Making sprint an ability really shows this game's age

[Nebula Punk]

I know there's "purists" around here that think games shouldn't evolve and become better and be limited in their depth, strategy, and overall skill level - but just walking around without the ability to run makes me feel like I'm moving through sludge. There's a reason any modern game allows you to run. Not being able to sprint in this game w/o the ability means you have to sacrifice movement for the other abilities which feels awful.

I've been playing since Halo 1 but for some reason am not blinded by nostalgia goggles. Putting sprint on a cooldown like this is also pretty terrible, but still bearable. Sprinting increases your movement options, which also adds an extra amount of strategy. When you sprint your gun is down, meaning you're vulnerable. Choosing when to do so is another decision that translates into skill level.

I can't believe anyone would want the next Halo game to make you walk 100% of the time.

[Caboose]

Wait till we got 1 - 3 then. There is no sprint at all.

[Akemua]

Never cared enough to be upset about it.

[wavel54]

Sprinting adds to game functionality. More map intricacies, maps can be bigger and have longer range fighting etc etc. And you're a spartan, kinda like to feel like one. Halo 5 does that well, for instance. Even with its multitude of issues it certainly makes you feel like how Spartans were always presented in the cut scenes. More movement abilities is always a positive imo. But i agree, the purists definitely wear nostalgia glasses 24/7.

[Miim]

I don't mind sprint being in the game but it's honestly so bad. Hope you like running into someone and basically ensuring they kill you because of the animation of readying your weapon. I actually had to get out of the habit of sprinting because this game seems to punish you for using it.

[Tomoko]

Sprint sucks in halo. That's a fact and it's been echoed by the community for literal years since even reach's release. It being an ability is a god send because at least it isn't given to everyone.

[WitheredSpirit]

When a game is designed with the idea that everyone has sprint at all times, the maps will be designed larger, with things further from each other. This makes it so that it basically takes just as long as you would have originally taken in a game without sprint, to get from point A to point B, but with the disadvantages of you not being able to aim and shoot and do other things as well as if you didn't sprint you wouldn't be able to get there as fast as originally.

Sprint in this game is designed with a different purpose in mind. Each armor ability has (at least) two functions (and at least a disadvantage), in Halo: Reach the maps are still relatively small and not designed with the idea that everyone has sprint in mind. Sprint in this game is meant for you to be (maybe) the first to get to that Rocket Launcher, or to run away from a situation where you would have died in most certainly. At a cost, your character makes a lot of panting sounds while sprinting, to alert to other players, including your enemies, of your position, which is changing a lot during that ability.

As you can see, the design choices from this game can't be compared with "modern games" according to you. A lot of Halo fans share the belief that they wouldn't want bigger maps just for the sake of having to press a sprint button that would limit your character's abilities while doing so.

[JustifiedWin]

I would argue that not being able to spring brings strategic options as well. You do realize one reason why sprint isn't some default thing is because these guys are in combat armor suits, it's not like they're playing soccer out there. So it makes since from that standpoint, but crying about how every game doesn't have sprint like in CODS and such is just pathetic normalization of something that not every game needs.

[Sova6]

Gotta disagree with ya there. Sprint has hurt halo 4 and 5 more than it has helped it. In the campaign it's a nice addition but in multiplayer its annoying when somebody is able to put himself in a bad situation and sprint to his teammates the second he gets shot. Reach put good limits on sprint that made it fit Halo's longer TTk(although I would still take it out completely if given the chance)

"Modern" games that don't have this problem don't have it because the TTK is so fast. You can sprint in CoD and Battlefield, and Siege....etc because it's not a get out of jail free card.

[-Шasтe|Мanageмenт-]

Originally posted by JustifiedWin:

I would argue that not being able to spring brings strategic options as well. You do realize one reason why sprint isn't some default thing is because these guys are in combat armor suits, it's not like they're playing soccer out there. So it makes since from that standpoint, but crying about how every game doesn't have sprint like in CODS and such is just pathetic normalization of something that not every game needs.

so, some galactic military developed a combat armor in 2500 that cannot sprint.. I wonder why.

[Elvick]

By that logic, the dodge and jetpack should be default as they are movement abilities and without them you don't have access to them. But I guess it's fine as long as other games haven't done those things as standard.

I always found the movement in Halo pretty fast by default idk, never felt it needed a sprint. Any big enough areas to need faster speed give you vehicles. Much rather have the bubble, armor lock or invisibility.

[Skankhunt42]

Some people get the relations wrong. If you look at the character's size inside the environment, he's already sprinting(or let's say jogging) all the time. With the ability equipped he's able to go even faster. :)

[Bob of Mage]

Originally posted by JustifiedWin:

I would argue that not being able to spring brings strategic options as well. You do realize one reason why sprint isn't some default thing is because these guys are in combat armor suits, it's not like they're playing soccer out there. So it makes since from that standpoint, but crying about how every game doesn't have sprint like in CODS and such is just pathetic normalization of something that not every game needs.

So I take you think the Arma games are silly and unrealistic because you can sprint in them while wearing full body armour?

Personally I think it shows more that this is a console game where there is a very limited amount of buttons with which to control things. If it was a PC only game there would be more chance of things like leaning (for those unaware the option to lean isn't new by a long shot in PC games) and so on.

Being able to sprint is something I miss when playing Reach, and any time I want to move to cover in a hurry my instincts scream at me to hit the sprint key, even when I lack that armour mod. It feels so natural to be able to have an extra burst of speed when the ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan. I mean it's not like people always move at their fastest speed since that would tire you out rather fast. So even if you are wearing armour (power armour at that which augments your speed) you should be able to go faster in a pinch by default.

[Falleax]

Sprinting makes short range power weapons OP.
Sprinting allows players who should have died to survive and escape, denying a well deserved kill the the person fighting them.
Maps have to be made artificially larger to compensate for the increased speed, meaning you may be moving faster but you're not getting to your destination any sooner.
Sprinting makes it easier to hijack slow vehicles which is unfair.

Just because popular games like CoD have sprint as a default ability, that doesn't mean everything should. Halo was not designed around it, the combat system suffers from its inclusion, the map design suffers. Compare Halo 5's Truth to the original Midship and it's around twice the size, just because of sprint.

It has no real value for Halo, it devalues vehicles that are already significantly and unfairly nerfed due to the healthy system introduced in Reach.

It's all an illusion made to trick younger and ignorant players into thinking it's fast when what you really need to feel fast is a large FOV and base movement speed, why should I have to press a button to move at my max speed? That just adds a completely unnecessary extra function to create the illusion of depth.

tl;dr Halo has sprint because CoD does and it doesn't belong with the rest of the gameplay.

[Cooperal]

They were probably conflicted by the idea of modernising Reach too hard, because they were making a prequel to the game that pioneered modern shooters for console. Can you blame them?

Chances are they didn't want too many parallels to be drawn between Reach and the CoD series, which by that point had already taken the crown. The class selection alone was already enough for people to start making comparisons around the original release.

Personally I appreciate trend setters more than trend followers. The good news is, there are thousands of games that already have what you want. You just need to pick one.

[Bob Boberson]

WHY DOES THIS GAME HAVE A BASIC AND REALISTIC FEATURE, WHY CAN MY SUPER SOLDIERS IN HIGH TECH ARMOR SPRINT?

Wait but they sprint in cutscenes

REEEEE WHY CAN WE SPRINT IN GAME? IT'S BASICALLY CALL OF DUTY AT THIS POINT

Might as well remove all knives in Reach because you have knife in Call of Duty
The Halo game that's comparable to Call of Duty to a big extent is Halo 5
I don't like what Halo 5 did with the series, and most people don't for good reason
A franchise has to at least stay true to it's root in some ways, Halo 5 is everything that Halo isn't and shouldn't be