User 73706
Banned
Soo, I just got accepted into Xbox Preview Program and registered my console. How do I get the Guardians Beta again?
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Halo |OT 21| Battle is the Great Redeemer | LIVE. DIE. RESPAWN.
- Thread starter Plywood
- Start date
- Status
too late. it would come in a message, but would likely take the remaining time to download.
NobleGundam
Banned
Omg. I want this so bad.
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
hahahah These are the things Halo has always needed.
It's how you make the game more fun and appealing for a wider audience without necessarily forcing it through dialogue. They can create a serious story that's for a sophisticated audience, but why can't Halo have crazy cheats and wacky Custom Game settings too?
Paintball mode, DK mode, mini Spartans, etc. etc.
brokenwatch
Member
I get unable to reach the servers when I try to sign in 
Jeez guys, you haven't seen that? HBO has a front page, you should check it out.
In case you missed it, here's the Master Chief's animations applied to a Scarab model for your enjoyment as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-D6yMBSHo
In case you missed it, here's the Master Chief's animations applied to a Scarab model for your enjoyment as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-D6yMBSHo
Much better than 4, but needs some tweaking to become truly great. Starting point is already leagues ahead of Reach and H4.
I've honestly had a blast.
biosnake20
Member
Overall it's surprisingly good. With a few tweaks it could be the best halo since 2.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Blows Reach and 4 out of the water, and is, IMO, better than 3 as well. Definitely needs some tweaking, though.
definitely better then 4. seems a bit too fast and chaotic compared to old school for me, but likely just will take further adjustment.
Welfare
Member
Right now, it seems to have stopped the cycle of the next Halo game being worse than the previous. In fact it's better than the past 2 games (Reach and 4). I need more time and more of the sandbox before I say it's better than Halo 3.
ElzarTheBam
Member
I've had a blast.
Really looking forward to the full beta.
Can't see me playing it more than Battlefront 3 come next year but certainly going to be played more than H4.
Also GGs Chris, Kenneth and Cyren.
Really looking forward to the full beta.
Can't see me playing it more than Battlefront 3 come next year but certainly going to be played more than H4.
Also GGs Chris, Kenneth and Cyren.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Hey, just now watching last night's episode of The Sprint, and I'm noticing that technically, Empire is the remixed map of something they were internally referring to as High Rise. Curious to see what the original is like (called Eden).
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
Best game with the most potential since CE. If they listen to feedback and disable motion tracker, increased the RRR of the Magnum, continue to seriously evaluate the significance of sprint, etc., this could become the Combat Evolved to Combat Evolved without being
There's definitely a lot of potential and I'm excited to see BTB.
Combat Evolved 2.
There's definitely a lot of potential and I'm excited to see BTB.
GringoSuave89
Banned
Noticed that too. There's some juicy stuff if you're quick enough.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Yeah. The concept art at the start of tonight's episode is... interesting.
There's a very familiar color scheme in there that I think my sister would recognize
EDIT: Also, the implications of SMG starts on Breakout are just hitting me. Lawwwwd.
Jellycrackers
Member
Putting down the controller now for the Halo 5 Guardians Early access beta. Tons of fun. I managed to get to Onyx Rank 1 and I'm quitting now while I'm ahead.
Once I figured out never to sprint after a fight and properly use thrusters, I felt like I had the game on lockdown.
Thrusters are great for reversals when someone gets the jump on you. I did that a whole lot. It's also how I GTFO when I realize I'm not gonna survive a fight. SMG is awesome. I wish the DMR was a 4 shot kill, but I can see why it isn't since it out-ranges the BR.
Overall, extremely fun, fast paced combat. Map movement and knowing clamber routes feels REALLY important, and pulling off cool map movement to get around behind a group of enemies during an encounter feels awesome.
I'm pumped for this game.
Once I figured out never to sprint after a fight and properly use thrusters, I felt like I had the game on lockdown.
Thrusters are great for reversals when someone gets the jump on you. I did that a whole lot. It's also how I GTFO when I realize I'm not gonna survive a fight. SMG is awesome. I wish the DMR was a 4 shot kill, but I can see why it isn't since it out-ranges the BR.
Overall, extremely fun, fast paced combat. Map movement and knowing clamber routes feels REALLY important, and pulling off cool map movement to get around behind a group of enemies during an encounter feels awesome.
I'm pumped for this game.
What is RRR? Personally I am loving how fast and mobile I can be. I've run circles around people. Really starting to get into advanced moved with charge and thruster. Also, I'm starting to become deadly with ground pound.
The smg is too powerful and the pistol needs to be more effective at mid range.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Red Reticule Range.
Thruster needs to stay as is. It empowers me beyond belief I love it. Toning any of the new moves down would be a mistake. Big time.
I'm really enjoying it. It's fast paced. A bit chaotic but a ton of fun. There are some definite tweaks which need to be made.
The AR needs a nerf. I love that it's now a viable weapon, however it's extremely powerful. The smg too.
The ranking system is all kinds of fucked up. I like it in concept, the tier system is cool etc. However the formula they are using for giving out points makes no sense. I won by about 50-30 and I went 20 for 3 against a team of similarly tiered players and got 7 points. I then lost against a similarly tiered team by about 4 and I went 15 for 5, lost 85 points. These specific case may have been glitches, however in general the points you get for winning are far less than that for losing.
Other than that in seriously enjoying it. The new focus on movement is great, the fact that all weapons are useful is really nice, the shooting in general is really satisfying. Overall I'm extremely positive.
Oh yeah, pistol needs a bit of a buff. Increase the RRR.
The AR needs a nerf. I love that it's now a viable weapon, however it's extremely powerful. The smg too.
The ranking system is all kinds of fucked up. I like it in concept, the tier system is cool etc. However the formula they are using for giving out points makes no sense. I won by about 50-30 and I went 20 for 3 against a team of similarly tiered players and got 7 points. I then lost against a similarly tiered team by about 4 and I went 15 for 5, lost 85 points. These specific case may have been glitches, however in general the points you get for winning are far less than that for losing.
Other than that in seriously enjoying it. The new focus on movement is great, the fact that all weapons are useful is really nice, the shooting in general is really satisfying. Overall I'm extremely positive.
Oh yeah, pistol needs a bit of a buff. Increase the RRR.
Fahzgoolin
Banned
Game is awesome. Love Halo 5 so far even though it's a bit rough in places. Like others have said the pistol needs a range buff and the flinch/aim punch needs to go away as well as grenades exploding in your hands from a stray bullet. I wish you could shoot while thrusting.
So excited for this game now. Keep it up 343. Build a good game and they will come.
So excited for this game now. Keep it up 343. Build a good game and they will come.
Welfare
Member
Cross posting feedback and a quick sorry. Could not figure how to make this any shorter.
Ranking System
- When the player has found a match, on the top of the screen, have a box that informs the player exactly how the player will be rewarded.
ie: Win Match = +10 points | Loss Match = -12 points | Quit match = -20 points.
- When selecting a Ranked playlist, the player should be able to press a button (X) to bring up a message that will inform the player on what ranking is and how ranking is calculated in that playlist.
- Rank Emblems should have a "Shine" tier (3 tiers). This is to help the player quickly identify which tier of a division another player is in.
ie: Onyx Tier 1 = No shine (Normal emblem) | Onyx Tier 2 = Some Shine | Onyx Tier 3 = Most Shine
UI
- While looking in the roster, allow the Right Stick to quickly move the list up and down, and the Triggers to go up and down pages, just like in Halo 4.
- Allow less than 4 characters in the Service Tag.
- Like in MCC, add a "view map" option to a playlist.
- Text in the Service Record appears to be inconsistent with the text in the rest of the game. If true, please correct.
- Before the map loads, the player should get to know which map they will play in while in the searching/loading screen.
- When loading into a map, add a countdown to when actual playing can commence.
- Add back the "Time until respawn" countdown.
- No Hitmarkers
- Where the weapon is position in the UI, add a numeric value next to the clip for ease of use. ie: 8 ||||||||
Maps
Truth
- Give "Pink" an actual pink coat of paint.
- Decrease the map size by ~10%. Right now it is somewhat difficult to easily find other players.
- Make sure Carbine actually gets a Carbine.
Empire
- Replace Sniper in Tower with another Power weapon/Power up.
Spartan Abilities
Sprint
- Allow the player to Sprint out of ADS.
- When the player has no shields, slow down Sprint by 25%
- When shields are recharging, if the player is sprinting, shields should recharge 50% slower
- Once shot, take the player out of Sprint instantly.
Slide
- Allow the player to shoot while sliding.
- Let the Slide last longer.
Smart Link (ADS)
- Allow a classic version
Ground Pound
- Decrease the range.
- Require that the player has to hit the enemy for any damage.
- If the player misses a hit, no damage should be given to the enemy. Only knockback.
- Increase height requirement for use.
Truster
- Allow the player to shoot while in Thrust.
Weapons
DMR
- Decrease Rate of Fire
- Add an extra bullet to the clip. 15 in total
- Make the bullet more visible when shooting.
AR
- When in ADS, remove the "Scope" benefit. Player should be required to burst fire the weapon for accuracy now that it will have a constant scope.
- Slow the Rate of Fire OR require an extra 2-4 bullets to kill.
General
- Get rid of Flinch
- Improve animations in the map skyboxes
- Very enjoyable from what I played.
Ranking System
- When the player has found a match, on the top of the screen, have a box that informs the player exactly how the player will be rewarded.
ie: Win Match = +10 points | Loss Match = -12 points | Quit match = -20 points.
- When selecting a Ranked playlist, the player should be able to press a button (X) to bring up a message that will inform the player on what ranking is and how ranking is calculated in that playlist.
- Rank Emblems should have a "Shine" tier (3 tiers). This is to help the player quickly identify which tier of a division another player is in.
ie: Onyx Tier 1 = No shine (Normal emblem) | Onyx Tier 2 = Some Shine | Onyx Tier 3 = Most Shine
UI
- While looking in the roster, allow the Right Stick to quickly move the list up and down, and the Triggers to go up and down pages, just like in Halo 4.
- Allow less than 4 characters in the Service Tag.
- Like in MCC, add a "view map" option to a playlist.
- Text in the Service Record appears to be inconsistent with the text in the rest of the game. If true, please correct.
- Before the map loads, the player should get to know which map they will play in while in the searching/loading screen.
- When loading into a map, add a countdown to when actual playing can commence.
- Add back the "Time until respawn" countdown.
- No Hitmarkers
- Where the weapon is position in the UI, add a numeric value next to the clip for ease of use. ie: 8 ||||||||
Maps
Truth
- Give "Pink" an actual pink coat of paint.
- Decrease the map size by ~10%. Right now it is somewhat difficult to easily find other players.
- Make sure Carbine actually gets a Carbine.
Empire
- Replace Sniper in Tower with another Power weapon/Power up.
Spartan Abilities
Sprint
- Allow the player to Sprint out of ADS.
- When the player has no shields, slow down Sprint by 25%
- When shields are recharging, if the player is sprinting, shields should recharge 50% slower
- Once shot, take the player out of Sprint instantly.
Slide
- Allow the player to shoot while sliding.
- Let the Slide last longer.
Smart Link (ADS)
- Allow a classic version
Ground Pound
- Decrease the range.
- Require that the player has to hit the enemy for any damage.
- If the player misses a hit, no damage should be given to the enemy. Only knockback.
- Increase height requirement for use.
Truster
- Allow the player to shoot while in Thrust.
Weapons
DMR
- Decrease Rate of Fire
- Add an extra bullet to the clip. 15 in total
- Make the bullet more visible when shooting.
AR
- When in ADS, remove the "Scope" benefit. Player should be required to burst fire the weapon for accuracy now that it will have a constant scope.
- Slow the Rate of Fire OR require an extra 2-4 bullets to kill.
General
- Get rid of Flinch
- Improve animations in the map skyboxes
- Very enjoyable from what I played.
Onikaan
Member
Bug report.
http://xboxclips.com/Reclaimer+Gord/7c94ed3b-7a3a-4179-9772-39e2b43cb995
This happens everytime I try to join matchmaking.
http://xboxclips.com/Reclaimer+Gord/7c94ed3b-7a3a-4179-9772-39e2b43cb995
This happens everytime I try to join matchmaking.
Poodlestrike
Banned
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
As Poodle said, it stands for Red Reticle Range. An increase in its RRR would make the Magnum more effective at range because your reticle being red means it retains its aim assist properties, similar to how they increased the RRR of the Light Rifle when zoomed in Halo 4 while remaining as a 2x weapon.
Yup, I definitely don't think it should be nerfed at all. If anything, I wouldn't mind a second thrust if you build up enough time (~8 secs) to get that second thrust, but if you use a thrust any time before that it can only be done once. Could be interesting.
And hopefully they let us thrust while carrying the objective. Speaking of which, that little tease Quinn threw at us about pressing LT to build up energy to SPEAR the flag sounds awesome.
Demoncarnotaur
Member
But then what about clamber?
I say holding jump/clamber should also cause the spartan to crouch mid air, allowing for easy crouch jumps. It's not a perfect solution, but it would work.
Let's get some games in FUNKNOWN. Get on!
FATstronaut
Member
NobleGundam
Banned
Why is flinch needed in H5? It's less annoying now than before in H4, but still bugs me when I see it happen on a player and just punishes players more in comparison to descope.
This is long, and I don't know how well it will translate once I've played a broader swath of the actual game, but...feedback on this section of the beta content.
On Smart Scope
I really didn’t know what to think of the smart scope addition when the details got out. Holistically, I’m against it because it has the potential to create a lot of unnecessary visual noise, but...on the other hand, it’s an important step in relating to an audience that is very much used to the idea of iron sights. In practice, I find the implementation to be extremely hit-or-miss - both visually and in terms of mechanical impact. The BR, which I assume will eventually take its normal place as the starting weapon, is more or less inoffensive, and provides a lot of visual clarity while maintaining that grounded feeling that I feel the game is going for. On the other hand, the DMR’s scope is everything that I had feared, creating massive tunnel vision for the player. It seems as though this is intended to balance out the DMR’s range, but at least on these maps, it creates a massively claustrophobic feeling where the weapon’s effective range barely comes into play at all. Seeing footage of the Light Rifle’s ADS, it appears to be the best implementation I’ve seen so far. Very unobtrusive, provides a nice zoom and aesthetically fits the weapon.
For automatics, it’s a bit of a different story. The visuals on the automatics ADS are unobtrusive and fit the style of gameplay. However, they dramatically change those weapons’ roles in gameplay, and not for the better. Their effective range has been pushed out to an incredible degree, and their role in the sandbox now isn’t quite clear to me. Not only do they dominate all close range interactions in the game, but they are overly effective at mid-range as well - there will be more on this below. The long-and-short of it is that when these roles are blended, it teaches new players bad habits. They should be getting accustomed to using automatic weapons as close-range dominators, not as all-purpose workhorses, at least when they’re provided on-spawn.
Finally, the sniper. Right now, scoping on the sniper just doesn’t feel right. There seems to be a significant animation between input and full zoom state. This leads to a feeling of disempowerment when using the sniper and makes players very cautious and pushes them away them from the old constant scope/unscope loop that was previously present. I would move away from whatever animation is playing for that and back to the low frame count digital zoom that it previously had.
Starting Weapons
As it currently stands, AR + Magnum starts is just not a satisfying experience. I think this is in part because the two weapons, as currently balanced, strongly share intended ranges. Both are exceptionally useful at short-mid range, but are still not capable of effectively fighting on-spawn against enemies with longer-range rifles. In a strange twist, the effective range on automatic weapons (perhaps due to smart scope’s dramatic accuracy bonus) is far, far too high. Let’s look at a hypothetical fight between an AR and BR user at close-midrange. In my limited experience, the AR as it stands becomes a weapon that, if you do not four-shot them, you are either dead and they’re happily reloading and looking for the next fight, or you're so close to dead that someone winking at you would leave you staring at a respawn screen. Looking at the required effort for these two players, one is forced to get a perfect or near-perfect kill in order to win, and the other is holding down a trigger - I don’t think this is a satisfying interaction just based on the relative levels of effort being asked of each player. And if an AR user gets the drop on you and gets even a few shots in before you can react? There’s no reliable way you’re coming back from that, and it creates a pace to the game that I don't think I'm a fan of - you can juke precision fire, but you can't really juke a wall of automatic bullets.
Make no mistake, an AR should win hands-down at close range; that’s what the weapon class has always excelled at...but from what I’ve seen, automatics are bleeding heavily over into the mid-range class which in my opinion, has muddied their interplay with the other rifles in the game pretty strongly. For what it’s worth, my suggestion would be to remove smart scope from the AR, increase its base spread, and then it may be quite viable as a secondary starting weapon, a player’s short range option, while tweaking the SMG’s smart scope spread to be slightly less punishing if the SMG user gets the drop on you - because again, the level of effort required for an automatic user is so, so much less than a semi-automatic rifle user in order to even trade kills. If the intention for matchmaking is to keep the core playlists as BR or DMR starts, then I think the AR is in an acceptable state, but it also has severe overlap with the SMG in terms of effective functional usage states.
On the topic of starting weapons, the Magnum, as I mentioned previously, doesn’t feel like it has much of a place in AR start matches. Their functional range overlaps considerably, and it’s tough to push out using the Magnum because at long range, the scope overlay makes it tough to land shots - a larger effect on-hit (like the CE pistol’s explosive rounds, for example) would go a long way towards helping the player understand where their shots are landing and how the recoil is affecting their performance. As-is, the recoil feels as though it is making it very hard to compete at any range with an automatic or precision rifle user. It feels like a good secondary no-options-left weapon, but it doesn’t effectively fill that role because it takes too long to pull out in a firefight given the current kill times.Reducing its recoil and increasing the swap speed might help it find a place in the current balancing.
Audio and Chatter
There are a lot of things I really like about the audio design we’ve seen so far, but that comes with some caveats. For example, I think the shield-down noise is a really great reintroduction from Reach’s system, granting good feedback to the player on when they’re in danger. The weapons feel beefy and distinct. Callouts provide a brief glimpse of the state of the battlefield to players who would not ordinarily communicate to their team, and help to equalize that communication barrier...which can be seen as a positive and a negative, depending on the context. The issues I have are namely the shield depletion beeps and some specific callout quirks. With the first, the beeps and recharge seem as though they are overly shrill - one observer immediately noted that it was giving them a headache. Not a personal issue for me, but I think this is something that may present a problem to a wider audience.
Regarding the callouts, I think that overall they are a net positive for pub play. Randoms will get a slight boost in their effectiveness without needing to rely on everyone having a mic or using the one they have or even being capable of effectively and clearly communicating the state of a match, but there are some quirks that I think absolutely need to go. For one, actual locational and event callouts are good. Random ego boosts (“Nice headshot!” “Thanks for the assists!” “Good snipe!” are really quite unnecessary given the other feedback mechanisms in the game. You already have both a killfeed message and a medal for each of these instances - there does not need to be the aural equivalent of an announcer callout for these very mundane events. Additionally, teammate callouts should not include utility or standard weapons, just those in the “power weapon” category. When “Picked up a DMR!” drowns out the callout for the enemy sniper being picked up, this is a huge problem - utility weapons are picked up regularly and often, a callout is totally unneeded.
Just to touch on the announcer, it seems as though he is overly chatty in this game - it was an issue I had with Halo 4 as well, which appears to be carrying over. When announcer-producing events are properly spaced out, it feels as though he is constantly talking - things like Hard Target, Reversal, and Perfect add to an already-busy audio landscape, and it may be worth considering removing the announcer flag from some of the more common medal types.
What Works
I think that the following mechanics were very nearly knocked out of the park, even with all the skepticism I had:
- Thruster - the cooldown may need to be increased slightly, but it is incredibly satisfying to use.
- Clamber - my only current concern is that there are very few non-clamber jumps present in the maps we’ve seen. A more robust mixture of jumps would be appreciated.
- The rifle combat - The combat with the utility weapons is more impressive as-is than perhaps any Halo game in the last decade. Unfortunately, this is marred by the impact automatic weapons have on the game in their current state.
- The sprint/shield balancing - sprint now becomes almost solely an initiation tool, not a getaway. I’m very impressed by the execution, it’s an exceptionally smart mechanic.
- Separate HUD elements for shields, health, and regen delay - these are really smart additions to help players make informed decisions about their combat capabilities.
A Note on Traversal
As I mentioned above, the traversal mechanics are a welcome addition to Halo - they’re executed well and give a good sense of weight and speed to the game. Some of the animations that play in the transitions between traversal modes seem to be a little long or sudden, not having quite the smoothness that I would expect. I'm not sure whether to chalk this up to a need for frame canceling or just it being too early a timeframe to expect animation polish.
The Maps
Truth
I really only have a few comments about the maps we’ve seen. I think Truth is a really strong adaptation of Midship that does a good job of accounting for the gameplay changes H5 is making. There are a few issues I have with it, however. Pink tower and old carbine are not visually distinct enough at a glance - you can definitely tell them apart, but orienting yourself isn’t exactly as much of a cinch as it should be. If I were to suggest a change, it would simply be to bathe Pink 2 in a pink light that spills out onto the ramps, to help people get a sense of exactly where they are on the map, and perhaps a similar light of a different color above the carbine lift. Apart from that, my only issues are with the current weapon setup (specifically, not enough variety in weapon placement and occasional lack of rifle spawns), but I think a significant chunk of that will change with other starting weapons and as more weapons are revealed, since I’m sure the current state of weapon placement is not indicative of the final product.
Empire
Empire...I’m much colder on. I like the layout well enough, but it’s extremely busy visually. There are not really good clear sightlines from base to base and from tower to outside. Lots of sight blockers that just seem to jut out of map geometry, creating a very hodgepodge sort of look - a look that isn’t easy to parse at a glance. In addition, some window heights feel as though they were not well thought out given the sightlines the player will be trying to get while looking out of them. A good example of what I’m talking about is the tower side windows - when looking out of them towards the red/blue outside location, your vision is obstructed by the forward side ledges of the tower. You can see a tiny horizontal strip above and below the ledge, but not to the degree that actually empowers the player to have a sense of control of the map.
There are also a couple of other geometrical issues I have with the map - in particular, the standoffs that the outside area with the two elevated cylinders creates are not very interesting - it’s often very passive because there’s no good flanking route that you can take with any degree of certainty, at least not when radar is on. The Turbine area as a whole is very cluttered with that kind of thing, and often promotes a lot of passive play. The second level of each base, with the upper window, doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it should - you have a tiny outside ledge (going from DMR spawn to the tower ledge), the upper window, and no inner ledge. Ultimately, it feels as though it’s only designed to push into the base from, but the way it's implemented feels very much like a prototype of a good idea and needs to be refined. Finally, Empire in particular seems like it has done away with normal jumps in favor of the clamber height - I like that the maps are obviously designed with the new mechanics in mind, but it feels almost like a proof-of-concept in how prevalent the clamber jumps are. There are a few places I would do away with the clamber jump in favor of normal ramps - one such location is the hallway from Tower to Red and Blue Base. This is in part because it feels as though there’s no good way to maintain stealth from tower to the base, which could cause some issues if the dominant tone of flag and bomb from older Halo games are maintained, where staying off of radar is a priority. Finally, I think the central area surrounding the pit needs to be looked at more closely - it’s tough to describe, but it feels very messy. I think that the sharp triple elevation changes combined with the narrow escape chutes and flank routes contributes to this feeling - there isn’t a great sense of flow.
Final Thoughts
On the whole, I came away from this early access period of the beta pretty impressed. There are a lot of departures from the Halo formula that drew me to the series in the first place, but these elements, by and large, feel pretty well thought out and there are a lot of smart mitigating factors in place that help bear the brunt of their impact. I think with some tweaking, it could be a truly great experience. The kinetic feeling that 343’s trying to accomplish comes across very well, and with some smoother transitions between the traversal animations I think it'll be a big step forward. My primary concerns going forward are how automatics are handled, the treatment of certain weapons' ADS, the remainder of the map roster’s design, and how objective modes are designed going forward - the latter being one of the largest issues I had with Halo 4 (and H2A, specifically in terms of HUD elements for objective markers). The rest of my issues are primarily centered around the A/V wrapper, like HUD noise and the busy nature of the audio landscape, which I understand probably appeal to an audience that I’m simply not a part of.
I dunno. I really liked what I played, or at least I saw a lot of potential in it. I think it all comes down to how the elements are executed, really. For what it's worth, I think that a lot of their balancing techniques for these new abilities are paying off - you'll notice that not a word was said about ground pound because it's a complete non-factor. It's a showboat move, and that's okay. Where Halo 4 felt a lot like "Halo plus this other stuff on top," this feels more like "Halo with this other stuff integrated into its core," which is a pretty big step up. I don't know if it'll all work out - I need to see more of it to say that. But this was a pretty decent first step. It brings its own set of issues alongside it, but who knows? Maybe they'll be addressed.
On Smart Scope
I really didn’t know what to think of the smart scope addition when the details got out. Holistically, I’m against it because it has the potential to create a lot of unnecessary visual noise, but...on the other hand, it’s an important step in relating to an audience that is very much used to the idea of iron sights. In practice, I find the implementation to be extremely hit-or-miss - both visually and in terms of mechanical impact. The BR, which I assume will eventually take its normal place as the starting weapon, is more or less inoffensive, and provides a lot of visual clarity while maintaining that grounded feeling that I feel the game is going for. On the other hand, the DMR’s scope is everything that I had feared, creating massive tunnel vision for the player. It seems as though this is intended to balance out the DMR’s range, but at least on these maps, it creates a massively claustrophobic feeling where the weapon’s effective range barely comes into play at all. Seeing footage of the Light Rifle’s ADS, it appears to be the best implementation I’ve seen so far. Very unobtrusive, provides a nice zoom and aesthetically fits the weapon.
For automatics, it’s a bit of a different story. The visuals on the automatics ADS are unobtrusive and fit the style of gameplay. However, they dramatically change those weapons’ roles in gameplay, and not for the better. Their effective range has been pushed out to an incredible degree, and their role in the sandbox now isn’t quite clear to me. Not only do they dominate all close range interactions in the game, but they are overly effective at mid-range as well - there will be more on this below. The long-and-short of it is that when these roles are blended, it teaches new players bad habits. They should be getting accustomed to using automatic weapons as close-range dominators, not as all-purpose workhorses, at least when they’re provided on-spawn.
Finally, the sniper. Right now, scoping on the sniper just doesn’t feel right. There seems to be a significant animation between input and full zoom state. This leads to a feeling of disempowerment when using the sniper and makes players very cautious and pushes them away them from the old constant scope/unscope loop that was previously present. I would move away from whatever animation is playing for that and back to the low frame count digital zoom that it previously had.
Starting Weapons
As it currently stands, AR + Magnum starts is just not a satisfying experience. I think this is in part because the two weapons, as currently balanced, strongly share intended ranges. Both are exceptionally useful at short-mid range, but are still not capable of effectively fighting on-spawn against enemies with longer-range rifles. In a strange twist, the effective range on automatic weapons (perhaps due to smart scope’s dramatic accuracy bonus) is far, far too high. Let’s look at a hypothetical fight between an AR and BR user at close-midrange. In my limited experience, the AR as it stands becomes a weapon that, if you do not four-shot them, you are either dead and they’re happily reloading and looking for the next fight, or you're so close to dead that someone winking at you would leave you staring at a respawn screen. Looking at the required effort for these two players, one is forced to get a perfect or near-perfect kill in order to win, and the other is holding down a trigger - I don’t think this is a satisfying interaction just based on the relative levels of effort being asked of each player. And if an AR user gets the drop on you and gets even a few shots in before you can react? There’s no reliable way you’re coming back from that, and it creates a pace to the game that I don't think I'm a fan of - you can juke precision fire, but you can't really juke a wall of automatic bullets.
Make no mistake, an AR should win hands-down at close range; that’s what the weapon class has always excelled at...but from what I’ve seen, automatics are bleeding heavily over into the mid-range class which in my opinion, has muddied their interplay with the other rifles in the game pretty strongly. For what it’s worth, my suggestion would be to remove smart scope from the AR, increase its base spread, and then it may be quite viable as a secondary starting weapon, a player’s short range option, while tweaking the SMG’s smart scope spread to be slightly less punishing if the SMG user gets the drop on you - because again, the level of effort required for an automatic user is so, so much less than a semi-automatic rifle user in order to even trade kills. If the intention for matchmaking is to keep the core playlists as BR or DMR starts, then I think the AR is in an acceptable state, but it also has severe overlap with the SMG in terms of effective functional usage states.
On the topic of starting weapons, the Magnum, as I mentioned previously, doesn’t feel like it has much of a place in AR start matches. Their functional range overlaps considerably, and it’s tough to push out using the Magnum because at long range, the scope overlay makes it tough to land shots - a larger effect on-hit (like the CE pistol’s explosive rounds, for example) would go a long way towards helping the player understand where their shots are landing and how the recoil is affecting their performance. As-is, the recoil feels as though it is making it very hard to compete at any range with an automatic or precision rifle user. It feels like a good secondary no-options-left weapon, but it doesn’t effectively fill that role because it takes too long to pull out in a firefight given the current kill times.Reducing its recoil and increasing the swap speed might help it find a place in the current balancing.
Audio and Chatter
There are a lot of things I really like about the audio design we’ve seen so far, but that comes with some caveats. For example, I think the shield-down noise is a really great reintroduction from Reach’s system, granting good feedback to the player on when they’re in danger. The weapons feel beefy and distinct. Callouts provide a brief glimpse of the state of the battlefield to players who would not ordinarily communicate to their team, and help to equalize that communication barrier...which can be seen as a positive and a negative, depending on the context. The issues I have are namely the shield depletion beeps and some specific callout quirks. With the first, the beeps and recharge seem as though they are overly shrill - one observer immediately noted that it was giving them a headache. Not a personal issue for me, but I think this is something that may present a problem to a wider audience.
Regarding the callouts, I think that overall they are a net positive for pub play. Randoms will get a slight boost in their effectiveness without needing to rely on everyone having a mic or using the one they have or even being capable of effectively and clearly communicating the state of a match, but there are some quirks that I think absolutely need to go. For one, actual locational and event callouts are good. Random ego boosts (“Nice headshot!” “Thanks for the assists!” “Good snipe!”
are really quite unnecessary given the other feedback mechanisms in the game. You already have both a killfeed message and a medal for each of these instances - there does not need to be the aural equivalent of an announcer callout for these very mundane events. Additionally, teammate callouts should not include utility or standard weapons, just those in the “power weapon” category. When “Picked up a DMR!” drowns out the callout for the enemy sniper being picked up, this is a huge problem - utility weapons are picked up regularly and often, a callout is totally unneeded.Just to touch on the announcer, it seems as though he is overly chatty in this game - it was an issue I had with Halo 4 as well, which appears to be carrying over. When announcer-producing events are properly spaced out, it feels as though he is constantly talking - things like Hard Target, Reversal, and Perfect add to an already-busy audio landscape, and it may be worth considering removing the announcer flag from some of the more common medal types.
What Works
I think that the following mechanics were very nearly knocked out of the park, even with all the skepticism I had:
- Thruster - the cooldown may need to be increased slightly, but it is incredibly satisfying to use.
- Clamber - my only current concern is that there are very few non-clamber jumps present in the maps we’ve seen. A more robust mixture of jumps would be appreciated.
- The rifle combat - The combat with the utility weapons is more impressive as-is than perhaps any Halo game in the last decade. Unfortunately, this is marred by the impact automatic weapons have on the game in their current state.
- The sprint/shield balancing - sprint now becomes almost solely an initiation tool, not a getaway. I’m very impressed by the execution, it’s an exceptionally smart mechanic.
- Separate HUD elements for shields, health, and regen delay - these are really smart additions to help players make informed decisions about their combat capabilities.
A Note on Traversal
As I mentioned above, the traversal mechanics are a welcome addition to Halo - they’re executed well and give a good sense of weight and speed to the game. Some of the animations that play in the transitions between traversal modes seem to be a little long or sudden, not having quite the smoothness that I would expect. I'm not sure whether to chalk this up to a need for frame canceling or just it being too early a timeframe to expect animation polish.
The Maps
Truth
I really only have a few comments about the maps we’ve seen. I think Truth is a really strong adaptation of Midship that does a good job of accounting for the gameplay changes H5 is making. There are a few issues I have with it, however. Pink tower and old carbine are not visually distinct enough at a glance - you can definitely tell them apart, but orienting yourself isn’t exactly as much of a cinch as it should be. If I were to suggest a change, it would simply be to bathe Pink 2 in a pink light that spills out onto the ramps, to help people get a sense of exactly where they are on the map, and perhaps a similar light of a different color above the carbine lift. Apart from that, my only issues are with the current weapon setup (specifically, not enough variety in weapon placement and occasional lack of rifle spawns), but I think a significant chunk of that will change with other starting weapons and as more weapons are revealed, since I’m sure the current state of weapon placement is not indicative of the final product.
Empire
Empire...I’m much colder on. I like the layout well enough, but it’s extremely busy visually. There are not really good clear sightlines from base to base and from tower to outside. Lots of sight blockers that just seem to jut out of map geometry, creating a very hodgepodge sort of look - a look that isn’t easy to parse at a glance. In addition, some window heights feel as though they were not well thought out given the sightlines the player will be trying to get while looking out of them. A good example of what I’m talking about is the tower side windows - when looking out of them towards the red/blue outside location, your vision is obstructed by the forward side ledges of the tower. You can see a tiny horizontal strip above and below the ledge, but not to the degree that actually empowers the player to have a sense of control of the map.
There are also a couple of other geometrical issues I have with the map - in particular, the standoffs that the outside area with the two elevated cylinders creates are not very interesting - it’s often very passive because there’s no good flanking route that you can take with any degree of certainty, at least not when radar is on. The Turbine area as a whole is very cluttered with that kind of thing, and often promotes a lot of passive play. The second level of each base, with the upper window, doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it should - you have a tiny outside ledge (going from DMR spawn to the tower ledge), the upper window, and no inner ledge. Ultimately, it feels as though it’s only designed to push into the base from, but the way it's implemented feels very much like a prototype of a good idea and needs to be refined. Finally, Empire in particular seems like it has done away with normal jumps in favor of the clamber height - I like that the maps are obviously designed with the new mechanics in mind, but it feels almost like a proof-of-concept in how prevalent the clamber jumps are. There are a few places I would do away with the clamber jump in favor of normal ramps - one such location is the hallway from Tower to Red and Blue Base. This is in part because it feels as though there’s no good way to maintain stealth from tower to the base, which could cause some issues if the dominant tone of flag and bomb from older Halo games are maintained, where staying off of radar is a priority. Finally, I think the central area surrounding the pit needs to be looked at more closely - it’s tough to describe, but it feels very messy. I think that the sharp triple elevation changes combined with the narrow escape chutes and flank routes contributes to this feeling - there isn’t a great sense of flow.
Final Thoughts
On the whole, I came away from this early access period of the beta pretty impressed. There are a lot of departures from the Halo formula that drew me to the series in the first place, but these elements, by and large, feel pretty well thought out and there are a lot of smart mitigating factors in place that help bear the brunt of their impact. I think with some tweaking, it could be a truly great experience. The kinetic feeling that 343’s trying to accomplish comes across very well, and with some smoother transitions between the traversal animations I think it'll be a big step forward. My primary concerns going forward are how automatics are handled, the treatment of certain weapons' ADS, the remainder of the map roster’s design, and how objective modes are designed going forward - the latter being one of the largest issues I had with Halo 4 (and H2A, specifically in terms of HUD elements for objective markers). The rest of my issues are primarily centered around the A/V wrapper, like HUD noise and the busy nature of the audio landscape, which I understand probably appeal to an audience that I’m simply not a part of.
I dunno. I really liked what I played, or at least I saw a lot of potential in it. I think it all comes down to how the elements are executed, really. For what it's worth, I think that a lot of their balancing techniques for these new abilities are paying off - you'll notice that not a word was said about ground pound because it's a complete non-factor. It's a showboat move, and that's okay. Where Halo 4 felt a lot like "Halo plus this other stuff on top," this feels more like "Halo with this other stuff integrated into its core," which is a pretty big step up. I don't know if it'll all work out - I need to see more of it to say that. But this was a pretty decent first step. It brings its own set of issues alongside it, but who knows? Maybe they'll be addressed.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
I'm curious why Beta feedback is limited to USA residents only? This seems somewhat counter productive for international players.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/halo-community-feedback-program
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/halo-community-feedback-program
FUNKNOWN iXi
Member
Hasn't been working for me all day ;'''''''''''''''[
Been itching to play too! Playing some Disney Infinity 2.0 with my nephew for a bit, but I'll try [and get my hopes up] later.
Computer
Member
This ^^
the AR as it stands becomes a weapon that, if you do not four-shot them, you are either dead and they’re happily reloading and looking for the next fight, or you're so close to dead that someone winking at you would leave you staring at a respawn screen.
It is a problem but I don't know how to fix it. I love the AR as it is now but there is a definite balance issue. Maybe add a bit more auto aim to the BR and take away more auto aim on the AR.
the AR as it stands becomes a weapon that, if you do not four-shot them, you are either dead and they’re happily reloading and looking for the next fight, or you're so close to dead that someone winking at you would leave you staring at a respawn screen.
It is a problem but I don't know how to fix it. I love the AR as it is now but there is a definite balance issue. Maybe add a bit more auto aim to the BR and take away more auto aim on the AR.
biosnake20
Member
My biggest problem with the game is flinch. Out of all the changes this is the one that makes it feel most like CoD. You always have to play very campy and defensive because you need that first shot. Getting the first shot has always been important in Halo before but not like this. It really changes the flow of the gameplay for the worse. Even problems like the AR being a bit too powerful are multiplied because of flinch.
lybertyboy
Thinks the Evil Empire is just misunderstood.
As is the case in most situations where the logic doesn't make sense, this is a legal issue. Though we are working to open it up to a wider audience.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Thanks for the reply, those damned pesky laws and legal eagles
Hopefully it can be opened up.Aussie Wedgie > American Bald Eagle (just had to, it's a funny read)
does unlimited sprint worry you?
I'm pretty sure Trueskill is broken or the population has already permanently diminished to the point where the only players left are absurdly better than me.
In H2A I've got a K/D of .51 with a lifetime total of 58 kills and 113 deaths. I haven't won a matchmade game in H2A in over a week and I'm fairly certain that I've won fewer than five since launch.
Compare that to my K/D in:
Halo 4 - 1.215 (2.14 W/L)
Halo Reach - 1.19 (1.58 W/L)
Halo 3 - 1.01 (Ranked) 1.15 (Social) (1483 Games with 1003 EXP)
Halo 2 - 1.88
My stats in the other MCC games are pretty similar, with me just getting shit on left and right with absolutely no recourse to be found. Is this the case with anyone else, or am I just bad at Halo now?
Also, can we talk about how fucking horrible Waypoint is now? There are literally no stats. I can't even sort between custom games and matchmade ones. It is the absolute worst stat tracker that's bothered to exist that I have ever seen. Halo 2 had better stat tracking, and that was ten years ago.
In H2A I've got a K/D of .51 with a lifetime total of 58 kills and 113 deaths. I haven't won a matchmade game in H2A in over a week and I'm fairly certain that I've won fewer than five since launch.
Compare that to my K/D in:
Halo 4 - 1.215 (2.14 W/L)
Halo Reach - 1.19 (1.58 W/L)
Halo 3 - 1.01 (Ranked) 1.15 (Social) (1483 Games with 1003 EXP)
Halo 2 - 1.88
My stats in the other MCC games are pretty similar, with me just getting shit on left and right with absolutely no recourse to be found. Is this the case with anyone else, or am I just bad at Halo now?
Also, can we talk about how fucking horrible Waypoint is now? There are literally no stats. I can't even sort between custom games and matchmade ones. It is the absolute worst stat tracker that's bothered to exist that I have ever seen. Halo 2 had better stat tracking, and that was ten years ago.
As long as PP and sticky starts don't exist anymore, I have hope for BTB.
total games in H2A playlist?
- Status