My Final Beta Impressions
What I really liked:
Graphics: The game’s pretty, the AA isn’t where it could be but it’s much better and no longer a huge distraction.
Netcode is much better. Out of almost 500 games I’ve run into very little lag. The co-op netcode still leaves a lot to be desired but it’s not a huge concern for me personally.
More useful, non-power weapons.
Quitters ban – never thought Bungie would punish quitters as harshly as they plan on doing.
Biggest three complaints:
Slow movement speed
Short jump height
Randomness introduced with the reticule bloom
Movement: See Ghaleon's post.
Bloom: Read this post I made or Ghaleon's post.
Melee:
Increase the time between subsequent melees and decrease the “simultaneous” beatdown period. There is currently almost no incentive to try and fire your weapon after taking one’s shield down by the first melee unless you have one of those melees where the players (randomly) bounce away from each other.
I’m not sold on the new melee damage system. I like the fact that AR spray + beatdown isn’t as effective but don’t like the wildly varying amount of damage it now inflicts. I’d rather a single melee taking down 1/2 of whatever the max amount of health + shield Spartans have in the game. You’d still need to take the shields all the way down if you wanted to kill them in a single melee but putting in more bullets into someone before a melee exchange would leave the player going in with less shield with less health coming out instead of suddenly
Visual feedback:
For some reason I have a tougher time telling where I’m getting shot from so I have a hard time reacting appropriately to defend myself.
I don’t have too much trouble seeing when the enemy shields pop when they’re far away (it seems to be an extravagant explosion of shield popping) but for whatever reason the effect is much harder for me to see when they’re closer.
I also find it’s harder to tell if a player is unshielded or not. It’s easy enough if you’re staring them down as you can see their slowly pulsing emergency lights but this is rarely the case and I often don’t know their shields are down until and shoot them and the shields don’t flare up. Never had a problem with the Halo 3 system so I’m not sure why it’s changed.
I don’t know if this is a glitch but I’ll often see corpses flying through the air with their shields flaring for some time. It happens mostly when they’ve died and been tossed up in the air from an explosion. It psyches me out on occasion when I don’t realize they’re already dead.
Armor Abilities:
Armor Lock: The most broken and annoying of the bunch. Here are my proposed AL qualities: The armor lock duration is set in stone so that they will come out after a half charge or if the player chooses a full charge. Players would obviously have to wait for the AA to charge to at least half to use it. It’ll be easier to predict when they’ll come out and they won’t be able to quickly lock + melee people. Making the player vulnerable right as they come out of AL could go a long way as well. Maybe keeping it in first person, even making the screen go black (simulating their visor shutting down) could make things interesting and balance it a bit. So really there’s a lot of things they could do with it and I’m interested to see which route they’ll go down.
Invis:
I don’t think it’s overpowered I just think it’s annoying and isn’t fun to fight against. I personally don’t find it fun to use (definitely the AA I used the least) but I’m sure they are some that love it. I just can’t stand the movement-based visibility. I know it’s there to balance it and I agree, without that it’d be unbalanced, but it makes it not fun because it boils down to people camping with invis. Makes both me and the invis player slow down to a crawl while I slowly scan the area for him and he sits in his corner waiting to shotgun me. Here’s my suggestion for a invis type armor ability that I think would be more fun for both sides:
This stealth AA removes you from the radar no matter your movement. Puts you in a distance-based invisibility so when you’re close you’re about half-visible but from afar it’s much harder for the enemy to see you unless they scope in on you. It’d work kind of like an artificial LoD that players could control. Could make it so the reticule doesn’t turn red when placed on them, make the enemies see them as their own teammate’s color, and maybe keep the deafening effect. Just spit-balling suggestions now. I also think it players using this AA should have to anticipate when they really need it more so reduce its duration. It’d be great for avoiding snipers, and even closing the distance between a mid-range weapon user and a stealth shotgun user. Being off the radar (but still probably visible inside this radar range) would make it just as good or maybe even better for sneaking into an enemy area undetected (making sure you’re out of their line of sight).
Maybe I’m alone in thinking this would be a worthwhile alternative for a stealth class. But as it is, I think most players view the Invis class in the beta as largely worthless and it slows the pace of the game for everyone involved ultimately leading to a dull experience.
Sprint: I don’t have much issue with sprint. For whatever reason though it seems to be a bit finicky in turning off and on when I don’t expect it. Could be a result of nicking a player or piece of geometry but it doesn’t feel as smooth as it could. My suggestion is to have the sprint toggle tolerance upped a bit so it’s only interrupted when I want it to be or in more obvious situations. Another thing that’d make it a more fun is to avoid the stun effect when you have sprint enabled. One thing I think needs to be nerfed is the time it takes to fire/swing a CQC weapon coming out of sprint. It really gives the other player no chance in fighting back and seems a bit overpowered when I envision sprint being more a maneuverability perk as opposed to a combat perk. Think it should be weapon dependent though (larger delay for the CQC weapons) as nerfing their ability to whip out the pistol would really hurt the class’s combat effectiveness.
Evade: Almost perfect, love it, definitely the most (balanced) fun I’ve had using an AA in the beta. Sometimes I believe it allowed me to shoot while rolling (IIRC it was when I was shooting going into it) while other times it didn’t. It’d be nice if this was made more consistent. I’m leaning towards the not being able to shoot while rolling because it’d become even more overpowered in cases where their wielding a CQC weapon like the shotgun. Could a weapon dependent delay coming out of evade ala my sprint suggestions for similar reasons but the thought of no scoping someone as you roll past a doorway seems too great to pass up. (seh ich nicht so... find die möglichkeit genauso scheisse wie alles andere^^)
Jetpack: Really don’t know what to do with this one. It definitely has its uses but I find it more annoying to fight against than it’s worth. It really breaks the balance of a map sometimes when 2 or more opponents fly into the air and have uninterrupted lines of sight on you. It doesn’t feel like these maps were designed with the vertical cover necessary to make for fun and interesting jetpack vs pedestrian combat nor do I think it’d be beneficial to design maps around this single AA. Maybe they’ll be less annoying if grenades get nerfed because flying into the air, tossing two nades, and spamming the AR or pistol is probably the #1 way scrubs were able to get a kill on me. It’s not some personal grievance resulting from this fact that makes me believe it should be altered, but many of the people I’ve played with have had similar complaints. I really am at a loss at how it should be altered though and can’t decide if its absence would be worth the loss of an AA many find fun, so you get a free pass at shipping this less-than-ideal AA in the final game from me, Bungie.
The decreasing importance of precise shots (headshots):
With each Halo time the precise headshot has become less and less important: In CE you’d spend 2/3 of your time with pistol body shots and the third shot could always be a killing-headshot. If the player’s health was already knocked down a lot already you had the option of body-shotting them to death but the 3 shot was a sure thing and could be relied on heavily. Halo 2 moved to 3/4 body shots where the 4th shot would be a death dealing headshot where Halo 2 added more emphasis on body shots because of how long it took to take someone’s shields down, that was balanced by the regenerating health so only rarely could you rely on the opponent having a reduced amount of health that would allow you to drop him quickly with body shots. Halo 3 works much like 2 but unless you’re on lan or playing MLG you likely have to place 4/5 shots on someone to drop their shields.
The gameplay elements of Reach have gone the furthest in removing the importance of precise headshots and in its place a greater emphasis in body shot spam. First, the DMR and pistol take 4 shots to drop the shield even without lag and the NR takes 5. That fact alone doesn’t differentiate it from Halo 3 very much but the next few do. With the bloom it becomes riskier to aim for that headshot as you’re banking on having the time to wait for the bloom to shrink down. Then you have CE’s health system reintroduced which allows one to at least cripple their opponent through body shot spam if you don’t kill them. That leaves them vulnerable to an easily spammed death in the next encounter provided they don’t track down a health pack. Yes, going for the headshot is still important, but its importance is less significant than ever and it makes the gunplay feel sloppier to me.
Some suggestions that could potentially alleviate this are:
Bring back health regen (not going to happen)
Removing the bloom (see above)
Heavily reducing the bloom
Or decreasing the amount of shield strength while increasing the amount of unshielded health players have. This would really improve the significance of headshots and even allow players to go clutch more often in 1v2 situations.
Weapons:
Pistol:
Great and versatile weapon. #1 tool of destruction during the beta with over 1.5k kills with it alone. That said, 1v1 pistol on pistol battles are some of the sloppiest things about the beta. The bloom is the cause but I’ll get to that later.
Increase the clip size. The 8 shots in the clip are barely enough to take someone down without a headshot (7/8 bullets landed) and still the vast majority of the clip for a single clean kill (6/8 bullets). Unlike every Halo game of the past (and every single other shooter out there) there is no possible way for someone to take down multiple opponents without reloading. Hell, it’s tough to take down one person without reloading. This leaves players staring at each other while reloading far to often or limiting its versatility by having to switch to your other gun (probably a non-precision guy) to finish someone off. Maybe increasing the reload time would help but its relatively quick but not enough to relieve this awkwardness or allow a pistol wielder to go clutch in 2v1 situations.
DMR/NR:
Similar praise, complaints, and suggestions as the pistol. The bloom is much better with as with its slightly larger clip size but both could be better.
Shotgun:
Far too powerful. Decrease the range, the Halo 3 shotgun was fine, I found plenty of uses for it and didn’t think it was too weak for semi-power weapon. If they plan on keeping it as a loadout weapon for a few gametypes it definitely needs to be toned down to fit better alongside the pistol/DMR. It’s laughably more powerful than the sword right now when the sword is expected to be its covie counterpart.
Sword:
Don’t feel like I have a good grasp for how it works in the sandbox. The melee counter seems good in theory but in my limited experience I haven’t been able to get a feel for how reliable a well timed melee will counter it. It’s still a power weapon though and I’m largely against power weapons as starts in loadouts.
Grenade launcher:
Surprisingly well balanced for a power weapon please don’t allow player to spawn with it in normal gametypes. Kills vehicle combat and too easy to get kills with for a starting weapon.
Plasma launcher:
If you thought it couldn’t get worse than the laser, you thought wrong. If you start charging it don’t allow players to switch it out to save the ammo. Give players a lock on warning (whether on foot or in vehicle). Decrease the bullet velocity even further. I think the player lock-on could actually work, but it has to be nerfed quite a bit.
Rocket launcher:
Way too powerful now. I’m not sure what differences it has to the Halo 3 counterpart but it’s not even funny how much easier it is to get rocket kills/multikills than in Halo 3. It could be player speed or jump height but whatever it is it should change. Decrease the blast radius as well as the rocket velocity. I have a feeling they increased these things to make it easier to take down vehicles with it but vehicles practically destroy themselves already so it’s not necessary. Glad they added the lock on to the flying vehicles because they’re the only ones that really needed something like that in Halo 3 so although I didn’t get to test it much in the beta it sounds great in concept.
Focus Rifle:
Doesn’t really fit into the sandbox where I thought they meant it too. I’ve abused the shit out of the weapon and have found it much easier to use and mid to close range than zoomed in at long range. Not sure what I’d change about it though. I think the sniper rifle is significantly more powerful at long range but its close quarters uses are a little much.
Grenades [the following adapted from this postso it may appear out of contex]:
The grenades may've been plentiful in Halo 3 but you weren't going to get a ton of kills with them unless you utilized them well. Making the decision to toss a nade in a firefight wasn't always the best idea because unless you anticipated the opponent's movement very well you would loss valuable time during which the enemy would've BRed you. Nades in Reach are almost always the go to solution in a firefight, the damage and especially the radius make the risk of relying on it very minimal.
Leaving the grenades as they are would give players who've spawned an even greater advantage against players who've been through a firefight or two (spending their grenades and maybe having less health). It’d also continue to allow players to toss them haphazardly, with little anticipation, and be rewarded for such "efforts." Instead limiting the amount of grenades at play, removing that facet of the sandbox out more often instead of nerfing them.
Slightly reduce damage, heavily reduce radius, and keep the same amount on the map.
Vehicles:
They were a mess in the beta but I think this is something everyone recognizes already.
I was fine with the Halo 3 system of the player’s health being linked to the vehicle’s because you could often kill the vehicle’s occupants while not blowing the vehicle up and be rewarded by being able to steal the vehicle. Reach’s Invasion system of spawning vehicles behind shield doors and not killing the driver without blowing up the vehicle means it’s neigh impossible for elites to steal an enemy tank for example.
I’ll be alright with the Halo CE campaign style health provided we don’t have to rely on abstract visual cues and instead have a traditional health bar for the vehicle.
I don’t see what switching to thebanshee’s fuel rod with Y adds to the game but if you want to keep it this way add back CE’s little display for when the next fuel rod shot could be fired. It was fine in 3 because you could just spam the fuel rod button while shooting the main guns but when I have to switch the main guns off it sucks not knowing for sure that the fuel rod is ready.
Other stuff:
Why did the weapons despawn so much quicker than in Halo 3? If I was to die with a weapon, by the time I respawned and ran back it’d often be gone already. Once I tossed the shotgun on the ground for a teammate and in no more than 5 seconds I watched it despawn right in front of my eyes. Not sure if this stuff is a result of a glitch but it should be fixed.
I should be able to select someone from my active roster and see who’s in their party and get match progress without queuing up. Most of the time those on my friend’s list have their party set to invite only and other times I just want to see how close a group is to finishing while not necessarily wanting to join them.
Custom filing/sorting options for saved screens/films/gametypes. Its implementation in the beta was probably far from finished; just want to make sure it gets into the final game.
Remove or significantly decrease the amount of time a player has to fire back after he’s received the killing shot. The system in the beta resulted in way too many simultaneous shootouts and the delay between death shot and death made the gunplay feel that much looser. Many times I’d send a shot their way after they were actually dead just because the delay made me think they were still alive.
Elites are fun to be, not as fun to fight against (whether you’re Spartan or elite). The thing is their shields recharge way too quickly and their so fast (especially with evade) that they can dip around a corner in a mid-range fight and by the time you get around that corner their shields will be up. Increase the recharge time delay and rate to match the Spartan qualities (while keeping their base strength) and maybe even bump up the rate at which elite’s health regens to increase the importance of headshotting elites (which is pretty easy anyways).
