I’ve been playing the beta, and got the most part I think it is solid and will be a worthy addition to the franchise, but there are a few key things that need to change. Here I’ll list the things I think need to stay and those that definitely need to change.
CHANGES:
Battle Rifle-
the battle rifle is so unbelievably overpowered. Especially in this second week with BR starts it is apparent. You can reliably take on an AR/smg in close range as well as a DMR long range. The heavy suppression against a DMR means that even if you fire first with your DMR, the BR can hip fire across the map, unzoom you and take the advantage. It really makes the DMR obsolete. The high rate of fire combined with the low recoil (compared to other human weapons) makes it clearly superior. A player of moderate skill can best an AR, even at close range. You just have to hit the head, which is Child’s play for anyone who’s played Halo for a decent amount of time. To balance this I think that the BR needs to get turned down a notch, namely higher recoil for high rates of fire, or slightly decreased rate of fire and possibly reticule bloom. It’s just an all around work horse and way too powerful, especially as a starting weapon.
DMR-
the DMR just needs to be tweeked and it will be perfect. The biggest thing is recoil. The DMR 's recoil is almost unmanageable, making tricky angles And fights against other long range weapons hugely disadvantageous. The recoil also hamstrings the DMR in medium/close combat because it is so much higher maintenance than say the BR which stays relatively steady. I like the feature that taking fire unzooms you, but in the case of the DMR it can be devastating. The reticule design isn’t one you can target long range with much efficiency, so once you’re zoom goes down, if you can hide to re zoom you’re SOL. Maybe the DMR should be slightly resistant to the unzoom under fire feature? The recoil also seems to make it so that after 2-3 shots if you are unzoomed by return fire it is harder to reacquire target. Rate of fire is good though mostly just recoil and Zoom issues.
Assault Rifle-
the only thing i have to say about the assault rifle is to much recoil in zoom mode. I would suggest less recoil in zoom and trade it for increased reticule bloom. Otherwise awesome adaptation of the assault rifle.
Swords-
it seems to me that the covenant energy sword is just the kid brother of prophets bane. I loved everything about prophets bane from week 1 of the beta, but the covenant sword is severely lacking in a few ways. For one it doesn’t confer the speed boost that prophets bane does, and seems to have inferior tracking as well, losinga lot of user friendliness. I have seen countless people swinging at the air and getting punched to death while wielding the sword because of the poor tracking. It severely nerfs the sword and i don’t like it.
Light Rifle-
i think it’s perfect. I could do with 1-2 fewer shots to kill from the hip, but it’s not bad if you get head shots. Zoom is perfect.
Hydra missile launcher-
awesome idea, needs refinement. I like how quickly it locks on with the zoom mode, but the missiles are way too slow. Mostly I’m talking about shooting from the hip. It’s infuriating when some -Yoink- with a battle rifle comes charging around the corner, you’re ready to end him with your hydra, but he annihilates you because hip firing your hydra is like making play dough French fries. You can’t hit a damn thing. To make things worse the splash damage is garbage too. As it stands the hydra is only good for enemies in the open or for ambushes. Both preferably with a clear element of surprise. Definitely turn up the splash damage for this weapon and increase missile speed slightly.
Spawning -
in many of these beta maps I’ve noticed that spawning is kind of all over the place. If you have a team that is weak on 360 degree security, you’re done. By far the scoreboards of this beta have seen the most disproportionate scores of any Halo that I’ve seen, and i blame it on the spawning system. It’s just too easy for a good team to set up cross fires and dominate the whole map with random fortunate spawn locations. I’ve also spawned in the middle of firefighters and in front of enemies way too much.
please add your input to what I’ve said. Hopefully with enough attention 343 will give these ideas some consideration.