Does 343 really understand what Halo is?

Games Other Halo
1

This seems like I’m not talking about the issue presented at first, but I need to talk about Spartan ops to show an example of what I’m talking about.

Spartan Ops was never quality to begin with. It’s just a bunch of filler gameplay to play with friends against AI. You just shoot things and that’s it, it’s nothing special. Although I found firefight in Reach to be more entertaining since it had different game modes and more varied gameplay with skulls, it was also quite challenging since you had no-where to run and you had to hold your position and survive.

It’s pretty obvious no real thought was put into any of the missions, exept for “we’ll give them a mantis” or “we’ll give them rocket launchers”. Well maybe they did have ambitious ideas but they didn’t get the chance to impliment it into the game. I think this is the problem with large companies, they don’t offer any innovation or crazy, risky ideas such as in Spartan ops or campaign. Most of these risky ideas are probably stopped by an executive that says “I can’t let you do that”. Bungie took risks, especially with forge world. 343 have shown to take the safe route so far with Halo anniversary and now Halo 4.

Looking at this I realised something, I realise what Halo truely was…

343 was focused on making everything ‘Halo’ while making it different in their own way. Well prepared to have your mind blown, because ‘Halo’ or the way you think of Halo isn’t what you think it is.

Halo isn’t warthogs, Master Chief, Cortana, the music, or even sticky grenades. It’s not the covenant, grunts, elites or Halo rings… Think deeper, instead of what components make Halo, but what makes it’s components. At it’s core Halo is pure innovation, it’s what make Halo Halo. The first few Halo games will always be the most ‘Halo’ Halo games. In 2001 the graphics weren’t very amazing, but Halo CE broke out with amazing graphics, smart AI, perfected gameplay mechanics, music that made your ears -Yoink!-, massive battles, open environments, engaging and epic story of grand purposions with twists and turns, it shows you how the world is and bam the flood comes out and everything changes, the increadible warthog run. None of this has ever been done before in any form.

Halo is innovation, 343 have had this all wrong. Don’t get me wrong though, Halo 4 is a decent game, it’s just not increadible like the original games were. But I still think that Bungie are creating the next true Halo game with Destiny, it looks like they are truely pushing with innovation.

2

Yeah this is what I’ve been saying for a long time. SpOps is unbearable. They hyped it up as this innovative, episodic co-op side-story with a strong narrative. It’s not. It’s a 5 minute cutscene followed by 5 bland, empty, shallow “missions”.

I honestly do not understand how some people enjoy it. I feel like you have to be pretty brainless to get any kind of pleasure from something so mundane and repetitive.

3

I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.

I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion

4

> I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.
>
>
> I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion

I did, it is the most complete Halo game. But it doesn’t have that core innovation I was talking about. It’s a good game but not increadible. It is an FPS but there can still additions to the gameplay to make it new and better.

5

> > I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.
> >
> >
> > I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion
>
> I did, it is the most complete Halo game. But it doesn’t have that core innovation I was talking about. It’s a good game but not increadible. It is an FPS but there can still additions to the gameplay to make it new and better.

That’s besides the point and in contradiction to your opening post. You’re not speaking of making the game new and better, you’re speaking of making it old and better.
You’re not talking about innovation of core gameplay as you want old techniques to change the gameplay in already tackled ways.

Where it is true S.OPS would be awesome to reduex using some of the older FF-options, the older FF gametypes of ODST and Reach are equal to or less replayable than S.OPS, not greater than.
The most popular FF gametypes used unlimited lives and generally let us start with the PW’s. Default (as in regular weapons, regular damage) settings in FF are/were rarely used.
And map diversity… It was Courtyard, Installation 4 or Unearthed unless going for a challenge. And move around the map??? Why? Stay close to the ammo in x2 or find the best place to camp with infinite powerweapon ammo in the other modes (with a Jetpack no less)

I don’t doubt for a second that S.OPS would benefit from having the older options added, but to make up fictitious facts and twist the existing ones… Well that don’t cut it.

6

> I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.
>
>
> I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion

Most complete game? Are you serious?

Most Halo vets refer to this game as a beta…

7

lol have you played halo 4? They haven’t got a clue.

8

> > I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.
> >
> >
> > I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion
>
> Most complete game? Are you serious?
>
> Most Halo vets refer to this game as a beta…

If it is a beta, it’s of higher quality than H2’s and levels above CE’s lack of online support functionality.
But that’s only if H4 is a beta and you’ve been with Halo since CE.

9

There’s nothing inspiring about Halo4 that says I want to be in this world. The Op is right. The core is imagination not balance or nerf or the word No. 343 needs to stop being museum caretakers and they need to find the love of making a game that inspires imagination and the want for people to play it. You say yes how can I expand on the booster frame or the Orion Battle Armor? Can I make AAs work on vehicles? What can I add that is new and will blow people’s imagination out of the water.

10

It’s a giant ring world?

11

The real reason behind Spartan Ops was to keep people entertained so they wouldn’t trade in their game in the first 3 months after release.

I remember reading an interview with one of the heads of a major publisher (it might have been EA). He said that the most crucial time for any game is the first 3-4 months because that is when most people buy the game. If you can keep these players playing your game, then that means less games will be traded in, so less ‘pre-owned’ versions will be on the market for others to buy.

More ‘new’ Halo 4 copies sold = more profit
More ‘pre-owned’ Halo 4 copies sold = less profit

In other words, 343i/Microsoft threw everything at the first 3 months of Halo 4’s life. ‘The Infinity Challenge’ and Spartan Ops Season 1 were designed to keep players entertained so they would not sell their copies of Halo 4 to Gamestop and therefore hurt Microsoft’s profit line.

Spartan Ops has served its purpose so I doubt there will be a Season 2 (and good riddance).

12

> Yeah this is what I’ve been saying for a long time. SpOps is unbearable. They hyped it up as this innovative, episodic co-op side-story with a strong narrative. It’s not. It’s a 5 minute cutscene followed by 5 bland, empty, shallow “missions”.
>
> I honestly do not understand how some people enjoy it. I feel like you have to be pretty brainless to get any kind of pleasure from something so mundane and repetitive.

It is value-added…

Did you expect 343i to give you pacing and gameplay on par with the campaign?

13

> The real reason behind Spartan Ops was to keep people entertained so they wouldn’t trade in their game in the first 3 months after release.
>
> I remember reading an interview with one of the heads of a major publisher (it might have been EA). He said that the most crucial time for any game is the first 3-4 months because that is when most people buy the game. If you can keep these players playing your game, then that means less games will be traded in, so less ‘pre-owned’ versions will be on the market for others to buy.
>
> More ‘new’ Halo 4 copies sold = more profit
> More ‘pre-owned’ Halo 4 copies sold = less profit
>
> In other words, 343i/Microsoft threw everything at the first 3 months of Halo 4’s life. ‘The Infinity Challenge’ and Spartan Ops Season 1 were designed to keep players entertained so they would not sell their copies of Halo 4 to Gamestop and therefore hurt Microsoft’s profit line.
>
> Spartan Ops has served its purpose so I doubt there will be a Season 2 (and good riddance).

With all due respect , you are crazy , they created SOPS so that they can tell another story in a small campaign , you should be one of those guys that complain about the government creating things to fool people , come on grow up!

14

When are we all gonna understand that Halo is whatever MS and 343i want it to be.

It is not what you want it to be. You either like it, or don’t.

If enough people do not like it, then Halo dies like countless game series before it.

15

> Yeah this is what I’ve been saying for a long time. SpOps is unbearable. They hyped it up as this innovative, episodic co-op side-story with a strong narrative. It’s not. It’s a 5 minute cutscene followed by 5 bland, empty, shallow “missions”.
>
> I honestly do not understand how some people enjoy it. I feel like you have to be pretty brainless to get any kind of pleasure from something so mundane and repetitive.

Only thing saving it is its Cinematic trailers and high exp point…
Most of all, I play simply because of my curiosity of what the next mission will be like.

I thought this was going to be another short series Campaign, but fell short of what I had in mind. It just wasn’t creative at all. All they could muster up is buttons and boring enemy AIs. Could have been much much better.

16

In short… No.

343i is basically made up of Halo fans and enthusiasts with a knowledge of making video games.

Imagine putting Star Wars fans in charge of making the next Star Wars movie! NO ME GUSTAAAAA.

Now, that’s not to say they didn’t make an amazing first try. Plus the fact that they’re working hard to fix things that aren’t right.

Hell of a first try. They’re starting to get it.

17

> > I have always thought halo 4 was a great game overall. and Im sure spartan ops was more than shoot things and if it was what would it be any different from the camapign which it is called an FPS. I thought 343 did a fine job and they already admitted this was not a perfect game and they will do better on halo 5.
> >
> >
> > I mean Givem some respect for their work. by far the most complete halo game in my opinion
>
> Most complete game? Are you serious?
>
> Most Halo vets refer to this game as a beta…

The people that refer to the game as a beta, never played beta games…

18

destiny is not going to be a “halo” game

its going to be a fps mmo… that has casual, social, and competitive elements…bungie has always done a good job mixing all of those into a single game perfectly… (h4 too much casual for me)

it is like your standard fps in the fact that there is matchmaking and you can play it like any other fps game but it it truely unique in the sense that when you are not searching for a matchmaking game, you are still in a world able to interact with other players…

there is no menu screen, only a “living” world that you share with other people also playing the game… kind of like a “hangout” area for you to chill and socialize when not playing matchmaking… kind of like WoW, if you have ever played you know how you can just hang out in one of the big cities and meet new people and stuff like that… when you start up destiny it puts you right back in the same place in the world you were when you turned it off, exactly like WoW

destiny is going to be as inavative as we’ve ever seen a fps… bungie has never let us down before and i dont think they’re about to start.

19

> This seems like I’m not talking about the issue presented at first, but I need to talk about Spartan ops to show an example of what I’m talking about.
>
> Spartan Ops was never quality to begin with. It’s just a bunch of filler gameplay to play with friends against AI. You just shoot things and that’s it, it’s nothing special. Although I found firefight in Reach to be more entertaining since it had different game modes and more varied gameplay with skulls, <mark>it was also quite challenging since you had no-where to run and you had to hold your position and survive.</mark>

Challenging??? Really??? Maybe ODST was “challenging” but Reach firefight was definitely not challenging in the least bit.

> <mark>It’s pretty obvious no real thought was put into any of the missions, exept for “we’ll give them a mantis” or “we’ll give them rocket launchers”.</mark> Well maybe they did have ambitious ideas but they didn’t get the chance to impliment it into the game. I think this is the problem with large companies, they don’t offer any innovation or crazy, risky ideas such as in Spartan ops or campaign. Most of these risky ideas are probably stopped by an executive that says “I can’t let you do that”. Bungie took risks, especially with forge world. 343 have shown to take the safe route so far with Halo anniversary and now Halo 4.

I seriously have to question if you even played Reach Firefight at this point. Those different gamemodes you were talking about were simply variations on the weapons you had. I.E. “give them rockets” or “give them snipers” or "give them grenade “launchers” Not much innovation there and nothing compared to ODST Firefight imo.

> Looking at this I realised something, I realise what Halo truely was…
>
> 343 was focused on making everything ‘Halo’ while making it different in their own way. Well prepared to have your mind blown, because ‘Halo’ or the way you think of Halo isn’t what you think it is.
>
> Halo isn’t warthogs, Master Chief, Cortana, the music, or even sticky grenades. It’s not the covenant, grunts, elites or Halo rings… Think deeper, instead of what components make Halo, but what makes it’s components. At it’s core Halo is pure innovation, it’s what make Halo Halo. The first few Halo games will always be the most ‘Halo’ Halo games. In 2001 the graphics weren’t very amazing, but Halo CE broke out with amazing graphics, smart AI, perfected gameplay mechanics, music that made your ears -Yoink!-, massive battles, open environments, engaging and epic story of grand purposions with twists and turns, it shows you how the world is and bam the flood comes out and everything changes, the increadible warthog run. None of this has ever been done before in any form.
>
> Halo is innovation, 343 have had this all wrong. Don’t get me wrong though, Halo 4 is a decent game, it’s just not increadible like the original games were. But I still think that <mark>Bungie are creating the next true Halo game with Destiny, it looks like they are truely pushing with innovation</mark>.

Seriously??? Destiny has 1 viddoc released on it and some screenshots and you are basically already calling it the industry changer that Halo: CE was. Destiny is NOT just a FPS. It is more like a MMOFPS with RPG elements in it. You’ve got class based roles,quests, and even raids it seems like from one of the scenes from the Viddoc released by Bungie. This all sounds like games already done, think Borderlands or Planetside. Not much innovation there. Also the one thing that I found in all the information released on it that is slightly innovative is that it will have a “living” world which has been done by EVE already. And as we have seen from other developers attempts at a “living world” can mean drastically different things from game to game. So the only innovation there is that we know of so far is the combination of those elements, sorta.

20

> “…No man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”
> —C. S. Lewis

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