Halo evolved: Making Halo 5 the Best Halo Game

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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Hi fellow Halo fanatics, I have been contemplating about making this topic for a while now but time constraint and responsibilities kept me from making it. I really hope that you guys read this topic thoroughly as I have spend some time constructing it.

So, what would make Halo 5 the best Halo game? What would make it stand out this fall from other big releases? What would help this game retain a large population over a long period of time? There is no single best answer to these questions. There are many things 343 needs to do to make Halo 5 the best halo, to make it stand out this fall and to keep the post launch population as high as possible.

1) Halo 5 needs Custom Games Browser. This is one addition that will benefit Halo 5 hugely. Halo games give a lot of creative power to halo players with custom games options and forge. These features in the game allow players to build entirely new maps and new game types that can be very fun, innovative and unique. A lot of major game types in Halo games have emerged from the community and not the Developers. Race, Griftball and Infection are few of the major examples of this. And then their are minor gametypes like Tower of Power from Halo 2. Unfortunately, you can share your new gametypes and maps with friends only. A custom games browser will greatly increase the importance and significance of tools like forge and custom game options. It will have a huge impact on the Halo community. It will introduce endless variety and replay value for the game. It stands to benefit everyone. Both the halo community and 343/Microsoft. 343 can make a lot of money with this. Dice allows players to rent and purchase servers for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.


I fail to see how Microsoft and 343 don’t benefit from this. They can make a lot of money by renting out servers. Doing this with Halo would have huge impact. It stands to benefit everyone.

Now you might say that, “I don’t really make new gametypes and maps so why should I care?”. Well you should care because there is a lot of talent out there in the Halo community and a Customs Games browser means that you can play a whole lot of new gametypes and maps without having to make them and search for people to play them with. It can greatly increase the replay value of the game for you. It means you can play new and fun gametypes like these and more months and years after launch.
Jenga Tower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMNwt2EXUzY
Hunger games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6yoyK7n4pw
Running Riots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTYDTlkF2HI
Mortal Kombat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3PWl3FrzC0

Speaking of custom games, make the custom games options deeper than they were in halo 4 and halo reach. Allow us to turn off sprint and other spartan abilities in custom games. Bring back all the armor abilities for custom games. The more options and equipment we have, the better.

2) Forge needs to evolve. Forge is greatly behind map creators from other games. Now lets take a look at Far Cry 4 map editor:

And the snap map from the latest Doom game:
These are vastly superior to Halo’s forge. How to make Halo’s forge much better? Lets start by adding Day and Night cycle/options, minor weather effects, terrain editing and creation, different terrain themes, like grassy, snow and sandy desert and the ability to add natural objects like various trees and bushed or patches of grass, sand and snow. Also, instead of making all the objects only gray metal like in Halo reach and White or Stone like in Halo 4/H2A, they need to greatly increase the options in object colors.

3) Firefight needs to be reintroduced and evolved. What’s a simple way to improve firefight? It’s simple. Copy Gears of War 3’s horde mode and include every single enemy type from the past halo games. How did Gears of War 3’s horde more worked? Player first set a up a base. As the match goes on, player are able to build their base and improve it’s defensive capabilities. Every 10 waves, their would be a boss wave. It was wave after wave of enemies with increasing difficulty to survive. Basically, make firefight into base defense. And at every 10th wave, introduce a major boss fights. Send in Hunters at wave 10 or a mini-scarab at wave 20.


4) Space wars. It’s about time that Halo has space battles in online multiplayer. Halo is a sci-fi game and the concept of online space battles makes too much sense for it to not be in the game. Make it a 12 v 12, 8 v 8 or even a 4 v 4 team battle with a objective in mind. Give us a few different canvases/backgrounds for different maps. I am thinking something along the lines of Star Wars Battlefront here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwXd8dynkv8

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I would also like to make it clear that I am fine with them adding these things post launch. I want a ver stable and functional product at launch above everything else. I do realize this might be a little too much but this games needs to do a little too much to be outstanding.

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I would love space wars. I wanna pilot a Broadsword or Sabre again.

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> 2533274808578327;3:
> I would love space wars. I wanna pilot a Broadsword or Sabre again.

Exactly. I really hope they surprise us and include something like that in the game.

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I feel like the Firefight idea is cool, but in my opinion it belongs as a multiplayer element to a separate titled Halo game that could be released between the major Master Chief saga titles; a spin-off game that focuses on either a story surrounding ODSTs or Spartan IIIs or maybe expanding on the Spartan IVs in or around the Spartan Ops story line from Halo 4. The main titles (Master Chief’s saga) should remain focused on fully supporting the traditional matchmaking experiences (smaller team and arena stuff or bigger team stuff).

An element of the Space Wars idea reminds me of something I’ve hoped to see offered in Halo since Halo: Reach’s space battle campaign mission. Nevertheless, I think it deserves to be part of a separate spin-off game; maybe it could be paired as another multiplayer option with the Firefight option within that particular spin-off game.

While Forge does need to continue to evolve and grow, maps created in Forge need to maintain a high level of fidelity when being played online and I worry that some of the directions you suggest may compromise some of that, so my position is, “steady as you go” but definitely continue to innovate and expand the forge experience.

Again, while I would love to see a custom games browser where players can rent servers to run their games I worry that something like that could potentially greatly harm the standard matchmaking player base population by creating a scenario where the player base is too easily fragmented. Some times great ideas don’t always realize the unintended consequences that they can create.