I’ve play Halo since 2006 and started off with Halo for PC. I got into online gaming and clans in 2008 when I got into Halo 2 and 3. I rather enjoyed H3:ODST. Loved Reach, then hated it, then loved it again. This game seems like a natural evolution of the Halo series in my eyes. I think that it’s a very unique entry to the series. Why do some people say that 343i “ruined” Halo? I love H4 just I like I loved every other Halo game. Is it because of the classes or the ordinance drops? I just don’t get it.
For me, the first bullet point for why I dislike this game is the lack of a local only search option. Without it, the game is unplayable.
I never heard that complaint before.
> I never heard that complaint before.
I hope you’re being sarcastic.
Most of the negative feedback and motives for “hate” that I’ve seen goes along these lines:
Art Style (A)
Halo 4 goes for a heavily-detailed aesthetic. When it works, it looks beautiful. When it doesn’t work, it looks hideous. Most of the game’s armor permutations exist somewhere between those two extremes, while nearly every Forge object on all four main canvases is firmly on the “hideous” end of the scale.
Art Style (B)
Halo 4 goes for a heavily-detailed aesthetic. The result is that pretty much everything is cluttered and covered in distracting, unnecessary doodads, making the entire game an eyesore. This is in contrast to the relative simplicity of past Halo games’ visuals.
Campaign (A)
Though the story between Chief and Cortana was well-done, the rest of the plot was dogged by shoddy writing and a failure to explain important details. The campaign also made poor use of Halo 4’s soundtrack, and had little replay value. It was not a bad campaign by any means, and it certainly had its fair share of epic moments, but it doesn’t quite live up to the standards set by Halo 3 and ODST.
Campaign (B)
The story between Chief and Cortana seemed decidedly out-of-character for them, and the rest of the plot did nothing to redeem that flaw. It didn’t feel like well-written character drama; it felt like a bad fanfiction, riddled in tropes and cliches. Add poor music usage and a lack of replay to that, and you get a Reach-quality mess.
Custom Games and Forge
A substantial amount of content was omitted from Custom Games without any official explanation, and 343i doesn’t appear to have any interest in fixing the problem. At least 11 past gametypes are totally gone. Many basic settings are either totally missing, or are inexplicably hidden and accessible only to the developers. As for Forge? Everything from the canvases to the basic manipulation of pieces has been broken, with no hope for TU-based fixes.
Loadouts
Many players are still upset that Halo 4 doesn’t offer exactly-equal starts for all players. Some are incensed about the ability to pick one’s starting weapon, while others dislike the perk system. There are players that have no opposition to loadouts themselves, but oppose the fact that certain items – particularly Boltshots, Plasma Pistols, and Plasma Grenades – are so readily available off-spawn.
Networking
In addition to lacking a “Good Connection” option for Matchmaking, Halo 4 also seems to migrate hosts very lazily. If the wrong player gets host, they can ruin half the match for everyone else before Halo 4 finally migrates host.
Ordnance
Personal Ordnance greatly promotes camping, and gives rewards that are way too strong to players that have expended way too little effort. It removes the importance of map control, and leads to an overabundance of power weapons on the map. Some players also object to the waypoints on Random Ordnance.
UI
Halo 4’s UI is a step backward in every respect. Fonts are small and hair-thin, making them near-illegible. The menu is jumbled, oddly-designed, and filled with bugs. Reams of information have been removed from the UI without explanation. Even the in-game scoreboard suffers from usability problems.
Weapon Balance
Though 343i’s latest update has effectively addressed many issues, weapons were imbalanced for most of this game’s lifetime. Even now, many people are irritated that it took six months and five Title Updates for problems to be addressed, and some problems (like the Boltshot) can’t be addressed due to limitations on loadouts and commendations.