First off I play Halo Reach on a pretty frequent basis. It's not the only thing I play, I have a lot of other games I'm into, but I've loved Halo since 2001 and I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.
First off the matchmaking in Reach sucks. It just does. I'll go against a bunch of people that I can demolish on my own and then next I go up against MLG pros that never touch anything other than Halo. That's why when I play it's a very uneven experience. I'll have really bad days and I'll have really good days.
This isn't just on the social games, this is on the ranked games as well. This just shouldn't happen. Look at K/D spreads or whatever. At least in the social games in Halo 3, this is excusable, because there were a lot of ranked lists that more or less reflected the skill level of the people playing, excluding the one monthers. One monthers are people who buy their Xbox Live subscription monthly just so they stay at low levels in Halo 3 ranked, so they can pretty much always win. Reach eliminated this by have one month seasons originally, and now 3 month seasons on Arena, which is Reach's ranked. The problem is that no one gives a shit about Arena. It has a pretty low population and you have to play it for four days just to get a ranking. In Halo 3 there were 50 ranks, where in Reach there are like 5 and you have to play for 4 days just to see the rank. In 3 we would play all night trying to increase our rank a number or two and you could see progress, but in Reach, it's just not worth the hassle. In 3 there were like 6-8 different ranked lists where in Reach there is one. There's just no reason to mess with Ranked. You get matched up with people that are out of your league or vice versa and you make no progress. Even if you make a little progress, no one outside of Arena can see your rank. Plus there are soooo many, social types that the one ranked type, just gets stale.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get into how games get ruined. One of the things that pisses me off, is when I have 3 games in a row of people on my team quiting. People quit and no one can replace them. In the social games, which seems to have no criteria for skill level, there should be a rotating roster... someone drops out, someone else drops in. This can be an option for matchmaking, some people just want to play and wouldn't care about it being in the middle of the match, especially if it matches them up faster. This would solve so many headaches when people just ditch the team.
The Mute Ban. The mute ban is when so many people mute you, you are automatically muted. This is a horrible idea. It's supposed to punish shit talkers, but there is a rowdy and talky option for match making, so why would you punish someone for being those things? If you don't want to hear me, then mute me manually, why force someone to be muted. This ruins team dynamics, because there isn't a game now where someone isn't mute banned and I have to unmute them to coordinate as a team. It's one of the worst ideas in Reach... period.
So let's move on the actual game mechanics. The DMR... sigh. So in Halo 1, the pistol was grossly overpowered. In 2, the BR was better, but all other weapons were pushed to the side when someone had a BR. In 3, it's a little better, but if you have a BR, you don't really need anything else. The DMR was the replacement in Reach, but it's about as bad as the BR in 3. It's grossly overpowered. The worst part is that most of the game types now start you out with them, even on smaller maps. This means everyone can shoot across the map at the start of the game. What the fuck type of logic is that? You start out with a weapon that can kill anyone from anywhere. The sniper rifle is only slightly more deadly if you're good with it, but you don't have to be good to use the DMR, just spam the button and someones dead pretty quickly.
So what could they do to fix this? Number one, no more DMR starts (or BR in 4) except in MLG. It's like every game we end up with DMR starts and it's annoying. The DMR should be a power weapon that you pick up, not something everyone has from the get go. Fix the bloom issue, even though I think Halo 4 has no bloom mechanics. If the gun a shorter range, like half what it is now or maybe three fourths. Make the player space the shots out... not with bloom, but with mechanics. If I'm medium range with the AR and someone has the DMR, the AR should win 95% of the time. The DMR is for medium-far range or it should be. If someone has a DMR and I can't use 75% of the weapons against them, then there is a major balance issue. Period.
So, mute ban, rotating playlists, DMR matchmaking and mechanics fixes, and a better ranking system with multiple ranked playlists. Oh yeah, the warthog still flips far to often. It's a military grade vehicle centuries in the future, it shouldn't flip if you hit a rock. The overheating turret gun has evened it out more or less, there's no need for touchy weight issues and unexpected, non-attack oriented flipping. If someone hits us with a rocket, fine, flippies of the dock, but not small hills or rocks on the ground.
That's about it. I still like playing Reach, but sometimes it makes me want to pull my hair out. I don't want for 4 to be like 3, I want it to be something new, but 343 needs to learn from Bungie's mistakes.
Edit: I realized that MLG isn't the only mode that needs BR starts. Obviously SWAT is a precision game and needs those starts. Also Big Team Games with vehicles and whatnot are fine. Most Big Team maps are large enough to where you aren't getting hammered as soon as you spawn. When you have AR starts it changes the entire dynamic of the game.
Also line of sight needs to be taken into account with the spawns. Especially on SWAT and DMR/BR game starts. I don't know how many times I've spawn and gotten taken out automatically. Sometimes it feels like distance to the other team isn't taken into account let alone line of sight.
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