Hey [They] Listen!

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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Like many of you, I was skeptical of 343i abilities after Halo 4 and the MCC. We had every right to be. Halo 4 lost its identity as it overreacted to the rise of COD and the MCC was a love letter written with a broken pen. However, we would be hard pressed to not acknowledge their talent, love, and respect for the franchise after watching the ‘Sprint’ vidocs. But the thing that tells us they truly care about Halo and its future is they really listen to their fans. They read the forums, take criticism, separate the noise from the reasonable, and make changes that fit without compromising their vision.

Example: They held a public beta almost a year before release and then digested the feedback and acted accordingly. A lot has changed since the beta, here’s a reminder… They listen!

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/how-fans-helped-shape-the-multiplayer-of-halo-5-guardians

This week’s post by Bravo indicates they are still listening. The removal for Orion (one of the worst designed MP in Halo ever) and the addition of more maps that should have been included from day one (Midship/ truth FFA)

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/weekend-playlist-updates-and-additions

Furthermore, they are currently looking into diagonal aiming issue. This is a real issue, I have 2 new Elite controls, 1 Scuf, and 2 regular X1 controllers—all the same, the diagonal acceleration is off. Yes, they listen!

Knowing that, if this does get read by someone at 343i, it won’t be falling on deaf ears, I will now offer my thoughts, praises, criticism, and suggestions.

Campaign [Mild Spoilers]

Game play: This is by far the best designed Halo campaign from start to finish. The level design is masterfully done flowing from one skirmish to the next. Each level exposes the player to a variety of weapons, old and new, and set up opportunities to use the Spartan abilities in ways that are cool and satisfying. Shoulder charging through a vent to find a flank position or clambering up crates to line up the perfect ground pound are exciting and well scripted. Everything is fantastic expect the Boss battles.

Later, we’re given multiple choices on how to tackle problems. Such as fighting straight up, or doing a side objective that puts defensive turrets back online. Probably my favorite example of this is during the Reunion Mission which you can either approach part of a cave in a fathom or on foot. The things I did miss are the wide open mission such as (Halo and the Silent Cartographer) which allows you to do multiple objectives in any order. Granted, there is one such missions near the end of the game, but it still feels guided and on rails in comparison. Also, no slower paced sniper levels that set the mood for what’s to come.

AI: The enemy AI is great, your fire team AI leaves a lot to be desired. Simply some of the worst and most frustrating AI I’ve experienced in recent memory. Do yourself a favor and play with a group of friends. If you’re like me, I stopped giving commands and reviving them after the 2nd or 3rd mission. I’m currently playing legendary (about ½ done) with one other person and we found it better to send them out in the open to die instead of getting in the way.

Suggestions: Incorporate cloud AI with friend driven machine learning, similar to what Forza does with drivatars or Killer Instinct does with the Shadow Lab. AI teammates that learn based on how you and your friends play. This would have led to a more immersive experience and believability that each team trained together.

If this is not possible, give an option to either leave them in the pelican or turn off friendly collision. I’ve lost count of how many times the AI runs in front of me or stand in my back pocket preventing movement.

Art Direction: Halo 5 has the most diverse environments of any Halo game. It took me almost 8 hours to run through the campaign. 2-3 hours was spent simply exploring, looking around and enjoying the beautiful locations. Each faction from the universe (Human, Covenant, Prometheans) have a distinct feel/look and their architecture design fully support it. In pass Halo games Human buildings lacked imagination, being grounded to closely in the present.

Human buildings: Straight/ rigid/ clean/ functional design/ rounded edges
Covenant buildings: Organic/ colorful/ eccentric
Prometheans buildings: Angular/ strong diagonals/ defy gravity

In both anniversary games all three factions’ architecture received a facelift and as a result over designed. Halo 5 simplified things visually and maintains the mood and persona that each faction represents through well executed Art Direction. Of course holding at 60fps and large scale environments came at a cost. There is some alarming LOD popping in large scale battles, low res textures and shadow work. By far, the thing I found the most jarring is when the animation system scales back from 60 to 30 fps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gQMulb6T2o

Sound Design: We all miss Marty a little less because of Kazuma Jinnouchi. Amazing work.

Story: Halo has always taken a less is more approach to storytelling. Just enough to tie things together from mission to mission while giving context to your actions. I’ve read countless complaints about the story lacking direction and connection unless you’ve immersed yourself in the extended universe. There is plenty here to piece things together, but at the same time, there are plenty of missed opportunities to further character development. During the campaign there are 2-3 non combat missions that do absolutely nothing other than count as a mission. They are under developed and contain no meaningful gameplay.

Suggestions: The non combat mission could have be something more. Imagine a stealth mission, sneaking around eavesdropping to retrieve intal. Or speaking with Dr. Halsey or Laskey actually did something, such as upgraded your armor or weapons to tie things into warzone’s progression system. It really feels like more was suppose to happen during those moments.

And then there’s Locke…
Suggestion: Let locke be human. Buck is the only one that questions what is right and wrong and seems to really struggle with the idea doing what is right vs. following orders. Latter, Vale has a conversation with Locke about a bounty he had to take out the Arbiter, but changed his mind… way isn’t this given more time? Why didn’t the Master Chief fight all four members of fire team Osios? This would have been a great time for Buck to ‘throw’ the fight and perhaps let the Master Chief know what he believes.

Halo 5 is a lot like recent Jame Bond films. A lot of action all the time, forgetting the downtime in between is usually far more interesting than the explosive firefights and chases.

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Multiplayer:

Matchmaking: Servers and Parties
It worked day one and still works! You have no idea how happy this made me. After 6 months of the MCC not working and my rank resting 4-5 times, broken parties, uneven teams, p2p matchmaking, etc. etc. I quit playing Halo. Waited for Halo 5 and hoped that it would work, and it does!

The Good: Matchmaking is fairly fast, I don’t think I’ve waited longer than 30-45 sec for a match, usually a match is found in under 15 seconds. It also, does a decent job matching equally ranked or skilled players.

The Bad: No party restrictions, small or large. Meaning a team of randoms can and will play against a team of 3 or 4. Most people don’t talk during matchmaking when playing solo.

The Ugly: While we all certainly appreciate the fast match times, the dedicated servers, and the rock solid 60 fps. However, when the population is low in a geographical region, there is apparently less servers available nearby. So to keep matchmaking times low, you can frequently get put on a foreign server. Frankie has already stated 343i have no intentions of displaying the live population data for each playlist or multiplayer in general. I’m personally ok with waiting a few minutes to get a game with a fair connection where players don’t eat full clips of magnum or AR.

It’s very apparent when playing on a server that is far away. The games are in slow motion, players are teleporting and rubber banding constantly. In head to head battles you can unload a clip of magnum, BR, DRM and do no damage only to hear or see someone fire two or three shots and be rewarded a perfect kill. Typically these server problems are when playing very late at night or very early in the morning.

Suggestion: Give us an option to see what server we are connected to and limit which servers or regions we want to play in. Those that want fast match times, do nothing. Those that want a good connection wait a little longer. Hopefully this option is possible and 343i is willing to thoughtfully explore this idea and others, so everyone can have a great experience. Americans don’t like playing on EU servers and vice versa. I’ve even played a few games on the AU servers from the western USA… that was interesting :wink:

Sandbox: Guns
By far the most balanced sandbox ever. Every weapon is useful and worth picking up. Each has a specific purpose and range. As for AR and magnum starts. I like it, but would like to see a few changes to the magnum if it’s going to be main utility weapon. The magnum is good, the BR is great. The DMR has the most consistent unscoped 5 shot and the light rife is amazing!

Suggestion: Based on player movement speed, the magnum should kill slightly faster. Not a lot, maybe .1 or .2 seconds faster. Also increase the clip size from 12 to 15, enabling you to get a triple kill if you land all your shots. Finally, increase the number of shots to kill to body from 2 to 3. A matter of fact, I feel that all precision weapons should take 1 more body shot to kill. BR is 4 head shots or 6 body (suggestion 7), etc.

Kill Times: These are true kill times calculated by capturing footage in custom game and edited them in Upload Studio. Clipping down to the first shot fired to receiving an ‘X’ and hearing the pop sound (death). In game KT are much slower due to awareness (response time), target acquisition and optimal rate of fire while landing ever bullet. Live game kill times on a fair server are at least .5 slower do to player response time.

Magnum (5x): 1.2 sec
BR (4x): 1.15 sec
DMR (5x): 1.85 sec
Carbine (7x): 1.1 sec
Light Rifle (scope, 3x): 1.2 sec
Light Rifle (unscoped, 4x): 1.1 sec
AR 10M (full auto): 1.25 sec
AR10M (semi auto): 2.0 sec
SMG 10M (full auto): 1.05 sec
SMG 10M (semi auto): 2.0 sec
Sniper firing rate: 1 sec

Movement and Abilities:
The movement and abilities do add a lot of options to the battlefield. The balance of shields recharging and sprinting is well thought out. A matter of fact as you progress up the ranks you’ll probably find yourself sprinting less. The thruster pack adds an interesting dynamic and mind game to head to head battles and mobility to avoid incoming nades. It seems that it draws some inspiration for the old dodge strafe in Quake and UT. Seeing someone trying to close the gap with a shotgun or sword can be terrifying!

Suggestions: Decrease the thrusting distance and allow players to thrust every 1.5-2.0 secs and shot while thrusting. Also, this is an FPS, why do I go into 3rd person view when shoulder charging or ground pounding? Please give us an option to always stay in 1st person view.

Radar: I don’t mind it as is, however I prefer Destiny’s solution that only shows roughly where the enemy is located. At higher level play radar only further encourages camping and crouch walking.

Suggestion: Remove radar from HCS playlist. Communication is key in top level play, no radar needed. I do think radar could work in other playlist with a few tweaks. Increase radar to 20M, Radar pings every 5 sec. revealing the position of everyone on the map within 25M. Again, radar encourages camping.

Team Arena: It might as well be called Trails of Osios. Currently there are no team size restrictions. A team of randoms can be matched up against a party of 3 or 4. Also if you do find people you want to party up with, it requires backing out and re-launching the playlist. Whatever happened to Halo 2’s press ‘Y’ to party up? You stayed in and automatically became a team.

Suggestion: Set small and large party sizes, or have a Team Arena Machineries, which allows players to meet other players by playing solo with game chat required. Could be a fun social playlist.

Maps:
Halo 1-3 each had a variety of arena maps that stood the test of time. Halo 5 arena maps are mostly hits. Each is built around an idea, something that was seemly lacking in both Reach and H4 Map design. To paraphrase Max Max Hobermen, “Each map must be fun, fair, balanced and support the sandbox, focusing on 1 or 2 game modes, one of which must be team slayer”. I’ve evaluated each map based on establish level design practices. If you’re not familiar with them, click the links below.

Level Design guilds in mostly pictures:

http://www.farcry2.cz/czech_menu/ke_stazeni/mapy-download/Benova-bible-mapy.pdf

Coliseum: Superior design with lovely contrast between the metals and organics. The fact that it looks like the Giant’s Causeway makes it all the better (IMO). FYI, if you ever have a chance to go to the Giant’s Causeway, do it, one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. The map feels like a better version of Midship. Rockets tower= pink and the sniper = Carb side.
Best gametype: Flag

Fathom: Compact and deliberate. Fast paced action with great movement options to set up flanks. A lot of skilled jumps. Also, it’s one of the few maps that have a dynamic element that doesn’t inhibited gameplay or adds randomness. If you didn’t know, the platforms with red lights can be shot, lowering them for 5 sec. opening up LOS.
Best gametype: Flag

Empire: Like fathom, compact and deliberate. I prefer the beta weapon layout with sniper outside and camo at the shotgun spawns.
Best gametype: Flag, strongholds

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Edan: The first of the remixes. Edan is a symmetrical map with asymmetrical parts. And that’s where the problem lays. The catwalks and connecting stair all look, feel, and play awkwardly. It’s like they tried extra hard to make the current assets work and not move the bases. Along the catwalks there are multiple paper thin walls added for cover-- this was the best thing the art team could come up with?
Best gametype: Strongholds

Rig and Plaza: Both excellent asymmetrical maps. I currently prefer the Rig over plaza for strongholds. On Plaza, the bottom capture point is way too big. I also, prefer the crossfire action that happens on Rig from BR base to Basement. Plaza design does sets up some epic ground pounds.
Best gametypes: Strongholds

Truth: This is one of those maps where the art team won a lot of battles over design. Watch the sprint vidocs from season 1, where they talk about their design process. This map was used to showcase H5 MP Visuals. As a result too many compromises have been made in the layout; specially carbine and middle. The bubbles on carbine have been removed allowing players to stand on the ledges and fall back into cover. If you wanted that vantage point in H2 you had to fully commit to the position. I do like the addition of the lift, however, the amount of cover in middle carbine is way too much. Less cover, means, you must make a decision to push. Top mid, pink, and carbine have become a stalling points, instead of intersection of quick decision making. Top mid should not be a power position, risk vs reward. Furthermore, not having the sword top mid is just weird. By simply removing the energy shields, staying top mid would be much more dangerous. The windows are not needed. You can pro jump to top mid from B2. Being able to jump top mid with flag? You should have to toss it to a teammate. Set up, control, teamwork.
Best gametype: Flag, FFA

Regret: I prefer it to Truth and I regret nothing. It simplifies the paths and thickens up the geo. While top mid has ‘more’ cover than Truth, all paths lead there and most parts of the map have a safe vantage point to put shots on someone roaming top mid.
Best gametypes: FFA

Pegasus: A suspended level that isn’t really suspended. Not the worst designed map, but it’s definitely afraid to being suspended. Players can clamber if they ‘miss’ the jump. This shows that H5 really needs a well-designed suspended map like Lockout or Guardian. I feel that Guardian with a few changes would play much better than Lockout in H5.
Best gametypes: FFA (all others are really bad)

Breakout: I love breakout, the idea, the maps, etc. However, it doesn’t belong in Team Arena. Changing base player traits in a playlist is fundamentally changing the game. There’s a big difference between ‘modes’= player traits and ‘game types’= objectives.

Suggestion: If breakout is to remain in Team Arena, it should fundamentally play the same as every other game type in the playlist. Radar and shields on. There is a reason team swat is not in Team arena, it’s a much different game than traditional slayer.

Warzone: I’ve played a dozen games of warzone so far and I like what 343i is attempting. This seems inspired by what Halo 2 multiplayer (Warfare) was supposed to be. Link to Max Hobermen interview with Ryan Mccaffrey (6:40).

Suggestions: Warzone is certainly ambitious, but cautiously so. It draws inspiration from MOBAs without fully committing to the genre. Incorporating more creep or trash mobs with totems or towers would have been welcomed. The player progression system is simple but not entirely clear to new players, over time your primary weapons become stronger and you get small armor buffs (mods).

However, I would have liked to seesomething via Density with the armor for this mode. Armor that matters. Increasing range to the motion tracker as a helmet perk or increase the speed of reloading for certain weapon type to body armor set. Imagine suiting up in armor that allows you to carry an extra rocket or two, or gives you increase mobility at the cost of longer shield recharge rates. Armor could have played a bigger role in warzone-- given players more incentive to collect new armor sets and coordinate their armor’s abilities with the req. cards they have available.

Suggestions: There are only really 3 maps.

Customization: For the most part all the armor sets look good and are well designed. Even though I prefer a more grittier and darker look. At first glance it seems like a lot of options, but there really isn’t that many. 343i stated there are 175 armor sets and helmets, which is a stretch. I would guess there’s about 60 unique armor sets and helmets. By unique I mean form/ geo. You see, you have to be consistent in your language. You can’t refer to a weapon skin as a skin then refer to piece of armor with a paint job (skin) as a new piece of armor. It’s still the same piece of armor.

On top of that, as you start to fill out your collection, you will quickly notice that multiple armor sets share arms, chest, and legs parts. So the only difference between armor ‘A’ and armor ‘B’ is armor ‘B’ has a different chest piece. Which is probably used in another set with armor ‘C’ legs. I think you get the point. There isn’t anywhere close to 175 unique armor sets. Which makes me ask, why can’t I customize my arms, legs, and chest?

Suggestion: I’ve said it before, just be upfront about it. Don’t try to overstate a claim wrapped up in PR lingo to make something seem to have more value than it does. Your fans will appreciate it and respect the company more. Lastly, more weapons skins, maybe even an online skin creator contest or something. Look at CS:GO, people love their weapon skins.

Req Packs: They’re fun to open and I like collecting things :slight_smile: The quickest way to ‘earn’ them all is to buy all silver first. You will unlock all the commons - rares this way. You will know when all permits unlocks are acquired when you open a pack and you see a RP 1500 card. From here, open only gold.

Suggestions: I’m ok with the randomness, however, I would like to see a few armor sets, skins or something that is skilled based. I’ve spent about $100 on req. packs (I know I’m just encouraging them… and at the same time you’re welcome, people like me is why you’ll get quality DLC for free) and it was probably the hardest time I’ve had spending $100. No bundle deal, 2-5-10 at a time? Selling is even more frustrating, especially if you’re trying to go through a pack in between games (30 sec max). Please add a sell/trash all button.

Updates: I’m looking forward to Ball and Assault game types being added. Also, please allow us the option to place weapon variants on map. I’m also looking forward to forge and seeing all the great maps and content the community provides.

Suggestions: Add a search function for forge maps. A community playlist on forge maps would make an amazing social playlist.

Conclusion: Halo 5 is definitely a step in the right direction. I hope to see you all online soon. Be nice to the Christmas noobs so the servers stay full and the community grows. Give 343i a little time to take the feedback they received and let the Combat Evolve. To me it’s clear that they listen and want to deliver the best Halo game that we want to play. That’s why I took the time over the past month to offer my appreciation and suggestions. Thanks for reading and enjoy the Holidays.

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yesh

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Thank you for your service.

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343 has been doing a great job listening to the halo community.

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I almost disagree with all your points

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There are some things I pile better in halo 5, some things I don’t, still a good game

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I agree; and glad to see some positivity on this forum.

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ehh, Reach did it better. IMO before the fanboys get their -Yoink!- in a twist.

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I always appreciate thought out reviews like this, whether or not I agree with them.

In the case of this one, I do agree with you.

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Great post,

Appreciate the effort.

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Navi approves.

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I respectfully disagree… My comments have often fallen on deaf ears when it comes to 343i and also seem to result in my getting attacked by the rest of the community. Idk, they just really lack the back and forth we got from former Bungie (not current Bungie) and still haven’t delivered on old promises. This is why I disagree.

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I’m really enjoying Halo 5. I just wish they would put the radar back to the way it was and also give us a permanent stand alone CTF playlist and I’ll be golden until Halo 6.

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The forum needs more constructive threads like this.

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Reach will always be the best.

Sure, whatever, people will speak of “bloom” and “armor lock” multiplayer breaking elements, whatever that means. I never had any issues with armor lock and I most certainly don’t even know what Bloom is, other than a process that a flower undergoes. I guess Reach had too many flowers? Huh. As far as armor lock, it was sweet and taken from the books. The Spartan’s suit will lock down when undergoing a tremendous impact…because of this fact, it was always kind of stupid that a Spartan could die by being ran over by a 10mph ghost or wraith and yet Master Chief could use his suit to crash land onto a ship or planet’s surface. This helped to combat vehicles. If armor lock was an issue in MP, they could have just removed its EMP capabilities that discharged shields and allowed for the operator’s shields to recharge slightly faster.

Campaign in Reach was memorable. you land on Reach and you’re questioning the locales, doing a bit of detective work and trying to uncover as to whether or not these attacks were insurrectionists(the war that was going on between humanity at the time) or Covenant. Your screw was badass and you grew to care for them. I’ll never forget that scene with Kat, when I was totally listening to everything she was saying and then all of a sudden it was over…my heart totally dropped and it shocked my wife as well, who was co-oping with me. We were like “WTF?” Rewind a bit. The whole series of missions where we took over Oni Sword Base, stormed the beaches and take over the Longsword facility, launched and rushed into Space. That was amazing. Everything was so realistic and out of a Neil Blomkamp movie. The game had a ton of grit, it was rustic, the color palette was more realistic, the art direction was the best ever and not cartoony, for a change. If only Reach implemented the HudLink system of Halo 5, that would be perfection. Hudlink is another thing taken from the books that I have been waiting to observe in a game. You never experienced it before, just read about how the Spartan and Marine aiming system worked. Reach also had that Halo CE style evening sniping mission, which felt totally covert. At the end of Reach, that final gunfight is chilling, I mean creepy chilling.

From a multiplayer aspect, it was still Halo 3, however…and even used the Halo 3 online system, plus its new abilities and features, such as assassinations and sprinting…and let’s not forget the first-ever ODST style jet packs! However, where Reach really shined was customization – adding tactical vests, tactical helmet and arm accessories, changing individual shoulder armor and even being able to mix them up. having the ability to change individual gear pieces and mixing them up e.g. using MKIV chest piece with one MKIV shoulder pad and one commander shoulder pad, but using assault leggings or something and mixing them with grenadier(or other) knee pads. changing forearm/ gauntlet pieces. More realistic armor colors, removing and adding blast visors from your favorite helmets…etc. In Halo 5 what can you do? Change your helmet and visor and use one type of complete suit of armor. Reach was also the last time we saw an updated Firefight game mode. Halo 5 has absolutely no co-op…at least not outside of campaign, where you cannot use your custom Spartan, can no longer turn on campaign scoring and no longer get campaign commendations and nor can you any longer unlock gear in campaign. So what is the incentive to replay/ co-op campaign, again? Nothing.

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Great post, very constructive and well split into different points. Agree on everything you said!

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But mcc is still broke

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Well… they have yet to comment on Dedicated Europe Servers… so they are not listening.