JANUARY 2020 PCWorld 35would in any other
PC shooter ever
instead changes
your grenade
type.
You can try
and remap it, and
you should. I’ve
settled on Mouse
Wheel Up to cycle
weapons.
Scrolling down
still does nothing,
but at least it’s almost normal.
But it’s a choice so baffling I have to
imagine it’s fundamental to the engine, some
deep-down coding issue that’s impossible to
overcome. Halo always shipped with multiple
control layouts, but like any console game it
was always one button per action. My
suspicion is that limitation carried over to the
PC, so 343 could only work with one key at a
time and did the best they could.
That’s a generous read, but it’s the one I’m
operating under until I hear otherwise.
Anyway, it’s still pretty nifty playing Halo:
Reach with a mouse’s precision. I’m trending
towards weapons like the DMR, Carbine, and
Pistol which have the ability to (sort of) aim
down sights like a standard 2019 shooter.
Picking off Grunts and Jackals is relatively easy
compared to the console version, given both
go down with a single headshot. Elites are the
only enemy I find frustrating, as they’re still
incredibly bullet spongy, especially on Heroic
and Legendary difficulties. It feels weird to
pump round after round into their mandibled
faces with zero feedback.
Feedback is an issue in general, actually.
Like Gears of War 4 (go.pcworld.com/gwr4),
Reach’s weapons lose a bit of their oomph in
the transition to PC. I never really knew how
much controller rumble contributed to the
feel of Halo until I lost it. And that goes for hit
indicators as well. I’ve died more than a few
times because I didn’t even realize I was
being shot until it was too late.
Add it all up, and I’m almost tempted to
cave and play with a controller. That feels like
heresy, but the mouse and keyboard feel like
a compromise, not an outright improvement.
What you gain in precision, you lose in...well,
pretty much every other aspect.
It really makes you appreciate how much
work Bungie must’ve put into bringing