I’m aware a lot of these have hurdles to overcome. They’d still be interesting to include I think.
Start Menu:
While I am aware that if you have friends join you, their Spartans join in, the menu screen is kind of monotonous. It would be nice to have the Spartan(s) doing idle tasks, either scrolling through a data pad, checking weapons or crates, lightly sparring, or doing maintenance on the Pelican, or a bunch of other animations. Having them wander around, even interacting one another could also be implemented. Perhaps a pool of 20-30 animations (not at the start of course, but added over time), with the Spartans randomly going through them all until none are left, and then they board the pelican allowing it to take off. A few minutes later a pelican lands again, revealing the Spartans to be covered in dirt and scorch marks, allowing the animations to recycle again.
Start Game/End Game cut scenes:
I loved them, even with how buggy they are. I would like to request for more poses, possibly through customization, but ideally auto unlocked via accomplishing certain feats and achievements and added to a random pool that are done randomly. The outro in particular looks a little off considering how they all have perfectly straight spines, in proper military poses, which is strongly contrasting the almost frat boy like animations at the start of the game. Because of these two cut scenes, I actually felt like my Spartan was a college frat boy, who just finished weapons training and was about to go out drinking with the lads. The Spartans interacting with one another could also be a possibility, such as punching shoulders, pushing one another, or putting each other in headlocks.
Spartan Library:
Where our favorite armor configurations, weapon and vehicle skins can be assigned to certain loadout slots, allowing us to quick change through them between matches. There are a lot of different choices for us, and it really isn’t fair asking us to only pick one. One slot should be free from the start, with another being unlocked from some achievement (possibly linked to MCC or Halo 5, or to Infinite’s campaign?) with the remaining slots to be either earned from a battle pass, or bought directly from the store.
Obstacle Course:
Similar to Weapons Training, it’d be nice to have a movement based area where we can explore armor abilities as well. Some sort of vertical climb, crouching through vents, dropping a shield wall to protect ourselves from turrets, etc.
Spartan Academy:
When it was first announced I was rather excited to see a Spartan Academy. But I also hope it’s a real place that we, as the players, could visit and explore. As you’re releasing the campaign and multiplayer separately, I hope you take this opportunity to really flesh out the multiplayer, even with it being free to play. An explorable area(s) could allow the players a fun playground to learn the initial movement controls (like tutorial quests), and reaching each new area unlocks the menu shortcut to quickly join certain activities (weapons training, ability training, obstacle course, war games, duels (one on one spartan battles), etc. It would also allow you to add more lore to the in-game universe, allowing for events tied to the campaign to be noticed/mentioned in the multiplayer.
This explorable area could have a few different functions. If it’s just a solo player experience, NPC’s wearing the player’s saved armor presets could be seen walking around (as well as Spartans with randomized loadouts). If it could be open to even more players, it could be used as a sort of basis for Spartan Companies (renamed Camps? Warbands? Pantheon(Greek housing and all that)), allowing you to meet up with other players and join games in progress that your company is already playing.
If you are not in a Spartan Company, it could also give you the option of connecting with other players in open lobbies, allowing you to meet and make new friends. While I do understand the hardware and technical limitations of this could be too much to pursue, I do think it should be considered.