ncsuDuncan
Member
This just goes back to my opinion that Reach certainly deserved a "fresh" look at Halo, but took it a bit too far.
Personally, I wish* the default Reach settings at launch were:
- Current Reach movement speed, jump height, damage model.
- No loadouts at all: Sprint only.
- 2-D radar.
- "Armor Abilities" are reusable pickups on the map, like super weapons that replace your Sprint function. Spawn limit of 2 each, 180s respawn.
- Bloom, but it only grows/shrinks at the current rate if you hold the trigger down (so it mostly affects automatic weapons like the AR). Pulsing the trigger on precision weapons (and even on automatics) still creates bloom, but it only has half the effect and goes away twice as fast.
*Note that these aren't my opinion of what a perfect Halo would be, just a compromise I make between my own gameplay tastes and other's desire for something fresh/different.
Invasion gets loadouts, since Spartans vs Elites isn't a battle on even ground anyways. Action Sack gets gametypes where everyone spawns with something other than Sprint (e.g. Jetpack).
I think the addition of Sprint coupled with the new movement/damage/bloom model and Armor Ability pickups would have made Reach feel fresh enough without straying too far from "classic" Halo. And the CoD players that wanted a Halo that was even more different could get that with the Invasion and Action Sack offerings.
As it stands now, default Reach is too fresh. So much so that a (well intentioned but broken) Classic playlist had to be made and certain Armor Abilities had to be removed from other playlists. But the majority of players are spoiled by loadouts being the norm instead of seeing them as a neat customs feature separate from the balanced default mode.
Personally, I wish* the default Reach settings at launch were:
- Current Reach movement speed, jump height, damage model.
- No loadouts at all: Sprint only.
- 2-D radar.
- "Armor Abilities" are reusable pickups on the map, like super weapons that replace your Sprint function. Spawn limit of 2 each, 180s respawn.
- Bloom, but it only grows/shrinks at the current rate if you hold the trigger down (so it mostly affects automatic weapons like the AR). Pulsing the trigger on precision weapons (and even on automatics) still creates bloom, but it only has half the effect and goes away twice as fast.
*Note that these aren't my opinion of what a perfect Halo would be, just a compromise I make between my own gameplay tastes and other's desire for something fresh/different.
Invasion gets loadouts, since Spartans vs Elites isn't a battle on even ground anyways. Action Sack gets gametypes where everyone spawns with something other than Sprint (e.g. Jetpack).
I think the addition of Sprint coupled with the new movement/damage/bloom model and Armor Ability pickups would have made Reach feel fresh enough without straying too far from "classic" Halo. And the CoD players that wanted a Halo that was even more different could get that with the Invasion and Action Sack offerings.
As it stands now, default Reach is too fresh. So much so that a (well intentioned but broken) Classic playlist had to be made and certain Armor Abilities had to be removed from other playlists. But the majority of players are spoiled by loadouts being the norm instead of seeing them as a neat customs feature separate from the balanced default mode.
