Campaign choices which ended up hurting Halo4

Games Other Halo
1

Okay while surfing the internet I came across a couple of quotes from Scott Warner Halo 4’s Lead Designer which actually captured why I think Halo 4’s gameplay especially in Campaign fell short.

  • “And if you were to look at what the big changes from previous Halo games are, it’s the introduction of the new race, and our decision to move away from over-emphasizing huge combat spaces – like the ones you see in Halo 3 and Reach – in exchange for bringing some more tight linear environments back into the game. When you go back to the first Halo, there are many fantastic fights, like the one out of Pillar of Autumn, that are really excellent because they are more linear and tight.”

Now usually I would have no problem with it, after all some of my favourate FPS’s are more linear than others (Bioshock, Halo 2 and Half Life 2) but the problem with prioritizing linearity is that it offers no replay value. Modern FPS’ such as Bioshock Infinate(from the demos I’ve seen) and even COD BLOPS 2 remedy this problem by giving the player a set of tools to handle the level any way he sees fit . Halo 4 does neither, instead it gives you a set of the same limit tools to handle a level which ends up making it combat boring and repetitive.

Plus how anyone can look at the huge vehicle sections in Halo 3 and think to themselves,“Yep, …not gonna have that in our game” boggles my mind

  • “Another area of the game that we explored early on but ended up backing away from, was the idea of having major setpiece moments that didn’t interrupt the sandbox.”

Now there are two ways I could take this.

If this means that 343i actually considered having Modern Warfare type over the top action sequences then I agree, moving away from them was probably the best thing for Halo 4’s narrative and pacing.

But if this means scrapping imaginative segemnts such as Navigating through a potion of the first level using the Mjlnior Armours Zero-G thrusters and also meant not considering imaginative levels segments were chief would have hallucinations of ancient forerunner civilisations after the Librarian accelarated chief’s evolution, then I believe 343 missed out an opprtunity to make the story a lot more interesting.

  • “We started with the multiplayer first in establishing the overall sandbox balance, and then applied that back into the campaign.”

I said this when I played Halo reach and I’ll say it again.

DEVELOPERS PLEASE STOP DOING THIS!!!

343i you one of the few developers blessed with the chance to work on a game which has a great Campaign and a great multiplayer ,dont squander the campaign by imposing unnecessary limitations from the multiplayer onto the campaign.

For example:
Is there honestly any good reason why Active camo was nerfed to the point of it only being usefull if your moving extra slowly in campaign?
Is there any good reason why Promethean vision exists in single player? its practically useless.
Is there any good reason why your not allowed to recharge oyour shields when using the Hardlight shields ?
Is there any good reason why we couldnt have a couple of campaign only armour abilities ?

343i Halo 4’ AA mechanics have the potential to rival Bioshocks Plasmid and Tonic system if you evolve it that way.
Im not saying dont balance the AA and weapons for multiplayer, far from it infact, what Im asking is for developers not to diminish the impact of Amour Abilities and weapons in campaign for the sake of =balancing a PvP mode which Im not even playing.

2

Halo campaign have always been tagged on except in the case of the first Halo. I don’t know why you’re surprised at the mention of them doing MP first and porting stuff over.

3

> Halo campaign have always been tagged on except in the case of the first Halo. I don’t know why you’re surprised at the mention of them doing MP first and porting stuff over.

Actually Halo 1 and Halo 2 were made and designed campaign first and then the multiplayer was made. During Halo 2’s development Bungie had to get help from another studio to make the mulitplayer because they spent too much time and resources on the campaign.

I had no problem with Halo 3 becasue Halo 3’s production was balanced between the camapign and the multiplayer. Plus the pickup system was actually better in campaign.

Its only when Halo reach came along that the laziness started to show.

4

I’ve read the same interview, and I too was shocked that 343 actually thought emphasizing linear corridor shooting over large open environments would be a great idea. Linear gameplay, by definition, is boring by itself. Normally, a large environment will always have an edge in fun and creativity over a linear one. The only reason developers use linear environments is because they offer plenty of opportunities to throw in setpieces. That’s pretty much the only reason games like CoD have campaigns that work, because if you take away the setpieces there’s no replay value, no variety in gameplay situations, and the campaign isn’t interesting enough to drive the player to continue. You’ll realize that most of the best parts of Halo 4’s campaign are vehicular segments in wide open environment.

That’s probably the reason I disagree with you on the issue of setpieces. I think that if done well, setpieces and the like could fit well in a Halo game. They would help make the more linear parts interesting, so that the game wouldn’t become “several awesome wide open areas peppered between long stretches of boring corridor shooting”. What constitutes a good setpiece? The end of the level Dawn is a good start, as was the elevator-climbing sequence. The escape from the exploding Dawn was also a great moment. I thought that Dawn as a whole was pretty linear, but the setpieces made it interesting.

5

> That’s probably the reason I disagree with you on the issue of setpieces. I think that if done well, setpieces and the like could fit well in a Halo game. They would help make the more linear parts interesting, so that the game wouldn’t become “several awesome wide open areas peppered between long stretches of boring corridor shooting”. What constitutes a good setpiece? The end of the level Dawn is a good start, as was the elevator-climbing sequence. The escape from the exploding Dawn was also a great moment. I thought that Dawn as a whole was pretty linear, but the setpieces made it interesting.

I actually agree in a way, good set pieces actually help a linear camapign(see Dead space 2) thats why I said I wasnt really against imaginative set pieces such as a zero G segment .

However the reason why I may not be so keen on them especially in Halo 4’s case is because I would rather the devs focused more on opening up the level rather than try to remedy the symptom of the problem by including more sequences.

6

> > That’s probably the reason I disagree with you on the issue of setpieces. I think that if done well, setpieces and the like could fit well in a Halo game. They would help make the more linear parts interesting, so that the game wouldn’t become “several awesome wide open areas peppered between long stretches of boring corridor shooting”. What constitutes a good setpiece? The end of the level Dawn is a good start, as was the elevator-climbing sequence. The escape from the exploding Dawn was also a great moment. I thought that Dawn as a whole was pretty linear, but the setpieces made it interesting.
>
> I actually agree in a way, good set pieces actually help a linear camapign(see Dead space 2) thats why I said I wasnt really against imaginative set pieces such as a zero G segment .
>
> However the reason why I may not be so keen on them especially in Halo 4’s case is because I would rather the devs focused more on opening up the level rather than try to remedy the symptom of the problem by including more sequences.

Yeah. I think the ratio of linear environments/setpieces to wide open environments should be no more than 1:4 on levels considered “linear”, and no more than 1:6 on levels considered “open” (Floodgate would be considered a linear level, The Ark would be considered an open level). Of course, it’d be better for everybody if 343 stopped linearity altogether and just concentrated on wide open spaces.