They need to take the best of the flood traits from the halo games, and then scrapping the rest and replacing them with new features. This includes the way they look, the sounds they make, abilities, flood types (Infection, Combat, Carrier) and balance.
Halo CE:
PRO's
-I liked how the Flood sometimes would jump down on you from the ceiling or a higher elevation. This exactly made carrier forms a really big threat. This didn't happen enough though.
-Having to option to shoot off either arm as they ran at you with a pistol (usually) was a nice option. Flood form with shotgun running at you? Blow his arm off, steal the gun and blast him instead. Wasn't easy to "pull" off either.
- Their ability "play dead" in the original was always something that made you think twice about walking over their body and is something I hope is brought back for the flood in new Halo games. It also really added to the creepy factor in the Original (Which is good). Unfortunately the shotgun/grenades in CE was way to OP and almost always killed Combat forms outright, even on legendary. If you want see how CE flood should have been play Anniversary Edition on the "Keyes" level on legendary or heroic with low brightness, and with the mythic, fog, and eye-patch skull turned on. You'll still be able to beat it but you're really got to pay attention to your flashlight, ammo and your surroundings. Blasting your shotgun with lazy aim at flood forms 15 feet away or grenade spamming won't get you far. It forces you to get creative in order to win just like it should be in Halo 5.
CON's
-Sure fighting the Flood on legendary in CE when I was 8 years old was difficult but I know now that the only thing required to beat them is cheap shotgun camping tactics with grenades. Anyone remember the library mission? Well that's basically the tactic you used for the entire damn thing... Not fun at all.
-I like how the flood were resistant to melee, making them contrast with the covenant, but it was way too much. Now they weren't immune to melee attacks but it takes a VERY long time to kill them this way. How many melee strikes exactly? The world may never know...
Halo 2:
PRO's
-Chilling screams and yelling from the flood was a nice exchange for the moaning sounds the flood had in Halo CE, which I always found more humorous than scary.
-The flood would actually retreat and use some tactics rather than just running at you like in first. Even the infection forms didn't always just rush as soon they detected you.
-Flood driving around in vehicles in quarantine zone was pretty cool, though it was the only level were it could be witnessed.
CON's
-Human Combat Form with Shotguns were broken (Human combat forms in general were tbh).
-The infection forms ability to revive a flood combat form was annoying. It would have been a interesting addition if it didn't take a million melee's to destroy a body on the ground, leaving you with only the sword, shotgun and sentinel beams to destroy them quickly enough.
-No flood juggernauts
-The flood combat forms had a headshot area that was a little easy to hit, especially when they ran straight at you.
Halo 3:
PRO's
-The addition of pure forms finally allowed you to fight other opponents other than the original 3 forms introduced in the original.
-The ability of an infection form to turn any corpse in a flood form was a nice plus. Pretty unnerving and gruesome to watch too.
CON's
-Only 1-2 melee's to kill a combat form? How pathetic... I guess Bungie wanted to fix the floods incredible resistance to this attack in the the first two games but instead they went to the complete opposite side of the spectrum which is just as bad.
-The flood seemed awfully sluggish and slow and seemed to have devolved in regards to intelligence since halo 2
So for H5 (or 6) assuming they really do add the Flood, they should make them less predictable by making the flood hide and set up ambushes for the player more. It's difficult to do with radar and all, but I'm sure 343 could pull it off. This would, at the same time I believe, add to the scare factor which so many players want for the flood. If nothing else, they should NOT make the flood like they were in H3 in regards to the difficulty. Maybe they could add more flood forms due to possible evolution.
Perhaps Flood who's brains have been mutated to preform mind powers to play tricks players and marines in order to lead them into traps, or maybe some mutated to attain the ability to camouflage with their surroundings. These are just some silly and random ideas of course, but I really think 343 has a lot of room to work with regarding this somewhat forgotten enemy of Halo Story.
