The inclusion of bloom in Halo Reach has been a point of heated discussion. Some like it and the challenge it presents, while others hate it because it adds a somewhat random element to the game.
Pacing your shots is hardly a challenge, though. The cadence of bloom can be learned pretty quickly, especially since it's visually shown on your reticle.
My opinion on the whole matter may be somewhat biased because Halo Reach was my first and favorite Halo multiplayer experience. I have played through all other Halo multiplayers as well.
Well take a step back and try to look at the mechanic objectively.
I like bloom. I like how it introduced an additional skill element and discouraged spamming.
That was Bungie's intention, but that's not how it played out. If you played Reach in its prime then you should know it was more favorable to spam shots in mid-to-close ranges, which introduced inconsistent, luck-based gun battles. The only time you were encouraged to pace your shot was at longer ranges.
It can be random at times, yes, but since everyone deals with a little randomness I think it evens things out.
Yes, let's leave it to randomness to decide our gun battles, not our skill. I'll win 50% of the time and you'll win 50% of the time. Seems fair.
Unlike others, I think bloom raises the skill gap. Spamming won't get you anywhere in Reach.
It doesn't. And also untrue. I'm beginning to wonder if you've actually played Reach. Spamming can be mathematically proven to be more beneficial than pacing, as
tsassi went over in this post.Bloom also adds a sense of realism to a shooter needing it.
I don't care for realism in multiplayer.
I find Halo 5 kill times to be way too fast (my personal opinion through 1000+ games), despite escapabilty, and spamming to be encouraged. I think that there needs to be something to discourage this behavior.
Not sure why you think this since H5's average kill times aren't really any faster than previous entries, at least not by any significant margin. Again, you can't "spam" in H5 if the optimal fire rate is the fastest fire rate.
And I disagree with about almost everything you are saying, which is fine, but don't tell me what "Halo fans" should want. That's foolish.
Players bring the topic of bloom up during every release cycle, and time after time I have to remind them why bloom has not seen a return to Halo since Reach. It has consequences on the pacing of Halo as well as its skill gap.
And when you mention escape window, I think we have bigger fish to fry (sprint).
Bloom introduces the same exact problem that sprint does, just in a different way.