Having explored the menus, played practice mode and weapon drills, here are my thoughts.
Pros:
- Music is fantastic, a great celebration of old and new.
- Weapons and grenades sound fantastic. Very atmospheric and fit the lore well.
- Movement seems good, and there has never been a better version of sprint in Halo.
- The art style is absolutely perfect, a call back to classic Halo with a sliver of new school to keep things fresh.
- Customization of the armor is kind of a 50/50 situation. I love the level of customization available, but not the method of unlocking armor and colour palate.
- The amount of options for control and interface customization is a fresh first, especially if you consider it’s a dedicated cross platform games.
Cons:
- Time to kill is definitely way too fast for a halo game. It takes away from the core mechanics that make a halo game. There needs to be more time for reaction and clever tactics.
- Headshot damage multiplayers on non precision weapons need to go. The only weapons that should have such modifiers are the sniper(s) and battle riffle(s) and maybe the sidekick when shields are dropped.
- There needs to be some rebalancing of the weapons available, the sidekick feels like it might be slightly too powerful. When everyone stops camping the power weapons it seems to devolve into a game of “Who can shoot faster and more accurately with the sidekick.” Speaking of power weapons, the commando seems like it is just slightly too weak. Other balancing may be needed but I can’t place it yet.
- I’m not really a fan of the menu’s themselves. They seem at time underwhelming in originality, and sometimes lacking in clarity ease. I’ve had an issue with the store front that was partly my fault, partly design choice. There is a bit of a redundant layer in the customize of characters. I believe the Armour Hall and the Body and AI section could be combined into one section.
- I absolutely hate the idea of a battlepass and I will never support their implementation, but I know that won’t be changing. It disrupts customization, diminishes the sense of pride in accomplishment, inspires greed from the developers and laziness in the community.
- The AI character models are kind of underwhelming. When I think of AI, I think of Cortana or Serena. Full bodied and visualized to match the voice. The Geometric shapes feel childish.
I may have more thoughts and opinions down the line as I continue to play.
Con edit:
- Radar needs to indicate elevation.
- In game HUD just doesn’t feel right. It wasn’t broken, and it didn’t need fixing. Go back to the classic layout.
- Weak or lack of active melee lunge. Didn’t realize how much that would effect gameplay. It’s usually just an expected mechanic in Halo.
Pro edit:
- The medals and their call outs are really well delivered. They seemed over delivered in Halo 5, but it’s perfect this time around.