For the purposes of making the next Halo game amazing, what do you believe made Halo unique in the first place? What IS core Halo gameplay?
We all know the answers but this is supposed to be a thought expirment - by going into what makes Halo “Halo” and not anything else, we could somehow innovate and come up with new ideas.
Halo is the first shooter that I know of that used a multiple-hit melee system, easy to use vehicles, shields, and simplified maps.
All of that’s established, but how do we build on it, and where do we go from here?
The core is what it always has been and always should be a scifi shooter that uses one basic principle for the games the golden triangle. Guns, melee, and grenades all with out having to switch from one to do another. That’s the basic theme used in designing Halo MP and when that goes away we will really lose Halo MP
Simplified maps - meaning that most maps were easy to remember and weren’t filled with a massive amount of random junk.
Think about your average CoD map - it’s filled with trash, random boxes, wrecked vehicles, scattered buildings, etc.
Almost 70 percent of most CoD maps are heaps of objects. Most shooters have maps that way.
> Simplified maps - meaning that most maps were easy to remember and weren’t filled with a massive amount of random junk.
And maps in Quake/UT weren’t?
> Think about your average CoD map - it’s filled with trash, random boxes, wrecked vehicles, scattered buildings, etc.
> Almost 70 percent of most CoD maps are heaps of objects. Most shooters have maps that way.
> That title might be a little wordy.
>
> For the purposes of making the next Halo game amazing, what do you believe made Halo unique in the first place? What IS core Halo gameplay?
>
> We all know the answers but this is supposed to be a thought expirment - by going into what makes Halo “Halo” and not anything else, we could somehow innovate and come up with new ideas.
>
> Halo is the first shooter that I know of that used a multiple-hit melee system, easy to use vehicles, shields, and simplified maps.
> All of that’s established, but how do we build on it, and where do we go from here?
Multiple-Hit Melee System?
… Looks at Perfect Dark
… Looks at Goldeneye
… Looks and Duke Nukem
… Looks and Doom
Though to be fair Melee was it’s own weapon or weapon fire mode in those games and rarely if ever got used because they were so weak.
Anyway I’ll tell you what makes Halo, Halo. Simplicity.
The more complicated Halo gets, the less like Halo it is.
> Anyway I’ll tell you what makes Halo, Halo. Simplicity.
>
> The more complicated Halo gets, the less like Halo it is.
What? I REALLY don’t believe that.
Let’s make a comparison. Halo: CE and Halo 3. Since Halo CE, Halo had a truckload of things added to the original gameplay including but not limited to:
4 grenade types instead of 2
Dual-wielding
Support Weapons
Lunge Melee
Equipment
And so on. And Halo 3 is considered to be the best in the series in terms of core gameplay so…
> Let’s make a comparison. Halo: CE and Halo 3. Since Halo CE, Halo had a truckload of things added to the original gameplay including but not limited to:
>
> 4 grenade types instead of 2
> Dual-wielding
> Support Weapons
> Lunge Melee
> Equipment
The spike grenade was essentially a plasma grenade with a different sound, and I don’t think I ever used the firebomb grenade in matchmaking.
What the heck is a “support weapon”? The only weapons anybody ever picked up were BRs and power weapons.
> The spike grenade was essentially a plasma grenade with a different sound, and I don’t think I ever used the firebomb grenade in matchmaking.
>
> What the heck is a “support weapon”? The only weapons anybody ever picked up were BRs and power weapons.
>
> How is “lunge melee” more complicated?
The only thing that made the spike grenade similar to the plasma was that you could stick it on people. That was it. It stuck to any surface, the explosion was different, and the damages were different. So yeah, a very different animal.
A turret weapon? Like the Minigun? Flamethrower? Rocket Pod? Plasma Turret? Any of those ring a bell? And yes, a whole lot of people used them. ESPECIALLY the Minigun and the Rocket Pod.
The concept itself isn’t complicated, but it did a whole lot more for the gameplay. No longer did Melee play a small part in combat, if at all. Now it was a viable weapon in and of itself that everyone could use, thus adding a new layer into the gameplay.
So roughly the basics are the Golden Triangle of Guns, Grenades, and Melee. Guns have been shown plenty of love but grenades and melee might need a couple new toys, too. When you add in movement and shielding you also have to things that have always changed but never changed drastically.
Auto aim, bullet magnetism and reticle friction are as important to Halo as anything else. These are what made playing FPS’s(Halo) on the console so seamless. It changed the horrible input device that is the analog stick, into something usefull.
Don’t forget about Power Ups. And the expansion to that: Equipment and AAs.
And I can already feel the posts coming about how AAs ruined Halo. And no, AAs didn’t ruin Halo. The implementation of AAs hurt Halo. If every player spawned with an infinite ammo Rocket Launcher in their pocket the game would be ruined too.
Instead I’m referring to the sheer concept of having a third “weapon” that does something more than just shoot bullets/explosives.
e.g. some love campaign, some grifball, some default, some MLG, some BTB, some solo, some regular teams, some action sack…
For me it’s classic arena default objective ranked, social BTB and campaign. I hope coop has no input latency for HX1, then I’ll add that to the list as well
