So I’m loving the new additions to Halo. I’ve been playing Halo since CE, and to be honest, I fell off slightly after Reach. I have purchased every Halo but rarely played the newer ones because the formula was so dried out. Reach died out for me a month in, but this Halo, man. As a long time fan, I have to admit that I was skeptical of the Beta going in, but this is the most fun I’ve had in a Halo since 3. I also love that every weapon is now a viable option in combat, and you’re not dropping your Assault Rifle for anything else you can find. This game actually feels like a sequel. Anything in BOLD is something I feel could balance certain aspects of the game that I think require slight changing.
That being said, I have a few grievances regarding a few of the weapons and player functions but nothing too astronomical.
The Battle Rifle -
I love the BR, and getting that perfect kill medal is very satisfying, however I do feel that it simply outclasses every weapon at every range. Something that I feel could fix it, is return the burst spread to the Halo 3 specs. As it stands now, the BR might as well be a semi-automatic weapon, because the burst has such a tight grouping because of how quickly the next follow up shot occurs within the burst and the follow up bursts are easily spammable. Another option is, that if the Battle Rifle was given a slight vertical recoil (a suggestion made by my buddy A Holt), the gun would be just as accurate at range, but less effective at close. If the Battle Rifle was given vertical recoil, it would most likely allow the Assault Rifle and SMG to remain the best at close to mid-range combat while the Battle Rifle could remain the best at long range.
Grenades -
Grenades have always been an important part of Halo, and this one is no exception. My only problem with grenades is that they feel too powerful when comparing them to grenades in previous Halos. I don’t know if its something to do with their radius, or their over all damage, but it’s something I feel needs to be fixed. Whether I’m missing a little bit of my shields, or 10% of my total health, a grenade that lands 2 meters from me feels like its just as capable of killing me, as one that’s 5 or 6 meters away. I feel that if the grenade’s damage drop-off from the center of the explosion was increased (maybe only doing 60/65% damage after 2 meters), it could fix the issue of grenades feeling too OP, and would require people to more carefully toss them in a fight.
Note - There’s a bug I’ve encountered where grenades damage me through solid cover.
Thruster Pack -
Thruster packs are something I’ve been dying for in a Halo game, and it’s nice to see that they’re being implemented in a very beneficial way. I do wish that we could dash a second time before the cool down sets in. There have been many times where I’ve gotten into an overwhelming 2 on 1, or 3 on 1 fight where i could dash backwards, but not sideways to get behind cover. Now it’s nothing mandatory or in high priority, but I feel that if players were allowed to dash twice, but it increased the cooldown of thruster by 50%, it could allow for more lateral flight movements, and skill based thruster jumps.
Killcams -
Killcams are something I don’t feel are necessary in any game, but I don’t outright hate them. There is a bit of lag on the playback of the cam, and they’re so short at times that i don’t feel its really necessary to show them. I don’t really know of a fix for them, but at the end of the day, I feel that if you just remove them not much would be lost from the game.
After that I have no real other complaints. I think 343i is doing a fantastic job with this new Halo, and I can’t wait to see some vehicle action soon. Vehicular combat and Objective based modes are some of my favorite parts of Halo, so I can’t wait to what’s in store!