CoD, Activision, and Destiny (Gaming)

by Durandal, Sunday, December 01, 2013, 18:35 (4009 days ago) @ Schooly D

Bungie's got a development planned for the long haul. That must factor in feature and engine enhancements, much like Blizzard does with WoW. If you set things up ahead of time, you can make it easier to add or tweak abilities in the future. I may be reading between the lines, but it seems that the technical challenges are more on the networking and server side. I don't think Destiny will have the same risk of being overtaken by technological advancements or gameplay changes as COD.

The Halo series innovated, but mostly outside the core gameplay. Forge and Theater are great innovations in the console, and the main gameplay in Halo is far better balanced then COD. Bungie did a good job of giving every weapon a chance to shine in its particular niche. The difference is that Halo is a far slower game, with more emphasis on skill and map control. They also had a very good matchmaking system that was almost frustrating, because every match ended up with people near your skill level, so lots of games ended in ties or very close.

343 tried to incorporate some of COD's innovations with the weapons and character customization, but I really feel that they fell flat with the weapon balance and skills. The DMR, plus either Forerunner vision, jump pack or cloak were what everyone equipped. Spartan OPS could have been great, if they had put a little more thought into the missions instead of "go here, push button, fend off enemies" sequence. Still, the episodic content was fun and engaging, and I enjoyed the plot continuation.

I guess the point is that Halo's core gameplay wasn't designed for the weapons customization and lack of map control inherent to COD. Trying to blend the two may be possible, but Halo 4 didn't succeed and that is why it dropped off vs. Reach. COD doesn't innovate, or even bring in larger maps because the gameplay can't support it.

What good is a killstreak that calls in a helicopter if your team is already flying one? What good are larger maps if you can't walk across them in time? Ghosts brought in the slide from Destiny, and some of the movement from battlefield plus their own inferior "levelution" and it adds nothing to the game. There is nothing they can add from the other FPS or even the 3rd person stuff that won't break their gameplay unless it is too watered down to matter, just like Halo 4's weapon balance.