First of all I want to commend everyone at 343, I had a blast playing the flight this weekend! Some of the most fun I’ve ever had in Halo and I’ve been playing since the days of hauling CRTs and OG Xboxes to friends houses. Overall I thought everything felt, looked and played great. But having said that, I have some feedback/suggestions, lots of which I’m sure others have said already but I’ll throw my two cents in:
-I’d love some per match XP, even if it was just something small like 10 or 20 xp, just to feel like every game counts. Finishing a match and getting nothing is just a bit unsatisfying. Having a wider progression system would help with this too, I know 343 is looking into that, but definitely agree it needs a tweak.
-I don’t mind the friend/foe outlines but I feel they may make spotting enemies way too easy, especially on the larger maps. Several times on Fragmentation I could spot an enemy all the way across the map and through thick trees because of their obvious red outline, I could even get sniper hits on them when normally I would have never seen them. Perhaps if only friendlies were outlined, or if there was some kind of drop off or fade out of the effect over distance, or if you needed to get enemies in your sights before it highlights them. Something along those lines could just make it so there’s some skill in spotting people and everyone doesn’t stand out with a huge red glow.
-Please give the plasma pistol back its EMP charge against vehicles. I can’t understand why this would be taken out? I saw so many poor old Halo souls trying to EMP vehicles with it to no avail. It’s How Weapons Work In Halo 101. Even with the dynamo grenades/shock rifles, I don’t see how adding the EMP to the Plasma pistol would negatively affect the balance. Also the tracking on it feels a bit too weak.
-I love the grapple but at times wished it had maybe just a few metres more range. Quite often I’d seem to just miss what I felt like I should have been able to grapple to. Not so much an issue I felt on the smaller maps, but I felt it a lot on Fragmentation. Also I’d love to see a “Spider Slayer” mode or some such happen with grapple spawns as default!
-I’d love to see BTB matches start with a tank or air craft on occasion and have them drop more often. Especially since the new skewer can take them out quite quickly. I get that they’re supposed to feel like special moments but it felt like tanks only appeared once in every 5 or 6 matches and often they’d appear right as a match ended. And having them at the start of a match every now and then would to mix things up and add some more chaos right off the bat.
-I don’t love the 30 minute timer on XP boosts. I’d much rather they work on a per match basis rather than time. So for example they would boost your XP for the next 2 or 3 matches played, rather than for 30 minutes. Or if the timer only ran down while in a match that would be better too. Also they seem very buried in menus, a way to quickly activate them from a lobby would be nice rather than having to dive into the battle pass>consumables>xp boost>activate.
-Friendly player collision should definitely be turned back on please.
-Would love more physics push and effects from grenades and grav hammer blasts.
And I think those were mostly my main thoughts/ideas while playing, I’m sure I’m forgetting something though. But like I said, I had a great time with it and if it came out as is tomorrow I’d be stoked, so good work everyone, you’ve made this old Spartan happy!