I have noticed that a well placed grenade can knock you around a bit. There have been a couple times where I have been knocked over a railing and off the map. A funny accident but since neither party actually TRIED to make that happen, I don't think it should be able to. But meh. If it stayed, it would be infrequent enough. HOWEVER. Since holding the left trigger allows you to move back into scope after a brief period, it's been really jarring to be, say, knocked off a ledge by a grenade and find myself hovering in the air a moment later. If the knocking around of players were dampened a bit, it may be less of a problem. Or make it so that it has to happen after a jump perhaps.

Also. I'm not sure of the balancing intentions of the spartan charge but I don't always love it. Sometimes I am sprinting to a weapon spawn and an enemy pops out from around a corner. I will hit melee but find that the timing for a spartan charge and a traditional melee aren't quite equivalent. Therefore I find that I send my spartan flying past his target only to be shot in the back. It's something I may have to get used to but it's been really difficult for me thus far.

Having said all that -

I can agree with the notion that this has been my best first impression of a game for a while. It still feels halo without feeling old.

It feels competitive in a very fun way. The gameplay mechanics are coming together nicely in a pretty balanced way.

The movement and map design have allowed me to think about where I am going in a much more tactical way. I am now using the map to loop back on people, join a teammate on a target from a different angle, and travel a map without my team without all being bunched up in one room together. It's been more engaging than any match I have played on MCC or H4.

I can honestly say that so far it's been nice but I am a bit worried about what the game will look like after the other 75% of the weapons are thrown in there. Covenant weapons could change this game A LOT. So far I can combat a team with combos I know. But when the other team starts to dominate plasma weapons and hold our shields down, well, I am afraid that everyone will feel like they're dying too fast.

That's all for now. Overall, I am pretty pleased.