I’ve waited for months to reserve my final opinion for 343. I cut them slack for Reach since it wasn’t originally theirs. I waited until H4 had a few updates and they had the chance to respond to community criticism.
I officially will now never buy another 343 game, they just don’t know how to think things through and understand the repercussions of their changes. They have no clue how to balance a game, and they’re now having to make changes to mistakes which they were warned about by this community months before H4 was gold-locked.
Good bye board, it is your loss. I’ve helped out many players here, and honestly all I’ve gotten in return was the misfortune of dealing with several trolls, newbs who thought they were qualified to tell me I’m wrong on tactics/strategy when their KD’s are a THIRD of mine, and generally stupid people. Of course there are a few exceptions and you guys know who you are.
Good bye 343, unlike many others who immediately were calling you terrible, I gave you a fair chance. Despite having many former Bungie employees to educate you, you still have no clue what you’re doing.
I’ve never enjoyed a series the way I’ve enjoyed Halo, and you guys have killed that, and a piece of me along with it.
You guys ignore the physically handicapped gamers BEGGING for custom controls. Borderlands 2 had them, Defiance had them, damn near every PC game has them. Why can’t you guys add them in? The answer of course is that you CAN, you just don’t care enough of the community and/or you’re too lazy to make the effort.
You guys ignore the “Trick jump” community and leave jet packs in the game.
You guys ignore the machinima community which begs for file share videos to be downloadable to computer without capture card, and instead give them a green screen. Really? A green screen? The amount of effort required for me to take a dump is greater than the effort it took you to add in a green screen.
Lets not forget that map the green screen came with…circular islands! Wow. I pray that you have reached the peak of your laziness, and that you can’t get any lazier.
The game mechanics are incredibly inconsistent. I could be driving a guass hog and a single sticky nade kills both of us, while time after time I’ve stuck the enemy hog with TWO plasma nades and it rolls away unscathed.
Half of the time when I go for a simple backsmack, it fails to register.
Half of the time when somebody is behind cover, and the ONLY exposed part of them is their head, I can shoot them with a sniper and drop their shields but not earn the kill, despite again the head being the only exposed part.
The last straw though was the CSR, which my friends and I have been waiting for for months. So after reading a few threads and having one of my own, here is the just of CSR:
In Slayer:
The guy who goes 20-19 in a Guass Hog / Tank / Banshee, should get more credit than the person who goes 15-0 solely with a DMR and no powerweapons.
The guy who drove the Guass hog, and went 0-0 with 20 assists, gets no rank up credit, and actually DERANKS.
If you join a game with 30 seconds left, and get 2 kills in that time, the game considers you to have taken part in the entire game and you are scored as such (Derank).
So SMART conservative gameplay leading to higher KD and more wins is now frowned upon. The new incentive is to grab any power weapon you can and go Rambo, only going for total kills and not KD.
Oh, you went 15-2, but we lost the game by 5 because Rambo over here went 23-35. Well let’s derank you, and rank up Rambo.
Well, we HAD map control on Ragnarok until Rambo blocked the spawns and they switched.
Well, we HAD the banshee until Rambo kept trying to splatter everybody with it and got skyjacked
Well, we HAD the tank until Rambo decided to charge the enemy base with it instead of staying back.
Well, I HAD the sniper until Rambo decided to splatter me for it, so he could pad his stats.
Here’s the key thing you apparently don’t comprehend 343, INCENTIVES! If you reward people for playing like selfish greedy newbs, then that’s what they will do. Adding in a stupid little Distraction medal does NOT give people an incentive to play as a team!
Worst of all, is that you were given this tremendous gift of the Halo franchise name. Any other developer would KILL for that. You’ve squandered your gift, and were UNDESERVING of it. If you’d ruined your own creation, that would be one thing. You’ve taken something which people loved, and have reduced it to a shadow of its former glory.
The Holy Grail of gaming, thrown to the ground and trampled upon.
Did you never appreciate what you were given? Did you never even try to understand what made Halo great? Did you never try to have a balanced sandbox? Are you oblivious to the concept that power weapons should be STRONGER than starting weapons, but be few and far between?
Did you never see beyond the increased profits which would come with dumbing down the series?
Game programming is so much more than just knowing how to write an algorithm. It requires passion for what you’re doing. Something you guys have either lost, or never had.
The people at 343 ought to be ashamed of themselves. Your laziness, lack of insight, and all around PANDERING to the casual community have destroyed the series.
Sadly there are always 12 year olds who have no clue what a good game is, who will beg their lazy parents to buy this game for them. You’ll never have to worry about going bankrupt as long as you can keep going after low hanging fruit.
Most businesses have to worry about keeping their customers happy. 343, you have chosen to just target newer casual gamers who possess the lowest standards.
You have chosen to no longer strive to accomplish something great, you have chosen to no longer attempt to be innovative with the Halo franchise (No, taking concepts which have been in other FPS for YEARS is NOT innovative, it is lazy and took no effort).
You have chosen to increase randomness and decrease the skill gap as much as possible. You have chosen to incentivize greedy selfish players rather than those who play for the team in Slayer based games. You have chosen to make the least amount of effort possible, and expect us to be grateful for trinkets like the green screen.
If I honestly took the effort to list all of your faults and screw-ups, the it would take me the better part of the day. Believe me when I say that this is a CONDENSED list of your shortcomings and incompetence. You guys are supposed to be professionals. You shouldn’t have to be told simple things by people who aren’t even programmers. Take some pride in your jobs and make the effort to do it right.
I honestly hope that you lay awake at night regretful of the choices you’ve made. I hope you take and use that guilt, and try to atone and make amends by making Halo 5 a game actually worthy of the franchise. I hope when you’re developing H5, the words “No that’s too much work” never enter your thoughts. I hope you guys make decisions without the marketing department involved. I hope you guys bother to find the people who have had a PASSION for this series, and beg them to educate you on how this series used to be great.
I will be euphoric to admit I was wrong if you guys learn from your mistakes and fix the Halo series.
I hope I will be wrong, because for now…you’ve disappointed me 343.
