This has been an opinion of mine that I have been trying to put into words for a long time. I’m going to talk about change and you are free to leave your 2 cents if you wish.
Change is a double-edged sword. No matter how it is implemented, it will not please everybody. That’s just its nature. Change is a necessary step to keep things new, especially in this case for video games. If it wasn’t for change, Halo would never have existed, neither would Mario or even the systems we play on.
The outlook that some people have is that they want things to get better without it really changing. That’s asking the impossible. Toying with numbers to increase health/damage of enemies in a game is a sure way to increase difficulty, but it’s not really changing anything. Nothing new is being experienced by the player. It’s just a hand turning an imaginary dial up or down. If an enemy were to gain access to new abilities, fight more intelligently and be able to put up the same amount of fight with no stat upgrades, then that would provide a new experience. This example relates to ideas like increasing base movement speed instead of implementing a separate mechanic to deal with the issue properly. It’s not really changing anything, it’s just that dial getting turned up again.
If Halo 5 was ever to sell you the illusion of being a Spartan, or even appearing next-gen, it couldn’t have been done by just “cranking the dial to get new results”. How else could we have game-altering things like Thruster without changing the game? Some people here are desperate for Halo to not change, even if they can’t see it. Most people tear stuff like Smart Scope apart because of one reason and one reason only. Not because it makes the AR overpowered or because it breaks the lore. It’s because of the way it looks. If it looked like the classic zoom but still functioned like SS then it wouldn’t gather nearly as much hate. People say they aren’t against change but then turn around and say “It’s just unnecessary.” That tells me enough. It tells me that you just don’t like change. All change is “unnecessary”. Better graphics aren’t necessary, better sound isn’t needed, yet you expect those to come with every game don’t you? The whole unnecessary argument means nothing to me, personally, because of those reasons.
People have also accepted that base movement speed buffs would be a better alternative to sprint. It’s always great to see people coming up with ideas but this also has me scratching my head. For one, Halo is played with a controller, not a mouse and keyboard. This makes fast movement more difficult to control and as a result, console shooters don’t have fast movement speeds without some sort of sprint mechanic. Secondly, people believe it would alleviate the issue of traversing large maps on foot. Here’s the problem with that- If you move as fast as sprint with just base movement speed, then how are you going to handle going through small spaces like buildings or hallways? You would be going through maps like Lockout at sprinting speed and then that’s when you’d start seeing maps that are truly stretched out, way more than you think they are now with sprint. Make it based off of how long you hold the left stick forward to gain momentum? Then you’re going to need a landing strip just to start moving faster. Say goodbye to going faster in tight spaces.
As far as change goes with weapons, most people here are against it because they hold the BR on a pedestal. People aren’t willing to part with the ‘skill’ and balance that the BR provides because “It’s Halo.” Let me reword that: People here are holding their ego above all else and disguising it as “It’s just fair” or “It’s the only gun that takes skill”. People don’t want you to have fun with other weapons that aren’t the BR or a power weapon because "I**t doesn’t take as much skill". Fun and variety mean little to these people because it would ruin their parade of owning people with just one gun that they’ve had about 10 years to get good with.
“It’s what Halo has always been about and if you don’t like it, you must not like Halo.” That’s a common one to see on the forums. It’s a solid attempt at refuting anything else because you can’t really argue with it. Yeah, the weapon sandbox has been dominated by one gun up until Halo 5, we’re all well aware. When other guns come into the spotlight for once, they are hated. None of the weapons in the Halo 5 beta ruined the BR’s parade, in fact the BR was still just as good as it’s always been.
So lets get this straight- The BR still functions exactly as it always has and is still the most sought after weapon, but now that a BR user can actually get killed by an AR or SMG, they scream and cry for nerfs? It’s because they are stuck in their old ways of thinking the BR is the only gun worth having in Halo. They want to own you with a BR 24/7 because that’s what Halo is to them. They can’t handle the fact that something else is useful for once, it ruins their day because now they have to learn how to play the game again. Which, according to them, is something a veteran shouldn’t have to do. “I’m better than this noob at Halo! Why is he killing me!?” Because you haven’t gotten better at Halo 5, you’re just better than him at the other Halo games.
Back to sprint, it’s the same problem that people are having with the weapons. Noobs have an easier time getting away with sprint in the game, this is true. But if you are a better player then you’ll win anyways. Isn’t that what matters? The better team will always beat the team full of noobs, sprint won’t change that. People label this change as bad just because noobs have an easier time. It’s not inherently bad in any way. The game just plays differently. “He can just run away from a fight!” Yep, he sure can and you know what? That doesn’t always bode well for him and it’s not even possible to successfully run away 100% of the time.
“It turns Halo into a game of cat and mouse between 2 players as soon as he runs away.” Yeah, it does if you chase him. Does this really just ruin the whole experience for you? What next? Are you gonna stop playing Gears of War because someone can dodge your shots by rolling even though he was just in your sights a second earlier? Same thing applies to thrusters. Are you going to blame 343’s design choices again when someone dodges your plasma grenade by thrusting? You could argue that it’s being used as a crutch and that you deserved that sticky kill but you didn’t take into account that he could have dodged and now that’s on you, not the game.
So I’ll ask this. How do you expect Halo to stay new and exciting without things like Spartan Abilities? I’m not saying that this is the only way to change Halo, but what solutions are you going to offer that are better? Increased movement speed isn’t going to work, as great as it might sound on paper. How would you balance the weapons? What is this community’s idea of changing Halo? So far, all you’ve done is criticize what we have now while offering nothing much in return. You think 343 are a bunch of idiots? Well then why don’t you give it a go? Show us how Halo can change while remaining the Xbox’s flagship series. Halo has to cater to a massive audience, not just the competitive crowd.
“Why can’t I sprint in this game? Oh, because for some reason we have to clear every design decision with the competitive crowd first. What makes them more important than us? Just because I like Campaign more?”
I’m off to bed now though. I will check back in here once I wake up. Good Morning to any readers!