Alright, from the top,
Aesthetic.
What the heck did you do to the BR and DMR? A Red Dot kinda kills it for me, having grown up with the BR since Halo 2. I never really liked the DMR, but hey, why mess with what made it look great? Please do not in my opinion, ruin what made these weapons iconic. Also, Prophet’s Bane desperately needs a redesign. it’s ugly.
The sniper rifle is still the Halo 4 sniper. (Personally, I don’t like it, really preferred the Halo 3/reach ones)
Mechanics.
I will warm up to the smart scope in time.
Mobility changes are alright, it;s great to see everyone starting out with the same ability set. Sprint can work, well played trade off.
Gameplay
I really hope you guys learnt what we want from Halo 4’s run.
True semblance of map control, ie weapon placement on map (not just power weapons, but everything) (please refer to H3 Heretic if you don’t get what I mean by weapon layout)
No COD style weapon load outs
No killcams
No ordinence
Well designed maps
Throwbacks to familiar maps like more remakes of classic maps and the Blood Gulch tradition.
Map voting
Weapon balance
Make sure the experience maintains that Halo feel and not something too alien.
Controls
Mess this up, you half way ruin the experience.
I’ve always been a H3 Recon person and many more out there. So even if you will stand by your default, a Recon style option would make a lot of players happy, like Google Maps for iOS6.
That’s all on my side until I actually get to play it.