Ah, where to begin. Should I start with the fact that a one-eyed snail hiding in it's shell can be considered pro at Halo 4? Or maybe I should start with how Halo 4 is so reminiscent of CoD, Crysis, Battlefield, and Mass Effect that I'm not quite sure whether or not Halo has become an acronym for something. I won't, however, start with all the aforementioned issues, because, well. They've been mentioned.
Let's start with something simple, the lack of a ranking system. Reach, with all it's flaws and annoyances, still had something of a ranking system. The wonderful developers of Halo 4 elected to have no ranking system because, "It promoted boosting." I'm sure it did promote boosting, in the same way obesity promotes anorexia. Yes, there were boosters on Halo 2 and 3. Yes, people bought 50s on Halo 3. The part that was left out is that these legit 5s with their bought 50s would never play in a 50s playlist because they'd lose the precious 50, so they'd stick to a playlist where they could nurse their 5 in peace, without bothering the big boys.
The next part is the weapons. Or at least it would be if the weapons weren't so unbelievably over and underpowered that writing any coherent sentences about them is nearly impossible. Hmm, it seems as though I've just achieved the impossible. But I digress. Why would they think to bring back the famed BR and make it just about as powerful as a nerf gun with a broken trigger? And what about the DMR? Firstly, it's quite literally better than a sniper (resembles the m16 from CoD 4, for those who remember), and secondly, why are there only 14 shots in the gun now? Was Bungie's 15, giving enough for 3 potential kills, too illogical for 343 to comprehend? Or was it simply a way to undermine Bungie by saying, "no no, 14 is better because we're in charge now, not them." It's a minor gripe, I know, but it quite perfectly illustrates how 343 has done everything possible to avoid Bungie's influence in the game.
In all though, this game is so broken that I feel like a crack addict going cold turkey when I play it. I should probably point out that I'm a legit 50 on Halo 3, and have built myself a fairly nice service record on Reach. The fact that almost every random on Halo 4 seems to have a perfect 5-shot is proof enough for me to see that there's something wrong, and if they think I'm going to stick with it and adapt, well, as the frustrated zoo-keeper said to the last male panda on the planet; F@%K That! (pointing at female panda).
