So I’ve been playing the beta now for a couple of days and I’ve got some opinions I would like to raise, feel free to agree or disagree with them.
Firstly, the game is super buggy but that’s not something we can complain about. There’s a lot of threads in the forum complaining about bugs and glitches. What a lot of you 12 year olds don’t realise is THIS IS NOT THE FULL GAME. 343 literally posted a message to be read every time you load the beta saying to expect bugs. It’s early code, it’s not going to be flawless. The nature of a beta is that it’s a test run, so enough complaining about it.
Okay now that that’s out of the way, here are my genuine issues. My main problem with the game at the moment is how the weapons work. This may seem trivial but halo wars is supposed to be set in the halo universe so how can a squad of marines withstand a round from a MAC cannon?! Now I understand the need for a balanced game, but why not make the weapons more realistic, and much rarer. So, with the previous example, the MAC cannon should be a devastating shot, but only usable once per game. Other things like Spartan lasers, missile launchers and such all seem to do minute amounts of damage. I would like to see a closer reflection on how these weapons work in relation to the fps halos. Splasers should be able to do more damage but be less rapid firing, missiles should be powerful AOE weapons but limited ammo, etc etc. It just bugs me then I see something like “MAC round from spirit of fire” and think, hell yes bring the rain, only to see grunts shrug it off like it was a pebble to the head. Secondly, we all know how awesome and grim the trailer looked. That dark scenery, how epic the brutes looked, how terrifying their machines were, how awesome and badass the odst drop and warthog entrace was. I mean, c’mon it looked really Damn good. I immediately was hyped for this grim, foreboding looking game. Then immediate disappointment when the beta loads. Look at all these colorful scorpions and warthogs. Look at the prettt yellow and cyan marines running around. Even the landscape was bright and cheerful. It all looked pretty tacky and childish. I understand the need for team differentiation but look at games like DOW where they pull that off with their universe still looking terrifying. Come on 343, make this look like an army, not children’s toys. I just think with all this awesome cover art and trailers that the actual look of the game is very pastel and bright. Long story short, it looks bad. Make it darker. Make it intimidating. Make it look like you’re being attacked by a terrifying group of bloodthirsty brutes, not crayolas with gravity hammers. Just make it look like something that comes from a warzone, not a Lego box please. Lastly, and probably my most invalid point, I would love to see longer game types. I know we’re only being offered domination because it’s the beta but it feels that just as I get my fleet of scorpions or platoon of marines lead by Spartans that the game ends. It’s frustrating when I say to myself, now for the big battle! And then victory/defeat flashes up. It feels like domination is a series of very minor, scrappy skirmishes with no real moment of “wow this is badass, this feels like a proper battle”. You don’t feel like a supreme general ordering a massive army but rather a petty sergeant working with what little forces you can muster in a short space of time. I for one, would like to see a larger, longer, bigger scale game mode in the full game.
And on that note, I sign off. Well done if you took the time to even read this far. Looking forward to hearing what other people have to say about this