Okay, lets begin.
First, xXRC BossXx, your comment was literally so stupid I made this account just to tell you that your post added nothing to the conversation and was a complete waste of your time, although I do agree that CoD 4 was the best in the series, so, kudos to you on that one. Anyways people compare games to CoD because whether you like it or not, it's one of THE big names in gaming that sets the industry standard.
Moving on.
Twin Reaper, suffice to say you’re an idiot. You misspelled suffice, and you spelled than with a Q, nice. I'm not a grammar Nazi, infact I’m terrible at spelling and grammar but if you're going to insult someone, please, use spell check, it was made with you in mind. Based off of what you wrote I don't think you understood what the OP's getting at.
Next!
x5had0wxMa9num, I would agree with you that each halo is different, as they should be. That said, if you're getting tired of hearing that halo 4 is not the same or is CoD then just don't go on the threads that have the title “halo 4 not the same”.
Now, everything the OP said is indeed correct. Halo's online multi-player used to be all about brawling with each other. They featured guns such as the SMG and Assault rifle, which were only good at close range. These weapons were typically starting weapons that inspired players to snuggle up and get cozy with their opponents while they beat each other’s faces in. In this halo, more so in reach with the introduction of the DMR, players began tending to hang back and stay away from each other as the DMR favored long ranged combat over short ranged. Halo used to be like fighting in 300, you run up to you’re opponent and beat them face-to-face. In Halo 4 the combats more like trench warfare with both sides hanging back with a no mans land between they swapping bullets. Halo has changed from being a brawl to seeing who can be the better shot from across the map.
The weapons of halo 4 are pretty much either short or long range. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground, and there certainly isn't a slew of varying ranged weapons as there has been in the past. What happens when a short ranged weapon user gets caught out in the open and is being shot at by someone far away? The short ranged user gets their brains blow out while hardly scratching their opponent. Guns like the DMR, Light Rifle, and Battle Rifle can easily reach across the map, stiffling anyone who tries to use a Storm rilfe, Assault rifle, or Supressor. The long-range weapons can easily out class the short ones in the open maps which Halo 4 features. So naturally, play style evolves as players try to stay competitive, players switch to use longer ranged weapons so they can compete with the players already using the long-ranged weapons.
So players begin hanging back as a play style which favors their lovely ranged weapons, and stiffles close quarters combat. That was a shift which occurred in Reach though, what really changed in 4 is that now weapon and map control is no where near as important as it has been in the past, like the OP said. Players are no longer brought together in search of power weapons like the rockets or sniper as they were in Reach. Instead they can just hide in the back, get their kills, then call in their rockets all from the comfort of their own base. They no longer have to fight to get the rockets they just have their own magically warp/drop/whatever the crap you want to call it right in front of them. This provides positive reinforcement; the players are rewarded for hanging back, so naturally they will continue to do the same thing so they will continue getting the same reward, the power weapons. People no longer have to compete with one another for the power weapons, they just go get their own.
There is no longer anything which brings the players together to fight in close quarters combat. (save maybe the tank on Exile or the Spartan laser in the middle of Ragnarok, you could argue those do) It used to be that if you went into the brawl around the sniper spawn and came out alive, you got the sniper. This was your reward for going into close range combat, in Halo 4 there’s nothing to spur the players to get up close and personal other than their own initiative. This is what makes it like Call of Duty, no one wants to get close because they know they stand a better chance of survival if they stay away from eachother. Greater range = greater odds of survival. Everyone plays long ranged now, which keeps the short ranged people at a distance making shortrange weapons obselete and close quarters a last resort rather than a first option.
That’s what changed. Halo went from being close quarters combat as your first play style with longer range as a side option, to long range being the main, and only sensible option. This sounds familiar to CoD, what with players hanging back hiding from eachother rather than beating eachother down in broad daylight. The play style is now more how call of duty wants you to play rather than how halo used to play.
All that said I’m just a college student on Christmas break whose bored. What do I know?
