[Long]My personal thoughts on Halo 4 and what the franchise needs

I'm sure many people here enjoy the Halo series, so I figured I'd give my input on the new Halo trilogy and what I personally think it needs in order to claim dominance back from Call of Duty in terms of competitive gameplay. By the way, this is going to be a VERY long rambling post, so if you don't feel like reading, there's a tl;dr version at the end.

Let's face it, Halo was at its peak during Halo 3. The maps were very balanced and with the exception of dodgy netcode here and there, BR spread, and a few other minor things - it was perfect for competitive play. Reach came along and essentially took a big steaming pile of shit on everything that Halo 2 and 3 had accomplished and what had made a name for the series as a whole.

I strongly feel that 343 Studios will make some much needed changes with Halo 4 as they've already started to do with Reach, but I'm sure there's only so much they can do on that front.

My personal wishes for Halo 4 are:

• No bloom. I honestly think Bungie just tried to appease the kids who had begun to obsess with Call of Duty with this one. Halo has never attempted to be realistic, so it's like comparing apples to oranges. There's NOTHING wrong with an arcadey feel if it means improved gameplay.
  
• Symmetrical maps and starting points. Maps like The Pit, Narrows, Heretic, Citadel, Isolation, Sandbox etc. were FANTASTIC maps simply because they were entirely even. The map design in Reach felt incredibly flaky at best. I can honestly say none of the maps flowed in a way that felt natural. Even asymmetrical maps from previous Halo games seemed to have a much better design in such a way that supports competitive gameplay (i.e. Construct, Guardian, Blackout, Foundry, Snowbound). I feel like the map designers got very lazy in Reach.
  
• The movement in Reach felt like a downgrade. I understand that the Spartan you play as in Reach is technically an inferior version of Master Chief, but I am not willing to sacrifice gameplay for the sake of canon. I really don't care how silly jumping 10 feet into the air looks, simply because it worked beautifully in Halo 3. Jumping in Reach is disappointing to say the least, and the movement speed being greatly reduced doesn't sit too well with me either. The physics of Halo 3 felt perfect (grenade mechanics included).
  
• Armor abilities feel like a failed abortion between Call of Duty-esque perks and equipment from Halo 3. Being that I mainly played MLG, I never saw too many people use equipment in Halo 3. However, I do feel like they were an acceptable addition to gameplay. They could use a bit of refining, and possibly a few additions, but I had no major gripes with equipment. Loadouts also need to be done away with. Again, it feels like they're trying to rip off Call of Duty. Halo has always been a relatively simple game in comparison to other top shooters, which is what made it fun to just pick up and play. I'm not saying let the series become stagnant, but essentially don't fix what isn't broken.
  
• There needs to be a return to the Halo 3 type combat triangle. I'm not saying it HAS to be the BR, AR, Sniper combo Halo 3 sported, but there needs to be an equivalent combo. Halo players are not like Call of Duty players, we don't crave tons and tons of weapon variety. Precision weapons practically define competition, so I would personally love to see BRs return. If they don't return, I would not be entirely surprised, but I think fans would generally like to see a return to that style of weapon seeing as Halo 2 and 3 made it incredibly popular within the series. DMRs have left somewhat of a sour taste in people's mouth, so I think if they decided to go with that it might hurt the image the game gives off.
  
• Bring back the 1-50 ranking system. Again, Halo has always been a VERY competitive game. As of right now, the MLG playlist is an UNRANKED playlist. That makes NO sense! I've personally played less than 50 games in the MLG playlist because I just don't feel like it's worth it if I can't even rank up. Call me a rankwhore all you want, but ranks strongly encourage competition. If you're having a bad game in Reach MLG, it's no big deal if you lose because you don't lose anything. In Halo 3 if you lost a game, you might go down a rank or two. The Halo 3 system was FAR from perfect with boosting and DDoSing, but again this is not a problem that is inherent only to Halo. Plenty of people boost in COD, hell... there's modded lobbies for COD. DDoSing was never a problem for me either. In my entire 5,000+ game Halo 3 record I was only DDoSed like twice (with like 3000+ of those games being high level MLG). Arena really does suck. Ranks resetting after a month (or 3 months I think it is now?) is just stupid. This is one place where I wouldn't mind seeing 343 rip off Call of Duty... If after reaching level 50, we could prestige or something, that might be cool, but I do not like the idea of being forced into my rank resetting.

That's all I can think of for now, but yeah. I'll most likely add more to this as I think of it.

The tl;dr version -
Fuck Reach, go back to Halo 2/3 style :love:

 

I basicly have the same feeling but with all fps. They need to go back to balanced games instead of all this unneeded bullshit like crazy perks and abilities they add to every new game. I'm just dreaming of the day a radar always on game that's balanced comes out ill jizz everywhere

 

Counterstike is the only real FPS out there these days, the first and last real FPS.

 

Any game in the style of Halo 2 will make it to the top in my books. I genuinely loved Halo 2 and am eagerly awaiting a "remake" and hopefully one does come out.

I feel like Halo Reach really dampened the whole Halo style of a FPS and I hope now with 343 taking over they can really bring Halo 4 out and go back to their roots to make a solid game.

 

I never even ATTEMPTED a Halo Reach MP game; I think explains my opinion

 

Agree with every point you made. Halo Reach was such a flop, I think they dumbed it down a little and made it a lot more child-like. The simplicity yet stark definition of Halo 2 and Halo 3 made it so damn awesome, Halo 3 being the best shooter I've ever played. I really hope they go back to what was a success and further develop the original gameplay. Everything about 3 > Reach.