There is a skill to be decent at Quake. It's pretty high.
There is a skill to be decent at Halo. It takes some time, but you'll get there.
There is a skill to be decent at Halo. It's pretty easy.
That's how I felt learning to play these games. I could hold my own in quake matches eventually but got WRECKED when I first tried. At my peak quake skill I was barely breaking a 1 k/d.
I was pretty bad at Halo when I started, coming from PC I was like wat is console aiming. Maybe it helped that I started on Halo CE for PC, so I knew the basics, but it still took me a while before I got decent at Halo. I hit decency toward the end of Halo 2. Was only rank 16... In Halo 3 I got better. Ended up hitting rank 47. Could have probably hit 50 if I didn't get rank locked. In Reach, despite not liking it too much, my skill really shined because Reach ruined BTB, my favorite gamemode, so I was forced to play the more competetive 4 v 4 playlists, played with some good skilled friends and we donged every night. I'd say im pretty well above the average Halo player now. I feel confident 1 v 1ing anyone irl.
But CoD? I played CoD for the first time at a friends house, this is CoD4 by the way, and I was going positive by the end of the day. In Halo, when you start out, you probably won't even get a kill if you're playing competent people. In CoD you can get a kill so long as you know how to aim in a console shooter and you get the drop on a guy.
But this isn't bout the base gameplay of each shooter.
This is about the systems put into place in these games, this is where CoD ruined FPS's. The big "casualizer" in Halo was the slower speed and recharging shield. It became a staple of FPS's. But everyone was still on equal footing. Sure the game was easier than Quake, but it was FAIR. In team situations, it came down to who had better teamwork. In one on one situations it came down to who was a better player. In CoD, someone could beat you if they had a better gun, or go lucky with a no scope. In CoD you could put perks on your person so everyone had different abilities and you never knew what you were up against. How did that guy kill me so fast! Stopping power. How did that guy not die! Juggernaut. Why didn't I see that guy on Radar! Cold Blooded.
Not only this, but it had this super annoying Rich get richer scheme. High level players got access to more guns and more abilities. Oh, Johnny Quikscopes here is wrecking everyone? Lets give him a Harrier Jet! An attack chopper, an AC130! In Halo, you had to fight over every advantage, vehicles, power weapons, power ups, etc. Same with Quake. In CoD they were given to you and they gave you more kills so you could unlock a better killstreak to get MORE kills with. Oh man, getting Nukes in MW2 was laughably easy. I didn't own CoD4 or World at War, but I got a nuke within my first couple games in MW2.
And this kinda bullshit started to infect EVERYTHING. Even Halo. Reach launched and now power ups were removed from maps and you started with an ability. You never know someone had armor lock until they armor locked on you. Now some people could traverse the map better than you could with Jetpack, or could move around the map faster with sprint. Active Camo, something you used to FIGHT over in Halo 1-3 was now a button press on demand.
Then Halo 4 went full CoD and introduced Personal Ordnance (killstreaks), timing power weapons was removed in favor of random power weapons dropping at random locations. Ok that wasn't from CoD, it was just a stupid move. AND THEY ADDED PERKS. AND CUSTOM LOADOUTS. Now you don't know if that guy around the corner has the pocket shotgun you can spawn with or not. Now you don't know how many rockets that guy has because he could have an ammo perk. Now someone can reload faster than you, can recharge shields faster than you, etc.
Fucking bullshit. Bring back fairness in FPS.