Let me start by saying that halo 3 was the first game I played online, however I have played every one, and have spent the most time in halo reach online. Halo 4 did not keep my interest after a few months because of its “simple” nature. So as you can see I have a history and this isn’t my first halo.
I am writing this after playing my first 10 games of the beta so I feel I have a good first imprisons.
I will start off with the stuff that could be fixed with an option in the menus.
• The medals are too common, there doesn’t need to be a medal for every kill, the point is to reward someone for doing a good feat in a game, and the amount of medals detracts from the overall value of a single medal. A good solution to this will be a slider in the options that will filter out all the “unnecessary” medals and only show the ones that are important i.e. sprees, multi, or objective medals.
• The Spartan callouts are useful in solo play but in a party they can be distracting and using voice is more useful that hearing “power weapons spawn in 30/20/10/5 seconds.” Again a slider to show how much of the callouts you can hear.
• The “kill cam” is just annoying. Even in games where the kill cam is 100 functional it is still annoying because it pulls you out of the game. While playing I want to see the current game. I don’t want to be shown how I die because that is not useful information to the player. If you die the camera should track the person who killed you for a second before you have to spectate. This can help you see where the player is going so when you spawn you can find them and because you could see the direction they are heading and I can see this in real-time not 5 seconds ago after the kill cam is finished. Simple put an option that disables the kill cam so people who want to use it still can.
Now onto the map design.
• I know you want to make this to be the best looking game to show off the systems power but having “realistic” lighting does not mean the best looking and functional game. (http://i.imgur.com/dLfX3VT.png) The motion blur from sprinting, reflections off walls etc. these are not good the look at in game they are distracting. The prophets’ bane with its glow takes up about a third of the screen.(http://www.podtacular.com/wp-content/uploads/Prophets-Bane-1.jpg?w=600) This restricts vision for that part of the screen.
The overall flow of the game. This is about flow being the optimal experience for a game. The perfect balance of skill and challenge. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Challenge_vs_skill.svg/300px-Challenge_vs_skill.svg.png)
• Previous games where all about map control. Players had to remember the locations of weapons to get a head. They had to track the players who had the power weapons and get control of them. If they went missing you would have to find it before the other team. This was one of the reasons I lost interest in 4 because there were no weapon locations. This removed the challenge of remembering all the different maps with their weapons and spawn timers. This is the same in halo 5, the spawn points are good but it still doesn’t require you to remember the map because the locations and timers are shown on your HUD. This is making the game go another direction with less skill required.
• In a normal game of 4v4 every time you enter combat with another player it becomes a 1v1 fight between you and another player. This is why the game has been describes as “30 seconds of fun” because the time to kill is higher than other games you get these 1v1 fights. There are other variables to consider like other players jumping in and helping you or the person has a better weapon. But this is how previous games worked is was good it was “30 seconds of fun.” In halo 5 this is different because of sprint the player can start a fight then realise they can win and then run away. This detracts from the skill of a 1v1 fight if a player can just run away back there team so it becomes 2v1 or 3v1 etc. jumping into help if different from running away to get help.
• “Bleedthrough” (http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/3448104/0/0) the name given to damage that isn’t absorbed by the shield as it breaks. This is just generally annoying as it means a player can steal you kill by a small burst of an AR when shields are low and it decreases the time to kill. It also messes with the melee and DRM/BR combos. I don’t know if this is in halo 5 but do not include it.
• Stuff like “smart-scope”, thrust, mantle and ground pound are all welcome additions. They give it a new twist and I can’t think of anything that disrupts the flow. These are my opinions but some people don’t like them and that is understandable.
General advice
• Do not ignore your exciting audience for an audience that will leave you when the next big thing comes out.
• It is obvious you are trying to get the audience that like modern military shooters. This is obvious when you look at the new design of the rocket launcher. (http://www.halopedia.org/images/1/10/Halo5_Rocket.png) Before it looked like something out of sci-fi. It was 2 barrelled and rotated very iconic. The new design looks like it could be out of any generic military shooter. (SMAW | Battlefield Wiki | Fandom)
This is my first impressions from after the first 10 games. Because of these Issues with the flow I got bored after the first 6 or so. I will return to try some of the new modes in the coming weeks. Thank you for your time I hope you found some use out of this.