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My feelings on Halo 5 so far
By:Chris101b
Date: 12/21/14 12:47 pm

I've had some time to play the Halo 5 beta in the lead up to the full beta launch, and I can say with confidence that I am torn, but I do recognize the potential. I guess in the simplest of terms, you could say that the game is growing on me the more that I play it.

Spartan Abilities

This was the new feature of the game that had me the most worried. Before playing the beta, it basically looked like 343 looked at how Bungie added Armor Lock, Sprint, Jet packs, and roll into Halo Reach and went "Fuck it! We can't chooses which ones we want in the game, add them all in!!! And let the players do them whenever they want!!"

To my surprise though, all of these have been pretty well balanced. Ground pound is nowhere near the game-breaking disaster that I thought it was going to be. In all of my time playing the beta, I have seen maybe 2 successful ground pounds. Usually, the ground pound acts just like a cool melee. It hurts the person, but it doesn't kill them. And the recovery time is enough that if you do a ground pound and don't kill someone with it, then they have enough time to unload on you and put you both back on equal terms. It also has a lot of things that make it less effective. It's hard to aim exactly where you want to, and you have to be higher up than a jump to be able to use it. I've seen so many people jump up in the air and try to activate the ground pound just to hover there for a few seconds and then die from too many bullets in their face because they were never able to actually activate it.

The shoulder charge is another thing that isn't as bad as I thought. You have to get up to top speed before being able to do it, and it only is ever as powerful as a melee strike. So you just have to hope that they don't notice you so that you can do the shoulder charge, recover, and then finish them off.

The clamber is actually a really cool feature that is growing on me the more I play. Before, the game was limited to only making vertical jumps that were possible within the confines of how high the player could jump in-game. But with clamber, there is more potential now for interesting geometry and more vertical maps. This adds a cool new level of gameplay that is pretty fun.

The dialogue I also don't have a problem with. Not a lot of people communicate in this game, so I've found myself listening to their callouts more and more and it definitely helps. Things like "He's got a sword!" and "Sword down" have actually really helped me know what's going on when my teammates refuse to talk.

The zoom is also something that isn't as bad as I thought. If you are zoomed in and get hit by a bullet, you are instantly zoomed out. So it isn't very similar to CoD's ADS. Which is nice. It's useful in some situations, but not all.

Sprint

And now we come to sprint. I don't like sprint, I have never liked sprint, BUT.... I think this is the best version of sprint that the game could have. If someone tries to sprint away and you shoot them, their sprint stops, it forces people to actually keep fighting instead of just turning and running away. And not only that, if they do successfully run away, their shields don't recharge while they are running. I found this out the hard way when I turned a corner, was faced with 2 guys who took my shields down. I did the directional dash into a door and started running through the base. I was running all over the place but my shields weren't coming back and they were following me. I would stop and hide for a second, but they would get too close and I would have to run again. Overall, for about 30 seconds, my shields did not come back and they eventually hunted me down and killed me. It was surprisingly fun and intense!

So as I said, I would rather NOT have sprint in Halo. I think it negatively effects the map design, and encourages people to run away, BUT in this game the sprint seems about as balanced as they could make it, and I have actually seen more fights finishing, and less people running away. Which makes me like it a little bit more.

Map Design

I think for this early preview, there are only 2 available maps: Truth (Midship remake), and the one that is in the city (Sorry I forgot the name).

The Midship remake is my least favorite version of the map by far. As I've stated before, sprint REALLY messes with map design for the worse. Midship barely even looks like midship anymore. The hallways are MASSIVE the routes around the outside feel so open and bare. And I feel like I can do a lap around the map in 20 seconds (I haven't actually tested this).

This is my main reason for disliking sprint. When it negatively effects gameplay, I hate it, but when it negatively effects my favorite maps, I hate it even more.

The other map is actually my map so far (I know guys, there have been SO many maps for me to choose from in this beta so far). It's a big map, but the the routes are broken up by a lot of geometry, which makes them feel more realistic and create a better playspace. I really like the verticality as well. I have used it to give many players a hard lesson in not using the ground pound. When players are activating the ground pound you can hear it charging up above you. So right as I hear it, I will dash to the left or right, and destroy them. Again, it's a new level of gameplay that so far has not felt broken.

This game isn't without it's faults though.

Things I Didn't Like

Bro Team Charley (Friendship Edition):
The high fives and celebrating at the end of the game is more laughable than immersive. I have never though that a spartan should act like that. They are acting more like spoiled/arrogant high school football players than super soldiers of the highest order.

The Bane of my existence:
I absolutely HATE the Prophets Bane weapon (Sword). That coupled with sprint is nearly impossible to fight against. So this is yet another reason I hate sprint. There is no way that you can fight against someone that is sprinting up to you with the sword. I've died several times by the same person using that same stupid tactic. And that is what it is, a stupid tactic. At least if you have a BR or a sniper, you have options in the way you want to use it. But the sword is the weapon of a sprinter. If you want to be a kill, you better be sprinting around the map at top speed and surprising people. It's not fun.

Controls:
The controls are really strange for this game. The left bumper is now the default grenade throw button, right bumper is melee, left trigger is zoom, right thumstick is crouch but right thumbstick in the air is ground pound, and B is the directional dodge. I have had a hell of a time trying to learn these controls. I mean they work with all the mechanics I guess, but going from bumper jumper to this has been an interesting change. I can't tell you the number of times I have boosted off of an upper floor when trying to pick up a weapon that is near the edge.

I see dead pe...... I mean weapon callouts
The Halo games have always had a nice flow. When you see a power weapon spawn, you call it out and your team now has the tactical advantage. But if no one saw the power weapon, then it would go untouched until someone saw it. In the game right now, the announcer comes up and screams at you "HEY YOU! HEY!!! THERES A SNIPER SPAWNING HERE IN 30 SECONDS! YOUR ENTIRE TEAM AND THEIR ENTIRE TEAM SHOULD ALL MOVE TO THIS AREA!!!"

By calling it out, the game pretty much stops where it was going and everyone starts making their way to where the weapons spawn. There is a fight right on top of the weapon, and then one person picks it up and the game continues. It breaks the flow of combat by forcing teams into areas to fight in just because everyone knows (And has a timer) telling them when the power weapon is going to spawn. My team and I would be running towards a room that we knew enemies were in, but as soon as we heard that "30 seconds to power weapon" message, we would all turn around and head towards the giant marker telling us where it was.

It's basically like pouring food into a fish tank. All the fish go to the same area for the exact same purpose. Except now, the fish have guns. Also the fish might have been in conversation with their friends, or on the phone with their family, but as soon as the food hits the surface, nothing else in the world matters. And when the food is gone, they have to call their family back and it's all really awkward and there is really no point.

Overall:

The game is growing on me, it didn't have nearly as many game-breaking issues that I thought it would have, but there definitely are problems. It's good that 343 may actually have time to fix most of them. I'm going to get back to playing the beta now, but I'll try to answer any questions that people may have.

TL:DR

It's fun, but still has some issues that should be resolved. It seems like the obvious continuation of Halo 4, and there is potential for it to be fun and interesting when it releases.

TL:DRTTL:DR (Too Long: Didn't Read the TL:DR)
It fun but could better

TL:DRTTL:DRTTL:DR
Stop being lazy


Messages In This Thread

My feelings on Halo 5 so farChris101b12/21/14 12:47 pm
     Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so farcar1512/21/14 1:06 pm
           Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so farChris101b12/21/14 1:37 pm
                 Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so farChris101b12/21/14 1:40 pm
                 Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so far}SoC{BrownSound12/21/14 6:01 pm
     Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so farExanubisleader12/21/14 2:26 pm
           Re: My feelings on Halo 5 so farChris101b12/21/14 3:18 pm
     Server issues. Can't playChris101b12/21/14 3:15 pm
           Re: Server issues. Can't playserpx12/22/14 12:09 pm
     I did 2-3 games. (My reply + Additional Thoughts)serpx12/22/14 10:58 am
           Re: I did 2-3 games. (My reply + Additional Thoughthebruce012/22/14 11:27 am

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