Halo Reach Beta Forum
  • Subject: General Suggestions, Feedback, & Impressions
Subject: General Suggestions, Feedback, & Impressions

I liked the beta a lot. However, there are some things that definitely need to be changed for the full game. Here are the main things:

-Bloom needs to be reduced
-Camo should be weakened slightly (Radar Jammer is a pro, not a con, in team games)
-Most guns should be more powerful, especially the DMR (which needs either less bloom or a damage increase) and the Magnum (which is fine with damage, but maybe a little less bloom and definitely a bigger clip size (At least 10, 12+ preferred)
-Wins should count for more, both in the Arena rating and (especially) in the credits system.
-The Banshee should be able to take more damage
-The Wraith should be able to take on the Scorpion without exploding in one hit. Increase its health significantly, and either make it faster or make the time between shots shorter.
-The Warthog shouldn't be so fragile. It's more like a minivan now instead of an all-terrain vehicle.

Other than those, though, everything seems to be pretty fun.

  • 05.20.2010 7:49 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

well as you can see by my name I would love to create video games I lack the proper training but I am learning I also love being an artist and coming up with some of my new best selling games but one problem I have absolutely NO IDEA WHAT TO USE TO MAKE SAID GAMES! so I tried blender, and alice, and those are about the only 2 I can afford so if you know any better ones please tell me.

KEEP THE BETA OPEN LONGER!!! please guys, it would give us time to maybe find more problems give more suggestions to make your game better but most of all to just give all your fans some more time to play.

  • 05.20.2010 8:04 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

It's all about teamwork. :)

Bring back the Drone emblem! Come on guys, really? Just because of the time period, you take it away? You have the ODST emblems!!! Also, we can't have our emblem on our in-game characters, what gives?! That was a really cool thing since Halo 2!

  • 05.20.2010 8:07 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

It would be nice if you could look to your right and left while sprinting. For the elites they can evade in any direction while still being able to key track of their surroundings. When you're spreading it's not like you have television not really fully aware of your surroundings. It doesn't seem all that fair.

  • 05.20.2010 8:10 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Well, after playing the beta pretty much everyday since it was released, I've finally gotten around to writing some of my impressions. ( I wish I had written them all down when they happened, as it would be a lot easier to remember what, exactly, I had qualms about.) Alas, I was too busy enjoying playing the game, when I probably should have been paying better attention.

Let's start with the UI.


I'm doubtful that this is the final UI as far as menus are concernedp, but I thought that for the most part they were easy to navigate and understand. The armour selection area might be improved upon by making it feel more natural. It works fine for multiplayer, however I think the current interface would detract from the campaign experience. I don't want a lot taking me out of the story, so the more relative, the better, imo.

spartan/elite customization

The armoury is looking great so-far as options are concerned, and it's far from showing every conceivable option, so there's not too much I can comment about it.

The option to have your blade located in a different location, different type, i.e. Emil's would be nice. Also noticed that the knife cover was missing the actual knife?

The available colour palette seems lacking and somewhat limiting as to what armour pieces you can change. (Jorge's armour has three different colours that go together quite nicely I might add...)

Maybe have preset colours for some pieces? I'd like a Spartan that's as close to UNSC standards as possible.

Matchmaking

I like the system and how it should work in theory, but in practice it's coming up a little short. (More than likely I don't need to be telling you this...) In social preferences, if I pick to prefer chatty, polite team players, I more often than not end up with a group of Non-mic wielding lone wolves, mixed with loud and obnoxious poor sports, who's every other word can't be found in Websters.

I have no idea how this could be changed, and it most likely cannot be. In such a case it would be up to me to find people I like to play with, no big deal.

Which brings me to my next point, The party system.
If a group of four enters matchmaking as a party to play, let's say, Invasion- unless they exit their party (Which rarely happened), they are completely unable to coordinate with the rest of us, nor are we able to communicate with them (to much chagrin, as they go their separate way, leaving the rest of us to fend off a hungry pack of Elites while they snag all the power weapons and camp for the rest of the match.)

Could I pretend to join them? Sure, but wouldn't coordinated plans with all of us communicating be so much better? Yes.

Gameplay

The gameplay was great! Not too fast, not too slow, weapon balance was very well calculated and the new reticule bloom adds a nice effect, making us pace our shots intelligently. I kind of wish that I could still lead targets though, as it feels more realistic.

Individual weapons-

Pistol- very nice, but could use a slightly larger clip.

DMR- love it.

AR- does the job nicely.

needle rifle- Works well (almost too well) a lot less bloom (recoil) than DMR (intentional?) I do think the needles should dissapear as you fire it though.

plasma repeater- perfect.

Rocket launcher- Nightmarish splash damage not good for close quarters(powerhouse) firefights. Excellent for large open maps where vehicle destruction is its main purpose.

Shotgun- great. Not overpowered, imo... I've been on both ends.

Focus Rifle- Looks and feels great. I suck at using it, though.

Plasma Launcher- works wonders on large maps against vehicles and large groups of infantry.

Grenade launcher- This weapon will take me a long time to master. (I've yet to use the prolonged detonation successfully.)

Sniper Rife- Nice, slow deliberate shots are a nice change from the quick, no-scope spamming from days of ole.. (yesterday)

Needler- A-OK takes a steady hand to keep tracking on.

Hammer and Sword- Wonderfully powerful in the right hands. Incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. (i.e. your teammate,
who finds it fun to wave around in front of you, killing you in the process.) Funny? No. Set to Benny Hill music in fast forward? Maybe.

All the weapons SOUND fantastic.

Graphics

Being as the beta was a Somewhat small-ish download, I'm not really in a position to comment on graphics, besides what was presented to me; which in short, wasn't too shabby for just multiplayer. Animations were top-notch, even leaps and bounds ahead of any previous Halo title. I see that bungie is really working their tales off this time, which is really great for everyone.

Final notes-

If this kind of dedication remains present in bungie's future, then I will wholeheartedly embrace world domination. Albeit, I would have little choice regardless.






  • 05.20.2010 8:15 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Clan Draconus Lupus - Kicking ass for over a decade (Hyncharas)

On reflection I liked the Bets; despite the fact I've been ill and unable to play for most of it. I'm still annoyed a little at having heavy artillery coming at me from a jetpack, but maybe this will change once enough time has passed post-retail. I only won in 50% of the matches but, to be perfectly honest, this is on par with any game I play online anyway -- I'm not b*tchy when it comes to the laddering crowd! I'm a team player but not a competitive one, so I will rank up when I need to and just hold my own for my comrades most other times...

I really enjoyed what little of the Beta I saw. I suspect I won't get higher than Onyx Silver (if that, hehe), but the gameplay is better than the ranks.

  • 05.20.2010 8:22 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Our body is a collection of cells; each with a consciousness; together, we make up the persona that is us; we are all cells; we are all Geth.

Why can't I here the death screams in multi-player when I'm playing music on my xbox 360? I would really like to enjoy the best of both worlds in the final game.

[Edited on 05.20.2010 8:26 PM PDT]

  • 05.20.2010 8:24 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

it should tell us how many medals we get of a certain kind. like 3 headshots and so on

  • 05.20.2010 8:29 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Wort Wort Wort???

There should be a "multi-medal" medal, where you get a medal if you get like 3 or 4 other medals with a single kill. For example, if I were to get a killing spree, a splatter, a killjoy, and a revenge medal all in one kill, I should get a medal for that.

  • 05.20.2010 8:33 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
  • gamertag: Npact
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I have a great suggestion and everyone will love it. Make the Juggernaut a Brute chieftain. Come on bungie just try it out.

  • 05.20.2010 8:36 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
  • gamertag: VViLLz
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-plasma lauchers a tad over powered, the locking system makes it to easy,perhaps less rounds.
-invasion is impossible when an the entire team of spartans have shotguns inside camping the core,.
-overall elites being attackers have it harder then spartans so perhaps extra points for winning.
-the junkyard spawn point for invasion at times also seems unfair with the rocket sniper and splazer awaiting the spartans.
-the turret on the warthog need to last a tiny bit longer.
-stealth is useless when the enemies can walk to the middle of jamming cluster, perhaps instead have a static effect over enemy radars with the word "jammed". still show enemies on the radar just let them know that stealthie is around without giving them a direction to start looking for them.
-spartans knee pads are visable from first person view but not from any other point of view(probably a beta thing).
-focus rifle perhaps just needs one level of scope,it has distance but just is just to hard to aim on the furtherst scope,perhaps a scope level in between the 2 standard scope levels.
-would be nice to see the spectre back.
-extra points for a completed assassination (prestiege kill)

  • 05.20.2010 8:43 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Waniiiice

If you look at your current match players more stats on them then just games played and won. Also, when you play games like invasion if youre in a party be able to partner up with who you want, choose your partner, and longer vote time or a tone ten seconds before vote ends, i missed the vote when looking at stats and whatnot.

  • 05.20.2010 8:44 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

I like what you're trying to do with the new beat-down/melee system, but I think the old one from Halo 3/Halo 3 ODST works much better. There are less double beat-downs this way.

For instance, let's say spartan A has 3/4 of his shield and spartan B has 1/4. They both hit each other and the shield depletes all the way. They hit each other again (unless one person decides to drop back and go for a head shot), and both die (resulting in the aforementioned double-beatdown. This isn't fair to spartan A because he had much more shield left and should be rewarded for it.

BRING BACK THE OLD BEATDOWN SYSTEM.

  • 05.20.2010 8:51 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

How about you give people a warning of when the beta would end on x-bow live outside of the Halo:Reach beta community, so they don't go out and buy a game that they will never play. I did not see a warning on any of your advertisements for beta about when it would end. I bought this game for the sole purpose of playing the beta. Thanks a lot for the waste of money.

  • 05.20.2010 8:52 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

bring clans back!! plz =D

  • 05.20.2010 8:54 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

First of all, it was fun. I liked the voting option instead of the veto. Choosing your respawn location was good too.

Some of these may have already been fixed but I'm just putting down the stuff that I noticed while playing the last two weeks.

General suggestions:
-Next time you have a beta don't do it the week before and of finals. I think I failed my compiler design final. I take full responsibilty for my addiction but you guys didn't make it easy to study.
-Faster respawn after location is chosen. maybe once the location is selected/highlighted you could press a button for immediate respawn or lock it in instead of waiting a few seconds.
-Twice in one match I respawned on my partner while he was flying a banshee and fell to my death. maybe an altimeter could be implemented for flying vehicles so that doesn't happen.
-The dual beatdown. I'd rather be killed (in the game, obviously) and my opponent live than have to watch myself and said opponent simultaneously beat each other down again.
-Complete button customization. older games had it, why not new ones?
-Spartan grenade launcher. is that thing a single shot? you know Milkor makes six round grenade launchers right? I would imagine in 500 years, there would be a bigger version of that with larger clips for a spartan use. why would they be using a single shot grenade launcher?
-The wraith seemed to turn too slowly.

Invasion:
-The banshee can't fly over the ship (except where the ship is partially dismantled) this is probably to keep from camping on top of it but it seems like a low ceiling to me.
-Invasion slayer doesn't use the whole map. I know it's the biggest map ever but that only means something if you use the whole thing at the same time.
-Show teams before voting on which game to play. depending on what mood I'm in and what race/team I'm playing for I may want to play invasion over invasion slayer or vice versa. the team selection results seemed to show up at random times, sometimes a few seconds after the voting had ended.

Generator defense:
-I had a couple of games where time expired, the generators exploded after the time expired, and we (spartans) lost.

Saved films:
-How about an item saved prompt? there's an item deleted prompt after a successful deletion saying that the film had been deleted, but nothing after saving a film to your hard drive.

So what happened to that server on day one? any pictures?

That's all I can think of for now.

  • 05.20.2010 8:59 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
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Halfspeed Films

I don't mean to be a kiss up but I think that the beta is perfect. Awesome controls, graphics, multiplayer maps, guns, loadouts, classes, and overall gameplay is AWESOME! GOOD JOB BUNGIE!

  • 05.20.2010 9:16 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Gamertag: R6 Nighthawk

Overall, Bungie, I like the direction you took with revamping the gameplay. It was tricky to get used to at first, but once I did I really enjoyed it. Like others have said, armor abilities not only add alittle more strategy into the mix but make crazy skirmishes a bit more forgiving; less often are you screwed over by a tiny mistake in movement or a lucky shot/grenade. Weapons also seem, at least to me, to reward appropriate use and skill instead of just quick reflexes more then Halo 3 does. I like what's been done with vehicles too. I'd been hoping for vehicle damage being seperate from the driver/gunner's health since Halo 2, and I'm glad it seems to work out well. Voting on maps/gametypes and choosing where to spawn is cool too.

My complaints...

With armor abilities, I think the active camo needs some reworking. The loss of hearing and movement affecting your active camo are great, but the whole radar jammer aspect ruins any attempts at stealthy sneak-ups, especially with the grenades' increased radius. Any time I'd see that mess of contacts out of one area of my tracker, one grenade in the middle of it will usually light up my assassin like a christmas tree. Perhaps reducing the range of jamming, but scrambling enemy radar altogether(like a snowscreen effect), might help to make it more of a useful tool compared to the other armor abilities.

With vehicles... I'm not sure if it's my audio or the game, but I think splatters could sound alittle more, well, splattery. In Halo 3, a ghost or warthog splatter not only felt but sounded great, but in Reach the sound seems neutered, like I'm hitting a paper-mache doll instead of a super-soldier. Like I said, could just be my speakers. Other then that, maybe some more time could be given for you to get out of a vehicle on fire... just alittle bit more to give you a chance of survival would help.

Glitches: The only significant one I saw was in one game of invasion slayer. Every territory our team or the other scored, no weapons or vehicles spawned. Each territory icon and timer stayed on the map at '0' as well. Halfway through the match, though, everything randomly spawned all at once.

Besides these and stuff that's already been mentioned (elite/spartan balance, armor lock balance, melee speed, etc), I can't think of anything else. Nice work so far, Bungie! Looking forward to the full game later this year!

[Edited on 05.20.2010 9:39 PM PDT]

  • 05.20.2010 9:29 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

I play halo since Halo: CE

Armor abilities are totaly awesome, i was wondering if you guys can set the run abilitie as a default and the three remaining on the d-pad buttons so you can pick up instantly which to use depending on the combat situation. i mean, instead of loadouts the spartan would be way more skilled, just an idea, but think about it... the three remainings armor abilities in the d-pad just like you switch weapons in gears of war... it sounds pretty intresting... peace out XxoVORTEXoxX

  • 05.20.2010 10:08 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
Subject: GENERAL SUGGESTIONS, FEEDBACK, AND IMPRESSIONS

Tru7h. C4RN4GE. Bungie.

Posted by: Hylebos
The stats page on Bungie.net needs work. I'll add to this in the future, but I suppose to start with, it would be nice if we could sort stats by both playlist and gametype, instead of either or.


This.

It lacks overall stats and focuses more on individual weapons and playlists. I also hope it becomes clear on what the stipulations are for commendations.

Make the font size bigger in the active roster and make full party details visible.

Have campaign, matchmaking, custom games, forge and theater all available. Make Firefight a playlist in matchmaking.

All my other suggestions are in the certain threads.

I can't wait, thank you Bungie!

  • 05.20.2010 10:17 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
Subject: General Suggestions, Feedback, & Impressions

About how long before Reach releases?

  • 05.20.2010 10:26 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

Ok..well I love Halo but you guys are ruining it for me. You guys are straying too far from what made Halo popular and Bungie rich. I mean it's almost like a -blam!- rip-off of a Call Of Duty game. I mean honestly, did you guys run out of ideas, oh let's make it so you can go invisible, use a jetpack, be invincible for a few seconds, or sprint. The only good thing is the sprint. Then you guys made the biggest mistake possible by taking the Battle Rifle, the DMR blows. There must be better maps for MLG gameplay, because those two maps suck. I like the credits and the fact that you buy your armor. There are too many noobish weapons, also I'm not sure what the point of putting a scope back on the pistol if it still take half a clip to kill someone. Best Halo game was H2, why don't you guys make a game similar and not make it retarded. Halo 3 is alright but I like it a lot better than Reach, plus Reach gets really boring. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is, it sucks more than Call of Duty. It seems like you guys rushed it, I think this games multi-player needs a total make-over. You guys put this in stores like this, you will not only be disappointed with the sale, and you guys will lose a lot of money, not to mention fans. Better get working!

  • 05.20.2010 10:31 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
  • gamertag: pr3m0
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joey ricci

Things I noticed in halo reach beta:

1) DMR- I loved everything about this weapon. The only thing I thought was weird was how many shots it took to actually kill someone. Honestly, I felt like I was always just one bullet away from killing them. I'm not sure if the gun was made this way because of the fact the storyline takes place before halo 1, and the weapons are weaker, but it feels almost alittle too weak. This is the same for the needler rifle. They just seem one bullet too weak.

2)Matchmaking- I really love the new style for voting. It creates a more 'democratic' way for halo players. The thing that annoyed me a lot, however, was the fact that if you forgot to vote you are automatically voting for the first map on the list. This should be changed so that if u don't vote, you simply DON'T vote. Another thing, because of the fact so many people forget to vote you should incorporate a notification that alerts people to vote. I'm sure majority of the time people are so busy looking at the prior game stats that they forget to vote. Put in a dinger or something that let's us know its time to vote!

3) Armory- I'm not sure if it was just because its a beta demo or what, but the unlockable items was kind of pathetic. I mean, are they even relevant to anything besides making your spartan look pretty? I'm not into dress-up bungie! Make it more fun. Make some armor that increases the power of your armor abilities or somthing. I didn't even like the 'dress-up' in halo 3. Its just not fun or relevant. Give us more incentive to actually earn points and unlock something that's useful. Even more, let us customize the colors of our weapons. Let us put designs on our face helmets.

4) Grenades- TOO STRONG and TOO MANY. You guys should only give us one grenade to start out with. And just weaken them a little bit. That's all.

5) Assasinations- this is one of my favorite new things. I'm sure you guys alreasdy plan on doing this, but make more of a variety! Its so cool to watch! It would make it even more awesome if you guys changed the animation depening on the angle, speed, and weapon that you use when you assasinate someone. Make a god damn tea bag assination, 'Choke on my balls b****!'

6) A neat idea- I know this might be a stretch, but this is coming from a die hard halo lover who would play halo over call of duty any day, but consider this. The thing that makes call of duty so much fun is not the graphics, action, or strategy- its the INCENTIVE to earn kill streaks that grant you things like radar and helicopters an all that junk. If, by some amazing bungie creativist, you guys could somehow create a similar incentive that makes the player strive even harder for kill streaks by awarding us a ability or special weapon of some sort. I'm not saying throw out the old team slayer traditions, but create a new gametype that is like this in some way.

Other than that, I loved this little preview of halo reach. It was a really a revolutionary step for halo to incorporate loadouts, jetpack, and SPRINT! Made my life just that much better :-)

  • 05.20.2010 10:54 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

You guys are the scientists of video games so I'll leave you to figure out specifics, and I'll just give my general feelings.

Invasion/Invasion Slayer was the go to throughout the beta for me. I loved the combination of objectives, time constraints, loadout stepping, and vehicle combat. And I usually only play slayer because I HATE objective games.

In terms of slayer and general killing in the game, I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it like I loved the others. I think all the new features are great, and will add infinite new facets of strategy to the game. If I could try to pin down exactly what felt like the beta was missing, I'd say first that it felt maybe too easy- hard to state being that sure, nobody's good at this game yet. But to point one thing out, I felt like I achieved many more multikills than I deserved, and that making a kill in a lot of instances seemed cheap in a way, like I didn't have to put forth as much effort. I know this will bore me eventually.

If I could stab at a semi-specific area, I may say the game lacks a smoothness and quickness of close quarters combat that the others had; maybe not, hah.

But I do have the hope and idea that all this simply exists in a balance of assets that you have not quite struck yet, and will do by the fall.

I love you guys, and have been an avid fan and follower of Bungie.net since Halo 2, and a player since Marathon. I hope my opinion finds you well.

[Edited on 05.20.2010 11:24 PM PDT]

  • 05.20.2010 11:20 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
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i hate it when im in the middle of assassinating someone and one of my team mates comes up and takes my kill. maybe when someone is being assassinated make it so no one else can steal that kill.
what happened to giving out an mvp after each game?
i really hope team swat will have its own playlist like in halo 3.
SvE - the elites had too many advantages:run faster, jump higher, and the evade. i like the idea but maybe give the spartans something besides sprint to even things out a little.
i love how the sword can be blocked with melee.
i love the DMR.
i hope you bring in the maps from halo 3 and not make us buy them.

  • 05.20.2010 11:58 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas