a big fan of change and I think the above issues can be alleviated by simple balance fixes to some armor abilities/weapons and a little more thought into their use. Maybe even limiting certain ordinance drops to certain map types. 343 did a pretty good job with halo 4 but I think it can be better, as is my hope with this thread.