New modes are fun - nice twist on King of the Hill scoring changing it up from purely time/seconds scoring of the past games.
I pretty much hate anything resembling BR so im not a huge fan of Last Spartan standing - but I already won over 5 games in it just trying to unlock the stuff.
Last Spartan Standing Protip: just keep using the stock pistol and never upgrade till you get to the commando or even BR level.
The airdrop spam of overshield/invis drops needs toned down bigtime. By endgame I have a stock pile of overshields which is pure dumb.
Still the mode is fun and a cool addition.
Seems the playlists got some remixes. Slayer BRs is now in Team Slayer. BR starts on the launch pad map was different for sure since that maps is not in ranked. I hope the BR starts isnt weighed too heavy in normal Team Slayer - thats what ranked is for.
I like the Breaker map - open areas is what this game needs badly.
Not a huge fan of the new arena map at the moment. 343 sure loves their cramped levels - gameplay seemed campy and not many people moved around. Its a remix is Epitaph it seems and im pretty sure no one liked that map in Halo 3. I would rather have a Citadel remix. The verticality of the new arena map is cool though - maybe ill like it with more playtime.
The noobs have definitely returned - if only temporary. I was pulling off some insane plays that I havent be able to do since launch time.
Its a start - we knew it would be underwhelming. Game is going to really shine with lots more maps.
Played a dozen or so games with 2 buddies last night and 1 game of LSS.
King of the Hill is an interesting change, seems designed around blowout type game to sustain players not quitting matches and staging comebacks. I'm not huge fan of any modes where you stand in a box and fight but this feels like a good change.
I'm the opposite, I want a full blown Apex Legends but Halo based and with vehicles and full sandbox from all games or Halo 5 weapon variants. It would be so good if done right. I played only one solo game of LSS and I'm really not a fan of this mode as FFA, I've never liked FFA. I have no idea why 343 doesn't have a second playlist or just went with fireteams of 3 or 4. Literally a new mode on new maps and you cannot play with your friends, it makes zero sense in that respect. So many issues I saw in that one game e.g. camping, third/fourth/fifth partying a fight, overshield saturation etc could be mitigated by squads fighting it out. You can have your back covered, comms, team shoot an OS enemy etc. Oh and actually play with your friends. I really won't play FFA LSS. I wait with baited breath in my helmet to see what Max and CA are cooking up though, perhaps a squad based version of LSS I'd jump back in for too.
The breaker map feels like classic BTB coming back. A far better designed map in terms of vehicles vs on foot and getting around with speed while having sightlines to actually dish out damage etc. Actually really like this one and with updates to symmetrical weapon spawns etc it should really shine. The changes to vehicles and being able to get up to speed and get around a map without catching every little edge etc is very welcomed and finally executed in map design and sandbox mechanics well.
The new arena map was fun, because we got two flag, only got to play it once. It felt a lot less random than the launch maps and I/we enjoyed that, it's still feels a bit Epitaph rather than say Standoff or Zanzibar. I far prefer rolling fight maps with only 1 to 2 levels of verticality being maps like The Pit, Zanzibar, Burial Mounds, Standoff, Coag, Battle Creek etc. It could have done with a mix of indoor and outdoor stuff. The 343 split between arena and BTB continues to kill what I consider the best parts of Halo 4v4 rolling maps based play from such brilliant maps. Totally agree with the campiness of 343 designed arena maps, they also promote really McDonalds style play even without camping e.g. quick random engagements. The previous game version maps I mention have more deliberate map movements and engagements based on the terrain or choosing to head indoors vs outdoors or having a light vehicle at the right time.
We got an Aussie based game about 60-65% of the time, which is better than it has been. Unfortunately without hard and fast player/party based filters to lock and load just Australia, when we want to search that, the localised population influx isn't going to be sustained. It will drop off and Mint Blitz and I will both be shaking our fists at the 343/Azure cloud again.
The new campaign weapons in the hacked rooms in BTB need to find their way into arena modes and be opened up to play with. Halo 5 had a few too many variants perhaps in the one game but the current BTB locked rooms and giving those weapons chances to spawn in Arena on incoming displayed drops/known timers and locations would be welcomed in some modes. A good differentiator over say ranked vs social. We played with those weapons in customs and they're quite fun and fresh, it's a shame 343 didn't bring them out to play more. I'm also hoping CA's new mode has plenty to do with weapon variants and fighting for control of them.
Overall it's not something that's going to replace Apex Legends for my daily go to game still. Infinite is not polished enough, the matchmaking systems are still too controlled by 343 and the networking is still questionable even when an Aussie local game is being played. I found at least once, if not multiple times, in our matches I'd still die behind walls a good quarter and half second behind my actual gameplay. I still had some rubberbanding in games, players that appear to walk off pistol headshots and all those usual suspects we've come to expect from a buggy 343 game. They really need to work on player choice being a higher priority over 343/matchmaking systems, they need to improve quality assurance and generally their management choices around sustain. I still found myself on maps like Behemoth looking for a BR only to find Commando spawns.
For example we have new maps and in Team Slayer you have 2 out of 12 game list options for the new map to come up. We didn't get it in that playlist, who knows what the weighting percentages of those options are. We had to play two USA hosted games on maps our 3 man fireteam didn't want to jump into. If you look at it from the player/party perspective it should enable us to define Australia only on new content launch as we'd wait for those quality games with the peaks of population, we'd select the new maps and modes we want so we would likely play for another 1-2+ hours more. The UI still has shite scoreboards and post game reports that are still ordered at random. It makes no sense in slayer to show rounds on the team summary TAB, you don't even see a kill count for example in a quick datagrid of all players in game. These sorts of QoL improvements should never have been required but they're still not a priority for 343.
This sort of lack of player focus and party control permeates many systems and experience elements derived from 343's management decisions in game. It downgrades the game experience and actually shortens your own and your party's time playing the game.
*Never got to play attrition despite our party wanting to. Didn't want to play BTB as we just wouldn't get Aussie games and we cannot force it.
