So I got lucky enough to be able to participate in the early access beta for Halo 5 last week. I really enjoyed it and I think this installation has the potential to be the best game in the series since Halo 3. I love that they brought the equal footing-foundation for the multiplayer back and the new spartan abilities are cool additions. Playing Halo 5 for the first time was a lot like playing Halo 2 for the first time. It is familiar, yet very exciting and fresh.
But there’s room for improvements and this is, in my honest and humble opinion, the things that bugged me in the beta:
• The music that plays when you die. It gets real tedious after a while. It’s the same, almost one-noted musical piece every time and I really got furious with it at those times when I went up against a disgustingly good team and died basically within a minute every time I spawned. I don’t know how this seemed like a good idea for anyone. Sure I’m biased because I generally don’t like music in my multiplayer at all, but this was overdoing it. This may be just me, let me know what you guys think about it.
• Dudebro. The spartans behave very obnoxiously. When a team wins we get to see them fist bumb and high five like the battle was a game of tag on the school yard. My close friend, who also got in the beta last week, hated it so much he started saying “oh, here comes the -Yoink- bag screen” every time a match was won. I have no problem with the spartans making a appearance before the match but god, isn’t these the best soldiers in the galaxy? Are we playing paintball as teens or are we battling as spartans? I also didn’t like how the spartans congratulated me on pulling of a “nice headshot”, as if that was something out of the ordinary for these guys. Make them act like the spartans they are. Again, this may be just me. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.
• I struggled with the controls. This is a real problem for me. The default control scheme will make any FPS fan feel right at home. You aim down sights with the left trigger, throw granades with the left bumper and so on. To me, a long time Halo fan, it feels wierd to play Halo like that though. I won’t use the smart scope nearly enough to be comfortable with it taking up the left trigger. I want to zoom in like I always have. Fortunately there’s plenty of schemes that lets me do that. The “Halo 4” option was the one I was the most comfortable with but the only problem there is that the ground pound will be extremely awkward to pull off. You see - to do that you need to hold the crouch button and aim at the same time and that is impossible to do comfortably then the crouch button is B. I needed to move my index finger (!!) to B and then pull it off. It works but it’s not ideal. I would like a scheme where you crouch with LB, thrust with B, throw nades with LT and zoom with the right stick. That isn’t an option, sadly. Hopefully there will be more options when the game comes out.
• The killcams. 343 has been accused of ripping off Call of Duty since Halo 4 and honestly - it isn’t that unfair sometimes. Having loadouts, perks and personal ordnance in a Halo game felt way too much like just that. So I’m so glad that stuff is gone in Halo 5. I don’t consider the smart scope being a COD-thing either, as if COD is the only shooter who has the feature of aiming “properly”. But the killcam… It’s basically impossible not to think of the killcam as a Call of Duty-thing. I know, I know - it’s educational for the new players to see how they died and what they need to do better in the next encounter. But for me who knows my Halo and knows what I did wrong when I die it’s nothing but a distraction. The easiest way to remedy this is to have the killcam an optional thing. Let me turn the thing off, please. Just let me wait the five or so seconds it takes for me to respawn and let me stare at my corpse. If I get t-bagged I want to know about it. 
• The excessive power weapon call-outs. Look, I don’t mind there being a call-out for when the sniper spawns. Does it have to be so much of it though? First they tell you that there’s thirty seconds left until the power weapon spawn. Then they tell you which power weapon it is. They do the same for when there’s ten seconds left and finally once more when it’s actually up on the map. It is more than enough to tell me once. “Snipers up in thirty seconds”. I’m not stupid. On top of that they actually put a timer on the spawn location so it’s really not needed to call out the spawn times that much.
And that is basically it. That isn’t a very long list of issues. Like I said - I really enjoyed the beta in general and I thought I wouldn’t feel as comfortable with the new directions as I was. The sprint feels balanced, the ground pound didn’t kill me a single time (I only managed to kill one enemy with it and he had no shields to begin with), the smart scope felt natural after five minutes, the weapons seemed more balanced that before and the thrusters feels so satisfying.
And again, I love that they went back to basics in the sense that everyone once again starts with equal footing. I won’t miss the armor abilities, the perks, the loadouts at all whatsoever. If this was a list of issues for Halo 4 it would have gone on a lot longer so we’re definitely heading in the right direction.
Thanks for the read and have a good sunday.