Intro
Hello 343i I have been playing Halo for more then 10 years and during that time its had ups and downs. I personally think Halo 5 can be what saves it. I am going to breakdown everything I know about the game from all game-plays(will post vids), what people have confirmed and What my personal take is on this stuff. This is a unbiased breakdown as possible. I will also do this for the Beta once I get my Hands on the Game. I am providing this feedback because you have been repeating that you want it in all your videos. So Let the FUN BEGIN
Halo’s CORE
You have stressed that you are trying to take Halo back to its core, But with a Twist. So first we must define the Core of Halo. Skill Shooting, Melee, Grenades, Jumps and Map Awareness. It your are to take a look at Halo 1, Halo 2 and Halo 3. I personally think these skill sets above are what made those games so great. From what I have seen so far your are returning allot of these ideas back into Halo which is great to see but there are somethings you are adding that do subtract from those CORE ideas.
Spartan Ability Breakdown
Thruster Pack
I personally think the Thruster Pack in the game is perfectly fine. it that dose not take anything away from what Halo was but only adds another Layer. I think from what I have seen you went to great lengths to balance it. Everything from staying in First Person View, to the 4 sec cool down. This additional Movement option dose not take anything away from the movement of the OLD HALOs Movement core. This addition of movement adds a little bit more of a skill gap which is a good thing since you are pursuing a more eSport Halo. Thruster is good because a player that is good with it can use it to Disengage but more importantly ENGAGE gun fights. Even in normal gun fights you can be strafing and use it to try and juke the player making it harder for him to kill you and again making aiming more of a priority. It also adds to the jumping aspect because again it dose not change jumping but adds to it. This can be a plus for Halo if it functions correctly and you seem to have the balance part down already.
Smart Scope
Smart scope has been in Halo since Halo 1 and was only taken out for Halo 4. Halo 4 had a ADS in it because you would not get knocked out of scope and it broke the game and the core mechanics of Halo scoping. The smart scope is just visually different and nothing else and I am perfectly fine with increasing the visuals of the game because it dose not mess with Halo Core mechanics.
Sprint
While I personally enjoy the old NO SPRINT Halos. The fact is it dose not take away from Halos core movement. Now with that being said your sprint in Halo 4 was really flawed in that it was vary unresponsive. You really felt like you where ice skating while sprinting. Now I can tell from Videos that its seems to function better, which was the real problem with sprint in Halo 4. It just didn’t work correctly, It felt gimmicky and not tight like normal movement from a Halo Game. You guys seem to have balanced it vary well in terms of it being game braking with the no recharging of shields while sprinting. which is good BUT the most important thing is making sure the sprint feels Solid when using it and not feel so out of place. Overall though if you nail the functionality of the Sprint then it will be a good addition to Halo 5.
Slide
Again while I personally think slide is totally pointless in a arena shooter(notice I say ARENA SHOOTER) if done correctly I see it again just like sprint being perfectly fine. Slide and sprint are a package deal and again it all comes down to how dose this slide function. It dose not take anything away from halos core movement Set but adds another layer to the movement set. So if you nail the functionality of the slide it will also be a good addition to Halo 5.
Charge
Now I have not seen a charge happen in any video I have watched. So it can be bad or good and that depends on if its a ONE HIT KILL. If charge is a one hit kill no matter what then that is SUPER bad. But if its not and its just a cool melee lunge that dose more damage then i think its fine but is not needed. I did hear in one video that if you do it from behind then its a Instant kill but thats normal for Melee already. SO it comes down to it being a One hit kill or a cool animation lunge for meleeing out of sprint.
Clamber
When I first seen Clamber I thought it was pretty cool but then I started to think how it took away from the skill of jumping which there is a whole community dedicated to just Jumping. All the jumps we had to learn, Clamber pretty much makes them take no skill and that takes away part of the Skill gap in Halo. Now it really dose not take away a physical part of Halos Core Mechanic but it dose take away A skill that I think super important to Halo and Should have never been added In my opinion it takes away a part of Halos Core Mechanic. It could up being fine with it but it should have never been added and if you took it out you would not hurt me or anyone else’s feelings. Now I know that you have tons of maps already designed for this mechanic and would have to rescale your maps or increase the Jump heigh and Make sure you can still crouch jump which leads me to my next point.
Ground Pound
So this is the first thing that just needs to go or be re tooled to not mess with the core movement of Halo. From all the Videos I have watched everyone says you have to hold crouch in air to start it? If so that eliminates all crouch based skill jumping which I think is a big part of Halo. Now I see that you have gone to some lengths to try and balance this ONE HIT KILL melee,like 3 seconds to charge and having to hit a direct hit but the thing is you have taken away something that made Halo Halo and thats skill based jumping with crouching. I hope you would remove this one hit kill melee or at least re tool it so that it dose not inter-fear with a part of Halo that was super big and thats Skilled Based Jumping. Again this is based on what i have seen and not played. So Ground pound actually in its current form takes away from a large part of Halo and thats the Skill jumping aspect through Crouch jumping. Now maybe it can be re tooled to not take away from that and it would move it form the horrible thing to something less horrible because one its still a one hit kill and In one video it shows him killing someone that was not in the cross hair of the ground pound which make me believe it sends a little shock wave the damages near by people( just a theory). I personally think this should be taken out of the game and the reasoning for it is that it inter-fears with a core aspect of Halo and thats skilled based jumping.
Spartan Ability Wrap up
While I think there is no need for spartan ability’s in halo I do accept them as something that could make Halo Better if they function correctly. I think Thruster Pack, Sprint, Slide and Smart Scope could be a good additions to halo it done correctly in terms of functionality. Clamber at this moment I am 50/50 on and really dont want it in the game but its a what ever. Charge(depending if its mainly a visual thing or one hit kill) and Ground pound, Both of them really have no place in Halo expecially Ground pound. I Will be doing this again for the Beta and the rest of the Halo 5 sandbox.
Full Game
Spanish Games
Optic vs Str8 Rippin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJeawxqodg