MLG's Killa_KC Posts His Thoughts on the Halo 4 Playtest

[Archangel Tyrael]

Over on the MLG forums Killa_KC has posted his in depth thoughts from the Halo 4 Community playtest. He goes into a lot of depth here so I'll copy the whole thing, you may want to pop on over to the MLG forums to thank KC personally.

 

Before I talk about Halo 4, it's very important for everyone to understand this. The developer bashing that happens in our community has to stop. Every time Halo 4 details are released, the competitive community is there to rip apart every detail and publicly blast 343 about their decisions. If this continues, I would not be surprised if the majority of developers walk away from the competitive audience and consider them a community that simply cannot be satisfied. When you see new information on an upcoming game, think about the positives it could bring to the game first. If you're certain it's something that will simply not work, come together with positive feedback on how to improve it or tweak it. Blasting employee Twitter accounts and bashing the game hurts everyone.

 

I was invited by Frankie to get my hands on Halo 4 last night in NYC. Microsoft was holding a very exclusive party with some football players that were here for the NFL draft and some press (tv shows and magazine mostly it seemed). There were a couple of community guys there as well.

 

The multiplayer was setup for 4v4 and 8-player FFA. We played 2 Maps back and forth. Wraparound and Warhouse. Both of these Maps have been seen in the various videos and images on the web. Wraparound had a center platform that was connected via bridges and air lifts with a circular exterior. Warhouse was a multi-level structure with a few outer rooms and hallways. Both Maps were fairly small in size and played TS and FFA very well.

 

We were allowed to select from some different pre-set loadouts, but could not customize them. Loadouts were selected very similar to the way they were in Reach with armor abilities. Select at the start of the game or press X when you die to change your loadout. In the menu, you can edit the loadouts (we were not able to in this build). The loadouts had a mixture of the following things (anything not listed here I was not able to play with):

• BR
  
• DMR
  
• AR
  
• Plasma Pistol
  
• Magnum
  
• Frag Grenades
  
• Plasma Grenades
  
• Hologram
  
• Promethean Vision
  

 

There were no power weapons on the Maps and I didn't see the weapon drop pods. Can't answer any questions about anything other than what is listed above.

 

I played with default controls that had Sprint mapped to clicking in the left joystick and crouch being the B button. It made crouching difficult, but using sprint, abilities, and everything else really easy. I didn’t take any time to flip through the different controls. Sprint felt less clunky than Halo Reach’s sprint, but overall was similar. You do run out of sprint in which felt about the same amount of time you’d run out of sprint in Reach.

 

I was explicitly told that weapon tuning is still being refined. This is a very very early build of the game and all the weapons are still being tuned. I'm only writing about what I actually played with.

 

On Twitter, a ton of people asked BR or DMR. I started playing with the BR for a while. There is no bloom and all 3 bullets are very accurate, but there was some small bullet spread. Also, there is some recoil. After shooting a clip at the wall to test the bullet spread, my reticule was fairly higher than where I started shooting. The DMR was single shot with bloom. However, the bloom reset much faster than the DMR in Halo Reach. I didn't have to pace my shots much at all. Both the DMR and BR were 5-shot weapons in this build. At the end of the night, I preferred the DMR. It shot faster than the BR, took the same amount of shots to kill, and I didn't feel like the bloom made me miss shots all that often.

 

Promethean Vision is the new see-through-walls ability. When you hit it, a wave of heat-mapping goes out across the screen and shows you nearby enemies. It does not show you all the way across the Map, just fairly close proximity. The enemies are also alerted when you do it. It reminded me a bit of Enhanced Vision from Shadowrun, but not as powerful. Offensively, I would ping the vision before entering a room and then charge in knowing which person to pick off first or whether I should not charge in.

 

Hologram was very similar to the hologram from Halo Reach. Not much to say here.

Magnum also had bloom and was very similar to Halo Reach. It could be shot very fast, but the bloom would make it very inaccurate. It had 8 bullets in the clip and was a 6-shot kill. The Plasma Pistol shoots a little bit slower now when rapidly pressing the trigger, but each shot seemed to do more damage. The homing mechanism on a charged shot seemed to be toned down quite a bit.

 

Press X to spawn was in the games I played. However, since they were FFA and TS game types, I didn't notice it much. Not sure if that feature will appear in objective game modes or not.

 

In the end, the game looks and sounds amazing. At its core, it's the Halo everyone knows and loves. Movement felt great and I had a really great time playing it for the short amount of time I had. Hopefully 343 will invite us to a longer test session with more features available where we can provide feedback.

 

Melee felt like Reach. Nothing really different there. New assassination animations were pretty cool though. I also think I saw something to disable assassination animations if you didn't want to do them accidentally.

 

Information obtained from --> http://www.littleeng...ts-on-halo.html http://forums.majorl...halo-4-preview/

[Zaguroth]

A very interesting read

Thanks for keeping us up to date with news and stuff like this.

[Anarchy]

Thanks, this explains it much better.

[DoctorB77]

Please no plasma pistol. I really don't feel like playing combo using idiots. And I would like to drive a vehicle every once in a while.

[Minuette]

I hope the BR gets more fire rate to it, plus awesome info, im really jelly ;D

[Archangel Tyrael]

I would love the game, but if 343i includes another control scheme like run and crouch were the running is left stick and crouching is right stick, I would love that. I really hope they do that, I would suck at halo if the melee was b XD

 

Option to change your controller setting in the menu. Don't always have to use Default. From what i have read i am so excited!

[Spyro]

Yay! Now I know. And knowing is power! :sorcerer: :sorcerer: :sorcerer:

[RedStarRocket91]

Before I talk about Halo 4, it's very important for everyone to understand this. The developer bashing that happens in our community has to stop. Every time Halo 4 details are released, the competitive community is there to rip apart every detail and publicly blast 343 about their decisions. If this continues, I would not be surprised if the majority of developers walk away from the competitive audience and consider them a community that simply cannot be satisfied. When you see new information on an upcoming game, think about the positives it could bring to the game first. If you're certain it's something that will simply not work, come together with positive feedback on how to improve it or tweak it. Blasting employee Twitter accounts and bashing the game hurts everyone.

[11LSTANLEY]

Thanks for the info

[Undead]

I'm so glad to hear this! This is the information I wanted. This game is going to be amazing. November is so freaking far away! haha

[Mr Biggles]

Hopefully this means Halo 4 is on the circuit, which is good:

 

 

Glad bloom is sorted, i liked bloom, just not in the reach way.

 

 

Still not sure about Prothean Vision, but, i will definitely take it with a positive view.

[VoLTiiK]

I'm glad you made this for us, the only thing that scared me a-bit was seeing that the BR was a 5 shot. What ever, like you said there are still things that are going to be adjusted and even if the BR remains a 5 shot weapon i would really like to see how that works out.

[SG x AsSaSs1n]

All in all in the early stages of this development, its already sounding like an enticing game. True its still got a while before it releases, that just means it has more time to get better. Im definitely picking this up once I get back to the states. Thank you for sharing the information here.

[RoosterTeethFan]

Hopefully this means Halo 4 is on the circuit, which is good:

 

 

Glad bloom is sorted, i liked bloom, just not in the reach way.

 

 

Still not sure about Prothean Vision, but, i will definitely take it with a positive view.

agree with you on the bloom thing its a good idea for singleshot weapons if done right. reach blooms problem is it was to random this bloom is suppost to just be a visual cue for when you can fire again its a good idea it will stop triger spaming andwill pase your shots for you and if you dont like it at all use the BR simple.

[CrimsonEYEZ]

Thanks a lot for the information.

[DoctorB77]

Hopefully this means Halo 4 is on the circuit, which is good:

 

 

Glad bloom is sorted, i liked bloom, just not in the reach way.

 

 

Still not sure about Prothean Vision, but, i will definitely take it with a positive view.

 

Ya I am sure it wont be very powerful. They will equal it out somehow.

[USDevilDog117]

I think there should at least be a layout option for melee to be right bumper. Back in halo 3 I was a much better player when I used bumper jumper.

[CrimsonEYEZ]

I think there should at least be a layout option for melee to be right bumper. Back in halo 3 I was a much better player when I used bumper jumper.

Me too.

[TerribleTimbo]

Hopefully this means Halo 4 is on the circuit, which is good:

Having someone from MLG come and play test the came has no impact on halo 4's chances of being on the circuit. If they can ship it with good maps and make it with competitive settings right from the start then its chances will be high.

[Baby Boo]

Great info, every aspect of the game seems great I hope there will be a customizable setting for a reach button layout and halo 3 button layout. That would be awesome

[upton889]

VERY helpful info! As long as the bloom doesn't affect the gameplay I'm fine. In reach the shot precision is just too inconsistent. Looking forward to Halo 4!

[CrimsonEYEZ]

VERY helpful info! As long as the bloom doesn't affect the gameplay I'm fine. In reach the shot precision is just too inconsistent. Looking forward to Halo 4!

I agree with you but then again I enjoy a challenge. I don't want it to be too easy to hit someone.

[DoctorB77]

VERY helpful info! As long as the bloom doesn't affect the gameplay I'm fine. In reach the shot precision is just too inconsistent. Looking forward to Halo 4!

 

I agree. And I can't wait either.

[Baby Boo]

 

I agree with you but then again I enjoy a challenge. I don't want it to be too easy to hit someone.

 

Killa KC did say there was a slight bullet spread on the BR, but there was bloom on the DMR. However, he also said the reticle contracts much faster. Sounds good to me

[upton889]

I agree with you but then again I enjoy a challenge. I don't want it to be too easy to hit someone.

 

As much as I love a challenge as well, I do enjoy the Halo 2 and 3 shot systems better than reach. If you give out accurate headshots so many times to another you should be rewarded for your all your accuracy with a kill, not the guy sprinting off no shields. I liked how the Halo 2 and 3 systems were more consistent. Not arguing with ya, but just sayin!