I was going to wait until 100 games before writing out some long impressions, but I'm trying to give my eyes a break, and 80 is close enough.
This will mostly read like a counter to a lot of the negativity out there, as for the most part, I am in love with this game.
Dear Bungie,
Maps:
I prefer Powerhouse, but not by as much as I did in my first few games. It plays well, with a lot of nuances relating to Sprint jumps or Jetpacks, and has both clean visuals and defined locations. In slayer games, particularly, it plays great.
I'm a little concerned about some of the objective gametypes, though. As people have pointed out, the bathroom is a camping spot for organized teams in Oddball. My bigger worry is that the base is far too easy to hold in a CTF game: there are effectively two entrances that leave you blind to the majority of the internal space, and it's difficult to do much against a team that's whoring Lock along with instant kill weapons like the hammer or rockets (and the close rocket spawn makes it highly probable that you will encounter someone camping with them, unless you Sprint to intercept them). I feel like there needs to be a small window or something else that exposes the room or makes it more easy to breach. The stairs are a nightmare if you're assaulting from below.
I also don't enjoy it for Stockpile. The bases are far too exposed and this tends to result in grenade spam and general messiness, instead of people actually contesting the flags. Playing with two evenly-matched, coordinated teams might improve my opinion of it, but too often it is a clusterfuck that fails to utilize most of the map.
Sword Base has grown on me. In earlier games I relied on jetpacking to get around, but now I mostly find myself sprinting, availing of the vents or sprint jumps to move around at speed. I feel like the average 1v1 encounter on this map is less interesting than on Powerhouse, largely because the corridors and rooms are so boxy and sterile, but team games play out in interesting ways. I prefer Capture the Flag on this now, though the return route is arduous if you don't use the lift in the middle, and the lift in the middle usually results in a bloodbath. Once the flag is pulled it feels like a (fun) chase around the map, with people using jetpacks or smart sprinting to intercept the flag carrier. While I'm talking about CTF, either the flag return time needs to go down, or the return radius needs to go up, or both. Unless I have Armour Lock, returning is a wretched, death-filled chore.
Stockpile is far better on this one, I find, largely because both bases are less exposed. Covy Slayer is immense, even more so than it is on Powerhouse. Regular slayer isn't quite as snug a fit, but it doesn't feel that difficult to change the balance even in a game where the other team has sniper and launcher. That said, the high vent can be a bitch to clear out, and the room at the top of the collider is another Oddball trap.
Somehow I doubt either of these maps will be among my favourites in the full game, but they both have their place, and they both have a lot of variety and nuance that is still dawning on me. Sword Base in particular is slow to reveal itself. It's ugly, it's grey, it's awkward, but it grows on you.
Gametypes:
I haven't yet enjoyed a game of Headhunter. Perhaps if there was a team variant I could get into it, but it's just such a shambles in FFA. It often rewards opportunism ahead of talent (same as FFA Oddball, which I've never enjoyed), and I always feel out of step with what's going on. It also feels a little too random; I appreciate
why the capture points move around the map, but the whole gametype feels arbitrary. Not for me.
Haven't played Juggernaut yet.
The return of Three Plots is welcome, but the score seems to run up very quickly; these games feel shorter than any others. The plots on Powerhouse, again, feel too exposed and spammy, especially given the primacy of grenades.
Stockpile I'm in two minds about. It seems like it could be fantastic on the right map, but I'm not sure either of the maps in the beta do it justice. It's certainly one of the tensest gametypes, and the more organized team does seem to win with consistency, but I'm not sure anyone is playing it particularly well right now. There is also the problem, as many people have pointed out, of teammates stealing your captures.
Covy Slayer is fucking fantastic. I called it a palate cleanser before, and it's certainly a welcome change in among the other gametypes. Evade is supreme, second only to Sprint in my list of favourite Armour Abilities. Close-quarters combat between Elites is awesome, largely because most people don't seem to be making good use of Evade just yet. Makes me really excited to play an Elite in Invasion.
It's a shame there aren't any symmetrical maps to play Multi-Flag on, as that is by far my all-time favourite Halo gametype, and the 1-Flag CTF feels a little weak on both maps, but especially Powerhouse, where almost every game seems to play out the same.
SWAT? Baller. Beats the Halo 2/3 iterations with ease. The vastly improved netcode has something to do with this, obviously, but it just feels so right now, especially with Sprint thrown in the mix.
Weapons:
It took me a while to come around to it, but the DMR is supreme. It's topped by the pistol at close range, simply because the pistol fires faster, but it's definitely better than the Needle Rifle, which initially appealed more to me because it's reticle bloom is easier to contend with. Once I got the hang of the DMR, it became my go-to gun. I like it more than the BR, I think; even though it's harder to get kills with, and doesn't dominate to the same extent, it just feels so right.
Might as well get it out of the way: I love reticle bloom. It adds another dimension to firefights, and people are struggling with it right now. As soon as you slow your pace and start considering each shot and how it might need to be paced or placed differently to the one before, things get interesting, and you start to win the (reasonably rare) 1v1 duels. Spamming the pistol at very close range, and then either meleeing or better yet slowing for the headshot, feels elegant and awesome. And few people are doing it. Firing slow, methodical pistol shots at range and cross-mapping a dude who was packing a DMR feels
amazing.
I agree with Tashi that I'm missing a lot of headshots after taking down shields, and I think it's mainly to do with being so eager for the kill and expecting a BR-like spread in the general area of the head will do the trick. It won't. The calmest players are definitely going to be rewarded at the highest levels of this game.
There's a big negative coming up, though, and it's this: I agree with everyone who says visual and aural feedback isn't quite up to scratch. The reticle should be a little bolder, darker, or just plain clearer. There should be a dot for headshots. There should be better indication of who killed whom outside of the spam in the bottom-left corner (more on this in a minute).
I feel like there's a huge, daunting skill curve to the one-shot weapons (including the sniper, though I feel I'm getting more use out of that weapon in Reach than in Halo 3, based on the few times I've actually grabbed it) that people are going to climb steadily, and then rain down on noobs from the mountaintop. There's a lot to learn.
While I dismissed the Needle Rifle above, it's still one of the best standard weapons in the game, and supercombining on a fleeing enemy with a teammate feels rewarding.
Haven't made much use of any of the spammy, spewy weapons, but the AR feels more useful than it did in Halo 3, comparatively. I still don't touch it very often (Y is the first button I press on spawn), but sometimes it's great for springing on a guy who's expecting pistol/DMR at close range. Plasma repeater I've touched even less, but it's definitely powerful, and quite scary when it's being used against you. Plasma pistol is similarly beefy, but doesn't feel all that different to Halo 3. Still enjoy using it most as a makeshift shotgun, especially in Covy Slayer, where no one ever switches to it. I've barely touched the Needler, but I don't see much wrong with it, and I can't complain about the times I've died from it.
Hammer lunge range is too long, especially when coupled with Sprint. It's never been a weapon I've liked, but the improved netcode makes it more viable. It'll be interesting to see if Grifball is actually playable in Europe now.
Focus Rifle feels like it might be overpowered. It's definitely a skill weapon, but people are using it to vicious effect at close range, and I worry about it appearing on maps that are more open than Powerhouse; I put it to reasonably good use in one Covy Slayer game (it replaces the sniper rifle on Sword Base), and wondered for a moment how it would feel to be on the receiving end. Weirdly, people seem to be sleeping on it, and I still find it lying on the ground more often than not. As an anti-jetpack tool (hey, teammates who spend their time floating around like big, noisy clay pigeons: fuck you), it is hilarious.
Rockets are fine.
Grenade launcher is cool, but I haven't got to grips with it at all. Definitely a skill weapon, although slamming it into someone who's unaware of you works too. Manual detonation is fearsome; some of the most satisfying kills (or shield drops followed by a headshot) have been with this thing.
Plasma launcher is supreme. Too supreme. Nerf it, do something. Because when more people realize just how powerful this thing is, we're gonna be in trouble. At any range except close-to, it's fire, forget, multikill, with astonishing regularity. And I haven't even pointed it at a loaded Warthog yet.
Grenades? Fuck you, Bungie. This isn't right. I think the feedback across the Internet seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of a nerf here. I appreciate they should be more powerful than they were in Halo 3, but a frag grenade shouldn't be the answer to almost everything. I constantly, constantly see people flinging one out as a closing fuck you when I've caught them unawares, and it sucks to be at half-shield and have some dead guy grab a kill just because I was standing somewhere in the vague radius of his last, desperate frag. In an enclosed space, you are fucked. They are less fun to throw, and less satisfying to get kills with. Throwing a frag and then bagging the headshot doesn't feel anywhere near as good as it did in Halo 2/3.
Melee. Huh. This has people pissed. I
like it. Melee used to be the bane of my life in Halo 2/3, largely because it's so hard to win a beatdown contest in Europe. The new system changes the rhythm of things, and I find I'm outsmarting people who have the wrong expectations of the new system, rather than just getting fucked by fifth-of-a-second latency. Nothing better than exchanging a few shots with the DMR or pistol, backing off, realizing the guy's got nothing he can use at close range, hitting Sprint and slamming into the fucker twice before he knows what hit him. Nothing better than seeing the same asshole who would have donged on you with three AR bullets and a beatdown in Halo 3 bounce off your shields and take one in the dome. It's my top weapon! This is entirely unexpected! Don't touch a thing! Also, whatever you've done with the netcode, or just how melee works, I find I'm at least trading kills in situations where I would have straight-up lost in Halo 2/3.
But seriously, it's hilarious how often I am smacking people down; the double melee is ferocious. I see Ghaleon referencing the golden tripod, but I never felt that in Halo 2/3. In this game, I feel like melee is actually something I can use, a considered option I go to in combination with Sprint or rapid pistol shots, instead of just the default finishing move in a boring spew contest.
Don't change it.
Abilities and Player Movement:
I wouldn't mind if the default jump was a little floatier, a little more useful, but I have no complaints about how it is right now either. The increased field of FOV is one of my favourite changes, and once I upped my sensitivity to 5 (I played with 4 in Halo 3), it felt even better. I can
see things. Player movement speed is quite sluggish, but it gets the job done, and there are so many other options for getting around even before vehicles are introduced. The melee lunge and timing feels just right (except for the hammer).
I can understand people saying it doesn't feel like Halo, but for me it feels like Halo as I've wanted it to be: a little more grounded, a little more weighty, a little more concerned with how you aim the gun over when you chose to jump. You can still catch people out and grab cheeky assassinations, but you have to work for them a little more. And the game just looks better when people are making use of Armour Abilities instead of looping moon jumps.
Sprint is glorious. I would say I use this half the time at this point. The game feels faster, you feel more dangerous, and you know you can respond to most threats, or get to or from a contest faster than the next guy who's squatting with his camo. The Sprint jump is a thing of beauty, and once you start getting creative with it, it's so rewarding. Hurdling low obstacles to shave off a seconds of travel time? So good. You can also just be so goddamn
aggressive in situations you would have backed off in Halo 3. Feel you're about even in this 1v1? Charge around the corner and force the issue; people panic. Sprint and shotgun, spring and sword, sprint and hammer... No, change the lunge on the hammer.
Jetpack is useful to get places in a very obvious hurry, but I'm using it less and less, especially on Powerhouse. May as well put a sign on your back. I've seen some players do very creative things with it indoors, though; it makes for a very good ambush.
Camo I barely touch. I feel like it's uses are very specific, or for a playstyle that is entirely unlike mine, and I'm just not using it effectively enough often enough to justify its use over, say, Sprint. That said, the length of time you can remain in it is impressive. And even though it's just an irritation to see your radar cluttered with dots, you can sort of work out where the centre of those dots should be much of the time. I've caught a lot of camo users out just by thinking about the most obvious way it could be put to use in a given context. Usually that's exactly the way they are using it.
Armour Lock I have mixed feelings about. It's incredibly powerful in the right hands, especially when used unexpectedly or in conjunction with good team play. In a 1v1 battle you are already losing, though, it's not all that helpful. And I'm just not that good at using it yet; I don't anticipate the situations where even two seconds of Armour Lock would tip the balance in my favour. Some people do, and they are scary to play against right now.
On the whole, I like what the variety that Armour Abilities give, and when people complain about not having enough time to choose the right one, I just sort of shrug and wonder if maybe they should be thinking about it ahead of spawn. I certainly don't feel that one is grossly more powerful than another, or that one is of far greater use than the rest (except maybe Jetpack in certain Sword Base objective games). They feel more gamechanging than equipment ever did, and they make you feel powerful and, you know,
different from other players, though the field is still level. That's most important: the balance feels right to me. It'll be interesting to see what others will be implemented in multiplayer in the full game, if any.
A Few Negatives:
I'm a little surprised by how unpolished this game is. Not the gameplay itself, although there are definitely issues that need fixing or tweaking, but the implementation of medals and information, commendations, cR rewards, stats, and even some elements of the UI. A lot of the stuff that frames the game feels sketchy, and so much of it is confusing or opaque. How is cR earned, actually? Modern Warfare 2 gives you a far better idea of the significance of individual actions you took. How do the commendation levels and bars, all without any numerical counterpart, make a lick of sense?
There are a lot of minor errors in how or when medals pop, or the text that spams in the bottom-left, which often seem inaccurate or even grammatically incorrect ("So-and-so assassinated you down?"). It bothers me that some things are capitalized and others are not, or that text is cut off in some boxes, or that Stockpile flags are scored at :01 and not :00, or that the objective UI in-game isn't as helpful as it could be in almost every gametype, or that you can't see how much cR is needed to the next level, and on and on... It's all the more baffling because some elements are so well-designed (browsing the start menu while matchmaking and going to history, local files, etc. is
fantastic).
There are a ton of really obvious, helpful UI changes that could be made, like showing more than three armour permutations to browse at once (I'd like to see at least five, staggered in size around the largest, central, currently displayed item; if there is as much customization in the full game as they're hinting at, navigating it is going to be less than ideal). It's amazing that the bungie.net stats, and indeed the post-game carnage report, have improved in some respects while taking steps back in others (the post-game medal collection, for instance). There are things on the new service record I like, but on the whole I feel like I'm getting less information at a glance, and fewer incentives to click through to something else.
If I made a full list of all the little niggles I have, it would make this post even longer than it is, and together they add up to irritation. It's a beta, I get it, but I remember the Halo 3 beta being a lot more solid in this regard. Maybe my memory is faulty.
The other thing is feedback in-game, which a lot of people have harped on, and I agree with. The shield effect is nice, but the condition of another player is not as transparent as it was in Halo 2. It's not as clear and obvious when you've killed someone, or are about to. Some of the new medal icons are ugly or completely inexplicable. The announcer feels inconsistent as
fuck in terms of shouting out what's important for me to know. I won't go into great detail or length here, because I've already hijacked the thread with the length of these impressions, and others (notably Tashi) have already made their feelings clear, and I share them.
Edit: what I forgot to mention anywhere in the above is that this game feels like it rewards
thinking more than the previous titles. There's more things to keep track of, more permutations of how you're going to engage or be engaged, and much of the time I feel like my kills come from anticipating how the next situation is going to play and responding appropriately. I just wish the maps were a little more helpful in this regard.
