As a preface, I have played every Halo game on legendary barring Reach, and I played Halo Wars till my fingers were raw. I have read every novel up to about a year ago, and I have kept up on the majority of the lore.
What it is this? This isn’t a beta. A beta should be a functional test demo of a product designed for us to give feedback upon. This is not functional, and does not give us enough to accurately make statements about the game’s quality. Why is it that in 2016 a beta launches with less features than the original demo of Halo Wars. By the end of this week we need some key features;
-Offline Play
-Full Tech Trees
-Fleshed out Physics
-Restore missing effects
-Deathmatch
-Unit Cap fixes
These are changes that are critically needed, so much that without these I cannot make an accurate assessment of the state of the game. If these are not implemented, I give the beta a 3/10.
That said, let’s move on under the preface that these are fixed. Here is the current way I see things.
Pros
-Unit variety and models (Not colors)
-Smaller details and effects, such as the smoke from the grunts on the sand and the red flares
-Better Hero abilities and variety (But we need an autobuy feature for veterans who don’t want to deal with it)
-Autopickup on crates
-Interesting environments so far
-Halo 5 incentives (Gold Req Packs)
-RED GRAVITY HAMMER implodes
Now before I get into the negatives, let’s back up. This is a good game. Lots of faults, but it is a good game. Everything I say is going to be as nit picky as possible, not because I hate the game, but because I love it and want to see it be as perfect as possible for us to enjoy.
Cons
-Canister Shell
-Missing Effects
-Silent Map Pings
-Wind mills, who thought these were a good idea?
-LACK OF ANY RESEARCH WHATSOEVER
-Single Spartan and bad covenant hero
-Unit coloring
-Cheesy artstyle
-just not Halo. this game does not have the halo atmosphere. I don’t think I can explain how with just my words. Too flashy, bad pacing, bad covenant design, and little difference between the leaders all contribute to this.
-Forerunner design for covies. Yeah, go ahead and say it’s in the lore. I don’t particularly care, since this was a bad art decision, not a bad story decision.
-healers are broke
-Controls aren’t tight
-Painting units is awful and jerky
-Bad voice acting
-Bad announcer (why?)
-bad base designs
- no transport abilities (These need to be vanilla for everyone. Should not be on the tree)
-No unique points of interest on the map, such as the cannon or sentinal factory or healing spire
Phew, that’s a long list. Again, I think the biggest issue is the atmosphere and art style. Reminds me too much of a bad take on Spartan assault. Please comment your opinions down below, and stay vocal community!