Greetings fellow Spartans!
In this thread I will be documenting my thoughts, feelings and opinions on the latest set of war games simulations known as the 'Halo 5: Guardians Beta'.
These opinions are my own and may include some of the opinions, thoughts, feelings and anecdotes who played along side me.
During the beta I played in varying configurations from solo to full party. The people I was playing with in my party were varied in their skills and ranked Iron through Onyx. Playing solo had the least success rate and playing as a full party had the highest success rate (understandably!).
Service Record - Image
Games Played: 256
Games Won: 155
Time Played: 1d 15h
Medals Earned: 7366
Spartan Rank: 32
Kills: 3712
Deaths: 1784
Assists: 1347
KDA Spread: 8.6
Highest Slayer Rank: Onyx Rank 3
Lowest Slayer Rank: Gold Rank 3
Highest Breakout Rank: Gold Rank 2
Lowest Breakout Rank: Gold Rank 2
Highest Strongholds Rank: Gold Rank 3
Lowest Strongholds Rank: Gold Rank 2
Control Scheme: Recon, auto-stabilize off, toggle crouch, sensitivity 5.
Alright, let's get to it!
Spartan Abilities
Thruster Pack
Feels like a natural move for the series to me. I exclusively used the Thruster Pack in Halo 4, no other AA felt worthwhile. I was quite glad that they chose to adopt it as one of the core Spartan Abilities. I love dash mechanics in games such as Armored Core, Titanfall and Hawken so I got right to using this ability at every moment possible.
It feels more natural to deploy my Thrusters than simply bounce away as we would in previous titles. The extra dimension of movement is most welcome.
Strategically it allows us to perform feints and distractions or reach better positioning. Offensively we can mix it up in a firefight by thrusting off in an unexpected direction and defensively we can use it to efficiently pop back into cover.
Ground Pound
At first ground pounding does not seem to flow with the parkour idea. The ground pound makes you stop and hang in mid-air for a few seconds which brings your tempo of play down a bit. However, as I became more accustomed to the mechanic I began to see more and more opportunities to use this on an unsuspecting foe. It is not a reliable method of dispatching an opponent for sure; sometimes I'll land and just bump them to safety.
Other times I will get myself killed due to my over-eagerness to splat someone below me that hasn't noticed me. I like to ground pound if the match is drawing to a close and we have a safe margin or if I am in such a situation where a quick ground pound is the cleanest solution. There's certainly bugs that need to be worked out but when it works it's great.
I don't mind the ground pound controls as they are but they are subject to change in which case I would perhaps like to see the ground pound assigned to holding the jump button in mid-air. I did not see as many people using ground pound as I thought I would and even less people using it successfully. I suppose it may be awkward to do on some control schemes.
Clamber
This is another mechanic that feels natural. This ties in with Ground Pound in that it allows us to have taller structures than before so we can ground pound off of them but we are also still able to traverse them. Not sure what causes the periodic 'double clamber' bug, whether that is lag or just a glitch I suppose we will have to wait and see. This ability flows nicely with sprint and thrust.
Slide
Strange one. On the surface it seems to have rather limited utility. There were no shotguns available during the entire beta so I have no idea how the shotgun-slide would have worked out. Sliding behind cover did not really seem to do much in Breakout - Thrusting would have been just as effective. However, in saying that, I would have missed it had it not been present. It feels natural that if you crouch whilst running you will slide.
One use I discovered for this ability was making quick 180° turns when picking up a power weapon. Sprint full speed toward the weapon, slide into it and turn to convert the momentum.
Charge
This ability killed me more times than failed ground pounds. It sounds good on paper, melee at full speed to do a shoulder bash type thing - that's great!. However... the reality is that it does not have very much magnetism so you will often times smash into a wall beside the enemy or if you do make contact you will just bounce him to safety where he can headshot you.
I assumed shoulder charging someone directly would instantly kill them but it would seem it only de-shields an opponent. Not worth it for the trade-offs. It will insta-kill to the back, but a regular smack would have done that anyway.
Sprint
This basic ability makes an expected return. I was pleased to see the return of sprint and a focus on making it practical on the battlefield. I think not allowing the shields to recharge until sprinting is halted is a fine compromise between infinite sprint and disallowing escape.
At the moment the mechanic seems to be a little glitchy - sometimes people will run through shots with no impediment and other times I will not be able to run at full speed despite not being shot (odd limping animation?).
The increase in mobility of Spartans allows for flanking manoeuvres like never before and I look forward to seeing these tactics developed. I also like the fact that I can link up with my team much quicker if I get spawned far away. I would like it if sprint would force a descope.
Smart Scope/Stabilizers
Much was made of this new Smart Scope system but it seems almost functionally identical to zoom, just with some fancier graphics. I've seen that it tightens the spread on the automatics, which is fine with me.
My friend [REDACTED] fell into the trap of thinking it was 'ADS', he came into the beta pretty much blank and picked up the default controls. Seeing zoom on the trigger he assumed that he had to aim down the sights in order to hit anything accurately. Several losses later he was wondering why everyone was so difficult to kill (eventually he figured it out). It would perhaps be best if people playing with zoom on the trigger had to re-hold it after being descoped otherwise quite a few people will fall into this trap!
Stabilizers are a small addition but circumstantially useful. I have no idea why anyone would want auto-stabilizers on but on manual they're pretty effective, 9/10 times when sniping. It just gives you that extra vantage point whilst also putting yourself at risk. Pretty balanced. In my placement matches I saw a great deal of players with auto mode on and they were shot to pieces almost instantly.
In this thread I will be documenting my thoughts, feelings and opinions on the latest set of war games simulations known as the 'Halo 5: Guardians Beta'.
These opinions are my own and may include some of the opinions, thoughts, feelings and anecdotes who played along side me.
During the beta I played in varying configurations from solo to full party. The people I was playing with in my party were varied in their skills and ranked Iron through Onyx. Playing solo had the least success rate and playing as a full party had the highest success rate (understandably!).
Service Record - Image
Games Played: 256
Games Won: 155
Time Played: 1d 15h
Medals Earned: 7366
Spartan Rank: 32
Kills: 3712
Deaths: 1784
Assists: 1347
KDA Spread: 8.6
Highest Slayer Rank: Onyx Rank 3
Lowest Slayer Rank: Gold Rank 3
Highest Breakout Rank: Gold Rank 2
Lowest Breakout Rank: Gold Rank 2
Highest Strongholds Rank: Gold Rank 3
Lowest Strongholds Rank: Gold Rank 2
Control Scheme: Recon, auto-stabilize off, toggle crouch, sensitivity 5.
Alright, let's get to it!
Spartan Abilities
Thruster Pack
Feels like a natural move for the series to me. I exclusively used the Thruster Pack in Halo 4, no other AA felt worthwhile. I was quite glad that they chose to adopt it as one of the core Spartan Abilities. I love dash mechanics in games such as Armored Core, Titanfall and Hawken so I got right to using this ability at every moment possible.
It feels more natural to deploy my Thrusters than simply bounce away as we would in previous titles. The extra dimension of movement is most welcome.
Strategically it allows us to perform feints and distractions or reach better positioning. Offensively we can mix it up in a firefight by thrusting off in an unexpected direction and defensively we can use it to efficiently pop back into cover.
Ground Pound
At first ground pounding does not seem to flow with the parkour idea. The ground pound makes you stop and hang in mid-air for a few seconds which brings your tempo of play down a bit. However, as I became more accustomed to the mechanic I began to see more and more opportunities to use this on an unsuspecting foe. It is not a reliable method of dispatching an opponent for sure; sometimes I'll land and just bump them to safety.
Other times I will get myself killed due to my over-eagerness to splat someone below me that hasn't noticed me. I like to ground pound if the match is drawing to a close and we have a safe margin or if I am in such a situation where a quick ground pound is the cleanest solution. There's certainly bugs that need to be worked out but when it works it's great.
I don't mind the ground pound controls as they are but they are subject to change in which case I would perhaps like to see the ground pound assigned to holding the jump button in mid-air. I did not see as many people using ground pound as I thought I would and even less people using it successfully. I suppose it may be awkward to do on some control schemes.
Clamber
This is another mechanic that feels natural. This ties in with Ground Pound in that it allows us to have taller structures than before so we can ground pound off of them but we are also still able to traverse them. Not sure what causes the periodic 'double clamber' bug, whether that is lag or just a glitch I suppose we will have to wait and see. This ability flows nicely with sprint and thrust.
Slide
Strange one. On the surface it seems to have rather limited utility. There were no shotguns available during the entire beta so I have no idea how the shotgun-slide would have worked out. Sliding behind cover did not really seem to do much in Breakout - Thrusting would have been just as effective. However, in saying that, I would have missed it had it not been present. It feels natural that if you crouch whilst running you will slide.
One use I discovered for this ability was making quick 180° turns when picking up a power weapon. Sprint full speed toward the weapon, slide into it and turn to convert the momentum.
Charge
This ability killed me more times than failed ground pounds. It sounds good on paper, melee at full speed to do a shoulder bash type thing - that's great!. However... the reality is that it does not have very much magnetism so you will often times smash into a wall beside the enemy or if you do make contact you will just bounce him to safety where he can headshot you.
I assumed shoulder charging someone directly would instantly kill them but it would seem it only de-shields an opponent. Not worth it for the trade-offs. It will insta-kill to the back, but a regular smack would have done that anyway.
Sprint
This basic ability makes an expected return. I was pleased to see the return of sprint and a focus on making it practical on the battlefield. I think not allowing the shields to recharge until sprinting is halted is a fine compromise between infinite sprint and disallowing escape.
At the moment the mechanic seems to be a little glitchy - sometimes people will run through shots with no impediment and other times I will not be able to run at full speed despite not being shot (odd limping animation?).
The increase in mobility of Spartans allows for flanking manoeuvres like never before and I look forward to seeing these tactics developed. I also like the fact that I can link up with my team much quicker if I get spawned far away. I would like it if sprint would force a descope.
Smart Scope/Stabilizers
Much was made of this new Smart Scope system but it seems almost functionally identical to zoom, just with some fancier graphics. I've seen that it tightens the spread on the automatics, which is fine with me.
My friend [REDACTED] fell into the trap of thinking it was 'ADS', he came into the beta pretty much blank and picked up the default controls. Seeing zoom on the trigger he assumed that he had to aim down the sights in order to hit anything accurately. Several losses later he was wondering why everyone was so difficult to kill (eventually he figured it out). It would perhaps be best if people playing with zoom on the trigger had to re-hold it after being descoped otherwise quite a few people will fall into this trap!
Stabilizers are a small addition but circumstantially useful. I have no idea why anyone would want auto-stabilizers on but on manual they're pretty effective, 9/10 times when sniping. It just gives you that extra vantage point whilst also putting yourself at risk. Pretty balanced. In my placement matches I saw a great deal of players with auto mode on and they were shot to pieces almost instantly.