Halo X1, the next installment and my thoughts

Now here I will give to you my sincere and hopefully unbiased thoughts in detail on my hopes of the next installment of Halo. Now some will agree that Halo 4 had its ups and down as 343i tried to add in new features of their own. Thus resulting in praise and insults. I for one enjoyed a few additions such as the new gametypes such as Dominion, Flood and Extraction but was upset because of the major adjustments that they implemented in with the game, such as no assault and a load of gametypes removed. (Headhunter, 3 plot, VIP, One Flag etc etc), removed air vehicles from UNSC and devolved version of Forge, thought we got Forge Islands and the three mid size maps to do Forging on, and just altered a lot of the key features of the original core of Halo. Things to me felt rushed in a sense but rather executed poorly while aspects were introduced correctly.

My thoughts while creating a proper game comes along way to what fans want and what the developers feel that gamers and fans alike will enjoy and will always come back for more. I, myself as a HUGE Halo fan and have played them all and seen where the games have led. I, along with many other gamers out there enjoyed those times during matchmaking and getting that crazy stick across the map or getting the final kill after a very close game of team slayer. I for one enjoyed those moments the most and still even to this fay have the clips saved.

For Halo 4, during its release, I played the crap out of it, and I am sure a lot of you did as well, along with drinking down the game fuel that combined with the adrenaline that made you feel like never before. Then as the time went on, you started to realize things that stood out that made you not enjoy the game as much as it did in the previous years, such as things from, the game being to CoD like, things that werent added into the game such as fine editing during forge and game modes to the smallest of things such as armor customization and the UI.

I to have felt these feelings from you guys and I have to say that I enjoy Halo 4 but not as much as the others. It just didnt have that feel that kept bringing me back time after time again. So to Halo 5, my hopes are that I hope you are better and will introduce new hings with the return of some if not all features thats your past installments had. Keep me coming back.

So here are my thoughts and hopes that I would like to see in the next game or the one after.

Campaign:

Halo’s campaign was and will be amazing no matter what. I hope that Halo 5’s story will be longer than anything we have seen, possibly as long as Halo CE or longer.

Features I want returned are as followed.

-Skulls with Achievements - Finding these skulls were a blast and I enjoyed trying to find them with friends along with the achievements you got with them after you found them, I believe bringing this feature back will be a good start on recovery.

-Easter Eggs - Now there are fans who enjoy taking the time to find these and will tell everyone about them but honestly I think we need more than what we are given, no?

-Team and FFA Scoring - This feature I think will be a good return as will because I know people who enjoyed the scoring system in Halo and I am sure without a doubt people want them returned

Matchmaking:

Now I hear different mixes on want people want and what people don’t want. Either way, I guess one or another, things might/will change if 343i feels the need to do so. People have said that Sprint should not be in Halo simply because its a “get out of free jail card”, “ruins maps design”, while others say its good for “getting around better”. (Sorry couldnt think what else would make it as a good thing besides getting around, feel free to add in though).
Now I know that some people want to revert back to how Halo 2, Halo 3 were like with a set loadout, even grounds and standard running speed without Sprint. Now alot can argue on thier matters to whether they like and want Sprint to those who don’t want it applied at all.

To me as long as the map design and I feel like I will be coming back for years to come then I welcome it, but it needs to be balanced, therefore in place of AA, the Equipment from Halo 3 could be added in. AA from what I have seen have done nothing more than bring hatred, since it seems like a lot of people just dislike them, Armor Lock for an example. People hate it so much, say it slows down time and blah blah blah. Well last time I checked the time will still going the same as usual. I welcomed Armor Lock and I think the AA in Reach ar better than that of Halo 4, again IMO. Now I know Im not all that great to help with giving ideas to help with matchmaking but some ideas to help make it seem interesting.
There is a post on these forums to where people have gathered and giving their ideas and thoughts on improving MM, but I cant seem to find it but looking wont hurt anyone. Its a community thread to 343i to help with Matchmaking.
If anyone can please post a link, since I cant seem to find it. Thanks!

Ok so as far as we know there have been different various playlist regarding MM. Along with the different gametypes avaiable to us. We had many to choose from but some where gathered into only specific playlists but with Halo 4, and its introduction regarding newer playlists, the older ones should have not disappear and with the outrage of the fans, 343i has decided to add them in, better late than never I’d say. More or less we fell short on gametypes along with a batch of interesting good ones as well. Deminion was a nice step into the direction of a gametype but shouldn’t replaced Invasion. Flood was amazing I say, but should have been scarier and more freightening, and if need be 343i should take ideas from EA with Dead Space to make the Flood actually scary in Campaign and Matchmaking. Also alot of people complained that it replaced the original infection which can be returned. I’d say return both. Last but not least Extraction, though this played nice, I think it was unrated and I believe with the proper tweaks could make this even better.

My ideas in regards to the Flood have made me enjoy it alot, actually probably more than the easy infection gametype from the previous Halo’s. The flood gametype should actually been made to be and play scary, very dark lite rooms, blood on the walls and floor, dead bodies with their bodies riped from the inside out. These ideas could come from the very own Mona Lisa film 343i did. I think the Flood should be like so. After playing the Flood gametype I felt it was just there to be there and had no innovation to make it feel scary and intense. I think they should work on that along with tweaking the other gametypes.
Invansion was a gametype we all know that had multiple gametypes involved. We had Assault, CTF, Territory and Extracting the bomb and can’t forget Invasion Slayer. Though these were great and I highly enjoyed Invasion, I believe that Extraction and possibly a few newer ideas should be implemented into Invasion making us able to choose more selections whenever making our maps. I am postive the community could shine some ideas on some great gametypes. So I say let your ideas fly guys!

If you guys have anything else to add in feel free to do so.

Forge:

We all know that Halo 4’s Forge was a slight setback from Halo Reach, they added in Lighting, volume traits, magnets, a few different areas to Forge on and a different pallet for each. Though not comaprable to Forge World, I think 343i did an alright job for their first Halo game so far but they need some work to PERFECT the formula. I couldnt help but not find a whole lot of interest in Forge this time around because of the minor setbacks, and yes though small these setbacks can cause damage to the fanbase. The minor setbacks were as followed:

  • No fine editing

  • Cant zoom in with Monitor

  • Items not being ale to spawn because of other objects were too close to them

  • Maps not saving properly and overwriting other maps

  • Soft Barriers caused many issues and should be properly implemented at reasonable areas instead of right in front of you

  • Convy objects like the Plasma Battery and weapon crates were not added but thrown aside

  • Fusion Coils, when exploded really didnt look like an explosion but rather a small pile of lava, which was weird.

  • Lighting was diffective

Though there are probably more just throw them in. Now to the major issues, what the fans wanted.

  • Set Weather

  • Set Time of Day to create Dawn, Morning, Evening, Dusk, and Night

  • An actual Forge Mode similar to that of Far Cry or better rather than an Item placer Mode

  • Better object like area skins, like grass, sand, damaged, bloody areas <— great for Flood mode Gametype, etc. Along with object like bodies, and so on.
    Though there are more ideas on this, just add them in.

Theater

This should be implemented into each and every gamemode from Campaign, to MM, to Forge and so on and add in the flying camera from ODST.

File Sharing

This needs to be updated badly because I honestly think it could be better. I am still not able to check out people’s file share when in a lobby before a match starts which needs to return.

This guy made a great point watch the vid! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pmelhfZGx4
Or this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ-INnD_N90

Also after completing a map and after saving it, you should been given the option to at least set a picture that goes over the original picture of each map. Though this is a small thing I hope to see it.

If you guys have anything else to add in feel free to do so.

Thanks for reading.

Flood didn’t even look like flood IMO. I don’t know why, but apparently spartan variants look vastly different from the usual marine variants, leaving me rather puzzled. Its an interesting concept, but if they can make them appear to look more familiar than what Halo 4 shows, then i think people would appreciate it more. Personally, i’m happy that 3 plots didn’t return. I played it in Reach and i hated it. One thing that really has to go is the jet-pack. It gets abused so much, and i hate it. I’m actually finding it hard to imagine how MM would play out without sprint now. I got used to it playing reach and 4 online so much, and when i play Halo 3 online (very rarely) it just feels so foreign despite playing the campaign non-stop for years. Everything just feels slow mo again. lol.