Taking a break from the “HALO IS CALL OF DUTY” or “WEAPON A IS OVERPOWERED” threads, this should be a nice refresher for you. No, what I’m here to talk about today is the art style and aesthetics of the game itself. And yes this is entirely subjective, so inb4 “your opinion, man” posts. My comparisons will mostly be between Reach and Halo 4 since they are the most modern and graphically advanced of the series, and in my opinion embody their individual art styles the best.
I went back to playing the classic playlist of Reach today. When I was playing, I was playing on the beautifully crafted maps of that map pack. And it was a painful reminder. A reminder of what Halo used to look like, and how it looks now.
Let’s start with the Forerunner architecture. In the past, Forerunner buildings were looming and ancient looking. The worn metal walls had engravings on them instead of shiny surfaces and flashy lights everywhere. It looked inspired by the kind of designs ancient humans would build instead of a hyper-futuristic alien race.
I won’t say hardlight was never a part of their design, but it was never the focus like it is now. I feel High Noon got the look perfect. The map is covered with dust, there are designs carved into the walls, and while some portions contain hardlight it’s more subtle and not right in your face. There are also no shiny surfaces, everything looks appropriate to its age.
I guess the simplest way I can make my point is compare this image to this image. By the way, the skybox on High Noon is simply amazing.
The use of hardlight is about the same, but the engravings and weathered look just aren’t there. Forerunner buildings don’t look like that anymore. As someone else put it, they look like they were inspired by Tron.
But enough about the Forerunner for now, let’s talk about the UNSC. First, lets look at their weapons. In the past, the UNSC weapons looked like somewhat advanced versions of modern weapons. Black and Drab were the prevalent colors, not silver and grey. They were also more bulky and simplistic and less streamlined or futuristic and complex looking. I guess the best comparison I could make is between the Halo Reach Sniper and the Halo 4 Sniper, or the Halo Reach Shotgun vs the Halo 4 Shotgun.
On to the marines themselves. Their armor was also simplistic, and also featured green and drab colors. But now we have some rather strange designs, to say the least, with armor that is white and even at times pink, with skull emblems or full visor helmets.
The music is also less based on Orchestral or Spiritual songs than just your average techno. The previous music actually felt relevant to the setting of the game, you were fighting religious zealots on an ancient world created by a hyper-intelligent race. I guess the new music does fit the new setting though, so I will give them that.
One last thing I will bring up is the use of almost magical elements. There is no question the forerunner were an advanced race. But seeing disintegration or appearing out of thin air of organic and non-organic materials and floating buildings everywhere seems a bit too much.
What comes as a real shock to me though is that 343i and Certain Affinity actually worked on the Anniversary Map pack for Reach. You guys got it right the first time. It looked amazing. Now to me it just looks rather generic. I would like to see a return to the classic art style in the future, even if not entirely.
And yea… Its much Halo in it
