I’ve been a fan of the Halo series since Combat Evolved. Halo 2 was a fantastic ground breaking game, and Halo 3 was super popular because of it’s predecessor’s success. Halo 3 was absolutely fun, not my favorite, but great for competitive play during it’s early life.
Halo: Reach was a very dark time for the series. This is the time when Halo looked to other games that were becoming successful (Namely Call of Duty) and tried to hard to implement features from those games. Call of Duty, in my opinion, is flawed in the sense of when two people charge at each other, their stats could be completely different and you wouldn’t know about it until the clash was over. The perks aren’t displayed, the type of weapon doesn’t matter because of all the different attachments. Customizable load outs. Reach began to implement these things like custom load outs, but nothing was more destructive to the core of Halo than the armor abilities. They were NEVER truly balanced well enough, and a select few dominated the ‘meta’ play, and there was no way to know what your opponent had before the clash. It creates a lack of clarity and changes the starting balance point that is needed for good competitive play. It’s ranking system was laughable, and pulled on the Call of Duty aspect of you have to play to unlock things.
Halo 4 by far, the worst Halo game that was made. It took things that Reach stole and distorted what Halo was even further. We still had custom load outs, with now the ability to spawn with a secondary weapon that could literally one shot an opponent. Custom loadouts here were a complete joke because you had to play an exorbitant amount of games to gain levels so you could simply unlock something someone else may already have. If you were unlucky enough to match against someone who was simply one level higher than you that could be the difference between them having a new armor ability at their disposal that you don’t. Armor abilities are still here, but they are more ‘balanced’ dare I say, but still there was the standard ‘meta’ ability that dominated play and was never tweaked. Sprinting is now universal, but still falls into the same flaw that other games of the generation fell into and that was you were constantly clicking the sprint button to try and move just a little more. Getting shot made your character stutter, and slow making some jumps impossible. The ranking system here was a complete joke. Ordnance drops were probably the coolest new feature to game. Communicating with the game master of war games to summon in a weapon, but the implementation was beyond flawed. Half the time you got the choice between a Needler, Sprint boost, or grenades. The balancing on the drops was non existent, and they made any strategy of map control non existent since you didn’t have to defend power weapon spots.
Now we’re in Halo 5. For once, (yes even with the ‘op’ autos) every single weapon has a use. The weapon balancing in Arena (Not Warzone) is incredibly balanced. I don’t run by a weapon and never think I don’t need it. Power weapon positioning is key. The ranking system is back in a truly competitive light. Arena, ranked, based games everyone starts out with the same setup, there are no hidden powers you don’t know about and it is going back to what Halo used to be, melee, nades, and shooting. I don’t have to worry about if someone has armor lock, or dash, or bubble, or some other thing that is hidden by a lack of clarity. Halo 5 you can clearly see the weapons they have, you know what the weapons can do. They have a thruster, but so do you. Halo 5 is the closest thing to ‘Halo’ we have had in almost a decade, and people are complaining that this isn’t Halo? Why? Because there is Sprint? Because there are thrusters? Because there is clambering? No good game is going to stay good if it doesn’t evolve. Sprinting is almost required in games by now, and Halo 5 I’m not constantly mashing it trying to take a few faster steps. I have to decide if I’m going to sacrifice my vulnerability for speed. Clambering? Opens up a whole new dimension of map creation that doesn’t have to cater to the one small group of people who decided to use a jetpack. Thrusters? This is probably the coolest thing because it allows for a truly skilled player to out maneuver and out shoot. Everyone has access to the same tools, and it just depends on how you use those tools.
Stop this “This isn’t Halo” because you’re hung up on nostalgia. Nostalgia doesn’t make something perfect.