Okay after having played 2 full nights, despite some fun I absolutely had thanks to some cool sandbox elements and Jeff Steitzer always on point (and also much more wins than loses hehe, ex H3 player what can you do :p), I cannot recommend this game in it's current state, and probably at all, at least for Halo fans.

I know it's a beta, so jank is to be expected (like horrible stuttering despite high framerates, horrible netcode, etc...), but my criticism isn't there. This game feels like the best and the worst Halo multiplayer at the same time and it's a really really strange and unsettling feeling, which I ended up disliking in the end.

It's not that it's trying to attract a new audience or whatever that is bothering me, but more the fact that many decisions in the game design seems to have been taken without care nor consideration and 343 seems more or less clueless about what they're trying to accomplish. For example sprinting and sliding just adds more bloat (especially sprinting) and are absolutely unnecessary.
Why taking a full key/button to sprint when they could have just enabled always run as the base speed like in all the best Arena FPS games in existence?

3/4 of the weapons in the sandbox feels unreliable and cryptic to use, the sniper has to be the worst in the entire franchise, even worse than Reach sniper, and hitting with the BR feels completely server based instead of client based. People die with insane delay despite ping showing 26ms on fiber gigabit wired connection (which is nothing it's almost comparable to a badly configured LAN party lol).

It's really hard to explain, it feels like Reach, but worse and better at the same time, but with Gearbox CE's netcode.

Also I'm sorry but there's just no defending on the HUD, it's an absolutely terrible HUD. Not only things are not well placed and bloated in the same corner, but they are super little and hard to see. I always mix up things like the dynamo grenades or spike grenades, they look the same to me in the heat of action, same with some equipment, and the number of things you have too.

I really wanted Halo to grow, and I'm happy that this thing got some attention, but I'm not sure I'm playing Halo, and I'm not sure 343 wants to make a Halo game either. This will probably become a solid sci-fi shooter with light sandbox elements in a few months or years, but I don't see myself returning to this honestly.
Maybe in a year if it's still popular, we'll see.

Okay after having played 2 full nights, despite some fun I absolutely had thanks to some cool sandbox elements and Jeff Steitzer always on point (and also much more wins than loses hehe, ex H3 player what can you do :p), I cannot recommend this game in it's current state, and probably at all, at least for Halo fans. I know it's a beta, so jank is to be expected (like horrible stuttering despite high framerates, horrible netcode, etc...), but my criticism isn't there. This game feels like the best and the worst Halo multiplayer at the same time and it's a really really strange and unsettling feeling, which I ended up disliking in the end. It's not that it's trying to attract a new audience or whatever that is bothering me, but more the fact that many decisions in the game design seems to have been taken without care nor consideration and 343 seems more or less clueless about what they're trying to accomplish. For example sprinting and sliding just adds more bloat (especially sprinting) and are absolutely unnecessary. Why taking a full key/button to sprint when they could have just enabled always run as the base speed like in all the best Arena FPS games in existence? 3/4 of the weapons in the sandbox feels unreliable and cryptic to use, the sniper has to be the worst in the entire franchise, even worse than Reach sniper, and hitting with the BR feels completely server based instead of client based. People die with insane delay despite ping showing 26ms on fiber gigabit wired connection (which is nothing it's almost comparable to a badly configured LAN party lol). It's really hard to explain, it feels like Reach, but worse and better at the same time, but with Gearbox CE's netcode. Also I'm sorry but there's just no defending on the HUD, it's an absolutely terrible HUD. Not only things are not well placed and bloated in the same corner, but they are super little and hard to see. I always mix up things like the dynamo grenades or spike grenades, they look the same to me in the heat of action, same with some equipment, and the number of things you have too. I really wanted Halo to grow, and I'm happy that this thing got some attention, but I'm not sure I'm playing Halo, and I'm not sure 343 wants to make a Halo game either. This will probably become a solid sci-fi shooter with light sandbox elements in a few months or years, but I don't see myself returning to this honestly. Maybe in a year if it's still popular, we'll see.