As far as the game goes, all I know about gaming is that if all the weapons so far are useful and rewarding within their selective roles, then they are balanced pretty well. I know that I often cycle through every weapon on the map depending on the context of the situation. If I’m close quarters, I’ll trade my AR for an SMG and a Battle Rifle, if there’s going to be some support I’ll keep my AR and my DMR or Sniper Rifle. More often than not though, I REALLY like that SMG heheheh, it feels good to fire.
I think 343i might be going in an okay direction for multiplayer, but that’s only 50% of the game and I’m still worried about campaign/story content. Especially after that train-wreck Halo-4 with Halo-Skinned Call of Duty multiplayer. (Calls ins, Loadouts, dynamic spawning, jesus christ it was the least “Halo” of all the games, even Reach was 10x better and people HATED on Reach [undeserved])In any case I’ll keep on track with the Beta for its duration, but so far so good.
The maps feel nice, the animations and movement feel nice, the ebb & flow of combat is nice. Weapons feel good and perform very well in their logical sectors, grenades feel a bit too powerful, spartan abilities like Ground Pound and Spartan Charge feel a little underwhelming, especially since they are very situational and require extreme precision to pull off. (I’ve been slightly off the exact rear of opponents with Spartan Charge, only to miss entirely or send them flying forward with only their shields dropped.)
The Lethal AOE radius of Ground Pound might need extended by maybe half-again as it currently is to be more rewarding. The Aim Stabilizer (Hovering in place while in mid-air) has amazing synergy with automatic weapons like the SMG, but may also give a very welcome boost to sniper rifles as well at long range.Right now we only have close quarters maps for the beta though, and we can’t even begin to imagine how vehicles and much more open areas will do to change how gameplay works. In this sense, I think AR’s and SMG’s are actually doing extremely well for the types of maps we are being allowed to play.
Feel free to flame, troll, agree or disagree, but fair warning that those who do flame or troll will be reported and dealt with, I will not feed you and you will remain bored and possibly end up banned/suspended.
I’ll possibly update this thread with further review as the Beta develops and progresses.