So I am a socially-competitive gamer that is looking forward to buying/playing Halo 5.
I recently have been observing Halo 5’s gameplay and how people react to it. The consistent vibe I am getting is that it is a love/hate relationship. Many people enjoy it a whole lot, but many more people point out the many terrible flaws it has even if they do like it!
Personally, I find that the enjoyment of dominating in matchmaking with good friends is priceless. This enjoyment overcame the countless times 343i punched me in the gut for trying to make the best out of Halo 4. It is as if I know I am walking into a trap that will cause great pain and frustration, only to try and enjoy/relive the good times I had with the players that keep me gaming.
Here is a quick list of observations I have made from the outside that represents the frequent praise/criticism people have(even if I don’t agree with them).
+Positives:
-
The faced-paced nature and small/arena type maps make the experience more skilled. - Improved ranking system sets a reliable bar for how players are ranked in the world. - Warzone gametype!! - Removal of armor abilities / loadouts creates an experience similar to halo 3. - Stricter rules on quitters, disconnectors (who try to save their rank), and AFK players reduce frustration that previous Halos had.-Negatives:
-
Micro-transactions and REQ system are a joke. - Grenades and some weapons are imbalanced/OP. - Spawns are terrible. - Where is my favorite gametype _____? <— Fill in the blank… - Poor map designs/ too many forge maps. - No voting/veto of maps. - Still has poor solo-matchmaking pairings. (Pairing solo spartans with 4-man teams that talk) - No pregame lobby to see who you are playing and how good they are? - Campaign stinks!! (Personally don’t care and expected it to be after Halo 4) - Lack of custom game options.And the list goes on…
# My take from an outside perspective:
I honestly want to enjoy this game. I just have a bad feeling that I will get sucker punched again as new gametypes/features roll in. I don’t want the feeling that Halo 4 gave me, where the negative points grew exponentially even as some positive points come in. My personal concerns are presented below.
- One major reason why Halo 4 sucked for me was the large amount of tiny maps. I personally hate how fast-paced Halo has become. What I can’t understand is how the same people that beg/whine for maps to be smaller and the game more fast-paced (those ‘pro gamers’), complain that the spawns are messed up. My reply to them is that they asked for it! If you want better spawns that don’t allow people to constantly spawn behind you or allow you to be spawn-killed, then make the maps bigger and slower-paced with more cover around the spawns. Since these type of players have 343i around their finger I don’t ever see this getting better. - Why does the pregame lobby have to suck more than Halo 4? Why would you give me a better ranking system, if I can’t show my good ranking off to my opponent (if I manage to own one) or see the rankings my opponents have? I have a theory! 343i wants to prevent us from calling bull on their terrible pairing system. I also got sucker punched too many times by Halo 4’s stupid join in progress, which only made the pairings even more unbalanced. I thought in Halo 4 that people liked hearing the opponents in the pregame lobby and that is what made 343i include that feature much later in the game? I hope they are not going the Destiny route that says, “we don’t want them to ruin your experience”. - Why is it so easy to kill people? This again points to my rage against faster-paced games and the claim of it as being more “pure-skill”. If I wanted to play COD or swat, then I would enjoy these changes.(If you have not guessed, I really don’t.) In my opinion Halo is a game where if you get shot first, you can still beat your opponent in the firefight if you are smart enough! If all it takes to kill someone is 3 shots to the head then the skill gap drops. Why? Because it takes more skill to kill someone when it takes more shots to kill. I liked it better when you have to calculate in your head the probability of charging into a room and killing the person inside. Now all you have to do is see/shoot them first and you have a 90% chance of winning if you keep your shots consistent enough. - I have a bad prediction that gametypes will be constantly added/removed like in the previous Halo. I did not enjoy the horrible mistake of making team slayer DLC only! I also did not enjoy the removal of good gametypes like dominion and replaced them with temporary playlists that generally did not fit my taste.So I would like to get the opinions of you players who are already on the other side of the horizon playing Halo 5. I want to know if you honestly think this game will do a good job at making Halo 5 multiplayer fun or will it be another trap? I am just seeking to resolve my feelings of nervousness and anticipation.
-Metal Eag1e
The biggest problem in mine and many peoples opinions is the short -Yoinking!- useless radar. that and no BR starts…
How short is “short”? I remember seeing a video lately that one of the pros was proud to include that feature to make it more “skilled”…
> -Negatives:
>
> - Micro-transactions and REQ system are a joke. - Grenades and some weapons are imbalanced/OP. - Spawns are terrible. - Where is my favorite gametype _____? <— Fill in the blank… - Poor map designs/ too many forge maps. - No voting/veto of maps. - Still has poor solo-matchmaking pairings. (Pairing solo spartans with 4-man teams that talk) - No pregame lobby to see who you are playing and how good they are? - Campaign stinks!! (Personally don’t care and expected it to be after Halo 4) - Lack of custom game options.
- Micro transactions are really not needed, it’s literally and hour worth of game time for a Gold pack and the REQ system is for Warzone which is far from competitive, stick with Arena unless you’re using Warzone to warm up - It’s been out for a week, they’ll balance it, but most weapons really are not OP - besides the rocket launcher - it’s all rather balanced. - Spawns are like most FPS games unfortunately - The lack of game types is a shame, but they’ll all be added in soon enough. - There are two forge maps haha and the rest are merely debatable - I can see why it’s wanted, but it is kind of good because they’re would always be that one map that would be chosen no matter what and there would be this great map, but you couldn’t play it because everyone knows this one map - They fixed that in MCC and everyone hated it because it was too hard to find people - I loved that it was there and it annoys me now that it’s not but I do understand that people left if the person was a high rank - The campaign wasn’t that bad, it was really good it just had a munted pacing (halo 4’s had probably the best story, not exactly fun though) - the custom game options are coming later on.
> Why is it so easy to kill people?
Trust me. It is not. It does look faster but it feels more like Halo than 4 did. I found it easier in 4, if you’re looking at Warzone, that’s because it’s more a muck around
> - I have a bad prediction that gametypes will be constantly added/removed like in the previous Halo. I did not enjoy the horrible mistake of making team slayer DLC only! I also did not enjoy the removal of good gametypes like dominion and replaced them with temporary playlists that generally did not fit my taste.
I can’t even do damage control for this one lol They’re adding new perm playlists, forge, new weapons for Warzone, skins and whatnot in the December update. However, before then they’re running the weekend social, where ‘casual’ playlists will be added and playable for the weekend, the most popular ones have a chance of being permanent.
I hope I helped in anyway to put any of your worries to rest. If you say your competitive by nature, Halo 5 is perfect for you, but you’ll have to have an attention span to find the game that hooks you in - the 2v4 close game of slayer that ended up as 50-49 was it for me
I am disappointed with the terrible ranking system, its not bad to the core but I want armor when I rank up to show people what lvl I am not that I have spent 10k to unlock it without any time played, also the startgame matchmaking needs to be changed as stated, I want to see my team easily.
> 2533274908167886;4:
> > -Negatives:
> >
> > - Micro-transactions and REQ system are a joke.
> > - Grenades and some weapons are imbalanced/OP.
> > - Spawns are terrible.
> > - Where is my favorite gametype _____? <— Fill in the blank…
> > - Poor map designs/ too many forge maps.
> > - No voting/veto of maps.
> > - Still has poor solo-matchmaking pairings. (Pairing solo spartans with 4-man teams that talk)
> > - No pregame lobby to see who you are playing and how good they are?
> > - Campaign stinks!! (Personally don’t care and expected it to be after Halo 4)
> > - Lack of custom game options.
>
>
>
> - Micro transactions are really not needed, it’s literally and hour worth of game time for a Gold pack and the REQ system is for Warzone which is far from competitive, stick with Arena unless you’re using Warzone to warm up
> - It’s been out for a week, they’ll balance it, but most weapons really are not OP - besides the rocket launcher - it’s all rather balanced.
> - Spawns are like most FPS games unfortunately
> - The lack of game types is a shame, but they’ll all be added in soon enough.
> - There are two forge maps haha and the rest are merely debatable
> - I can see why it’s wanted, but it is kind of good because they’re would always be that one map that would be chosen no matter what and there would be this great map, but you couldn’t play it because everyone knows this one map
> - They fixed that in MCC and everyone hated it because it was too hard to find people
> - I loved that it was there and it annoys me now that it’s not but I do understand that people left if the person was a high rank
> - The campaign wasn’t that bad, it was really good it just had a munted pacing (halo 4’s had probably the best story, not exactly fun though)
> - the custom game options are coming later on.
>
>
> > Why is it so easy to kill people?
>
>
> Trust me. It is not. It does look faster but it feels more like Halo than 4 did. I found it easier in 4, if you’re looking at Warzone, that’s because it’s more a muck around
>
>
>
>
> > - I have a bad prediction that gametypes will be constantly added/removed like in the previous Halo. I did not enjoy the horrible mistake of making team slayer DLC only! I also did not enjoy the removal of good gametypes like dominion and replaced them with temporary playlists that generally did not fit my taste.
>
>
> I can’t even do damage control for this one lol They’re adding new perm playlists, forge, new weapons for Warzone, skins and whatnot in the December update. However, before then they’re running the weekend social, where ‘casual’ playlists will be added and playable for the weekend, the most popular ones have a chance of being permanent.
>
> I hope I helped in anyway to put any of your worries to rest. If you say your competitive by nature, Halo 5 is perfect for you, but you’ll have to have an attention span to find the game that hooks you in - the 2v4 close game of slayer that ended up as 50-49 was it for me
That helps me a bit! Especially the part about killing being easier than it looks.