After really digging in to this game this past week and allowing some of the new car smell to wear off, I’d like to give some constructive criticism for the multiplayer beta. I’m 34 years old and have been playing Halo since the beginning, so I’d like to think my insights carry some weight. I don’t game as much as I did in my younger days obviously (family, job, adulting, etc, will do that), but I play enough to still be decent at games.
Battle pass issues have already been addressed by 343, so I’m going to leave that out. I also want to put out there that even though I’ve got some things really grinding my gears with this game, overall I love it. Been waiting ever since Halo 3 for this game. Anyways, here’s my biggest issues.
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The changes they made to controller aiming. This is probably my biggest gripe, and it’s a serious one. I don’t know what 343 changed, but this isn’t working. Ever since the first tech preview I’ve been watching/reading guides on how to get aiming to feel better. What was wrong with how Halo 2/3 on the MCC aims? No matter what I do, I will always feel like I’m dragging my crosshairs through water. It causes my hands to tense up so bad they actually get sore after a short time. Mind you no other game does that to me. Even at highest sensitivity, I still can’t turn a 180 nearly as fast as a M&K player. That is a MAJOR disadvantage when it comes to cqc. And while the overall turn speed still feels so slow at highest sense, it’s somehow too fast to keep crosshairs on someone. I’m not sure if decreased aim assist is to blame for that though. Either way, the aiming system in this game for controller is the worst in the series. It doesn’t fit this game. Please correct it.
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Player collision. I know there are probably just as many people for as there are against it. I’m in the camp of people that think player collision should have stayed and never been touched. I could live with no team killing, as I’ve already seen the benefits of that. However, it has NEVER bothered me having people bump in to me when playing a shooter. But oh my gosh, has it ever been enraging that some clueless teammates with absolutely zero situational awareness will walk through my body as I’m trying to fire a rocket launcher, shotgun, sniper, etc. I have this problem dang near every match. With player collision, players had to step around to the side of you if they wanted in on whatever you were shooting at. Now they can just walk through you and plant themselves so you’re sniffing the back of their helmet. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Player collision should never have been touched. Please enable player collision again.
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Radar range. I know they said they’re going to bump up radar range for BTB, but I don’t think their proposed range buff will be enough. I try my best not to play BTB outside of doing challenges anymore, and it’s mostly because of radar and the next issue in the list. I heard it said that longer radar range caused people to retreat and not engage initially. You know what effect it has on me? I’m afraid to move on any map. People can traverse maps so quickly in this game, and there’s so many different ways to be attacked from. TTK is so quick in this BTB too because of the number of players team shooting. There’s no possibly way to keep monitoring 360 degrees when trying to move throughout the map, and that is supposed to be what radar is for. To give you a chance to ready yourself for the fight. It feels gross to even say this, but if feels like CoD to me. If someone spots me first, I’m dead. These maps are too big, spacious, and have too many ways to move around while having a radar that has FAR to short of range. 4v4 can get away with smaller radar range because of the way the maps are designed. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing a small radar boost in 4v4 as well. But BTB needs the radar boost, which it sounds like 343 is ready to implement.
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Vehicles. To but it bluntly, they feel like they’re made out of paper. They are a death sentence many times. They are so weak and are destroyed so very quickly. And there are far too many counters to them on the map. I don’t touch vehicles now for the most part. Not that i could even if I wanted to, seeing as every vehicle drop is met with 6-8 of my teammates and usually 2-3 enemies clambering for that one vehicle that just ends up dieing 20 secs later anyways. Which, by the way makes doing your vehicle focused challenges far too frustrating. Also, I have yet to drive a scorpion because of the way vehicles are deployed in this game. Anyways, like I said, I don’t touch vehicles right now. And I think something is wrong with your BTB if people don’t want to use vehicles.
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Playlists. I understand it’s a beta. That being said, I hope the “full release” sees us being able to play specific game types. I’ve had enough with the objective matches with people who don’t play objective and just want to slay. I love both. But when people who don’t love the same game types are forced to play in them together, they make for poor matches. Let those who just want to slay, slay. And let those who want to mix it up with objectives have the choice to do so.
Ok, let’s throw a few positives out there.
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I LOVE the weapon balance in this game. Every gun had its strengths it seems, with the exception of the plasma pistol. If there are no plans to adjust that gun, I’d say don’t waste a weapon slot on the map with it. And I dig the weapon spawn system as well as the ordinance drops in BTB.
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The maps are amazing and a blast to play on.
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I was sceptical, but I’m on board with the new target ID system. I can honestly say I don’t find myself hesitating or mistaking friend from foe. RvB is nostalgic, but I love that my Spartan can look exactly as I want him to. And the armor design in this game is pretty darn good too.
I hope 343 reads this. I hope they take feedback like this seriously. I also hope they know I’m rooting for them. I hope they know they’ve given me back a piece of my childhood with this game, and I can’t wait to get even more of it back with the campaign in a couple weeks : )