The competitive Halo community rejoiced this week as 343i unveiled gameplay on Damnation, one of the classic remakes shipping with Anniversary this November:
Normally this type of footage would only excite people for nostalgia reasons, but something is different this time around. At the 4:15 mark notice that the DMR reticle no longer has bloom, allowing the player to fire rapidly without any loss of accuracy. Bloom has seemingly been the most divisive alteration to the Halo formula in Reach, often rewarding less-skilled players for spamming their trigger as fast as possible. There also appears to be melee bleed-through similar to previous Halo games. We can assume all of these subtle changes will be included in the Title Update coming out later this year as 343 has hinted at allowing fans to play Halo with a more classic feel in time for Anniversary, whether it be in custom games or a devoted playlist.
So, what do you think? Is this the type of change you've been waiting for to play Reach again? Personally, I'm skeptical as to how the lack of bloom will affect gameplay. The DMR in its current form is already deadly in the right hands - bloom is simply an excuse to shoot slower and give one's opponent more time to react to being shot. Without bloom it might start to feel like Halo 2 again (i.e. having a dominant long-range hitscan weapon). I'm fairly certain the bloom removal was primarily in response to all the complaints from the MLG community. Reach has underperformed compared to previous Halo games on the circuit and risks not appearing in next year's lineup.
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