Overall I’ve loved my experience with the Flights thus far. This entry so far feels like a return to the feel of older titles with more of a natural progression of gameplay features and mechanics, compared to 4 and 5. Since I’m basically in love with the gameplay, I’ll just stick to things that I didn’t like or think could use improvement.
Bugs
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I haven’t noticed any stand-out bugs as of yet. But there do seem to be small hiccups where the game will lag/stutter or my character will warp forward or backward by a second to a new location. Totally understandable for a pre-release title. The servers have been overall stable and my connection strong and I’ve noticed no noticeable ping increase during these hiccups. - There does seem to be a small ragdoll issue where your Spartan’s ragdoll will get stuck in a vaulting position if you die while vaulting over a ledge from an explosion. It’s happened twice during gameplay. Doesn’t seem to affect gameplay at all, however.QOL Suggestions
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You should be able to preview items on your current spartan. As an example, in the Battlepass, there should be a right-click / Controller keybind to preview an item. This should also include store items or any Challenge item you can equip to your spartan. - There seems to be a lot of unused space on the Multiplayer menu. A window that gives your current challenges/missions would be nice. Right now you have to go several menus deep to change update challenges and see rewards. Having the information directly available, with an optional Toggle/Click to go deeper into a single additional menu would be better. - Battlepass level information is minimal without going several menus deep. Level progression should be clearer on the primary multiplayer menu with current XP and XP to Level Up visible. - Mission/challenge progress in-game as a hud or a small notification as progress is made. The notification option would have to be minimal to not obstruct or overly distract, with an option to turn it off in menus. - The Team Lineup and Player Recap windows should be flip-flopped. Recap window should be the default with the team lineup and or merge the two into a single window with last match statics available. - Expanding on 5. The current Team Lineup window provides no useful information or function other than to look at your and your teammate’s spartan. I’m assuming this is like this as poses and such will be DLC down the road. But still. Useable information should be the primary focus of the screen immediately following a match.A compromise that serves both functions would be an end match animation similar to the beginning into animation, where all spartans on the winning team are displayed.Gameplay
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The Heatwave. This weapon seems to have no real purpose? Is it a shotgun? Precision rifle? Who knows. Doesn’t do very good damage up close as it takes a dead-on hit within a few feet to OSK, it’s almost completely outclassed by any other weapon at any distance outside of Close Combat. Slow firing speed and extreme damage drop off. idk if im using this thing wrong or if it just plain sucks. - The spikey gun thing that shoots out plasma? Similar complaints to the above. It seems to be chargeable but I can’t tell any difference between a charged shot and a normal one. Plasma damage is for shields but doesn’t seem to do much better than just blasting an enemy with literally any other kinetic weapon. - Speaking of shields. It looks like this game is using a Rock-Paper-Scissors approach to damage types. However, the effects of different damage types are not very apparent or noticeable. Kinetic damage weapons are almost always the best option going into an engagement. I don’t exactly know how to remedy this without making plasma types too overpowered, perhaps a slight damage buff to shields? - This may just be for the Flights but power weapons spawn too often. It’s fairly easy for a team to take control of the Rocket area in Bazaar for example and dominate 2/3s of the map. As a new rocket spawns fairly quickly it’s possible to have a never-ending supply of them without too much effort. - The grappling hook equipment. This thing is slick as hell and I like the idea of it. However, I’d like to have more physics in the device rather than moving in a straight line. Being able to swing Indiana Jones-style from area to the area would be cool as hell. But this is more of a fun maybe type thing than an actual suggestion. - The grenades don’t feel quite right? This I can’t explain completely, I feel like it may be the overall physics of the grendades? They don’t seem to move as fast or bounce as much as they did in previous titles. This may be on purpose but I feel like grenades are often exploding late into a firefight rather than earlier on, resulting in after-death kills or non at all as the action has ended, rather than the standard firefight opening move they were used as in previous titles. - Also on grenades. I’ve been killed several times from wrap-around grenade damage. Explosive will be around a corner or on the other side of a piece of cover but I’ll still take lethal damage from it. This isn’t a very fun way of dying, thinking you’ve made it to safety than having grenades from around the corner still manage to take you out. - Sliding seems weak. You don’t slide very far or quickly and this almost always puts you at a disadvantage when done. There also aren’t a whole lot of low cover options to be used, at least on the Flight maps, where sliding would be any more advantageous than simply running behind cover. - Wind-up time for the gravity hammer is slow. Almost a half-second from the trigger to hit. I understand if this was a balancing measure. But perhaps a nerf on secondary/tertiary attacks? So the first swing would be full speed and any secondary swings in quick succession would suffer a slower wind up. This would force players to be more selective with their swings while punishing wild attacks.