Bip, Bap, Boring! Welcome to Firefight.

The Halo: Reach survival mode, Firefight, pits the player against relatively dull bullet sponges. To compensate, matchmaking relies on ridiculous loadouts, damage modifiers, and a large, if not infinite, pool of lives. The only plausible explanation I can think of for playing Firefight in its current form is that is offers a sizeable pay out of credits. Campaign lacks even a plausible explanation.

However, like many aspects of Halo: Reach, both Campaign and Firefight are frustratingly close to providing a great gameplay experience. The levels, with regards to movement and cover, are well designed (unlike Halo 4), and the AI can flank, rush, and fall back, when necessary. The problem is that the current set-up does not lend well to any of these AI behaviours. You can choose to face dim witted and weak opponents, or more coordinated foes with near impregnable shielding; neither option is particularly enjoyable and both restrict variety.

This problem has persisted since Halo 2. In Halo 2 some Elites had the equivalent of 3x shielding, yet they never advanced on the player, choosing instead to sit back and sponge clip after clip. All this did, aside from highlighting the shortcomings of enemy AI, was force the player to use a smaller pool of weapons in order to progress.

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), by comparison, pitted the player against weaker but more aggressive foes; difficulty came from enemies punishing your every error in combat, rather than punishing your poorly equipped presence. On the second mission, for example, it was not uncommon for Elites to run up the hillside, charging your position. Despite this aggression a skilled player could decimate Covenant squads with anything at their disposal, be it with a Plasma Rifle and its quick shield dissipation and freezing effect, the 'elite killer' Needler, the overcharged plasma pistol, or powerful grenades. This created fast paced, challenging exchanges, and allowed players to enjoy the breadth as well as the depth of the weapon sandbox. Difficulty in subsequent campaigns has been intensified by bolstering AI health, rather than increasing its ferocity.

Halo 2's campaign, like its prequel, should be noted for its difficulty. However I believe it gains this reputation for the wrong reasons if we look at it from a gameplay point of view. What Halo 2 had was a harsh learning curve which is misinterpreted as difficulty. By a learning curve I mean that it was only once the player acknowledged the value of the plasma pistol that they could pass the first hanger bay of the first level (with complete ease might I add) and that any level containing Jackal Snipers required the player to repeatedly replay sections until they had memorised the location of each sniper, as each wrong step was met with instant death again, and again; neither of these factors relied on any significant level of gaming prowess, instead they stifled variety and made gameplay frustrating.

For a time I couldn't put my finger on the reason I enjoy the Campaign of Halo: CE more than its sequels. However I believe I have finally found the answer. Simply put, strong or 'unfair' enemies are not only a pain in the ass to fight, they are boring.

"You face opponents who have never known defeat, who laugh in alien tongues at your efforts to survive. This is suicide."
-------Description of Legendary difficulty from Halo: CE and Halo 2.

"Tremble as teeming hordes of invincible alien monsters punish the slightest error with instant death... again and again."
------- Description of Legendary difficulty from Halo 3 onwards.

When I shoot something I should not have to unload an entire clip before my foe's shields have even popped, regardless of the difficulty. In Combat I should have multiple options, even—if not particularly—on Legendary. This comes with lower enemy health, but it also comes with a higher level of AI aggression that forces the need for quick decision making (which is otherwise only found in multiplayer). As a consequence of such changes I would be punished because the enemy actually outsmarted or outplayed me, rather than because I failed to use the plasma pistol. Halo: Reach succeeded quite well in producing the latter (increased aggression), but rendered this pointless by failing to produce the former (lowering enemy health). The less said of Halo 4, the better.

I wondered if there was a way of finding the fun in Firefight. As already explained, Reach has a great deal of potential because of the intelligence and behaviour of the enemy AI. As Firefight is the only medium where AI and player traits can be modified I thought it might be possible to turn this intelligence into an asset, rather than it just being a frustration on higher difficulty levels.

I initially came up with this idea when playing the Firefight matchmaking playlist Doubles Attack. It was the doubled-damage of 2x Score Attack that injected some level of enjoyment. As a player I felt less restrained, I could leave the confines of the base on Unearthed and deal a good level of damage to the Covenant; this was particularly the case with the Rocket Hog. The only issue with the 2x gametype was that I felt no vulnerability; increased damage was coupled with an additional layer of shielding which completely negated any need for caution or cooperative play. This is why I felt completely changing the dynamics of Firefight would be beneficial.

With this in mind, I set out to tweak the gametype options. My changes were as follows: I increased the player movement traits, to speed up gameplay and map movement; altered player shield and health recharge times, to avoid the stagnation of long waits behind cover; heightened AI awareness, to produce even more aggressive characteristics; and reduced the damage the AI can deal and take, so that they are placed on a more even footing with the player. As result, players feel less restricted in both weapon usage and map movement. To find the gametype please see here, alternatively see here for changelist to create the gametype manually.

For those less interested in downloading, as Halo: Reach is now an older title, I hope to have given insight into the means developers use to increase difficulty, and explained the possibilities of a far more satisfying alternative.

First posted 16th September 2011


Edit: Changelist is now reproduced below to manually recreate settings --

Red skull (always on) to change Spartan and wave traits

Spartan traits

·         Speed 120%

·         Jump height 125%

·         Gravity 150%

·         Shield recharge 125% (110% 3-4 players)

·         Health recharge 200% (110% 3-4 players)

·         Damage resistance 90%

·         Melee 75%

Wave traits

·         Damage 75%

·         Damage resistance 50%

·         Vision Eagle eye

·         Hearing Sharp

General

·         Dropships on

·         Squads random order

·         Ammo crates (off 1 player, on 2+)

·         Hazards and weapon drops on

Player changes

·         1 player -> 1 round, 15 minutes, respawn 10 seconds, start 7 lives, max 7

·         2 players -> 1 set, 45 minutes, start 10 lives, max 7 (ammo crates on)

·         3-4 players -> 1 set, 45 minutes, start 15 lives, max 7 (ammo crates on; shield and health recharge both changed to 110%)

Round 1 (Skulls: red on)

·         Initial - Jackal Patrol x2, Skirmisher Patrol

·         Main - Elite Patrol, Elite Infantry, Elite Tactical, Brute Chieftains x2

·         Boss - Elite Strike x2, Elite Generals

Round 2 (Skulls: red, catch, tough luck on)

·         Initial - Jackal Patrol x2, Skirmisher Infantry

·         Main - Brute Infantry, Brute Chieftains, Elite Patrol, Elite Tactical, Hunter Infantry

·         Boss - Elite Spec Ops, Elite Airborne, Elite Strike

Round 3 (Skulls: red, catch, tough luck, famine, tilt on)

·         Initial - Jackal Patrol x2, Jackal Snipers

·         Main - Brute Patrol, Elite Infantry, Elite Tactical, Elite Airborne, Hunter Strike Team

·         Boss - Elites, Elite Strike x2

Loadouts

·         Sprint: DMR, AR, 1 frag

·         Jetpack: Needle Rifle, Magnum, 1 frag

·         Evade: Shotgun, no secondary, 1 frag

·         Hologram: Grenade Launcher, Magnum, 3 frags

·         Dropshield: Sniper Rifle, Magnum, 1 frag