Really you guys? I mean, really? You’re all trashing this reveal?
Look, I’ve straighten trashed 343 for almost a decade. Reach was the last game I even remotely liked the look or gameplay of, it was perfect.
But at long, long last this game looks like a Halo game.
Is it cartoony? Yes, but so are 1-3, ODST and Reach. Main difference being that those games took the bright and colorful cartoonish approach and then added some grit and grime to ground it a little bit. I am hoping they will add this for Infinite, but as it stands, I would still take it. Having the older style of art but with too clean or plastic-y of a look is still far better than whatever the ungodly hell 4-5 were supposed to be.
Yeah, I want blood to come back. Excessive amounts of purple and blue, gushing and ridiculous blood levels. This game was originally like Doom but with aliens instead of Demons, and while I see that approach has somewhat returned, I didn’t see any blood. I’m sure they’re trying to make it as widely marketable as possible, though, because that’s largely the strategy these days unfortunately. But I don’t really care, because this game looks like Halo. The meat and potatoes were all there. The animations were on point, the zoom has returned, the new abilities were finally something that look sci-fi and game changing without being something that changes the game entirely off of its core principles…I’ll have to wait for multiplayer reveal to really confirm that last bit, but it looked great. New UNSC and Covie weapons look cool. Again, new toys, but nothing excessively weird or blatantly OP. I didn’t see any sign of boring, ugly Promethean or Forerunner enemies although I sure they’ll likely crop up somewhere, I don’t really see how the story works without them at this point.
If absolutely nothing else, the game looks like it will be a blast, and it looks like it will take me back. And that’s all I’ve wanted out of Halo ever since 2012. A game I can goof off in with my buddies and explore a little and marvel at the Ring again.
The graphics look like the finalized product of this console generation, which is the best any Halo has ever looked, naturally because it’s the newest and most advanced. I don’t know what you guys expected, the game is launching on two consoles, one of which is older. They can alleviate this issue somewhat with the whole “smart delivery” thing, and it will look and play slightly better on the newer console or PC, but you should all know the drill by now. If it comes out on both consoles then it’s limited to the older one to a certain extent if both versions are gonna be the same actual game. Not to mention, the game has been in development since 2015. I don’t know when graphics started development but we had early footage in what, 2018? That’s all had to constantly play catch-up to stay current but at a certain point it’s done, final, and there’s nothing else to do. What we saw in the reveal trailer and then gameplay demo is going to be very, very close to what we get unless they intend to do like a lot of games these days and update the hell out of everything every week, in which case the game could literally evolve beyond the Xbox One’s capabilities after a certain point, and the game saves would split. Sort of like the first Destiny.
All in all this this is the first 343 Halo trailer that has made me excited. It looks like they stuck the landing. I’m asking questions like, “ooh, what’s that weapon,” “who’s that brute -Yoink-,” or “wow look at that shield/ring/grappling hook/flying suicide grunt.” Instead of asking, “why does Chief look like that?” “Why is Chief the enemy of the UNSC and Cortana the enemy of the Chief?” And “what the hell happened with this ugly design?”
There’s things I noticed that don’t necessarily bode well for multiplayer, like sprint or grappling hook being an equipment option that could be used (doesn’t really sound like my idea of a fun thing to put in Halo multiplayer, sounds annoying) but we’ll have to wait and see. At its core, everything just looked RIGHT to me for once. If they balanced what we saw here well in multiplayer, then by my estimation Halo is back at full tilt and I intend to buy it straight up day one. But I damn sure am not buying a series X over it.
There you have it, my two cents, from an old Bungie fanboy who’s taken beatings on this forum for like 10 years over liking Reach the most, and hating on 4-5/ the majority of 343’s decisions.
Fair enough? Opinions?