Now before I kick this off I just wanted to say : 343 Industries have done an exceptional job with the multiplayer and just the overall gameplay. They have really improved upon the core halo gameplay (IMO) and They have my faith regarding the future of gameplay of the halo series.
This message is not meant to be received as bashing / hate, it is simply a way to voice my own (and some others) opinions on the current “nature” of Halo multiplayer.
This message is meant only to “state issues” and not is not meant to mention the endless things 343i have done right with Halo 5: Guardians. (Because there is a lot)
Nor is this message meant to touch on the Campaign of Halo 5: Guardians (at least not too much).
Now unto the letter / message for 343 Industries :
In recent installments of the Halo franchise there has been given an effort from the developers side in providing lore for the Halo multiplayer. This lore was given to us in the form of Spartan ops and the “Infinity” multiplayer / combat simulation. Ambitious as it might be, it either encountered issues with the community or the gameplay was rather repetitive (looking at you “spartan ops”). Below I will briefly describe what problems the several modes suffered from :
Spartan Ops: This mode was a interesting and rather cool however (to put it mildly) repetitive. 343i managede in cooperation with “Blur studios” to create amazing cinematics and thrilling story telling for a batch of completely new characters. The cutscenes were simply Epic and the entire script awesome, however large amounts of the community felt this mode was a let down (myself included). The reason behind this was because of THE GAMEPLAY. Now I made the gameplay in “all-caps” to indicate that this is where the mistake was made not the story telling. The issue regarding Spartan Ops was repetitive gameplay or more specifically repetitive use of Maps / Missions. For most of the “episodes” of Season 1 (the only season) of Spartan ops the same maps was ‘‘repurposed’’ or “re-used” and this was THE ISSUE with this mode NOT THE STORY.
I am putting emphasis on this, is because someone over at either 343i or Microsoft seemed to believe the community did not like the Story instead of the gameplay, while this was not the case. How do we see this ? well in the very first mission of Halo 5 Guardians Osiris terminates the elite “Jul 'Mdama” (whom was the "villain of spartan ops). And thus the entire story 343i built op, comes crashing down and is not spoken of again.
Infinity multiplayer + Halo 5 Guardians multiplayer: Now the reason I put these two together is becasuse I believe the issues Halo 4’s multiplayer suffered from might carry on over unto Halo 5: Guardians’s multiplayer and even the future of Halo’s multiplayer.
~ However with the approach 343i has taken to the entire DLC and recent Warzone updates I am much more convinced that 343i have taken notice of their past “mistakes” and thus have taken a different route than most Triple A games. (The entire paid DLC enigma which has been a tumor on gaming and not listning to the community)
The issue is regarding 343i decision to work forwards in providing LORE for the multiplayer experience, as great as that might sound it really only puts a limit on the experience. Now Halo lore is great in itself and to be frank the possibilities would be endless with the entire “Simulation” we as players are put in. However it has (so far) been the opposite experience (in Warzone at least).
In Warzone players are introduced to huge combat situations which sometimes involves 5 scorpions and a mantis, and this is what Warzone advertised and it is what it delivered.
So where is the issue you might ask ?
It come to life in the form of LORE and again Repetition (though in a slightly different manner than with Spartan Ops). It seems like 343i just “Copy-Pasted” the bases for every map. There is not really any diversity, not many possible actions to take when a team is pinned in their base nor are the bases really that interesting.
With LORE it seems like 343i Is not really taking advantage of the rich universe which is Halo.
343 Industries could create Warzone maps with Flood themes (Which could be really dark and "scary) or Halo Ring themed with Forerunner structures (not like on “Apex 7” with the UNSC bases) and even here Flood could be “present” in the form of containment facilities. Instead of the possible maps or “combat simulations” we have Human along with more Human themed Maps (Even with the “Ghosts of Meridian” DLC)
And last but not least WARZONE FIREIGHT : Now it might be too early to assume anything about this mode but I (Along with others) have a few concerns.
And Again the issue is focused around REPETITION. It the very limited information we have regarding Firefight (like trailers and just in general statements from the developers).
In the trailer we see firefight on “Escape from A.R.C” and this is one issue. Re-using maps (Possibly due to lack of recourses or time), with Repurposing maps it really limits the experience players get with an awesome mode such as firefight. The possibility of no maps specifically designed for firefight is one possible issues regarding firefight.
The other issue comes to light in the form of Online firefight only. With a name such as “Warzone-firefight”, one could believe this mode is only intended to be played online and with this comes another limit. The limit of play time, that the firefight matches are time / round fixed and only lasts that long.
The thing that was GREAT about firefight in Halo ODST and Halo REACH was the possibility of playing with 3 other friends for long durations of time, really the ability to increase the difficulty this way (Also). An example of this being during the process of obtaining the “vid-master” achievements In Halo ODST.
That was all I wanted to convey in this message and I hope some of you agree with me, if you have any questions, please ask ! Also feel free to expand on the letter.
~Blazin