Evolving the Halo franchise

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Halo needs to evolve, this is something that’s true and does indeed need to happen. But how do you evolve a franchise millions of people loved the way it was? How do you make sure you keep the fanbase satisfied? Well, you keep the core gameplay experience and evolve on that. It’s pretty easy but seems to be pretty hard for some developers to understand how to do this right. I’m not talking about 343 in specific, but a lot of developers do not understand that you have to keep the core experience a live to evolve it.

How 343 should evolve with Halo 5 isn’t that hard but still seems to be hard for 343. I will not say that can’t do it because they can do it but I would like to clear some things up on how 343 should have evolved Halo 5 and maybe make 343 aware that there is still plenty of time to do the evolution of Halo 5 right.

There are 2 major changes in Halo 5 that prevent Halo 5 to be the perfect evolution of classic Halo and those are sprint and clamber. Before you start typing a comment bashing me and saying sprint and clamber are fine I highly suggest you to read the full post before placing a comment. I will not bash 343, I will not hate on them and I never will because I truely believe 343 wants Halo to be the number one FPS franchise out there again. Now let’s talk about why sprint and clamber prevent Halo 5 to become a perfect evolution of classic Halo games.

Sprint has always been a very sensitive subject in the Halo community and is definitely something 343 needs to pay attention to. Bungie introduced sprint as an armor ability in Halo Reach, 343 continued sprint in Halo 4 but made it a default ability despite the hate towards sprint from the Halo community. in Halo 5 343 did a very good try in balancing sprint and it works but at the same time makes it useless. The reason 343 uses sprint in Halo is give players the ability to get faster into the action while it actually does the opposite thing. Because of sprint 343 has to make larger maps which does not change anything in getting faster into the action since people can also run away from the action faster making the game more slow paced and a lot less tactical. Halo 3 was very fast paced and I never heard any Halo 3 player wish there was sprint in the game.

Having to create larger maps to fit sprint immediately reduces the quality of the mapdesigns. Larger maps are usually the more disliked maps. Truth for example, a remake of Halo 2’s Midship does not play anything like the classic map. It is 20% larger making all about long range combat instead of the close and compact combat it used to have in Halo 2. The map is too big because of sprint. The middle of the map is a ghost town since nobody will go out there anymore because it’s too open because of the mapsize increase. The moment sprint was introduced to Halo was the moment the mapdesign went downhill a lot. My favorite maps are all from Halo 2 and Halo 3. Halo 4 had better maps than Reach but they still don’t come close to the maps of Halo 2 and 3. Removing sprint allows 343 to make small maps again with better and smaller designs which lead to fast paced gameplay.

Not having sprint and clamber also creates a lot more creatives opportunities. Man cannons, gravity lifts and other ways of transportation will become more important can be used more often to add more variety to the game. Dynamic elements like the gate on High Ground in Halo 3 will be valuable again and will have a better and more important influence on gameplay.

Truster don’t need to be removed, they are actually a perfect evolution of the Halo franchise and they will fit the game just as good if not better when sprint is removed.

When you sprint, your weapon goes into a sprint animation meaning you can not shoot and so giving you not a fair chance to fight back or the chance to immediately start shooting at someone. When someone sprints away you have to chase him down until he stops sprinting since it’s unlimited in Halo 5 and you can’t shoot while sprinting. My point is, sprint is still being used A LOT more as an escape option making the game slower paced.

The core experience of classic Halo games has always been about working together as a team, controlling the most important points on the maps, controlling power weapons and strafing around while shooting to prevent being shot. Not having sprint gave Halo the amazing gameplay it had and made the game special and stand out.

Clamber is also a new feature added to Halo 5 that allows you to climb on objects. This takes away the complete challenges and satisfaction of making a jump. Frank O’Connor said it feels so good to press the clamber button to make the jump but in my opinion it feels the complete opposite. It feels A LOT more satisfying when a jump takes more skill and you make it. You will feel good about yourself and it makes you excited. Increasing the skillgap will bring more players to the franchise and will keep them for a long time since they have to practice and learn how to become a better player. Making everything easy will definitely hurt the longevity a game. Clamber does not make a game feel modern at all. Destiny does not have anything like Clamber and still is a very popular game that is being played by tons of people every day.

Adding features like sprint and clamber will not make a game look or feel modern. Halo has a perfect combat system that will never get outdated simply because it created the FPS combat system that is still being used today in every other first person shooter out there. People do NOT care if a game has sprint or clamber, they want a game that feels modern and plays very good. Sprint and Clamber make Halo look generic, not modern or unique. Making a game 60fps with beautiful art and graphics with a lot of details make a game look and feel modern.

Every change except Sprint and Clamber is a good evolution of the core experience of Halo. Removing sprint and clamber will make a lot of Halo fans very happy and will increase the longevity and the popularity of Halo 5 a lot. Downloadable content will be purchased more often when there is a healthy and big online population which means there is more money for Microsoft and 343. 343 should not think about the day one sales and pre-orders, they need to think about the complete picture and need to see that creating an amazing game will make more money than creating a game that die quickly because it doesn’t have the longevity and quality people expected.

An increasement of the base movement speed is needed but this pretty obvious.

Positives of not having sprint and clamber:

  • Smaller and better mapdesigns
  • The gameplay will become more fast paced
  • Teamwork becomes more important
  • Tactical gameplay becomes more important
  • Controlling the map becomes even more important
  • The longevity of the game will be bigger because of the increased skillgap
  • The game becomes less complicated making it more understandable for viewers and new players
  • Trusters get a whole new tactical meaning
  • The core Halo experience returns without having to remove the actual new abilities except sprint and clamber

The only downside is that 343 needs to resize the maps and add some changes to them but it will definitely be worth it and will revive the Halo franchise to it’s former glory for sure. It will become a lot more popular and will be mentioned a lot more which basically means free advertising. You can do this 343!

Please leave your thoughts and share this with 343!

2

Finally, someone with an arguement against sprint, and they have an actual argument. I’ve seen dozens of posts on here decrying sprint, and their reasons were nonexistent. During the beta, I found it very difficult to use the AR/SMG on Truth (Bigship) after they brought in BR starts, and it was difficult to get into cover when I got shot not only because of the large size, but because I’d stop sprinting every time I got hit. Right now it seemes they’ve nerfed sprint heavily, and right now I’m just thinking, “What’s the point of having it now?” Like you said, it is intented to speed up gameplay, but it doesn’t actually do that now that they’ve blown the maps up to these large proportions. And sprint’s other purpose, escaping, can’t even be used now that they’ve added de-sprint. Of course, if sprint is removed, base speed should be increased. No need to move around like a snail.

3

This is on point. So many people are complaining about clamber and sprint its mad. The way to make clamber good is to make it an integrated Ghandi hop.
Id also say get rid of ground pound, change and slide (even though getting rid of sprint will deal with these).

4

> 2533274978553590;2:
> Finally, someone with an arguement against sprint, and they have an actual argument. I’ve seen dozens of posts on here decrying sprint, and their reasons were nonexistent. During the beta, I found it very difficult to use the AR/SMG on Truth (Bigship) after they brought in BR starts, and it was difficult to get into cover when I got shot not only because of the large size, but because I’d stop sprinting every time I got hit. Right now it seemes they’ve nerfed sprint heavily, and right now I’m just thinking, “What’s the point of having it now?” Like you said, it is intented to speed up gameplay, but it doesn’t actually do that now that they’ve blown the maps up to these large proportions. And sprint’s other purpose, escaping, can’t even be used now that they’ve added de-sprint. Of course, if sprint is removed, base speed should be increased. No need to move around like a snail.

Actually, the reasons OP listed are very much the same others already have, you’ve only looked at the negative and rambling side of the community.

5

That being said, +1 to you OP. It makes me happy to see people like you speaking up.

6

> 2533274808578327;5:
> That being said, +1 to you OP. It makes me happy to see people like you speaking up.

Thank you for your support! I have no hate towards 343, I will never hate them just because they made some mistakes. They seem to changed their thoughts and are trying to make Halo 5 a lot more appealing which is good. Halo 5 is definitely better than Halo 4 but still does not come close enough to Halo 3.

The core experience is what needs to be remained to evolve a game. If the core experience is removed than you can’t evolve a game. Not having sprint and clamber has always been part of the core experience of the first three Halo games and because they were designed with this simplistic but very good gamedesign they succeeded.

If you want to get a developers attention you can do two things. You can do like I do and post your feedback on the internet and bringing it under the attention of 343 or you don’t pre-order the game. I did both but I will probably pre-order simply because I love Halo and enjoyed the beta despite it not having the core Halo experience. Bringing the core experience to Halo 5 with the trusters will make this game amazing but to do this we have to make 343 aware without being unfriendly or non-constructive.

7

> 2533274854999879;6:
> > 2533274808578327;5:
> > That being said, +1 to you OP. It makes me happy to see people like you speaking up.
>
>
> Thank you for your support! I have no hate towards 343, I will never hate them just because they made some mistakes. They seem to changed their thoughts and are trying to make Halo 5 a lot more appealing which is good. Halo 5 is definitely better than Halo 4 but still does not come close enough to Halo 3.
>
> The core experience is what needs to be remained to evolve a game. If the core experience is removed than you can’t evolve a game. Not having sprint and clamber has always been part of the core experience of the first three Halo games and because they were designed with this simplistic but very good gamedesign they succeeded.
>
> If you want to get a developers attention you can do two things. You can do like I do and post your feedback on the internet and bringing it under the attention of 343 or you don’t pre-order the game. I did both but I will probably pre-order simply because I love Halo and enjoyed the beta despite it not having the core Halo experience. Bringing the core experience to Halo 5 with the trusters will make this game amazing but to do this we have to make 343 aware without being unfriendly or non-constructive.

I’m doing both as well. Also with how they handled the MCC, I am starting to dislike 343, as sad as that sounds but they can only disappoint fans so many times before it’s strike out.

I really really hope Halo 5 can be the perfect Halo game we’ve always wanted.

8

> 2533274808578327;7:
> > 2533274854999879;6:
> > > 2533274808578327;5:
> > > That being said, +1 to you OP. It makes me happy to see people like you speaking up.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thank you for your support! I have no hate towards 343, I will never hate them just because they made some mistakes. They seem to changed their thoughts and are trying to make Halo 5 a lot more appealing which is good. Halo 5 is definitely better than Halo 4 but still does not come close enough to Halo 3.
> >
> > The core experience is what needs to be remained to evolve a game. If the core experience is removed than you can’t evolve a game. Not having sprint and clamber has always been part of the core experience of the first three Halo games and because they were designed with this simplistic but very good gamedesign they succeeded.
> >
> > If you want to get a developers attention you can do two things. You can do like I do and post your feedback on the internet and bringing it under the attention of 343 or you don’t pre-order the game. I did both but I will probably pre-order simply because I love Halo and enjoyed the beta despite it not having the core Halo experience. Bringing the core experience to Halo 5 with the trusters will make this game amazing but to do this we have to make 343 aware without being unfriendly or non-constructive.
>
>
> I’m doing both as well. Also with how they handled the MCC, I am starting to dislike 343, as sad as that sounds but they can only disappoint fans so many times before it’s strike out.
>
> I really really hope Halo 5 can be the perfect Halo game we’ve always wanted.

I will buy the game though even if they keep sprint and clamber but it will not be the perfect Halo.

I don’t want 343 to go back to full classic but I want them to keep the core experience there. They added sprint in Halo 5 but they nerfed it so much that it basically becomes useless and the game would have been better without it.

9

> 2533274854999879;1:
> Every change except Sprint and Clamber is a good evolution of the core experience of Halo.

I completely disagree with this line.

How are stabilizers “good evolution”? the ability to float mid-air and pick up easy kills while being able to retreat (falling down to the ground) by just releasing LT is just overpowered and eliminates skill-based jump-shots that are an important aspect of Halo’s multiplayer. I can’t even think how this’s going to affect SWAT.

And Smart Scope? The fact that it improves your changes the way Halo plays. Hip fire may still be the same, but giving bonus for zooming breaks the gameplay, penalizes hip fire and will make people spend the whole time zooming. You’re also narrowing the skill gap by eliminating the advantage pro players had; The ability to land shots from a long distance without the need to zoom, thus evading the delay occurred by scoping and/or descoping. Another annoying thing about it is how much it obscures your FoV (especially the DMR). The delay time is also annoying (especially with the sniper), and add that to desope and you’re stuck in a weird scope-descope animations that waste precious moments from the gunfight. Also, smart scope’s improved spread plus stabilizers doesn’t seem like a good combo. Every weapon should work the way it should. Smart scope closes the gap between them, especially automatics, which are supposed to be inaccurate and have high RoF and a wide spread.

Finally, shoulder charge. I, personally, don’t think that players should have such a lethal offensive option while sprinting, especially since sprint is now unlimited, which allows them to get out of tight situations that they got in because of using sprint. Being near a corner and seeing an opponent sprinting around it? what options do you have, especially if you just spawned or if your thrusters are still cooling down? I also think that this was only implemented as a “fix” for the double melee, another problem which was created by the presence of sprint. Thrust+melee should be a convenient replacement.

These, plus the ones you mentioned, are the worst thing about Halo 5 atm.

10

> 2533274973373704;9:
> > 2533274854999879;1:
> > Every change except Sprint and Clamber is a good evolution of the core experience of Halo.
>
>
> I completely disagree with this line.
>
> How are stabilizers “good evolution”? the ability to float mid-air and pick up easy kills while being able to retreat (falling down to the ground) by just releasing LT is just overpowered and eliminates skill-based jump-shots that are an important aspect of Halo’s multiplayer. I can’t even think how this’s going to affect SWAT.
>
> And Smart Scope? The fact that it improves your changes the way Halo plays. Hip fire may still be the same, but giving bonus for zooming breaks the gameplay, penalizes hip fire and will make people spend the whole time zooming. You’re also narrowing the skill gap by eliminating the advantage pro players had; The ability to land shots from a long distance without the need to zoom, thus evading the delay occurred by scoping and/or descoping. Another annoying thing about it is how much it obscures your FoV (especially the DMR). The delay time is also annoying (especially with the sniper), and add that to desope and you’re stuck in a weird scope-descope animations that waste precious moments from the gunfight. Also, smart scope’s improved spread plus stabilizers doesn’t seem like a good combo. Every weapon should work the way it should. Smart scope closes the gap between them, especially automatics, which are supposed to be inaccurate and have high RoF and a wide spread.
>
> Finally, shoulder charge. I, personally, don’t think that players should have such a lethal offensive option while sprinting, especially since sprint is now unlimited, which allows them to get out of tight situations that they got in because of using sprint. Being near a corner and seeing an opponent sprinting around it? what options do you have, especially if you just spawned or if your thrusters are still cooling down? I also think that this was only implemented as a “fix” for the double melee, another problem which was created by the presence of sprint. Thrust+melee should be a convenient replacement.
>
> These, plus the ones you mentioned, are the worst thing about Halo 5 atm.

I agree on stabilizer that it should be removed but it still doesn’t change the gameplay as much as sprint and clamber do.

Smart Scope is something that I can live with despite it not fitting the purpose of Spartans but the delay on zooming in and the accuracy improvements should be removed and changed.

Shoulder charge can not work without sprint.

11

I’d rather see thrusters has a slight but immediate jump to the side with shooting capability, as opposed to being a very large slide with your weapon down.

This would still allow for better air control and juking tactics, without promoting its use as a get out of jail card.

So while I wouldn’t ask for it to be removed, I would ask for heavy re-works of the mechanic.

12

I like Sprint, but I agree with OP

13

> 2533274819302824;11:
> I’d rather see thrusters has a slight but immediate jump to the side with shooting capability, as opposed to being a very large slide with your weapon down.
>
> This would still allow for better air control and juking tactics, without promoting its use as a get out of jail card.
>
> So while I wouldn’t ask for it to be removed, I would ask for heavy re-works of the mechanic.

That could work out quite well honestly.

14

> 2533274821033065;12:
> I like Sprint, but I agree with OP

I do like it but I just think the game would be better without it.

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> 2533274854999879;14:
> > 2533274821033065;12:
> > I like Sprint, but I agree with OP
>
>
> I do like it but I just think the game would be better without it.

Yes for sure.

16

> 2533274821033065;12:
> I like Sprint, but I agree with OP

> 2533274808578327;15:
> > 2533274854999879;14:
> > > 2533274821033065;12:
> > > I like Sprint, but I agree with OP
> >
> >
> >
> > I do like it but I just think the game would be better without it.
>
>
> Yes for sure.

:slight_smile:

17

> 2533274854999879;14:
> > 2533274821033065;12:
> > I like Sprint, but I agree with OP
>
>
> I do like it but I just think the game would be better without it.

This. These new maps are so big, because of Sprint. Clamber increases the vertical size of the map, I don’t think that it’s the problem of the big maps.

18

> 2533274903590459;17:
> > 2533274854999879;14:
> > > 2533274821033065;12:
> > > I like Sprint, but I agree with OP
> >
> >
> >
> > I do like it but I just think the game would be better without it.
>
>
> This. These new maps are so big, because of Sprint. Clamber increases the vertical size of the map, I don’t think that it’s the problem of the big maps.

I know Clamber isn’t but clamber is not something that fits Halo imo.

19

Any other thoughts?

20

Ya. They really need to go back to H3 as a base and load up guardian. Start adding things to the game from there. If your new additions still allow guardian to be a functional map, it’s a good addition.

Sprint and clamber would both ruin guardian.

I don’t really have an issue with anything else in H5. At worst things like ground pound are annoying.