Hello Halo fans and possibly 343 developers, with E3 2017 around the corner, it appears the time has come for some Halo 6 speculation. For this discussion, I wanna talk about something that sparked the division of Halo fans since Halo Reach, and something that still divides the Halo community to this day. I am of course talking about the infamous armor abilities. I know everyone has very different opinions on the matter(which means things can get polarizing fast), but don’t let opinions offend you or distract us from the ultimate goal, which is a Halo 6 that everyone can enjoy. That being said, I will now give my opinion on the matter.
I am a classic Halo fan, and believe Bungie’s Halos are some of the greatest games ever made. I would love to see Halo 6 return to Halo’s former glory and get rid of all armor abilities, but I know it probably won’t happen, and who’s to say that it would make Halo 6 any more successful than Halo 5(although I think it would lol). All jokes aside, I do know that a lot of the current Halo 5 fanbase loves the armor abilities and would be quite upset(rightfully so) if they were removed from the next title. Two very different opinions, both still Halo fans. To those who don’t want any change to the Halo 5 armor abilities, know that it is the same thing as me saying that Halo 6 should have no armor abilities like the classics. Room for compromise is severely lacking in both trains of thought. I believe there is a solid middle ground for armor abilities that can please both fans of the classic games, as well as fans of the newer titles. I hope this forum can be a good outlet for those types of suggestions. I will start the discussion off below.
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Sprint was way too overpowered in Halo 4, so they limited sprint in Halo 5 by forcing people to wait before sprinting so their shields can charge. A clever idea that works well, but I think sprint should be further limited. Sprint should have a sprint limit and recharge similar to the way it worked it Halo Reach. Wether or not they keep the shield recharge delay feature is entirely up to them, I am indifferent about that feature. One thing I strongly suggest and hope is that spartan charge is removed. I think players would just rather beat people down while sprinting rather than end the sprint with a dash charge that takes control away from the player. Spartan charge is also not very useful, in most situations it would be much wiser to just beat down the enemy. I like the slide when you crouch while sprinting, although I think it should be shortened a bit.
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Ground Pound needs to go for the same reason spartan charge needs to go. People would rather just assassinate their enemy from up on high. It is also not viable at all in combat and is mostly a gimmick. I also think that they should just turn ground pound into a mechanic of certain weapons such as the gravity hammer.
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ADS(aim down sight) needs to be removed from Halo. I don’t feel as strongly about the other ones as I do for the removal of ADS. ADS is a feature that works very well in a game like Call of Duty, where most of the encounters are fast pace and players last a fraction of a second in gunfire( a very low TTK-time to kill). The shots have to be accurate, because only 3 bullets kill the player in call of duty, and the faster and more accurate you were, the better you were at call of duty. Providing players with the most accuracy possible is a staple of Call of Duty for this reason. However, it is not a staple of Halo and has never been. The unique long TTK of the classic Halo games are what separated Halo from the rest of the popular shooters it competed with. It provided a fresh, creative way for players to weave through combat while thinking about the next move, like a fast pace game of chess. The only guns with zoom in accuracy in the classic Halo games are the semi-automatic guns. Never has there been an automatic gun in Halo that can have their accuracy boosted by zooming. It would always go to helmet zoom with no reticle, and when a shot fired, it would go right back to the normal optics. This was done on purpose by Bungie to add more depth to the weapons and gameplay. Guns in the classic Halo games had varying effective ranges that vastly changed the play style of the person, if they wanted to be at all successful with the weapon they just picked up. This is also because they wanted balance between the guns, and didn’t want close range guns to be effective at medium range. In Halo 5, I can kill someone with an smg at battle rifle range, and while I admit it is satisfying to do so, I would rather the guns be balanced so that I would have to think a little more and find a medium range gun to win the gunfight. Hover is part of the ADS ability and definitely should go as well. I turned off the feature immediately. To me, it seemed like a trick to get noobs to float in the air for easy shots to the head. Too cruel 343, too cruel.
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Dash is a good mechanic, but I think it can be vastly improved upon. It was hard to use for actual shot evasion in Halo 5. A lot of the time I found myself losing a gunfight because I dashed instead of shooting another time, while my opponent just shot me whilst I was dashing. It also never helped when I was trying to evade a vehicle(I would get splattered every time). I think dash should be faster and cover more distance, or have two charges, or be able to shoot while dashing. I would love it if dash was replaced with evade from Halo Reach, or at least something similar. I love the aesthetic of the evade as well, it always looked so sick to me, much better than little blue jets awkwardly throwing a spartan side to side.
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Clamber is a nice mechanic that allows more people to do things that only trick jumping would achieve in the classic games. I think it should be faster, smoother, and the player should be able to shoot while clambering. If it isn’t gonna be faster I don’t wanna see it in the next Halo game.
That’s it I believe, let me know what you guys think.
Please use one of the Halo 6 wishlist threads.