It's been a month. Here are my mixed thoughts.

[Dawn Wolf]

I told myself I wouldn't make a thread like this till Halo had been out for a month. It's been that more or less.

 

Overall, I really like the game. They did a lot of things well, and I will likely play it actively until H5.

 

However, there are quite a few things that irk me. Some small, some not so small. I'm not going to touch on balance issues. They spark debate, and this is not meant to be the place for them. This is about what I, and you, want for Halo 4. In terms of content and maintenance. The following issues I consider very important, but also, very fixable.

 

TIER 1 Issues: Major issues that will most likely be remedied soon

 

The playlists. I enjoyed the unique approach of separating CTF, Oddball, and KOTH for a while to start. It was also nice that they added SWAT, then Team Snipers. However, I find it very odd that they took out Snipers, and Doubles is still absent. Meanwhile, CTF, Oddball, and KOTH are all low pop, and eating up space that could easily be combined. Furthermore, the addition of that FFA playlist no one seems to play. I do hope that's leaving in stead of something else tomorrow. No one seemed to have asked for it. They asked for Snipers, Doubles, and Lone Wolves. The thing is, while yes, this seems like it could be fixed any moment, this DLC business worries me, because they are definitely releasing two playlists around the DLC come the 10th. DLC, and Extraction. That doesn't seem like it will leave much room for the playlists that are missing. And Regicide really doesen't seem like it should replace Lone Wolves, AND Juggernaut. There's also some questionable aspects of the games themselves, like the weakness of the Magnum in Flood, and the lack of Objective and flood of power weapons and vehicles in BTIS. And Griffball.

 

The maps. I like the maps for Halo 4. However, the handling of them has been quite strange in some ways. As it stands, there are 5 maps in 4v4, and 5 maps in 8v8. This is acceptable for launch. However, why does Ragnarok not appear in 4v4? They would provide a much needed change of pace, much like in H3. If they took out the Banshee and Mantis, it would be a great experience. Just like H3. Similarly, Complex seems like a map that could support 8v8 fairly well. Why not add it? Further boggling the mind is the absence of Relay, Accent, and Settler. The three forge variants that shipped with the game. I realize people criticized Reach for having SO MANY forge variants, but were talking about 1 per map. And these maps could add some much needed variety to the rotation. There's also the fact that 4v4, which normally has the majority, really seems to be getting shafted in time to come. Even when the proposed maps are added, and the DLC comes out, 2 of the DLC maps look to be 8v8, and only one looks to be 4v4. Even with the forge maps, again, 2 seem to be more 8v8, and only one seems small for 4v4. When all this is added as needed, we will still only have possibly 3 more maps in 4v4.

 

Lag, Killcam failure, and lack of Final Killcam. The lag has been fairly decent in H4, although it definitely could use some work it seems. Better than H3 for sure I believe. The issue of the killcams seem odd and incosistant. Often times I don't even get a killcam, and when I do, they're occasionally very inaccurate. But then there was the issue of the game winning killcam. This was showcased before launch, and was there on the first day of play, then it vanished. These things are awesome! They're great fun, and I really regret they're removal, even if temporary. I hope they put these back in instead of scrapping them.

 

TIER 2 Issues: Minor issues that may not be resolved, and some people don't care about them, but are still quite important

 

The Gametypes. There are so many missing game-types and game options in this game, and it is quite unfortunate. To name them, we are missing the entirety of the classic gametypes, Assault(A little redundant) and Juggernaut(Not so redundant). We are also missing VIP from H3, an awesome mode. We are missing either VIP or the Race mode in Reach, causing issues for race communities. We are missing the Reach gametypes Stockpile and Headhunter, as well as some of the options in the present gametypes. Flag no longer supports 1 flag at all. There is no asymmetrical game like this. It's just... Gone. Even though we have maps like Complex and Abandon. Infection has much less options. Advanced options like 3 ball also seem to be gone. Overall, Custom games, in the realm of settings, have gotten pretty hit hard. All this seems to be reasonably easy to fix.

 

No Campaign Theatre. This one at least they have addressed in a statement. It's also the most understandable, as it takes a lot of work. However, this means no more campaign SCREENSHOTS. Which is kind of terrible. We can't have awesome Screenshots of the day of the beautiful campaign and it's enemies. And chief. We can't have screenshots of Chief.

 

Spartan Ops. This is the most subjective issue here. People may disagree. But I find the decision to make SO grant players infinite lives and time to complete the missions on any difficulty very odd. Playing them Solo Legendary is an incredibly awkward and unrewarding experience. You are often spawned right back in the middle of the battle, with no penalty. It's strange, because so much effort goes into these missions, and you just crudely rush into them, beating them in 10 minutes instead of taking the time to really approach them intelligently. I consider it a mistake in some ways.

 

Future Issues: Issues that will eventually come to play

 

Ranking. The slated system to release next year seems interesting, but also a bit strange. From what I've gathered, we'll have truskill. But it will be hidden from everyone. Out own truskill even, we can only see outside of the game. What butters my bacon here, is that this seems to be what we basically already have. We already have matchmaking based on a hidden truskill stat for all players. We just can't see it. So is the only real change here that we can now see our OWN skill, OUTSIDE of the game? And for what playlists? All of them? Shouldn't we get a few ranked and a few unranked? Shouldn't ranked just show everyone's rank like in H3? I guess we'll have to wait and see how it plays out.

 

Future playlist support. I think the weakest thing about Reach, and still weak but much less so in H3, was the introduction of so many interesting playlists at least for a period of time. H3 gave us fun x2 exp weekend playlists. They were often interesting and different, although even then they were often odd repeats of hardly different games. What about some crazy modes once in a while? Like paintball? AR SWAT? Elimination? Team Railguns and Lasers? Jetpacks and Rockets? Infinite Hardlight and Sword? There's so many awesome little ideas that never come to light. I hope 343 keeps the primary playlists permanent next year (Doubles, Snipers), and experiments weekly with more interesting and rare games. (Team Binary, Team Overshields) They don't need to be perfectly balanced, just fun. And they could help get those impossible weapon prof. accomidations. A sticky det. gametype one week would be pretty appreciated for that purpose.

 

User Maps. I don't know why Bungie was so stingy with this playlist. Why not have a playlist after a while 24/7 on the best community maps? They're exciting and fresh, and it was a very interesting playlist. They only had it up for about a week though. What gives? With H4, this playlist could be more interesting than ever.

[Zuko 'Zarhamee]

I agree with many of your points, especially the one about Future Playlists. Though VIP will most likely not be returning as 343 said in the last bulletin they are going to introduce a new gametype "Team Regicide" in next week's rotation.

[TonyY]

First post here but been playing halo for a long time. Been playing h4 now for alittle over a month now and I have to agree with alot of things you say. This game is alright but I don't think halo is quite my cup of tea anymore.

 

Maps and gametypes- It really seems like since reach came out, maps have been lacking big time. what happened to great constructed maps like midship, beaver creek, guardian, THE PIT, construct just to name a few? I just feel like alot of the maps are alittle akward and doesnt fflow very well. I noticed to on exile sometimes at start of the game I had a waypoint saying rockets near the tank. another game I played there was no waypoint at start but when I went over there they were? not sure why objective games aren't in btb I loved flag and bomb games in btb so much action going on. I'm sure they will combine the objective lists into one playlist shortly. I really like in h3 how every weekend they just had random playlists some were interesting and some were just bland. great way to test new game types out and I'm sure alot of people would love to try something new. I am hoping they implement this at some time.

 

the lag has driven me crazy at times also. plently of games where someone quits and blackscreened and even a few times kicked out of the entire game. I have always had a good connection in h3 and reach so I know its not me. even when no one quits I get lag and drives me nuts. never was this bad before in reach or h3 what's going on here? I noticed the killcam also sometimes you get it other times I just look at my dead body.

 

Overall I think the thing that bugs me the most are the armor abilities though. I know they aren't going to remove the aa's and I know what people will say: if I want h3 go play it. but on the same token if you want reach go play reach.... this is basically reach 2 but it is better than reach. I find it funny how some of aa's gets canceled out in a sense. tkae for example promethian vision but if someone is wetwork they just show up as an outline.I know not everyone will use pro vision and wetwork but some will. I have a problem somewhat with invis too. you can pick invis right from start? so someone camps with invis and snipe you don't have a chance really. kinda overppowered imo. then on the opposite you have being close it jams the radar so they know someone is near with invis and when you run you can be seen. I just think the aa's took away that competitive gameplay. I wish they just would have expanded the equipment like in h3, where ANYONE from EITHER team could get it making for great gameplay and strategy.

[TornadoFlame]

wow lucky you i don't seem to feel like this is a halo game to me past halo i could be on it for hours alot or with team,party now i can't even go 30minutes by myself or 1-3 hours with my party before realizing how easy and stupid the game has become. i hope the visable ranking system changes that i'm bored of all the bs.

[TRF BaDInTentZs]

By and large I agree with most of your points, I have a similar post somewhere relating to this. Maybe we can bounce thoughts at some point.