There were actually a lot of good things such as the CGI Mjolnir trailer, chief’s armour, large sandbox and far-reaching scenery, natural wildlife, HUD, etc. So, while I have no illusion big changes can be made before launch, I think if 343 was receptive to feedback they could still make some quick tweaks:
- Remove the hook, or better still all armour abilities
- Return to normal UNSC weapon designs, ie reintroduce old weapons, and have the pistol not looking as the H2 one (then it’s perfectly fine to add new weapons too)
- Change all the effects: explosions, fire, shots, mjolnir shields. They are horribly cartoonish now. Weapons should shoot straight and we need to see the one projectile or plasma bolt exit the weapon and reach the target, unlike HW2 and this where projectiles draw circles and single shots can’t be traced (notice this especially with the banished turret and weapon)
- Apply some different filter to make the graphics look more realistic. There is no time to change the art style (which is a crime against the franchise), but it can still be made to look less weird
- Redesign the banished phantom, delete the files and burn the art. Even the way it flies is extremely weird. If there is time redesign every banished asset because it all looks awful
- Use CGI, the engine is not good enough for ingame cinematics with many moving objects and explosions (more static scenes inside the pelican do look very good)
I wouldn’t listen to people complaining about sprint and climbing (get over it), the design of aliens (it’s cool to have both types of grunts, adds variety) and open world-like features (it’s a bold move but let’s give it a go)!