343, hear ME. I've been crying out and pleading for this to be heard ever since Halo 2 and most of the issues still apply. Most of these are gameplay designs and can be fixed and changed. Remember, this is your game, your baby. Put a stamp on it for the world to see. Here are my list of demands for Halo 4
:
Restore the Plasma Pistol and the Plasma Rifle back to their former glory. The weapons should slow your opponents movement again like in Halo:CE. A-lot of the problems with playing iterative games in a series is that the weapon mechanics get boring and these negations end up destroying everything that made it great. Give the players a reason to actually use the Plasma Pistol(other than a charged pistol) and Plasma Rifle in close quarters combat. This should be a no brainer.
Remove the lunge. Ever since Bungie added the lunge, the melee is been fucked. No other game implements a lunge system like Halo. Some argue that that distinct fact is what makes Halo different than other shooters, that it actually helps newcomers automatically hit their opponent. I believe it does the exact opposite. It ends up being a nuisance for new time players and they become acclimated to it as a crutch to lunge rather than... shooting them... in a
First
Person
Shooter.
Lets all be honest here. Every single version of Halo has had to have the melee system 'fixed' one way or the other. Why continue to fix something that is broken? Halo has gotten to the point where the melee with the sword is akin to the chainsaw in Gears of War.
Keep the sword the way it used to be. No more sword cancelling. That weapon is a power weapon, and should stay a power weapon. Instead, Bungie removed features to nerf the weapon. Just like other guns. To even the playing field too much. Aggregating the player population skill to the same level makes the game less interesting. This is fact.
Bring back tele-fragging, tele-blocking, and more teleportals in general. Teleportals to me, is what made Halo fun. I know alot of game developers loathe teleoportals as it's a shortcut for lazy developers to implement design changes. I think it adds to the futuristic vibe that is Halo. Not gigantic fucking man-cannon.
Allow you to see your teamates point of view on your screen. I'm talking about a full fledged picture in picture type set-up. Something like a gadget where you can press on your d-pad and instead of having night vision, you can see your teamates point of view. Assuming that is too much bandwidth, you could instead have their view outlined in wire-frame-type presentation(like how the sniper rifle does it). If it takes up too much space, have it disable the other information on the HUD for a while, if not have an option on the d-pad to remove the HUD if it gets too cluttered. Use something futuristic 343. I implore you to think outside the box on alot of things.
More maps. Better Maps. Cleaner maps.
What the hell are up with the maps? Have you seen other developers' maps? No offense, but it blows the offerings in Halo out of the water. Current trending multiplayer maps include interactive design elements that change the flow of the map. I'm not talking about visual changes, I'm talking about major changes in gameplay flow.
Notice how Valve takes user gametypes and user defined games to another whole level? They end up buying the idea and the talent that comes out of these indie teams or fan mods. Now I'm not advocating you employ these people (hire juices btw), but I'm advocating that you build upon the trending ideas of people. We've seen how frugal franchises and their userbase can be. Being new and first to the next big thing is crucial.
What happened to Zombies in Halo? It started out as a user gametype in Halo2, but instead of building upon that Bungie decided to just use it as a Playlist offering where Forge users could make their own Zombie Maps. The problem with this lies in the fact that users know what is fun but sometimes developers have the resources to actually implement those ideas and the users do not. This is where Bungie should've taken the lead on Zombies/Wave attack games. Look at what Treyarch did with Call of Duty. They took the Zombies idea to another level. That's the kind of things you guys should be looking at to keeping Halo fresh and fun.
Also, another gameplay idea 343 should be focusing on are the exploring aspects of map design. People love exploring. Why aren't there more exploring areas in Halo? We've all seen fans explore and try to glitch out of maps. Why not build upon that and offer recon levels? I've always wanted a scenario where you have to drive out into a humongous battle where you're in the dessert to retrieve something crucial, be it some information/technology, all the while surviving sniper shots and cross-fire from both sides. Where are my freaking humongous battle scenes? Everyone loves big battle scenes, LotR comes to mind when I'm talking about this. For shame, the story of Halo is about the struggle of Human life against the Covenant and we don't even see one epic gigantic big ass battle.
- Halo Fan.
