A lot of people have been debating if sprint is a prime culprit for bad gameplay, but I believe that this is not the reason why people generally prefer other Halos to the Halo 5. Sprinting alone is not what causes an increase of pace in gameplay, it is the combination of sprint, small scale maps, and tight corners on those maps with very few long range lines of sight. I know that the implementation of armor abilities in the base spartan affected the design choices made when making a map (Except spartan charge which is incredibly irritating and breaks flow). But I feel that the reason why we aren’t seeing large scale arena maps is mainly due to Warzone. The thing is, Warzone has elements that are far different from traditional halo combat, and BTB is the only way to experience traditional halo combat on a large scale, but there are no official BTB maps made for that kind of experience.
I guess 343 determined that Warzone would fill in that gap for large scale combat, and decided to make arena maps that were much smaller. The kind of maps that were used a lot in competitive halo matches in H2+3 like Lockout, Midship, Sanctuary, Guardian, The Pit, and a wide variety of forge maps that were implemented later. These maps were some of the most beloved maps to play ranked matches and were probably the most commonly voted for in 4v4 matches on MCC.
Another problem is that there are way too many small maps in arena and not enough mid to large scale maps. This gives the idea that sprint is speeding up gameplay way too much when it’s mainly the size of the maps, the buff on CQC weapons, and few long lines of sight in conjunction with the addition of sprint. If they added official mid to large scale maps as well as some similarly sized community forged maps, this would slow down gameplay and give players way more 1v1 encounters rather than the 1v2 or 3 encounters that can leave a player incredibly aggravated and feel “cheated”.
I think sprint does have a place in Halo, it feels good to run, slide, and whip around a corner guns blazing. They just need to take into account the amount in which the overall pace of gameplay is increased as well as other variables such as Spartan Charge and buffed CQC weapons. I feel that removing sprint wouldn’t solve the problem, Armor abilities in general add more options to a player’s arsenal and make gameplay far more colorful and exciting. There hasn’t been a moment where I was ground pounded I didn’t feel like they deserved that kill.
I think it is definitely an opinion based topic or there wouldn’t be such a huge split community arguing between whether sprint is a problem or not, but we can all agree that Halo can always improve. Whether it be in a future patch or the next game. So keep giving your feedback because I guarantee, they are listening. There are people who work at 343 Industries whose job it is to read posts and transfer that info to the developers. They may not put everyone’s ideas into effect, but they are whole heartedly taking them into consideration. I hope that the community hasn’t given up and we can still make Halo better for all of us.