I am a huge fan of the Halo franchise and have been playing ever since H1 came out over 12 years ago. My first love is campaign, especially on legendary, and I just noticed a severe drop off in fun from Halo 1,2,& 3 to Halo 4. Below are some of the things that I was not very happy with in Halo 4 that would hopefully like to see changed for Halo 5 Guardians.
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Halo 4 graphics were very “cartoony” (grunts, explosions, even the elites). They were not scary or intimidating at all like the elites from Halo 1/2 or the Brute Chieftains from Halo 3. I know this is something stupid to complain about but the explosions in H4 just look childish. Look at a scarab exploding in H3, Reach, or ODST, and tell me its not bad -Yoink-. (H4 didnt even have a scarab).
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Somehow the Jackal species (Kig-Yar) morphed from very skinny bird like creatures into shorter and stockier alligators. What was up with that? How do you just change that 4 games into a series.
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Marine/Spartan interaction: For some reason the spartan AI’s spend more time shooting corpses than actually shooting at live enemies. In H4 they did not have nearly as much personality as the marines in 1,2,3 (insert sargeant Johnson/Miranda/Capt. Keyes?) Laskey is just good and Sarah Palmer is so so. 343 is saying they want Halo to be more of a character driven story but these characters do not ever put anything on the line like Johnson or Miranda.
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The UNSC is too strong: I liked being a super soldier fighting uphill against the vastly superior covenant. In earlier installations of Halo the covenant could just tool around a group of marines. In H4 the UNSC/humans feel to powerful. It didnt ever feel like we were on the edge of annihilation like in H1,2,& 3.
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Mix of Badies: In H4 You fight against a splinter covenant faction headed by Jul Mdamna (no mention in campaign only Spartan Ops) and the Didacts Mechanical army. These two factions are teamed up and the engagements become repetitive. In previous Halos there were multiple conflicts going on all the time (elites vs. brutes, human vs. covenant, human vs. sentinels, human vs. flood, flood vs. elites, flood vs. brutes, flood vs. sentinels, covies vs. sentinels) Sometimes in prior games I would just sit back and watch the other two or even 3 groups fight each other (Halo 1 Two Betrayals). It was very entertaining. Halo 4 was missing that except for the beginning of the 3rd level before the Prometheans were transferred to the Didacts control.
I have been playing through the H1 anniversary on legendary and remembering how much fun it was. Have played through H4 at least 4 times on legendary and it is not nearly as fun or purpose driven. The level on the Elephant just feels so forced and a bad attempt at The Covenant (H3) or Assault on the Control Room (H1).
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Halo 4 but more like the way I enjoyed the Dark Knight Rises. I enjoyed it because it was a part of the series but had I not enjoyed the previous installations so much I would not have been very excited about it.
There you have it, that is my stance. If im crazy let me know and if you agree that is cool too.
while i prefer the promethians to the flood - they have room for improvement. always felt too little on their tactics, too linear with too few options. best part about them was the teleport. I also think the covenant took a massive step back. (srsly, just let them speak english. i miss being reminded how the demon is coming from grunts) dog like intelligence AI minions conversing provides a bit of levity.
I was thinking back to Halo 3 campaign - very very few things had shields. Nearly everything was a lot tougher to burst damage, but didn’t regen.
I’m not sure how any of that constitutes a “Halo formula”, because it’s either really superficial or just inaccurate.
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I would say Halo has actually gotten darker and less cartoonish. Besides, that doesn’t change gameplay or story.
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A new subspecies was created to make them look more ferocious and threatening. This is contrary to your first point, and again, does not effect anything meaningful.
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The characters that are supposed to be driving the story are Chief/Cortana.
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The whole story is about the UNSC getting ROFLstomped by the Didact.
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It is true that CE/2 had many more three-sided battles, but 3, ODST and Reach didn’t.
H4’s campaign was a decent offering for 343’s first try.
I still had some big problems with it. Some of the ancillary were terribly written. The plot was a tad confusing when taken in the context of all the other Halo things out there (forerunner novels, etc).
In all I’d say it was good not great, but definitely proved – to me – that the linear campaign model is quickly going the way of the dodo. I’m looking forward to the possibilities that Guardians brings to the table.
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I agree with you there. It’s just a bit too bright and happy (as did 3 in my opinion) and the armor just seems a little too tight for my preference. I miss the walking tanks of old.
I enjoyed the mysterious and at times ominous locations and graphics of Halo CE and 2 and really enjoyed the increasingly dark and depressing scenery of Reach. Each seemed to fit better with the story being told.
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I agree completely.
3.The marines and soldiers felt like they were pushing forward against desperate battle. And their reaction to fighting by a Spartan (less so for ODST’s) and seeing that hope really made you feel like you meant something. The characters were driven toward a goal and seemed like they deserved any title they carried.
Palmer just kind of goes against this for me.
- To be honest, I never felt like I was losing very often in any game. It was more like pushing forward or gaining a foothold. I never truly felt like humanity was losing until Reach. Things always seemed to go well and areas were taken moved forward in all the games (aside from Reach where you’re dealing with a team that has the luck of Isaac Clarke).
However, 4 does not carry any of these feelings for me.
5.I too miss these battles between factions. there is little more I can add to what you said
Some of your points seem contradictory… language and more beast appearance would make stuff less cartoony if you ask me I think.
> 4. The UNSC is too strong: I liked being a super soldier fighting uphill against the vastly superior covenant. In earlier installations of Halo the covenant could just tool around a group of marines. In H4 the UNSC/humans feel to powerful. It didnt ever feel like we were on the edge of annihilation like in H1,2,& 3.
That’s because we aren’t fighting the Covenant Empire in Halo 4.
I think nostalgia tints a lot of halo player’s perception of halo 4 (the campaign at least). Things like the enemy not being scary like previous games is probably because when we played older titles we were 1) younger and 2) not as exposed to as much “scary” stuff as nowadays: we’re probably just desensitized.
Things like jackals changing is just superficial man, it doesn’t affect the game in anyway, and to my eyes they still represent what nylund described in the fall of reach really well.
Also the marines were SOOO much worse in halo 3 than now. does anyone remember being driven round in circles in new mombasa? the worst halo experience i’ve had lol.
Finally, the less covenant that speak english the better. its just unrealistic and an immersion breaker,i’m english and i cant speak french-so how can a loose conglomeration of alien species all speak a language from a planet they’ve never even seen before?
just because things were in older games doesn’t mean they were great, in fact i think 343 did an awesome job in halo 4, the campaign, and aspects of MP were brilliant 
> Finally, the less covenant that speak english the better. its just unrealistic and an immersion breaker,i’m english and i cant speak french-so how can a loose conglomeration of alien species all speak a language from a planet they’ve never even seen before?
Even Bungie thought it was cooler that the Covenant spoke their own language.