Halo 5 should have been a spin-off.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

The following was inspired by a video made by CursedLemon.

So yeah, here I find myself, ranting once again. It’s not an accident. It’s like fate, or maybe 343i just needs my help with the halo franchise.
Recently in H5 343i has felt the need to add a bunch of gimmicky features, that were already tested in other games, in the pursuit of their audiences. I would argue that the reason they are there, is that kids won’t buy games that don’t look like Cod, Titanfall and their countless clones. I do not think, that they make the game better. I just think that they make the game look “modern” and 343i/-Yoink!- didn’t understand how far ahead of it’s time the very first halo game was. While many people are irritated by these changes, many more might argue that they make the gameplay “feel smoother” and that is not an entirely unfair opinion to hold. The thing that we must understand is that the best products are never the most succesful. Look at P**aranoid, a terrible song, that everyone loves vs K**illing yourself to live, an awesome song with great riffs, but no-one has heard of. My friends haven’t seen Pulp fiction, but they have seen Fast and furious. Halo used to be the Pulp fiction, but now I can’t tell.
Now, changing the core fundamentals of your product very rarely results in success. Look at Yoshi’s story, look at starfox adventures, look at Metallica. The question must be asked: “Isn’t there a way to do this that doesn’t -yoink- on our day-1 fans?”. For the longest time I thought that everyone agreed with me on that we should go back to the old formula, but the I realised that some people, a lot of them prefer this new style of halo. First I didn’t care that they existed, but then I thought: “We’ll give them a playlist in the next halo”.
Joking about how cold it would be to give a people like me a “classic” playlist. But then I started doing some serious thinking on the mater. Wouldn’t the best solution be to make this “newer” style of halo a spin-off. It’s worked with halo: Wars and it’s worked in other franchises. Remember how H3 wasn’t a RTS? You can’t treat your money maker like a guinea pig, otherwise you’ll notice that The MCC has more players online than H5. "But hey, First day sales man, breaking records bro, the -yoink- do I even know??

2

Halo 5 is one of the best examples of “how to -Yoink- up, because too many people thourght that their opinion was important”
The fans messed with it, beacuse the reports after halo 4 were so divers, microsoft, made the biggest -Yoink- with all the chnages, especilly the cortana topic.
I am not a fan of most changes like smart scope and so one. Or the countless bugs.
But they try, thas the only thing every developer can do, and here they f*ed up. And i thin you know the game will and has to change, The day one fans, will be less and less over the time.
I got into halo with reach, thas why it is my all time favorite, but even i will one day stop playing,either they f it up too bad, or i die, get too old whatever.

there for a spin off, it would not be very effective to make it spin off games, spartans change from 1 to 4, game mechanics change from this to that.
So who knows what we will like tomorow? hope it helps a bit with the anger.

3

How would a spin off work if it continues the mainline games? Mechanics changing doesn’t warrant a spin-off as well, do you know how many games differ when comparing sequels to the originals? Even h2 can be argued to have changed quite a bit than what the original did. I don’t even think being a spin-off games gives it a pass, look at reach, much of halos current issues stem from that game, it also had 900k players at peak and it’s changed much of how halo plays. Spin-offs would not change a thing if the mainline games are going to play like them. You also have the story to take into account, it’s not really a spin-off if it continues on Chiefs story while involving the halo rings (one ring is speculated to be in h6). Regardless if h6 plays like h5, it’s still a mainline game.

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A spin off didn’t save ODST from criticism, and no one took Spartan Assault/Strike seriously.

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> 2535414341107016;2:
> Halo 5 is one of the best examples of “how to -Yoink- up, because too many people thourght that their opinion was important”
> The fans messed with it, beacuse the reports after halo 4 were so divers, microsoft, made the biggest -Yoink- with all the chnages, especilly the cortana topic.
> I am not a fan of most changes like smart scope and so one. Or the countless bugs.
> But they try, thas the only thing every developer can do, and here they f*ed up. And i thin you know the game will and has to change, The day one fans, will be less and less over the time.
> I got into halo with reach, thas why it is my all time favorite, but even i will one day stop playing,either they f it up too bad, or i die, get too old whatever.
>
> there for a spin off, it would not be very effective to make it spin off games, spartans change from 1 to 4, game mechanics change from this to that.
> So who knows what we will like tomorow? hope it helps a bit with the anger.

Sorry man, must have taken a little too much coffee. But “who knows what we will like tomorrow?”. I know that I will always like the original CE experience. I will be fighting for it, but I am trying to male it possible for different kinds of halo to co-exist. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be this hateful. But the words I wrote are as I think.

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> 2533274833081329;4:
> A spin off didn’t save ODST from criticism, and no one took Spartan Assault/Strike seriously.

ODST was only cririsized for being over prised and the mobile games were repetitive. But it is possible that I am wrong.

7

> 2533274943854776;6:
> > 2533274833081329;4:
> > A spin off didn’t save ODST from criticism, and no one took Spartan Assault/Strike seriously.
>
>
> ODST was only cririsized for being over prised and the mobile games were repetitive. But it is possible that I am wrong.

And the fact that their biggest selling point was the map packs of Halo 3, and if you were that big of a Halo player, you would already have them. If you didn’t care about multiplayer, you wouldn’t buy them anyway, especially since you’re forced to to get ODST

8

> 2533274923562209;3:
> How would a spin off work if it continues the mainline games? Mechanics changing doesn’t warrant a spin-off as well, do you know how many games differ when comparing sequels to the originals? Even h2 can be argued to have changed quite a bit than what the original did. I don’t even think being a spin-off games gives it a pass, look at reach, much of halos current issues stem from that game, it also had 900k players at peak and it’s changed much of how halo plays. Spin-offs would not change a thing if the mainline games are going to play like them. You also have the story to take into account, it’s not really a spin-off if it continues on Chiefs story while involving the halo rings (one ring is speculated to be in h6). Regardless if h6 plays like h5, it’s still a mainline game.

See, I wasn’t saying that you can’t change things, I was saying that you shouldn’t change the core fundamentals of your game. My Idea was that let’s seperate the two kinds of halo. I’m sure people could have forgot reach, if H4 was any better, but it wasn’t. And “How would a spin-off work if it continues the mainline games?” It doesn’t continue, let’s give it a seperate story-line and theme.

9

> 2533274943854776;8:
> > 2533274923562209;3:
> > How would a spin off work if it continues the mainline games? Mechanics changing doesn’t warrant a spin-off as well, do you know how many games differ when comparing sequels to the originals? Even h2 can be argued to have changed quite a bit than what the original did. I don’t even think being a spin-off games gives it a pass, look at reach, much of halos current issues stem from that game, it also had 900k players at peak and it’s changed much of how halo plays. Spin-offs would not change a thing if the mainline games are going to play like them. You also have the story to take into account, it’s not really a spin-off if it continues on Chiefs story while involving the halo rings (one ring is speculated to be in h6). Regardless if h6 plays like h5, it’s still a mainline game.
>
>
> See, I wasn’t saying that you can’t change things, I was saying that you shouldn’t change the core fundamentals of your game. My Idea was that let’s seperate the two kinds of halo. I’m sure people could have forgot reach, if H4 was any better, but it wasn’t. And “How would a spin-off work if it continues the mainline games?” It doesn’t continue, let’s give it a seperate story-line and theme.

You said h5 should’ve been a spin off yes? It isn’t a spin off if it still continues pre existing stories. Making a spin off that does change things still doesn’t avoid criticism for change. Have you seen gears? They had a game that was a prequel but labeled spinoff and it still got criticism for not doing what the others did. People are going to expect even a halo spinoff to follow what the mainline games do. Being a spinoff doesn’t give it a pass to do things differently, it’s just not how it works. I’ll even use halo wars since you mentioned it in the op. Do you know how many played the first one? Do you know how much more it could’ve gained had it even just been a fps? It has sold 4 million since its been out, even a watered down broken halo fps gains more than a spinoff that is not what people expect.

10

> 2533274833081329;7:
> > 2533274943854776;6:
> > > 2533274833081329;4:
> > > A spin off didn’t save ODST from criticism, and no one took Spartan Assault/Strike seriously.
> >
> >
> > ODST was only cririsized for being over prised and the mobile games were repetitive. But it is possible that I am wrong.
>
>
> And the fact that their biggest selling point was the map packs of Halo 3, and if you were that big of a Halo player, you would already have them. If you didn’t care about multiplayer, you wouldn’t buy them anyway, especially since you’re forced to to get ODST

The biggest selling point for ODST were the map packs? yeah ok there buddy. Pretty sure that map packs were used to justify the price. Also fairly certain the biggest selling point of the game was that you got to play as an ODST between H2 and H3.

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> 2533274830513360;10:
> > 2533274833081329;7:
> > > 2533274943854776;6:
> > > > 2533274833081329;4:
> > > > A spin off didn’t save ODST from criticism, and no one took Spartan Assault/Strike seriously.
> > >
> > >
> > > ODST was only cririsized for being over prised and the mobile games were repetitive. But it is possible that I am wrong.
> >
> >
> > And the fact that their biggest selling point was the map packs of Halo 3, and if you were that big of a Halo player, you would already have them. If you didn’t care about multiplayer, you wouldn’t buy them anyway, especially since you’re forced to to get ODST
>
>
> The biggest selling point for ODST were the map packs? yeah ok there buddy. Pretty sure that map packs were used to justify the price. Also fairly certain the biggest selling point of the game was that you got to play as an ODST between H2 and H3.

I’m just saying that the game originally was priced as $40 (which some people couldn’t even justify buying for a game with no matchmaking and one of the shortest stories ever), and then the map packs from Halo 3 were included, pushing the game to $60.

12

> 2533274923562209;9:
> > 2533274943854776;8:
> > > 2533274923562209;3:
> > > How would a spin off work if it continues the mainline games? Mechanics changing doesn’t warrant a spin-off as well, do you know how many games differ when comparing sequels to the originals? Even h2 can be argued to have changed quite a bit than what the original did. I don’t even think being a spin-off games gives it a pass, look at reach, much of halos current issues stem from that game, it also had 900k players at peak and it’s changed much of how halo plays. Spin-offs would not change a thing if the mainline games are going to play like them. You also have the story to take into account, it’s not really a spin-off if it continues on Chiefs story while involving the halo rings (one ring is speculated to be in h6). Regardless if h6 plays like h5, it’s still a mainline game.
> >
> >
> > See, I wasn’t saying that you can’t change things, I was saying that you shouldn’t change the core fundamentals of your game. My Idea was that let’s seperate the two kinds of halo. I’m sure people could have forgot reach, if H4 was any better, but it wasn’t. And “How would a spin-off work if it continues the mainline games?” It doesn’t continue, let’s give it a seperate story-line and theme.
>
>
> You said h5 should’ve been a spin off yes? It isn’t a spin off if it still continues pre existing stories.

But the story could be changed, I was only looking at the gameplay elements.

> Making a spin off that does change things still doesn’t avoid criticism for change.

But it does. Halo: Wars didn’t get critisism for being a RTS.

> Have you seen gears? They had a game that was a prequel but labeled spinoff and it still got criticism for not doing what the others did.

Are we talkimg about Judgement? I played through it and I played some PvP. But I am not an active member of the gears community, so I can kot offer my view on the subject even having played through gears 2.

> People are going to expect even a halo spinoff to follow what the mainline games do. Being a spinoff doesn’t give it a pass to do things differently, it’s just not how it works.

I would argue that when marketed properly, people wouldn’t expect the spin-off to be similar. That’s where I think Reach failed. The abilitys were just bungie testing stuff for destiny.

> I’ll even use halo wars since you mentioned it in the op. Do you know how many played the first one? Do you know how much more it could’ve gained had it even just been a fps? It has sold 4 million since its been out, even a watered down broken halo fps gains more than a spinoff that is not what people expect.

Oh, should have done this one first.
I didn’t know it only sold 4 million. But I would have been suprised of it broke 6 million. But the thing is that it wasn’t H3. When they sold H5 and called it H5 it felt like they were selling Wars under H3. Most of the people who bought H3 didn’t buy Wars. And most of the people who bought H3 didn’t buy H5. Why didn’t they buy those games? I think because they were halo players and these games didn’t offer a halo experience. But had H5 been sold as spin-off, yeah it probably wouldn’t have more sales and a bigger fanbase, but it would mean that we would get a true halo experience later, and that could brake records.