After playing a significant amount of each weekend of the most recent flight on my Xbox series X here are my overall thoughts on how the game could be improved. I’ve been playing the Halo series since Combat Evolved on my PC so I hope these points reach the right people.
Radar - I think the radar range should be extended slightly. I find myself rarely being able to use it tactically like you could in the older Halos. The fast movement combined with the fast TTK results in me rarely using it since fights can be so frequent and surprising. You’re so focused on winning a one on one that by the time another opponent is approaching your position it’s too late to react to it.
Drop Wall - This thing needs to be beefier. You can shoot out one of the panels with just one BR burst and I don’t think it has enough durability. I rarely find myself being out played by it and I’m constantly swapping it out for other equipment pieces. If the individual panels had more health I think this equipment would be much more viable.
Friendly Fire - This needs to be enabled all the time even in social matches. As it stands now, opponents need to take no consideration where they are throwing grenades or shooting rockets. It leads to chaotic messy fights where if you’re being rushed by multiple people they will just spam all of their explosives at you and you’re pretty much screwed with no penalty to their team. Enemy teams should have to consider what weapon to use in case they might betray a teammate resulting in minus points and longer respawn times for themselves. It’s a big part of what makes Halo so special and this needs to be enabled.
Shotguns - The Bulldog and Heatwave are very fun to use but the damage needs to be increased. Having shotguns in the sandbox that are capable of a one hit kill if you are close enough is quintessential Halo and should absolutely be included. As it stands right now I have never been able to pull of a one hit kill with either of them no matter how close I am. It should not take 3 hits to down an opponent within the red reticle range of either of these weapons.
Overall I think this is the best multi-player 343 has made and I’m having a ton of fun with it. I only think a few small tweaks need to be made for this to be one of the top Halos of all time. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk. See yall in December.