343 has just wrapped Halo 5, and they realize that they just created a fantastic engine and are going to have to redesign it for the next game. How about getting another game out of it, like Bungie did with Halo 3: ODST?
I propose that 343 creates another game using a portion of their staff and the existing design tools for Halo 5. The game’s focus? The rebellion of the outer colonies, and the continuing war between the UNSC and the worlds that don’t believe UNSC control is warranted. The twist? You play as an insurrectionist.
From a story perspective, this will bring to Halo’s gaming world a rich insurrection back story that has so far been almost entirely ignored by non-print media. The ugly underbelly of ONI and the (possibly) totalitarian control imposed by the UNSC is a great canvas on which to create a compelling narrative. It will also provide the added benefit of allowing the player to take the role of a “bad” character, which is much more interesting from a story perspective. Plus, it would give you an opportunity to kill a Spartan, which would be a hell of an end to a level.
Game play could take a leaf from ODST with insurrectionists able to jump lower and run slower. The Halo 5 Fireteam system could also be implemented into game play in interesting ways.
ODST showed that a great game can be made on these existing engines, and it would be fun to play a Halo game that has less of Microsoft’s future riding on it’s success. With less exposure should the game be bad, the team would have more freedom to get creative.
What does the community think of the idea?
They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
I love the idea! It’d be great to play an ‘underdog’ role instead of playing as the usual almighty UNSC characters with infinite resources.
> 2533274799135257;2:
> They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
>
> I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
I didn’t know that. However, they wouldn’t have to alter assets or modify the engine for this game, so it would probably be cheaper compared to one of their flagship titles.
How about a game where you fight as a normal marine on a ring world that you are based at after the events of Halo 4. The covenant fanatics could have found this ring world and thus the story begins.
> 2533274835229788;3:
> I love the idea! It’d be great to play an ‘underdog’ role instead of playing as the usual almighty UNSC characters with infinite resources.
Infinite resources? Is that why Chief can carry hardly any reserve ammunition and why the UNSC Infinity with it’s incompetent Captain left him to try and stop the Didact on his own.
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> > 2533274835229788;3:
> > I love the idea! It’d be great to play an ‘underdog’ role instead of playing as the usual almighty UNSC characters with infinite resources.
>
>
> Infinite resources? Is that why Chief can carry hardly any reserve ammunition and why the UNSC Infinity with it’s incompetent Captain left him to try and stop the Didact on his own.
Not in that sense, but in the sense that in certain missions you get to drive Scorpions, fly Hornets/Falcons, have access to Spartan Lasers, Sniper Rifles, and Rocket Launchers, get Warthogs dropped in from Pelicans, and get flown into every mission on a Pelican. I imagine the Insurrectionists don’t have access to those kinds of resources, and you’d be more on your own than you would be with the UNSC.
> 2533274835229788;7:
> > 2533274925473364;6:
> > > 2533274835229788;3:
> > > I love the idea! It’d be great to play an ‘underdog’ role instead of playing as the usual almighty UNSC characters with infinite resources.
> >
> >
> > Infinite resources? Is that why Chief can carry hardly any reserve ammunition and why the UNSC Infinity with it’s incompetent Captain left him to try and stop the Didact on his own.
>
>
> Not in that sense, but in the sense that in certain missions you get to drive Scorpions, fly Hornets/Falcons, have access to Spartan Lasers, Sniper Rifles, and Rocket Launchers, get Warthogs dropped in from Pelicans, and get flown into every mission on a Pelican. I imagine the Insurrectionists don’t have access to those kinds of resources, and you’d be more on your own than you would be with the UNSC.
From what I’ve read in the books the insurrectionist indeed would not have all that equipment readily available. They would however have older military hardware and vehicles. So they might have an older version of the Scorpion or Warthog for instance. But it’s just a game and if a certain level looked ripe for a set vehicle scene, whether or not the Insurrectionist could really have a piece of hardware like that, it would be put into the game for game-play purposes. It would just turn into another Halo 3: ODST game 
Here’s my problem…why would I want to play as an Insurrectionist?
I’d rather have a game as a Marine during the early days of the Covenant War. ODST was a step in the right direction, but still had pseudo shields (“stamina”), and powerful melee (I always passed it off as ODST suits being powered in some way and providing some strength augmentation). I want to see some hard core difficulty, Ghost Recon style…maybe that’s a bit over the top but the point stands. Then again I’m the kind of sadistic son of a -Yoink- that would gladly play a game set in Warhammer 40,000 where you play as a fraggin’ Guardsman (see if you can live more than nine seconds).
Decent idea but execution would be hard
> 2533274799135257;2:
> They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
>
> I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
> 2533274810150284;11:
> > 2533274799135257;2:
> > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> >
> > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
>
>
> Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
>
> Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
no h2a was a heavily modified h4 engine while halo 5 is new 
> 2533274810150284;11:
> > 2533274799135257;2:
> > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> >
> > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
>
>
> Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
>
> Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
Back on topic, I can see a game where you play as insurrectionists on a planet that has been attacked by the Covenant and received little support from the UNSC, but I don’t see them making a game where we actively fight Spartans and Marines. That’s also not really how the Insurrectionists operated too often. They didn’t really have battles with the UNSC.
> 2533274848539555;13:
> > 2533274810150284;11:
> > > 2533274799135257;2:
> > > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> > >
> > > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
> >
> >
> > Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
> >
> > Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
>
>
> They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
Well that’s kind of my point. It’s not actually the same engine if it doesn’t share any of the original coding. I was just trying to simplify it by showing where exactly the major changes were made, and also mentioning that the Havoc Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s engine.
> 2533274810150284;14:
> > 2533274848539555;13:
> > > 2533274810150284;11:
> > > > 2533274799135257;2:
> > > > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> > > >
> > > > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
> > >
> > >
> > > Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
> > >
> > > Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
> >
> >
> > They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
>
>
> Well that’s kind of my point. It’s not actually the same engine if it doesn’t share any of the original coding. I was just trying to simplify it by showing where exactly the major changes were made, and also mentioning that the Havoc Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s engine.
Right, it’s no longer the same engine as Halo CE. But 2 was, and 5 is still, in some part, the same as 4. Obviously they’ve made many changes, but we don’t know how many. From one game to the next, the changes are small enough that they simply refer to it as an upgraded/overhauled version of the previous iteration.
> 2533274848539555;15:
> > 2533274810150284;14:
> > > 2533274848539555;13:
> > > > 2533274810150284;11:
> > > > > 2533274799135257;2:
> > > > > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> > > > >
> > > > > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
> > > >
> > > > Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
> > >
> > >
> > > They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
> >
> >
> > Well that’s kind of my point. It’s not actually the same engine if it doesn’t share any of the original coding. I was just trying to simplify it by showing where exactly the major changes were made, and also mentioning that the Havoc Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s engine.
>
>
> Right, it’s no longer the same engine as Halo CE. But 2 was, and 5 is still, in some part, the same as 4. Obviously they’ve made many changes, but we don’t know how many. From one game to the next, the changes are small enough that they simply refer to it as an upgraded/overhauled version of the previous iteration.
So we do agree then. Good. I’m just glad that Halo has been doing serious overhauls and reworks to their engine instead of letting it stagnate like CoD. That was the main thing I was going for with my post because a lot of people hear “same engine” and think CoD, even though that phrase can actually mean very little.
> 2533274810150284;16:
> > 2533274848539555;15:
> > > 2533274810150284;14:
> > > > 2533274848539555;13:
> > > > > 2533274810150284;11:
> > > > > > 2533274799135257;2:
> > > > > > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
> > > > >
> > > > > Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
> > >
> > >
> > > Well that’s kind of my point. It’s not actually the same engine if it doesn’t share any of the original coding. I was just trying to simplify it by showing where exactly the major changes were made, and also mentioning that the Havoc Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s engine.
> >
> >
> > Right, it’s no longer the same engine as Halo CE. But 2 was, and 5 is still, in some part, the same as 4. Obviously they’ve made many changes, but we don’t know how many. From one game to the next, the changes are small enough that they simply refer to it as an upgraded/overhauled version of the previous iteration.
>
>
> So we do agree then. Good. I’m just glad that Halo has been doing serious overhauls and reworks to their engine instead of letting it stagnate like CoD. That was the main thing I was going for with my post because a lot of people hear “same engine” and think CoD, even though that phrase can actually mean very little.
To be honest, I don’t think too many people really understand what an engine is, or how it works. Whenever a developer comes out and says they’re making a game in the same engine as some other game, they tend to assume it’ll be the exact same game again.
> 2533274848539555;17:
> > 2533274810150284;16:
> > > 2533274848539555;15:
> > > > 2533274810150284;14:
> > > > > 2533274848539555;13:
> > > > > > 2533274810150284;11:
> > > > > > > 2533274799135257;2:
> > > > > > > They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Actually, the Havok Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s actual engine. The Havok Physics engine has been used in every Halo since 2, and all it does is determine the physics of objects. There’s no reason to change your physics engine if it can accurately portray how physics would effect objects, because that’s all it does.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Halo 4’s engine was a rebuilt and overhauled version of Halo Reach’s engine, Halo 5’s is new, Halo 2’s was new, Halo 3’s was overhauled and rebuilt from 2, and ODST’s was tweaked from 3. They don’t all use the same game engine, just the same physics engine since Halo 2.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > They’ve said recently that 5’s is an overhaul of 4’s, and according to statements 343 made during the development of 4, 2 was an overhaul of 1. Every Halo game has used a reworked version of the last game’s engine, but while it did grow from Halo CE’s engine, it’s unlikely there’s a single line of code left from back then.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Well that’s kind of my point. It’s not actually the same engine if it doesn’t share any of the original coding. I was just trying to simplify it by showing where exactly the major changes were made, and also mentioning that the Havoc Engine is just a physics engine, not the game’s engine.
> > >
> > >
> > > Right, it’s no longer the same engine as Halo CE. But 2 was, and 5 is still, in some part, the same as 4. Obviously they’ve made many changes, but we don’t know how many. From one game to the next, the changes are small enough that they simply refer to it as an upgraded/overhauled version of the previous iteration.
> >
> >
> > So we do agree then. Good. I’m just glad that Halo has been doing serious overhauls and reworks to their engine instead of letting it stagnate like CoD. That was the main thing I was going for with my post because a lot of people hear “same engine” and think CoD, even though that phrase can actually mean very little.
>
>
> To be honest, I don’t think too many people really understand what an engine is, or how it works. Whenever a developer comes out and says they’re making a game in the same engine as some other game, they tend to assume it’ll be the exact same game again.
Yep, which is the kind of response I was trying to curb. I blame CoD, because that’s really the only series that constantly uses barely modified versions of its original engine, which I think is what typically makes people assume that “same engine” means “same game”. Barely anybody knows what an engine actually is and what effects it has on the game, so it’s easy for people to make that mistake.
> 2533274799135257;2:
> They didnt just create a new engine. It’s a modified Halo 4 engine, which is a modified Reach engine, which in turn is a modified ODST, then 3, then 2 and then CE. And it’s a Havok engine game.
>
> I’d rather their next game be on something more visually appealing like Cryengine or Unreal 4.
To be fair though you can tell they ripped out a lot of it and rebuilt alot of it. Especially in the lighting department
I’d quite like a game centred on a S-III in Alpha Company, it could have a health system similar to ODST, and the campaign could follow this Spartan, through a training exercise (an intro mission) and then the operations of Alpha company leading up to Operation: PROMETHEUS. The Operation; PROMETHEUS mission would essentially be an open world style Halo (think massive Mombassa Streets with fast travel), where you must carry out the objectives of said mission until the required number was destroyed by you, your AI (Co-Op) team and other AI teams. As objectives are destroyed more better Covenant forces arrive, until you and your team are ruthlessly hunted down and picked off one by one (AI difficulty scales with time on the mission).
A crafting system could also be present towards the end of the campaign.