Way back before the Halo 5 beta was up I posted a thread about how rad it would be if we could choose armor varients with battle damage. Low and behold when I first jumped in the beta I was met with the Mark VI Gen1 Scarred set. Early on this was my favorite hunk of metal to throw on my spartan almost exclusively because it felt good a developer listened to a piece of input as little as it was.
Now it’s been a few years and I realized I never showed any appreciation to 343 for that. So I thought it’d be cool if we mentioned some of the things we liked that they did in Halo. If not for anything but to spread a little positivity in the world
I appreciate 343i bringing back classic armors (although they weren’t fully accurate). But the one thing I really liked was finally being able to wear Mark IV.
There are a lot of things that 343 has done wrong in the halo series. Halo 5 was a disaster at the beginning and we all know that, however there things in halo 5 i appreciate that 343i has done great with.
- Banshees
Although I wasn’t a big fan of the banshee to begin with in halo 5 only because i thought that it was just still the same as it was in halo 4 with its slow flips and what nots. After playing banshee battle custom games, watching splices tips to using the banshee, and using the ultra version back in warzone when there wasn’t any temple variant, i realized that giving it shields to combat the phaeton, oni scorpions, rockets, lasers, and mantis and making the flips a lot more effective to dodge was a lot better. I enjoy using the banshees in halo 5 as they’re one of the vehicles that take skill to operate efficiently. My favorite version of the Banshees is the Temple Banshee because of the ability to shoot and boost making hit and run or chasing enemies more fun. Another reason is that unlike the Ultra Banshee, the Temple feels like it has more speed and agility to it which helps to make better escapes.
- Forge
The forge in this game is absolutely superior to any of the past halo games and I have a feeling that it will keep getting better in future halo games after Halo 6 if any. Halo 5’s forge allows you so many options that run from, the in-depth lighting, textures, grouping/creating prefabs and having an object count instead of a money budget meaning i can finally forge a map with nothing but a bunch of kill balls. The creations that the forge/custom games community has given us is completely outstanding. Games including Reaper, Duck Hunt, Survive the (all of them they’re fun to play), Vehicle fiesta, Night of the mantis, puzzle maps, Remake of old halo maps, drag race maps, and of course raid maps. The only thing I have forged are raid maps because it the one fun thing that military clan kids do and that i enjoy. The amount of objects available to us allows cool and amazingly themed maps or fun little gamemodes.
- Req weapons/vehicles
Now i know that warzone wasn’t exactly stellar when it was first released and probably still isn’t to this day, but if there is one thing that enjoy playing warzone is being able to use a variety of req weapons/vehicles. Although some weapons or vehicles seem a bit underrated or op, I thought that it was a cool idea to bring a new variation of a weapon or vehicle whether it was making a weapon shoot differently and doing more damage or just simply giving a vehicle extra armor. To me Halo 5 is unique as seeing how no other halo had any variety to it’s vehicles and weapons, just a simple sniper or rocket launcher. The req weapons and vehicles also help in terms of making fun custom games.
I started writing a list of things I appreciate 343 doing, but then I realized I was mostly writing things that they fixed. So I’ll start by saying I’m happy about all of the improvements they made to Halo 5 after it was launched. For example, I very much appreciate how they made req energy come back faster in Warzone Firefight (I’m not sure whether this change also applied to normal Warzone). I’m not sure what happened, but one day I decided to play Firefight and suddenly my req energy was reloading much faster. It used to take a whole minute for one level to recharge, which was kind of ridiculous. I’m very happy they changed that.
And I appreciate how they made it so emblems don’t count as part of the two permanent unlocks from silver and gold packs anymore. And how they gave us full control over our emblem colors, because at first, you could only choose from preset color combinations. I could go on, but my general point is that 343 has improved Halo 5 a lot over the years, which is nice.
Other than that, here are some things 343 should get props for:
- Pressing A to switch seats in vehicles - The Voices of War announcer pack (except for the glitch it causes sometimes). Yabda the Merciless has made Halo 5 a lot more fun for me. - The Grunt Goblin - Pop Culture weapon skins - How much they’ve improved Forge. Forge is what got me into Halo in the first place, so I’m happy to see it getting so much attention. - Confirming split-screen for future Halo titles. It shows they’re willing to learn from their mistakes, at least.
I appreciate them for the continuation of Halo
I appreciate most they’ve done with Halo TBH, and, even if I’m the only one who feels this way, I believe that Halo 4 and 5 are worthy continuations of our beloved video game series. So thankyou for everything you’ve done for Halo 343, both with the games and the expanded universe <3
Thanks for:
Halo 4 - The story and BTB were among the best in the series and Spartan Ops had a handful of really good missions. The armor customization (while a downgrade from Reach) was pretty good.
MCC - CE and H2 remasters were great and the MP is fun when working properly. I’m still butt-hurt about the ODST for free cutoff date though.
Halo 5 - The weapon balance in Arena is great, the armor abilities are fun to use and mix up the game play without killing the Halo feel (for me anyway), and the REQ variants of weapons and vehicles (aside from redundant ones with different paint) are all pretty cool and are a nice addition. It’s a shame they’re tied to an RNG MT loot system but at least the grind isn’t too unreasonable to unlock everything.
HW2 - idc
Waypoint - It was awesome when all the Halo universe videos were a thing. I miss that stuff.
Being able to switch seats in vehicles is great. I’d award them a dollar for that if I had one.
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> Being able to switch seats in vehicles is great. I’d award them a dollar for that if I had one.
Some of the weapons basic game features they’ve added into Halo 5 have been really great, and I think don’t quite get the credit they deserve. I’m talking about seat switching, customs browser, etc, as well as my beloved Hydra launcher
Before Halo 4, I made a topic suggesting cinematic intros or outros for Firefight; eventually it gets implemented into Spartan Ops. I felt like they heard me on that one!
I remember how much a silenced magnum was requested for H5; such a sweet soundin’ gun for perfect kills! Glad they made good on that!
I love how they added different weapon variants, it make halo 4 weapons look like trash. Nornfang 
Thank you for spartan charge and ground pound. As someone who loves CQC, I really appreciate it!
A good thread! There are so many things about Halo 5 that are great ideas and when it works it makes it for me one of the best games I’ve played.
I like the REQs, the Spartan abilities, assassinations, customisations, weapon and vehicle variants and generally the gameplay. I also like that in Campaign you can employ some control over you team by getting them to pick up certain weapons, take certain positions and target particular enemies.
Overall quite an immersive game when it works. Something for everyone really.