HOW TO FIX HALO 5

[MasterAndChief]

This is a follow up forum to my previous post to better explain what I think 343 did wrong in Halo 5 and give examples of what is wrong as well as areas from previous Halos they should draw ideas from. With Halo 5 though there were a LOT of mistakes, I just want to help 343 make it the system seller/killer app that it is very much capable of being! A lot of these are personal opinions so feel free to disagree but please give good reasoning as to why

The BAD:
-Very LINEAR mission design
I think of missions such as Silent Cartographer, Attack on the Control Room, Tsavo Highway, The Ark, and The Covenant as missions that were very non-linear. Yes you still have to get from point A to point B but there were many different ways to achieve that. Halo 5 feels claustrophobic in comparison. Previous Halos had a very organic way of merging ground and vehicle combat.
-NO epic scale battles
The Ark and The Covenant in Halo 3 are the definition of Epic Scale Battles on console. To this day They are still amongst my favorite levels ever designed in a game.
-Where Are the SCARABS??
The Kraken is just a platform of enemies that does not actually attack you and the Kraken itself does not move whatsoever. Even in Halo 2 where the scarab did not attack you directly you saw its capability to destroy everything firsthand. Halo 3 the scarabs were actual enemies that would attack and engage the player and also had enemies on them. The scarabs are a staple of Halo 3 and my favorite enemy in any game, please bring them back. Maybe even drive one
-Even Vehicle missions are just larger hallways
I know some levels in Halo 5 are a bit more open such as Meridian but even those levels still did not feel as open as levels from Previous Halos. That level in particular was a very ugly level graphically and also all we fought was Prometheans
-Prometheans still not fun to fight (Soldiers are very annoying)
The knights and watchers have been greatly improved but the soldiers are nothing but a nuisance since they teleport all the time. I think to make the Prometheans a more interesting faction since they are here to stay is to: make the soldiers not teleport (act more like elites), have Promethean vehicles equivalent to the warthog and scorpion, and have more ranks in the units that can be identified visually (for instance have white, silver, black, and red unit colors)
-ZERO characterization (little)
As someone that only played the games and read The Fall of Reach (a very long time ago) I did not know what was going on for a large part and did not know the large cast of characters. I only knew blue team a little from the book all those years ago. When writing the game assume the general player has not read all of the EU and lore. I was very lost and did not care about any of the characters, especially Vale and Tanaka. Next Halo use a lot more cutscenes to properly introduce characters and give an intro video that catches players up.
-Killing off Jul M’Dama for no reason
While I did not enjoy playing spartan ops I very much enjoyed the cutscenes and story of it. Jul M’Dama was built up as a very strong character with lots of personality and motivation. Halo 5 erased all of the events of Halo 4 and Spartan Ops for no reason and they killed off Jul to show Locke as a powerful character. Instead it just made me hate Locke more, should have just arrested Jul as him meeting Arbiter could have been a very interesting story arc.
-Terrible story, too few blue team missions
Same as before, the story IMO was an abomination to the halo franchise. I needed more Blue team missions for more context as well as getting to know Blue team. I did not get to know blue team and did not get to see what all they were always up to. Where was their Meridian mission??
-Halsey wanting revenge to not caring anymore
In Spartan ops Halsey wanted revenge on ONI for taking her arm, now she does not care, even to Spartan Palmer who shot her. Why does Spartan Palmer not like Halsey again?
-Focused too much on coop yet NO SPLIT SCREEN?!?
No split-screen is a shot in the face to all halo fans. Halo is known for splitscreen and LAN parties. Playing campaign on Legendary IS HALO. Making it to where there always has to be four Spartans, even in AI form is detrimental to mission design. It ruins the ability for stealth missions and does not allow for the quiet moments or feeling of solace that previous halos allowed. Even Reach had some parts that allowed this and I did not like Reach’s story at all compared to the book.
-Content Held Back
No proof of this, but it seems like a lot of content, especially content seen in pre-release trailers, was ready for the game but to keep people engaged longer they thought it was a good idea to release it throughout the next year. I love that it’s all free but i wish for more maps, I do not like much of the map design.
-Too much focus on 60fps, graphics are good but not great, same with textures
Look at the game, the textures, particle effects, shadows, resolution, amount of AI, and etc were all downgraded to always lock at 60fps. I prefer 30fps if it would allow the game to include everything they had to downgrade. For players that want 60fps allow us to toggle graphics options for the campaign at least.
-Too Short of a campaign
Self explanatory, can be beaten in 4 hours. Yes it takes longer on Legendary but I did not even care to play it on legendary because of how poor the story and level design was.
-Not enough Playlist at launch
I still do not think there is enough playlist. Needs 4x as many permanent social playlist and an alternative warzone that is more casual. Not all modes need to be super competitive
-No Elites in MP
Please bring back invasion Great game mode and good reason fro having elites in MP. Make it a next gen invasion where its like 32 v 32. Battlefield can do it and look very pretty, why can Halo not?
-Map rotation is horribly broken
The map rotation is atrocious. Please allow a veto system as well as staying in a lobby. Also fix the UI especially for lobbies so its easier to see everyone’s rank and gamer tag. Look at Halo 3 or Halo 2 or Reach for a much better and cleaner UI.
-No armor unlocks for progression and skull collecting
I want armor for finding every collectible and beating the game on legendary. I want armor for achievements and armor for ranking up as well as the ability to customize all parts. I do not like armor sets. Why has the series taken away so much from this aspect?
-No Campaign Theater and no Forge at Launch
I’m glad we got forge flawlessly and improved as well, but we should still have had it at launch. Please add AI to forge as well so we can make our own engagements and mini-missions Also I loved reliving moments from the campaign in theater mode, why is this gone?
-Too much focus on esports community rather then the general audience which are casual players
Halo 5 MP is awesome, do not get me wrong. I love it overall, I just personally suck at it. Needs more modes to appeal to casuals and include different version of warzone. Maybe have the current one, a 32 v 32 PvP only one, and a 12 v 12 one where there is 4x as many AIs so even players who suck can feel as if they are helping their team.

HALO 5 is a good game, great value. However, it is the WORST ‘halo game’ in my opinion. 343 only needs to look to the past and incorporate some of what I have listed to really make a fantastic game. I know you are capable of it 343! I want Halo to rise to king of FPS once again.

[Krylon_Blue]

No Split screen - fine by me. I’m pissed off Gears 4 is allowing it at the cost of dropping to 30FPS on the campaign. If a developer can’t pull off a solid 60 then I don’t want the feature added that costs it. 30FPS feels like crap.

[recon_Z_3_R_0]

I don’t want to take anything away from anyone’s desire to see this game be (fill in the blank with whatever it is that you want it to be). But I will say that a lot of the disappointment that flows through the discussions of H5 campaign has to do with what I think are two different forms of mistaken expectations.

The first mistaken expectation is one of scale. Its the idea that in order for a thing to be better than the thing it replaces it must be BIGGER. Limits must always be stretched, boundaries broken, etc etc etc. It’s not a bad thing that every Halo has been a little bigger than its predecessor, right up until we allow ourselves to expect each one to be bigger. Bigger is not always better. I’d take a small-scale campaign with a solid story, good writing, nice character development, and a point to make… I’d take that any day over a campaign that was a lot of bright and shiny objects interspersed with frenzied and meaningless activity with HUGE vehicles and SCARY enemies and SUPER MEGA LASER BLASTERS and all the other things which amount to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. To put it another way, campaign story and game play does not have to be epic in scale in order to be of incredibly high quality, nor is epic scale any kind of guarantee that you are getting high quality in your game. I think it’s a mistake to assume that the two things are inextricably linked.

The second mistaken expectation is one of pattern. “Halo campaigns have always been about the Chief therefore the next campaign must be all about the Chief.” “The Chief always fights the bad guy therefore Cortana must be bad.” These kinds of expectations are very natural and very human and very much a mistake. And it isn’t as if Halo has no history of challenging such expectations. Reach, for example, had absolutely no Chief at all. Of course, no one was lead to expect the Chief to appear and therefore we didn’t indulge our disappointment at his absence, but make no mistake: if you had asked H3 players to vote on whether the next Halo title should be about the Chief or not even include the Chief then I’m sure none of us would even know where Reach is. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask for more blue team missions, and I’m not saying that we all need to suck it up and learn to love Locke. What I’m saying is that a campaign story is a fundamentally artistic endeavor that follows the creativity and invention of the writers and storytellers at 343. We should give them some latitude to tell this story the way they want to tell it. By all means, wish that they had told it differently if you have to. But if all you’re looking for is for the story to fit into some pre-existing model, some heretofore immutable design where the “good guy” shoots things, pushes some buttons, blows some stuff up, and then kills the “bad guy,” then you are wishing away the kind of creative impulse without which these games cannot move forward. (Yes, I genuinely believe that Brian Reed is the savior of Halo. Flame away!)

Okay, I’ve blathered enough. Bring on the scarabs and the playable elites and the falcons and the bruteshots!

[UrbaneRocket495]

While I agree more or less…how is Tsavo Highway a sandbox?

[MasterAndChief]

> 2533274964189700;4:
> While I agree more or less…how is Tsavo Highway a sandbox?

Tsavo Highway is not a massive sandbox level but there are still many portions of that level that give a good illusion of being open with lots of choice. The part where you have to take out the three wraiths for instance and can use the chopper, warthogs, another wraith, turrets, or do in on foot via boarding all make it a level with lots of options. It is also a much longer mission than most of Halo 5’s and is entirely vehicle based, for the most part, and is very well designed with the vehicles it gives us.

[sniper945]

> 2533274805960860;2:
> No Split screen - fine by me. I’m pissed off Gears 4 is allowing it at the cost of dropping to 30FPS on the campaign. If a developer can’t pull off a solid 60 then I don’t want the feature added that costs it. 30FPS feels like crap.

See, there are ways around this issue bruv, the world isn’t black and white.

[JarboyP]

I kind of like not having chief the main character anymore. I like him, but I was starting to get a little bored of him. My only wish is that Locke was characterized a little more.
The big issue I have with Halo 5 is no splitscreen. This kind of ruined Halo 5 for me, as I mainly like the Halo series for the splitscreen. It is always fun having a “Halo party” at your house, playing custom games over and over again.

[TopperHarley396]

My formula is:

• Fix the damn netcode - Improve the damn servers - Widen the damn radar in every playlist and make an MLG one with the actual one

[MasterAndChief]

> 2533274853641752;7:
> I kind of like not having chief the main character anymore. I like him, but I was starting to get a little bored of him. My only wish is that Locke was characterized a little more.
> The big issue I have with Halo 5 is no splitscreen. This kind of ruined Halo 5 for me, as I mainly like the Halo series for the splitscreen. It is always fun having a “Halo party” at your house, playing custom games over and over again.

I wouldn’t say I am bored with the MasterChief at all but I wouldn’t mind playing as other characters. I have no problem at all playing as other characters as long as they are developed well and make me care about them. If the character you play as is meant to be silent then at least flesh out the team more. Halo 3 ODST had a fantastic campaign in my opinion. Characters of Rookie’s Squad all felt like actual team members and were given personalities that were likable as well as connectable. Halo Reach’s campaign was the worst in my opinion, but still better than Halo 5, largely cause at least the story was easy to understand and the AI in that game were very smart and tactical, especially the elites.

I agree about split-screen though. 60fps should not require cutting so much core content that’s been in every other halo game. People give Halo 4 crap but it shipped with split-screen, forge, big team battle, social playlists, and unlock able armor by rank and achievements. People having fun and playing split-screen at a person’s house can cause them to realize how great halo is for 4-player split-screen in custom games and cause them to but Xbox ones as well. Good word of mouth is what causes sales to go up and more consoles to be sold. Halo 5 has a very bad word of mouth at the moment for the lack of content and core features.

I believe 343 will really improve with Halo 6 though as the community has been very vocal this time around about what we expect from a ‘Halo Game’ at launch.

[SeaDew92235]

xbox one’s gpu process units its not capable for split screen, can’t afford split screen with stable 60fps.

[A_Blue_Illusion]

> 2533274873843883;3:
> I don’t want to take anything away from anyone’s desire to see this game be (fill in the blank with whatever it is that you want it to be). But I will say that a lot of the disappointment the flows through the discussions of H5 campaign has to do with what I think are two different forms of mistaken expectations.
>
> The first mistaken expectation is one of scale. Its the idea that in order for a thing to be better than the thing it replaces it must be BIGGER. Limits must always be stretched, boundaries broken, etc etc etc. It’s not a bad thing that every Halo has been a little bigger than its predecessor, right up until we allow ourselves to expect each one to be bigger. Bigger is not always better. I’d take a small-scale campaign with a solid story, good writing, nice character development, and a point to make… I’d take that any day over a campaign that was a lot of bright and shiny objects interspersed with frenzied and meaningless activity with HUGE vehicles and SCARY enemies and SUPER MEGA LASER BLASTERS and all the other things which amount to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. To put it another way, campaign story and game play does not have to be epic in scale in order to be of incredibly high quality, nor is epic scale any kind of guarantee that you are getting high quality in your game. I think it’s a mistake to assume that the two things are inextricably linked.
>
> The second mistaken expectation is one of pattern. “Halo campaigns have always been about the Chief therefore the next campaign must be all about the Chief.” “The Chief always fights the bad guy therefore Cortana must be bad.” These kinds of expectations are very natural and very human and very much a mistake. And it isn’t as if Halo has no history of challenging such expectations. Reach, for example, had absolutely no Chief at all. Of course, no one was lead to expect the Chief to appear and therefore we didn’t indulge our disappointment at his absence, but make no mistake: if you had asked H3 players to vote on whether the next Halo title should be about the Chief or not even include the Chief then I’m sure none of us would even know where Reach is. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask for more blue team missions, and I’m not saying that we all need to suck it up and learn to love Locke. What I’m saying is that a campaign story is a fundamentally artistic endeavor that follows the creativity and invention of the writers and storytellers at 343. We should give them some latitude to tell this story the way they want to tell it. By all means, wish that they had told it differently if you have to. But if all you’re looking for is for the story to fit into some pre-existing model, some heretofore immutable design where the “good guy” shoots things, pushes some buttons, blows some stuff up, and then kills the “bad guy,” then you are wishing away the kind of creative impulse without which these games cannot move forward. (Yes, I genuinely believe that Brian Reed is the savior of Halo. Flame away!)
>
> Okay, I’ve blathered enough. Bring on the scarabs and the playable elites and the falcons and the bruteshots!

1. I don’t find “mistaken expectations” as black and white as that and I don’t believe others fit into scope that easily. I don’t require bigger and better to be happy with a game. I do expect it to at least try to meet a standard that says “comparable to” previous experiences, which doesn’t necessarily mean bigger and/or better.

2. Not in my experience. Halo 2 was about both Chief and Arbiter… and at least there was equal play time as each. I enjoyed H2’s campaign. As far as Cortana is concerned, I have no problem judging her character on its own. I don’t need Chief to either fight or try to reason with her in order to see her as the antagonist… she is the “bad guy”… and I can judge her, as that, upon her own character within the game’s setting. In fact, I could completely pull her from the game and the story that is Halo and judge her as “evil” based on her method to reach her agenda. That has nothing to do with my “expectations” of her or her role. I’m sorry if this sounds rude, I don’t mean it to, but the only way expectations that even you state as being “very natural and very human” could be “very much a mistake” is if 343 had planned on selling their game to robots. We are all very human, have very natural expectations and there’s is nothing wrong with that. Throwing all that out the window for the sake of progression is the true mistake I see here.

3. The fact is, however, that Reach is what it is and besides the discrepancies in lore that many dislike. It didn’t fall short of expectations (at least for me) overall because people knew what to expect and it delivered. Therefore, not as much disappointment to indulge IMO.

4. When has 343 not had the latitude to tell this story as they see fit? The game should be able to stand on its own as an entity, but the story doesn’t. It’s a single chapter in a saga. You can’t separate and isolate it from the others and you can’t expect people to not have at least some preconceived notions of what it will be like. It is bound to a “pre-existing model” by its very nature. I’ll just have to agree to (vehemently) disagree about Brian Reed.

[DopplerEffect93]

> 2533274805960860;2:
> No Split screen - fine by me. I’m pissed off Gears 4 is allowing it at the cost of dropping to 30FPS on the campaign. If a developer can’t pull off a solid 60 then I don’t want the feature added that costs it. 30FPS feels like crap.

It is a trade off. If you have the games at 30 FPS, you can push for better graphics than you can at 60 FPS.

[recon_Z_3_R_0]

> 2594261035368257;11:
> > 2533274873843883;3:
> >
>
>
> 1. I don’t find “mistaken expectations” as black and white as that and I don’t believe others fit into scope that easily. I don’t require bigger and better to be happy with a game. I do expect it to at least try to meet a standard that says “comparable to” previous experiences, which doesn’t necessarily mean bigger and/or better.
>
> 2. Not in my experience. Halo 2 was about both Chief and Arbiter… and at least there was equal play time as each. I enjoyed H2’s campaign. As far as Cortana is concerned, I have no problem judging her character on its own. I don’t need Chief to either fight or try to reason with her in order to see her as the antagonist… she is the “bad guy”… and I can judge her, as that, upon her own character within the game’s setting. In fact, I could completely pull her from the game and the story that is Halo and judge her as “evil” based on her method to reach her agenda. That has nothing to do with my “expectations” of her or her role. I’m sorry if this sounds rude, I don’t mean it to, but the only way expectations that even you state as being “very natural and very human” could be “very much a mistake” is if 343 had planned on selling their game to robots. We are all very human, have very natural expectations and there’s is nothing wrong with that. Throwing all that out the window for the sake of progression is the true mistake I see here.
>
> 3. The fact is, however, that Reach is what it is and besides the discrepancies in lore that many dislike. It didn’t fall short of expectations (at least for me) overall because people knew what to expect and it delivered. Therefore, not as much disappointment to indulge IMO.
>
> 4. When has 343 not had the latitude to tell this story as they see fit? The game should be able to stand on its own as an entity, but the story doesn’t. It’s a single chapter in a saga. You can’t separate and isolate it from the others and you can’t expect people to not have at least some preconceived notions of what it will be like. It is bound to a “pre-existing model” by its very nature. I’ll just have to agree to (vehemently) disagree about Brian Reed.

Nothing you said sounded rude - it sounded like you had something to contribute to the conversation, and so you did. And what you contributed has made me wish that I’d chosen some word other than “mistaken” to describe the way people’s (mostly legitimate) expectations can sometimes be the cause of their own disappointment. I didn’t mean “mistaken” in the sense of them having made an error of judgment, taste, or reasoning, though of course that is exactly how it reads. What I meant was that the more rigid and detailed a person’s expectations are then the more they set themselves up for disappointment. So no, I don’t expect them to have no preconceived notions, but its up to them to understand in the end that the more baggage they bring to the table then the more likely they are to be disappointed. They will only see the things the story wasn’t. I guess that nobody is under any obligation to appreciate something just because someone else does, or just because somebody put a lot of time and effort into creating it. What a boring place the world would be if we did all like the exact same things. But every time I read some diatribe about Brian Reed ruining Halo, I feel like I’m reading someone describe all the things that Reed’s Halo failed to do, with no focus at all on what his Halo did manage to accomplish.

[trufflepigg]

agreed with all your points, lol at no split screen, what a massive blunder and insult to us all - LMAO this is a “squad game” too, just lol