Yes, I apologize but it is going to be one of those topics, one I’m sure you’ve seen a few times. A less-than-happy topic, but with a dash of optimism along the way to keep your chin up. I had the idea to write this after spending a lot of time today playing Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo 5. I was playing all of the older games today after several months straight of playing Halo 5 (so obviously, I don’t hate the game) and I found myself to be having the most fun on the Halo 2 Anniversary playlist on the MCC. I’m not completely decided as to why that was (although I will explore it here) but there was something about the blend of the old Halo with modern flair that seemed to balance nostalgia, fairness and excitement just right.
Basically, I’ll start by saying that Halo 5 is almost a bloody good game (in my opinion!). I find the weapon sandbox to work well enough, with weapons that are fun to use and a sandbox that feels good being fast and large-scale. I like that I can sprint (more on that soon) and that I can climb. Spartan Abilities I could do without, I don’t think a knockback/charge or the groundpound works well in a competitive arena. Now obviously, compared to Halo 3 for example (I’ll exclude Reach because that felt sort of half and half between the original trilogy and the 343 games in terms of gameplay) Halo 5 is very very big, and very very fast. I quite like this. Nothing against Halo 3 of course, it is and always will be my favourite game. But it does feel good to be able to move, and to experience a larger-scale battle. However, I feel that it adds a lot of uncertainty to the gunfights, something that Halo in the past has done a better job at avoiding. And to void this, 343 add features such as disabling sprint when you are being shot. I actually am not a big fan of this. Halo 5 is way bigger than other Halo titles, and you need to sprint to keep up with everybody, so therefore the overall speed of the game is of course higher, but you get pinged and suddenly you’re a snail compared to everyone else, which I do not believe to be fair. If anything, slow the player down when they’re being shot, but still give them at least a chance of finding cover or getting round the corner, while still giving the advantage to the person who fired first. Stopping someone dead in their tracks just bogs down the high speed gameplay.
Okay, so I said my piece about the gameplay, and you might find that surprisingly short, compared to most rants. That’s because, as I said, I don’t mind Halo 5’s base gameplay. I feel that the issues are negligible to mild compared to the genuine issues plaguing this game. Because Halo 5 is a good game that was disastrously managed These issues are listed here:
Lack of Arena support:
This is a combination of several issues. Firstly, every update heavily favours Warzone, which in a soulless, moneygrubbing way makes sense because Warzone makes 343i and Microsoft money. However, this has led to the negligence of classic Halo game modes, some of which have been in the series fifteen years (Oddball) and yet have been forgotten about, and others (Race, for example) were added five years ago. Both of the aforementioned game modes are massive hits, and fans love them. So what do fans get? More storage space taken up by another version of INDOMITABLE armour with diamonds painted all over it, as well as REQ’s for a frankly terribly-implemented game mode. True, we got Action Sack which is rather fun (but more FUN game modes for that, please) but the actual competitive side of Halo, as well as the classics that have made this series unique, have been forgotten in place of empty customization, MORE Warzone content (because several hundred different REQ’s isn’t enough) and plenty more.
Badly-damaged community:
This is the result of a number of poor decisions and unaddressed problems. First off, no fileshare. This is simply inexcusable. The Halo community NEEDS this, it needs to be able to share ideas, explore customization of the Halo sandbox to experiment and find more enjoyable ways to play this game, and to bring back some form of unity in the community. Because let’s be honest, the community has grown quite toxic around this game. People are divided between the classic Halo gameplay and the new features implemented in Halo 5. People are divided over sprint or no sprint (And unfortunately, different playlists for each mode wont fix anything, it’ll just divide people further and create an even more toxic “us vs them” mentality), people are divided over EVERYTHING. And this brings me to the next point. There is NO discussion between 343 and the community. The Halo community has outlined all of these clear, glaring issues, but 343 has totally ignored them. The only fix I’ve seen was the pisspoor rebalancing of Firefight, which still did almost nothing. The Halo community voted several times to remove sprint, and yet sprint is still there. Basically, you have no say in the game series that you have followed for fifteen years, you just have to suck it up and deal with the problems and the unwanted changes or hit the road.
Non-existent UI:
This annoys me probably more than anything else. You cannot see who you are playing with pre-game, you cannot choose which gamemode or map you can play, you cannot view anybody’s fileshares pre-game, and it renders any customization inert, because besides the split-second where you see someone charge at you and kill you, you don’t take notice of anyone’s armour. But what annoys me even more, is that the MCC’s UI was FAR BETTER. 343 took several steps forward and then just walked all the way back to square one with Halo 5. MCC had so much great customization (barring armour but that’s understandable seeing as it’s four games squeezed in there), all of which you had to earn. You could CHOOSE what YOU wanted to play. Halo 5 had emblems you could get by random chance, and no choice as to what you’ll play.
Really, I believe the best UI would be a mix of Reach’s and the MCC’s. With the level of content of the MCC with the accessibility and sleek design of Reach’s. With pre-game fileshare, of course.
Okay, back to sprint and Halo 2 Anniversary. Basically, I think H2A is fantastic, I really really enjoy it. I think that this should be the basis for the next Halo game, with some changes of course. First off, remove duel-wield. Sorry, but it damages the sandbox by either rendering a single-handed weapon (such as an SMG) ineffective compared to others and then suddenly you pick up two and you’re bossing the sandbox. Single weapons are better for balance. Halo 5’s SMG is great, that can work fine in H2A-style gameplay. Second, I’d say add sprint, but reduce its mobility. Perhaps you turn slower when sprinting, and when you are shot your sprint is stopped. This doesn’t work great in Halo 5’s massive and fast-paced gameplay, but a slower, more duel-oriented game would benefit more from stopping a player and forcing them to duel.
Basically, add a UI that looks like Reach and has the customization of the MCC, while keeping the gun mechanics of Halo 5 (but reduce the range to better suit a smaller-scale, slower paced game and focus on H2A for the core gameplay. Remove Spartan abilities but keep sprint and climbing. This is all my opinion of course, so do feel free to tear this post apart if you disagree. After all, I’d hate to pull a 343i and turn a blind eye to the constructive criticisms of my ideas.