My favorite version of Master Chief had to be Mark VI from Halo 3, in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise. What do you guys think “343” plans to do in Halo 6 directing toward the design of John 117’s armor?
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> My favorite version of Master Chief had to be Mark IV from Halo 3
In Halo 3 he wore Mark VI
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> in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise.
Nah, Halo 3 looks dated, in my opinion 
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> What do you guys think “343” plans to do in Halo 6 directing toward the design of John 117’s armor?
No idea but I guess he’s got a crack on his visor now. I don’t mind if they redesign his armor, but saying it happened because Cortana had nanomachines do it inside his hypersleep chamber on the Forward unto Dawn really stretches the limits of my disbelief suspenders. So I just hope they say he got a better suit instead of trying to come up with a silly explanation like that.
I think Bungie’s art was better in almost every aspect whether that be architecture, environments, skyboxes, character models, weapons, or anything else. A rare exception where I think 343i excelled was Sanghelios, but then again, there’s nothing from Bungie to compare that to. Other than that I feel like 343i has purposely tried to distinguish their own style from Bungie’s, and in the process have essentially undone ten years of careful development, and managing to only do something that’s usually either unnecessarily different and misses the point, or just bland.
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> > 2535418517245715;1:
> > in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise.
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> Nah, Halo 3 looks dated, in my opinion
You’re probably thinking of the graphics, not the art style. Unless you actually think the art style itself looks dated, in which case I would like to know why?
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> You’re probably thinking of the graphics, not the art style. Unless you actually think the art style itself looks dated, in which case I would like to know why?
Yeah now that you mentioned it, I probably had graphics in mind. My bad. But there are some details about Halo 3’s art style that kept it from being my personal favorite. Like the way vehicles look when damaged, which I think falls under the category of art style. Admittedly I didn’t play much Halo 3, but I think all my days of playing Halo Reach probably made me take for granted the detail they put into the parts of vehicles that get their armor blown off. You could see machinery and wires underneath but all I remember seeing on damaged vehicles in Halo 3 was a spotty texture. Correct me if I’m wrong, though.
The other thing is how bright some of the things are. Which is fine, some people like that. And I didn’t mind it that much but I just remember some of the things, like the lights on Wraiths, being much brighter than in other Halo games that I’m more used to. It’s that effect where the light spills over, kind of like the visor on the Hellcat helmet in Halo 5. Obnoxiously bright. Again, correct me if I’m wrong, and this is just my opinion anyway.
But yes I made the mistake of confusing graphics and art style when I said it looks dated. It’s just not my favorite because of how some things look and I’m probably biased because I didnt play much Halo 3. However I don’t think it looks necessarily bad either. And I definitely see your point about how 343 tried too hard to make their Halo games look different, too. If this is considered part of art style, then I could say the same about how it sounds. Everything seemed to sound different in Halo 4. I didn’t mind some of the new sound effects, though I didn’t like all of them either (battle rifle), but either way I could tell 343 was trying hard to make it different, for better or worse.
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> > 2535418517245715;1:
> > My favorite version of Master Chief had to be Mark IV from Halo 3
>
> In Halo 3 he wore Mark VI
>
>
> > 2535418517245715;1:
> > in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise.
>
> Nah, Halo 3 looks dated, in my opinion
>
>
> > 2535418517245715;1:
> > What do you guys think “343” plans to do in Halo 6 directing toward the design of John 117’s armor?
>
> No idea but I guess he’s got a crack on his visor now. I don’t mind if they redesign his armor, but saying it happened because Cortana had nanomachines do it inside his hypersleep chamber on the Forward unto Dawn really stretches the limits of my disbelief suspenders. So I just hope they say he got a better suit instead of trying to come up with a silly explanation like that.
Halo 3 probably looks dated cause its old now…
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Umm yeah, I totally miss Halos original art style. That French dude lead art guy at 343 needs to go away…just like Brian Reed (applause!)
H4 and 5 were the only Halo campaigns I only played once so I’m a little fuzzy, but was the Halo array even mentioned more then once or twice in the entire campaign?! I want to see a Halo stretching away in the distance when I look up!! The current art style is plenty detailed but it’s so boring. Just a ton of urban or industrialized locations with no sense of mystery (MP). Aside from Overgrowth, which is still urban, there’s virtually no vegetation anywhere. Genesis was interesting, so why not structure a map around it? The campaign levels were good. The MP maps are -Yoink-!!
I don’t mind MCs armor, but the weapon redesigns are terrible. The BR and Carbine should never have had reflex sights and the SPNKR is a Halo staple so WTF. Why change them?! Seems like a change for the sake of change. The vehicles and armor are terrible.
As a whole Halo 5s art direction was a huge miss in my opinion. There’s potential there but it’s a long ways off from being realized. I’d take the classic art style back any day!
The old art style was beautiful the new one is ok but not at that level just my opinion
I personally think that Halo 2’s art style, and even graphical quality to an extent, fit Halo the best, at least with the tone that the first two, maybe three games had. Halo CE and Halo 2 had this “dark comedy” tone to them, if that describes it accurately. Think James Cameron’s Aliens tone. The overly-detailed art of Halo 4 and Halo 5 necessitates a more serious tone, and this honestly has changed the character that the original trilogy had into something less unique and less appealing, in my opinion. However, 343i did a great job with the Halo 2 Anniversary art, and I hope they can work with that style more often in the future, though it is unlikely that Halo 6 will show a dramatic change in art style from Halo 4/5.
343i’s art style takes a lot of talent to execute, and in a lot of disciplines, but it just doesn’t feel like Halo to me. I think that classic Halo benefitted at least a little bit from the graphical limitations of its day: you weren’t able to slap a few thousand polygons and 2K textures on absolutely everything, so you had to really focus on using color, shape, silhouette, atmosphere, and the openness and closedness of spaces to convey a mood and an impression. (In fact, that’s the exact skill-set that Reach’s Forge encouraged really well.) As Bungie got access to better tech, they were able to ramp up the detail and fidelity, but I think that having an emphasis on everything but detail early on really helped them out. In particular, factions and elements became defined by rapidly-recognizable features, like the Forerunners’ simple-but-angular designs, the humans’ very “gunmetal” military equipment, and Covenant structures that were bulbous rather than being “round” in the usual sense.
By contrast, 343i’s spaces and designs focus on cluttering every inch of every surface lest anything look too “simple,” but very little is done with silhouette and color. Their Spartan armor designs use a variety of weights (which is really cool because body types vary super widely even among athletes) in that they go to further extremes of sleekness and bulk, but silhouettes often look samey and color is used poorly: the designs end up being a muddled blob of a single color, speckled with inconsequential highlights that get lost at a distance or while the armor is in motion. As far as factions and architecture go, there are distinguishing factors but these diverge completely and utterly from the classic ones, and often inexplicably: Forerunner architecture in particular was redefined entirely, going from utilitarian-yet-alien to lavishly, impractically ornate almost overnight. 343i has executed classic Forerunner styles before: Reach’s “Solitary” DLC map is still the most beautiful space ever seen in the franchise, and it’s wholly classic; while “Installation 04” was mostly classic, but with sprinkles and dashes of 343i’s “Tron lines” and other changes. They’re able to do the classic styles, but they chose to abandon them.
Abandoning the classic art style doesn’t make 343i’s work bad, but like it or not, that classic style defined the franchise for over a decade. You can’t completely break away from it and still make games that look like Halo, with spaces that feel like the spaces in Halo. :\
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> 343i’s art style takes a lot of talent to execute, and in a lot of disciplines, but it just doesn’t feel like Halo to me. I think that classic Halo benefitted at least a little bit from the graphical limitations of its day: you weren’t able to slap a few thousand polygons and 2K textures on absolutely everything, so you had to really focus on using color, shape, silhouette, atmosphere, and the openness and closedness of spaces to convey a mood and an impression. (In fact, that’s the exact skill-set that Reach’s Forge encouraged really well.) As Bungie got access to better tech, they were able to ramp up the detail and fidelity, but I think that having an emphasis on everything but detail early on really helped them out. In particular, factions and elements became defined by rapidly-recognizable features, like the Forerunners’ simple-but-angular designs, the humans’ very “gunmetal” military equipment, and Covenant structures that were bulbous rather than being “round” in the usual sense.
>
> By contrast, 343i’s spaces and designs focus on cluttering every inch of every surface lest anything look too “simple,” but very little is done with silhouette and color. Their Spartan armor designs use a variety of weights (which is really cool because body types vary super widely even among athletes) in that they go to further extremes of sleekness and bulk, but silhouettes often look samey and color is used poorly: the designs end up being a muddled blob of a single color, speckled with inconsequential highlights that get lost at a distance or while the armor is in motion. As far as factions and architecture go, there are distinguishing factors but these diverge completely and utterly from the classic ones, and often inexplicably: Forerunner architecture in particular was redefined entirely, going from utilitarian-yet-alien to lavishly, impractically ornate almost overnight. 343i has executed classic Forerunner styles before: Reach’s “Solitary” DLC map is still the most beautiful space ever seen in the franchise, and it’s wholly classic; while “Installation 04” was mostly classic, but with sprinkles and dashes of 343i’s “Tron lines” and other changes. They’re able to do the classic styles, but they chose to abandon them.
>
> Abandoning the classic art style doesn’t make 343i’s work bad, but like it or not, that classic style defined the franchise for over a decade. You can’t completely break away from it and still make games that look like Halo, with spaces that feel like the spaces in Halo. :\
I agree 100%. To me the new art direction completely breaks the immersion of being in any Halo setting. The differences are so distraction that it’s hard to just “be there” (hence the salty but poorly conveyed lashing out on my part).
I absolutely love Solitary(Prisoner) and next to Lockout is my favorite map in the series. I personally think every map remaster For HCEA/Reach is fantastic and I would love to see them in Arena.
As I said previously, 343 is certainly comprised of talented people. Genesis and Shanghelios are two examples of that, and still stay somewhat close to classic designs but I too feel as though the direction they took shouldn’t have been so drastically different. Here’s to hoping the 3rd time is a charm and franchise gets back on track!
> 2535418517245715;1:
> My favorite version of Master Chief had to be Mark VI from Halo 3, in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise. What do you guys think “343” plans to do in Halo 6 directing toward the design of John 117’s armor?
I like both the halo 3 design and halo 4 design. I feel like the halo 3 design was more realistic. But the halo 4 design lookes more heroic and powerful.
Yes I miss the old art style! Not sure why 343 had to change the art style.
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> > 2533274904158628;2:
> > > 2535418517245715;1:
> > > My favorite version of Master Chief had to be Mark IV from Halo 3
> >
> > In Halo 3 he wore Mark VI
> >
> >
> > > 2535418517245715;1:
> > > in general I feel like Halo 3 had the best art style in the franchise.
> >
> > Nah, Halo 3 looks dated, in my opinion
> >
> >
> > > 2535418517245715;1:
> > > What do you guys think “343” plans to do in Halo 6 directing toward the design of John 117’s armor?
> >
> > No idea but I guess he’s got a crack on his visor now. I don’t mind if they redesign his armor, but saying it happened because Cortana had nanomachines do it inside his hypersleep chamber on the Forward unto Dawn really stretches the limits of my disbelief suspenders. So I just hope they say he got a better suit instead of trying to come up with a silly explanation like that.
>
> Halo 3 probably looks dated cause its old now…
I’ve been playing it a bit recently and it’s still a really beautiful game. My only real criticism is the wonky facial animation.
I think that halo needs to return to more realistic detail, its becoming to cartoony
As evidenced by the classic armors and helmets in Halo 5, the classic artstyle is still relevant in today’s eyes. I would love to see it return.
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> As evidenced by the classic armors and helmets in Halo 5, the classic artstyle is still relevant in today’s eyes. I would love to see it return.
This is true. But I also think the classic armors and helmets are popular in Halo 5 simply because they are generally less ugly than the helmets 343 came up with…
I do prefer Bungie’s art style over 343’s. Bungie’s art style feels more like halo to many because of its war torn, dirtier looking graphics. 343’s graphics are good but it doesn’t feel like Halo to me.
Old Elites > New Elites
Old Jackals < New Jackals
Old Grunts > New Grunts
Old Hunters < New Hunters
Old Forerunner structures < New Forerunner Structures
Old Marines > New Marines
Old UNSC ship design = New UNSC ship design
Old Covenant vehicles < New Covenant vehicles
I view 343’s art style as “inspired” by Bungie Halo, not exactly a “continuation” of it, but certainly “inspired”. They took the classic style and mixed it with something that made it their own, and the result is something that I myself can look at and see it originating from Halo. So in that department, I don’t really mind. I do have preferences concerning specifics within each art style (example: I prefer the H2 Elites over the H3 ones, I prefer the H4 Spartan models over the H5 ones, and so on) but they’re not of major importance in my eyes.
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> I view 343’s art style as “inspired” by Bungie Halo, not exactly a “continuation” of it, but certainly “inspired”. They took the classic style and mixed it with something that made it their own, and the result is something that I myself can look at and see it originating from Halo. So in that department, I don’t really mind. I do have preferences concerning specifics within each art style (example: I prefer the H2 Elites over the H3 ones, I prefer the H4 Spartan models over the H5 ones, and so on) but they’re not of major importance in my eyes.
I hope 343 does a similar art style to HW2. HW2’s art style was slightly more dark and gritty, while mashing up 343’s art style with Bungie’s. I liked it a lot and hope they do something like that, especially considering the ending of HW2 and how it could affect the story of Halo 6. Y’know, tying the two games together.