Today, I’ll be talking about loadouts, and how I think they can be improved and altered for better gameplay. As it stands right now, I do not think loadouts work very well in Halo 4. This is mostly because of things like secondary weapons, grenades and perks. First of all, I think perks should just not be in Halo to begin with, most of them aren’t very useful anyway, so I would like to see them gone.

As for secondary weapons and grenades, Big Team Slayer isn’t the same now that anyone can spawn with a Plasma Pistol and just EMP the vehicle and throw a couple stickies at the vehicle. Big Team used to be about vehicular combat, but in Halo 4, vehicles are more of a nuisance than a threat.

Close quarters also suffers from Halo 4’s loadouts. The Boltshot, even though it has been nerfed, is still a one hit kill when in range. It simply doesn’t make sense for people to be able to spawn with a one hit kill weapon. Going back to sticky grenades, now that players can spawn with stickies, people will just run up to you and throw a sticky at your face, giving them a cheap kill. It has almost become like the Reach Sprint+Double Melee in terms of a cheap close quarters kill.

Now, I am not saying that loadouts should be abolished. I like loadouts. I hated AR starts in Halo 3 and Reach, and I always voted for BR/DMR starts, hoping everyone else voted for it as well. Now, I don’t have to worry about that. People who like the AR can spawn with an AR, people who like a BR or a DMR can spawn with a BR or a DMR, and so on. I think keeping the ability to choose your primary weapon should stay.

However, being able to choose perks, grenades, and secondary weapons should be removed. Perks should just be gone from the game completely, and everyone should spawn with a Magnum and 2 frag grenades. The Plasma Pistol and Boltshot can be placed on the map or as ordnance, and stickies and pulse grenades can be available on the map as well.

As for Armor Abilities, I don’t have a strong opinion on them. I don’t mind having Armor Abilities in the game (aside from Camo and Jet Pack), but I also wouldn’t mind if 343 did remove them. They could even make them available on the map like equipment from Halo 3. But like I said, I don’t really care if Armor Abilities remain in loadouts (aside from Camo and Jet Pack of course).

So, to summarize, here the TL;DR version of my thoughts on loadouts:

-Ability to choose starting primary weapon and possibly Armor Ability

-No choice for starting secondary weapon and grenades, everyone spawns with Magnum and 2 Frags

-Perks removed entirely from the game