User blog comment:Tuckerscreator/Wars Never Ends/@comment-26685181-20121004012944/@comment-923138-20121004020503

I heard the reason why Ensemble backed out of including the Flood has a playable faction was because they felt they'd end up playing similarly to the Zerg of StarCraft, which could be perceived as cheap and annoying. Another difficulty with their use would be that their infection is only useful against infantry, which, as I pointed out, is rarely used in multiplayer. However, I think there's an easy way to circumvent that; remember the Flood-controlled vehicles in Halo 2? Wouldn't that be a nasty trick, facing a smug player with an army of Grizzlies, only to steal them and turn them against him? If the Flood were to return for the sequel, then it'd be great to finally harness that fear of theirs that kept making us players tear our hair out. And yes, it would definitely make them feel like a galactic threat again.

As for a playable Forerunner faction, I'm a little more wary because it seems kinda cheap to make to have a Tier 1 army fall to feeble humans with bullets. Then again, Halo 4 will do its best to present that, so we're going to have to see how it turns out. Playable Promeatheans would also help integrate Forerunners better into the story. Then again... (sudden brainstorm), perhaps the Forerunners could still be absent but their weapons and vehicles could be harness-able technology hidden in parts of the map that the battling armies try to capture? Build up your forces fast enough to capture that Forerunner tank or those combat skins?

A "holdouts" plot would definitely bring that depth to the sequel's story. Wouldn't that be horrifying to find out, midway through, that you've been bombing your own allies after they've already made peace? As for Red Team, LadyLaconia pointed out to me that Red Team are much younger Spartans than all the others. They don't have the world weary disappointment that others like NOBLE Team have; they're used to winning their battles. A morale mechanic would also be interesting, rising if the Spartans kill lots of units, dropping if they get hurt or even *gasp* !