At this point, the reduction in agility and mobility is my biggest gripe with the game. This applies to both movement speed and jumping ability. I am no longer able to out-maneuver my opponent, or get myself out of bad situations by relying on skill alone. In fact, Im generally forced to use whatever armor ability I currently have selected, and hope that its the right one for that given situation. Coupled with the increased grenade damage, reticule bloom, small clip size, and the ability of enemies to very quickly close the gap on me (by using sprint) I feel extremely gimped. As others have pointed out, I can often times successfully dispatch one enemy, only to be left without shields and wounded, in mid-reload, and out of grenades: an easy clean-up job for any teammate of the other team to come and finish off. Im unable to get by anymore on my ability to out-maneuver an enemy who is at an advantage (whether that advantage is more health, better weapon, etc) because there is almost no ability to maneuver at all! This is a MAJOR change from every previous Halo game. Maneuverability was such a big part of the game, and now its virtually gone.
Rushing at players with the sprint ability while wielding the hammer (which, by the way, has an insanely overpowered amount of lunge tacked onto it) or sword/shotgun has become a viable strategy mainly because the ability for the other player to respond and get out of the way has been virtually eliminated. Back peddling while firing at the rusher doesnt help, either, because the bloom makes the amount of time required to down him significantly longer than the amount of time he needs to close the gap on my movement-impaired ass.
Also, the DMR needs to be 4-shot; rarely are you able to finish someone off before theyve been able to get away (sprint?) due to the length of time required to wait between shots (bloom).
The grenades are overpowered (although if the movement speed and jumping characteristics are increased so that you can actually avoid a grenade thats been thrown at you, then they might be okay as is).
The clip size of the DMR and pistol need to be increased, so youre not left defenseless after killing one guy. Bungie has basically given you a clip thats just big enough for one encounter god forbid you run into more than one enemy at a time (in which case, apparently, youre screwed).
The plasma launcher is overpowered and needs to be fixed. I mean, come on.
The needler is too powerful, mainly because of the inability to maneuver out of the way. If youre caught out in an even remotely open space, and someone catches you with a needler? Youre fucked. And no, armor lock isnt always a viable option. I shouldnt have to rely on armor lock to save me.
Speaking of armor abilities - they last too long. You can sprint virtually across the map in one go, camo lasts for what seems like 30 seconds or more, and I was actually able to go to the fridge to get another beer while waiting for an enemy to get out of armor lock.
I feel that the game would be so much better if these main issues were addressed. Do I have other complaints? Probably. But these are the big ones. I love the new lobby system, and I love the new game types. Theres a lot to like about Reach. But it just feels like theyve taken a lot of the satisfaction (skill?) out of the game with some of these changes. I want to love this game like I loved the other Halo games (all of which have been day 1 purchases).
Ive been a Bungie fan since Myth. Im probably as big of a Bungie fanboy as you can get and this is the first time Ive felt like Im on the fence for one of their games in the last 15 years.
That said, I'll continue playing the beta for the next 2 weeks... and cross my fingers.
