The Highs and Lows (Gaming)

by Schooly D, TSD Gaming Condo, TX, Tuesday, September 27, 2022, 20:56 (787 days ago) @ Kermit

I suck at multiplayer--except on Snowbound for some reason. That reason was probably why most people didn't like it.

It's the proliferation of those transparent shield doors. They wrecked the pace of the game and turned indoor engagements into awkward dances involving footsies and grenades, punctuated by frenzied and random CQC.

The pacing element is a big reason why armor lock and bubble shield were such disasters too. There is a flow to the Halo MP gameplay: the way you move around the map, the way you engage enemies, the sightlines you prioritize, etc.

On top of being cheap "You fucked up, press X to not die!" mechanics, things like bubble shield and armor lock wreck this flow when deployed. You cleared the left side, cleared the right side, grabbed a weapon, crossed the catwalk, moved into a good position, you have an idea where the enemy might be based on where your team is, and as expected you get the jump on an enemy who's under-armed and out of place. You open fire, confident in the kill and already thinking about where his buddies might appear to avenge his death and... he pops the bubble shield or locks his armor and is invincible.

Now the game stops and the game-within-the-game starts. Now you're doing this awkward dance where the enemy can leave his protective shell at will, weakened but with a full clip, while you have a half-empty clip and his buddies can (and probably will) show up at some point from some location you can't really prepare for while maintaining your advantage on the idiot you should have killed. Bubble shield and armor lock are the most clear examples of this, but throw enough shield doors into enclosed areas and you'll get the same effect. The greatest sin isn't so much the denial of justice for people who should be dead, it's the abrupt transformation (for the worse) in how the game plays.