I was going to do a longer post on this another time, but I'm starting to conclude I'll never get around to it, thanks to my ongoing work load. So here goes - a very messy version of my over-arching problem with Halo 4's multiplayer combat.
There's just not a good flow to the game any longer. What began in Halo 3 with bubble shields interrupting combat on occasion and grav lifts allowing specific high walls to be vaulted has expanded to encompass every encounter and every surface of a map. Long open spaces are cut off in volleys of DMR and light rifle fire. Walls and spans are cleared with jet packs. Choke points that would once have held critical ordnance to be battled over, turning the tide of games, are left barren as ordnance rains down who knows where. Not only do these things demolish the way maps used to flow, but they've wreaked the way combat now plays out.
(On that note: respawn times should be tied to shield recharge times. This is one of those fundamental things about Halo, combat is built on a rhythm: encounter, survival, recharge, advance. This is why instant respawn is diametrically opposed to Halo's combat design, and it's baffling to me that this was not realized.)
Frankie and others have likened Halo often to a sport in the past. And the game often played out that way in prior games. But this is like a sport where everyone brings their own ball, uniform and score keeping onto the field, and the referees have been bound and gagged.
The sandbox often feels less like a specific set of toys were handed out to create a specific flavor of combat and chaos, and more like a big toy bin was dumped into the map, and everyone is throwing stuff at each other. There needs to be a steadier hand a the wheel than this. (On one of the last games I played, a week and a half ago, I saw a Ghost on Meltdown get tagged by four plasma pistol EMPs at the same time, and then have ~6 plasma grenades rain on it. I mean, seriously.)
Get dropped into the the losing side of an objective game in the middle? Pile up a few +10's and DMR someone from across the map a time or two. (Press X to respawn.) Admire the XP, unlock the skin, hop into another game hope you are near a Binary Rifle when it lands.
The rhythms and flow of the maps, the rhythms of combat, the ebbs and flows of a game from beginning to end, the cyclical struggles for critical ordnance...there's no flow any longer. Games don't feel like they have a beginning, a middle and an end - they just stop.
It all adds up to an experience that feels like it was meant to be disposable, and forgettable, on a moment to moment basis. Lose an encounter because you had Mobility but he had Stability? Look at all the +10's you got anyways. You might unlock something! Hit X to respawn.
It's like Halo 4 multiplayer has become all Arcadefight, all the time. When what I fell in love with was Limited. (Incidentally, this is exactly what happened to Firefight along the way, including the transition to Spartan Ops. It's now consequence-free combat.)
I want the intent behind a map design shine again, not thwarted with jetpacks. Designing a map to flow one way and giving people the option to bypass it isn't freedom, it's self-defeating. 343 should have learned this with Reach.
I want there to be a pacing to a game from end to end again, as teams can plan and rally and coordinate as they fight for critical point on map control, for a critical piece of ordnance - and turn the tide with it. Those were moments of victory, moments where games could turn around. And they're forfeited for random ordnance handed out at random. So many mini-objectives - secure this choke point, obtain that ordnance, stop that vehicle - just fall by the wayside. It's all about flocking to the HUD waypoints.
I want vehicles to not be deathtraps again. Their purpose must be more defined than a short term EMP magnet; they used to feel like chess pieces to move around the board, not monster trucks we hope to get a kill or two with before it blows up.
I wish balance were defined as a cohesive set of tools that we can choose from. Not from choosing which aspect of combat we'll break, and call it balanced by the fact that other players might have broken a different part of it.
I want the game to have some kind of flow again. Because encounters and entire games feel like they were meant to be disposable, not memorable. The end result is I'm just not invested in any aspect of the game: the moment to moment shoot outs, the give and take of the game as it plays out, or the end result. None of it matters. (+10 ,Press X to Respawn) It's for this reason that the game just hasn't stuck with me; the game has a huge investment system of stuff to unlock, but I'm no longer invested in the actual game.
These things can be accomplished within the baseline of what Halo 4 offers. But it will require 343 to pull things in from where they are now, in all aspects of the game.
This is rambling, but it's 1:00 in the morning and my job won't let me write anything during the day lately. So there it is.
