I’ll start by saying I am an avid halo lover and have been playing since the very first Halo. Hell, I wouldn’t be playing video games today if it wasn’t for Halo. I’ve played every single Halo title (even Wars which I liked) and am very competitive when it comes to the multiplayer aspect across all titles, so with the experience with the previous titles I would hope my opinions would have some leeway in helping Halo 5 to be as perfect as it can.
When I first played the beta my experience wasn’t exactly a positive one due to there being a few changes that I had to adapt to (thruster, clamber, quicker pace, etc.) but once I had the time to put in quite a few hours into the beta I was having a blast. I’m mainly going to focus on the negative aspects I saw that hopefully will be tweaked to perfection.
- Weapons
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I am happy the assault rifle is now a force to be reckoned with and feels like it has a purpose now, although I think the body-shots vs. head shots with the AR should be tweaked. I had many moments where I would die instantly as my shields drop or other times my health would just dwindle down until death. With the AR I believe this leads to a bit of inconsistency due to the fact this is not a precision weapon. The inconsistency is my biggest issue with many different games and to my hopes will be tweaked. Hopefully their fix they mentioned makes it more consistent.
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Sniper Rifles for me seem to be just as easy to use in H2A which I’m not too particular of due the lessening in the skill gap for that weapon. This may be just my opinion but I seem to have a much easier time using it in H2A and Halo 5. Also kind of bothers me that this Halo is indeed a faster paced game and cutting my peripheral on the sniper scope seems to me that it would slow down that pace.
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BR/DMR I am happy with the BR at it’s current state maybe lessen the bullet magnetism to make it more skilled weapon of choice wouldn’t bother me at all. As for the DMR, I am not a fan of due to my peripheral vision being cut in half due to the size of the ADS scope but as for it’s power it is a good counter part for the BR.
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Pistol My biggest issue with this gun is the aesthetics of the ADS scope. I know I’m not the only one but the scope itself is very distracting with the little blooms around the actually aiming dot.
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Swords I think the swords are pretty balanced, however, I think having ADS for the swords make it incredibly over powered once mastered. I’ve pulled off some crazy long sword lunges using this feature and I believe it should be tweaked or removed.
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Hydra Seems like a cool weapon and could be deadly once mastered but I do think the tracking should be more aggressive since this is a power weapon. If you come across anyone who knows how to use their thruster pack can avoid almost all of your shots. Maybe a faster rate of fire or more aggressive tracking to tweak this weapon IMO. Hopefully the fix they are speaking of makes it more powerful.
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Rocket Don’t have many issues with the rocket but my biggest if that the actual projectile from the rocket can be destroyed. Yes this has been in most of the halo games but not as dramatic and what I mean by it being destroyed is I have had a few occurrences where my rocket has literally been shot out of the air by a BR or AR. Not a fan of my power weapon being countered so easily.
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Grenades Don’t have much to say about grenades. Since they are tweaking the grenades to have a less chance of being shot out of the air I can agree on. Due to me playing MCC with the classic Halos has made me appreciate the grenade indicator returning. Plasmas now have a bigger kill box within its explosion radius which I can’t complain.
- Shields
- I am happy that they added the feature of shields not recharging while the player is sprinting which reduces the amount of people deciding to run away. Nothing much to say here.
- Spartan Chatter
- I found this be quite annoying at first which I later would just drown out during gameplay. Hearing my fellow Spartans telling me to reload my weapon after killing another would get awfully annoying. I am glad they are giving us the option to remove it but I believe it should just be taken out entirely or just reduce the amount of occurrences rather than hearing it every 10 seconds. Also happy they are tweaking this.
- Power Weapon Spawns
- I am really hoping they are going to remove the timer from each power weapon spawning due to people just camping the spawns. This to me just lessens the skill gap of being aware of the timing in your game.
- Melee/Assassinations
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Melee I don’t really have any issues with the normal melee.
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Shoulder Charge I really just want this to be removed. I really don’t see any purpose for it besides it just simply “looks cool”. The time it takes for you to recover from the entire melee gives you less of an advantage against your opponent. I would rather just do my normal melee and pop them in the head as I’ve done in all the other Halos. Not only that but it would not net me an assassination as well but killing them instead (bummer).
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Assassinations Probably my biggest pet peeve in the Beta were the assassinations. In past Halo games, assassinations have been my absolute favorite feature to add and I do my complete and utter best to get as many of them as I can. I am a person who also absolutely despises recycled content. The assassinations in the Beta are the exact same copy and pasted from Halo 4 with different sound effects. I am hoping that they were place holders but if not I will be VERY disappointed.
- Thruster Pack/Clamber
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I actually enjoy the thruster pack, adds more fluency to the higher paced combat. The thruster was what I only used in Halo 4 so I’m glad it’s more useful in 5.
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Clamber Although this does remove skill jumps which I wasn’t too happy with at first, an option to remove Clamber AND Thruster pack in customs wouldn’t bother me to get that Halo 5 feel with 3’s movement.
- Ranking System
- Not too happy with it, I’d rather see the return of the 1-50. I would encounter semi pros and better and would still kill them without much hassle and later win the game even though I was only Onyx. If they keep the ranking system the same, I hope there will be aesthetic differences in the symbols when seeing grades 1-3 of each rank just for kicks. Just going to have to wait and see the fixes they implement.
- Customization
- Somewhat disappointed that only the head, visor, and (chest?) were the only available options. Hopefully they will add legs and arms as well.
- Post-Game animations
- Not a fan of the bro-fest winning animations. I like to take Spartans as serious warriors rather than a Lambda Chi fratty that just outdrank a brother. I know they said they are reducing this but I would definitely wouldn’t mind some more epic animations.
- Post Beta fixes
- I only have one issue with the fixes they have brought to light. An increase in base movement and strafe speed. I disagree with this “fix”. Halo 5 already has a faster pace that I had to adapt to compared to the older titles and what I gather is now they want to make it even faster which I am nervous about. The only thing I can hope for is that the changes are so incredibly minute that I won’t even be able to notice.
I had a lot of fun with the beta and really hope my opinions will help mold that perfect Halo experience. As I said above, these are all just my own individual thoughts on what I believe should be worked on. What are your thoughts?