I just want to start off by saying that I love Halo 5 and I think it’s a lot better than any other competitive console fps in the current market. However, this game has done little to blow me away. It’s just better than the rest of console fps games, in my opinion. And that’s not good enough. I want to list a few suggestions that I believe would help Halo retain its unique identity.
Aesthetics:
While Halo 5 looks great, it’s mostly during the campaign. Multiplayer maps look decent unless they’re forged. Forge maps are ugly, there’s no other way to say it. Spartans have the potential to look great, just like the playable characters in the campaign, but they don’t. I get that Red vs Blue is just how it is and that the bright colors are used for balancing reasons but it really creates a gap between the Campaign and the Multiplayer that I will get into shortly.
The Spartan HUD’s that are exclusive to the campaign show huge promise and honestly, they should be in multiplayer. People might retaliate and say that they block too much of the screen but I beg to differ.
You get the picture. These HUDs provide something that I haven’t seen any other game do. Imagine if we could have even just 20 different helmets with unique HUDs? All usable in multiplayer. It would be a challenge but hey, these are industry veterans being funded by Microsoft. They can make it work. It would go such a long way with the fans and newcomers alike. A few people (elitists most likely) would be nervous and petition 343 to remove it but I can pretty much guarantee you that everyone would get used to it and Halo would be better off with it.
A picture like this totally represents the look and feel of Halo. This is where all the money, time, effort and even creativity went. As far as visuals go. This is the part of the game that looks amazing and new. Not this. That looks boring in comparison. I’m not even talking about the enemies on the screen or whatever. I’m talking about the vibe that those pictures give you. If someone came into the room and saw you playing and it looked like that first pic they’d probably be astonished and interested in what’s happening. “Whoah! What’s all that going on? What game is this?” You know what game this is, it’s freakin Halo and it looks badass. Not some clear-cut, playing-it-safe crap that you’d expect from other modern shooters.
Campaign and Multiplayer look too different, in my opinion. The gap is immense and incredibly obvious. These are all just opinions but I don’t like it.
Spartan Abilities:
I love the concept but they need some work. The Halo fanbase was thrown into the deep end with their introduction. For better or for worse. When you go from only being able to Jog, jump and crouch - to being able to sprint, thrust, clamber, slide and tackle, you’re bound to stir the pot a bit. If you ask me, we need some ability trimming. Halo was always limited in it’s options but everything that you could do really mattered. That’s not to say that Spartan Charge or Slide are completely useless but they don’t really add to the core of Halo’s gameplay as much. We need more (or less, depending on who you ask) abilities that affect the game in a bigger way. Like thruster and clamber. We shouldn’t have abilities that are to be used once in a blue moon like sliding. It’s stuff like that that has the die-hard fans irked.
