Halo 4: Good things and bad things

[Ryan-Night Davis]

Hello,

I am a veteran Halo player and owner of all the Halo series games. I am here to address some of the issues about Halo 4, the good and the bad, and the awkward for the experienced. BARE WITH ME as this is 5 printing pages long!..

 

Starting off, I need to say that in Halo 4's current state, it's a fantastic game - unlike Call of Duty, the graphics had improved drastically in each Halo game. The thought of a never ending campaign (Spartan Ops / that other mode from ODST and Reach I can't recall the name of at this moment) is extremely appealing for all players in general. What I don't like, however, is that the existing never-ending campaign mode from ODST and Reach, didn't convert over into Halo 4. They had MANY customizable aspects to them, including the waves, the bonuses, etc.

Although Spartan Ops is absolutely one of my most favourite game features about Halo 4, all the customization is gone. I'm sure myself, and others like me, love endless waves of enemies customizable to the weapon they hold.

 

Campaign, Story, and Weaponry

 

So, there's a lot of things that have changed in this game that I'm personally not too sure if it's for the better or worse. Halo 4 has a very unique feel to it, and for the first time, incorporated an already existing weapon out in the real world, the SAW.

One of the things that has bothered me a lot with this game is the armor. It looks a little bit like Crysis 2 armor, and it's more evident that there's an insanely jacked-up super-soldier behind every helmet. I find that the little mesh patches connecting the plates of armor together take away from the feel of the character. Also, I find that bringing the Spartans back from the dead - as part of the story - was just a little too.. "Awhh, that totally ruins the rest of the story!" - It takes away from Master Chief's character where he is the unique one of a kind super soldier.

Another thing that bothers me is that the Covenant were supposed to be allied with the Humans. Although it's a very well done campaign, at the very least there could have been an explanation as to why they've gone their seperate ways. Maybe that's later to come, or I'm missing some of the new information provided by the campaign in Halo 4.

One of the most incredible things that 343i has done with the weapons in this game was get rid of Halo: Reach's old Beam Rifle! God, that thing sucked. It wasn't even close to being a sniper weapon. There's that, and adding a variety of new faction weapons, Forerunner! The weapons are well balanced, Boltshot's long reload after a burst and how you've got only 2 shots per clip - distance spread maintains as you rapid fire, yet still has a lower damage than the Pistol. The Forerunner weapons are simply multi-taskular, efficient, balanced, and deadly.

Lock & Load! The new sounds and the improvements to the Assault Rifle's DPS make everything an adventure. There are some sounds, though, such as the Battle Rifle's burst fire, that sounds like a bunch of crickets.

(I'm not even joking. Fire it.)

Aside from that, most of the weapon, ambient, environmental and player sounds, sound as they should be. That's an opinion, but it's a damn good one.

 

Bugs & Awks

 

Something that I was happy about was the removal of the armor effects (Pestilence in Halo: Reach). It just seemed silly.

When your sights are aimed, getting shot will distort where you're aiming. Extremely annoying!

Some maps seem too big for the gametype, like CTF on Complex. Some gametypes shouldn't have a Mantis in it, like CTF. Some maps just seem a little too.. Uhm, what's the word. If I were to say perfect, than I would be lying. But has anyone else noticed that there aren't any maps like Halo 3's Guardian anymore? In fact, most of the maps from the past are gone. Erosion was essentially based off of a map from Halo: Reach's DLC, modified to rid of some of the problems that Halo: Reach's DLC map had (which I do not know the name of at this moment), that "too wide" feel where you'd just sprint in one direction for what seems like too long before getting killed by the enemy player. Adrift is a good map, but looks like 343i payed a little too much attention to looks. There aren't a whole lot of maps that players can forge on, for the lack of a structures section in most of the maps. It seems like too much in-game object allowance can be used in the maps you can't do a whole lot in. The ones that you CAN build a ton of stuff on, it brings back a ton of classic Halo: Reach awesomeness like building blocks, but the map-specific structures (such as the ones on Impact) are ridiculously overscaled, and it's difficult to work with TOO MUCH space in a building. There aren't any really big spacious maps aside from the unpopular Impact map to forge on.

The ranking system was disappointingly easy. I think that 343i should have made the ranking system as difficult as it is to rank up in Battlefield 3, seeing as I've played thousands of game hours there and only recently breached into those general ranks - Halo 4, I'm on my third week of purchase and I've already reached Level 50 (Well, as I'm typing this, 2 games away from 50). The XP boosters were unnecessary to say the least, which is why players with high levels in Halo 4 don't necessarily have the skill to go along side it.

I'm very disappointed that only certain pre-order bonuses obtain certain skins, and even more disappointed that there's skins in general. Too much for too little. Unique, maybe, but there's not a whole lot of armor when you think about it. Less than 20 unlockable by rank for those who purchased the regular non-preordered edition.

Found a lot of games with users using lag switches, wall hacks (Complex, frequently during Flood gametype), people using aimbots, and Mantis overcharges (Instant-reload and instant 5 missiles). I'm very surprised at the amount of cheaters there are, and something has to be done about it.

Armor doesn't look like there was a whole lot of creativity involved in the designing of, for example the chestplates. They all look different, no doubt, but they all FEEL the same, unlike in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach.

There is something that rages me dearly when forging. The delay between ball mode and player mode to render the lighting. Yes, it looks better, and I do admit this was a good change for realism in Halo 4 - However, when everyone does it, becomes a lag hassle. What should be done is add a separate section under Tools to render the lighting, one press and done.

Spawning a grid near a player LAGS LIKE CRAZY.

Forging has become more difficult with Magnets, as they are not locked into it's coordinates properly. It's also more difficult now that the camera movement isn't the same as that in Halo: Reach. Sometimes, spawning an object too large for the camera area may push you or lag you out of bounds and into walls. It is also easier to exploit from the asthetics of the map teleporters to gain access to the inner walls of many levels without dieing.

The Flood gametype is barely customizable. I also feel that the distance in which one can use the thrust armor ability should be an option in all gametypes.

Customization of gametypes in general: More!

File sharing (& Search) is disabled at this moment, not sure if intended or bug.

The Daily Challenges for single-match games tend to glitch up sometimes, as it may record the last game's stats leaving you a better chance at getting the remaining (headshots, regicides, kills).

The Daily Challenges for completing Spartan Ops Episode 2's chapters on Heroic or higher didn't register on completion.

There were many games where there was no option for betrayal booting in War Games.

The title "War Games" feels very awkward. "Matchmaking" sounds better.

Awkward glitch where if you respawn right away after being killed, very good chance you'll be very close to the person that just killed you. Not good when they have power weapons, or if you want to avoid that person.

Killcams lag and enrage players when they see their killer aim nowhere near them.

The new Snipers playlist looks like a five year old did it in five minutes. A single class with a sniper, no new innovations, secondary weapons, drops, etc? Also, again, poor choice of maps in the playlists such as in Complex - which isn't really made for a small team of snipers.

Most maps are too bland. (Complex should be a bigger map and have warthogs, for example.) Again, the symmetry doesn't feel like it's from Halo. Maps like Halo 3's Guardian is a good example of a well-balanced asymmetric map.

The location indicator from Halo: Reach didn't migrate into Halo 4, making it more difficult to coordinate tactically with other teammates.

The filters for who you want a game with are gone!

Removed several modes, one of which was Assault where the Oddball would be capable of exploding.

Spartan Ops' newest release (Third) with two chapters played on multiplayer maps seemed very odd to me.

Less achievements, quick campaign

GUI lags

Can't change votes on maps in multiplayer

Changed Cortana's overall physical appearance (for the worse) as many players have noticed, and even found in several local newspapers about sexism and how it's affected the game

The innovation of pressing right-stick down to change the location of file browsing was very confusing at first

No more matchmaking campaign missions

Playing a Spartan Ops chapter through matchmaking will always be Heroic

No toggle on game music volume through menu

Overshield and Stealth orbs removed (because of armor abilities)

Overshields appear mid-combat in Regicide as a bonus, ends up being a cheap kill

Gravity hammer nerfed

Plasma grenade damage reduced in blast radius

Instant punch kills in SWAT

 

That concludes the long embarrassing list of a Veteran Halo Player's discovered bugs and awkward moments, this far. There are reasons why Bungie did the things they did. I apologize for any mistakes in spelling, grammar, or duplicates of a problem.

 

Here are some improvements I found very appealing to Halo 4...

 

Forge: the name of the object appears under it.

Forge: Able to change the physics of some objects (such as some barriers) previously unavailable in the other Halos

Forge: Delete All

New Forge tools (like Duplication) directly under Dpad.

Able to sprint as well as maintain an armor ability

Fixed accidentally deleting objects in Forge with locking and aiming at another object while still holding what you wanted to have deleted

Instant respawning, best of both worlds

The variety of visors

New Campaign Goal: Get those terminals!

Graphics, graphics, graphics! CG looks realistic! Well done, 343i !

The new Spartan Hub and overal main screen GUI looks fantastic

(Some minor invitational glitches were changed, since the latest Xbox 360 update was so close to the release of Halo 4 it's hard to tell if this is game-side or xbox-side)

Oddball: Toss the ball!

Perks are well balanced

Armor specializations include armor perks as well

Dominion gametype, similar to territories (and Conquest in other games)

Included a better description of the campaign skulls

Collector's edition had some fancy casings and reads, much enjoyable!

 

There are many other unmentioned improvements, awe's, etc in Halo 4 such as the coming back of Halo: Reach's space missions that just rocked! The storyline was fantastic despite not being able to keep the traditional Halo impossibilities (No more Forerunner, No more Spartans, Covenant enemy again - essentially changing the Halo Universe drastically)

Overall the point of this was to give 343i a better perspective from a veteran's point of view as well as report a few bugs / awks.

I'm sure I missed many points, but these are the ones I've noticed the most. I'm just talking more about the improvements from the last game. This is a really good game and totally worth the money! I'm addicted to CTF on Adrift right now.

 

I would REALLY LOVE to see classic Halo maps coming back from all Halos! Like that one with the massive satellite dishes in the background in Halo 3, and the DLC Avalanche, Blackout, veterans will know what I mean...

 

-NightDelSolEXE7