Aspects of H4 that make it seem like it's attempting to be CoD...

[Vexx303]

Maybe it hasnt reached CoD status yet as far as "What it aspires to be", but there's no denying that from Reach to H4, the game adopted alot from the CoD Layout:

 

Some Being:

 

1. Ordanance

2. Kill-Cams

3. Load-Outs

4. Double Exp from Mountain Dew

 

While the game doesnt feel exactly like a PoS CoD game, it doesnt change the fact that it took a BIG step in that direction with the change of developers...Does this mean that the game will further travel down that road in future games?

 

I hope not. Eitherway, I can look past a couple of these issues, the two big ones that bother me most are Kill-Cams and the Mountain Dew thing...

 

First up:

 

Kill-Cams are completely unnecessary, and in my opinion should be removed. No Halo game has had them prior, and they shouldnt start now. The only "Benefit" to kill cams is that they help you identify if someone was cheating or not, and since EVERYTHING seems to be tracked in your Service Record it's kinda unnecessary.

 

Next up:

 

Why Mountain Dew? CoD has Mountain Dew already, and I dont know about you guys, but I'm a healthy person, I work out and I dont eat/drink chips and soda. Is it that hard to put codes on stuff that's not going to further contribute to the growing trend of "obese society"?

 

Are developers under the assumption that all gamers are fat basement dwelling nerds with social issues? Spartans are suposed to be "Bad-Ass", the H4 advertisement for Doritos and Mountain-Dew clearly advertised a Spartan working out while persuading you to get some Doritos and M-Dew...Why? I guarantee that you wont be doing alot of anything but getting fat if you consumed those products consistantly on a regular bases...

 

My point being is that if "Spartans" are supposed to be bad ass, why not take the chance to put the double exp codes on something healthier like Gatorade or Bottled Water? Most of the kids on Xbox Live already have issues, I doubt they need to be jacked up on Mountain-Dew or Diabetes as well, just my two cents.

[l Xenoes l]

Ordnance is only similar to the care package only because the fact it drops you something. But, it drops weapons and little power ups. Not killstreaks that go and kill people for you or show you where people are at. I don't mind the kill cams cause I can skip it and possibly people who play CoD and Halo liked the kill cams and wanted to see it in Halo to know how they died and who killed them. The load outs are similar but, severely limit what you can put in them. They had the load outs in Reach but, you couldn't change what was in them. They make game play better and stop people from camping say the DMR or BR like a lot of people did in Halo 3 and Reach if you didn't spawn with them. And I doubt 343 went to Mnt Dew and asked if they could do the Double Exp. It was prolly the other way around with Mnt Dew seeing a cash cow in doing that for 343 which I'm sure it boosted their sales considerably.

[Ardski]

LOL @"Most of the kids on Xbox Live already have issues, I doubt they need to be jacked up on Mountain-Dew or Diabetes as well."

 

That cracked me up.

[Vexx303]

I guess I spoke too soon...There's a list of things that bother me:

 

This game needs work BADLY...Multiplayer is fun, but obviously the Promethean weapons arent balanced, not that I really care...You can chalk it up as "Adding to the random challenge"

 

However, this "Spartan Ops" is ridiculous. 4 Episodes in and I have not seen the Spartan I created once...Not even "Passing by" in a hallway or something...You have ZERO interaction with any characters actually in the "Story"...there's a voice in the background that tells you what to do, that's pretty much it. Even at the end of Mission 5, Ep 4 when "Majestic" touches down, you only see a Pelican, which you've seen in every other spartan Ep...

 

Half the time the missions dont make sense; Battle from point A to B on this map, then battle your way back just because you need an "Extraction" from a Pelican that apparently cant fly the additional 100 meters to pick you up... "I know you've cleared out Sniper Alley 100 times 'Crimson' but we forgot to secure the area and now we need to go back, so here clear the area again for Spartan Ops week 4"...ALSO, even though your goal was to "Grab something" you're ALWAYS required to kill everything...Even when you're supposed to "Chase someone through a portal"...

 

Promethean Knight hit boxes are "Broken"...80% of the times you hit them in the back, they laugh, turn around and then 1 shot you...The missions are constantly re-used like they're "New" places (I'm not 10, In game 'Voice Acting' saying it's a differnet place isnt going to convince me.) - I understand re-using SOME maps because no one wants to download more every week...but I'm 100% positive there was alot more variety in Campaign, and even JUST A PIECE of some of the maps in campaign could have been used and "Forge blocked" a little to add variety...

 

...The only way to possibly describe how spawning was done is: "By someone who has never played an FPS"...In Multiplayer, you constantly spawn in enemy line of sight..in Spartan Ops & Multiplayer, you spawn on your ally regardless of them being in a safe zone or not...Someone on the GameFaqs forums stated he actually got a Kilimanjaro on a 4v4 map...

 

Apparently ALL enemy AI can see you while you're cloaked with the armor ability...not just ones with "Promethean Vision"...Also, why doesnt Enemy AI have any sort of Intelligence? It'd be interesting if the Enemy AI would of gotten into the Mantis' during the Two Giants mission...or any vehicle that they clearly had access to for that matter... They dont "Get into" any vehicles...The only way they're in vehicles is if the game spawns the vehicle with them in it or a ghost spawns next to them...Also all the AI ALWAYS knows where you're at and in combat only seems to "Mad rush" for you (They know nothing else...Probably why they consistantly shoot at you even after you're dead.)...What are you really capable of doing with 20 Elites "Bee-Lining" towards you? and when did all covenant learn to randomly jump 20ft in the air?

 

Spartan Ops is also a "Grind-Fest" you just die repeatedly until you've killed all the enemies...Mostly because the odds of 500:1 are in no way feasible...

 

Spartan IV's arent anything close to the Spartan II's but my Spartan IV makes Master Chief look like a chump: When I go into a single Spartan Ops match and according to Palmer, "I Make **** happen"...So 1 Spartan IV vs 150+ enemies and I always win...? Be more realistic...Also the AI amount should be based on the amount of players in the match...Especially considering half the time when 10 elites jump out of a drop ship, they all seem to have fuel rod cannons...Why? Who could possibly think this would be cool? On legendary it only takes 1 fuel rod round to kill you...So 20 elites with fuel rod cannons?...There's a 30+ death game...

 

On a side note; What happens when the Servers are shut down? Spartan Ops is only playable "Online"...Which seems to lag the majority of the time anyway...

 

 

TL;DR :

 

Spartan Ops only seems to suck.

Promethean Knights are Broken

Promethean Weapons **** on all Balance.

AI is broken & stupid...emphasis on the stupid.

 

Also not going to proof read cause I dont care that much...Just venting a bit cause after playing through the 5 levels release this week, I BORINGLY grinded through rougly 500 enemies to accomplish nothing and still have not felt any immersion in the story...

 

Some say Reach sucked, but I disagree...The "Acting" and "Characters" in Reach were weak, but you cant argue the fact that our characters were actually there. Spartan Ops is the equivalent of me watching and episode of Red vs Blue and then playing a game in Matchmaking, thinking the Red v Blue cast are some of the people in the lobby...

[nofatchicks6920]

I understand you completely regarding the complaints on SOPs, OP. I have problems with it too.

 

1. You can't play it offline.

 

2. The AI are either absolute deadeye accurate or just plain stupid, mainly the latter.

 

3. You never interact with any of the other characters from the campaign, you actually never even see yourself in cutscenes. At least my own multiplayer character represented Noble Six in Halo Reach.

 

4. The objectives shouldn't be, "kill every enemy and hit a few switches and buttons along the way", the enemies should be more tertiary if you ask me, unless clearing an area is the main objective, of course.

 

5. Not every enemy needs to be dead in order to finish the mission. I tried to sidestep a pair of Hunters at the end of a mission because I had almost no ammo, got to the extraction point (which was across the entire map), and the Pelican never shows up. (This ties in with point 4)

 

6. Enemy reinforcements don't have to show up every 2 minutes.

 

7. Why the hell is respawning even allowed?

 

8. The only fun part of it is running around like Rambo killing everything in your path (Sounds like Halo 3's campaign, right?), and that gets old after a while.

 

9. The enemy spawning is terrible. Half the time, I either get a drop pod full of enemies dropped on me or a Watcher just spawns 4 Knights surrounding me and I die in a few seconds.

 

I know you made some of those points already, OP, but I was more explaining the problems I had myself there.

 

 

But I do disagree with a lot of the War Games points.

[xv Fallen Angel]

I agree OP, Another thing that irritates me about Halo 4 multiplayer is that they completely got rid of any Military ranks and replaced them with an "SR" and number, which isn't that fun. I also hate the fact that all the armor looks like complete ****, maybe something from a low-budget Power Rangers movie rather than what true Spartans should look like. I also dislike that there is no distinguishable armor in Halo 4, it all looks the same except slight changes in the completely retarded looking helmets. (I guess 343 didn't think that Spartans should have visors to see out of) I'm honestly thinking about going back to Reach to play Halo online, because it's just all around a better experience in my opinion.. And it's a Halo multiplayer, not one based off of COD with crap graphics. Hell! The Halo: Reach graphics were even better than Halo 4! ... :/ We've waited five years to be let down on Halo 4's multiplayer. It would be so much better if we could just have our Reach armor and ranks back.

[Vexx303]

I understand the game needs to change and move forward, but they didnt do amazing IMO..Like I said before, they added what they wanted and disregarded balance (It DOES add more fun and challenge to multiplayer, but it doesnt change the fact of the matter); Promethean weapons are new, all OP compared to their counter-parts, the Mantis is new, also OP.

 

Most of the "hard, original" work they put into the game has been done FOR THEM already...The character was developed, & the story has been written, Multiplayer has been established...They just fill in the inbetweens, and do minor adjustments which doesnt seem like much...

 

Spartan Ops, their only "Real" contribution to the Halo Series, is Episode based...Obviously we're only on "Season 1", but if they expect people to Pay the "Season Pass" method in the future to get access to the other episodes, they're going to be let down hard...The only thing interesting in Spartan Ops is the Video(s)...

 

I dont think Anyone liked Armor-Lock in Reach, but I didnt think it was too bad, it had it's purposes and the such, but ehh...It was still a somewhat decent game-changer; I guess 343 didnt like it either, so It was replaced with the Hardlight shield...This is useless unless you're at long range and have something close by to hide behind, (Sadly, this AA also helps those horrible DMR campers)...At close range you can literally run through the shield and just hit someone in the face.

 

I thought the "Evade" skill from reach was AMAZING...I mean I'm a Spartan, I can flip a truck with my hands, why cant I perform a Barrel Roll with my legs?

 

They took that out and replaced it with a "Jet-Boost" that cant even evade a grenade blast half the time...Not only that but when you Thrustt, you do this "Stop", then thrust, and "Stop" again...So you're really vulnerable before and after the boost...What was wrong with keeping Evade?

 

Good job with adding sprint as a constant ability though, it should of never been an armor ability, simply because "if you can run, you can run faster"...

 

Since Evade is now gone, and considering we're "Moving Forward"...I'd personally like to see some sort of sliding mechanic in the future...So if you're sprinting, and crouch, you can slide a VERY short distance.

 

Maybe it'd be a bad idea, I obviously cant test it out in my head...but it just seems like it'd add more variety; Most times when you're sprinting someone is going to get the first shot(s) on you...This could be a major game changer/even the playing field a little. (Obviously you'd have to be sprinting to use it...)

 

Consider the added perk it'd have when you run around a corner and see someone aiming at you...currently, depending on the player's skill, you cant do anything except jump and/or die since you're "Weapon-blocked" during that period...(Which kinda makes sense)

 

I dont know how the slide would ultimately play out, but it seems like it could make SWAT more fun...Maybe it'd be a bad thing in other modes...who knows.

 

I still really like the game overall, I'm just bothered by the fact that it's their first game with the Series, and they didnt "Ease" their way into it, they just shoved all kinds of changes into the game and said "You're welcome"...

 

Take it for what it is...

[xv Fallen Angel]

All this is true, I hope 343 realizes how stupid their Spartan armor looks.