Dear 343 Industries,
So far, I’ve logged 13 hours into the Halo 5 beta. Generally speaking, the game is great! It is a wonderful piece of art.
However, there are many problems that should be addressed.
First off I’d like to talk about the ranking system, which is horrible. In order to rank up you must win games consecutively, however to win games consecutively you must either be a really good player, good enough to backpack the whole team, or have a good team. Basically if you don’t have a team or if you’re not good enough to carry your whole team then your rank is left to chance. Your rank is now determined by whether or not you get matched up with good or bad teammates. Even someone with a horrible kill / death ratio that sucks at the game can get to a high rank like gold or onyx just because their teammates were good enough to carry them to victory. This causes even more problems because when bad players are given a good rank and then matched with other players of their same rank they become the weakest link of the team dooming that team to defeat. what makes matters worse is that these game types consist of small teams which means each player on a team has to carry more weight. I know this is all very confusing but it makes sense once you understand. Looking past all these issues, the game is still very fun to play when you’re matched with evenly skilled players.
Another thing that I noticed is that the maps are very static when you consider their shape. Almost all of the maps futured in the beta are basically rectangular shaped maps, very different than the maps in the previous games. IMO these new boxy shaped maps make me feel trapped, and is like more dynamic and open world maps in the final release. “Free Flowing” would be a good way to describe it, get creative! Maybe bring back even more of the previous favorite Halo maps, or look to them for inspiration.
lastly, I’d like to talk about overall gameplay of the game. I can already tell that this game was created for competitive team play. The game is just missing that “fun for everyone” feeling that was present in the previous Halo games. Halo 5 is way too focused on winning, it’s not all about winning like you say in the trailer, it’s about having fun, that’s why we play games. People don’t choose to play a game competitively becaus the game is based on winning, they choose to play it competitively because they enjoy playing it, because it’s fun. Instead of trying to create a game that’s going to be loved by hardcore MLG pros, create a game that is going to be loved by your everyday gamer, an average gamer.
Some other things that bother me are like the inability to turn off controller vibration and inability to leave matchmaking. I’d like to have the ability to go back and see my post game stats after I skip them. I’d like the Spartans to stop breathing in my ears after some of my breakout matches. Yes, the audio sound of the spartan’s breathing continues to play after the game. Lol. Also, the smashing and ramming spartan abilities are ridiculous, like seriously?
Thanks for the awesome beta, I’ll continue to play and give feedback. Please listen to our input and fix this game.
To my fellow gamers, what are your opinions on my feedback. What am I right and wrong about? Please comment.