Perhaps I am too easily hyped, but this beta is amazing. It really feels like Halo. I know it feels a tad contrived to have the announcer and screen tell you when power weapons will spawn, but it does set it back to the original ideals of Halo 2 and 3 of controlling the power weapons and knowing the map. In Halo 4, which I've only started playing recently, none of that really mattered too much since you had a loadout; Reach I can't speak too much on, I didn't play enough to even know where the power weapons were on maps.
Sprint is pretty inconsequential to me. I find myself not sprinting too much except to get to a specific location I know an enemy is or to get to a weapon spawn; it actually feels like it'd be to your detriment to use it too often. Even so, gameplay feels as fast-paced as it has ever been, which is not a bad thing. Halo 2 and 3 were magical, but they are strategic and methodical, advising patience over excitedly engaging opponents. I don't think this is neither good nor bad, it's just different. However, whereas Halo 4 had a similar feel, this game punishes you from engaging enemies haphazardly; I was a beast at Halo 4 with a one-man-army mentality.
The other Spartan abilities are neat in that they all seemed fairly balanced. Spartan Charge has gotten my ass killed more times than I can count for being careless; Hover is a neat addition that throws enemies off if used correctly; Thrust leads to some interesting platforming and vantage points.
I don't have a hugely negative opinion about ADS. It's there and I don't feel like it adds or takes away from the game, except for its use in Hover. I rarely use it on anything that isn't a BR or DMR, anyway.
I feel like this game does a lot right and there doesn't seem to be anything truly wrong or broken about it as of yet.
Actually, one thing that annoys me, the music track that plays on the killcam. I don't even want to see how I die if I have to keep listening to that track. And also, they should show game winning killcams, because there are a couple of multikills I wanted to be shown to rub it in people's faces hehehehe
Ugh yeah getting trash teammates really hurts the experience.
I learned last night never to underestimate the power of a shit team... went from having 5.0+ KDR to being like 2-13 because one team I got paired up with absolutely sucked.