My Honest Review of Halo 4 War Games - Rank SR-38 (42 now)

[sindronian]

EDIT:

 

BEFORE YOU READ THE REVIEW (now that it has gotten a bit of attention) I just want to let you know I am not really enjoying multiplayer right now. Every game just seems really stressful. It feels like 95% of the gun-fights I get into if I'm not perfect I lose. Also I think I'm running into organized teams because I'm ALWAYS fighting more than one enemy when I'm deliberately trying not to and I rarely survive when I'm "one-shot." I don't know if this is because 343 has failed to separate social/ranked but for me; the kind of person who plays to "play" and not so much "to win" the game it's been pretty frustrating and I actually haven't played much at all for the past few days/week. In Halo 3 I ran into people who were better than me but it was never so bad that I had to try my best every single gun-fight. I got to SR-41 in like the first week so that might be why? The following review seems really positive but I think the ranking/match-making system is pretty messed up for someone like me who wants to "pug" games (even with friends). I guess it's the same for organized teams because they run into people they just stomp on.

 

 

 

 

I will be reviewing the maps, the guns, armor abilities, perks, instant respawns, gametypes and armor. Look for titles in bold.

 

If you want to get an idea of what kind of Halo player I am check out my stats:

 

Halo 3 Rank/Stats http://www.bungie.ne...ayer=sindronian

 

Halo Reach Rank/Stats http://www.halowaypo...onian/haloreach

 

Halo 4 Rank/Stats http://www.halowaypo...indronian/halo4

 

Firstly, I loved the campaign except for a few things (like the didact boss fight. Why wouldn't 343 take advantage of their talent and make it amazing? Not enough time? Who knows). The multiplayer is FUN (well at first I thought it was! It's Reach all over again).

 

Theatre doesn't even work for campaign yet (I think?).

 

The fine editing tool from Reach is gone which honestly, nearly ruins forging for me. No, magnets do not entirely replace the tool. That's really unfortunate. It's too time consuming without it. What were they thinking :/

 

Now for the war games review!

 

GUNS I FEEL SHOULD BE PRAISED OR SHOULD BE CHANGED:

 

Before you read the following reviews about guns I should say I have been getting a CRAPLOAD of lag in Halo 4 and have had very few games without at least a little bit of lag. So my observations about how the weapons behave may be a little inaccurate but I think it's ok.

 

DMR - Great weapon. I personally like the look of it in Reach better but it still looks cool. The bloom is perfect IMO. You only have to pace your shots at very long distances (VERY, long). Now, is it over-powered? Just a little bit. The gun is way more effective just beyond medium range which is the way it should be. At medium range I do believe it is better than the BR not because of the bloom reduction or damage but the rate of fire. I'm not sure about a solution. Tiny decrease in rate of fire may fix it. Then again we don't want the DMR to feel like a semi-automatic sniper rifle either.The BR realistically should be a winner at medium range and it is often not. Decent sound. Change to performance needed.

 

Please note: INCREASING BLOOM WILL NOT CHANGE THE DMR FOR THE BETTER. IT WILL SIMPLY MAKE IT A FRUSTRATING AND ANNOYING WEAPON AGAIN WHICH WILL JUST NERF IT COMPLETLEY. BLOOM IS NOT THE ISSUE.

 

Frag Grenades - They have a small blast radius because there exists a perk to increase it. What makes a lot more sense is to have the grenades at normal blast radius and have no perk to affect radius. IMO.

 

BR - Fantastic. I was never a BR fan in Halo 3. However I always used it over the assault rifle when I found it. I never played Halo 2 online so that probably explains why I don't have an attachment to the weapon. I really do like it in Halo 4 though. More than the DMR simply for the feel. The DMR's bloom allows for headshots on the outer circle of the expanding reticle which just feels like BS to me and almost like you can shoot someone around a corner. The BR performs as it should at medium range and I believe its feel is spot on. No BS. Concerning it's shape it looks great. Overall it is visually a bit strange though, but only compared to other BRs from past Halo games. To be blunt it sounds like crap. At least it doesn't need balanced!.

 

Assault Rifle- PERFECT. It is finally a real weapon along with decent sound. It melts at close range AS IT SHOULD. It barely wins out fights at medium range but stands a chance and it's useless at long range. Great job 343! I only use it if I'm using firepower though

 

Carbine - Looks and sounds great. One less headshot to kill might fix it. Landing all of those shots perfectly is not realistic while with the DMR and BR it is realistic because it's 5 shots and not something like 8. Which is why the Carbine is too weak. Carbine should be an issue for the BR at medium range.

 

Binary Rifle - Sweet addition. Not OP at all (seriously). Low ammo and clip size along with a laser sight only the enemy can see AND a huge reticle balances it. This gun is probably the sweetest thing you could pull out of your ordinance minus the Incineration cannon.

 

Incineration Cannon - Awesome. My favourite weapon in Halo 4. Sometimes I feel I don't get kills with it when I should though. For example I've hit a guy directly and the blast just knocked him back (pretty sure he didn't have overshield). I love the weapon and it acts differently from the rocket launcher and is more desired. It's forerunner, it should be better.

 

Rocket Launcher - Sound is a step down. Why can't I lock on? If that's over-powered give the vehicles more durability. Two things about this gun could be changes but only one thing HAS to be. Either buff the radius of the explosive or make the rocket travel faster. That's all.

 

Sticky Detonator - Sad this is the replacement for the Reach grenade launcher. The first explosive weapon I ever used in a video game that was rewarding to skill and perfectly balanced. Not enough people could use it well, so they took it out. Really unfortunate. My favourite weapon in Reach. The sticky detonator is an easier to use version. The blast radius is huge. I don't really see anything wrong with it. It's a real power weapon. Like a rocket launcher from Reach. Be afraid of it.

 

Needler - I don't think people realise this is a power weapon now. I mean, it was always a power weapon, but a pretty weak one. Now it's something you should be really afraid of. I really don't think there should be more than one that drops at the beginning of a match COUGH - that impact 343 forge world variant which I haven't even played yet but I think there are 3 needlers on it (WTF)

 

Storm Rifle - Reduce the spread.

 

Vehicles - Damage is perfect. Ghost and Banshee cannons aren't useless like in Reach and are a tiny bit more powerful than Halo 3. I think it's great. Durability not so sure about. Since there is a "fuster-cluck" of power weapons on the map thanks to the ordinance addition to the game I think they could be a little more durable. The problem with this is that the one player who doesn't have a power weapon is screwed.

 

Verdict

 

Human weapons - great job, some need changed.

 

Promethean weapons - great job

 

Covenant weapons - great job, plasma is scary now that it travels so fast (does it travel faster now? Idk, turrets hit me more at super long ranges). Spread could (SHOULD) be decreased for some guns.

 

Great job 343 never have we had such a balanced level of weaponry along with such variety.

 

Vehicles - Give us a forerunner vehicle and a falcon you sillies. Vehicles are balanced but could be more durable

 

MAPS AND SPAWNING

 

- Great. Some people feel like there are not enough maps. There will be. I still haven't gotten to play a few (forge world variants from devs).

 

- Less needlers

 

- Favourite map is Solace. Second best is Haven. Ragnorak remake is awesome.

 

- Spawns are great. Only had a couple bad ones. Instant Respawn doesn't help. EDIT: Spawns aren't that great (lol).

 

- Don't integrate community forge world maps into matchmaking, leave it to the professionals. They will never compare to real maps even if the colours could be changed. If we get 3 voting options of garbage forge world maps every time we try and play war games like in Reach the game WILL break and get REALLY boring AND no one will play it.

 

INSTANT RESPAWN

 

When did anyone ever ask for Halo to be a fast-paced game? We asked for sprint, but only to make it more intense. It worked, while increasing the pace to an appropriate degree. If we want to be killed by the guy we just killed two seconds ago we would play "that game that shall not be named." This feature does not belong in halo and is not NEEDED and will not SELL halo any better.

 

***BTW INSTANT RESPAWN BREAKS KING OF THE HILL ON SMALL MAPS

 

GAMETYPES IN GENERAL

 

- Firstly I want to talk about the social vs ranked playlists. Why are people complaining there are no ranked playlists and the game isn't competitive? I think (may be wrong) every gametype matches you up according to skill and rank (maybe just rank?). So it seems to me what's missing is a social playlist lol. I've already been getting my ass kicked playing regicide because I'm playing against people way better than me most of the time. I don't want to fight people my own level I want to plow noobs lol. Please correct me on how this works! In halo 3 did the social playlist match you up randomly? I thought I remember separate ranks for each social playlist. What made the social playlists social? The ranked playlist matched you up based on your highest skill which was based on wins/losses right? Halo 4 will be ruined for me if I can only play with people my level or above that will just be stressful lol I need to practice on noobs. when did people ask only to be matched up with people their level why would 343 do that?

 

- There weren't enough shipped with the game IMO, despite the reasons for holding some off.

 

- Oddball is a playlist? Lol.

 

- Headhunter is an epic gametype and 343 could have made it better and brought it back, along with Invasion.

 

- VIP dammit.

 

Slayer/Big Team Slayer - Good. More map variety please. The same 3 maps come up a lot.

 

King of the hill - It sucks because of instant respawn. So hard to control the hill. Unless you are T^2 or Kampy himself.

 

CTF - I don't like it because I can't drop the flag. Flagnum? More like, the-good-luck-defending-yourself-against-any-other-weapon-weapon

 

Regicide - Pretty awesome! Regicide gave me my first killtrocity. This is how it works:

 

You're the King with a power weapon - Awww Yeuh

 

You're the King without a power weapon - This sucks

 

Verdict

 

Not bad 343, not bad at all.

 

ARMOR ABILITIES THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED

 

Active Camo - OH, 343 WHY. Why is this an armor ability??? IT IS SO ANNOYING. WHY DID YOU BRING IT BACK? People literally sit behind a rock crouching with camo, wait for me to pass and beat me down twice, not once in the back because most who use it are idiots (You're not an idiot I'm just mad-bro). Some people use it to snipe. Good, that makes it over-powered. I hate this thing it is second-worse to armor lock. Now it doesn't even jam the radar. While the jamming was annoying at least it told you the damn person was there! Now we have no idea!

 

Thruster Pack - It is sick! Despite it being a tiny bit under-powered it has saved my life a lot and makes me look awesome while using it! This is my favourite and WAY better than evade in every way. Props 343. Give us half a meter more and it's all good. For those wanting the distance of EVADE, shut up. That will make it overpowered.

 

Hardlight Shield - I think it's OK. Not over-used otherwise it would be REALLY annoying. It is not needed and doesn't add much. EDIT: This armor ability totally choked me at a killtrocity (potential naire)

 

Promethean Vision- I think it's good. I don't really use it and it doesn't seem to be overpowered. I can understand why this would be good but I've played Halo so much I just know where people are it feels redundant using it unless I'm looking at people out of my radar range.

 

PERKS THAT I WANT TO MENTION

 

Shielding - Shields regen slowly because there is a perk to increase the rate. No. Make the regens normal and have the perk increase them by a tiny amount. The default regen is so slow...like REEAAALLLLYYY slow.

 

Grenade Perk (forget the name) - Shouldn't exist. Radius is so small I almost feel forced to use this perk.

 

- I think the rest are ok (or are they).

 

ARMOR

 

- Venator armor: Did 343 make camo so OP just so people could get this armor easier? Uhhh...

 

- Wow. There is a lot of armor.

 

- It all looks really awesome except for the Helmets. Some people like ugly helmets. 343 are addressing those people. There are a lot of great helmets too. Overall best looking armor out of any Halo game by far.

 

- I can understand how some pieces may be hard to differentiate Reach was a little better at this but Reach failed in proportion. The sizes didn't make much sense. I guess it's going to depend on opinion for the armor. At least there's tuns of it.

 

- Colors. Good variety. They are not washed out like in Reach but solid. Great.

 

Proportion - Everything is sized beautifully. Unlike Reach's "world of warcraft" shoulder pads.

 

Variety - There is so much and enough of the pieces are cool. Thank you so much 343!!!

 

Emblems - Where are they? ---ranks up--- Oh there they are. Where are the new ones? ---ranks up--- Oh...I can't comment on the emblems they are weird. There are a decent amount of them and there are new ones. Some returned some didn't. Nothing new here.

 

Visors - Wow, dayum, freaking AWESOME! Hard to get and awesome looking! You nailed the spot 343.

 

Stances - Sweet new addition! No harm done!

 

 

INTERFACE

 

- Step down from Reach. Better than most games. Good enough imo.

 

Bugs

 

- Haven't run into any except for achievement/completion bugs.

 

- Accommodation bug, SUPER annoying! Not tracking correct number of accommodations!

 

- Spartan Ops achievement issues. Specifically Chapter 1 mission 5 survival achievement.

 

- Some generic rank reset bugs

 

- Haven't run into anything game-breaking

 

 

Final Verdict

 

- Really worried about this social/ranked playlist thing. I don't want to get my ass kicked every match because I always get joined up with people my level or higher. This could potentially ruin the mutliplayer. My highest skill in Halo 3 was 40 but I mostly played social.

 

- A lot of network issues. I haven't had issues with other games but Halo 4 lately has been pretty hard to play with the amount of lag I am experiencing. For some reason just after the midnight release I had no network issues.

 

Other than that I am impressed. I highlighted my serious issues and some other nit-picky things. Thank you. Great job.

 

I think a lot of people posting about this game have missed bringing up the good things about it. Hopefully this accomplishes that.

 

Care to add to my review?

[Vamphaery]

Fairest and most well supported review I've read.

[sindronian]

Fairest and most well supported review I've read.

 

Thanks I tried to be fair.

[MaddMattHazzard]

I agree with a lot of what you said.

 

Coming from someone who hides behind rocks with Active Camo and a sniper rifle, this ability is just too powerful not to have. If you're playing on a big map or the Big Team Battle playlist, there's really no other armor ability to have besides Active Camo (unless you feel like getting sniped a lot).

 

That said, on smaller maps like 4v4 Slayer or CTF, I really like Hologram. All I can say is that red dot really screws with the opposite team. Either they waste half their clip shooting at nothing or they retreat because they "think" there is two of you.

[Wildsid3]

The current level system only reflects how much someone plays. Not skill.

 

It is unfortunate that it doesn't match up new low levels with some level 60's so they can get some humility.

 

I miss the Halo 3 system and anxiously await it's return so I can see some true skill measurement.

 

Good and balanced review, thanks.

[SpaceWolf4]

This is perhaps the best detailed review of Halo 4's multiplayer I've seen yet. Good job.

 

Also, I'd like to add that Social and Ranked didn't have much difference in Halo 3. The only difference was that your rank was displayed in ranked, but TrueSkill still worked behind the scenes in Social. This is how it is for almost every Xbox 360 game that has a matchmaking system.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said.

 

Coming from someone who hides behind rocks with Active Camo and a sniper rifle, this ability is just too powerful not to have. If you're playing on a big map or the Big Team Battle playlist, there's really no other armor ability to have besides Active Camo (unless you feel like getting sniped a lot).

 

That said, on smaller maps like 4v4 Slayer or CTF, I really like Hologram. All I can say is that red dot really screws with the opposite team. Either they waste half their clip shooting at nothing or they retreat because they "think" there is two of you.

Active Camo is too powerful for campers, yeah. IMO, Halo 2 got it right when they added Active Camo for the Arbiter. A short burst of camo that deactivated if you performed a melee or fired your weapon, and had a 20 - 30 second cool down (if I remember correctly).

[Ryu♥Hayabusa]

If I could give you 5 likes, I would. I agree with everything you said about the weapons. Your opinions are very well balanced out and unbiased. I love this review. +100000000

[sindronian]

I agree with a lot of what you said.

 

Coming from someone who hides behind rocks with Active Camo and a sniper rifle, this ability is just too powerful not to have. If you're playing on a big map or the Big Team Battle playlist, there's really no other armor ability to have besides Active Camo (unless you feel like getting sniped a lot).

 

That said, on smaller maps like 4v4 Slayer or CTF, I really like Hologram. All I can say is that red dot really screws with the opposite team. Either they waste half their clip shooting at nothing or they retreat because they "think" there is two of you.

 

I just think since active camo is so powerful it changes the experience a little too much. The armor abilities were supposed to be hard to choose from. They aren't really. I just don't use camo because I don't prefer to camp. Camo is good for doing "well," but is it good for Halo in general? This implementation of it isn't IMO. In other halo games it was a power up only one person could have at a time and they had to go get it somewhere on the map. In Halo Reach/4 EVERYONE has it. That's like EVERYONE having overshield it's just ridiculous. Camo and overshield are obviously different but they are both really powerful in different ways. Camo is way better than any of the other armor abilities. Camo should be an ordinance drop. Seriously...How on earth did they make the decision from having one person with camo to everyone having camo? I just can't picture that decision being made but somehow it was.

 

If I could give you 5 likes, I would. I agree with everything you said about the weapons. Your opinions are very well balanced out and unbiased. I love this review. +100000000

 

Thanks

 

Also, I'd like to add that Social and Ranked didn't have much difference in Halo 3. The only difference was that your rank was displayed in ranked, but TrueSkill still worked behind the scenes in Social. This is how it is for almost every Xbox 360 game that has a matchmaking system.

 

I see. So is the fact that your rank was visible in one playlist the only distinctive feature between social and ranked? If that's true that's crazy because social was a hell of a lot easier and more laid back which is kind of what's missing in halo 4. Maybe it's just because there were so many guests in social?

[Amnesiac]

*****

[Hᴜᴍᴘsᴛʏʟᴇs]

You don't need to get 8 headshots with the Carbine, nor do you need 5 headshots with the BR. You just need to place that many shots on the opponent's body to pop their shields, which is when you go for 1 headshot.

 

Since the Carbine has a much faster RoF, 7 shots to the body and 1 to the head shouldn't be that big of a deal compared to 4 and 1 with the BR; actually, if you land every shot perfectly, the Carbine has a faster kill time than the BR.

 

It's a pro-weapon that only the top 1% of Halo 4 players should use. I'm pretty good with it, and only getting better.

[DoctorB77]

Very nice post. I agree with most of your opinions. The DMR rate of fire should be increased.

[Hᴜᴍᴘsᴛʏʟᴇs]

Very nice post. I agree with most of your opinions. The DMR rate of fire should be increased.

 

Errrrr, do you mean decreased?

[sindronian]

Errrrr, do you mean decreased?

 

yeah :/

 

You don't need to get 8 headshots with the Carbine, nor do you need 5 headshots with the BR. You just need to place that many shots on the opponent's body to pop their shields, which is when you go for 1 headshot.

 

Has it always been that way? I just remember always having to go for the head in Halo.

[lilshaggy805]

personally i think camo shouldve been ordinance,but make it like the camo in 1,2 and 3 so its just like a power up

[sindronian]

personally i think camo shouldve been ordinance,but make it like the camo in 1,2 and 3 so its just like a power up

 

I don't mind it either way.

[Unseenz]

Very excellent post. Sure as heck beats mine D: 5 stars!

[sindronian]

Very excellent post. Sure as heck beats mine D: 5 stars!

 

Thanks man, you gotta disagree with something xD

[Peter White Jr.]

Nice review! Also a big Halo fanatic that is very frustrated about War Games. It IS EXACTLY like playing Reach Multiplayer! With that I give it a big thumbs down. Thought a dedicated server was the answer, but apparently not. Sorry if I ever doubted you Bungie, looks like Micro$oft has bigger issues with xbox live servers.

[sindronian]

Nice review! Also a big Halo fanatic that is very frustrated about War Games. It IS EXACTLY like playing Reach Multiplayer! With that I give it a big thumbs down. Thought a dedicated server was the answer, but apparently not. Sorry if I ever doubted you Bungie, looks like Micro$oft has bigger issues with xbox live servers.

 

Well I can't comment on the dedicated server thing since I'm not really educated about it. If one thing helps me enjoy war games though it's playing with friends. It's just too frustrating by myself.