The bad, the worse and the ugly
Sprint: I have already stated, multiple times, what I have against it, but here we go: allows players to escape, negatively affects map design, forces players to lower their weapon, affects the spawn system, significantly decreases the base movement speed and affects the predictability of players’ actions, to put it simply.
Stabilizers: This should be removed. the ability to float in air and pick up easy kills with the ability to retreat (falling to the ground) by just releasing the LT is just overpowered and eliminates skill-based jump-shots that are an important aspect of Halo’s multiplayer. I can’t even think how this’s going to affect SWAT.
Clamber: Unneeded. Adds nothing to the gameplay and does nothing that the normal jumping couldn’t. Also adds climbing delay, and reduces jump height which affect jump-shooting and reduces bullet-dodging efficiency.
Smart scope: another unneeded addition. The fact that it improves your spread breaks the game for me. Hip fire may still be the same, but giving bonus for zooming breaks the gameplay, penalizes hip fire and will make people spend the whole time zooming. You’re also narrowing the skill gap by eliminating the advantage pro players had. The ability to land shots from a long distance without the need to zoom, thus evading the delay occurred by scoping/ descoping. I don’t know if the previous games had it, but if they did and I knew about it, I would’ve asked for it to be removed back then. Another annoying thing about it is how much space it takes from your FoV (especially the DMR). The delay time is also annoying (especially with the sniper), and add that to desope and you’re stuck in an weird scope-descope animations that waste precious moments from the gunfight. Also, smart scope’s improved spread plus stabilizers doesn’t seem like a good combo. Every weapon should work the way it should. Smart scope closes the gap between them, especially automatics, which are supposed to be inaccurate and have high RoF and a wide spread.
Ground pound: It’s hard to pull off and very satisfying when executed on an opponent, yet it can be used as a fast way out (by pointing towards a safe area out of a battle and launching yourself towards it) or to pick up easy kills. I’m not sure what effect will it have on vehicles, if any, as we haven’t seen any BTB matches, yet. Also, using ground pound requires you to be on a platform higher than your opponent; and I’m not sure why would anyone sacrifice higher ground for a stylish kill. It also eliminates crouch-jumping, as it’s mapped to the same button as crouching.
Slide: This ability is barely used, as thrusters does pretty much what it’s supposed to do in a simpler, more efficient way. while slide requires you to sprint, move for quite a distance, reach terminal velocity (or whatever it’s called) to use, thrusters can be done anytime with the press of a button. I highly doubt that someone will run towards/away of an opponent and slide to cover, as sliding requires sprinting, which forces you lower your weapon, leaving the player vulnerable
Charge: I don’t think that players should have such a lethal offensive option while sprinting, especially since sprint is now unlimited, which allows them to get out of tight situations that they got in because of using sprint. Being near a corner and seeing an opponent sprinting around it? what options do you have, especially if you just spawned or if your thrusters are still cooling down? I also think that this was only implemented as a “fix” for the double melee, another problem which was created by the presence of sprint. Thrust+melee should be a convenient replacement.
Thrusters: I like this feature, but reducing it’s range and increasing its cool-down time should make it work fine and prevent spamming. Allowing the player to shoot while thrusting should also allow an offensive use of the ability. Also, the sprint+thrust combo is overpowered and extends the problem that sprint introduced, which is the ability to escape more easily. Grenades seem very under powered with the distance provided by thrusting.
Assassinations: The only thing I’d like to change is the way it functions. Performing assassinations in a bad situation can result in getting killed, but what option do you have if you’re behind an enemy, unnoticed? risking an assassination will make you vulnerable. A perfect solution will be like this: HOLD the melee button for the assassination. PRESS the melees button for a normal beat down.
End-game stance: does nothing to gameplay, but I’d rather see it gone. I hate to see my Spartan acting like a jerk.
High pitched sounds: they’re just annoying and unneeded. Bring back the old iconic shield sounds, and remove the hit/kill indicator sound.
Spartan chatter: Add an option to turn it off. It’s useful, yes, but in a party it’s better to turn it off to keep up with people on your party. Also, add unique proper lines rather than saying: “I got snipes” or “nice headshot”.
Controller schemes:Really hard to adapt to, and can cause a confusion when going back to the MCC. Either a manual button mapping or something similar to Halo 4’s controls.
I know that trying to introduce new fans to the Halo franchise is smart, but making those fans like the games the way it is, rather than changing it to appeal to them, is much smarter.
