Here’s how I see it. Run 'n Gun gameplay is nearly impossible in most shooters in today’s console market. But why is that? Is it because of Sprint? Maybe. But maybe even if sprint wasn’t in the game, Run ‘n Gun still wouldn’t work. Lets take a look at good ol’ Call of Duty. Now, if any of us are familiar with CoD, we’d know that you really can’t hit anything unless you’re aiming down your sights (ADS). Sprinting doesn’t really come into the equation at all in this example. If I couldn’t hit a target while I wasn’t sprinting then what good is removing sprint gonna do? Sometimes you can bend the rules a bit, you can select certain perks and weapons that will allow you some degree of accuracy while hip-firing, but never at all like the accuracy you have in a Halo game.
“Halo has ADS though!” You’re right and you’re wrong. True, Halo 5 does feature a zoom capability that looks remarkably similar to ADS in other games like CoD. But the thing is, Halo 5’s ADS (Smart Scope), really doesn’t function the exact same way as traditional ADS. Automatics can be fired while aiming, so the comparison to ADS in other games isn’t completely false. However, in Halo 5, Smart Scope gives you a total of 0 negative buffs minus the removal of your radar. Lets expand on this a little bit more. In CoD, you get a penalty to movement speed and when you are shot, you can continue to fire while flinching. This promotes you to keep shooting even while you’re getting shot at because, honestly, what other option do you have? Stop aiming so you can hip-fire? Not gonna work. In Halo 5, you move at the exact same speed as if you weren’t even aiming. The flipside is that if you get shot, you instantly descope. The only time you should zoom is if someone is far away, other than that, you will be completely fine without ever having to aim at all. What this means is that while ADS is highly recommended in most situations in CoD (if not completely required), it’s more of an option in Halo and shouldn’t always be used.
In CoD, there’s little to no Run 'n Gun gameplay. It’s mostly run, stop, shoot, repeat. Combat has devolved into sprinting around until you find someone and slowing all of your momentum to nearly a grinding halt, just to be able to shoot properly. The lightning fast kill times work hand in hand with this type of play. There would be no fun doing this while having to put a lot more bullets into the enemy because the outcome is usually already decided by the first player to shoot. There is no combat to be had with slower kill times in CoD. That’s why you see people dropshot, it’s one of the very few things that you can do while in combat that actually affects the combat. Advanced Warfare could have actually been more fun if the kill times were just a tad slower, seeing as everyone has the Exo suit. More combat-oriented abilities lend themselves better to slower kill times while fewer combat-oriented abilities lend themselves better to faster kill times. To provide proof of what I just said, look at Titanfall. Mech vs Mech combat would be absolutely boring and uninteresting if you didn’t have so many different abilities to play with such as smoke screen, shield wall, rocket salvo, homing missiles, you get the idea. There’s no reason for CoD infantry style combat to have those abilities because the kill times are so fast that adding all those extra abilities would be pointless and ultimately just clutter up the game.
In Halo 5, this is a completely different story. Run 'n Gun is the preferred method of play. You retain all of your speed and full view of everything in front of you. You are much better off playing without constantly zooming in because Smart Scope is better reserved for longer ranges, you don’t need to rely on it just to be accurate in general. With Halo’s style of play, targets become much harder to gun down in comparison to CoD. They’re strafing, jumping, using thruster pack. It’s not easy to just pick off a player because they are able to fight effectively while maintaining a normal speed at the same time. “Why add sprint then?” Because it gives another option to the player. You can sacrifice all of your usefulness in combat to get somewhere faster. It might not sound like much but it can make the difference between life and death, victory and defeat. It’s a risk/reward mechanic. Using sprint successfully will lead to you always being in a better position than you just were before. Using it incorrectly will result in your death, over and over. But what it all comes down to eventually is being able to kill someone. Something that can’t be done while sprinting, save for a well-placed Spartan Charge. To be clear, I’m not ramming pro-sprint down your throat if you don’t like it. I’m just saying that it’s doing nothing to disrupt Run 'n Gun gameplay and the feature itself isn’t inherently bad. It’s fine if you don’t like it and I hope to see a Classic playlist!
“But ZoomGears! Maps are being designed completely around Sprint! They are being stretched out!” Sure, sprint is factored in while making maps but here’s why I disagree that sprint is fully dictating map design. Watch this video. You’ll notice that the player hardly uses sprint, if ever, and he still does remarkably well. He is able to play both offensively and defensively extremely well, without having to sprint just to get where he wants. The same goes for this video too. All cover is conveniently placed within distance of normal running speed. Sprint is only being used tactically to push against the other team. It isn’t being relied on for basic movement through the map.
In closing, I completely believe that Run 'n Gun gameplay is well preserved in Halo 5. The difference between CoD and Halo is still night and day. Sprint and Smart Scope haven’t changed that, contrary to popular belief.