I really like Halo 5 but from the movement I started the campaign and got control of Locke I felt something was off. I couldn’t figure it out, but I have had difficult jumping over obstacles, judging distance, navigating round walls, and locating up close enemies when turning. I never had issue with prior Halo’s or Halo 4 so I decided to study this by comparing the Halo MCC games screenshots with Halo 5 and I think I’ve figured out my issue; would embed the images if I could (anyone know how?).
So Halo 5 is more similar to halo 1 than other halos since the aim cursor is center screen. Halo 2,3,4 have a cursor that is about a quarter downshifted from the center of the screen. Unlike halo 1, Guardians has rather large gun models, and the shoulder placement is higher so that the guns sit about half way up the screen and obscure a significant portion of right side screen space. Almost double compared to halo 1.
Other interesting findings are that halo 1 and halo 2 have a ‘Triangle’ where the cheif’s left arm that is aiming the gun makes it point towards center. Halo 3 abandoned this triangle and adopted the ‘shoulder’ FPS view where the gun but inserts at the right screens border, rather than just inside to give players some peripheral vision like Halo 1 and 2. Halo 4 went the halo 3 route but made the visor decal on the screen opaque rather than transparent, but Halo 5 I think was inspired by Halo 1 nostalgia but carried some Halo 4 design traits that cause conflict.
I think these changes to halo 5’s cursor placement allow for the implementation of smart-link; yet, they cause an artificial narrowing of the players effective FOV due to the big gun models. I really liked the downshifted cursor placement of past halos as it gives the illusion that you have a head that’s looking over the gun (thus assists with depth perception of the rendered image), rather than having a ‘boxy’ feel where your shoulders are outside the camera’s borders, and your head is tucked down to your neck height. Additionally, I think this is why I am also radar blind; I’m focusing so much on the center screen due to the cursor that to check the radar my eyes need to travel farther than they previously had to in other Halo games, especially halo 4 were UI was internally framed vs placed at screen corners like in Halo 5.
Wish I could have posted those pics to illustrate these observations, but thought it would be interesting to see if others have noticed this change and what they feel about it.
Should halo 6 have a down shifted aim cursor again, or smaller gun models?