The return of classic movement mechanics?

tsassi wrote:

RollCats wrote:

I am not saying that's the only way. Obviously Halo 4 tried *alot* of different ways to innovate. It had most of the things you mentioned: addition of new weapons, new weapon mechanics, new items, new vehicles (not this one? not sure), new vehicle mechanics, new level design ideas, new gametypes (yep, and it was hated) and gamemode (Spartan Ops).

Actually, the only advanced mechanic added to that game in base mechanics was sprint unless I'm forgetting something else. I've already stated before that I think H4 was too different. I enjoyed it, but it's kind of an objective statement that Infinity Slayer was extremely different, and it may have been the thing that 'put the nail in the coffin' for 343i (MCC launch didn't help) for a lot of the base.

Halo 5 then went all in on Arena style gameplay, with a fresh take by adding 'advanced movement'. This was still not acceptable.

So, we've seen two different approaches, a vocal group of the community hated both. One focused on all the things you mentioned, but to many it was too much at once, and change for the sake of change. The other tried to create a genuinely unique 'modern' Halo experience that I happened to have a blast playing. But people didn't want 'modern'.

So, I certainly understand. But it sounds like to me that 'acceptable innovation window' is much narrower than what you made it seem. Or, it's never acceptable if sprint is included (some have stated this clearly, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.)

I don't remember Halo 4 doing anything significant in terms of vehicle mechanics or level design. In fact, I'd say vehicle mechanics have been pretty stagnant perhaps since the introduction of hijacking. Not as a criticism, because I think vehicles are a difficult area to make meaningful changes in. Level design (singe player and multiplayer) has been similarly stagnant with Halo Infinite kind of making the biggest change in years in the single player realm. Multiplayer level design has been stagnant since Halo 3 came up with man cannons.

Weapons, vehicles, and modes have been the staple of change in Halo, and despite Halo 4 doing its share, i don't think it really deserves a special mention in that regard. Again, not that there's anything wrong with that. You don't need to revolutionize the sandbox or what people play to effect meaningful change.

I'm not actually sure how to categorize all the things that upset people in Halo 4. However, I can tell that the reasons people were upset was because the mechanics used in the game didn't mesh with the principles of Halo's gameplay design, and because some of the mechanics were just plain bad game design (random ordnance).

But in both Halo 4 and 5, I think there are two obvious takeaways:

1. You have to be aware of the features of the gameplay design that players experience as foundational. The players may not be able to tell what these are beforehand, but they will notice when you break them.
2. You can't shove too much in the player's face at once. Too much change leads to subpar execution and will shock to the players. Evolution trumps revolution.

• I like sprinting into a slide in shooters, it is typically pretty satisfying, but I'm not so sure it's something Halo ever needed.
• I liked the dashing you could do in Halo 5 - there I said it - I liked how it added another type of movement not seen in other shooters (did COD do this?) and it felt distinctly SPARTAN. I also liked that it could mix up strafing strategies, and could facilitate disengaging from a fight.
• I did not like how easy sprinting made disengaging from and avoiding a fight.
• Sprinting didn't feel SPARTAN to me. It felt like something a normal soldier would do, SPARTAN-II's can run at speeds exceeding 34MPH, you should be able to outpace a Warthog accelerating from a stop for at least a short while. The kind of sprinting we did in Halo 5 felt like a light jog for a SPARTAN-II who should be able to shoot accurately while doing it.
• Change-up the properties of sprinting in Halo to distinguish it from sprinting in other shooters. Make sprinting unlimited, allow us to shoot 100% accurately while sprinting but only in the direction we are moving and drastically limit the turn rate. Perhaps you cannot reload while sprinting and shields do not recharge to compensate.
• Spartan-charge and ground-slam were too gimmicky and worked against traditional shooting mechanics and ethos. Sprinting up to someone and meleeing them is the same thing as a spartan-charge, and creating a mechanic that encourages giving up high-ground for 1 kill in a game that revolves around map-control seems like the wrong kind of choice to give players.

CapnChez wrote:

So I get how some people don't like sprint because it's not classic Halo and it ruins some of the mechanics in their opinion. But there's also people, like me, who are fine with sprint and use it regularly. So what if for Infinite, sprint was an option for campaign and multiplayer. For campaign, you could go to settings and toggle it on or off. For multiplayer, there would be a classifier or icon over the games that would indicate if sprint was present in the game or not or if it was a pick-up item. Maybe this would be too confusing, but I thought I would just throw it out there and see what people thought.

HaloBase Legend wrote:

Make sprint a campaign exclusive mechanic. You just have to build smaller maps, like in the first Halo Trilogy and everything will be fine. Those large maps made Halo 4 and 5 Multiplayer so boring. You can always hear some gunshots but it just takes you too long to get there as long as it's still interesting.

StablerStar5 wrote:

It should disabled in multiplayer. Sprint slows down gameplay because since you can’t shoot so you try not to sprint meaning it will take longer to get in to a gunfight because the maps are made bigger to acommadate a higher player mobility, thus slowing down gameplay. It also disrupts halo’s golden formula since it prevents you from shooting and throwing grenades.
clamber makes the bigger map problem worse as the developers have make the maps to prevent players from glitching out of the map. It also disrupts halo’s golden formula since it prevents you from shooting, meleaing, and from throwing grenades.

(the grapple would also make the maps bigger if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a pickup in multiplayer.)