unlimited sprint - thrusters - clamboring - a short radar - ground pound - Spartan ChargeHalo 5’s popularity is near an all time low…
Therefore the bullets mentioned above have destroyed the franchise…
Except they haven’t. Those Spartan abilities are worthy of debate but until you guys can debate them in the proper context, your debate cannot be taken seriously. Halo 5’s sales and online popularity were destined to be lower than past Halo’s with or without the changes to the franchise. In fact, considering that the gameplay is the most praised aspect of Halo 5 from the media and people outside of this forum, a case could be made that the existing community would be lower if this game played like Halo 3 or Reach.
This is coming from someone who’s put nearly 200 hours into Arena, has been a major Halo fan since the OG Xbox released…and am open to a mode that tweaks some of the bullets mentioned above. Those bullets are worthy of debate…but they have not destroyed or eroded Halo’s quality to the masses.
So what is it? Below are my theories for Halo’s decrease in popularity.
Burnout - Every major MS franchise (that has regular release) has been suffering from this. Gears of War and Forza have been on similar trajectories. Forza 6 was regarded as the best in the series in terms of gameplay yet did not sell well. This is a MS first party problem. Sticking the Halo name on crappy portable games, RTSs that have limited connection to fans of the franchise, or full releases that seem like they should’ve been expansion packs has diminished the reputation of the brand. - Lack of technical wow factor - The hardcore stuck with this franchise because they loved the mechanics. The casual base (who makes up most of any super popular community) fall for bells and whistles…until they get comfortable and keep coming back due to familiarity. There was nothing comparable to Halo CE when it released on OG Xbox. As a PC gamer making the transition, it was more impressive than any PC FPS at the time. Halo 2 invented the matchmaking that is used widely today. Halo 3 started to lose it’s magic but brought in Forge, was the finish of the original Halo/Flood story, and was the first Halo on the 360 when the franchise was at the peak of it’s popularity. Since then, the franchise stopped pushing the boundaries. Much of the Halo 3 community started migrating to COD shortly after Halo 3 because at the time it had more bells and whistles. Today COD still looks more impressive to casual gamers. - Mis-steps before Halo 5 - I believe if Halo 5’s gameplay was in Halo 4 while maintaining Halo 4’s visual appeal…and if MC Collection worked, a lot more people would own Xbox One’s and would have given Halo 5 a chance. 343 simply lost any benefit of the doubt. Then there was the negative press due to lack of split screen and the poor reception the media gave the game from it’s E3 showing. A lot of people were out before it launched. - The competition - Casuals who wanted the prettiest game were waiting for Battlefront. Bungie loyalists stuck with Destiny. COD won over the mainstream long before H5. The Halo franchise was left to rely on their jaded community.While Halo 5 leaves opportunities to improve, it is extremely solid from a gameplay standpoint. As a longtime Halo fan, I’d argue that this is closer to Halo CE than any subsequent version of the game. If you’d like to argue that 343 should create a mode without Spartan abilities, a larger radar, etc…feel free to debate. But stop trying to back up your argument with the decrease in popularity of the game. Spartan Charge and shorter radar are barely mentioned as to why people aren’t playing this game outside of this forum.
Oh look, now people are dedicating entire topics to why Halos population is the result of every excuse under the sun except the one related to the games quality.
I used to play since halo ce and with halo 2 i started playing alot and getting better it was a challenge to get to level 40 before and i continued the trend with halo 3 i have over 3000 online games played EACH… So i consider myself a veteran in halo, after halo 3 i had other things to worry about so i sold my console and didn’t play fot years so I missed out on reach and later halo 4…
In 2014 nostalgia got a hold of me so i bought an xbox one and couldn’t wait to try masterchief collection and play the games i used to love including halo4.
At first it was a little weird with all the sprint and jetpacks but it still felt like a halo game i ised to play and love.
I wasn’t completely sold on it but i tell you this… I LOVE halo5, while im not a fan of spartan charge myself i love the sprint and clamber and im addicted to warzone…
I havent had as much fun since 2007 im really glad i bought it and can’t wait to unlock more things.
The issue is that no one is saying H5 alone killed the population. This has been a gradual downfall that simply culminated with the disinterest in Halo 5. Lets go through it:
Halo: Reach- The first big screwup. It screwed the gameplay formula and did a ton of damage to the brand and population. - Halo 4- The expected savior. The remaining Halo vets were hopeful of 343’s direction after seeing them fix Reach. In reality they got Halo of Duty. Mass exodus of Halo fans. Nail in the coffin IMO. - Halo: MCC- 343’s big chance to possibly pull the vets back in and hook the new generation on the original formula. Game is borked on launch and for 100+ days following. Still rittled with bugs. Population is dead. People should be fired. - Halo 5- 343’s attempt to appeal to the Halo vets and the Reach-4 generation at the same time. At this point the community is split in half and is a dwarf compared to the H1-3 era. H5 returns to some of the series roots, but further alters the gameplay formula more than any previous iteration. Some vets are pissed, some accept the change. This creates ANOTHER split in the community. In addition, 343’s attempt at making essentially two games for two different audiences resulted in each audience getting half of a game. This results in both audiences getting bored of the game quickly.The Halo community is now fractured beyond all repair. It essentially needs a reboot with an entirely different developer if it wants to return to relevancy.
From my point of view, I lost my passion for Halo half way through Halo 3; basically had more fun watching MLG events than playing it. So, I would just mess around in Grifball. I got into Gears and COD and other games, even Red Faction which was good. My old Halo friends were kinda the same. It was all due to maybe less time to be good or wanting newer gaming experiences. At some point, you just get annoyed at the various ways Halo has dumbed down the game whether it is randomness and bullet registration + Equipment drops or it be Ordinance drops, loadouts, and playlist and gamemode imbalances / complexity. It is hard to want to come back to it.
It’s been while since I went into a map alone to practice and learn the game. Haven’t done so since H:CE in the dorms or a few times in H2. So yeah, if you are looking directly at gameplay dynamics and implementation, it truly is a solid one. In fact, if 343 hadn’t tried to bring back Halo more in its traditional form but with a fresher feel, I’d probably treat it just like I did with Reach and H4 and put it back on the shelf.
Also, you cant really claim burnout for Gears and Forza. Gears’ popularity died with Judgement (another example of how screwing with a formula that your fanbase loves kills your franchise) and Forza is a nearly annualized racing game. Racing games have always been niche.
> 2533274819567236;4:
> Oh look, now people are dedicating entire topics to why Halos population is the result of every excuse under the sun except the one related to the games quality.
I believe that was the point, as he said. What’s your’s?
> 2728296738546254;1:
> Halo 5 is the first Halo to include:
>
>
>
> - unlimited sprint
> - thrusters
> - clamboring
> - a short radar
> - ground pound
> - Spartan Charge
> Halo 5’s popularity is near an all time low…
> Therefore the bullets mentioned above have destroyed the franchise…
> Except they haven’t. Those Spartan abilities are worthy of debate but until you guys can debate them in the proper context, your debate cannot be taken seriously. Halo 5’s sales and online popularity were destined to be lower than past Halo’s with or without the changes to the franchise. In fact, considering that the gameplay is the most praised aspect of Halo 5 from the media and people outside of this forum, a case could be made that the existing community would be lower if this game played like Halo 3 or Reach.
> This is coming from someone who’s put nearly 200 hours into Arena, has been a major Halo fan since the OG Xbox released…and am open to a mode that tweaks some of the bullets mentioned above. Those bullets are worthy of debate…but they have not destroyed or eroded Halo’s quality to the masses.
> So what is it? Below are my theories for Halo’s decrease in popularity.
>
>
>
> - Burnout - Every major MS franchise (that has regular release) has been suffering from this. Gears of War and Forza have been on similar trajectories. Forza 6 was regarded as the best in the series in terms of gameplay yet did not sell well. This is a MS first party problem. Sticking the Halo name on crappy portable games, RTSs that have limited connection to fans of the franchise, or full releases that seem like they should’ve been expansion packs has diminished the reputation of the brand.
> - Lack of technical wow factor - The hardcore stuck with this franchise because they loved the mechanics. The casual base (who makes up most of any super popular community) fall for bells and whistles…until they get comfortable and keep coming back due to familiarity. There was nothing comparable to Halo CE when it released on OG Xbox. As a PC gamer making the transition, it was more impressive than any PC FPS at the time. Halo 2 invented the matchmaking that is used widely today. Halo 3 started to lose it’s magic but brought in Forge, was the finish of the original Halo/Flood story, and was the first Halo on the 360 when the franchise was at the peak of it’s popularity. Since then, the franchise stopped pushing the boundaries. Much of the Halo 3 community started migrating to COD shortly after Halo 3 because at the time it had more bells and whistles. Today COD still looks more impressive to casual gamers.
> - Mis-steps before Halo 5 - I believe if Halo 5’s gameplay was in Halo 4 while maintaining Halo 4’s visual appeal…and if MC Collection worked, a lot more people would own Xbox One’s and would have given Halo 5 a chance. 343 simply lost any benefit of the doubt. Then there was the negative press due to lack of split screen and the poor reception the media gave the game from it’s E3 showing. A lot of people were out before it launched.
> - The compe8tition - Casuals who wanted the prettiest game were waiting for Battlefront. Bungie loyalists stuck with Destiny. COD won over the mainstream long before H5. The Halo franchise was left to rely on their jaded community.
> While Halo 5 leaves opportunities to improve, it is extremely solid from a gameplay standpoint. As a longtime Halo fan, I’d argue that this is closer to Halo CE than any subsequent version of the game. If you’d like to argue that 343 should create a mode without Spartan abilities, a larger radar, etc…feel free to debate. But stop trying to back up your argument with the decrease in popularity of the game. Spartan Charge and shorter radar are barely mentioned as to why people aren’t playing this game outside of this forum.
Also halo has always had a high learning curve, and is hard compared to cod or battlefront type games.
Casuals get owned when they go into multiplayer, blame the game and leave instead of playing and getting better.
I couldn’t care less if it’s out of the top ten games, the multiplayer is a step in the right direction from 4 and reach.