Does anyone truly want Halo 5 Guardians to be an open world game if it is truly a main story game, and not one like Halo 3:ODST? a main story game should be kept to its roots and stay linear.
I think when 343 said ‘Open World’, They meant that the levels will be more expansive and will reward exploration.
I still think they will be rather Linear. But they will allow you explore a lot more adding a bit more replay value and the possible for several secondary objectives. Something that Halo hasn’t really done before.
> I think when 343 said ‘Open World’, They meant that the levels will be more expansive and will reward exploration.
>
> I still think they will be rather Linear. But they will allow you explore a lot more adding a bit more replay value and the possible for several secondary objectives. Something that Halo hasn’t really done before.
This right here. I feel to an extent Halo needs to have a linear story to push it forward. Having the ability to take many different routes to arrive at the destination is welcome.
Sorry, I just read the full title. Oops. I voted for an unrestricted world. With regards to the main story it’s probably better to go more linear, although maybe with the option to go open world if you wanted to. Full open world would be better for Spartan Ops.
> I think when 343 said ‘Open World’, They meant that the levels will be more expansive and will reward exploration.
>
> I still think they will be rather Linear. But they will allow you explore a lot more adding a bit more replay value and the possible for several secondary objectives. Something that Halo hasn’t really done before.
Precisely this is what I’ve long wanted. The single player part of the game should still consist of individual levels following a linear story arch. However, each level should be extremely expansive, with one main objective and a strategic freedom for the player to figure out how they want to tackle it. Some of the individual levels could even be fairly linear (depending on the type of the mission), but still open enough to allow the player approach the mission as they want.
I’m not absolutely sure how viable the idea is and to which extent. I know that making the whole single player an open world wouldn’t work because it would be restricted to too small of an area, which would either mean a shrunk world with different, but unrealistically small, biomes, or just one boring type of environment. Individual levels mean more variety in the environment. Of course it could be done á la Halo 3: ODST with a single hub world and missions, but I don’t see it working sensibly as Master Chief as the protagonist of those missions. And still, those missions would have to be open enough.
I don’t really see a linear story working in an open world either, and I can’t imagine Halo without a linear story. But it seems more feasible and less of a risky move to approach it at least semi-traditionally.
One thing I’m worried about with having open missions in general is how to approach the pacing. 343i seemed to have this problem with Spartan Ops already where it was monotonous running from one button to another, and fighting waves of enemies in between. With a level even more open, the difficulty of designing these transitions will be amplified. When the player is running from A to B, they need to be kept occupied, but on the other they shouldn’t feel that the game is just dumping enemies on them until they get where they need to.
In other words, I think Halo would really benefit from having all levels to be very open. Exploration is a huge part of the series, after all. But truth be told, I’m not sure if 343i is quite up to the task, I’m afraid whether they are competent enough or not. What I’m asking is a tough job for any designer, and in my eyes 343i doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to gameplay design.
For me, I would love it to be completely open world with side missions, choosable skills with leveling, and, of course, a whole ton of items. However, for the Halo communities sake, if it were open world, it should be similar to Halo 3 ODST’s open world style. I think the Halo community prefers a more linear experience.
Even as a long time Halo fan, in terms of campaign nothing comes even close to the amount of fun I had with Skyrim.
Despite that, however, for the sake of continuing the narrative of the second Halo trilogy I do think that it would suit Halo 5 best to be a “linear” game, albeit with more expansive environments.
The reason the open world style so greatly suits the Elder Scroll games is simply because the plots tend to be extremely simplistic while built on a backstory more rich and expansive than practically anything else, including the Lord of the Rings. This allows an incredible sense of freedom, but it doesn’t lend itself well to the intricate storytelling we’ve grown accustomed to for Halo.
Now on the other hand, the Halo universe does have a pretty dang expansive universe, and I would love to see an open world game involving ancient humanity or the Forerunners of old.
I’ve always wanted to go off the beaten path in the Truth and Reconciliation and through the red doors on High Charity. Being limited to one path in extensive Forerunner structures where there are mysterious locked doors everywhere is also very frustrating. I definitely think the missions should be open but linear, with multiple paths to the same objective.
> I’ve always wanted to go off the beaten path in the Truth and Reconciliation and through the red doors on High Charity. Being limited to one path in extensive Forerunner structures where there are mysterious locked doors everywhere is also very frustrating. I definitely think the missions should be open but linear, with multiple paths to the same objective.
I agree with you. I’m always thinking about what behind them doors whilst I play.
I’m definitely okay with having a more expansive campaign that allows us to explore in game. That said, they can’t go to far with it. This isn’t Skyrim where we have to check out every cave and make sure that we found that +7 Battle Axe. But if they limited it to having multiple approaches to finishing a mission, giving us more tactical choices. That would be amazing.
I’m cool with it, just so long as there’s limits.
Though I can’t even play ODST or the Reach mission Exodus without getting lost for a while… 
I’m not entirely sure of how I feel about it being an open-world game.
Firstly, there are so many open-world games coming out on next generation consoles that it will be hard to keep up with them all.
Secondly, I have no idea how that would work with the universe and especially the theme that 343 has of going more into detail with Master Chief.
Thirdly, the only way I see it working out with lore considered is if it’s sorta like Borderlands in the sense where you have specific characters you have to play as. In more detail, you shouldn’t be able to play as your own spartan (unless the major characters are already taken in your xbox party) or be able to customize him/her in any way.
Fourthly, if any open-world game was to work within the Halo Universe, I would’ve made it take place during ancient humanity and when the forerunners were more abundant just because it may be easier to mess up the story being told and that you can fully customize your character similarly to Reach (with the consideration of ancient human or forerunner armor).
As long as it is not TRULY an open world game. That will take away from its focus / quality of story telling / missions. Having some freedom to explore isn’t a bad thing though. Having cool little signs off on random spots you don’t have to go is awesome, too.
As long as the main story must be completed in order with the ability to do the side missions mid way, I’d pick the open world concept.
However, ALL missions should be connected to the main story in some way.
> I think when 343 said ‘Open World’, They meant that the levels will be more expansive and will reward exploration.
>
> I still think they will be rather Linear. But they will allow you explore a lot more adding a bit more replay value and the possible for several secondary objectives. Something that Halo hasn’t really done before.
I love this idea and it would be great if they could apply the same thing to Spartan Ops or Firefight.
I would like vast battlefields with my enemies plotted through all different routes, still very ‘go to A to go to B’ but I get to choose how and who I fight and explore around rather than a unrestricted open world.
If we were to have a completely new story with new characters in the franchise I’d support a fully open world but with how far along Chief’s tale is now I think it would vastly hurt the telling of his story and quality in a ‘do anything anywhere open world sandbox’.
I always thought that the Metroid Prime style of open world would be really cool in a Halo game. I’m speaking only in terms of the traversing the areas and such, not in terms of story (obviously since Metroid Prime games hardly had any at all).
> I would like vast battlefields with my enemies plotted through all different routes, still very ‘go to A to go to B’ but I get to choose how and who I fight and explore around rather than a unrestricted open world.
>
> If we were to have a completely new story with new characters in the franchise I’d support a fully open world but with how far along Chief’s tale is now I think it would vastly hurt the telling of his story and quality in a ‘do anything anywhere open world sandbox’.
Think of it more as you have your main goal and if you want you could rescue a group of marines that are in a huge battle. It detracts from the main goal but wouldn’t Chief do it?
Guardians shouldn’t go fully open world, the story would suffer for it. Linear is the way to go, but not too linear.
Halo is a sandbox game, I want to play with that sandbox. Too many times in Halo 4 did I feel restricted; The times I got in a banshee especially.
I want open battlefields with choices. Look at Halo 3’s Scarab encounters for example. I could stay on a mongoose and take it down from the ground, use a Hornet to land on it, or take it down from a distance with the missile pod. Choices make Halo special and that would be impossible without the expansive sandbox that Halo offers.
Even back in Halo Combat Evolved we had more freedom than Halo 4! Look back at the mission “Halo” we had the central area with the waterfall and river and then from there we could choose which area we wanted to go rescue the marines first. Each location offered unique combat opportunities, cliff sniping, interior combat, etc.
that’s the kind of freedom and “openness” I would like to see interspersed with some linear areas.
> Guardians shouldn’t go fully open world, the story would suffer for it. Linear is the way to go, but not too linear.
> Halo is a sandbox game, I want to play with that sandbox. Too many times in Halo 4 did I feel restricted; The times I got in a banshee especially.
> I want open battlefields with choices. Look at Halo 3’s Scarab encounters for example. I could stay on a mongoose and take it down from the ground, use a Hornet to land on it, or take it down from a distance with the missile pod. Choices make Halo special and that would be impossible without the expansive sandbox that Halo offers.
> Even back in Halo Combat Evolved we had more freedom than Halo 4! Look back at the mission “Halo” we had the central area with the waterfall and river and then from there we could choose which area we wanted to go rescue the marines first. Each location offered unique combat opportunities, cliff sniping, interior combat, etc.
> that’s the kind of freedom and “openness” I would like to see interspersed with some linear areas.
Yes, I agree that full on open world is too much.