Big Changes (sorta) Coming to Halo 4 multiplayer this November
Changes will be coming to Halo multiplayer when it launches to a starving and rabid crowd this November, but while the changes will be new to the Halo series they won’t be new to most FPS fans who play any other series online. 343 has revealed, and allowed lots of media coverage of live multiplayer matches since several gaming publications including game informer have printed big cover stories this month, that no longer will all weapon and gameplay enhancing loadouts be available to the player when they begin their online career. Much like the Call of Duty and Battlefield series, the weapons and cool gadgets are steadily unlocked over time as the player gains kills, levels, and certain achievements.
The biggest reasoning for the change according to 343, is that too many of the same loadouts have been utilized by players in recent halo games. This created stagnant matches of players blasting away at each other with all the same weapons over and over. With this next release, players will slowly unlock things over time, thus be experimenting with new weapons and abilities as they have to work with what they have.
I don’t mind this change coming at all really. It’s already been said and seen that Halo 4 will have the biggest weapon count of any Halo game to date, so its probably best they are implementing this system. My only gripe with this kind of setup is that players who have invested more time into a game, even though they probably deserve to, end up getting tons of advantages over new players. Hopefully it will just allow skill levels to be balanced and allow for experimentation of new gametypes and styles as the developer hopes.
Brandon
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I’ve always thought having to unlock so much stuff was a bit ridiculous. I don’t have to drive a car 1,000 miles before I unlock the ability to use highways, why should I pay $60 for a game and then have to earn most of the content afterwards through a time investment. A few easter eggs are fine, they make a nice bonus for the people that decide to really pay attention to the game’s detail, but most of the weapons having to be earned? Why not just release the game for $10 and sell the weapons via microtransactions? At least that way you get what you pay for when you pay for it, and people are less likely to all be using the same weapons. And does anyone actually want to grind in an FPS?
And what’s bad about everyone having the same weapons? Whatever happened to strategy and skill? Back in my day all the weapons were on the map and if you wanted the rocket launcher you had to get it, not unlock it by leveling up. And if you didn’t know how to use it, someone else would kill you and take it and show you how to use it over and over again. And if we were almost dead we had to find a health pack, not hide behind a wall for a few seconds. And we had to capture the flag uphill, both ways!
Now get off my damn lawn!
I know right? Back in my day we had to walk fifteen miles in the snow to play quake arena.. And we were darn proud to have it!
Yeah, I’m going to have to offer some pushback to these developments as well. Another thing that you didn’t cover in your post, Brandon, was that Master Chief will now have something called “Forerunner Vision” that is basically like an x-ray vision through walls and other objects, and that this will be available in multiplayer as well.
Call me old all you want, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.
If I wanted to play Call of Duty and unlock weapons over a period of time, I would do it. But, I don’t like that system. I don’t like Call of Duty, or games like it. That’s why I play Halo. And I know this is a new team, and they are trying to find their way with the franchise, but there are some things that if they aren’t broke, don’t fix ‘em. Multiplayer is Halo’s bread and butter, and it’s also FELT DIFFERENT than other multiplayer titles. That’s why I like it, and I’d wager that that’s why so many others like it, too. So, don’t screw it up.
I’m fully with Marty here. If I wanted to play Multiplayer like that, I’d play Call of Duty. But I don’t. Not at all.
I’m betting there’ll be DLC that fixes this at some point….I don’t see the Halo community rallying around this. The Halo community is not the Call of Duty community.
I see where your coming from and you do have a very good point about if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Halo multiplayer is still as enjoyable to me as the day it came out, and call of duty usually wanes in me after a few months. Even though I did pay an extra fifty bucks to get all the DLC and though I”m close I haven’t even hit first prestige. Lame.
I hope we can get an early taste of this new halo multi in the form of a beta.. I don’t wanna wait till november to snipe the two of you ;p
Personally, this is why I enjoy the Battlefield series over Halo (BLASPHEMY! I know) but working hard to unlock an awesome weapon is a real treat, and smoking someone that has a better loadout is quite satisfying (in my opinion) what it boils down to is skill. On the other hand, with Halo’s flash for overpowered weapons, I find it hard to believe that it will have the balance that you find in Battlefield (I have no frame of reference as far as Call of Duty as I stopped playing after MW2)