it "takes the skill out of the game" (using this loosely, as it doesn't completely wreck the game) by adding in elements of randomness
take, for example, halo 2. mlg ts on lockout
there is 1 sniper rifle, 1 sword, 1 shotgun
now lets play infinity ts on lockout. theres a sniper rifle, a sword, a shotgun, and a whole mess of other random power weapons and powerups from peoples ordinances. not only do i have to account for being sniped by the sniper rifle that spawns on the map, i have to worry about some ****ty kid getting a sniper rifle from his 5 assists and a couple of kills, accompanying his 10 deaths. that's not skill, that's a weapon that the guy got lucky with through his ordinances.
now lets take armor abilities. if everyone just spawned with sprint, or everyone spawned with thrusters or jetpacks, that'd be okay. i wouldn't like it, but everyone starts out on an even playing field at least and you know what everyone has. now imagine you are shooting someone, he gets down to no shields, but he pops that stupid light shield. i have already spent my grenades on killing another guy. i have no way of dealing with this guy but to wait for this shield to wear off. before he popped it, he had shot me 3 times. meanwhile his buddy shows up out of nowhere and cleans up the kill on me. that is a stupid mechanic that no amount of skill can account for.
sprinting is dumb as well. nothing made me more mad than getting someone down to no shields in reach then him just using sprint and running around a corner. they tried to counter this by slowing your character down when you are shot while using sprint, but any amount of distance covered counts and sprint has already saved me and people i have been trying to kill plenty of times in this game.
my point is, luck should not be a part of the game.
some bad kid shouldn't be able to get lucky with a spartan laser or damage boost or a beam rifle in his ordinance drop compared to my pulse grenade/needler/speed boost choices. that's just stupid and a lazy mechanic put in by 343 to make halo more like cod.
as far as random weapon timers are concerned, they greatly take skill out of the game. for example, say your team is up 40-35 and your team has very good map control right now. you don't know when or where sniper/rocks/whatever will spawn, but the other team can get a lucky random timer and have the sniper rifle spawn when they just so happen to be in the vicinity of the spawn point, effectively turning the tides of the game, ALL BASED ON CHANCE. if the other team had known that it would have spawned at 10 minutes or whatever, they could have shifted their position to take advantage of their map control, and grab the spawning weapon just as it drops.
note: i have said this before in an earlier post: i don't think this game is terrible. i like the fact that 343 has pretty much made away with bloom and armor lock, and sped up player speed/jump height. i am not ripping on h4 for the sake of ripping on it. i want this game to succeed more than most people ITT. but nothing will get done if people aren't vocal about what they don't like.
so don't take my grievances as me hating the game, or me thinking the game is total ****, because its not. i just have very strong feelings about what bungie could have done with reach, and what 343 can do to save this franchise.
