A friend and I decided to try out the Master Chief Collection on the PC after getting GamePass. We were excited because we had otherwise barely played the Halo series. We play our first game 4v4 SWAT. We walk around a bit, BOOM dead. We spawn, peek around the corner, BOOM. After a while, I got some kills by simply camping which allowed me to actually see who I'm fighting. I ended up having maybe 9 kills and my friend, 3.

Then we played a 4v4 on another map that was on the normal mode. The map was somewhat small, in an enclosed grassy area with black raised platforms. It was otherwise really open. This game just felt like the opposite of SWAT. What I mean was that we would see opponents, but even if we shot first, they were usually able to kill us. I think I got 3 kills and my friend got 1 kill.

Then we played Halo 1, or actually only me because he wasn't able to get in my game. I couldn't log out because I would be banned from queing for a while which happened before. It was going okay, but after a few minutes, I would respawn and die within a few seconds before I could move or look around to see what was going on. I think it was rocket shots.

Then I played a bit of Counter-Strike: Source on de_dust2. The first death I had was through a wall on the T right side double door room. The next couple times I ran into Bombsite B tunnel area where I felt safer staying back and waiting for them to come in. I died quite a lot and just left.

It just left me with a realization that so many of these games aren't necessarily about speed, but also familiarity. And familiarity is going to take repeated plays or many, many deaths and many hours. Halo really emphasizes long-range combat, which makes it hard for people who have trouble making out targets at far distances. SWAT can feel hopeless, yet the normal mode can feel like everyone is a bullet sponge and kills can only really happen when 2v1s happen. Counter-Strike heavily emphasizes map understanding and memorizing popular spots. If you are learning the map, you will die a lot which means you will be waiting a lot.

Maybe I've been spoiled, but I've always felt Team Deathmatch in Call of Duty played in small maps were the easiest to get into and see, which made them less frustrating. So we ended up calling it a night and not really enjoying these FPS games.