Opinions on the new Halo 5 direction

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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  1. I’ve never played Halo before (except Halo: CE single-player).
  2. I do plan on getting into it, since Starcraft is starting to suck.

I’ve been reading and understanding some of the stuff around Youtube, but not particularly on these forums, and I just wanted to point out that even though Halo is probably meant to be a slow-paced chess-like game (like in Halo 2), I personally think Halo 5 isn’t going in a bad direction at all.

There is still the distinguishing factor of longer kill times and regenerating shields which is different from Call of Duty (which is meant to be faster-paced), but that increase in speed seems to be tuned to a level of refinement and what it amounts to can’t be all that bad.

For instance, it raises the skill ceiling at which players play at, allowing more room for competitive play and less of a time period before the game stagnates and hits a point where it eventually becomes a stalemate once some of the dynamics that allow the game to open up become closed. Thus, it’s essential to point this out 'cause speed and reflexes might just be that ONE distinguishing factor in which players can continue to improve their skill, this is saying that 343 probably hasn’t destroyed the game by adding more speed, but instead has created more room for improvement while still retaining classic elements of Halo.

On the flip side, if they were to continue building upon what Halo 2 used to be, a chess-like slow-paced fps, then it would’ve also gone in an unknown direction. Personally I think that unknown direction would’ve revealed initial interest, but then eventually stagnated to a point where stalemates become inevitable due to everything being too damn slow and people having to hide everywhere behind walls and refusing to peep out. This would classify itself as a stalemate, no?

This is from a design perspective, correct me if i’m wrong. But I think Halo 5 is headed in a good direction with its carefully refined ramped-up in speed direction.

Even in Counter-Strike 1.6, one pro stated their opinion in that eventually he hit a ceiling where he couldn’t improve anymore and transitioned over to poker :smiley: (although on a side note counter-strike had static spawns and not random spawns with deathmatch modes as in franchises like halo or COD).

I personally would like to know opinions also, because it’s interesting, and Starcraft is beginning to suck. You need a good combination of fun and good design direction to keep a game from stagnating: not just one or the other.

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Welcome to community

At this point in time, players are really at a standoff. The ones who don’t want all these new additions fearing it will ruin halo’s core gameplay or map design, and those who say the additions are great and halo needs to evolve or die. At this point I kind of agree with both sides, new additions are great but some don’t belong in halo.

I do like a lot of what halo 5 is doing but it needs some fixing, for example I think sliding is kind of a gimmick until proven otherwise,sprint is eh(very controversial),ground pound needs some tweaking. But other than that it looks really fun.(cant wait for the breakout mode)

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I recommend you to get the MCC so you may get acquainted with the classical titles and also have the chance to play the Halo 5 beta. In that case, you yourself can make up your mind in how exactly this direction may lead the franchise to

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thanks, I have gotten slightly far in the first Halo: CE, but that’s about it.

I guess to sum it up, Halo 5 looks to be headed in a speedy direction, one that I like. Maybe in the future however, they should return to the roots of Halo 2 and try innovating upon the original arena/chess-like formula where the areas you position yourself in and strategy are more important than a speedy fight. It would be two different games, and seemingly both equally good yet different.

I myself, am liking the intro vids to Halo 5 and the speedier direction it’s taking, it looks much less stagnant than the slow-paced Halo 2 vids I’ve seen.

It’s like a fantasy version of COD, because I dislike the realism involved with COD (by all means I think Halo 5 is nothing like COD and still looks like Halo though).

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In all honestly, I’ve been putting up with crappy features since Halo Reach. I’ve just learnt to take the crap these game developers throw at the fans.
Anyway, I’m not fussed with all of these Halo 5 features such as these ridiculous Armor abilities and ground pounding and all. I’ll adapt to them in due time. However the only thing I’m worried about it ADS. Don’t give me that argument about it being cosmetic because we both know it’s a lie. Keep Halo’s traditional controls/zooming and I’m down with whatever they give us.

To be Frank I think the name Smart Scope is 343’s polite way of saying we’ve changed scoping to ADS so that they can have any moron who enjoys FPS’s be able to let their CoD Instincts kick in and let them adapt.

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Welcome to waypoint!

Id suggest getting the MCC before just diving into H5. Knowing about the universe of halo will help with knowing what is going on. Dont worry H1 and 2 will keep it simple and understandable.

As far as the direction of H5 it is in line with arena style games. Halo 1 and 2 killed off the other arena shooters this is why halo stands out as it is the last of its kind. H5 is bringing in some classic arena style play to halo wich is a good thing.

There arent any examples of arena style play recently in games outside of halo i can show you so you can understand whati mean by " arena style play". I suggest going on youtube and looking up Quake and Unreal Tournament for examples of other arena style games.

Notice when you look at these games how simular the play and movement is to H5.