Halo is a great competitive multiplayer game that has a special place in my heart. I cut my teeth on Call of Duty, but spent several months in love with Halo 3 and Reach. These two game franchises are similar only in presentation and occupy two opposite ends of the first person shooter spectrum. Halo is skill focused, deliberate, and chock full of strategy. Call of Duty, on the other hand, is fast paced, unbalanced, and chock full of “cheap kills”. Some Halo fans have no respect for Call of Duty players. Some Call of Duty fans think Halo is boring and slow.
I love both. I’m a top tier player in neither.
There are things to take away from each game. Although these games are so fundamentally different, some strategies transcend the divide and become universal. If you want to get better at Call of Duty, look at some strategies from Halo.
##Chasing
One of the easiest ways to die in Call of Duty is to run out in the open. Of course, the same could be said for Halo, but because of Halo’s slow paced nature, skilledplayers can recover from surprise attacks gracefully. With that in mind, it’s a really bad idea to chase after enemies in Halo. The same is true for Call of Duty, but not necessarily for the same reason. With connection based issues like host priority and lag, there’s not a whole lot of room for skill when weapons kill as fast as they do. So, a better reason to not give chase is for the possibility of being shot in the back by someone who encounters you by chance or is just camping.
Firefights in Halo are an elaborate dance, and I remember a good player once giving me advice over the headset in the heat of battle. “Don’t chase, don’t chase.” How true those words are. A properly set-up team in Halo can obliterate a greedy player looking to capitalize on a surprise attack. Getting greedy in Call of Duty usually just ends with you getting killed from behind.
##Positioning and Setting Up
When listening to and watching professional Halo players, you’ll often hear references to “setting up”. Setting up is a strategy in Halo encompassing the positioning of you and your teammates for some tactical advantage. Call of Duty’s parallel can be seen in some of the map layouts. For example, the house in Estate from MW2 is a great place to set up. The team that can take control of the house can dominate. The key is to know where you’re vulnerable from, to know which way the enemy is most likely to be coming from, and the way to best position yourself to be less at risk for being shot in the back. A parallel to this idea is to position yourself where you will be shooting other people in the back.
Being properly set up does not indicate that you are camping. Fool me once, shame on you…campers will ultimately die. A better way to think of it is to ask yourself how to maximize your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses. Proper positioning refers to several variable factors like the range from you to your target, the amount of cover easily accessible to you and the risk of being caught off guard.
##Guidelines for Positioning
-Try to learn the flow of the map. Each map has a certain life-cycle or rotation. Try to recognize spawn patterns. Don’t try to memorize spawn points, just general locations. If your entire team is occupying distinct “area”, try to position yourself with your teammates behind you, covering your back. In other words, don’t just run in the exact same direction they are.
-Watch out for and avoid chokepoints. There is usually a convergence area in any given Call of Duty map where both teams usually encounter each other. The long alley in Hardhat, the center building and grassy area in Resistance, and the Humvee and tank lot in Dome are all examples of this area. Try to remain outside of this spot looking in. Reduce the amount of time you’re running through the area, and focus more on catching the players who fearlessly do.
-Run away when necessary. Low time-to-kill and high lag are your weaknesses in this regard, but you can mitigate the risks of gunbattles if you know how to hide. Put the enemy on your turf by making the rules of the encounter. Don’t be afraid to run away. A good example would be when a sniper misses his initial shot at you and you can successfully get behind a corner. If you’re not equipped with the right weapon, don’t even risk it, just move on. By the same token, if you do have a good weapon, why not wait a second or two to see if he seeks you out. This is the opposite of chase, catching an unsuspecting greedy enemy with a surprise shotgun blast to the face.
-Try not to get cornered. Easier said than done. It’s not always possible to have a way out, but with proper positioning you can be aware of potentially safe exits.
In a nutshell, evaluate your weaknesses and minimize them. Identify your strengths and maximize them. In Halo, a shotgun player should not engage with battle rifles outside of CQC, period. A battle rifle player should not engage with shotgunners inside of medium range. They know when to hide, run away, and which paths to take to try to take control of the optimal position. Call of Duty may be fast paced, but there is still strategy to be discovered inside.




