I hope for Halo Infinite, the enemies we fight (likely Covenant) will return to their Halo: CE and Halo 2 form.
What I mean by this, is in Halo: CE and Halo 2 when you shoot an Elite, their shields light up very bright, and finally when they are lowered you are give that satisfying pop. I hope Halo Infinite’s enemies share that same “shooting gallery” quality.
Unfortunately the remastered Elites in Halo: CE Anniversary and Halo 2 Anniversary did not share this same dynamic as their Classic graphics counterparts.
I can’t seem to find it, and I will keep looking, but there was a documentary I saw where a Bungie developer talked about how Jason Jones kept insisting the enemies of Halo: CE be made brighter and brighter. By the end the artist stated it looked like they were about to fight a clown, however after they played the game they realized Jason was right. It’s more important to have fun fighting an enemy right than them look gritty.
This is one of the reasons I think people have not really enjoyed fighting Prometheans, the feedback you get from hitting them has been pretty terrible. I tend to blame hitmarkers to some degree making devs lazy as far as visual feedback is concerned. As excessive as CE blood effects could seem at times when you combine that with shield flares, you always got clear feedback that your shots were landing even if the enemy didn’t visibly flinch from every shot.
Prometheans of various types do recoil when damaged in different ways, but until you reach those points the only visual tell you are receiving are the hit markers and even then it doesn’t always inform you that the shots you land are doing any real damage. You are not getting feedback from your environment you are getting it from you UI which just doesn’t feel as good.
To be fair I do think this has been a problem that has steadily been getting worse as time when on even in later Bungie game, Brutes had a similar problem in H2 and 3 having poor responses to getting shot including their armor. The Brutes in ODST to me felt more fun to fight than Halo 3’s because despite having their shields buffed against projectile weapons, the shield flare made in much clearer that your shots were landing. Fast forward to Reach and for me it feels like most members of the Covenant barely notice the damage you deal to their health, the one bright spot being that I think the shield flares were much better about telling you how close a shield was to popping.
So my suggestions would be brighter, contrasting colors(H2A is my go to in that regards), no hitmarkers, larger amounts of more visible blood(ala CE) or some sort of sparks in the case of mechanical units, Reach style shield flares for all shielded enemies, and of course expressive animations and great audio are also important.
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> So my suggestions would be brighter, contrasting colors(H2A is my go to in that regards), no hitmarkers, larger amounts of more visible blood(ala CE) or some sort of sparks in the case of mechanical units, Reach style shield flares for all shielded enemies, and of course expressive animations and great audio are also important.
100% agree with this.
And I hadn’t thought of it before but you’re right, Brutes in ODST did feel more fun to fight. I just never really thought about it before.
I think Reach proved that gritty enemies can be fun to fight. But I do agree with the notion that the OG trilogy enemies were fun to fight party because they were so fun and brightly colored.
But I don’t think the concern with enemy variation has ever been their color palette. The major issue has been their mechanics within the game. The H4 Prometheans were so unbelievably frustrating because they were too OP from a game play standpoint. Their aesthetic appearance was a secondary concern. Though I will agree that their aesthetic appearance was also lackluster.
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> I hope for Halo Infinite, the enemies we fight (likely Covenant) will return to their Halo: CE and Halo 2 form.
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> What I mean by this, is in Halo: CE and Halo 2 when you shoot an Elite, their shields light up very bright, and finally when they are lowered you are give that satisfying pop. I hope Halo Infinite’s enemies share that same “shooting gallery” quality.
>
> Unfortunately the remastered Elites in Halo: CE Anniversary and Halo 2 Anniversary did not share this same dynamic as their Classic graphics counterparts.
>
> I can’t seem to find it, and I will keep looking, but there was a documentary I saw where a Bungie developer talked about how Jason Jones kept insisting the enemies of Halo: CE be made brighter and brighter. By the end the artist stated it looked like they were about to fight a clown, however after they played the game they realized Jason was right. It’s more important to have fun fighting an enemy right than them look gritty.
Something I love about classic CE and 2 is that everything, from the enemies to weapons and vehicles, stands out so vibrantly against the environment, and I love it! It absolutely makes them more fun to fight. Every animation, whether it be movement, damage animations (like knock-back, shields, blood), dodging, charging, etc. in classic Halo CE and 2 (and Halo 3 to an extent) is so exaggerated that it makes the games ten times more fun than anything that followed after. I would love a return to this form in Halo: Infinite.
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> I think Reach proved that gritty enemies can be fun to fight. But I do agree with the notion that the OG trilogy enemies were fun to fight party because they were so fun and brightly colored.
Having played a lot of Reach recently, I have to disagree. Reach’s enemies are nowhere near as fun to fight as the enemies of the Halo Trilogy. I’ve been playing primarily on Heroic, so this may be different on other difficulties, but Reach’s enemies just don’t react as well as classic CE or 2’s, and it’s nowhere near as fun because of it.
Try this: Play a level of Halo Reach on Heroic then jump over to Halo CE (Classic) on Heroic.Avoid Anniversary mode entirely for the sake of this experiment. Go back and fourth a few times. Keep an open mind throughout, and I’m betting you will find that Reach just isn’t as satisfying.
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> > I think Reach proved that gritty enemies can be fun to fight. But I do agree with the notion that the OG trilogy enemies were fun to fight party because they were so fun and brightly colored.
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> Having played a lot of Reach recently, I have to disagree. Reach’s enemies are nowhere near as fun to fight as the enemies of the Halo Trilogy. I’ve been playing primarily on Heroic, so this may be different on other difficulties, but Reach’s enemies just don’t react as well as classic CE or 2’s, and it’s nowhere near as fun because of it.
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> Try this: Play a level of Halo Reach on Heroic then jump over to Halo CE (Classic) on Heroic.Avoid Anniversary mode entirely for the sake of this experiment. Go back and fourth a few times. Keep an open mind throughout, and I’m betting you will find that Reach just isn’t as satisfying.
I never said Reach was more satisfying. I honestly find the OG trilogy to be far more fun. I just said that Reach proved that a game doesn’t have to be bright and colorful to be fun. I switch between all the games fairly frequently actually, and I do agree that Reach is less satisfying. That wasn’t the point I was making though.