I was playing campaign earlier and got an invite to war games, so here I am, 3.5 hours later, completely blown away by how much better it is than Reach matchmaking! Outta the park, 343. Out. Of. The. Park! This statement has been retracted, see post #73 below for details.
Started playing the campaign for an hour or so last night. Got to the Spoiler silent cartographer (so not to far in yet)
Could not agree more! 343i are what Bungie should have been. Absolutely spot on with the multiplayer side of things, and I've got no quibbles with the campaign either!
From what i can tell, they are already unlocked, Not like Halo 3 where you set out to find Skulls and Terminals, it's just Terminals. Currently Terminal Hunting. I checked my Campaign game time, and it was a little over 5 hours from start to finish, So far, that's my major beef with this game, Sure Heroic and Legendary will take longer, but still. Sam
Ah, I had no idea! Good to know! Personally, I'll be finishing it on normal, then hitting multiplayer to get my skill level to a decent level, then going back to Mythic and just working on it between multiplayer parts.
Same here. Finished heroic by myself with little to no difficulty in about 6 hours. Legendary is absurdly hard as usual....to the point where you won't want to try it by yourself. REALLY like war games thus far...I just want a true skill rating at some point, which is apparently in the works for early next year. Spartan Ops seems like a missed opportunity. The missions super easy and very short. I've already completed every mission on Legendary with a couple friends...took us about an hour :/ Overall still very pleased with the multiplayer....that's why you buy this game, and 343 delivered!
I had a quick few games when I came home, before tea time - something seems to have changed since last night, both my friend Oasis and I are now losing 95% of our DMR/BR battles in Big Team Infinity or Infinity Slayer. We were thinking it might have something to do with the load outs, but there's nothing really in there to give you a major advantage over another player, and I have most that are worth having by now. I'm just losing my shield a couple of seconds into firefights, and dying before I have any chance to take cover and let my shields recharge. I think it's probably lag - I'm pretty sure I got killed by the enemy who took down my shields after I'd made it into cover a couple of times earlier Also, one pretty major error I've discovered is that the ingame player list browse control has been changed from RS to D-pad. It's IMPOSSIBLE to hold the back button, operate the D-pad to select a player and hit the 'A' button to mute a player with only two hands. If it's not broke and all that...
Nice touch by Microsoft: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Free-Microsoft-Points-Halo-4-Multiplayer,news-16276.html
Tbh, Sam, I don't recall many Halo games stretching beyond the five hour mark in Single player - Legendary has been harder lately, but back when my friends and I were at our peak, 5 hours was about normal for legendary too. I'll stick to my "I'll get it when it's not full whack" theory for this game I think.
That maybe so, but i still think Reach, and ODST were longer, ODST sure was as you walked EVERYWHERE just to get from A to B. Had a good 4 Player Legendary Co-Op this evening, Hopefully finish the final few levels to get the achievements. Sam
There's a few things fundamentally wrong with the multiplayer - It changed overnight from launch night to day one. I'm still incapable of being able to post two positive KDRs in a row, and I'm a board topping player in Reach. I think they've made it quite broken like Halo 3 was for a while. As it stands, I'm pretty much giving up on the MP until it's patched at least once and that incredibly annoying lag goes away. I'm losing 95% of fire fights that I get into with enemies and to be perfectly honest, I don't like how most of the maps are really small and compact, just like Halo 3 MP was. I hated Halo 3 MP. I've typed up a long version of my first impressions and will post it in a minute.
I haven’t played the game an awful lot so far, but here are my first thoughts on the multiplayer after a handful of hours spent playing Infinity War Games; “War Games” is a welcome change from Reach matchmaking – not that I didn’t like Reach MP, I really have enjoyed playing it on a regular basis over the past 10 months or so. I love the fact that the new MP is something that feels familiar and is based on previous versions, but is much more refined and in actual fact, completely different. Most of the changes that I’ve come across so far have been seen in the two playlists that I spend the most time in, 8v8 Big Team and 4v4 Slayer. The Good; HD Graphics: Are absolutely gorgeous, from the cutscenes in the campaign to every single multiplayer map, this game looks immense. There's nothing else to say, other than to compare it to every other Xbox 360 game I've ever owned. Oh wait, there is no comparison Gauss ‘Hog has been Nerfed: It was way too overpowered in Reach and no longer means an easy win for a skilled driver and gunner. The XBL friend whom I play with most often and I have decimated entire 8 player teams with the Gauss on many occasions in Reach. Scorpion and Wraith have been Nerfed: ...sort of. These were also completely overpowered in Reach. I’m not a Wraith fan, but I have racked up my fair share of frenzies, rampages and untouchables with the Scorpion on the slayer map Rasu and in Invasion. The fact that a shell has a trajectory and a measurable time to target now instead of being a supersonic instant hit from all the way across a map is very welcome. They have made the shells and the splash damage from a shell explosion much more brutal though – hiding behind a big rock will no longer protect you from a Scorpion hit, the splash damage will kill you even if it hits the other side of the cover object you’re behind. Heavy weapons act differently: The little things make all the difference – the Spartan Laser has a different charge sequence, the rockets launch differently and the grenade launcher New weapons like the Rail Gun can be quite hard to master which is good – I remember being able to pick up the likes of the SL, Plasma launcher etc in H3 and Reach and get easy sprees. There’s a steeper learning curve with most of the new weaponry. Long range weapons feel different: For someone who is capable of eliminating and demoralising an entire 8 player team in Reach with a single Sniper rifle spawn (8 kills from 12 rounds, 20 kills from 24 rounds etc) I have to say, the Sniper, Beam and Binary rifles have all proven to be much more challenging to use than I thought they’d be. I think it has much more to do with the maps being much smaller and tighter than in Reach. Most of the maps that I’ve been trying to make long range kills on and not succeeding as much as I’d like to are those that haven’t got much open space for enemies to be out in. With the exception of Ragnarok, I’ve struggled to make a sniper spree or frenzy with a long range weapon so far. I say so far because I’ve played less than 10 hours total to date. It’s still early days – I’m sure I will get a good handle on closer range sniping in H4 before the end of the year. It’s something that I have been working on in Reach for some time – making a noscoped headshot at close range on an enemy who thinks they’ve got the jump on you can be the difference between winning and losing a game. Sprint ALL the time: This is another contributing factor to the problems I’ve been having with removing enemy heads from shoulders with the long range weapons – they are now much faster moving targets and everyone on the map is sprinting, instead of only the handful of players that chose it as a loadout in Reach. I find it quite “CoD like” to be able to sprint all the time and have an armour ability equipped, but I think it’s a positive thing nonetheless and adds an extra challenge to making kills and somewhat of “a chance” to get away from a hot fire fight that you would otherwise have no chance of surviving. Game pace++: The addition of Sprint is also the main contributing factor to the insanely fast paced gameplay in War Games – In Reach, my XBL friends and I who play together often can actually dictate the speed of the game – we can go all out from the first second, hold every power weapon on the map and make the enemy team run around looking for cover like headless chickens, or we can slow it down, give them more of a chance and enjoy a full length game (and vice versa, we don’t win all the time) but from what I’ve seen of it so far, Infinity Slayer and BT Infinity Slayer are played at “go hard or you may as well not be here” pace all the time. Jet Pack Nerfed: Well, it was bound to happen, right? As a big fan of the JP in Reach, I’m a little sad about this – it’s no longer possible for me to hang in mid air for a second or two to snipe someone who thinks they’re behind cover at the opposite side of the map, or get to those almost impossible to reach vantage points on the map to snipe from. I admit that it was needed, but it’s going to take a long time to get used to the much less powerful and shorter duration Jet Pack in Halo 4. Points for... everything!: I definitely like this – Matches in War Games are won or lost based on points rather than kills, which means there is much less chance of a team being brought to its knees by one or two players with a massive negative KDR. You now get points for medal awards, including headshots, sniper kills, kill assists, vehicle takedown assists and all sorts of style medals like firebird, “pull!” etc. All in all, it makes for good gaming for the type of player that I’ve been in Reach for the past 10 months, because I hardly ever score less than 35 medals in BTB Slayer! The bad; Yes, there are some things. The lack of a decent rank system at launch is a bit irritating, but I know that’s likely coming in an update at the start of 2013, so we won’t have too long to wait for that. A couple of minor control assignments have got me a bit miffed. The biggest of these is undoubtedly the scoreboard accessing process. To bring up the in-game scoreboard in Reach, you hold the back button, use the right thumb stick to move up and down the player list, and then select a player with the “A” button. From there, you can mute their microphone, view their profile etc. That process has changed in Halo 4 so that you have to use the D-Pad instead of the right thumb stick and the "Y" button instead of "A", which is impossible to do without removing your right hand from the controller grip. It is incomprehensible that they thought this was a good idea. You also stop moving when the scoreboard/player list is on-screen. WHY?! What advantage did that give you in Halo Reach that they felt it needed to be removed? Removing it does nothing but piss people off. There are definitely lag issues as well – I’m losing more than 90% of fire fights with players from America because of it, so it needs to be fixed immediately. A few other quick notes; HUD is too busy in Dominion, can’t make head nor tail of it in the heat of battle. Menu system within multiplayer is far too busy and not well enough laid out, I find myself looking harder than I should have to for stuff that is extremely easy to find and get to in Reach. There does not appear to be an indicator on the HUD in-game to show you when your microphone is transmitting. I’m not convinced about the loadout options – for starters, it reeks of CoD, but it also gives a lot of more experienced players an advantage over newbies and lower ranked players. It un-levels the playing field a little, at first. Spartan armour customisation is still a “meh” feature for me. I pick an armour design that I like and it stays that way, usually forever once I have plenty of stuff unlocked. Weapons disappear off the battlefield far too quickly. I've never understood the need for this in the first place, in any Halo game. It's even worse in Halo 4 - if I get killed, then (instantly) respawn and run to that same place within 20 seconds, the weapon is gone. Big Team Heavies all the time - It's now dependant on the map you vote for, rather than the gametype and map like in Reach. I'm not convinced so far. Waypoint stats down often - They obviously didn't shore up Waypoint enough to handle the massive number of people who would be logging on to check their stats, because the Waypoint website has been able to load my service record and Halo 4 stats about once in every 5 times I've tried this week. Big Team Infinity... Deathmatch? Wait, wut? Why can we instantly respawn in Slayer games now? I wasn't aware that 343 were introducing deathmatch playlists in this game. Five second respawns come back in the next update, kthxbye. This makes slayer games way more fast-paced than they should be. It feels more like I'm playing Unreal Tournament instead of the new Halo game. I will never tire of being inserted into a game on the losing team, often when the enemy team is nearing victory. WTF is that about? Who wants to join a game that's more than half over, on the losing team?! This is going to be one of the reasons I stop playing the game before Christmas. It's like something a retard would suggest. How are you supposed to build a decent service record for this game if you're constantly being put into games that are already lost for the team you're joining?! The scrolling postgame scoreboard. There's just absolutely no need for it to be like that. This is tied into the point I made before about the poorly designed menu system - Bungie could fit the entire scores of two teams onto the screen in Reach, why can't 343 do it in 4? I’ve gotten pissed off with the MP tonight, it feels like I’m back playing Halo 3 where it’s spawn, kill one or two, die, spawn, kill one, die, spawn, die... and so on. At this rate, I’ll be playing Reach MP again within a week.
I have also had some time to reflect on multiplayer.....I'm still getting used to it and I'd say my impressions are mostly positive and echo many of the sentiments presented by Unicorn. GOOD: -Map designs -Extensive Customization options (for those of you who like that) -Loadouts: I like being able to always start out with a Carbine or DMR and not have to worry about one team controlling all the mid range weapons on the map. -Great game modes as always (Team Slayer, Big Team, KOTH, Dominion (Territories)) -Better weapon balance: I think we're going to see more Carbine/Light rifle users pop up. Vast majority of players still use DMR/BR but the LR is the strongest mid range weapon and the Carbine is the fastest. BAD: -Super quick respawns: I. Hate. This. Feature. After you die you literally can respawn in a second...there's no wait. I had several instances where I killed someone and he instantly respawned close to me and was able to kill me before my shield recharged. That is simply unacceptable. -Radar/Promethean Vision: some people may not agree but I simply hate them....too much of a noob crutch IMO. Real gamers communicate where the enemy is dammit! Nothing but Slayer Pro for me because of this -Ordinance drops: power weapons are now way too easy to obtain. This seriously disrupts the flow of Team Slayer imo because the whole point of this mode is for teams to work together to control the map and the power weapons to win the match. Like I said earlier, I'm still having quite a bit of fun with the multiplayer. I really hope they fix the instant respawns but other than that it seems to be pretty solid. I think when rated comes out I'll be mostly sticking with Slayer Pro and MLG type playlists.
So, nobody else have anything else to weigh in about H4? I'm surprised that there have been so few replies to this thread since Tuesday! Surely some of the rest of you have it? I'd love to hear some opinions on the MP from anyone else who's got it! I think I'll finish the campaign tomorrow, still haven't played past that second mission because I've been too busy playing (and critiquing) the multilayer all week! :/
So finished the last level of Campaign on Legendary Co-Op, then blitzed Spartan-Ops Legendary Co-Op, and finished off with Wargames, Alot of fun to be had overall. Not really a MP player, usually stick to campaigns, but did enjoy the Wargames that we played, Won 1 Lost 1. Will be playing some more tomorrow evening for sure Sam
I'm highlighting this point again, becasue it's absolutely insane and is easily the stupidest, most annoying feature that they have introduced into the game so far. If I get inserted into one more game on the losing team in matchmaking, the game will go back in the box and I will happily play Reach until the first Halo 4 update.
I feel like I'm playing Call of Duty with a Halo skin on it.....I like COD but that's not what I wanted in this game. The loadouts, constant sprinting, instant respawns, and way-too-easy-to-obtain power weapons all reek of COD. Loadouts and ordinance drops completely kill the whole concept of Team Slayer from past Halo games imo, and not for the better. Perhaps I'm just a little salty because I'm not used to this....idk **EDIT** I realize that my previous opinion of the MP was much different but now that I'm over the "OMG NEW HALO GAME YAY!" phase I can give more clear impression. Am still enjoying myself for the most part but I think once I tire of Slayer Pro I'll be taking a break.
Update; Join in Progress has been removed/disabled in all Infinity War Games playlists until further notice - read: until they patch it so you don't get spawned into a game that is already lost for the team you're joining. H4 annoyances: 1 down, several more to go The next big thing being discussed on the Waypoint forums at the moment is instant respawning. What I would ideally like to see in the first TU (Title Update): JiP either stays gone or gets a major patch to ensure that you cannot and will not be inserted into a game on the losing team when realistically, the game is already lost for that team. "Knock out of scope" for all scoped weapons making a return and the flinch mechanic being removed*. That Dominion HUD going back to the drawing board and being redesigned. Instant respawns removed. Microphone TX indicator on ingame HUD. Some sort of consistency/level battlefield for personal ordnance drops. Dropped weapons (friend or foe) staying on the battlefield for longer. Ingame scoreboard access returned to Reach combination (defined controls "back + LS + A" instead of "back + D-Pad + Y"). Postgame scoreboard being redesigned to be more similar to the (already perfect) Reach version. Nerf the overpowered weapons - namely the SAW, AR, Boltshot and Incineration Cannon. Sort out the medals - stop giving me medals for standing around and doing nothing (distraction). Medals used to mean something and look different from each other... Now neither are true. Tone BTIS the freak down. I kid you not, I got killed by a binary rifle shot not more than 90 seconds into a Big Team Infinity Slayer game the other day. 90 seconds, and I'm getting one-shotted by some scrub from half way across the map. Reach BTB may have had its issues with being too easy for teams who knew how to dominate a BTB game, but this is a whole other level of heavy weapon insanity. Fix the many exploitable map bugs, glitches etc. There are some more, but that's most of them off the top of my head. And finally, I can't resist the urge to quote this gem from the Waypoint forums, because it's absolutely true; *I'm not going into descriptions for all of the above, but I can't not comment on this one, because it's the first time that I have brought it up. It's blatantly obvious that the KOOS mechanic was replaced with flinch in H4 because the game is designed to be playable for gamers with a "broader range of skill" than the previous games. That is to say, they're trying to make the game easier to play for the kids that I used to DMR from halfway across a map in Reach because I know how to keep them out of scope with it and head-tag them 7 times in quick succession. What they've actually done is turn the DMR into a mid-range sniper rifle for any idiot that picks it up and a seriously powerful long range weapon for the more experienced headshot honchos. In short, it's FUBAR. They had better get knock out of scope back before I get shot in the head by a Reach Warrant Officer one more time.
