Halo 5 Is Removing Flinch

If you're one of the lucky individuals who managed to pick up a copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One and get in on the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta, then you may have noticed something during your online competitive exploits: there's a flinch animation when being shot. Guess what? 343 Industries will be removing the flinch.

Destructoid caught the news from a tweet sent out by 343 Industries' Josh Holmes, who addressed a public complaint about the “flinch”, challenging the developer on a previous claim that the game would have no flinch. Here's what Holmes had to say.

So what is this “flinch” business everyone is talking about? Well in previous Halo games it would work as a de-scoping mechanism when players would get hit. It would also slightly rattle the reticule, which would make it difficult for players to aim and shoot while being hit.

Apparently some players don't like the idea that you should lose an almost miniscule amount of orientation when being shot or hit by other players, but the whole flinch thing managed to cause some players to get a bit uproarious about it all. This resulted in 343 Industries opting to remove the flinch animations and reticule shake from Halo 5.

The mechanic will supposedly be removed following the completion of the beta test.

The Destructoid article jokes that pretty soon players will be back to getting hit and showing no reaction at all. I think, personally, this is a huge step backward. It feels like going back to the Quake days – which certainly is not a bad thing if you're Doom or Quake.

For some games I just imagine that “moving forward” means expanding the immersion, not trying to placate to the point where nothing changes at all or what changes are made are basically to just imitate the competition. With Halo 5, the game seems to have moved ever-so-close to the likes of Call of Duty... as far as the multiplayer goes.

Right now I'm not seeing much of anything else from the Halo 5 beta that speaks much to the identity of the game. It mostly seems to be Halo 4 with a Call of Duty speed job. I'm sorely hoping that 343 Industries has a lot more in store come next fall than just more of the same and a ratcheted up price tag.

Speaking of price tags... Destructoid does the honorable thing of warning people away from the $250 limited collector's edition purchase. It may be announced and it may seem like something worth throwing your money toward, but it's important to keep in mind that there is very little information available on the game and we all know where pre-order culture has lead us before.

Halo 5: Guardians' multiplayer beta will run up until the middle of January. Get in the play time while you can. The full game will be available exclusively on the Xbox One later this year during the fall.