As we already know, your next big project is, Halo 4. You now have the honor to continue such admirable series.
The thing is, that I’m worried if 343i is capable of handling such series. In every way, graphics, gameplay, story, etc. To stay loyal to the “core” thingy of Halo.
And that is no easy task. As you see, a great example is Halo: Reach. Bungie tried ―but somehow failed― to apply this. In Reach, Bungie added huge amounts of new changes to Halo, the biggest: Armor abilities. While it seems like a good idea, it changed drastically the gameplay of Halo, in a bad way. Overpowered AAs will stay overpowered no matter what, same with the weakest.
As we know, Bungie basically devastated Halo in Reach, bringing down many fans, including me. I don’t want that to happen again, with you, 343.
So let’s get down with graphics. In Halo 3 the graphics, the art, was extraordinary. The artistic scenario and many… many more. The Spartans looked new and shiny. Truly elegant.
Don’t compare it to the Spartans in Reach, which in my opinion, was a big step down by Bungie. They looked like a big pile of old scrap metal. I know these are Spartans III, which by the story, they are cheaper, expendable, etc. But it’s not just only the design, it’s also the colors, the ambience, you see, Forge World it’s simply not good, the colors, the lighting ―the green blue-ish fog thing― simply did not work, in my opinion, just looked horrible. Then it’s mediocre ambience were expanded by the dull gray color of every forge-able piece.
On one of the new Anniversary maps: Ridgeline, the colors, the lighting was absolutely amazing. I would pay for a a new Forge World with Ridgeline’s characteristics. 343i did an amazing work. I hope they just keep like that.
But the most important thing here, is the gameplay. As many of you will agree with me Gameplay > Graphics. As I said before, you must stay loyal to the “core” gameplay of Halo. Don’t add sh1tty killcams and perks. Stay to the “original” Halo we know. I am worried if 343i is capable of improving instead of worsen the gameplay of Halo. If Bungie, the original creator of Halo, utterly destroyed it. I don’t know if a “newbie” company like 343i is capable of improving it.
It saddens me that Reach, at this very moment, has such low numbers of players compared to Halo 3 in it’s time., where it remained the #1 xbox live game for more than two years, and Reach couldn’t hold it for even half a year. Yeah, remember the good ol’ custom games of Infection? Those huge amounts of hours having fun messing in Foundry with your pals? None of that existed in Reach. Just destroyed it.
tl;dr: Stay loyal to the original formula of Halo. Please don’t screw things up.