I Think that 343 did a couple of things well:
- Getting rid of load outs was key in my opinion. Halo Reach and H4 lost some of the competitve edge that the previous Halo games had when they incorporated customizable load out. The game lost the sense of balalnce because of it.
- getting rid of customizable abilities (Jet packs, i invisibility, Promethean vision, etc.). This also tipped the scales a bit and removed the balance that matchmaking had. I think that uniform spartan abilities have added a new twist to the game without losing the sense of it being Halo. Yeah sometimes they can be cheap, but they also have disdvantages that can give the opponent the edge over a player that is using them.
- the smoothness of gameplay. Going from 30 fps to 60 fps isn’t easy, specially with a game that is known for being appealing to the eyes and one that sets the standards of where graphics should be. That said, some of the maps and the Red and Blue make it seem more cartoonish. Still, Halo 5 is a beautiful game and it plays excellently.
THE BAD:
This will be more of a rant than a list. But there are some valid points that need to be addressed, some already have, but not much change has been made.
One thing that I think needs a little work is the matching of players. It seems that every time that someone on my fire team is about to rank up, we get matched against people that are way above our playlist rank. For example, every time my friend was about to rank from platinum 4 to 5 we would get matched with 2 diamond players and 2 random ranks. Also, the skill level within ranks varies and the balance is constantly off. I have played against golds that have an overall higher KDA than my fireteam. Every update comes with more useless weapons and remade maps. Even though I love the halo 2 BR, I think I don’t need 21 AR and 28 BRs.
343 is making a push for warzone, trying to entice players into that gametype. On the other hand, they are not doing the same for players that like Arena or want to play more competitively. Why is that? Why are they not behind the fans that have been around since the beginning? Why is it lacking gametypes (solely CTF or Solely Strongholds) (I don’t want to play competitive action sack), proper weapons, and maps? Why are the maps so poorly made? Where did the creative aspect of halo maps go? Why is there a granade launcher (hydra) that locks-on to players? Why do the frag grenades affect such a large area? And why can you toss them so quickly? Did 343 forget what bungie did wrong with Halo Reach?
They need to bring down the splash damage of nades. They’ll be yards away and you can thrust all you want, but they’ll still get you.
All the maps feel roughly the same, there is no diversity whatsoever. Halo used to be known for having fun maps that were well made, entertaining to play on, and each was somewhat unique. Now it’s the same set up, same crap over and over, and the “new” maps are just remakes of the maps that are currently in rotation. Also, map rotation is almost non-existant. I have played on regret about (possibly the worst map ever) 6 or 7 times in the past 3 hours.
Lack of gametypes. I know I’ve mentioned it already, put where are the individual competitive objective play lists? Separate the three into their own thing. Take slayer out of team arena, its already a gametype of its own. Bring back some of the old objective games like KOTH and oddball. Also, where are the social playlists. When I’m pissed off at the game and want to blow off steam I want different social games, not just BTB.
Bullet magnetism. It used to take skill to be able to get clean headshots, but it seems that now all you need to do is put the reticle close enough and that will suffice.
10% speed increase with the sword. It makes a power weapon that took skill to use a cheap and overpowered weapon. Not only that but the range of the lunge is ridiculous. I can be yards away and still get a kill. Also, how do I get bulltrues and still die? A bulltrues used to mean that you stopped a player who is in the act of a sword kill. So if I get a bulltrues, I should still be alive. Otherwise, its just a regular kill. Stop with the whole, we need to make it fair for both players because we can’t figure out who killed who, if I get a bulltrues, I should still be alive. Period. And if you have no way of programming this, slow the boost of the sword carrier and decrease the lunge range.
I love Halo, and I’m glad that Halo 5 returned competitiveness to the game, but there are some things that need changing and fixing in order to bring it back to the glorious mother of all console FPS games title that it once had.