“Your Team is Your Weapon” was a major design pillar of Halo 5’s development. But as I’m sure anyone who has played the game has noticed-- the squad mechanics that were added were pretty simplistic. Not to mention that since Halo’s core gameplay needed to remain intact, both Blue Team and Osiris ended up feeling like 4 identical supersoldiers, rather than 4 teammates relying on each other. I also believe that as a result of there always being 4 Spartans on screen, the level design suffered as it required larger spaces and bloated enemy counts to make up for the increase of players/permanent AI companions. And after the backlash Osiris received, as well as Halo: Bad Blood having Buck separate from Osiris to do his own thing, it seems doubtful that 343 will continue with the foundation Halo 5 attempted to establish.
But that doesn’t have to be so. I believe there is a way to preserve the existing squad mechanic, while also better reconciling it with Halo’s core gameplay. And that would require the return of Reach’s Fireteam system. For those of you unaware, in Halo: Reach’s campaign, when the player stood near Marines/Soldiers, the NPCs would begin to follow the player and become named individuals on their HUD.
So what I’m proposing is a marriage of these two systems. Allowing players to not only recruit Marines to their squad/team, but give them the ability to command them to an extent. Not only would this make friendly AI into a proper tool at the player’s disposal, but it would also preserve the “One Man Army” gameplay that is tradition in Halo. After all, players who do not wish to use such a mechanic have no obligation to do so. And some levels may not even have friendly Marines at all, allowing a return to smaller, isolated environments. Something sorely missing from Halo 5’s campaign. Leading a team of randomly generated Marines who will remain dead once killed will also breed some nice emergent storytelling.
Squad mechanic could definitely work in the future as long as its not on every level and its made a bit differently.
And since Infinite is supposed to focus on Chief, I dont think that breaking down of osiris would mean the absence of having a blue team full in some levels, maybe even larger squad.
Recruitable friendly NPC mobs could also make a return though im not sure about the continuation of command mechanic or that recruitable friendly NPCs could be in every level. Friendly NPCs could mostly have their own squads where they stick to with some levels having them tagged along.
The command mechanics could perhaps work but squads should work as usual even without commands and not like squads in H5g where they were like infinitely respawning headless chickens unless constantly given commands, it was even worse for the immersion than Halo Reachs invincible teammates. Fireteam should have cover mechanics in an extent that technology allows in which case they should preferably be invincible to avoid respawning or death of a major character. And that is if major characters need to be in a fireteam.
Im not exactly sure about the extent of command mechanics, maybe just not so extensive as Operation Flashpoint had.
Also, the fireteam aspect should be present on restricted amount of missions which could be accompanied by more traditional one man army missions, part of a larger force missions and such. Just not those run from a to b to talk and done missions.
I’m actually not conviced the squad mechanics are going away just yet. Yes osiris is going through some changes and more than likely going to have a very reduced role in infinite, but theres been more emphasis then ever on blue team in post halo 5 content. Which actually leads me to believe their are trying to make them accessible and more well known to fans not familiar with the extended lore because they aim to keep in the main games with chief.
I say take the squad mechanic out altogether. Use it for a side game in which they can experiment and truly go all out with squad mechanics, adding a real layer of strategy, but leave it out of the main titles. It’s not worth the risk. Halo 5’s was incredibly frustrating. I don’t want to go through that again.
I’d rather remove the whole concept. especially the revive mechanic. plus the features imply you got a fireteam through out the whole campaign like in halo 5 and to me that eliminates a major piece of halo campaigns which is solo missions, or at least portions of missions where you are alone.
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> I say take the squad mechanic out altogether. Use it for a side game in which they can experiment and truly go all out with squad mechanics, adding a real layer of strategy, but leave it out of the main titles. It’s not worth the risk. Halo 5’s was incredibly frustrating. I don’t want to go through that again.
Halo 5’s biggest issue came from the fact that you ALWAYS had 3 other Spartan team mates with you at all times. Meaning levels and enemy counts had to be inflated to compensate. And the revive mechanic was frustrating because of the AI’s poor pathfinding and decision making skills, which led to them getting killed themselves whenever they tried to revive another person.
But under this system, neither would be an issue. Chief is always going to be assisted by a group of Marines during certain levels and segments. I’m simply suggesting that during such times, the player should be able to give them basic commands. Like focusing fire on an enemy, switching weapons, or getting into a specific vehicle. And if all your Marines die-- they’re just dead forever, leaving you to continue the level on your own.
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> > 2535415876049274;6:
> > I say take the squad mechanic out altogether. Use it for a side game in which they can experiment and truly go all out with squad mechanics, adding a real layer of strategy, but leave it out of the main titles. It’s not worth the risk. Halo 5’s was incredibly frustrating. I don’t want to go through that again.
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> Halo 5’s biggest issue came from the fact that you ALWAYS had 3 other Spartan team mates with you at all times. Meaning levels and enemy counts had to be inflated to compensate. And the revive mechanic was frustrating because of the AI’s poor pathfinding and decision making skills, which led to them getting killed themselves whenever they tried to revive another person.
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> But under this system, neither would be an issue. Chief is always going to be assisted by a group of Marines during certain levels and segments. I’m simply suggesting that during such times, the player should be able to give them basic commands. Like focusing fire on an enemy, switching weapons, or getting into a specific vehicle. And if all your Marines die-- they’re just dead forever, leaving you to continue the level on your own.
I see your point.
Maybe they should experiment with your idea in a side game first though.
And then if it works, they could introduce it into a mainline game later.
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> > 2533274860901607;9:
> > > 2535415876049274;6:
> > > I say take the squad mechanic out altogether. Use it for a side game in which they can experiment and truly go all out with squad mechanics, adding a real layer of strategy, but leave it out of the main titles. It’s not worth the risk. Halo 5’s was incredibly frustrating. I don’t want to go through that again.
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> > Halo 5’s biggest issue came from the fact that you ALWAYS had 3 other Spartan team mates with you at all times. Meaning levels and enemy counts had to be inflated to compensate. And the revive mechanic was frustrating because of the AI’s poor pathfinding and decision making skills, which led to them getting killed themselves whenever they tried to revive another person.
> >
> > But under this system, neither would be an issue. Chief is always going to be assisted by a group of Marines during certain levels and segments. I’m simply suggesting that during such times, the player should be able to give them basic commands. Like focusing fire on an enemy, switching weapons, or getting into a specific vehicle. And if all your Marines die-- they’re just dead forever, leaving you to continue the level on your own.
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> I see your point.
> Maybe they should experiment with your idea in a side game first though.
> And then if it works, they could introduce it into a mainline game later.
I think the mechanic as it is now, that being a simple one button command, would work best in Halo’s core gameplay as an extension of how the player interacts with Marines.
Similar to how it was not until Halo 2 that players could switch weapons with marines. Or hi-jack vehicles. Both being new ways to interact with the game world.
I’d rather a sidegame go for a brand new genre all-together, to be honest.
Variation is good. Maybe one mission where you get 1 Spartan only, another where it’s an assortment of Marine Fireteams. Though from the story point of view that may be not so good. In Reach there wasn’t a connection to much of Noble Team simply because they weren’t in the gameplay all that much, aside from Kat’s meme status as a teammate. But things like Jun in Nightfall are good.
I agree with others here. I’d rather they get ride of it completely and go to more of a Halo 3 style where you play it solo but if you play with a friend(s) they are a member of blue team. 343I could even go as far as changing cut scenes because of it and adding in banter and such when playing with more then one person. I think that would be amazing. For example, if playing solo chief tells blue team to meet him at this rendezvous. If playing with one friend and say they are Fred, the chief now in that same scene says Kelly, Linda meet us at the Rendezvous, Fred you’re with me. Stuff like this.
I just really didn’t like having to rely on AI to do things for me/with me and such. I found it incredibly frustrating. Also, the revive system made the game so easy it wasn’t funny, even on legendary.
I just really didn’t like the squad stuff. It also took away from that one man army… that me against the world feeling I always got from pass Halo games. Which I absolutely loved.