Radar is very much useless now at 18m. It has basically turned Halo into a game where the person who sees the other first will get the kill. In most areas in these maps you have a room larger than the 18m radar so before you can even see the other person coming up on you, a grenade is either under your feet, or they are charging at you for a melee. Lets not forget that they also made the assault rifle over powered especially at mid-range which, more than likely, you’ll always be at, especially within that 18m. Regardless of how good my aim is, unless the other player is far below my skill level, I will have no time to react to the threat. And for me, most of the time it isn’t just one enemy around that corner, it’s two or even three. With the radar as is I can only focus on this one person in my face and have no idea about the next before, again, it is too late. If I wanted to play a snap shooter I’d play a Call of Duty game where you can kill someone across the map with a assault rifle just as you pretty much can here (which I have done plenty of times to above average players). It basically makes any weapon like the BR or DMR useless on most maps unless you stay far back or camp, or just pick off kills from weakened enemies. More than likely with this radar range I will be almost dead before I get three shots off which at that point, even if I hit all three, I’d be dead before I kill him with a four shot anyway, so the ‘skill’ argument isn’t valid here. This radar has made this a ‘who sees who first’ game where even if you have the best map placement, you can get killed by a guy you didn’t even see coming regardless of how ‘skilled’ or ‘aware’ you are. You can be aware of that enemy around this corner, but I bet you won’t be of the guy in the next room due to short radar range, but I bet he knows where you are after that firefight, at which point if you are equally skilled, get ready for that respawn.
Now I will say the only point where skill would come to play is either you both have the same weapon (AR, BR, DMR, Pistol) in which case a good strafe and smart grenade/map awareness will come into play where if the person sees you first you still can win. But more than likely either a grenade will be next to you before you see that person, or you’ll have a precision weapon while the guy AR charges you or beats you down for the easy 2x beat down kill or beat down and little spray with the AR or SMG for the kill, rendering skill useless. At least in Halo 3 for example, I can be ready to take on two or more enemies even after being weakened because I can prepare for a good nade placement or map placement if I need too while the other player can also plan on how to kill me when he/she hits that area and at that point, weapon selection wouldn’t be as worrisome as now where if you see the guy on the radar it’s already too late since with AR start you can kill me at mid-range without much effort anymore.
If skilled players want to claim ‘takes more skill’ then they should just make a hardcore playlist like they did in MCC so we can play there. But if I play in a playlist where radar is active, it should be useful, period. Because right now it caters to crouchers, campers, and people who play halo like it’s call of duty and bone rush you will AR’s, SMG’s, Shotguns and beat downs and takes much of the use of the BR and DMR out of the picture unless everyone is using one. Radar should be an aspect of the game, not a useless HUD piece. If you don’t like/use radar than don’t complain, especially when they make a hardcore playlist.
By the way, this is coming from someone who played in HAlo 3 MLG playlists, Team Hardcore in MCC, and Hardcore playlists in Halo 4, so I can play with it off if I needed to. But with AR’s that care full auto BR’s seeming, and maps that turn into a grenade and beat down fest, a radar with shows them when they are almost in your face is pointless and is a poor tactic to promote tactical play at best. You know what did that? No radar.
It boils down to if you have a radar, at least make it a useful and tactical part of the game and not a indicator for when someone is about to beat you down or finish you off after their nade blew up from under you. It’s a lot more tactical and skilled to be able to plan your movements and counters and have the time to exicute them then to jerk and shoot. Again if I wanted to play Call of Duty, I would have bought BLOPS 3.