The Good
Gunplay is smooth and responsive
Art style looks good
Music is on point
Good deal of customization
Map design is traditional and not wide to accommodate sprint
No armor abilities or loadouts
The Bad
UI and Hud is not the best, let us customize the HUD placement and the UI should be vertical scrolling not horizontal such as Reach at the moment it is too mobile like.
Outlines to show enemies not ideal better for casual modes will not be good in ranked it isnt distinct enough
Spartan personalities are too immature, ie the shadowboxing and callouts like come at me bro and the like
No blood
Either increase the aim assist on controller or let us disable mouse and keyboard matchmaking it is a heavy disadvantage atm
Power weapons do not feel as impactful as they should be.
Power weapons being a global alert creates many problems and impacts the skill ceiling of the high end.
The sound design is typical 343. meaning realistic and fine for all intents and purposes but lacking the iconic and distinct sounds bungie had for weapons.
The Ugly
Sprint is one input too many for controller, removing sprint will likely not happen but it will improve the game and map design, in its nerfed state feels pointless to have.
Technical issues, i know its early days but we cannot have a repeat of the MCC launch this includes ensuring there is sufficient content available
Generic feel, Halo 2 3 Reach all had a unique Halo feel, this seems to be Halo 5 with Reach aesthetics and toned down movement.
Lack of friendly fire and collision which removes staples such as punishment for nade spamming and bunny hopping to reach new areas.
And lastly my main concern is the focus of the game. It seems too geared towards appeasing competitive players, if Halo 5 breakout couldn’t do it why will infinite? The game has to be extremely distinct and that is something traditional Halo had a very distinct slow paced style. This is very much a fast paced halo 4, halo 5 style shooter with elements of traditional halo present such as equipment. I am concerned about over saturation of the market with battlefield having portal and great marketing, valorant siege, and csgo filling the ultra competitive scene. Halo has to be distinct and a special game to take over market share as first impressions matter greatly. Already the lack of an invasion type mode, forge, file browser at launch leaves me concerned about the state of the game. We are close to launch and know nothing about how the campaign will handle the narrative wall Halo 5 setup, soft reboot or not we need closure with that arc.
There’s alot of good but in my opinion drastic revisions should be made if this game is to be a 10 year success, I hope to play more and have my concerns alleviated as there is alot to like and its on the right path but it is in a delicate situation. Agree? Disagree? Let me know below.