Halo 4 Competitive Analysis

[chongor117]

Halo 4 User Research/QA Reviews

(Self-Notes)

 

For myself and those who are reading:

 

            Let me be very clear, as a reminder for myself and as a warning/template for all who do read this document. I am here to analyze, and contemplate the hell out of Halo 4 for several reasons.

            First and most importantly, I am hoping to incorporate this document into a portfolio that I will eventually show to game companies that I want to work for. A sort of, “This is part of how I do my research, This is how I feel I can help companies build exciting new games, and “This is why I’m a religious gamer” type of advertisement. Also I apologize for any profane language.

            I am one of the few “lucky ones”, who have known from a young age that the gaming industry is where I belong, and my most cherished heroes are residing in companies like Riot games, Activison-Blizzard, and the kings, Bungie. I might as well inform whoever is reading this that Bungie is the company that built the Halo universe, and is currently working on Destiny. I hope it will be funny later to read this over with DeeJ or Marty, and look back to before Destiny was released. Hi future self.

            Anyway, Secondly, as you can already tell, the goal here is to be informal. Lets get something very clear, and not mistake this for uninformative. I firmly believe, that in order to break this game (and all games) down to their bare bones, we must use INFORMAL language and documentation. There is a block if you will, a sort of inhibiting force, when informative / important information is kept in overly formal and confusing language. See what I mean? Again I want to be clear, when documenting bugs, or analyzing game play/ user interface issues, organization is key. But for this type of documentation, its more about listing off ideas as they come, and allowing the largest volume of thoughts to be present.

            Third and lastly, Halo is a game that I have loved since Jump Street. I bought and played the first one the year it was released, (I was 9 at the time). I played Halo CE all the way through today’s Halo 4, and have been an insane fan of the entire universe since its creation. That being said, I am disappointed. I do admit, I am a competitive player, and sometimes I let this competitive drive fuel my love for games too harshly. With Halo 4, I feel there are several keys aspects that have been lost from previous titles, but for now, in this document I want to focus on the competitive side of the game. After all, aren’t QA dudes and User Researchers supposed to analyze very specific parts of games?

            Anyway, I am going to do my best to breakdown Halo 4’s competitive multiplayer, partly because I feel like some of the issues in this huge title deserve to be talked about, and more importantly I want to show off some of my analytical skills. Lets get started.

 

Chapter 1. The Controller

 

 

Note:

             In order to understand how Halo 4, (and any first-person game for that matter) works, we MUST learn the basics of the controller. The way I think about the controller, and actually most aspects of the gaming world, is that we must assume that nobody knows ANYTHING about games. When conducting User Interface or analysis of a game, we must assume that everyone sucks, doesn’t know ****, and that it will be used by morons. This is the only way to ensure we build the easiest and smoothest form of game/ controller. The hard stuff comes later, like adapting the game for competitive play, and higher skill use. But for now lets stay with the basics.

 

1.The controller is an *******.

           

            I say this with love. The modern day controller is an *******. Gamers are forced into uncomfortable pre-set button layouts that they are forced to learn and deal with for their gaming careers. Hopefully future game companies and console manufactures will learn, but for now we are stuck with what we got.

 

2.What can we do? After all don’t you want to be in User Research?                                                                                                                                                                     How about a simple screen somewhere in the options or menu, where a controller is shown with blank little text-bubbles around each button. The player then presses any button, and it becomes highlighted. Then the player is able to choose an action with that highlighted button. Like, you press R-bumper, a drop-down menu with options like “shoot, grenade, run,” or whatever are shown, and then you can select the one you want. Kind of like computer RTS Hotkeys and Micros? Whatever, they will learn eventually. Anyway, back to the controller.

 

3.    How does Halo 4 use it?

                                                                                                                                                For now we are left with the modern day ******* controller. So how does Halo 4 utilize the beast? In my opinion, Halo 4 actually does a pretty good job. Thanks to Bungie and now 343I, Halo titles come with many different pre-set options for the button layouts, even they do suck it at least offers some variation. BTW I don’t mean Bungie and 343 suck, I mean the controller itself sucks. Anyway, Halo 4 uses the basic model that most FPS games have now come to accept. R-trigger=shoot, L-trigger=grenade, Left stick= visual movement, Right stick=foot movement, and so on. This seams to work for today’s gamers.  You already know I feel that there are better ways to go about this entire process, but lets stay on task. The controller offers quick reactions, and small-refined movements, which are CRITICAL for competitive games. It allows for things like headshots, sprinting, movements, shooting in refined areas, and many other competitive aspects that are too critical to ignore.

            Overall, Halo 4 doesn’t really do much for the controller, and the controller doesn’t really do much for Halo 4. The controller is basic a pre-set system with modern day settings. The one thing I WILL say about Halo 4’s default controller settings, is the B-button crouch. What the **** is that. I don’t know about you guys, but my B button is one of most commonly used buttons in FPS games, and in my humble opinion should be reserved for the most often used actions. I’m not dissing the importance of a crouch, we all know it’s a fierce tool when caught up in 1v1 shoot outs in halo, or dive-shooting in COD, or removing your presence on a radar. But lets be real. Don’t you think you reload more times than you crouch? Especially with modern day Crouch-Toggling abilities, people are using it far less than they are using reloads, weapon swaps, and even grenades. I guess it’s a small tick, but something I felt like mentioning.

 

3.A bit of “Controller Psychology”

                                                                                                                                                            I like to think of the buttons on controllers in levels of importance. First of all, we have the 4 most critical buttons, (based on a modern day Xbox 360 controller, since that’s what Halo 4 uses). The A, X, B and Y, buttons. These are used by your right thumb, and in my opinion should represent the 4 fastest actions that the game demands. In Halo 4 these things are reloads, weapon swaps, melee attacks, and armor abilities. These are all actions that require quick movements, and fast usage, not long or steady actions such as shooting. Next are the triggers, hugely important for FPS play. I feel that the right and left triggers are usually associated with shooting and grenades for a reason. They are easy to hold in position, and are easy to associate with important actions like “R=Shoot, L=Grenade”.

            Next are the analog sticks, left and right. The left stick, allows movement of the feet, the actual player. This is hugely important in FPS play, because of the skill based required to out-maneuver your opponents. The right stick, allows movement of the “eyes” or head of the player. Clearly important for the most basic of game play, aiming and sight. These stick also have the ability to be “clicked” inwards, in Halo 4 activating sprint and scopes. These are actions I might prefer elsewhere, but at least Halo 4 found a way to use them, like every other shooter out there. Lastly, is the D-Pad. I believe this is one of the most usual tools, and under-utilized options on the controller. It offers quick options, and it’s relatively easy to use, either by clicking or by holding the buttons. I would be ABSOULTY BLOWN AWAY, if Destiny ends up not using these buttons in a BIG BIG way.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2. Tempo

 

Note:

            Tempo? Who am I, Marty O’Donnell? I ******* wish.  Tempo is a musical term that basically means the speed of the song or music. In terms of Halo 4, I’m referring to the speed of the game, in everyway. The speed of the players, of the weapons, of the vehicles, of the spawning, of the game play, of the loading screens, of the map choosing screens, of the actions, of the ordinance drops, of EVERYTHING.  In a general sense, I feel that the faster the game play gets, the worse the COMPETITIVE game play becomes.  There are aspects to speed that are truly important for good completive play, such as player speed. Some of the games that have used this for genius competitive play in the past are, Halo 1-3, Halo Reach, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. But there’s a HUGE problem when you combine player speed, with high speeds of all the other aspects as well, but Ill talk more in a moment. Let me tell you something Halo fans, the speed of Halo 4, is ******* LIGHTSPEED.

 

1.Player Speed

 

            The speed of players (Spartans) in Halo 4 is fast, fast, fast. Just like almost every other part of this game. Players can shoot, use an armor ability, toss a grenade, or scope the sniper with virtually no downtime at all. In my view this is one of the best aspects of modern day shooters, Halo 4 included. These intense competitive games need to allow players to respond instantaneously, and fluidly, so that the outcome of the game play is based on skill, and not inhibited by an obnoxious, slow system. The player’s ability to react by shooting, jumping, or reloading, MUST be INSTINCTUAL, so that instead of fighting the controller or game, the players are fighting each other.

            Lets talk about the armor abilities. Everything is based on being faster. Finding an ordinance FASTER, being able to move a stunned vehicle FASTER, seeing around corners FASTER than just using your radar. I mean common, every single player has ******* SPRINT. This game is build for speed, and an “everybody feel good” vibe.

 

2.Object (Weapon and Vehicle) Speed

 

            I am going to be repetitive throughout this Tempo section. The speed of the weapons and vehicles in Halo 4 is very fast. In a way I do mean the actual speed of the vehicles, such as the highly mobile Banshees and Ghost, but more importantly I’m talking about the manner in which the vehicle are used.

            The vehicles in Halo 4 are not really vehicles at all, they’re more like suicidal, maniac, DGAF machines. The vast majority of the time they are used by players who jump on a Mongoose or Ghost, speed across the map to the enemy spawn-side in an effort to splatter any enemies along the way, and blow up in the inevitable explosion from the entire enemy team shooting them down. Sometimes they will be used for just transportation, which in my view is the only way to successfully use vehicles in Halo 4. A quick example is when your playing on the Valhalla remake, Ragnarok:

            You die, jump on a Goose, and drive down the edge of the map to the pelican-side, and now you GET OFF. You have used the vehicle to put yourself back in the middle of the fight far faster and less dangerously than the main lift out of either base.

            This is the only way to successfully utilize vehicles without becoming a human moving bomb in Halo 4. There is one exception with the Mantis of course, but this only really applies in the hands of a dangerous and experienced player. These players are usually able to keep the Mantis alive for a while if they stay back and use it more as a defensive measure than an offensive one. But even then, these vehicles are not REALLY being used for competitive play. Occasionally players will get a few kills in a Warthog if the driver can keep the car from flipping. But even then, any team shots on the gunner renders the Warthog useless. Don’t even get me started about the Mongoose. That ******* thing flips faster than Shaun White, and has less armor than Kat in Halo Reach. (Idk who else noticed that, but this war-torn, arm-missing, badass SPARTAN warrior Kat, takes A SINGLE PINK needle to her visor and is instantly killed). She must not have gotten the most recent armor upgrades. But whatever.

            Anyway, if the vehicles in Halo 4 are going to be used for actual completive play, there needs to be some drastic changes. First of all, MAKE LESS OF THEM. On any of the maps where vehicles are offered, make 1 Warthog or Ghost, put it somewhere in a neutral position on the map, and make players fight for it. Now, 343 also must make these Ghost and Warthogs and everything else WAY WAY WAY  buffer.  Make the Warthog very hard to bring down without large explosives, even then make it 2 laser shots or several rockets. Give the gunner a huge protection buff, so that he is able to actually do some harm. This way, the vehicle does several things. First, it becomes an actual THREAT. No good team will be able to let that Warthog dominate them without losing the game or become totally immobile. They will be forced to team up to bring it down. This is totally opposite to the game play that happens now, where an enemy warthog is basically 2-3 free kills.

            Secondly, it inspires a part of competitive play which I will talk far more about later, Map Control. At the locations where the vehicles spawn, people will be fighting for the areas, and be forced to use competitive teamwork to secure the prize vehicles. As Halo 4 is played now, nobody cares about vehicles, they are unimportant, unpractical, and can be blown up with a single grenade and clip from the AR. Again these Halo 4 vehicles are contributing to the far less difficult, more easy to grasp, “everybody feel good” vibe.

            Can you imagine if it was actually helpful to have these on your team? Nobody would just run around sticking unused Warthogs and Gooses, and nobody would lightly drive a Ghost to middle of the map. They would become precise tools for competitive play, which is what needs to happen to make a successful competitive game.

            Now for the other half of this segment, Weapons. The Weapons in Halo 4 are incredibly fast, even the slowest shooting guns like the Rail gun and Spartan Laser take less than 3 seconds to fire. The standard load out weapons are all incredibly fast. Even though the DMR is supposedly slower than the BR, its very very close.             The Carbine, Light rifle, and automatic weapons all shoot very quickly, so that players feel the controller vibrate more and feel more engaged. Even the sniper can unload its entire clip quickly. As well as the shooting speeds, the weapon swapping is almost instant. There is 0 downtime or repercussion for pulling out the wrong weapon in a fight. There’s even an armor add-on called dexterity so that you can swap weapons FASTER. To me, these guns are incredibly fast, so much so that there really isn’t any downside to pulling the trigger as fast as you want, and there isn’t any downside for accidently pulling out a pistol when you needed a DMR.

 

3.Spawning

 

            This is one of my biggest problems in Halo 4, and with almost every modern day shooter. Most people don’t take into account the real effects of spawning throughout a competitive game. The fact is that Spawning is EVERYTHING. Spawning changes the speed, player-dynamic, and game play for the entire match. In previous Halo titles, spawning was controlled in several ways. In most game modes, Spawning was restricted by time, usually 3 seconds in slayer matches. In other modes, it was a long re-spawn time, like Capture the Flag and Oddball. The point of this control was to ensure that the players had adequate time to regroup with teammates, or plan their next strategy in a competitive sense.

            While Halo 4 does keep longer re-spawn times in some game types, its basic Slayer layout is completely different. In Halo 4, there is 0 re-spawn time in Slayer modes, and most game modes for that matter. This means that as soon as a player is killed, he can press the X-button and get right back in the game. This ABSOLUTLY DESTROYS the competitive aspects that other Halo titles had during these slayer matches.

            The pure speed of the re-spawns, allows players to sprint in, (since everyone has sprint), shoot as much as possible, die quickly, and get right back up to do it all over again. This COD style of game play is completely opposite to what Halo fans have come to know from their completive experiences. The name of the game in Halo 4 is FAST, and spawning is no exception.

 

Chapter 3. Player Rewards and Their (Not)-Consequences

 

Note:

            So what do I mean player rewards? And the player’s ability to NOT have any Consequences? What I mean is, that in Halo 4 players get rewarded for everything. Even stupid decisions and bad moves for competitive play are rewarded. And at the same time, there are few, but virtually NO consequences for making bad moves or poor competitive decisions. Lets break some of these down.

 

1.Rewards For Poor Competitive Play

 

            In Halo 4, players are rewarded for every move they make. In most game modes, the ordinance drops are the new form of power weapons. These drops contain either power-ups or power weapons that greatly change the course of the competitive game. The way ordinances are achieved is by building up a small meter on the bottom left corner of the screen. Basically a reward system. The problem with this, is that the meter for ordinance drops builds from almost EVERY action a player can make in Halo 4. For getting kills obviously, but also for assist, for destroying vehicles (which we already have mentions as being incredibly easy), for getting kills specifically around a base, or flag, or territory, for assassinations, for long shots, for headshots, for grenade kills, for sniping, for specific weapon kills, for kills with the oddball or flag, and the list EVEN GOES FURTHER.

            The problem with this COD style of reward, is first of all, that the ordinance drops become SUPER frequent, which drastically effects the number of power weapons on the map at any one time. This substantially increased the speed of the game play due to the increased ease in killing your enemies. But at the same time, this over-the-top reward system encourages poor competitive play. It causes players to use the vehicles recklessly, totally disregarding the chance of being killed. It causes players to specifically attempt assassinations, when getting a faster kill and helping your team is the far better competitive choice. These may seam like small details, but they add up when trying to analyzes the competitive speed and type of game play. Again this is leading towards an “everybody feel good” style of game, where you can be rewarded for being a poor competitive teammate.

 

     2.   No consequence for Bad Moves 

 

            The other side of this section occurs partly in game, and partly during the re-spawn process. In Halo 4’s competitive play, there is no consequence from making poor decisions for your team. The largest problem is found in the instant re-spawns. Because of the 0 re-spawn time, players feel no remorse for dying quickly, and throwing themselves back into unwise game decision. Players don’t stop to wait for backup from their team, players don’t hesitate to jump on a mongoose and drive into the middle of a fight, and players don’t warn team mates about new information, such as player positions changes, or power weapon locations. Why would they do these things? All they have to do is press x, and they are instantly back in the fight.

            This also means that players are able to reengage super quickly. If they are able to re-spawn as fast as they want, or even if there is small re-spawn time, they are able to jump back into a fight, sometimes the same fight they were in BEFORE it was even finished! This is partly the fault of the speed of the game, but the fault also rest with the lack of consequences. No waiting after you die, no reduced ordinance meter. Why don’t they keep re-spawn times like in previous Halo titles? There was a reason Bungie had them. Why don’t they reduce your ordinance meter for these stupid behaviors? The reason is simple. Can you guess? It’s an “everybody feel good” type of game. Easy to play, even easier to master in a competitive sense. This is not the last time ill be using that term.

 

 

 

Chapter 4. The Highlights

 

Note:

            It seams like I’ve been bashing Halo 4’s competitive side pretty harshly. That’s because I am. For the most part, I feel like Halo 4 has lost its sense of competitive play that previous titles knew so well. That being said, there have been some improvements to the competitive side of the game that I feel deserve acknowledgment. 

 

 

1.The Armor Abilities

           

            Halo 4 has introduced an entire new lineup of armor abilities for players to choose from. These including anything from a deployable turret (which needs a buff drastically), too a regenerative shield. There are many others, and that’s the point. With so many different styles of players and game play occurring every match, versatility is huge. Players can perform with extra aggressive behavior by using the thruster pack to their advantage, and others can hold a position by defending with the hard light shield. Can you guess why the hard light is my favorite? It’s the only one that actually SLOWS DOWN the pace of the game for the entire 4 seconds it stays open. But anyway, players have a good selection to best match their play style.

 

2.The Weapons

 

            For pretty much the same reason as the armor abilities, the weapons of Halo 4 should get some credit. The weapons offer diversity on the battlefield, an aspect even Bungie has struggled with in the past. In the other Halo titles, a single weapon dominated the competitive play, either the BR (Halo 2 and Halo 3), or the DMR in Reach. Those older games really offered no other choice when it came to high-level competition. But this is not the case in Halo 4, as players have a variety of balanced weapons to choose from. I would still argue that some of the weapons need buffs, like the Suppressor, and the Covenant version Storm Rifle. But for the most part, the primary weapons are balanced, and able to fit into many varieties of game play.

 

    3. The Game Types

 

            Halo 4 and 343I has done a fantastic job with its new list of game types. It has many of the old title favorites like Griffball, Swat, and even team Snipers for a while. And it has of course some of the most popular games, like slayer, capture the flag, and big team battle. Specifically with Capture the Flag, I love the addition of an automatic flag pick-up. Anytime you walk close to the flag, you automatically pick it up and pull out a pistol (which is an awesome addiction in itself). This means that teams are forced to play the objective (the flag), or wait out the entire game by playing slayer with no clear winner. It means teams are forced to work together to protect the flag-runner, instead of being able to put it down and be in full assault-mode again.

            Oddball has been the playlist with the biggest improvement. With the addiction of throwing the ball to teammates, 343I has basically invented a new virtual sport. It forces strong teamwork, and good strategy planning. Both are huge contributors to successful competitive gaming. I believe the new Oddball game type is the Halo version of soccer, or football, and will last as 343’s best competitive achievement. It’s debatable on whether or not that Griffball may be the best competitive version of the Oddball game type. They are different, and are played at very different speeds. But overall Oddball will last as the biggest change in Halo 4’s list of game types.

           

 

In Conclusion

Note:

            It’s been a long list of likes and dislikes for Halo 4. I’ve talked about many different topics, and have tried to list some of the key aspects of the game. Keep in mind this is not an official test study, but more a general review of thoughts about the game while I am playing. Thanks for your time, to whoever is reading. I’m sure I’ve pissed plenty of you off, yet hopefully I also had a few responses of “**** man! That is so true!” Below are some of the key points to keep in mind from this document.

 

-       Halo 4 is built around speed. Everything from its player control, too its map design is based around fast-moving and never-resting game play. The best way to sum up 343’s competitive play is, “Everybody Feel good!”
 

-       The competitive design has fallen away from traditional Halo play. Weapons no longer spawn in specific areas of the map, hence the removal of most map-control. Players in most game types now have no re-spawn time, and are able to get back to making poor decisions even faster.

 

-       The weapon and armor variety is great. With many different kinds of players, comes the need for many more types of primary weapons, and armor ability use.

 

-       The controls in Halo 4 are standard. Today’s modern FPS games are built around the “accepted” buttons for certain actions. If you’re comfortable with the choice of pre-determined control layouts, then good for you. If not, your **** out of luck. Hopefully these will become more customizable with future titles.