I’m just going to put out a few gripes here, but before I do, I want to say that the gameplay and graphics on this game are AMAZING! Well done! That being said, there are some fairly significant gripes that I think 343 should see. Some can be fixed in the short term, others, they should pay attention to in the long term to make sure they don’t ruin the franchise from a fan perspective.
SHORT TERM FIXES:
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WARZONE & BOSS KILLS
Honestly, the way that credit for boss kills is awarded in Warzone right now seems to be going against the intent of the gameplay. The idea is to kill enemy bosses and take bases, right? Well, the way it works, you can do 99.9% of the damage to an enemy boss and if the other team hits him with the last bullet, they get 100% of the credit. This has happened so many times that it’s simply frustrating, and it’s encouraging behavior that goes against the (assumed) intended design. Instead of trying to get the boss, teams are rewarded by simply waiting until the other team has done all the work, then pop out and get the kill. This could be addressed by simply recognizing which team’s surviving members in an encounter did more damage. You are already tagging damage based upon team, simply have the game keep track of the percentage done by each team and split the points accordingly. Simple fix. -
REQ SYSTEM
I really, really hate this system. I love the idea of being able to customize my spartan through earned currency. I’m even okay with being able to use real money to earn said currency, should I wish. I HATE that what I get is 100% random. Maybe introduce / include a store where we can spend our REQ points on specific items at a higher cost than the random packs? Give the players a bit more control over how they can customize their spartans (and thus, their gameplay). The randomization factor can be really frustrating when you see everyone else running around with nice BRs, DMRs, upgraded SMGs, etc, that help them out on the actual battlefield and all you have is a bunch of different armors and visor colors that make you look spiffy. -
WARTHOGS & SCORPIONS
Seriously, are these things supposed to weigh only 10 lbs. and have 400 horsepower? Because they drive like that right now. It sucks getting on a Warthog, trying to drive it, and flipping over for 200 yards because I accidentally hit a pebble in the road. This should be a pretty easy fix. Similarly, is it just me, or do Scorpions seem to randomly decide that pushing forward on the stick means drive backwards, left means right, up means down, etc? It’s just with regards to getting them to move around, the aiming is fine. It feels like it has been programmed based upon the current turret direction, but that it can get confused.
LONG TERM CONCERNS
There’s really only one long term concern, and that is this: please don’t mess up the story or short-sale the fans again. The storyline in Halo 5 had almost no build up outside of the commercials that seemed to pit Master Chief as having gone AWOL for quite some time. In the game, it seems like he’s AWOL for maybe 24 hours, and this is supposed to make Locke want to subdue the Chief? Also, so these Guardians are waking up, causing havoc, and warping away, but what do they actually do other than look pretty floating in the sky? Why should the galaxy be afraid of them, exactly? Honestly, the gameplay of the campaign was great. The storyline, though, could have used a lot of flushing out and building up. It just feels like there were huge gaps, and those gaps have a very strong possibility of turning players like myself–who love the lore of HALO–off on the franchise.
I like the direction the story is going, with the AI’s turning against humanity and Cortana assuming the Mantle. The story has even been well set up for some nice twists and turns down the road. Maybe the Flood aren’t gone after all (which makes sense, given that the Flood infected a shield world in HALO Wars and that those Flood, at least, would likely not have been on High Charity when Chief managed to kill the Gravemind, so it stands to reason that there are other Flood infections out there) and they become a serious problem for Cortana. Maybe the Arbiter is still around, or a civil war erupts among the AIs that set humanity back into the brink of extinction (or at the least a major war). There are some cool directions that the story can go, but please, invest in that story and make sure it is really good before releasing the product. Halo 5’s story, unfortunately, was simply lacking.