In a battle, I do not care about how well the enemy can compensate for recoil. They can adjust the reticle down, congratulations. I don’t care. I won’t feel good about outperforming someone else in this element. I will actually feel like the other player got screwed by an unnecessary feature, much like bloom. If recoil is to an introduce some hackneyed concept of skill in aiming, how many of us actually care about proficiency with it in BR battles? It will be an annoyance and a hindrance and nothing more.
Recoil comes with a tradeoff. The time and attention invested in compensating could be spent in aiming precisely. It therefore acts as a limitation, and as an artificial skill barrier, and makes proficiency in aiming proficiency in dealing with this barrier. The kind and range of skill present in fully unrestricted aiming is much better and wider than the kind and range of skill present in being able to move the reticle down.
If it is about fun, who finds it fun? If it is for “realism” (which in a fictional world can always just be explained away if coherence with the real world is detrimental), should it be at the expense of good core mechanics, when we already have analog sensitivity and degradation (not everyone can always afford a new controller), varying hand size, fixed controller schemes, and other hindrances to deal with? What is the purpose of recoil? I think it is there for no good reason at all. None.
If it is minimal, why have it at all?
All it does it make players fight the game instead of fighting each other. The same is true of all the weapon switch and shot delays for power weapons.
Recoil is not a limitation or issue on automatic weapons because they are not precision weapons and are not used as such.
Halo 3 and Reach are filled with limitations, handicaps, and constraints. 343i should scrap negative features that limit and should make positive ones that allow (AA’s are an example despite atrocious implementation).
And as always, I will complain about Halo 3’s and Reach’s acceleration and smoothing settings which render them unplayable at close-mid range and which are a much bigger problem and which should be complained about in every single thread.