This thread is an attempt to offer an objective analysis of the Halo 5 beta, free of the raging “343i sucks” and “Halo is dead” rhetoric and conversely more substantive than “Halo 5 is amazing!”
These are the few strengths and weaknesses to the beta that stood out most to me. I know others may share contradictory views, or have other criticisms of the game that I did not address positively or negatively, but I wanted to expand on the responses I submitted to 343i earlier today for their Halo 5 beta feedback, and echo my thoughts on this forum to try and start a civilized conversation.
I’ll quickly admit my personal bias within the Halo franchise, because I think it affects my approach to the Halo games and my interpretation of the beta:
A.) I’ve played all Halo games starting with CE on original Xbox. CE & Halo 2 were during my high school & college days, and I have the fondest memories of these “classic Halo arena shooters” that rightfully pioneered FPS on consoles. Halo 3 multiplayer was a juggernaut, and I’ve played ODST, Reach, 4, and even RTS (Halo Wars) to death.
B.) I have NOT played other FPS games in recent decades, and my only other formative FPS experiences were back in the N-64 days of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. In other words, not COD or Battlefield of recent.
C.) Despite hating Reach & Halo 4’s “multiplayer evolution,” I played the hell out of the campaigns and even multiplayer anyways. Individually, they were fun multiplayer experiences for me, though armor abilities (armor lock, active camo, no de-scope, sprint, ordnance. . .) broke true competitive experiences and pushed the Halo franchise away from its true niche – as an arena shooter.
All this being said, I am truly excited for Halo multiplayer again. The Halo 5 beta feels to me to be what Halo 4 should have been. Here’s why:
1.) We are back to equal weapon starts. Map control & knowledge and timing of weapon placements are paramount to gaining an edge on the map.
2.) Ordnance drops and load-outs are gone, allowing equal starts and placing a better emphasis on gun battles again.
3.) Competitive Skill Ranking is back. Nothing is more boring than winning match after match 50 to 10-20, and nothing is more frustrating than getting clobbered match after match 10-20 to 50. I’ve experienced both sides of this, since I would place myself as an above average (but not excellent) FPS player (current gold ranking on slayer in Halo 5).
4.) With rifle spamming (mostly) gone (I’ll discuss my opinion on this more in a minute), teams aren’t simply sitting back and engaging only at range now. There is a ton of run-and-gun, coordinated flanking and aggressive mid- and close-range combat that I felt was severely lacking in Halo 4 (since loadouts had enabled people to start with a 4-shot BR in addition to a light rifle, carbine, or DMR).
5.) While sprint is still here, they have attempted to balance it by instituting a shield-recharge penalty. I suspect this will still be a bigger annoyance on big team battles & large maps, but in smaller 4-vs-4 slayer formats, most of the time I have witnessed people try and sprint away from a losing engagement, they die anyways. That being said, I would personally prefer to have sprint entirely gone, and instead the thruster pack would be the universal tool for the occasional ‘extra speed burst’ to be employed.
6.) Thruster pack is in my opinion the one strong armor ability developed in Halo 4, and making it a universal feature in Halo 5 meshes well with the game. It does not break gameplay, and adds fun new maneuvers and tactics to gun battles and grenade bouncing around tight corners, etc. Spartan charge and ground pound seem to me to be nothing more than gimmicks, only really being effective against people (aka, lower skill types and novices) who do not emphasize mobility in Halo multiplayer to begin with. Continuous team movement is enough to avoid these, but in the effect an opponent does make an honest attempt at ground pound or charge, thruster pack is effective to dodge. Missing a ground pound and charge leaves the player exposed and is more than enough of a deterrent, in my opinion, to let these “armor abilities” to be self-balancing.
7.) Scope-out is back!
8.) From playing the game, it feels completely evident to me that 343i hired Halo pros to be a part of the developing team. Recent Halo installments lacked quality maps, whereas Halo 2 set the bar for amazing maps (Midship, Lockout, Ascension, etc.). The Midship re-boots, plus Empire, Crossfire, and Trench are wonderful. Sightlines are great, lots of verticality and cover to offer a ton of variety in run-and-gun or at range engagement. Knowing that there is not only a Halo 5 beta, but also a 343i pro team helping with development, makes me feel much more confident that by the time Halo 5 is released, weapon tuning and map design will be very balanced and competitive.
The Halo 5 beta feels to me to play faster than any other previous Halo game, and does NOT feel like “classic Halo.” However, it still feels like a solid arena multiplayer and importantly players need to coordinate extremely well to win. This game is shaping up to be an ultimate team shooter, and should get the Halo franchise back on the right track after Reach, H4, and now the MCC multiplayer debacles. Here are a few important tweaks to the Halo 5 beta that could turn Halo 5 from an average Halo game (better than Reach & H4, worse than 1, 2, & 3/ODST) into a shooter of the year.
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