Pretty much, especially as SwordBase sucks and Invasion didn't impress me at all.

With a 3 year development window I am shocked that is all they could muster for MP. My bet is we are going to be bleed dry via DLC...

I don't think those of us who are disappointed are so by comparing it to other games. Per multiplayer the game has 4 player coop campaign, 4 player FF 2.0, 4 player FF Versus, traditional multiplayer, and Forge 2.0.

So what other game is doing that? Exactly.

The problem is that traditional multiplayer is a Halo staple. ODST didn't ship with any new MP content (DLC doesn't count!!) so Reach has essentially shifted resources to Forge and FireFight. I am NOT a big fan of that because of their poor custom game browsing features(-less). They couldn't even be bothered to do a proper "monitor-RTS" style game.

In the end I return from all the fluff back to traditional MP. That is where Bungie has proven themselves. FF2.0 may be very good this time but it isn't a substitute--neither are fan made Forge maps.

The point of using campaign spaces was so they could make better use of art resources. I know there will be a few firefight maps but I'm struggling to see how this approach, three years and "biggest ever Halo game" translated to less MP environments than Halo 3. A bit disappointing really.

The two maps that I saw, Countdown and Boardwalk looked nice but couldn't see any vehicles. If vehicle combat is going to be restricted to Invasion and the Forge World maps, (possibly just the Blood Gulch remake even) that's even worse.

At least three of those Forge World maps are remakes too so if you also count Reflection, that means there are 9 new maps, two of which are only good for invasion and two of which were played the hell out of in the beta.

I'm going to enjoy this game a lot and I'm not quibbling over the value of the package overall, but I don't think that's good enough.

Halo 3 suffered a bit at the outset with a combination of a lack of maps in general, the beta and the non-beta maps being a bit hit and miss. Initial impressions of Invasion were pretty mixed so if that doesn't resonate, I think they're walking into a bit of a problem. Not impossible to fix if they can leverage Forge World properly and get out a good map pack at a fair price but still, I'm disappointed given the resources they have. The Forge World maps should be a bonus, not comprising almost half of non-Invasion match making.

I agree. Blockbusters are held to a certain standard--and that is why they sell 10M units and push console sales. MW2 had all those spec op missions as well as 18 or so MP maps at release. 18. Like Deft is pointing out using SP content for MP maps should have allowed for substantially more MP experiences. As it stands I never, ever want to see Swordbase again. I thought Boneyard stunk visually and the gameplay wasn't far behind it. The other two maps were fantastic IMO.

Oh well, I got Blood Gultch back :P

This.

It's Halo. There will be 24+ maps by the time they're done releasing DLC. It just means that the actual cost of the game (for those that don't buy the Pay More Editions) is in the realm of hundreds of dollars and not $60. Microsoft has perfected the nickel and dime technique a while ago.

That's not even counting XBL subs, which are primarily driven by Halo for a lot of people. Microsoft is really banking on this one.

Does anybody know the increased enemy count for co-op, x2,x3,x4?

Because they share assets and a single tileset. Would it be okay if all of the maps were built from Forge World? I'm sort of on the middle on this one, because, on one hand I agree that from a level-design point of view, they're all going to be pretty unique. On the other hand, I also know that forge will still have some limitations, and hand crafted maps are not only going to look better but they're going to offer more variety.

Does anyone remember how frequently the same maps popped up in any given playlist when Halo 3 was first released? This will be worse.

It's padding the package, which is a great package, but in traditional MP content it's really freaking hard to deny how sparse things are, and for most people that's the "meat and potatoes."