I feel like I should start off by saying that I have always felt that Reach is the closest Bungie ever got to recreating the masterpiece that was Halo 1, while at the same time it feels more different than any previous game. I think that it primarily due to bloom, and AA’s that slow down gameplay. I love that you are at least talking about bloom, hate that you want to leave it at 85%. Even without playing it. I realize how ignorant that sounds, but I just flat out hate the crap out of bloom. I’ve played halo for almost 10 years and it makes it feel like Halo no longer has solid, accurate, reliable weapons, and it feels as though the game is so slow its “broken” (shouldn’t have passed testing, let alone a MP BETA). It feels random and slow and generally unsatisfying. I know 5-10 people personally who didn’t like Reach when the beta game out, and still don’t, and don’t like when I try to get them to play it. The arguments have already all been made a thousand times on many forums. Bungie never spoke a word about it, but there has been more debate maybe only over the pistol. Like I said, I LOVE that you guys are addressing it, I LOVE that you are trying to recreate Halo 1 MP in Reach, but bloom…ugh.
A Halo game needs:
-precision weapons that don’t incorporate some kind of skill nerfing feature(like bloom and spread)
-power ups that don’t STOP gameplay(bubble shield, AL),
-hit detection that works(Reach’s is fine)
-enough reticle and bullet magnetism to help, but not overwhelm natural skill(like H1)
Reach is a bittersweet Halo game. It has great weapons, great maps(community’s included), extra features galore, solid as it gets matchmaking, and hit detection that borders on perfection while seeming to be a bit on the forgiving side more than the BS side. But, right at the core of all these great mechanics, lies the hinge that is the actual gameplay. That hinge is about broken, with bloom and AA’s and all the changes to gameplay those brought to “balance” them out. Tighten that bloom back down to 0 and clean the clunky AA’s out and put in some fresh new OS and Invis pickups and that hinge will swing open softly and squeak free and reveal the forsaken land of Halo.