I’ve been noticing a trend in recent halo games. Movement and combat are two totally different things now. What this means is, in order to shoot somebody(combat) I have to refrain from sprinting, thrusting, or clambering. This was not the case in the first 3 halo games, back then you ran at top speed all the time and had the ability to shoot at all times, making it a run and gun game. With reach to now h5, in order to get around the map as fast as we can, we have to put our guns down, this makes it run or gun, because I’m either running round the map trying to look for somebody, or I’m fighting somebody.
this is something fundamentally goes against what halo is, and changes the gameplay rather than adding to it. Separating movement from combat promotes pretty much most of the big issues h5 has, such as slow pace because people are always running away with sprinting, or thrustering away, because using it combat is not as effective as running away with it. Cat and mouse gameplay is pretty much encouraged as well when that rift is made.
run+gun is better for the game than run OR gun, which is what we have now.
Now, how can we fix this? Well the first thing to focus on is closing the gap between movement and combat
<em>*sprint must be removed</em>.
we know the problems this mechanic causes, it’s new penalty doesn’t fix anything, maps and sight lines are still huge, people are still running away because of the current thruster+sprint combo, not to mention how after 1 second you can’t be desprinted, allowing free movement around the map.
<em>*clamber needs to be more flexible</em>
Currently, I have to look at the wall to clamber, and I can’t shoot at all while doing it. This makes the player weaker than they should be. Shooting needs to be allowed while clambering, and not only this, but clamber should require me to look directly at the ledge I’m clambering. I should be able to clamber backwards, from the side and so on. This better empowers the player by not temporarily weakening him for the sake of movement. Also instead of a climbing animation, a simple thruster pack upward over the ledge would suffice, this is just an animation though, it would still be mapped to the clamber button. Some also point out how this invalidates skill jumps, and while that is the case currently, this can be changed by having key jumps that just simply, can’t be clambered, promoting crouch jumping or thruster pack or some combo of both.
<em>*thruster needs to not restrict shooting</em>
one of the reasons thruster is used defensively so often is because it’s more practical to. I can’t shoot while doing it, and it’s distance is insane. The distance needs to be cut down significantly, and being able to shoot while thrustering is a must. This makes it more practical to be used offensively, encouraging individual skill instead of team shot, which hasn’t been a thing since halo ce.
the separation of movement and combat simply hurts the game, and changes it instead of adding to it. Allowing shooting in all instances, and more flexible abilities actually empowers the player, rather than segmenting and weakening them.