I’ve had this idea for a while now and I couldn’t think of where else to dump it so I’ll put it here.
Basically just a concept for a Halo game that could be a potential spin-off [Released Post Halo 6] with a bunch of ideas that I’ve seen throughout the community that I thought I’d share and get feedback on; a gauging people’s opinions type thing.
So, Halo: Ascension [Working Title] would, as previously mentioned, be a spin-off set in the heat of the Human/Covenant war (I’m thinking 2531 to 2549-ish).
Campaign:
The basis for the campaign would be a personal journey following the protagonist’s character witnessing the first attack on the colony of Arcadia (Ties back to Halo Wars, cameo from Pillar of Autumn) perhaps being the resident of a Lunar colony, seeing the covenant attack from orbit (Similar to the battle of Palaven in Mass Effect 3). This would provide a strong and easily understandable motivation for the main character as they enter the Marine corps, train up, and eventually enter the elite ODSTs, setting up a team for the player to get invested in.
The opening mission would be on another planet, possibly a hit and run during the Battle of Meridian before being ordered to retreat, creating friction between the team and your ship commander.
The second and subsequent few missions would be during the Fall of Arcadia, following a hard drop into the jungle with opportunities for sniping against jackals, close encounters with brutes, etc. Similar to ‘Sierra 117’. The next mission would be a warthog based level with lots of open terrain, (Similar to Halo, Delta Halo, Requiem, etc.). Leading to a Tank/Heavy ordnance mission in the city where you link up with the military police, in the vein of Metropolis or Kizingo Boulevard, which would involve an encounter with Elite Zealots, resulting in the death of some of your squad mates and the injury of your character before they are saved by external circumstances. (An airstrike causing the elites to retreat, something to that effect).
Now this would be the game-changer.
Your character, and surviving squad mates would be offered the chance to enter the experimental Spartan III program, and this would change the gameplay for the remaining missions of the game. Changing from a Health Pack system to a Shield only system, increasing the character and jump height, and being able to dual wield weapons (essentially going from H3:ODST to H2A’s multiplayer gameplay). Starting with an escape from the space station facility that executed the program, another warthog based level ending in a flying segment with a hornet, followed by a convoy escort type mission with a Falcon leading into an assault on a covenant super-carrier starting like Tip of the Spear and ending like Truth and Reconciliation, where your team has a rematch with the zealot team that you encountered earlier. This would mark the climax of the game, resulting in the destruction of the ship but also the death of your team, ending in a bittersweet tone; the final shot panning up from celebrating marines as an entire covenant fleet jumps into orbit.
It would be a standalone story, with minimal connection to the other games, allowing for more narrative freedom. This is just what I’d put in, but I feel like the transition of an ODST to a Spartan along with a strong Elite antagonist would make for a great side story.
Multiplayer:
Multiplayer modes tend to bring out polarizing opinions but in the case of this game I’d have the multiplayer function with the Spartan gameplay of the campaign, i.e. H2A’s gameplay style, with equal starts, while armor abilities would be laid out on the map like equipment. The Jetpack, Drop Shield, Sprint, Thruster pack, etc. would be timed drops on each map, same with weapons.
The ranking system I’d implement would be a hybrid of Halo 3’s 1-50 system and Halo Reach’s credits system, wherein you earn credits for every mode in the game, raising your general rank, but you would also have a separate skill rank affected by your performance in ranked playlists, which would display next to your GT in said playlists.
Now separate playlists with Sprint as default, ‘Team Evolved’ and ‘FFA Evolved’ would feature on map variants without alternative transport options (teleporters/mancannons), BTB would have sprint as default as the larger maps only benefit from having it, and Invasion would make a return, along with all of the classics, seperated into ranked and unranked playlists, along with a community set of playlists with forge map rotation and popular community gametypes vetted by 343 themselves. And of course, the MLG playlist would be delicately balanced in collaboration with the Pro-players, provided their interest in the game in the first place of course.
Warzone/Firefight:
An additional mode wherein you start as ODSTs assaulting and holding an objective, and as the battle progresses, you gradually get to call in ordnance, weapons, armor abilities, vehicles, etc. to help you defend, eventually getting to play as your spartan for a life if your performance is good enough.
A VS mode wherein a team of elites try to stop you would play similarly to Invasion with AI, but would differ in the choice of drops and the power difference between Elites and ODSTs. There’s a lot of ways you could play around with this concept, including selecting a drop point on the map and literally dropping in, similar to Planetside 2.
Community/Customisation:
An ingame file browser, with a featured section (community favorites, staff choice, etc.) would be great, along with a forge mode at least on par with Halo 5, and a theater mode for all game-modes, including campaign would all be included. Split-screen would also be brought back, as it’s an important community feature that was what allowed myself and thousands of other players to experience Halo in the first place.
Customization would be similar to Reach, using credits to purchase the base armor of your choice, all of which (with a few exceptions) would be unlocked right away, and then attachments and variants would be unlocked through game-specific challenges (get 100 headshots with the sniper rifle to unlock the sniper round shoulder attachment, 50 kills with the shotgun to unlock the wrist bandoleer, etc.). There could also be specific armor set unlocks, like a battle damaged MK VII similar to Master Chief’s for completing the campaign on legendary, or the flaming helmet for completing LASO, things like that.
Elites would have multiple variants, similar to Reach, but hopefully with more of them, and the ODSTs would have limited variants with swappable pieces, similar to Halo 3’s customization.
Content:
I’d say 10 original maps (not including forge variants) and 3 Warzone/Firefight maps at launch would be fair, with free updates adding more to each along with weekly fixes and updates to the community playlists and credit challenges. Microtransactions could be implented through cosmetic items such as weapon and vehicle skins, player stances, avatars, nametags, and perhaps additional color palettes expanding to the default, thus providing the option for those who want it, but also not encroaching on those who want tangible in game rewards for progression.
I think this system would strike a good balance, while remaining nice and unobtrusive.
So yeah, this would pretty much be my ideal Halo game, and I was wondering what others would think.
So, what would you guys add/remove to improve this idea?