343i's last battle! Time to win or to die.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

The developers of next Halo must know they have a great responsablility.

Wether you liked or not Halo 4, general opinion says it was not good enough to be a Halo game.

Now with next gen they have an other chance to show what they are able to do. But there are monster games like Destiny or Division coming.
Halo 5 will have to fight it’s last battle to decide if Halo universe prevails or dies. Not only against old enemies like Battlefield or Call of Duty and new enemies like Devision, but also against it’s stepbrother Destiny and it’s own ghost (Halo 4).

Halo 5 has to be VERY VERY VERY revolutionary and have it’s own soul to survive this next gen’s FPS war.
Everybody have their plan to make Halo 5 invincible (me too). But being the best it’s not an option. It’s a NEED.

Do you think 343i is able to handle this situation? Or will they be doomed to offer just a “only for Halo fans” game?
Personally, I’m waiting for H5 to decide if I buy XOne or PS4.

PD: I’m sorry if there are some writing mistakes, I’m from Spain.

2

Is Brian Reed still the lead writer?
I have no doubts 343 has learned from their mistakes, but I swear, if I hear the term “egghead” one more time…

3

> Is Brian Reed still the lead writer?
> I have no doubts 343 has learned from their mistakes, but I swear, if I hear the term “egghead” one more time…

Brian Reed is indeed the lead writer, and took over writing for Escalation since Chris Schlerf had left.

4

I have faith. Then again, I had faith in Halo 4 as well.

5

‘When you play the game of FPS, you win or you die… There is no middle ground.’

Since I didn’t have many problems with Halo 4 myself, Halo 5 won’t fail in my book. However, since 343i appears to be ignoring fan feedback (i.e. promoting Brian Reed to lead writer despite the constant negative feedback towards the writing of SpOps and Initiation), I’m not too sure how they’ll do this time.

6

well its not do or die for me at this point i have my doubts. halo 4 was the first halo game i was disappointed with, but that was mostly the multiplayer. i did still like the story for 4 and spartan ops though i felt it could’ve been executed a little better. especially the main plot info in the terminals that you needed to understand why your fighting the didact. the story for escalation has also been pretty good so i think if 343 can nail the multiplayer this time around halo will be fine, but that’s just my opinion.

7

343i tried some new stuff with H4 matchmaking. And seeing how many people dislike H4, it did not work. I hope they have learned from it and I hope they are able to bring most of the fans back with H5.

Personally I liked the Campaign very much and didn’t want to stop playing before I completed it. I hope they have a lot of good ideas to add into the next part of the story.
I enjoy the matchmaking too, but the biggest thing I dislike is the personal power weapon drop. It’s easy to get and there’s always powerful weapons to choose from.

Overall, I like the game, but if 343i wants the old fans back they should listen to them too.

8

343i should just do their own thing.

When they listen to the whole 200 people complaining you just get fail playlists like Proving Grounds and those 200 people still complain incessantly about how their needs aren’t being met.

9

> ‘When you play the game of FPS, you win or you die… There is no middle ground.’
>
> Since I didn’t have many problems with Halo 4 myself, Halo 5 won’t fail in my book. However, since 343i appears to be ignoring fan feedback (i.e. promoting Brian Reed to lead writer despite the constant negative feedback towards the writing of SpOps and Initiation), I’m not too sure how they’ll do this time.

I see what you did there. +1

Also, agreed. I’m not sure I like that promotion.

10

> 343i should just do their own thing.
>
> When they listen to the whole 200 people complaining you just get fail playlists like Proving Grounds and those 200 people still complain incessantly about how their needs aren’t being met.

Those are just the 200/420,000+ that left the Halo community prior to these updates.

11

Destiny and Division is not a problem to Halo.

Halo’s problem is itself.

People will play other games other than Halo in Xbox Live. We’ve grown past the point where Halo was the only game that has a good enough MM system to pair people up and other game developers were taking notes. We’re at an age where modern shooters are going to be the top dog as that is the “next big thing” to play.

Halo needs to get its act together, and that starts at the top with whoever is running the whole direction, both in storytelling and in multiplayer’s mechanical design.

> 343i should just do their own thing.
>
> When they listen to the whole 200 people complaining you just get fail playlists like Proving Grounds and those 200 people still complain incessantly about how their needs aren’t being met.

Disagree entirely. 343 did that, and the population swam like a rock. Though they did fix a lot of things, there are still many broken game mechanics. This includes a slower reaction time in movement vs hitscan projectiles, flinch being a poor replacement of the descope-when-shot mechanic, Personal Ordnance being completely random that rewards players unevenly, and vehicle combat being entirely broken with Plamsa Pistols and Plasma Grenades available as a loadout option for starters.

There comes to a point where we can let the devs do what they want, but then there is a point where we need to go, “Hey, this doesn’t work, go back.” We paid $60+ for the purchase of Halo 4. We have a right to voice our opinion on the matter.

12

One can only give his opinion on the game. For some, a game may be perfectly fine, but to another, the game is a colossal failure, like halo 4 was to me. I have gone back to the older halos for now, and will be waiting for the next game. I have a list of personal requirements for the game to succeed, such as fixing the looks of the covenant, fixing the sound effects of the weapons, and bringing back a lot of things they took out. I won’t suggest further modifying the game until everything broken is fixed first.

13

In fact, I liked H4 campaign more than other Halos and the OST was amazing. I loved the multiplayer for a while, but I stopped playing because it was not 100% “fair to your skill”
SpOps was a very good idea.

14

> ‘When you play the game of FPS, you win or you die… There is no middle ground.’
>
> Since I didn’t have many problems with Halo 4 myself, Halo 5 won’t fail in my book. However, since 343i appears to be ignoring fan feedback (i.e. promoting Brian Reed to lead writer despite the constant negative feedback towards the writing of SpOps and Initiation), I’m not too sure how they’ll do this time.

I haven’t read Initiation, but I don’t see the problem people have with SpOps. I mean, the missions themselves had terrible dialogue, but can you blame them? They had to write fifty different 15 minute missions and had to find ridiculous excuses as to why the player returns to the same maps again and again and again. It’s the system that killed SpOps writing, not the writing itself. And the CGI episodes were really well done and really well written. The only thing I have against Brian Reed is that he called Halsey a monster in some interview, and I’m sure Frank and the franchise team have spoken to him about that by now (and the story in SpOps actually implies that Halsey has an important role in the future of humanity).

I’ll keep an open mind on Halo 5. If it’s good, I’ll like it, if it isn’t I won’t.

On Topic:

I do agree that this is 343i’s last chance. If this game isn’t a success among its fanbase, Halo 6 will be the last Halo and 343i will have to move on to other projects. I just hope they surprise us (in a good way) in both Campaign and multiplayer with truly new and revolutionary features that don’t argue with Halo’s core gameplay. They are good with the story, it’s mostly the gameplay we should worry about.

In terms of the Campaign, they delivered a good story in Halo 4 (although it did have many issues), but I found the gameplay very lacking. Both the Covenant and the Prometheans felt like an incomplete enemy- with many enemy types missing. The Campaign was also nauseously linear at times, and no matter which mission you pick all you really had to do was walk straight and shoot. I hope for a bigger variety in missions: some missions SHOULD be linear, but I feel like most should be more open and flexible. The Xbox One should allow big maps, and we can finale stop being in canyons and start walking on actually open ground. Maybe we can add optional side-objectives and mini-missions too. Also, I feel like the only really epic mission in Halo 4 was Reclaimer with the Mammoth, previous Halo games had multiple “war” missions. So more of that, and a spiritual successor to the Scarab please. And Precursors should get a mention.

In terms of multiplayer… I won’t even try to get into that. I just hope what ever 343i supplies will be enjoyable, versatile (like all previous Halos and especially Reach) and would support the competitive community (since they are the heart of the post-launch population).

15

The only way Halo 5 can be saved is if they go back to what Halo is, and make Halo Halo again. No armour abilities, no Infinity Slayer, no bloom, no weapon drops, no loadouts, no +10 points for a kill, no more vehicle health, no sprint, none of that Call of Duty crap. Take us back to what Halo 3, Halo 2, and Halo CE were, give us more guns and vehicles then ever, bring back the old weapon sounds, make the Covenant look the way they did before, bring back the old Halo music, it isn’t Halo without the Halo theme, and give us a long awesome campaign with a Halo ring in it for a change, and you’ll have a successful Halo game.

And hire Marty!

16

> Halo 5 has to be VERY VERY VERY revolutionary and have it’s own soul to survive this next gen’s FPS war.
> Everybody have their plan to make Halo 5 invincible (me too). But being the best it’s not an option. It’s a NEED.

No, i think Halo must return to origin… because all revolutions in halo got worsening…

Halo reach was an example of some bungie’s revolutionary ideas (armor abilities)… but these ideas could be good in a new game (DEstiny), not editing the same game (halo). Something think Halo reach was a good game… but, among Halo 3 was very bad…

Halo 4 want be like as call of duty (loadout ecc), and halo reach (more amor abilties) and the final result was worse than halo reach…

imho:
Halo must not like as Call of duty or Destiny or other FPS to win… Halo must be Halo (2/3).

17

Here’s the thing:
Halo 4 campaign was pretty awesome, probably the best halo campaign I’ve played.

Halo 4 mp: now, this was sort of all-over-the place. Gameplay mechanics are excellent and best out of all halo games. Spartan movement is excellent.
But all of the various armor abilities, lack of aerial unsc vehicles, and the lack of any significant improvement in forge just sucked. The forge palette should do a mix between Halo 3/Halo Reach. All of the crates and boxes, etc. in Halo 4 had such a hugely generic and kiddy look to them that any forge map I saw in Halo 4 looked like total crap.

In regards to armor abilities, invisibility and overshield need to come back as just pick-ups, bubble shield needs to come back, and the RANKING SYSTEM needs to resemble a Halo 2/3 style. That’s the huge thing right there.

18

> > 343i should just do their own thing.
> >
> > When they listen to the whole 200 people complaining you just get fail playlists like Proving Grounds and those 200 people still complain incessantly about how their needs aren’t being met.
>
> Those are just the 200/420,000+ that left the Halo community prior to these updates.

Actually that’s wrong it’s more like 393218/410,534 that left before/after the updates since launch (here). So that’s like more than than 3/4 of people that left Halo 4. Anyway clearly a lot of people were disappointed and yet those 390,000+ were displeased and maybe at least half of them complained or less but to be fair the numbers speak for themselves.

So 343i need to seriously do something amazing for Halo 5.

19

> > Halo 5 has to be VERY VERY VERY revolutionary and have it’s own soul to survive this next gen’s FPS war.
> > Everybody have their plan to make Halo 5 invincible (me too). But being the best it’s not an option. It’s a NEED.
>
> No, i think Halo must return to origin… because all revolutions in halo got worsening…
>
> Halo reach was an example of some bungie’s revolutionary ideas (armor abilities)… but these ideas could be good in a new game (DEstiny), not editing the same game (halo). Something think Halo reach was a good game… but, among Halo 3 was very bad…
>
> Halo 4 want be like as call of duty (loadout ecc), and halo reach (more amor abilties) and the final result was worse than halo reach…
>
> imho:
> Halo must not like as Call of duty or Destiny or other FPS to win… Halo must be Halo (2/3).

I didn’t said that, but these games are competing in the same league (FPS)

20

> The developers of next Halo must know they have a great responsablility.
>
> Wether you liked or not Halo 4, general opinion says it was not good enough to be a Halo game.
>
> Now with next gen they have an other chance to show what they are able to do. But there are monster games like Destiny or Division coming.
> Halo 5 will have to fight it’s last battle to decide if Halo universe prevails or dies. Not only against old enemies like Battlefield or Call of Duty and new enemies like Devision, but also against it’s stepbrother Destiny and it’s own ghost (Halo 4).
>
> Halo 5 has to be VERY VERY VERY revolutionary and have it’s own soul to survive this next gen’s FPS war.
> Everybody have their plan to make Halo 5 invincible (me too). But being the best it’s not an option. It’s a NEED.
>
> Do you think 343i is able to handle this situation? Or will they be doomed to offer just a “only for Halo fans” game?
> Personally, I’m waiting for H5 to decide if I buy XOne or PS4.
>
> PD: I’m sorry if there are some writing mistakes, I’m from Spain.

I do believe the power and flexibility of the Xbox One and the game being server-based is 343i’s last best opportunity to make a game worthy of the franchise. The campaign side is still pretty much on solid footing, but the multiplayer side needs the most work.

Halo 4 multiplayer suffers from, in my opinion, three major problems:

  1. The mechanics of the game do not encourage the development of skill.

  2. The lack of skill development has crashed the matchmaking algorithm.

  3. The lack of a VSR has reduced the incentive to improve.

With respect to item 1, 343i has to decide if it’s still a good idea to make Halo “accessible.” I believe this concept destroyed the need for skill, and that challenge is what made Halo multiplayer so addicting, whether you were a “competitive” player or not. Which brings me to the second item.

Even if you are a very good player, TrueSkill has a difficult time distinguishing you from an average player. This, along with the low population, results in atrocious matchmaking, which contributes to low population that is guaranteed to stay low.

The third issue is very important. The effect of account selling on the TrueSkill algorithm was so bad that Bungie removed VSR in Reach with devastating results. I understand Reach had other issues, but I contend that if VSR had been retained the other issues may have been addressed in a more calm, rational manner. Since there was no real solution to the account selling situation, 343i continued the no VSR policy, and H4 suffered the same fate as Reach. There is a solution inherent in the Xbox One: Kinect.

The Xbox One can recognize you, therefore no one else can use your account. Therefore there is no real reason for VSR to not return. This is HUGE, especially if H5 is no more “accessible” than previous games. Other gameplay issues notwithstanding, VSR and a need to get better at the game are huge components to multiplayer.

There are other aspects of the Xbox One that can make the game more interesting, but these are the major ones in my opinion.