A Reflection on a Series that has been the Flagship of the XBOX.
This may be one of the most divisive posts written about Halo. Some want Halo to go back to its pre-2010 days (Halo 1-3, ODST(firefight) a middle of the road Halo: Reach, and the fast-paced, modern Halos (4&5). Why is this? Forget the middle of the road part. Why is there such conflict, and no agreement between the pre and post 2010 players? I think I may have an answer.
The community of the present day is TOXIC and embroiled in a video game civil war, mostly on here and the youtube comments section, along with other forum sites. I find it hard for anyone to deny the fight that’s been building up in a community that is a part of (my opinion) the crown jewel of the FPS genre.
Let me tell you about myself at first, Halo-wise. No need for my home adress, SS number, or anything thats not Halo-related. Yes, I am that person who is villified on these forums for being a Halo player since Halo 1, and shocker, actually liking the slower paced gameplay (ugh!) The smaller jumps *(shriek!)*the campaigns revolving around the antics of a legendary super-human and not a fake Boba Fett trying to live up to the antics of a legendary super-human. *(WHAT?!?!)*But today is not the day to be argue, but rather point out problems with the past and present Halos, and how it has to be fixed to make Halo 6 as great as the previous Halos. I will try my best to not bias this piece with the nostalgia I hold Halo 1-Reach with. To get back on topic, let me tell you a little bit more about myself. I have been playing
I’m a big Halo nerd, until the outside universe of the game exploded after Reach; I just couldn’t keep up with the comics, the books, the animations, the anime, the reference books, the tv show, Nightfall and everything else. In fact, I’ve only read all of the pre-Halo Reach novels, and the entirety of the Kilo-Five trilogy, which was great. Anyways, I love Halo, and I’ve logged atleast 4000 hours of Halo gameplay experience over PC and Xbox.
This post, one of many, will have a quick intro and this post will talk about 1 main topic: History and Causes Of the Divide
There will be lots of topics covered, in order to help this community see the problems.
You see, I am one of those people who can see one thing and predict what may happen, and I was right again this time: Halo fans are mauling each other. There were sparks when Halo 2 came out. These were fixed quickly, and the split between fans from Halo 2 was just as bad as this current split because of the cliffhanger campaign, and controversy regarding the Arbiter, which sounds just like Halo 5 (two different campaign characters, unclear ending.) However, Halo 3, with its new features, return to only the Chief, and ending a trilogy with a masterpiece ending with no cliffhangers. Basically, the fans banded together after Halo 3.
Then Halo Reach did it again. Ah, the armor abilities. People were against these, and for these. There was also the unequal loadouts, and the overall theme of the game, which i dismiss, since this wasn’t made as a normal Halo game, rather it is just a prequel, and has a prequel theme. The game is liked and hated, but it is, in my opinion, the game that started to sow the seeds of the divide since it was the first game that radically changed the gameplay and formula of Halo games. Its the reason that this game may be considered neutral by both sides of the Halo community since it has both features that both Halo fans love and hate, not being a game close enough to the old style, and not being close enough to the new style.
Then, one of the defining Halo moments arrived: 343i arrived. They first started with the game Halo:CEA for Halo 1’s 10th Anniversary. The actual remastering part was amazing. The really cool feature of the game was that you could switch back and forth in seconds between old and new graphics!! However, the multiplayer was criticized for not being its own, and just copying from Reach. However, these concerns were minor since this game was a remake, so it’s okay to let the whole game slide. Its irrelevant to the current state of Halo.
In 2012, Halo 4 came out. It had a firm campaign, just as good as the original three it was more focused towards the Chief’s human side, but still had those awesome action moments (ghost chase, cutscene right after it, not giving up Cortana, killing Didact, etc.). But it was the multiplayer that jump-started the discontent from Halo Reach. By adding perks, a strange “prestige” system, killstreak system, random weapon location respawns, difference in music and theme (THIS IS A MAIN HALO GAME NOT A PREQUEL),and showing subtle signs that Halo is shifting from what is was,at least the way I see it, the rift grew. This game appeals more to the newer generation of Halo fans due to these new features. It is obvious that Halo at this point was taking cues from modern FPS’s, with the killstreak ordinance system, and the prestige system. At this point, the Halo series has been kicking for 11 years. That’s plenty of time for a new generation of kids to grow up, and because of the hype of the Chief returning, start picking up Halo. However, most fans of Halo by 2012 were obviously people who played the other games. The changes mentioned above were too foreign for these players. The new fans haven’t played the other games, probably because they don’t own original xboxes if they start with Halo 4 (xbox 360.) To them, Halo 4 was probably a great game. To the previous Halo players, it was not. To them, it was a great game, but not a great HALO GAME. Halo 4 was not building up on the greatness and legend of the original trilogy, rather, it built up its new version on Halo. From this game the rift was firmly established, as the new Halo players couldn’t understand why someone would rather play the slower and un-modern Halos 1-3 when 4 looked cooler, while the Halo 1-3 don’t understand why people would like Halo 4 (no firefight, OP sprint, and the other features that aren’t part of the original 3.) An analogy to this is the issue with Fallout 4. Fallout 4 has been criticized for streamlining the game for newcomers and casuals (similar to 343’s approach to Halo 4 and 5) Fallout 4 is a great game for casuals , but a strange FALLOUT game since it lacks the RPG FUNDAMENTALS OF FALLOUTS 1-3. The issue is basically the same for Halo.
This will continue tommorow with Halo 5. Time to hit the bed, and I hope my post will not divide the community further, but find some kind of solution or atleast open up your minds.
