So I was just watching this from LNG, it got me thinking future Halo games levels need to become more open again. I remember in Halo 1 where we had the choice to explore the levels and choose our own routes but with Halo 4,5 games…they’ve been too focused on linear direct paths and irritating ‘out of bounds’ being way too restrictive. I miss the days when I go fly away from an island for a bit and not be blown up due to an instant kill boundary. Kill zones just seem like they need to go, return the invisible walls after going a certain amount of distance away, no I don’t mean like the ones like in Halo 5’s war-zone because that’s was appalling since there was barely any room to move and it was too easy for Banshee’s to get trapped with BR spam that would easily destroy air units.
I’m not saying we need to follow the same paths again like in Two_Betrayals but just the freedom of being able to explore instead of feeling like we’re stuck on a set path. Even Reach had a bit of exploring like :Halo: Reach ONI: Sword Base
Then there’s ones in Halo 2 like Outskirts or The Great Journey where it feels like there was plenty of routes to the end.
The problem with linear levels is just feels like I’m going from A to B, isn’t really innovating much.
> 2533274904681817;2:
> I feel you man. I agree with what you said
Good to hear, it’s a shame that 343i keep going down this route since there’s barely much room to do anything, makes the online, campaign games feel a bit too claustrophobic.
Them multiple routes in Halo 5 felt forced an artificial. I could look at certain parts of the map and read the creator’s intentions. “Ok, we’ll have a cliff up here in case the player wants to take the high ground.” It was as if they were worried about making an open, organic environment that would lead to exploits like jumping across the buildings in Halo 2’s Outskirts to avoid the jackal snipers.
If that’s the case, they need to get over that fear and get ready to test the levels thoroughly. I think they should look back to the original trilogy for inspiration. For instance, the Silent Cartographer had you exploring an island without directly pointing out were to go, and that created a real sense of exploration. And then in Halo 2, Quarantine Zone, you traversed through large, open battlefields were the flood and sentinels were fighting it out. There were several different ways to approach these battlefields, but not because they set up 3-4 artificial routes for you to drive on. You could focus on killing the flood or the sentinels first. You could use your vehicle or get out and snipe them . You could give your allies (if they were still alive) powerful weapons and they would mow down your enemies with them. Or, you could just plow through with a Ghost, speedrunner style.
So instead of being so rigid about level design, 343 should take a more freeform approach to designing Halo 6’s levels. They could make Halo 6’s campaign feel naturally open and non-linear this way, and I’m sure it would take less effort than carefully planning out several different routes in each section.
> 2533274978553590;4:
> Them multiple routes in Halo 5 felt forced an artificial. I could look at certain parts of the map and read the creator’s intentions. “Ok, we’ll have a cliff up here in case the player wants to take the high ground.” It was as if they were worried about making an open, organic environment that would lead to exploits like jumping across the buildings in Halo 2’s Outskirts to avoid the jackal snipers.
>
> If that’s the case, they need to get over that fear and get ready to test the levels thoroughly. I think they should look back to the original trilogy for inspiration. For instance, the Silent Cartographer had you exploring an island without directly pointing out were to go, and that created a real sense of exploration. And then in Halo 2, Quarantine Zone, you traversed through large, open battlefields were the flood and sentinels were fighting it out. There were several different ways to approach these battlefields, but not because they set up 3-4 artificial routes for you to drive on. You could focus on killing the flood or the sentinels first. You could use your vehicle or get out and snipe them . You could give your allies (if they were still alive) powerful weapons and they would mow down your enemies with them. Or, you could just plow through with a Ghost, speedrunner style.
>
> So instead of being so rigid about level design, 343 should take a more freeform approach to designing Halo 6’s levels. They could make Halo 6’s campaign feel naturally open and non-linear this way, and I’m sure it would take less effort than carefully planning out several different routes in each section.
Exactly, that’s what made me love the original trilogy so great because I felt like I had a choice like in the 2nd level of Halo 1 where I can choose to save the marines in any the locations and not be forced into 1 direction.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of linear design, but Halo’s never been nonlinear either, FPS games tend to be that way, but I get where you’re coming from, this doesn’t feel appropriate to Halo’s previous scale.
Halo has always been a chaotic game of vehicles, aircraft, and power weapons on large maps first, and a tame arena shooter second.
Not only does this effect campaign, but multiplayer as well instead of utilizing new tech (even though xbox one is pretty weak in terms of specs) to make bigger and more involved encounters, they’re opting for small-scale battles with sponge enemies, especially if you attempt to slog through the game on legendary.
It doesn’t play to the series strengths, so I hope they take Halo 6 in a new direction, probably just going to get a PS4 anyway since Halo as an exclusive is on such a decline.
> 2533274924183412;6:
> Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of linear design, but Halo’s never been nonlinear either, FPS games tend to be that way, but I get where you’re coming from, this doesn’t feel appropriate to Halo’s previous scale.
>
> Halo has always been a chaotic game of vehicles, aircraft, and power weapons on large maps first, and a tame arena shooter second.
>
> Not only does this effect campaign, but multiplayer as well instead of utilizing new tech (even though xbox one is pretty weak in terms of specs) to make bigger and more involved encounters, they’re opting for small-scale battles with sponge enemies, especially if you attempt to slog through the game on legendary.
>
> It doesn’t play to the series strengths, so I hope they take Halo 6 in a new direction, probably just going to get a PS4 anyway since Halo as an exclusive is on such a decline.
Sure I get it, just wish we had more freedom since at the moment it seems we lack much space in the campaign/multiplayer/forge, don’t have much freedom to explore, it seems to be decreasing since 343i took over. Yep the sponge enemy’s irritate me too, I think it was done because I hear it was partly down to the fact that they were trying to go for 60fps. I’d personally rather have big open area’s in the campaign like when we took on the scarab in Halo 3, not like whatever the Kraken fight was meant to be since that thing was pretty much useless when we caught up to it.
I’d rather see hundreds of marines fighting against the Covenant while the Chief has to deal with 2 scarabs, endless waves with air units from both UNSC, Covenant factions.