The last time I played Halo 5 was exactly a year ago, March 24th 2017. After that I shelved it and started playing a bunch of other games. Now I decided to play it again to see what’s changed in the time I’d been gone.
First thing I noticed was the crazy amount of space I needed for the game. Within the last year, my first Xbox One broke (my aunt’s cat is an -Yoink-) so I got a new Xbox One S. Since it wasn’t a priority, I put off installing Halo 5. When I did earlier this week, installing the entire game (disc and update) required 90 GB of space. It took about two days to download everything. Remember the good old days when you could just plug in the cartridge and start playing right away?
Anyway, the only thing I really knew going in is that 343 had released some sandbox updates to tweak some weapons and vehicles and had some rotating playlists. So I went over to social and played Quickplay, Super Fiesta, Big Team Battle, and Halo 3 Classic. Here are my thoughts on what I’ve experienced.
I’ve noticed that they tweaked the BR and AR. The BR has a more loose burst that feels more like Halo 2 and 3 (before this change it felt like it fired all 3 bullets at the exact same time) and it isn’t pinpoint accurate like it used to be. It doesn’t feel like the ultimate, designed-to-be-better-than-everything-else weapon that it once was. But at the same time it’s still quite useful, and I’m happy with these changes. The AR’s tightened crosshairs is an interesting change. I don’t remember if it was better or worse than the magnum a year ago, but now I feel like I can use both interchangeably. The AR is slightly better for close range, while the pistol is more suited for long range, and I could comfortably use either for mid range. I’ve also noticed they tweaked the Banshee. When I got into a BTB match, I expected it to be bomb, flip, bomb, flip, bomb, flip, etc. But I noticed there’s a cooldown on those flips now, and man, that change was long overdue. Speaking of which, there seem to be a lot more BTB maps now. That’s always a plus in my book.
While the game feels better thanks to these changes, it isn’t all great. The unpolished UI is still the same, and there are even more ‘hiccups’ with the REQ system. There are also two things that really bothered me before and are still unchanged: The radar, and Scorpion tanks. The radar’s range is too short to be useful. Said it a million times already. Moving on… The Scorpion tank still feels like a detriment to my gameplay when it try to use it. It’s like, I have a powerful cannon, but I also have a ball and chain attached to my ankle and a big red arrow over my head. Other players can still hijack my tank and instantly kill me so easily it’s stupid, and they can usually do so before I can score a single kill because, again, the radar range is pitiful. I can’t get away from them because the Scorpion is just ridiculously slow, even by tank standards. According to lore, the Halo 5 tank is lighter than any other Scorpion used in the past. I assume it’s lighter because they removed the engine. But the really annoying part is, when I do see someone coming, I mash the button to get out of the tank before they board me, but the controls just go completely catatonic and I can’t get out. This happens before I even get boarded, and it’s annoying as hell.
One last thing that still irks me is that 343 still insists on having sniper rifles on basically every single map, even if it means shoehorning it into maps where it just doesn’t fit. Didn’t they dial back the BR so that players would be less likely to camp and in turn more likely to go out into open spaces? If so, why did they keep all the snipers around? It seems like in most BTB maps there are two snipers, which restricts movement even more than the old BR ever could have. It certainly doesn’t help that the Sniper Rifle has aim assist stickier than marshmallow fluff. It’s so crazy that during my last match someone on the other team killed everyone on my team multiple times in a row (though this is partially because of the spawn system screwing up and putting us right in his sights.) But that’s not even the craziest part. The aim assist on Sniper rifles is so strong, even I managed to get a few kills with it, and I’m the worst sniper in the world.
But overall, I’m really enjoying Halo 5 for what it is right now. I’m liking all the changes, I just wish there could be a few more, and more actions taken to make players feel more powerful as individuals, but I’m hoping that 343 will address these issues in their next title.