Do you like Halo 4 multiplayer?

[Scythe]

I enjoy it and there's really not much I'd change... other than making guys show up on the radar while charging the Boltshot. Hate that thing.

The thing that drives me nuts but can never really be fixed is people basically playing the wrong playlists. I cannot stand it when I'm more or less the only guy on my team who actually tries to capture or complete objectives while everybody else just tries to improve their K/D. Can't tell you how many times I've ragequit because I feel as though I'm actually being punished for playing the gametype the way it's meant to be played. I don't place much stock in scores, but seeing guys on either team ranked higher than me purely because they have more kills but zero objectives is just absolutely demoralising.

Other than that I'd just like to see more variety in map choices, though I guess that should hopefully be remedied by the upcoming map packs. Sick of playing Haven, especially on gametypes like Oddball where everybody just runs in a giant circle and uses the gravity lifts.

 

[Bvenged]

Currently, it's awful, but with a patch or two it could potentially be the best Halo multiplayer, casually and competitively, yet.

I loved it on Day 1, because nobody had a clue about any of it, then the following 7-10 days I hated it and now I barely touch it at all. It truly is tragic. Halo 4 is anti-teamwork and anti-competitive play - which goes against everything it ever used to be. The game plays either like a cluster-fuck of killing and dying, or a slow-ass camping stalemate. There's no tactics, no strategy, nothing to work with as a team: Flag and oddball are okay, but once again it's more like organised chaos than meticulous teamwork and on-the-fly plan execution that it used to be.

As I've said elsewhere:

"It doesn't allow for other playstyles [besides camping, or running and gunning], and teamwork is completely stagnated at practically non-existent. I can confirm that as someone who has played Halo for years primarily for the teamwork between a closed party of friends; Halo 4 has near-zero teamwork going for it, and we have been beaten by a group of individuals who camped the entire game out with DMR's, or out-lucked us with incineration cannon drops where all we get are needlers and pulse grenades [I'm not bad, far, far from it for many, many games]. This game is tragic for the Halo franchise and its fans.

Even for the casual scene it's pretty poor: Customs and forge are lacklustre compared to Reach and no social/ranked playlists and no real matchmaking system screws everyone over by having outnumbered bad players vs good ones, casual vs competitive, teams vs individuals, Brazilians hosting a game against British - It's awful. It truly is a woeful game online.

It's one of the quickest games I've ever lost interest in. Someone described Slayer as essentially "Team Fiesta". It's chaotic, boring and broken in matchmaking; there's little emphasis on teamwork or map control due to poor spawn system, JiP, deployable randomised power weapons, missing "on my X" and disappearing weapons; the UI is sore to look at; and the whole game orbits around an unavoidable and tedious "first shoots, wins" philosophy whilst throwing medals at you as though they're going out of fashion.

The game rewards luck rather than skill now, and has the learning curve of an electrocardiogram's flat-line, as opposed to the challenging steep gradient of past Halo games. If you can shoot and move at the same time, you've mastered Halo 4 and have a good chance to beat anyone at it... though you'll probably do better not moving, and shooting across the map through your DMR scope.

Here's a running list of the main faults, with reason but without justification, as to why this is the worst Halo multiplayer (by a long shot) to date. If you want justification, look at my post history for criticising a game this year, and go check me up on the Waypoint forums: I cant' be bothered to explain them for the umpteenth time.

[HEADING=3]Matchmaking/HUD/GUI[/HEADING]

[li]Luck-based Ordinance drops - You get storm rifle and pulse grenades, they get incineration cannon at same time. No map control needed any more.[/li]


[li]Excessive bullet magnetism - Present in all console games, but a fully-fledged, cross-map, auto-targeting system in Halo 4. Makes good old DMR/BR duels impossible as missing shots is a really rare occurrence, even for a new Halo player. First shoots, wins, and this ruins the competitiveness of Halo. I've tested this numerous times and evidence can be found in my fileshare in the game. You get 100% hits when someone is only near the edge of your aim reticule. It's shocking how easy aiming is in this game, especially when you're all 7ft supersoldiers in metal armour... you don't need this kind of aim assist. It's fucking ludicrous.[/li]

[li]Overwhelming stopping power - take a single hit from a never-missing DMR, and you get knocked out of sprint, lost 1/3 of your shields and get slowed by 10% more. Makes returning to cover impossible. Against the next point, you don't stand a chance. In previous Halo's you could attempt to knock the sniper out of scope to get away... but then previous halo's didn't have stopping power. (sorry, rambled on a bit again)[/li]

[li]Never shot out of scope - Sit in scope with DMR, peeping over rock, with rarely-missing bullets. Oh, and you can call down power weapons to you. This is how 99% of big-team games go. Combine this with the previous points for skill-less experience in a series renowned for slower skill-based competitive play.[/li]

[li]No "On-my-X" HUD display - A feature of Halo MP since Halo 2: Displays red X over dead team-mates who often call out "on my X!" so you know where to go. This also includes the yellowing of their service tags when firing a weapon, and orange when being shot at. Fundamental tool in call-outs and team-play, removed. Anyone's guess, really. It was useful even for lone wolfs in team-games.[/li]

[li]No pre-game strategiSing - No party indicator on players in pre-game lobbies any more, no real statistics worth judging your opponent from in the service record, and no ranking system on show. I don't care about his "kills", I want to know is overall KD and WL for Slayer; like I could see in Reach.[/li]

[li]Maps overflowing with vehicles - Big Team was always about lots of players, with a few vehicles for support. Now it seems like BF3's Tank Superiority, with all the vehicles on a 15 second respawn.[/li]

[li]Mini-gripe, Spawns are atrocious on most of the maps - I can't go 2 games without dying within 2 seconds of spawn... and killtimes are 1.3 seconds for the DMR, 1.6 for the BR.[/li]
[li] Crappy UI is limiting, sore for eyes, and not well laid out. Should've jsut used a varient of Reach's. I Can't leave the party as party leader without going through a gazillion menus to promote someone else as the new leader first, or without leaving the entire party behind in a pre-game lobby (impossible to back-out of party in a matchmaking/main menu).[/li]
[li]Lack of distinction between Ranked/Social/Arbitrary matchmaking playlists[/li]
[li]Playlists rotating is a fundamentally silly idea. Just give the people what they want; don't take it out after a week. Also, where's my Team Objective/BTB? I want some variety to my playlists, please.[/li]
[li]Lack of networking/matchmaking preferences - end up playing people across the world on their connection can cause you to lose out of network delay issues.[/li]

[HEADING=3]Customs/Forge[/HEADING]

[li]Objects can't spawn in the same second, or when a player is nearby. - hampers creative map design.[/li]
[li]Still an object limit - when surely just the budget limit would suffice?[/li]
[li]Numerous bugs - IE sometimes trait-zone properties reset themselves, andmagnets are poorly placed often leaving a gap between objects, (or with the 55 block) have about 4 magnet points in the same space, making alignment a pain.[/li]
[li]Lack of asymmetrical gametypes, Infection, Race, and other classic gametypes.[/li]
[li]Lack of customisable features - such as disabling sprint, drop-able flag, flood weaponry.[/li]

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can remember right now. Halo multiplayer was fundamentally designed around the best player/team winning, and always worked best when lucky incidences were kept to a minimum - but now 343 have changed that and it's simply not working well.

343i removed 90% of what made Halo, Halo - and I really can't figure out why. They couldn't have just added their features on top, could they? They did really, really well with the singleplayer: Exactly what I expected; well written and well presented. A true start of a new trilogy tied to the history of Halo 1/Reach - Halo 3... but 343 have completely missed the mark with the multiplayer. Maybe the majority of Halo fans aren't the target audience any more, but who knows. It's the ultimate betrayal to take what people expect of a franchise they've been with for 5-10 years, and throw it completely down the drain and I'm not alone in thinking this at all.

 

[AdeptaSororitas]

I would honestly change a couple things, including removing "Purchased" Loadouts in favor of everyone having access to the same stuff in the beginning, maybe having perks available to buy and still having the basic guns on map, if even just so I can refill my ammo (Which is becoming a massive annoyance the longer I survive).

But really I can deal with that, my main two changes are actually comparatively little things that could easily be patched in but make a HUGE difference to me and how much I enjoy the game.

1. BRING BACK RANDOM WEAPON LOADOUTS FOR CUSTOM GAMES!
Since the introduction of Infection mode, me and my friends have created a custom game called "Vamps" (don't ask why, the name doesn't matter) which is basically super fast zombies that die extremely easily vs a team of survivors with completely random weapons. The fun of the game existed in players trying to survive as long as possible with say, a plasma pistol and nothing else, or the zombies trying to out-smart that lucky bastard with an assault rifle and a BR/Shotgun. I can't do that in 4, and it boggles my mind that they'd change such a simple thing for no apparent reason.

2. MAKE TAKING DAMAGE DESCOPE YOU!
It added balance for the assault rifle user going up against a guy with a DMR if you can manage those fer vital shots that popped them out of scope just long enough to get cover before they pop your head off, but now thats gone, and with it any hope of counter sniping. Whats the point in using a Carbine with both a BR and the DMR are just inherently BETTER GUNS?

That said, it's still a great game and it still FEELS like Halo, despite what the nay-sayers would have you believe. (Though I admittedly do miss dual-weilding, what the fuck 343?)

 

[Aerosteam]

Not sure why, but 343 have fucked up Flood mode. I'm annoyed they removed playlists game mode like Race, Assault and Invasion, but what's worse is that they brought back a mode everyone loved, claimed to have made it better, and actually made it worse. I don't understand why you're not able to customize Flood weapons, disable/enable sprinting, zoom in when playing as zombie or monitor, have placed weapons appear in Flood game types, change player's armour colour...

Infection > Flood.

Sorry, I forgot to reply to the actually question... I want the DMR nerfed.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

While I'm not adverse to the idea of a loadout system in a Halo game, I am adverse to the idea of perks in one. Changing a players capabilities like that really doesn't feel right. Automatic loadout guns aren't worth using and grenades have been really messed up.

I have several problems with the loadout system. But the worst thing is how stagnant and unpredictable it makes the weapon system. Halo kind of works backwards- unpredictability leads to stagnation, weak individuals leads to less teamwork, etc. To use a simple example, I can really change up the game by changing the weapons I give each team on initial spawn. I can change it up to suit each map and gametype. If everyone is using, say, DMR start, it makes a big difference if I put two Plasma Pistols in each teams' spawns, or two Boltshots, or five Light Rifles. I can craft an experience that way to suit the map, the gametype, and the overall experience I'm aiming for. With loadouts it's always the same and you lose the essential predictability of weapon/powerup awareness. Literally not being able to predict what your enemy will be bringing to the table in a Halo game is like a basketball game where each team is invisible to the other. It's random and stilted and disjointed and weird, and nobody is ever sure what they are supposed to be doing. They have no way to know.

In my opinion, grenades aren't too bad as they are. The arc seems dumbed down compared to Reach and the power reduced, but that's actually not far off from previous Halo games. Maybe they could use a little bump. It's the Explosives perk that makes them frustrating. I also don't agree about weapon balance. I actually think that is surprisingly good, at least balanced against each other (there are global changes I would like to see). Personally I would remove Binary Rifle from the game, and Boltshot needs to be reworked if it's going to be a starting weapon. Scattershot and Battlerifle have unpredictable shots-per-kill. That's a big no-no. The DMR could be fixed by adjusting it as I outlined above, which would also solve about 1500 problems related to skill gap, kill times, and map flow. Personally I feel any feelings of dumbness are due to these problems and the random, overloaded, schizophrenic nature of weapon spawns, sprint, the failure to give armor abilities a corresponding drawback (if we must have them over superior power-ups), etc. more than raw weapon balance.

Agreed about the rest. Can we get some 8v8 objective over here? FFA Slayer? Double team? Hello? Is this thing on? We can't even recreate classic Halo in custom games. A Halo game that can't be customized? Am I losing my mind?

You know why we don't have that stuff? Because Halo 4 is the first title in the series designed as a CoD-style personal milestone game with a multiplayer backdrop. The other people in the game are single player enemies with upgraded AI, nothing more.

 

[The AmeriCanadian Gamer]

Throwable Oddball.

It's amazing isn't it! Now I wish they would bring back the rumble-pit playlist =(

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

[HEADING=3]Matchmaking/HUD/GUI[/HEADING]

[li]Luck-based Ordinance drops - You get storm rifle and pulse grenades, they get incineration cannon at same time. No map control needed any more.[/li]


[li]Excessive bullet magnetism - Present in all console games, but a fully-fledged, cross-map, auto-targeting system in Halo 4. Makes good old DMR/BR duels impossible as missing shots is a really rare occurrence, even for a new Halo player. First shoots, wins, and this ruins the competitiveness of Halo. I've tested this numerous times and evidence can be found in my fileshare in the game. You get 100% hits when someone is only near the edge of your aim reticule. It's shocking how easy aiming is in this game, especially when you're all 7ft supersoldiers in metal armour... you don't need this kind of aim assist. It's fucking ludicrous.[/li]

[li]Overwhelming stopping power - take a single hit from a never-missing DMR, and you get knocked out of sprint, lost 1/3 of your shields and get slowed by 10% more. Makes returning to cover impossible. Against the next point, you don't stand a chance. In previous Halo's you could attempt to knock the sniper out of scope to get away... but then previous halo's didn't have stopping power. (sorry, rambled on a bit again)[/li]

[li]Never shot out of scope - Sit in scope with DMR, peeping over rock, with rarely-missing bullets. Oh, and you can call down power weapons to you. This is how 99% of big-team games go. Combine this with the previous points for skill-less experience in a series renowned for slower skill-based competitive play.[/li]

[li]No "On-my-X" HUD display - A feature of Halo MP since Halo 2: Displays red X over dead team-mates who often call out "on my X!" so you know where to go. This also includes the yellowing of their service tags when firing a weapon, and orange when being shot at. Fundamental tool in call-outs and team-play, removed. Anyone's guess, really. It was useful even for lone wolfs in team-games.[/li]

[li]No pre-game strategiSing - No party indicator on players in pre-game lobbies any more, no real statistics worth judging your opponent from in the service record, and no ranking system on show. I don't care about his "kills", I want to know is overall KD and WL for Slayer; like I could see in Reach.[/li]

[li]Maps overflowing with vehicles - Big Team was always about lots of players, with a few vehicles for support. Now it seems like BF3's Tank Superiority, with all the vehicles on a 15 second respawn.[/li]

[li]Mini-gripe, Spawns are atrocious on most of the maps - I can't go 2 games without dying within 2 seconds of spawn... and killtimes are 1.3 seconds for the DMR, 1.6 for the BR.[/li]
[li] Crappy UI is limiting, sore for eyes, and not well laid out. Should've jsut used a varient of Reach's. I Can't leave the party as party leader without going through a gazillion menus to promote someone else as the new leader first, or without leaving the entire party behind in a pre-game lobby (impossible to back-out of party in a matchmaking/main menu).[/li]
[li]Lack of distinction between Ranked/Social/Arbitrary matchmaking playlists[/li]
[li]Playlists rotating is a fundamentally silly idea. Just give the people what they want; don't take it out after a week. Also, where's my Team Objective/BTB? I want some variety to my playlists, please.[/li]
[li]Lack of networking/matchmaking preferences - end up playing people across the world on their connection can cause you to lose out of network delay issues.[/li]

bam. these are all my issues right on the head (among a few others) and the first 5 bug me IMMENSELY. they all add to the fact of no longer having any kind of strategical map control, as luck based ordinance drops destroys what I loved about all the previous halo's.

this could be a personal nitpick, but the grenades seem a bit too weak (radius/timing/power wise), in previous halo's, if 3 guys came busting around a corner and had the drop on me, a well placed grenade and skilled shots would leave me victorious, while now it seems like I could drink a beer and get DMR killed 3 times before my grenades blow/do anything. In halo 3 me and my mates used to do massive map control traps by having one of us run around the corner and all the others chuck grenades and blow the incoming enemies to high hell chasing after for the easy kill, now it barely takes away half their shield most the time. (yes yes i know about the perk, don't remind me, I just don't think it should be a perk in the first place let alone the way the grenades work a bit. It takes an entire portion of the gameplay out as it's too weak if you get DMR raped before you can even throw one off.)

edit: although it has its problems, i'm still having some fun with it.
Maybe it was just the way it played yesterday, but me and my friends kept getting blown out on CTF maps by jetpacking teams, we won 2 times but got murdered 4 times, all by teams using pure jetpacks on 4 losses.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I love it. I've only really just stopped playing it regularly, and by now I've already got up to SR41. What stands out particularly for me in this one is the quality of the maps. I've played on every single one of them several times now, and I can only name 2 that I actively dislike playing on, which is far less than any previous games.

If I could change one thing, I would un-nerf frag grenades. Seriously I don't know what possessed 343 to make them so weak. They've got to explode within about 2 square meters or they're worthless, and in that case you might as well use plasma's and go for the stick anyway.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I can't really dissect it though. I can analyze and pick apart my opinion of single-player games until my tits fall off. I just can't rationalize things the same way when it's multiplayer. Balance, map design, weapons... I can't really think about how it works or what makes it any fun.

I was hesitant to post again. Looking back at my other posts, I've probably more than worn out my welcome lol. But I have to say that is a 5 Star post and the most intelligent in this thread. Have you ever heard of Socrates, by chance? lol You have a talent few possess.

All I know is that I'm having a good time with it, and leveling up is satisfying. It's still Halo anyway. Not much else has to be said on that matter. Right?

I would say more lol. But I also understand why people appreciate Halo 4, even if I can't. My initial impressions were actually very good, believe it or not. It sounds like what you lack is both a language to express what you experience in the game and structure to guide your learning. I don't know if I am doing you a favor or a disservice, but you may be interested in the goings on at halocouncil.com and their forum. It may help you distill your thoughts one way or the other.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

It is really good fun. A big team infinity slayer is great, with all out madness. I just wish I had people to play it with. None of my friends have Halo 4. The best thing about the other Halo's was Custom games with my friends. Man I miss Foundry map

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

It's still Halo anyway. Not much else has to be said on that matter. Right?

I would say more lol. But I also understand why people appreciate Halo 4, even if I can't. My initial impressions were actually very good, believe it or not. It sounds like what you lack is both a language to express what you experience in the game and structure to guide your learning. I don't know if I am doing you a favor or a disservice, but you may be interested in the goings on at halocouncil.com and their forum. It may help you distill your thoughts one way or the other.

Well, I mean that the general feel of the game is unchanged. It still feels like Halo multiplayer, even if the mechanics have been adjusted so much that the balance has changed. Plus, I never played Reach online, or Halo 3 online. The last Halo game I played online was Halo 2 - on PC. So I am coming into this having only really the campaigns and a bit of one-on-one or two-on-two split-screen multiplayer as my jumping off point. Like I said though, I really can't rationalize multiplayer balance in my head like I can for singleplayer games, which are dependent on factors that I can attach to, say, AI, developers, what have you. I really can't say with any certainty how game mechanics work in "the wild," so to speak, so I just won't. My experience is that of enjoyment, but I can't say how it worked in relation to the other people playing, say.

I can air grievances like... like, the assassinations having varied-in-length timed animations, during which you're completely vulnerable. That annoys me, for sure. But it's like, geez, I dunno how that really effects the balance of the game, or what situations that would be optimal, or... you know, I can only go by what I've seen and what I'm dissecting from my personal playtime. I can't actually put into words how those things will effect other people, or if they're even problems. Like I said - I'm having fun with it. I appreciate the feature set, all the co-op modes and the matchmaking lobby system feels super fresh to me (as someone who doesn't have any friends whose parties I'm joining, just going into ranked matches), and that's... yeah that's basically all I can say for certain.

Oh, and the weapon sounds. Superficial, but the visual and audio design of the game is great, and that all carries over into multiplayer. ...like I said, can't say a thing about gameplay balance on a multiple players scale, but I sure as hell can dissect singelplayer elements until I'm blue in the face.