343’s attempts to continually “Modernize” or have halo appeal to a larger audience is one of the main causes for their poor decisions

Games Halo Infinite
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We’re all upset with the delays and the removal of split screen, but I’d like to point out a consistent theme I’ve seen with 343’s design decisions and some of the community’s reaction to them.

It seems that with Halo 4,5, and Infinite a lot of 343s decisions were made to meet the status quo of “modern gaming” instead of actually making a game that feels and plays like Halo.

For example, one of the most notable shifts was the hyper focus on competitive play in Halo Infinite and 5. Since a lot of shooters were focused on this aspect, 343 followed the trend, disregarding the fact that the classic halos, the ones that were widely loved, never did so.

Again, when we saw that Infinite’s multiplayer would be free to play, another trend, many were skeptical, but others defended the choice saying that “Halo won’t survive without free to play”

Even how sprint was implemented as a base mechanic follows this appeal to modernize. Halo 4 and 5 definitely followed this (Especially with Halo 5 chasing the enhanced mobility trend). I’ve even seen fans say that “Halo can’t survive without sprint, its required in the FPS genre”, which is a bit ironic with games like Doom (2016) existing, and even more so when the problem wasn’t the fact that sprint was in the game but how it was implemented in a generic way instead of a way that fit halo’s gameplay.

Splits-screen removal can also be attributed to their hyper fixation on following trends, because while it is extremely important to Halo, its not an extremely important feature to other modern popular FPS, so removing it for more resources was a no brainer to them in. It wasn’t important for mordern gaming, so it wasn’t important for 343.

And finally, during Infinites development, we saw coatings and the armor core system get introduced. Some of the community rightly called this out, saying they wanted classic customization to come back since it offered more, but others defended this saying “Halo can’t survive without MTX, its free to play after all!”

But with all of that being said, all this trend following/” Modernization”, What has it all really got us?

Looking at the steam player count Halo Infinite is ONLY around 100 more players than MCC currently and ONLY has 400 more players than MCC at a 24 hour peak.

The game that: is FREE TO PLAY,

uses modern progression mechanics like MTX and battle passes,

uses “modern” gameplay mechanics like sprint, slide, clamber,

Is the most recent Halo

can only get 400 more players than a PAID game(That launched TERRIBLE years ago) that is a collection of games that are around 10+ years old.

At the end of the day ,I can’t see what good these decisions have brought. all this modernization and trend chasing has got us is a less feature rich, and more generic feeling Halos that lack a good amount of uniqueness the original Halos brought us. But what are yall’s thoughts on 343 chasing trends and making decisions to solely appeal to a larger audience?

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The people literally just want Halo 3 or Halo Reach in 4K with a new campaign. That’s it.

I would pay I dunno, $200, just to get Halo 3 remastered in Infinite’s graphics. (even more if it included the new movement mechanics, etc.)

Once they figure that out, I’m screwed.

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Uniqueness requires standing alone and 343 likely (clearly?) doesn’t have the mandate to do that.

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Infinite doesn’t feel all that Halo to me, the best way to put it is it’s a modern Esport shooter with Halo assets dropped in, not the other way around. I actually stopped playing Infinite (and 4&5) because of the gameplay and the way everything felt. The lack of content and features was only a small part of it. Hell even Reach with its controversies still felt like a Halo game to me.

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adding things like sprint ads clamber also made the game more complicated for casual players, back on h3 i knew moms and dads at the time that could play, barely, but they could play and tehres no shot they could play infinite.

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Ever since 343i got involved in the development of Halo things have gone astray.

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i think the way they used sprint was good in 5, not only did it just make you go faster but also hit harder. thrusters we’re good too, you weren’t bouncing and flying all over the place like in titanfall, it was quick dash to get out of hot situation just a little faster, halo had evade and thrusters way before cod or titanfall. i also cant believe it took halo 14 years to give a super soldier, who can master any weapons human and alien, with the strength to flip a tank, the knowledge and strength to to take one hand off the gun and reach out to grab a ledge and pull them selves up, thats revolutionary technology right there.

Doom didn’t have sprinting but instead there was a ruin that gave you a speed boost after each kill and a speed boost power up, so it gave plenty of option for faster mobilty just not how most games did it. i thought maybe halo could handle speed almost like doom maybe after each kill you just get more pumped up like “i can take on the whole damn covenant army!!!” but then i thought “oh thats returnal.” Then Eternal got dash and grappling hook swinging which i think was becoming a trend from apex, which infinite seems to follow too.

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I personally think the real issue is that while indeed trying to modernize the game, they also want to hold back onto heritage/OG formula at the dame time, which as a result creates this mixed bag of experience.

Like for example the shield system, it could have been replaced with ordinary damage multipliers, like shooting at head does 1,5x dmg, upper torso 1.2-1,3, lower body and limbs 1x, that kind of system is what could modernize the game for a new audience, while as it is people’s impression when not being familiar with the series is “I’ve put half a clip into guy’s head what the hell?!?”.

Motion tracker, now that thing is terrible, straight garbage, you’re being revealed for everything you do EXCEPT shooting, which is the exact opposite of what any modern game is doing, you can’t flank, you can’t go below or above, you cant run around the map, no nothing because the enemy gets notified and already spams grenades at you before you even get from behind the corner, or two guys are running in circles around a pillar, or are chasing each other across rooms and so on, motion tracker creates all those lind of really awkward situations that negatively impact the whole flow of the game.

There are many similar examples of adding (supposedly) modern features and solutions into the series, but they’re being so poorly implemented instead of just being a straight copy-paste that the end result is what it is, a Frankenstein that doesn’t satisfying the old-time fans, nor the newcomers.

Now, I fully understand that it’s not an easy task to keep such an old franchise up to date, but that’s what necessary to keep it going, but IMO even when ditching everything that supposedly makes Halo, Halo, and leaving just the very core gameplay - the movement and gunplay, you’d still have way more than enough of a strong foundation, that not only would easily stand against the competition but actually be much better, more fun.

Honestly, I was messing with the settings couple of months ago, and disabling shields (and with it instant headshots), increasing the HP in return, tweaking the minimap so that it only reveals you when you’re actually shooting, tweaking reload/jump/movement speed a bit, it still gives you 99% Halo experience, but in a modern form, dare I say better, simpler, more obvious and logical. But I can only imagine the outrage of community if 343 imposed even remotely as radical changes to the series. So all in all, I think that’s the gate the series is destined to, a mixed bag of experience, not oldschool nor modern.

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I think negative discussions around changes 343 makes to Halo “just to modernize it” is a tricky conversation. Imo it dismisses the massive changes Bungie made to the title over their 4 mainline titles.

HCE → H2 featured massive changes to player physics, vehicle combat, health systems, melee combat, and the weapon sandbox.

H2 → H3 featured huge changes to vehicle health mechanics, weapon systems (hitscan changed to projectiles), and utilized an entire new sandbox category (equipment).

H3 → Reach removed equipment and introduced loadouts, the first time Halo didn’t have equal starts.

I don’t think changing up Halo’s formula some from game-to-game should be held against them at all imo. The only constant Halo has ever known is change, so viewing it as a negative is very dismissive of Halo’s past imo.

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I really appreciate the sentiment of this post, but there are a few things that I don’t respectfully agree with

For example, one of the most notable shifts was the hyper focus on competitive play in Halo Infinite and 5. Since a lot of shooters were focused on this aspect, 343 followed the trend, disregarding the fact that the classic halos, the ones that were widely loved, never did so.

What about Halo 2 and Halo 3? I can see that it wasn’t their primary focus creating these games, however there was a great emphasis on competitive play

MLG was HUGE back in the day for these games, and played a huge part holistically for these games to succeed (I say holistically, as Forge and Custom Games played a big - if not, bigger - role than than the competitive side of the game

In my opinion, it’s because of the all rounded-ness for Halo 3, that it was as successful as it was

Again, when we saw that Infinite’s multiplayer would be free to play, another trend, many were skeptical, but others defended the choice saying that “Halo won’t survive without free to play”

I feel that part of the reason it became free to play, is due to the state that the game was released in. I do not know personally exactly why they chose to be free to play, but this was a skeptical reason I originally thought

Moving forward, I believe that the best way to increase the population in the longterm, is to have better accessibility

Just say if 343 were to add a huge update - with the right marketing, not just with their current socials - the accessibility would be tremendous; being both cross-play and free to play. For me I think of the story of “No Man’s Sky”, as they showed that it is very possible to bring an unfinished game back up to speed; with determination, love and persistence

Even how sprint was implemented as a base mechanic follows this appeal to modernize. Halo 4 and 5 definitely followed this (Especially with Halo 5 chasing the enhanced mobility trend). I’ve even seen fans say that “Halo can’t survive without sprint, its required in the FPS genre”

With Halo Reach having introduced sprint, I feel that it would have been hard to take that away. Having it implemented in Halo 4, it eventually became an in-built mechanic. I feel a way to compromise this is to create ‘Classic Gamemodes’ like they did in Halo Reach

My short synopsis of how the games evolved:

Halo 3 → Halo Reach: armour abilities introduced, equipment removed
Halo Reach → Halo 4: armour abilities integrated as loudouts, merging equipment as armour abilities
Halo 4 → Halo 5: Loudouts removed, armour abilities made universal for every players (no individual abilities)
Halo 5 → Halo Infinite: Abilities minimised to slow down gameplay, equipment re-introduced

I feel that with the release of Halo Infinite, they have done what they can to bring it back to roots; whilst maintaining the current evolved Halo gameplay

I feel that with Halo 5 they did a great job evening the playing field between everyone, however having 7 initial armour abilities across all players made for the gameplay to be too fast paced

Splits-screen removal can also be attributed to their hyper fixation on following trends, because while it is extremely important to Halo, its not an extremely important feature to other modern popular FPS, so removing it for more resources was a no brainer to them in. It wasn’t important for mordern gaming, so it wasn’t important for 343.

I agree but then I disagree. I believe that is something they did see as important, it’s due to the crunch time of releasing Halo Infinite - including it’s inherited engine - it is something that proved to take up too much time and resources; getting the rest of the game up to speed, hence why they made their final decision not to focus on it moving forward

Halo Reach’s split screen lowered the quality of maps when playing, and I feel like this is why they took it out of the games moving forward; to retain map/gameplay quality. It also saddens me too, as this was a huge part of Halo and it’s social aspect

That was just my summary of what you said, and like I said, I really appreciate the sentiment behind this post

I personally feel that the reason why there a less players now is due to the lack of content, then moving forward, the lack of balance between Competitive and Social Gameplay

Even though we have ‘Social Playlists’, I feel that they are far too spread out and people aren’t enjoying them as much as 343 imagined they would. Not including Social BTB as that was very successful*

To conclude, great post homie! Thanks for bringing it to the table :slight_smile:

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Do you ever see Nintendo talk about “modernizing” the mainline Mario platforming titles? No. I wonder why? The games naturally evolve according to the previous game’s strengths instead of trying to go against the grain for the sake of being new.

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I’ll have to say this though. Forge is damn well made. Better than Halo 5’s improvement, a bit buggy but a great feature that sets all other FPS titles aside.

Nobody else can make your own maps with the details you need. A feature CoD (I don’t count Fortnite) will ever see.

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This Forge is once again on another whole new amazing level. What people are creating is truly amazing. I love what 343i has done with this forge and I look forward to seeing it be implemented into matchmaking playlists.

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