Halo 4 and Skulls - An In-depth Analysis

Games Other Halo
#1

Forward

Yes this is a long read, but if you are at all concerned with tailoring Halo 4 to the best it can be, you’ll read through all of this.

An introduction to skulls

From Halo 2 to Halo: Reach, the skulls fit a role that specifically enhanced the gameplay experience of the player. Whether you just felt like jumping a mile with sputnik in H2 or really wanted to go flat-out with SLASO/Mythic in Halo 3/ODST/Reach, the skulls worked in such a way that could appease all players. However with Anniversary we were given a more ‘gimmicky’ and game-breaking set of skulls. Enter skulls such as Bandanna, Foreign, Eye Patch and so on.

Community Reception

I’m from the Mythic Difficulty community myself and although Anniversary’s skull set was an interesting twist on the skulls we were used to, it completely turned our little fan-made difficulty on its head. Mainly, with the inclusion of Bandanna; we could literally just shoot and blast our way through the levels mindlessly, completely eradicating the skillful techniques we employed, such as plasma peppering, assassination dances and so on. With a never ending supply of grenades what challenge is there in such a difficulty? I finished SLASO first in CEA and I received quite a bit of flak from my gratuitous grenade usage, an unfortunate crutch that was given to us with the ‘all skulls means ALL skulls’ mindset. None of us look at CEA with much fancy as there’s pretty much no real way to incorporate a balanced skull set into a theorised ‘Mythic’ setting, which brings me to my next point…

Balancing Skulls for Gameplay

Halo 2, even as old as it is now, got it right from the get-go. Skulls could suit numerous playstyles from the muckaround style (sputnik, envy, IWHBYD etc), the tricker/jumper (sputnik, black eye, catch (extra nades)), and to the thrill seekers (iron, mythic, thunderstorm etc). There truly was something for everybody and Halo 3/ODST/Reach each followed suit. Anniversary was the first change to this formula, and even though it’s important to note that certain skills were omitted due to trying to keep the game as faithful to the original as possible, it’s not an ideal route to go down. Skull balancing was poor as gimmick and game breaking skulls were used to fill the gaps.

What should and shouldn’t be in

Skulls and collection

  • People generally prefer the ‘hunt’ for skulls. When players found Blind in Halo 2, it spawned a massive interest in seeking out the game alterers.

  • People, contrary to what some will hear otherwise, do like a challenge when going for things like skulls. When a challenge is given (IWHBYD for example) people feel much more rewarded when getting the skull. Putting skulls in places where a player is inclined to search and will be rewarded somewhat effortlessly demeans the whole value of the hunting experience

  • Don’t include pre-order skulls if there’ll be no other way to access them later on. It’s a bad marketing move and many people can see that. Only do it if there are plans to release said skull on the marketplace later. Don’t segregate the community in any way, shape or form.

Skulls themselves

  • A return to, and revision of, Halo 2’s skulls would be one of the best options in my opinion. Return to the formula that got it right to begin with.

  • Gimmick skulls need to be just that, gimmicks. Grunt Birthday Party is a proper gimmick skull - a comical confetti effect occurs when headshotting grunts. Eye Patch is a poor gimmick skull - removing auto aim seriously detracts from the experience, not only by making it harder, but by making it frustrating. Frustrated gamers don’t play well in most circumstances, whereas challenged gamers still have incentive to continue and overcome the challenge.

  • Game breaking skulls are a big no-no. Although Bandanna is what you’d expect, Foreign is a much bigger culprit. Making it so that no covie weapons could be used absolutely ruined a major part of CEA’s core gameplay elements. Recession coupled with Famine ruins any chance you’d have at conserving ammo as well, and so on.

  • Need to tailor to many audiences and playstyles. If you alienate but one audience, whether it be trickers, thrillseekers or anyone else you’re obviously doing something wrong and the skull set is poor.

Continued in post 2

#2

Can an ideal skull set be achieved?

Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction. The community knows best when it comes to Halo as we’re willing to pour in so much time and effort into bettering the overall experience for everyone. Although personally I think a rehash of the Halo 2 skull set would be the best option, even I can see that there are some skulls in there that should either be tweaked or removed.

A blueprint from which to work from

Every Halo game so far has included these ones and they work together like a well-oiled machine.

  • Iron - Restart level on death in sp, revert to last checkpoint in co-op
  • Black Eye - Melee to recharge shields
  • Mythic - Double enemy health
  • Thunderstorm - Enemies are upgraded to highest rank
  • Blind/Fog - HUD removed/radar removed
  • Sputnik/Cowbell - All object masses are reduced/physics impulses are increased x3
  • IWHBYD - Rare dialogue is common, common dialogue unchanged
  • Grunt Birthday Party - Grunts explode into confetti upon headshot death

Important notes

  • Black Eye in Halo 2 only rewarded shields on enemy death by melee, with 3/ODST/Reach rewarding shields on successful hits and would recharge uninterupted until hit again. A merger of the two could provide a new twist for players; gaining overshields, but only if they can keep up the hits without taking damage in return.

  • Mythic needs to work on the randomised enemy flinch mechanic, by which enemies can potentially flinch from any attack received. CEA changed that due to enemies flinching only when they’ve lost half their health or more.

  • Fog is just a redundant side effect of Blind and isn’t entirely necessary with Blind in play. It’s either one or the other, but a skull like Malfunction is a semi-decent middle ground.

  • Sputnik and Cowbell are essentially the same, one just reducing mass, the other increasing physics impulses. Sputnik visually seems to be more prominent in its effects.

As for remaining skulls, I haven’t completely determined what would be suited for Halo 4, so in the meantime I ask for constructive feedback on the matter.

You can find skull lists here (Halo 2), here (3/ODST/Reach), and here (CEA).

Please leave comments, thoughts, any arguements for/against any of my points etc and I’ll try and get back at responding to them.

#3

I was enjoying the read until…

> Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
>
> Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.

Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.

#4

> I was enjoying the read until…
>
>
>
> > Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
> >
> > Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.
>
> Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.

Well I wouldn’t have said that if they didn’t do a poor job deciding what to implement in CEA. The skulls in that game singlehandlely impacted upon, and ruined many core elements of what made the game so great in the first place.

Foreign and Bandanna are the prime examples:

  • Foreign removing covie weapon and plasma grenade use ruins weapon diversity.
  • Bandanna eliminates Halo’s often used ammo conservation tactics, effectively giving free reign for players to mash the triggers over and over again until everything’s dead.

A community willing to work with the devs and give constructive criticism where due on arising issues is better than letting the issue go unheard of and unchanged.

#5

I have to agree to a point, but 343 even said they couldn’t do the traditional skulls we’re used to because of altering the game’s code. The only reason we had these new skulls is because changing one line of code from the original game could ruin the whole flow.

I suggest maybe adding a new tier of skulls, or maybe ‘grunt dolls’ or something of the sort. Something to differentiate between skulls and “gimmicky” skulls. Bronze skulls/Grunt dolls could be used for skulls like Grunt birthday, Bandanna, or some of the skulls suggested on this forum like third person camera, or using your multiplayer model in campaign.

Obviously these new skulls/dolls wouldn’t count for SLASO, so that’s why I suggest making them dolls, for the people with the “all skulls means all skulls” mindset.

#6

I love the gimmicky skulls more than challenge skulls but Draiko34 has a point. I would like a separation of the gimmick skulls from the challenge skulls cause CEA did not have separation of skull color the bandanna was in the exact same class as mythic and if it was reach it should of been classified as a silver skull like blind and the such i think all the skulls should be separated basically how it has been in halo 3-reach but I would like to see more gimmick skulls cause it makes it have dumb fun that halo has always had. so that the people who want a ridiculous challenge can just have all the gold skulls turned on and those who wanna just mess around and nade jump everywhere with confetti they can do that too just not bonus points lol

#7

> I was enjoying the read until…
>
>
>
> > Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
> >
> > Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.
>
> Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.

They have already made a set of skulls once in CEA which weren’t all that good which is the point of this thread. I wouldn’t want them to make an equally bad set in Halo 4.

#8

> Well I wouldn’t have said that if they didn’t do a poor job deciding what to implement in CEA. The skulls in that game singlehandlely impacted upon, and ruined many core elements of what made the game so great in the first place.
>
> Foreign and Bandanna are the prime examples:
> - Foreign removing covie weapon and plasma grenade use ruins weapon diversity.
> - Bandanna eliminates Halo’s often used ammo conservation tactics, effectively giving free reign for players to mash the triggers over and over again until everything’s dead.
>
> A community willing to work with the devs and give constructive criticism where due on arising issues is better than letting the issue go unheard of and unchanged.

It’s important to know that Halo CEA’s skulls were as they were because it was a goal to complete the game without altering how the game feels (which includes reprogramming AI). Expect Halo 4’s skulls to be much more revised.

#9

I’m definitely concerned.

> Community Reception
>
> I’m from the Mythic Difficulty community myself and although Anniversary’s skull set was an interesting twist on the skulls we were used to, it completely turned our little fan-made difficulty on its head. Mainly, with the inclusion of Bandanna; we could literally just shoot and blast our way through the levels mindlessly, completely eradicating the skillful techniques we employed, such as plasma peppering, assassination dances and so on. With a never ending supply of grenades what challenge is there in such a difficulty? I finished SLASO first in CEA and I received quite a bit of flak from my gratuitous grenade usage, an unfortunate crutch that was given to us with the ‘all skulls means ALL skulls’ mindset. None of us look at CEA with much fancy
>
> as there’s pretty much no real way to incorporate a balanced skull set into a theorised ‘Mythic’ setting, which brings me to my next point…

Being from the Bungie.net H2 community and an avid practitioner of H2 LASO, as well as an disciple of CE Legendary deprivation (i.e. melee only, no Covie weapons, no vehicles, Leave It Where It Lay), I love a good challenge as long as it doesn’t deprive me of my style: cqc, stealth, manipulation, methodical. Randomness is the ultimate killer of style.

I wouldn’t say that. CEA has the potential to be a good starter SLASO for beginners, with the removal of certain skulls. It’s already a decent difficulty.

> trying to keep the game as faithful to the original as possible, it’s not an ideal route to go down.

I have to admit, it only made it worse. AI skulls would have contributed to the experience, not weakened it. CE needed something fresh because it gets kinda boring after a while.

> What should and shouldn’t be in
>
> Skulls and collection
> - People generally prefer the ‘hunt’ for skulls. When players found Blind in Halo 2, it spawned a massive interest in seeking out the game alterers.
>
> - People, contrary to what some will hear otherwise, do like a challenge when going for things like skulls. When a challenge is given (IWHBYD for example) people feel much more rewarded when getting the skull. Putting skulls in places where a player is inclined to search and will be rewarded somewhat effortlessly demeans the whole value of the hunting experience
>
> - Don’t include pre-order skulls if there’ll be no other way to access them later on. It’s a bad marketing move and many people can see that. Only do it if there are plans to release said skull on the marketplace later. Don’t segregate the community in any way, shape or form.
>
> Skulls themselves
> - A return to, and revision of, Halo 2’s skulls would be one of the best options in my opinion. Return to the formula that got it right to begin with.
>
> - Gimmick skulls need to be just that, gimmicks. Grunt Birthday Party is a proper gimmick skull - a comical confetti effect occurs when headshotting grunts. Eye Patch is a poor gimmick skull - removing auto aim seriously detracts from the experience, not only by making it harder, but by making it frustrating. Frustrated gamers don’t play well in most circumstances, whereas challenged gamers still have incentive to continue and overcome the challenge.
>
> - Game breaking skulls are a big no-no. Although Bandanna is what you’d expect, Foreign is a much bigger culprit. Making it so that no covie weapons could be used absolutely ruined a major part of CEA’s core gameplay elements. Recession coupled with Famine ruins any chance you’d have at conserving ammo as well, and so on.
>
> - Need to tailor to many audiences and playstyles. If you alienate but one audience, whether it be trickers, thrillseekers or anyone else you’re obviously doing something wrong and the skull set is poor.
>
> Continued in post 2

Blind was a good diversion for the true secret. We need more like that. Sierra 117 could have been like that but it didn’t and there was no Assassins.

Although H2 has no skull menu, collecting all the skulls for the first time felt like an accomplishment itself, even with perma camo.

Agreed.

H2 skulls had it right, although I would like 3 degrees of Blind rather than an immediate and complete hud removal, as well as 2 degrees of Assassins (like how in H3 custom games and Forge, you could be partially invisible).

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

#10

> From Halo 2 to Halo: Reach, the skulls fit a role that specifically enhanced the gameplay experience of the player. Whether you just felt like jumping a mile with sputnik in H2 or really wanted to go flat-out with SLASO/Mythic in Halo 3/ODST/Reach, the skulls worked in such a way that could appease all players. However with Anniversary we were given a more ‘gimmicky’ and game-breaking set of skulls. Enter skulls such as Bandanna, Foreign, Eye Patch and so on.
>
>
>
> Continued in post 2

stopped reading right there. The reason the bandanna skull was in CEA was to MAKE DAMN SURE it wasnt too hard for anyone. You do realise that they didnt change anything in the campaign, meaning the glitches were still present. If you dont like it dont use it, dont sit here and claim something as a “GIMMICK” unless your refering to the KINECT ONLY Library or ATLAS(you know, actual gimmicks).

The Foriegn skull wasnt very cool, but the Eye patch skull actually was a good addition because it made the game harder, which is, I assume, your beef with Bandanna, it gives the player breathing room.

#11

Skulls are for fun. I especially loved the Bandanna skull in Halo Anniversary, and the Grunt Birthday Party, Envy and Sputnik skulls in Halo 2.

#12

> > I was enjoying the read until…
> >
> >
> >
> > > Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
> > >
> > > Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.
> >
> > Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.
>
> Well I wouldn’t have said that if they didn’t do a poor job deciding what to implement in CEA. The skulls in that game singlehandlely impacted upon, and ruined many core elements of what made the game so great in the first place.
>
> Foreign and Bandanna are the prime examples:
> - Foreign removing covie weapon and plasma grenade use ruins weapon diversity.
> - Bandanna eliminates Halo’s often used ammo conservation tactics, effectively giving free reign for players to mash the triggers over and over again until everything’s dead.
>
> A community willing to work with the devs and give constructive criticism where due on arising issues is better than letting the issue go unheard of and unchanged.

All the skulls in Anniversary were fine, if you didn’t want infinite ammo on simply disable that skull before starting the campaign. I think the infinite ammo thing was pretty sweet, its something to do when you have already beat the game; and trust me i do like the core gameplay of halo. But honestly its not that hard to disable skulls that you don’t want on.

#13

> > > I was enjoying the read until…
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
> > > >
> > > > Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.
> > >
> > > Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.
> >
> > Well I wouldn’t have said that if they didn’t do a poor job deciding what to implement in CEA. The skulls in that game singlehandlely impacted upon, and ruined many core elements of what made the game so great in the first place.
> >
> > Foreign and Bandanna are the prime examples:
> > - Foreign removing covie weapon and plasma grenade use ruins weapon diversity.
> > - Bandanna eliminates Halo’s often used ammo conservation tactics, effectively giving free reign for players to mash the triggers over and over again until everything’s dead.
> >
> > A community willing to work with the devs and give constructive criticism where due on arising issues is better than letting the issue go unheard of and unchanged.
>
> All the skulls in Anniversary were fine, if you didn’t want infinite ammo on simply disable that skull before starting the campaign. I think the infinite ammo thing was pretty sweet, its something to do when you have already beat the game; and trust me i do like the core gameplay of halo. But honestly its not that hard to disable skulls that you don’t want on.

Bandanna just wasn’t implemented correctly, like AAs and Bloom. It could have been just for the weapons.

But Foreign kills Halo.

Anyone who has played H1 back in the days knows that the plasma pistol, plasma rifle, and needler are essential weapons. Personally, I find human weapons in CE to be mediocre and not as fun as when they are combined with the Covie weapons.

#14

Gonna link my overly long article about how I would nerf the Blind/Fog and separate the effects out into more skulls.

I had lots more ideas that I never published. I’ll paste them from the doc I was keeping:
Enemy Skulls - Make your enemies more difficult to fight
“In response to your previous success, your foes are now sending tougher and better trained troops.”

  • Tough Luck –“Evasive manoeuvres” - Enemies make every saving throw
  • Catch –“Like grenades? They do too.” – Frequency of grenade throws is 2x normal.
  • Metabolic –“Healthy living” - (FKA “Mythic”) Enemies have double health and shields. Vehicles have double health.
  • Thunderstorm - “Level up!” - Only high-ranking enemies.
  • All For One – “You shouldn’t have…” - Encounters designed for 4 players. Even when you’re on your own. (Always on in 4p)

Rule Skulls - Affect the rules of the game world
Something, strange is happening. Like, someone changed the way the world works…”

  • Tilt – “Damage tables are modified” - Plasma weapons are more effective against shields, less so against health and vise versa. As in Halo 3 – Reach.
  • Famine – “Resources are scarce” – All weapons have half the ammo they usually do.
  • Black Eye – Shields only recharge when you melee an enemy or pick up a healthpack.
  • Belt Fed – “Gotta run out of ammo sometime…” – Vehicles have limited ammo. With Famine, Tilt and Metabolic a player will have to use vehicles well and not just spam forever.

Checkpoint Skulls – Reduces or eliminates the players’ ability to use the checkpoint system.
"You’ll pay with far more than your life.”

  • Together – “Teamwork is a virtue” - Dying sends you back to the nearest checkpoint (always on in solo).
  • Milestone – “Bring provisions” - Dying sends you back to the nearest Rally Points. Or, checkpoints only activate at the rally points.
  • Iron – “Don’t die, fool.” - Dying sends you back to the start of the level. Or, checkpoints are removed entirely.
  • One Chance – “Don’t bother” - Dying sends you back to the start of the game and you may only start from the first level.

Fun Skulls – These skulls make the game whackier, funnier, or weirder.
“Not easier, not harder. Just for a bit of fun.”

  • IWHBYD – “BTDBMOTF” – Combat dialogue priorities are reversed.

  • Grunt Birthday Party – “Yaaay!” – A shower of confetti is released when a Grunt is killed with a headshot.

  • Seven Grunty Sins – “Bad Grunts” - Grunts display one of the seven deadly sins.

  • Lust – “They want you bad.” – Grunts that rush you upon sight. Like the ‘suicide’ rush but with weapons drawn.

  • Gluttony – Grunts move at half the pace but have double health.

  • Greed – “OMGWTF?!” – These Grunts have two of whatever weapon they are carrying.

  • Sloth – “So, sleepy…” – Grunts that go into a sleep state at random points.

  • Anger – “RAGE!!!” - Grunts that fire twice as fast and shout Grunty expletives at the player constantly

  • Envy – “You jelly?” –Throwback to the Halo 2 skull name that granted the player, as MC, the ability to camo. Except these Grunts are permanently camoed. Possibly OP on Legendary? Might have a cool-down time where they are uncamoed.

  • Vanity – “Important Grunts” - Grunts with Needle Rifles and Shields.

  • Cowbell – “WEEE!!!” - Acceleration from explosions and collisions are 2x.

  • Hopper – “Jump up!” – AI jump a little way into the air at random.

  • Elites Alight– “They’re hot!” – Elites burst into flames when killed with a headshot.

Buff Skulls – Generally increases the player’s abilities or alters the difficulty in very strange ways. Difficulty related achievements and rewards are disabled when these are active.
“When life gets you down, blow something up!”

  • Shadow – “Can’t see me!” – The player is permanently camouflaged.
  • Ordinance – “Heavy weapons for everybody!” – All weapons are replaced by Fuel Rods, Rocket Launchers, Grenade Launchers and Plasma Launchers
  • Lunge – “Sword… Flying?” - You spawn with an energy sword and it inherits the zoom capabilities and red-reticle range of whatever secondary weapon you are carrying. i.e. If you have a sniper rifle in secondary, you can zoom in, lock on to enemies far away, and lunge insane distances.
  • Juicing –“Run faster, jump Higher.” – Movement speed and jump height are 1.5x normal.
  • Explorer –"Go anywhere” – All invisible barriers are disabled.
  • Magic Pocket –“I want them all!” - No two weapon limit, a player can cycle through any weapon they pick up.
  • Bullet Hose -“Shoot stuff. FOREVER!” – Unlimited ammo on all weapons.
  • Charged –“Run and run and run” - Unlimited charge for armour abilities.
  • Bam –“Chuck ‘em. We have plenty” - Unlimited grenades.
  • Boom –“WOAH!” - Explosive blast radius doubled, damage to enemies doubled, damage to players halved.
  • Doomsday Gap – “Scarab… gun!?!” – Oh yes…
  • Godly – “Spartans never die” – The player takes no damage from anything.

Unlocking all those skulls sounds insane right? Whelp, all Enemy, HUD, Rule and Checkpoint and Fun skulls would be unlocked from the start or unlocked trivially through simple actions (e.g. get reset to a checkpoint in co-op becuase all players die - unlock ‘Together’ skull, headshot your first elite, unlock ‘Elites Alight’ etc.)

Buff skulls are the most desireable, so these would form the basis of the game’s ‘Skull Hunt’, incentivised

So the plan would be, when you complete the game on any difficulty, an additional difficulty option simply titled ‘Mythic’ is unlocked. This ‘difficulty’ sets the game otherwise to Legendary, while enabling all Enemy, HUD, Rule and Fun skulls while disabling all the Buff Skulls. ‘Together’ is always on as well. You can optionally enable the Buff skulls, although this disables any level completions being reported to your Service Record as ‘Mythic’. Instead, they will count as ‘custom’ difficulty. Oh, and of course if it was me I’d have full support for a new campaign shield and an appropriate other recognition throughout the in-game and online service record - credit dumps, special medals or insignia to customise your spartan etc.

That difficulty would be slightly easier than the Mythic we know today due to allowing deaths, but is also slightly more accessible, and being in-built and official would be much more sort after.

On TOP of that difficulty, you then have ‘Milestone Mythic’, ‘Iron Mythic’ (= to current difficulty) and ‘One Chance Mythic’ (same also applies to lower difficulty). With appropriately insane increases in rewards and special medals to go along with it. So if Legendary is the symbol we all know, Mythic has glowing eyes, Milestone Mythic has a plasma sword in it, Iron Mythic is on-fire, and One-chance Mythic is like staring into the face of God or something :stuck_out_tongue:

P.s. I also wish they’d fix Iron already - it’s ridiculous that it’s even MORE broken in Anniversary.

> The reason the bandanna skull was in CEA was to MAKE DAMN SURE it wasnt too hard for anyone.

Wuh… why would you do that? If it’s too easy then there is nothing to strive for.

#15

If your so smart ( and I agree with the post :slight_smile: ) then why don’t you come up with your own skulls and effects that would go together well?

#16

And these are the challenges I had invented for finding the fun Skulls. To find and know the strategy for each challenge, they’d still be quite guide-able like previous skull hunts have been, but they’d all require a bit of skill or planning.

  • Shadow - hidden in a room with an invisible entrance.

  • Shadow - hidden in a room with an invisible entrance.

  • Ordinance - behind waves of heavy troops in a place where the player ordinarily has no choice but to fall back. Like a ODST ONI Bridge situation.

  • Lunge - hidden up a shaft that requires you to sword lunge repeatedly at lock-able pieces of the environment (or maybe stationary grunts?) - kinda like a Mario-esque wall-kick sequence.

  • Juicing - reached at the end of obstacle course nestled in the rafters of one of the levels. Requires fast movement, long jumps and high (crouch) jumps to get through.

  • Explorer - far out of bounds of normal play, on the very top of the highest scenery item in the game. There will intentionally be left a w

  • Magic Pocket - is activated when you bring all of the weapons in the game (available on just one level) and put them into these pedestals around the edges of a room.

  • Bullet Hose - requires the very end of one of the levels to be reached with 100% accuracy. The skull then spawns in the final area.

  • Charged - A switch in each level that can only be reached with the use of armour abilites.

  • Bam - requires the player to destroy 7 targets hidden throughout one of the levels with long-range, precise or complex multi-grenade throws.

  • Boom - Get a vehicle onto one of the highest buildings and then launch it onto another building. Kind of like T2T but more forgiving.

  • Doomsday Gap – Get a vehicle where it usually isn’t, and then travel to somewhere you ordinarily can’t get.

  • Godly - requires you to walk across water. So a player must create a stepping-stone path out of objects from the level to get to some island in a lake.

#17

> > The reason the bandanna skull was in CEA was to MAKE DAMN SURE it wasnt too hard for anyone.
>
> Wuh… why would you do that? If it’s too easy then there is nothing to strive for.

You think everyone that bought the game is as good as you, RC? I know people that are terrible at multiplayer online and only play Halo for the campaign.
Even with unlimited ammo, Legendary solo was tough. Like I said, if people are gonna pay money for a game that was the same 10 years ago (except audio/video), then why wouldnt 343i make sure that everyone, no matter their skills, can complete it?

#18

> > I was enjoying the read until…
> >
> >
> >
> > > Can an ideal skull set be achieved?
> > >
> > > Definitely, it’s just up to us to point 343 in the right direction.
> >
> > Too smug. Who are you to say that a team of 200+ people need to be pointed in the right direction when they’ve spent years making video games? Pull your head out.
>
> Well I wouldn’t have said that if they didn’t do a poor job deciding what to implement in CEA. The skulls in that game singlehandlely impacted upon, and ruined many core elements of what made the game so great in the first place.
>
> Foreign and Bandanna are the prime examples:
> - Foreign removing covie weapon and plasma grenade use ruins weapon diversity.
> - Bandanna eliminates Halo’s often used ammo conservation tactics, effectively giving free reign for players to mash the triggers over and over again until everything’s dead.
>
> A community willing to work with the devs and give constructive criticism where due on arising issues is better than letting the issue go unheard of and unchanged.

Fun fact: You DON’T have to use the skulls!! it’s all optional!!! isn’t amazing…?

#19

> [/li]1. Seven Grunty Sins – “Bad Grunts” - Grunts display one of the seven deadly sins.
> - Lust – “They want you bad.” – Grunts that rush you upon sight. Like the ‘suicide’ rush but with weapons drawn.
> - Gluttony – Grunts move at half the pace but have double health.
> - Greed – “OMGWTF?!” – These Grunts have two of whatever weapon they are carrying.
> - Sloth – “So, sleepy…” – Grunts that go into a sleep state at random points.
> - Anger – “RAGE!!!” - Grunts that fire twice as fast and shout Grunty expletives at the player constantly
> - Envy – “You jelly?” –Throwback to the Halo 2 skull name that granted the player, as MC, the ability to camo. Except these Grunts are permanently camoed. Possibly OP on Legendary? Might have a cool-down time where they are uncamoed.
> - Vanity – “Important Grunts” - Grunts with Needle Rifles and Shields.
[/quote]
343, listen to him! I want Sloth so badly!
>
> Also, I want a skull that encourages teamwork with an enemy team to take down a more dangerous foe. Like this. Fighting with the Zealot feels way better than fighting with the marines might I add. The skull could modify AI behavior so they still consider the player an enemy but refrain from attacking him until the other enemy presence is eliminated. There could also be, dare I say it, a random betrayal system where the allied enemy suddenly turns on the player, attacking him instead. Or this could be done at an opportune time based on difficulty (i.e. on Legendary, when 1/2 of the other enemy is dead, the allied enemy breaks the alliance. On Heroic, when 2/3 the allied enemy is dead, the allied enemy breaks the alliance).
>
>
>
> > > > The reason the bandanna skull was in CEA was to MAKE DAMN SURE it wasnt too hard for anyone.
> > >
> > > Wuh… why would you do that? If it’s too easy then there is nothing to strive for.
> >
> > You think everyone that bought the game is as good as you, RC? I know people that are terrible at multiplayer online and only play Halo for the campaign.
> > Even with unlimited ammo, Legendary solo was tough. Like I said, if people are gonna pay money for a game that was the same 10 years ago (except audio/video), then why wouldnt 343i make sure that everyone, no matter their skills, can complete it?
>
> CE Legendary is tough because not many people begin with it. It’s actually one of the easiest Halo Legendaries. Even H2 Legendary can be easy once one learns the importance of cover.
>
> Now Reach Legendary. That’s brutal. That’s insane. I don’t know how people do it LASO let alone SLASO. If I did Reach LASO, I would only survive 2 seconds.

#20

No idea what to name it, but…
Turn on skull, play through the game as your xbox live avatar.
Would be tons of fun in four player co-op.