I’ll be honest with you, would I consider myself a hardcore Halo fan? Probably not. I did not rush to the stores to get an Xbox One or the MCC. I did not play the Halo 5 beta either. However, I am very familiar with the Halo franchise and its roots.
Halo: ODST was my first halo game, but since then, I’ve played Halo CE Anniv, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4. Halo: Reach was definitely my favorite, but I enjoyed all of the Halo games including Halo 4.
When Bungie left after Halo: Reach, I was skeptical about where Halo was going. I bought Halo CE Anniv. to see 343s work for the first time, and was impressed. As a result, I bought Halo 4 the week it came out, and played the Yoink! out of it. Halo 4 was not a bad game, but did not like many of its components. Additionally, I do not like many of the components 343 will be rolling out in Halo 5. I believe the franchise is heading into a direction that is troublesome.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but here is what I believe is the difference between Bungie Halo (Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: Reach) and 343 Halo (Halo 4. MCC, Halo 5 Beta).
Bungie Halo
Dark, rich graphics - Power weapons spread throughout the map – players would work to control these power weapons - No custom classes – same guns and equipment at start (Halo: Reach did deviate from this somewhat) - One distinct OP rifle that was hard to use but had great power - Strong vehicles - Games that started with a full lobby and did not include joining in session - A strong forge world and file browser - Multiplayer medals that sounded hardcore and were truly rewarding - Featured a company that generally listened to the community - Featured a company that had an unrivaled attention to detail and had successful game launches and built a strong fan base - Low aim-assist343 Halo
Graphics that are spacey and bright - Too many power weapons that are given to players, rather that being spread throughout the map - Too many rifles that compete with each other (light rifle, DMR, BR) – there should only be one and maybe a counter (EX. needle rifle in Halo: Reach) - Custom classes (I know this is going to be removed for Halo 5, but was present in Halo 4) - Weak vehicles - Games with free leaving and joining in – players are not punished severely for leaving games - A forge world that is inferior to Halo: Reach - Multiplayer medals that are too numerous, aren’t as unique and rewarding, and sound like CRAP - Featured a company that rarely listens to the community - Featured a company that rushes launches and has an unfinished product that builds a weak fan base - High aim-assist - Campaign will have player revivalsI, as most will probably agree, prefer the old “Bungie” Halo. (BTW its sad that spell check doesn’t even recognize Bungie as a word on this site). I feel that Halo 5 is starting to deviate from the Halo formula too much–the game is turning into COD style gameplay (quick kills, overused medals, a voice telling you when weapons drop and how to play the game, shoot your gun, turn on your xbox, and take a crap, etc.). I am not supportive of 343 and think Halo 5 will ruin the franchise.
I prefer the “old” Halo. Reach was amazing. Still waiting for them to remaster it, but with the announcement of Xbox 360 backwards compatibility I don’t think they ever will remaster it
I think you’re a little out of the loop. I am sure other users on here can respond to your complaints about 343i. But I have to comment on this:
Featured a company that rarely listens to the communityWhat. You JUST acknowledged 343i took out loadouts. They didn’t do that for -Yoink- and giggles, it was because the community asked for it to be removed. And along with that, we’ve got a complete overhaul from Halo 4, returning to Arena gameplay because the community wanted it. Also, I remember seeing tons of threads rampaging about Armor Lock in Halo Reach as soon as the Beta began. What did Bungie do about it? Practically nothing.
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> Bungie Halo
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> - Dark, rich graphics
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> […]
> 343 Halo
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> - Graphics that are spacey and bright
I’m sorry, but you got it wrong, it’s the other way around: Bungie’s Halo was very bright and colorful, even cheerful to some degree. Ever since 343 took over, colors were very much toned down, the number of shadows on the maps increased exponentially and the general art style got darker and more serious. Now I don’t mind gritty levels when appropriate (ODST), but I did miss those missions in the style of Silent Cartographer or Delta Halo.
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> I think you’re a little out of the loop. I am sure other users on here can respond to your complaints about 343i. But I have to comment on this:
>
> - Featured a company that rarely listens to the community
> What. You JUST acknowledged 343i took out loadouts. They didn’t do that for -Yoink- and giggles, it was because the community asked for it to be removed. And along with that, we’ve got a complete overhaul from Halo 4, returning to Arena gameplay because the community wanted it. Also, I remember seeing tons of threads rampaging about Armor Lock in Halo Reach as soon as the Beta began. What did Bungie do about it? Practically nothing.
I said “rarely” which implies once and awhile, but not often.
Here’s what I mean: some Halo complaints that have been ignored:
bring back the old medals voice and spree medals – ignored
make updates to Halo: Reach once and awhile – ignored
bring back firefight – ignored
turn down kills times – ignored
The list goes on and on. Bungie shouldn’t be exonerated either, but they “generally” listened to the community, or at least more than 343. There is a reason that the population of Halo is going down because they don’t value their fan base as much as Bungie did.
I picked my words carefully knowing that someone would say something. Yet, you neglected to read them.
halo 4 had many problems, most of wich are the same as reach’s since it followed its route, but 343 has shown theyve learned. h5 is the closest to linear evolution of halo since h3. the problems that h5 was going to have were ironed out durring the beta and according to green skull and more console players who have played in since the beta the changes it needed to have have been implemented. most of what you listed have been rendered null. the dmr br and lr all have their own niche and purpose now. the only thing in common among them is them being persision rifles. the weapon balance is actually balanced this time around.
new bungie hasnt been very high on the list among people here. bungie has shown a trend of phaseing out meaningful campaign story in their games. they are also responcible for setting halo on the path that lead to h4 and are responcible for the first strike against the franchise. this along with other decisions bungie has made have cast them out of the light for many here. they have proven that they are no longer the bungie we once knew.
ps the publisher not the developer decides when a game launches. in an ideal world itd be the other way around but games would be stuck in development hell if it wasnt. blame the MCC’s launch on microsoft and the team 343 outsourced its development to and not all on 343.
h5 is where the bulk of 343 has been working on. they know its make or break so give them this chance to redeem themselves.
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> > 2533274931680884;1:
> > Bungie Halo
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> > - Dark, rich graphics
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> > 343 Halo
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> > - Graphics that are spacey and bright
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> I’m sorry, but you got it wrong, it’s the other way around: Bungie’s Halo was very bright and colorful, even cheerful to some degree. Ever since 343 took over, colors were very much toned down, the number of shadows on the maps increased exponentially and the general art style got darker and more serious. Now I don’t mind gritty levels when appropriate (ODST), but I did miss those missions in the style of Silent Cartographer or Delta Halo.
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> TLDR: “Bungie > 343” yawn
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> Same old tired story, folks.
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> And spell check doesn’t recognize “Bungie” because it isn’t a word.
so you didnt play halo 2? witch is my favorite halo of all time to me every halo after has went down hill.
I’ll add that i have played every halo game reach being my second favorite halo, while halo 4 i think was good, all the multiplayer changes just bugged me and the game felt different still fun just not the classic halo online experience i was looking for.
I picked up a copy of MMC about a year after release and i would recommend it now that most of the bugs have been fixed. I love paying halo 2 online again i played it until the day the servers where taken off line and i can say the MMC halo2 online matchmaking play list brings back that great classic halo online experience i was yearning for.
I just hope 343 can get back the roots of what made halo such an awesome gaming series and stops trying to change so much of the games core mechanics.
Bungie decided to add armor abilities and thus made Reach’s multiplayer extremely uncompetitive and indirectly contributed to Halo 4’s uncompetitive multiplayer as well. They also made Destiny, so I don’t think they would have done much better with Halo.
Graphics aren’t really definitively dark or bright - Power weapons are now spread throughout the map - There’s no point in having more than one weapon if that one weapon outplays every other weapon - We don’t know anything about vehicles yet - I agree with you on the “not being punished enough for leaving” thing - Forge World isn’t even in Halo 4. We don’t know anything about Forge in Halo 5 - Jeff sounds hilariously flamboyant in Halo 5 which I’m surprisingly okay with - The community one is just plain ignorant - That only happened with TMCC, nothing else - Very low aim assist in Halo 5 - Player revivals are necessary because you have 4 team matesThat last paragraph is extremely ignorant considering you haven’t even played the beta. How are you supposed to know that Halo 5 is turning into COD when you haven’t even played it? Because you watched gameplay of it? A lot of people admit that Halo 5 actually played better and more like Halo than what it looked like. It’s still Halo, 343 have just made the gameplay faster paced to accommodate for the new and different generation of shooters. You probably haven’t even played COD if you even think that Halo 5 is copying it.
Kills aren’t even that much quicker. The automatic weapons have just been buffed so that they’re more effective in close combat. Weapons like the BR only shoot quicker because of how fast paced the game is. - Calling out weapon drops makes it more fair for everyone because there will no longer be the problem of older players memorizing weapon spawns and placement (that made in unfair for newer players who didn’t know weapons spawns and placement). - if you were bad at previous Halo games, then you’re still going to be bad at Halo 5. the skills that you need to be good at previous Halos are still required to be good at Halo 5.
> 343 Halo
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> - Graphics that are spacey and brightOn some levels, others not so much. Bungie did the same exact thing (See start of Halo 3 vs the end)
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> - Too many power weapons that are given to players, rather that being spread throughout the mapHave you not played the beta?
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> - Too many rifles that compete with each other (light rifle, DMR, BR) – there should only be one and maybe a counter (EX. needle rifle in Halo: Reach)The don’t compete, they each have a specific range they’re meant to be best at. Light Rifle is more of a power weapon now, can’t really be compared. The counter weapons don’t exist, everything is best at its intended range/use.
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> - Custom classes (I know this is going to be removed for Halo 5, but was present in Halo 4)If it’s removed, whats the issue?
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> - Weak vehiclesThis will be fixed by lack of power weapons being dropped at your feet. With the scale of battles being upped in Halo 5 I think they’ll get an upgrade anyway.
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> - Games with free leaving and joining in – players are not punished severely for leaving gamesYou lose your rank in Beta. Xbox One also starts to match you with people who regularly quit too, if you quit too much or are a toxic player.
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> - A forge world that is inferior to Halo: ReachHalo MCC has better Forge.
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> - Multiplayer medals that are too numerous, aren’t as unique and rewarding, and sound like CRAPGuardians toned this down, even gives you an option to remove them I think.
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> - Featured a company that rarely listens to the communityThis is false. See removal of custom classes, ordnance, etc
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> - Featured a company that rushes launches and has an unfinished product that builds a weak fan baseSee Halo 5 beta
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> - High aim-assistNot really.
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> - Campaign will have player revivalsWhats the difference between this and spawning? If anything it makes it harder since you have to risk your -Yoink- to save your team mates rather than just standing around and waiting in a safe spot.
You list only negatives, how about giving an unbiased comparison and showing the positive things 343 has done for the Halo series?
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> I see where you are coming from on those specific levels, but I think that the older Halos are much darker IMO.
The last one is a concept art, so doesn’t count. The one before is A) a forge map and B) i wouldn’t call it “bright” either.
If you really want to focus on multiplayer maps, then why not look at some actual remakes, like Midship vs Truth?
While truth has some flashy consoles here and there, the overall tone of the map is way darker, whereas Midship even has natural light in it. Even Zealot, while somewhat darker than Midship, had natural lighting which is completely missing in Truth.
I find it really weird that you’d think otherwise, because I just had a discussion with a friend of mine over XBL less than an hour ago, where we both agreed that 343’s Halos were too dark for us and that we missed the colorful style of the old games.
Well thank you to those who gave me some feedback. Though it was negative feedback mostly I do appreciate it. I DO hope Halo 5 will do well, I really do. I don’t wish harm on anybody–besides its just a game its not like they killed anybody lol.
And yes I did initially acknowledge that I never played the beta. Playing it would give me a stronger sense of the game, but I can still have an opinion.
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> - 343i acknowledges and combines vast media (games, novels, comics, audio logs, ect…) while Bungie didn’t
You mean like Ilovebees was an interactive storyline that directly lead up to Halo 2?
You mean like First Strike tied the first two games together and (for example) introduced the Brutes for the first time before the game was even released?
You mean like Halo Uprising shows how Chief got to earth, leading directly into Halo 3?
You mean like they produced the Landfall live action series, also leading directly into Halo 3?
You mean like Halo 3 directly referenced the novels even by quote? (I am your shield/I am your sword, This place will become your tomb, It was the coin’s fault)
You mean like Halo Reach literally had Halsey in it for the first time, with her diary in the Legedary edition referencing/mentioning even more expanded universe, like Kalmiya or even a drawing of the Keyes loop?
Bungie doesn’t even like Halo anymore. They put a small team together to make Halo 3: ODST while they worked on Reach just so they could get out of their 5 game contract with Microsoft. If they had a 3 game contract they would have stopped at Halo 3, they are done with the series and will never come back. Get used to it.
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> - Featured a company that rarely listens to the community
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> What. You JUST acknowledged 343i took out loadouts. They didn’t do that for -Yoink- and giggles, it was because the community asked for it to be removed. And along with that, we’ve got a complete overhaul from Halo 4, returning to Arena gameplay because the community wanted it. Also, I remember seeing tons of threads rampaging about Armor Lock in Halo Reach as soon as the Beta began. What did Bungie do about it? Practically nothing.
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> - How can you even say 343i doesn’t listen to the community when they’re bringing back Buck, Arbiter, Blue Team from the books, ect…
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> > - Featured a company that rarely listens to the community
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> This is false. See removal of custom classes, ordnance, etc
Remove Armor Abilities
→ Adds them into their first game, then makes them permanent additions in their next game (Thruster / InfiniSprint / Stabilizer aka Jetpack)
Bring Back Firefight
→ Removes Firefight in favor of non-customizable Spartan Ops in their first game, then includes some weird [Illegitimate child] hybrid of Spartan Ops and War Games into their next one.
Add four player splitscreen → Removes splitscreen altogether in a game with a campaign that is explicitly focused on cooperative 4-player-action.
