Halo: Firefight spin-off; would you buy it?

Games Other Halo
1

The Warzone Firefight beta has given me serious doubts about the future of PvE in Halo 5: Guardians. For someone who loved Firefight in both Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, the lack of customization, offline play, and single-players means that Warzone Firefight will not satisfy my Halo PvE thirst.

If you take both iterations of Firefight, plus Warzone Firefight and Spartan Ops, Halo: Reach definitely had the best PvE side-mode out of all the Halo games. I’ll never understand why 343i didn’t just take Reach’s Firefight mode and improve upon it, rather than try and create these brand-new modes that only leave players wanting.

With that in mind, I have a question; hypothetically speaking, if 343i were to take Reach’s Firefight mode and sell it as a standalone product with three times the maps, plus weapons and vehicles… would you buy it?

I don’t know about you, but I would. I want more Firefight, and there’s so much 343i could do to improve upon Reach’s Firefight:

1. Play as Heretic Elites fighting alongside Spartans against the Covenant.
2. Add customization option for “Set Skulls” like in Halo 3: ODST’s firefight.
3. Add “Vehicle Options” that let us change the vehicles that spawn on the map, like in Halo 2’s multiplayer.
4. Add friendly AI to all Warthog maps, including Beachhead and Unearthed.
5. Add new, bigger maps with bigger battles with up 48 enemy AI, with heavy vehicles like the Scorpion and Falcon.

I’m thinking add all of that, plus 20+ new Firefight maps, returning weapons like the Battle Rifle and SMG, and new vehicles like a prototype version of the Mantis, and maybe some vehicles from Halo Wars as well. Ever looked at some of the OP vehicles from Halo Wars and wanted to drive them in a normal Halo game? I sure have; for Halo: Firefight, I’d really love to see the Sparrowhawk and Locust added to the sandbox. They would fit nicely with the bigger maps and large-scale vehicle battles that I crave.

That’s another thing that I thought Firefight always needed; big vehicle battles. I was always a fan of those kinds of encounters in the Campaign, like the Scorpion segments of Assault on the Control Room in Halo: CE, basting through hordes Ghosts on the bridge of the Metropolis level in Halo 2, and those giant battles with the Scarabs and Hornet on The Ark and The Covenant in Halo 3. If they could create those kinds of battles in Firefight, that would be awesome.

They don’t even need to make all brand-new maps to do it. The majority of the new maps should be brand-new, custom-made for Firefight, but there are also some BTB and Invasion maps that could be repurposed for large Firefight maps; Boneyard, Spire, and Breakpoint from Halo: Reach are all excellent candidates, and there’s also Sandtrap from Halo 3, and Longbow from Halo 4.

One last thing to keep in mind; this game would be an extension of Halo: Reach. That means all the armor customization, rank and commendation progress would carry over from Halo: Reach to Halo: Firefight. So if you loved Halo: Reach, and you loved Firefight, this game would just give you more of what you love.

So, what do you think? Like I said; I want more Firefight, and if 343i were to do something like this, I would pay for it. Sell it as maybe a $20-$30 dollar downloadable title on Xbox One, and I’d be cool with that.

2

I do agree that a larger iteration or implementation of Firefight would be great. However, I also view Reach’s firefight mode as one of the biggest letdowns of the game. Sure, it was awesome that it had it - but they didn’t accomplish nearly what they could have. And after they released a few of the games patches and updates, they kind of started handing the keys over to 343 pretty quickly, abandoning a lot of their ideas.

Like Firefight versus? I played Reach the most out of any game in my life - and only got to play one game of Versus. One of the most underdeveloped game modes in the entire franchise.

Part of the problem with Reach FF was that it lacked the “survival” part of ODST. There was either a time limit, or a round limit.

So to sum up - yes I would definitely buy a FF spinoff. However, it would need to be done correctly, more like ODST than like Reach. I’d love to see it as a bonus to Halo 3 Anniversary in 2017, but I really doubt that would happen.

3

without a doubt…NO…IMHO, 343 has completely abandoned the older gamers such as myself…Halo 5 requires quicker reflexes and better eyesight that start to go downhill as we get older. I will be playing Reach until the lights are turned out and last call is made…

4

> 2533274850493408;2:
> I do agree that a larger iteration or implementation of Firefight would be great. However, I also view Reach’s firefight mode as one of the biggest letdowns of the game. Sure, it was awesome that it had it - but they didn’t accomplish nearly what they could have. And after they released a few of the games patches and updates, they kind of started handing the keys over to 343 pretty quickly, abandoning a lot of their ideas.
>
> Like Firefight versus? I played Reach the most out of any game in my life - and only got to play one game of Versus. One of the most underdeveloped game modes in the entire franchise.
>
> Part of the problem with Reach FF was that it lacked the “survival” part of ODST. There was either a time limit, or a round limit.
>
> So to sum up - yes I would definitely buy a FF spinoff. However, it would need to be done correctly, more like ODST than like Reach. I’d love to see it as a bonus to Halo 3 Anniversary in 2017, but I really doubt that would happen.

Halo: Reach’s Firefight had all the customization options there so you could recreate that survival aspect. The only thing it was missing was ODST’s Set Skulls (Skulls that activate at the start of a Set and remain active for the rest of the game), and that’s something they could add in a spin-off like this.

Only other thing they would need is some kind of ranked Firefight playlist; no matchmaking (since you probably wouldn’t want to play with randoms who might quit), with a minimum of 1 player (if you want to fly solo) and a maximum of 4 players (if you want to do it with friends). Call it “Firefight Survival”; Heroic difficulty, unlimited rounds, goes on until you run out of lives just like ODST.

Then of course there would be Arcadefight, which would be just as it is Halo: Reach, and Score Attack; there should also be another solo Firefight playlist like Score Attack, but with 3 rounds instead of 1, Dropships and Hazards enabled for those who still need to grind commendations, as well as random mixed enemies rather than the usual Grunts > Jackals > Brutes > Skirmishers > Elites progression.

But no way should a Firefight spin-off be as restrictive as Halo 3: ODST. Only one never-ending game mode with no customization options? Not everyone wants to play that. That’s what made Halo: Reach’s Firefight better; you could tailor it to your personal preferences, so I don’t know why you’re complaining about it.

5

> 2533274834952794;4:
> > 2533274850493408;2:
> > I do agree that a larger iteration or implementation of Firefight would be great. However, I also view Reach’s firefight mode as one of the biggest letdowns of the game. Sure, it was awesome that it had it - but they didn’t accomplish nearly what they could have. And after they released a few of the games patches and updates, they kind of started handing the keys over to 343 pretty quickly, abandoning a lot of their ideas.
> >
> > Like Firefight versus? I played Reach the most out of any game in my life - and only got to play one game of Versus. One of the most underdeveloped game modes in the entire franchise.
> >
> > Part of the problem with Reach FF was that it lacked the “survival” part of ODST. There was either a time limit, or a round limit.
> >
> > So to sum up - yes I would definitely buy a FF spinoff. However, it would need to be done correctly, more like ODST than like Reach. I’d love to see it as a bonus to Halo 3 Anniversary in 2017, but I really doubt that would happen.
>
>
> Halo: Reach’s Firefight had all the customization options there so you could recreate that survival aspect. The only thing it was missing was ODST’s Set Skulls (Skulls that activate at the start of a Set and remain active for the rest of the game), and that’s something they could add in a spin-off like this.
>
> Only other thing they would need is some kind of ranked Firefight playlist; no matchmaking (since you probably wouldn’t want to play with randoms who might quit), with a minimum of 1 player (if you want to fly solo) and a maximum of 4 players (if you want to do it with friends). Call it “Firefight Survival”; Heroic difficulty, unlimited rounds, goes on until you run out of lives just like ODST.
>
> Then of course there would be Arcadefight, which would be just as it is Halo: Reach, and Score Attack; there should also be another solo Firefight playlist like Score Attack, but with 3 rounds instead of 1, Dropships and Hazards enabled for those who still need to grind commendations, as well as random mixed enemies rather than the usual Grunts > Jackals > Brutes > Skirmishers > Elites progression.
>
> But no way should a Firefight spin-off be as restrictive as Halo 3: ODST. Only one never-ending game mode with no customization options? Not everyone wants to play that. That’s what made Halo: Reach’s Firefight better; you could tailor it to your personal preferences, so I don’t know why you’re complaining about it.

I’m not complaining - I’m glad it was in the game. But it was completely inferior in terms of a fun gameplay to ODST. The Set Skulls is exactly what made ODST firefight so good and so challenging. It changed the way you had to play the game fundamentally, which created the fun. Reach? Nahh. Customization was cool! But replayability? Unless you loved Score Attack, there wasn’t something to keep you coming back, there wasn’t a hurdle to overcome. There was no gauntlet to Reach (ha ha). The Vidmaster challenges related to ODST in and of themselves were way more fun than the entirety of Reach FF.

I agree that it shouldn’t be restrictive - for all intents and purposes ODST FF was a Beta for Reach FF. But make the main game play and game mode the survival mode. It’s why FF was such a success in the first place.