Halo needs a reboot

Games Halo Infinite
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But not of Bungies games. Before I’m labeled a bungie fanboy just hear me out.

It’s clear that the story in Halo is a total mess as of Halo 5 and its even worse now after they pulled a Rise of Skywalker here with Infinite.

We know that Infinite went through development he’ll and quite frankly, it really shows… both in MP and Campaign.

I will admit that gameplay is much improved from Halo 5 but the campaign and story and mission design was overall very weak.

Halo in an open world setting just isn’t necessary.

The original Bungie trilogy, Reach and even Halo 4 to some degree prove that all that’s needed for a great Halo campaign is a linear campaign with a solid story, great set pieces and careful planning. If you keep the story simple none of this open world crap is necessary.

All that stuff does is pads the game with nothing meaningful and takes away focus from developing a good story and well designed missions.

Look at Halo CE… so simple in its structure yet people are still replaying that campaign all the time because it had solid characters, an interesting yet simple story, great music and great yet simple gameplay. No grapple hook, no sprint, no equipment, no FOBs, no open world… just the core elements that make a solid game.

Too often in modern gaming I see developers losing sight of the simple things that make a great game and the story in modern games always end up feeling stale and heartless… but the game is full of all these little meaningless quirks and gameplay tweaks and useless open world stuff that has no meaning but just wastes everyone’s time.

Guys the story of the Halo universe is FUBAR post Halo 5 and Infinite. The whole franchise which was once a tight Sci fi franchise with rich lore is a shell of its former self and has become the next Star Wars after Disney ruined it.

With each new story its only going to get worse and worse. Instead of just trying to mend things by turning this into a full on fan service/fan fiction franchise that attempts to ease our pain with nostalgia just retcon Halo 5 and everything that followed that game from the lore and make a new sequel to Halo 4.

Or I would even argue maybe scrap everything starting with Halo 4 and up. Start right over from where Bungie left things with the Legendary ending of Halo 3 and fire a team together that truly understands Halo and cares about the franchise.

Go back to simplifying things and just deliver a solid linear campaign that has the exact same art style that Bungie had… make it an M rated Sci fi franchise again instead of pandering to children to try and increase sales.

Stop trying to figure out new models like F2P as a way to squeeze the most money out of people and instead redirect that effort at just making a great game and the people will come.

Make Halo great again.

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Infinite tries to be one. Besides, I don’t think it’s feasible with video games. I’ve never heard of another example of it, to the point where we would redo Halo 4, 5, and Infinite (would you include Halo Wars 2), but keep CE, 2, 3, Halo Wars, ODST, and Reach.

We aren’t going to get a reboot, and beyond the dramatic artstyle change, I don’t think Halo 4 needs one. To be honest, I don’t think 5 does either. Cortana’s behaviour could have very simply been explained as being a result of her time with the Gravemind. In Halo 3, she even says so much of her isn’t right, and she’s not sure how much of her old self is left. In Halo 4, the last part of Cortana dies to save Chief, while the corrupted majority of her is pulled into slipspace. In Infinite, you have Halsey make the Weapon as an exact copy of Cortana (which is the case anyway), and by the end, have the Weapon become Cortana – she gets her memories, and keeps any new ones. But as the Weapon is an exact copy, she has Cortana’s personality, and not the naive one we see in Infinite. She’s just like she was when her and Chief first met, and by the end of the game, is Cortana with her rampancy clock restarted – aged only about 6 months.

Infinite could have resolved 4, 5, and Halo Wars 2, while setting itself up well. I don’t think it did any of these, and has left the story in an even worse state than Halo 5 did, in its attempt to be quick about it.

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To be fair, I haven’t done a deep dive into the story from Halo 5 onwards. I know the general idea of 5. I played through the campaign on launch but unfortunately there’s lots of deep diving into the lore required with 343s games if you want to get a better understanding of the stories.

I’m going by my memories of 5 in just how it felt so lifeless and bland to me at the time and that everyone bashes it. Maybe it’s not as bad as I think. I’m currently going through all the games and as many of the books as possible and working my way through the story…

But I have seen some spoilers for Infinite and to me it just sounds like a total rise of skywalker. Like Cortana’s turn and everything now feels cheap and basically sounds like 343 hit the undo button.

And to me, when a franchise starts hitting the undo button on massive ideas I see it as a franchise that has become a mess and no longer feels immersive. It indicates that there is a lack of creative care from the people in charge.

I just think it’s a shame when a once great franchise gets run into the ground.

I say a reboot is worth it at this point. Even if it means rebooting from Infinite onwards. I think if I’m being honest Infinite is where things likely got to their worst.

A bland story like Halo 5 doesn’t really mean the franchise was ruined… a solid sequel can make up for that.

But when you start abandoning things that were set up with a “spiritual reboot” and start trying to fan service your way out of trouble I’d argue that at that point you have kinda ruined the franchise…

I’ve heard halo wars 2 had a really good story. So maybe it’s best that 343 just retcon Infinite and give us a Halo 6 xbox series x exclusive rather than clinging onto this ridiculous ten year model for Infinite.

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Honestly, as someone who liked 4 story wise, I wish chief’s story ended in 3 and halo ended with reach.

Stories are much better when they have an ending. Rather than constantly trying to drum up new stuff, finding out people don’t like it, and discarding it.

I don’t think a reboot would do anything to address this, it’d just be the issue on a larger level.

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I’ve thought of that as well… I do find it a bit awkward and forced fighting elites in the first level of Halo 4 or even the covenant for that matter after halo 3 gave such a strong impression that the covenant and human war was over… especially with the lack of in game explanation during 4.

and even with the whole rogue splinter faction explanation it always still felt forced and unnatural to some degree.

Maybe the best bet would’ve been to just make more prequel games that follow master chief in some of the earlier conflicts of the covenant war.

As much as I love the OT I just feel like it’s not enough and that a more modern Halo game featuring cheif should exist with the improved graphics and all that but it doesn’t necessarily have to take place after 3. Just a human covenant story featuring chief that gives us a modern halo game to play and expands on the lore would’ve been fine.

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This was supposed to be it!!

Hence the way the game was designed backwards, rather than continuing the story properly. They decided they wanted an open world, live service game and then made things fit in retroactively.

It’s painfully obvious that they tried to leave the previous games behind and start a new story arc, which is ridiculous, as it’s supposed to be the climax of a trilogy. It’s as if they got bored of the previous storyline and just thought they would just move on to something new.

I promise you this was supposed to be the reboot however, it’s abundantly clear that there were some really, really big issues with the consistency of the long-term creative vision and management of the project. The result is about 5 different games, all rolled into one incomplete title but wearing a Halo skin.

It’s heartbreaking.

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No it doesn’t. Infinite is a perfect mini reboot.

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And yet the game works, it is fun to play and as some one who loved reach and ODST it is the best halo I have had access to in a long time.

I love the new story how it shows a side of chief we only see in the books, I love the gameplay as it is taking CE’s combat encounters to the max.

And I love what it is doing for the lore gameplay wise, it shows us that even a super hero in this case can fall, and when chief fails he has a lot of work but still is able to do what others see as impossible he is hope and that is good.

IS the game perfect hell no, is it the best way they could have done a mini reboot hell yes.

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Yea, they could actually have written a halfway decent Halo game with Chief being the new Spartan 4 trainer, Osiris being his “best students” so to speak.

And when Chief does go Awol in 5 to get Cortana back, it would actually hurt for Osiris to be pointing the gun at a mentor they know and respect.

But instead we have a split campaign between Blue Team and Osiris and no idea why any of anything matters. Sequel for Sequel’s sake.

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A full on M rated reboot arguably couldve been much better.

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Halo CE doesn’t even get an M rating anymore, halo has never really earned its M rating.

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