Words that never been uttered out my mouth, never been typed out with sincerity, or even thought of on my end. And yet, every time I go out of my way to criticize Halo from a gameplay standpoint, those very words are put in my (and many others) mouth and shoved done my throat, without an ounce of truth backing it up.
I like thruster. It’s omni-directional and useful in and outside combat. Tweak it to be primarily a momentum changer instead of a pseudo launch pad, add a visual indication that it’s on a cool down and this mechanic has a lot of potential.
I like clamber. Give me the ability to shoot while doing it and don’t create jumps that force me to use it. Or make it an interactive environmental trait instead of a base player trait so we don’t have to create vertically massive maps to account for flow.
I like stabilize. I mostly opt out of it because I prefer to maintain my momentum, but if you could apply it without forcing me to zoom in, we could see some interesting applications.
I like the ADS animation. But I prefer to not have my view blocked by my gun, and it technically breaks canon (Smart-Link was an explanation of Halo’s zoom mechanic, not the other way around). Don’t give accuracy bonuses to weapons when they zoom (AR, SMG, Saw), otherwise it’s not just a cosmetic change like people claim. Doing that turns it into a full blown Aim Down Sights mechanic and is inappropriate for Halo’s gameplay.
Then the topic of removing sprint is brought up, and you would very easily forget everything I said above for your convenience, and proceed to shove those very words in the title down my throat without a care in the world. I’d like to speak for myself and much of the anti-sprint crowd when I say that I’m very tired of this.
There’s not a single intelligent Halo fan that doesn’t want the game to evolve or improve.
Every argument I’ve ever heard for pro-sprint is shallow and easy to shut down. I’ve yet to hear a single argument over the years that proves otherwise. Here, I’ll go through a small list of every argument I’ve heard so far.
1. It lets me go fast.
Fast base movement speed achieves this, and is superior in every way.
2. I get to locations faster.
Believe it or not, regardless or whatever mechanics are in place, it’s up to the map designers how fast you reach a location. If the map designers want you take 10 seconds to reach a location, you’re going to take 10 seconds. And since they’re bound to maintaining Halo’s original “pace” for the sake of balance, you’re not getting anywhere faster than you were in the past, except this time you are in fact required to sprint for the entire duration.
3. It’s a risk/reward.
You can justify ANYTHING with this argument. For example, Armor lock. Sacrifice all mobility for temporary invincibility and a charged EMP blast. Dump all your remaining bullets into one powerful shot at the cost of a massive reload detriment, etc.
4. It’s realistic and immersive.
Games can achieve immersion regardless of game mechanics, realism or even genre. The developers ability to fully immerse the player is entirely up to how well they can keep you from being reminded you are in fact holding a controller; that you’re just a person playing a game. Solid game design achieves this above all else.
5. Adapt or die.
I’m 5 years and 3 games in, all of which I’ve played extensively. I’ve adapted. Doesn’t mean I can’t criticize such a shallow mechanic. If anything, the person who can’t seem to handle going 1 speed for more than 5 seconds has an adaptability problem, not me.
6. Every other shooter has it.
There is no such thing as universal mechanics. Just because other shooters have said mechanic, doesn’t mean it would benefit Halo’s gameplay. Games should prioritize maintaining their gameplay, improve what they have and build off of it in a purely additive manner. If you have to significantly change something about your game to apply a foreign mechanic, you’re doing something wrong.
7. It’s modern.
There’s no such thing as outdated mechanics either. Calling it modern is pretty far fetched considering sprint as a mechanic has existed in gaming in some way, shape or form for decades. Even the original Doom had a omni-directional sprint mechanic, despite it being a largely redundant system. In fact, Halo could apply a similar system as long as we give it traits that didn’t make it redundant, but you won’t entertain that notion because it doesn’t help your argument. The only thing that’s modern about sprint is that it’s just the current trend.
8. It’s balanced now.
So is Team Rockets or Shotty Snipers. Balance doesn’t suddenly make something interesting or deep. If anything, the fact we now have a button mapped to our controller that stops our shields (A signature Halo system that inspired recharging health in dozens of games since CE) from recharging is only a sad testament to how far we are willing to go to make this mechanic work. I wonder what we’ll destroy next for the sake of unimaginative balance?
9. The old games feel slow.
If you think that now, and didn’t then when you played them back when, is that the game’s fault, or yours?
10. It’s not going anywhere.
Duel wielding was a widely popular mechanic, where is it? Reticule bloom, custom classes, armor abilities, ordinance drops are all absent. if anything, you should be thanking the people who criticized those things despite similar opposition. Sprint will always be in this position.
The absolutely mind boggling part is that I could list off all the issues (this list isn’t even complete) sprint has brought, and your immediate conclusion is I want a carbon copy of H1/2/3.
How’s this sound?
Take Halo 3, improve the gunplay and add Halo 5 weaponry with a toned down time to kill. Remove equipment and apply Thruster, clamber, stablize and Smart-link with the tweaks I suggested. Slide can be applied to the crouch button by holding it down while applying forward momentum. Spartan charge could act more like Ground pound, requiring a charge up with limited mobility. Increase the base movement speed to sprint-like values and Boom! A modern day Halo with improvements across the board without all the negative attributes of sprint. Map design could have more variety,combat and mobility wouldn’t be separate, and the overall pace of the game would actually increase.
But then again, i don’t want Halo to evolve in a meaningful way because I don’t like universal sprint.
just a passionate subject for everyone.