Currently 3/4 of the way through the unedited gameplays, some thoughts.
Without knowing what matchmaking setups are going to be like it's tough to say anything concrete, but using Reach as a point of reference, some assumptions can be made.
- As has been mentioned, P. Vision radius seems dramatically larger than had been previously implied. On something like Wraparound (shut up I'll call it that until I die), that range seems like it could be incredibly problematic and lead to a Narrows-esque spawn trapping killing problem, further exacerbated by...
- Ordnance drops for well performing players has that same CoD killstreak snowball effect of good people being handed tools to do even better, and that is pretty frightening in the context of a Halo game. I can see it being extremely difficult to get out of a rut and make comebacks if your opponents have this snowball effect giving them tools that either make it dramatically more difficult for you to kill them or dramatically easier for them to kill you. Furthermore...
- Ordnance rewards seem poorly weighted. I cannot see any reason why I would choose a weapon over Overshield or Damage boost unless it were a rocket or sniper. Being more effective across a wide range of situations, either by being super difficult to kill or super powerful, is exponentially more appealing than a mid-tier "power" weapon like a shotgun analogue.
- Hit markers seem like a kind of poor replacement for very bright shield flashing, especially in context of a burst weapon that can deal partial damage and get a hit marker for 1 of 3 bullets. The shields, on the other hand, would not flash as bright under a partial hit as a full hit. I found it difficult to distinguish between someone who was close to death and someone who was fully shielded at range in these videos. Maybe it's a side effect of 480p internet video, but it seemed off.
- Can the Sticky Detonator really not be air detonated? It seems like it would be much less useful without that ability, seeing how slow it travels and the small blast radius it has. Seems to have a whole lot of ammo as well, which is odd. I'd rather see a slightly more effective tool with less uptime than a middling weapon that you can use for a long time.
- Last-minute-of-match music is excellent, a good indicator that you need to wrap your shit up and motivate people to really put all their chips in at the end of the game.
- Graphically incredible. I still can't believe how clean it looks.
- Is the lift on Adrift as janky as Zealot's center lifts? Guys were basically just bouncing up and down in it sometimes.
- Grenades seem to be in a really great place right now, though I can't say I'm in love with the restrictions on picking them up without Resupply.
- The Carbine. My god.
- Medal design is less than spectacular. The medals themselves are not evocative, at a glance, of the actions that it takes to perform them, or maybe they are just too indistinguishable from each other with the very similar color pairings. UI is a little messy, I guess, with a lot of very visually busy icons. Mostly seen in the loadout menu.
- The action is good, looks like Halo, etc. I don't think anybody expected you guys not to nail that feeling, but it's those little tertiary elements that I take issue with once they start to impact the base gameplay like ordnance does.
- The sheer number of weapons you guys are packing into this thing makes me think it must be impossible to balance. I mean, Halo 2 and 3 couldn't get the balance right with just two primary precision weapons, and you guys have like 20.
