EDIT : This post was extremely rushed when being written and many points I wanted to bring up I either forgot to mention or didn’t go into in further detail thus they didn’t really make sense. Sorry for any inconvenience.
I see very inconsistent arguments. There are people who say Halo 5 is too competitive, and there are people like you who say it is too casual.
A major gaming company doesn’t make triple AAA games by only appealing to the “core” fanbase. Its not profitable and doesn’t see good sales. Look at niche games, those are small in scope. Only appealing to that small group of core players is how you do not add new people to the fanbase.
Also the devs literally went to the hardcore gamers who loved the past Halos and played competitively and made Breakout with that in mind.
They got with the big forgers and made the new forge that way that worked best for them. Unfortunately for the few who cling to the past, games have moved beyond what Halo 2 and 3 were.
Halo 3 came out in 2007. MW2 came out in 2009. Halo 3’s population was no where near MW2s.
Halo 5 far from failed, it still has an active population, threads like this make it seem dead and gone, where as that is not the case at all.
There is an expectation that comes with new games now, and for these companies to draw the crowds they need to, they adapt the games.
To me, I am amazed that people say Halo 5 has a lack of content. when I look at some other games these days, or games like Halo 2 or 3, Halo 5 has far more content then those. The fact that I can get maps for free because the microtransactions is really nice, even if its a poor model. I dunno. I have always been a Halo fanboy. And Halo is the game that is out.
Halo 5 failed/succeeded for different types of gamers in different ways. Some things that I hate about Halo 5, others love, and vice-versa. I think, in general, Halo 5 just didn’t launch with enough content to satisfy everybody.
you lost me at “obviously aimed towards more casual players.”
even the the unranked playlists are competitive. world tournaments every 3-4 months fosters to a culture of competition.
as for halo 4 and 5, I wouldn’t say they failed exactly, but are polar opposites in that they are perfect in some aspects but incomplete in others.
for example, halo 4 had a good campaign, but super casual multiplayer. halo 5 has a -Yoink- campaign, but super competitive multiplayer.
as for alienating its core playerbase, bungie was doing that long before 343. regardless of what you say about reach, it has implemented arguably some of the most radical changes in the halo franchise. if you compare halo 4 and halo reach, the two had more similarities than halo reach and halo 3 did. 343 simply tried to pick up where bungie left off.
but everyone wasn’t satisfied with halo 4, even though halo 4 is basically a halo reach sequal. this is when 343 tried to create their own image of halo.
in conclusion, I’m not defending 343, but merely observing the direction the franchise has taken in the last few years.
Im ranked 114. And have only received 1 phaeton. Thing like that make it harder for me to enjoy what Halo 5 has to offer.
Team arena is lackluster because of the HCS.
The long respawn timer in FF takes away the fun. I think it would me more enjoyable if there was a short respawn timer.
Quiters and smurf accounts are a problem.
Too many reqs that are pointless.
Halo 5’s campaign story wasnt great.
Halo 5 may not be as popular as its predecessors, but it’s in no way a failure. The game made serious bank and is the highest selling exclusive on the Xbox One currently.
It’s certainly a big improvement over MCC and Halo 4 in terms of player retention and, as far as the competitiveness goes, going back to equal starts (no loadouts), power weapons on map, power ups on map, descope, no kill cams, no grenade indicators, no armor abilities (like Armor Lock and Jetpack), yada yada, basically they removed a bunch of crap that was added during Reach & Halo 4 and took it back to straight up classic Halo 3-style Slayer rules but kept modern movement mechanics. And from someone who still plays all the old games and fancies CE his favorite (i.e., a classic fan who’s been playing Halo since way back when) I like it and think it’s a pretty good mix of classic arena style with modern movement. That said, they could fix a few things like Spartan Charge (as you said). I honestly don’t have a problem with sprint, I could take it or leave it (and yes, I know all there is to know about it ruins every aspect of everything, heard it a million times).
But none of that matters if people aren’t buying the game, does it? So … I don’t know. Maybe people are just Halo-ed out. It’s been 15 years.
Put simply, they appealed to a single demographic: The Esports spotlight. Halo 5’s gameplay is VERY well made, but it all goes to a hyper-competitive setting. Take a look at launch: all it had was a half-baked campaign, warzone, and several arena playlists; no forge, theater, firefight, etc.
Almost right off the bat, Halo 5’s marketing switched from “Hunt the Truth” to “Esports live” without skipping a beat. Now, Esports makes a LOT of money. It can potentially have a higher payout than say football in the near future. Every person who bought a seat, tuned into twitch, or bought a promotional REQ pack is someway or another giving Microsoft almost pure profit. Heck, they sell a bunch of games just by hooking 10-year-old Esport-wannabe’s.
This focused marketing ruined what made Halo famous in the first place: a relatively simple game with endless playstyles. Hale CE, you could play hardcore legendary or screw around with friends. Halo 2 you could hop onto a serious playlist or screw around in a huge campaign. Halo 3, same as Halo 2 but even bigger with extra forge. ODST brought in firefight which was a gamer hermit’s dream come true. Heck Halo Reach, despite relatively unbalanced gameplay, appealed to droves of people because there were tons of ways to play around in it. Halo 4 somewhat soured it by building on Halo Reach’s flaws instead of eliminating them, but still had plenty of room for multiple playstyles. All Halo 5 offered was to either sweat until your salty, or die every 20 seconds.
> 2576836393959214;3:
> A major gaming company doesn’t make triple AAA games by only appealing to the “core” fanbase. Its not profitable and doesn’t see good sales. Look at niche games, those are small in scope. Only appealing to that small group of core players is how you do not add new people to the fanbase.
>
> Also the devs literally went to the hardcore gamers who loved the past Halos and played competitively and made Breakout with that in mind.
> They got with the big forgers and made the new forge that way that worked best for them. Unfortunately for the few who cling to the past, games have moved beyond what Halo 2 and 3 were.
> Halo 3 came out in 2007. MW2 came out in 2009. Halo 3’s population was no where near MW2s.
>
> Halo 5 far from failed, it still has an active population, threads like this make it seem dead and gone, where as that is not the case at all.
> There is an expectation that comes with new games now, and for these companies to draw the crowds they need to, they adapt the games.
>
> To me, I am amazed that people say Halo 5 has a lack of content. when I look at some other games these days, or games like Halo 2 or 3, Halo 5 has far more content then those. The fact that I can get maps for free because the microtransactions is really nice, even if its a poor model. I dunno. I have always been a Halo fanboy. And Halo is the game that is out.
Alright 2 things, one…the whole argument of other games having less content then halo 5 did at launch is just a cop out,either way all those companies are being dbags and releasing incomplete games,and second if I remember correctly halo 3 had a million people online at one point so yes it did keep up with mw2
H5 might’ve failed you, but it certainly didn’t fail as a whole.
I don’t think H5 failed per say. but the reason it didn’t do well was because it was pretty buggy at launch and bare bones so it didn’t impress at all. sure the campaign wasn’t great and if you don’t follow outside lore you were probably a little lost and uninterested in it. but at the end of the day the lack of modes in multiplayer and bugs turned most players away. most were already tuned off from the major botched release of MCC and then when H5 wasn’t exactly the most stable game players had enough. alsI add lack of split screen. add all that up and it wasn’t a recipe for success.
The only thing I hate about halo 5 is the inconsistency of the game mechanics. Such as hit registration, headshots, Melee, etc… it just seems like out of all the halos this one has the most bs in it. And I played all of them. I actually like the change just hope that the next one has more of a solid foundation and less bs. More consistency all around
> 2576836393959214;3:
> A major gaming company doesn’t make triple AAA games by only appealing to the “core” fanbase. Its not profitable and doesn’t see good sales. Look at niche games, those are small in scope. Only appealing to that small group of core players is how you do not add new people to the fanbase.
>
> Also the devs literally went to the hardcore gamers who loved the past Halos and played competitively and made Breakout with that in mind.
> They got with the big forgers and made the new forge that way that worked best for them. Unfortunately for the few who cling to the past, games have moved beyond what Halo 2 and 3 were.
> Halo 3 came out in 2007. MW2 came out in 2009. Halo 3’s population was no where near MW2s.
>
> Halo 5 far from failed, it still has an active population, threads like this make it seem dead and gone, where as that is not the case at all.
> There is an expectation that comes with new games now, and for these companies to draw the crowds they need to, they adapt the games.
>
> To me, I am amazed that people say Halo 5 has a lack of content. when I look at some other games these days, or games like Halo 2 or 3, Halo 5 has far more content then those. The fact that I can get maps for free because the microtransactions is really nice, even if its a poor model. I dunno. I have always been a Halo fanboy. And Halo is the game that is out.
About your first paragraph, did you see what CoD did? They added exo jumps and movement to get trendy because Titanfall did well. Making this change has drastically killed their fan base. Now Halo is starting to do the same.
Its biggest failings IMO are campaign execution, missing game modes, missing vehicles, forge UI glitches, human and forerunner structures, and general armor design.
> 2533274925727172;13:
> > 2576836393959214;3:
> > A major gaming company doesn’t make triple AAA games by only appealing to the “core” fanbase. Its not profitable and doesn’t see good sales. Look at niche games, those are small in scope. Only appealing to that small group of core players is how you do not add new people to the fanbase.
> >
> > Also the devs literally went to the hardcore gamers who loved the past Halos and played competitively and made Breakout with that in mind.
> > They got with the big forgers and made the new forge that way that worked best for them. Unfortunately for the few who cling to the past, games have moved beyond what Halo 2 and 3 were.
> > Halo 3 came out in 2007. MW2 came out in 2009. Halo 3’s population was no where near MW2s.
> >
> > Halo 5 far from failed, it still has an active population, threads like this make it seem dead and gone, where as that is not the case at all.
> > There is an expectation that comes with new games now, and for these companies to draw the crowds they need to, they adapt the games.
> >
> > To me, I am amazed that people say Halo 5 has a lack of content. when I look at some other games these days, or games like Halo 2 or 3, Halo 5 has far more content then those. The fact that I can get maps for free because the microtransactions is really nice, even if its a poor model. I dunno. I have always been a Halo fanboy. And Halo is the game that is out.
>
> About your first paragraph, did you see what CoD did? They added exo jumps and movement to get trendy because Titanfall did well. Making this change has drastically killed their fan base. Now Halo is starting to do the same.
Your point being what? Devs see what other games do that makes them successful. The goal is to make a game that sells. If that means taking stuff from other games which Halo has done before 4 or 5…Where is the problem? At the end of the day its about the bottom line.
I like it but there wasn’t enough content for some. If people don’t stay entertained they leave fast with so many other games out there. Dat said I played Halo 1 PC for years and it was very simple but awesome gameplay. Big Team Battles on Blood Gulch and Danger Canyon and Infinity was just endless fun somehow lol, so I guess it isn’t just about content, as I was entertained for years and years even while other games and Halos were out. I could play it today and still have fun but I imagine mostly spanish speaking people play it nowadays.
> 2533274883669557;7:
> Halo 5 may not be as popular as its predecessors, but it’s in no way a failure. The game made serious bank and is the highest selling exclusive on the Xbox One currently.
>
> It’s certainly a big improvement over MCC and Halo 4 in terms of player retention and, as far as the competitiveness goes, going back to equal starts (no loadouts), power weapons on map, power ups on map, descope, no kill camps, no grenade indicators, no armor abilities (like Armor Lock and Jetpack), yada yada, basically they removed a bunch of crap that was added during Reach & Halo 4 and took it back to straight up classic Halo 3-style Slayer rules but kept modern movement mechanics. And from someone who still plays all the old games and fancies CE his favorite (i.e., a classic fan who’s been playing Halo since way back when) I like it and think it’s a pretty good mix of classic arena style with modern movement. That said, they could fix a few things like Spartan Charge (as you said). I honestly don’t have a problem with sprint, I could take it or leave it (and yes, I know all there is to know about it ruins every aspect of everything, heard it a million times).
>
> But none of that matters if people aren’t buying the game, does it? So … I don’t know. Maybe people are just Halo-ed out. It’s been 15 years.
^this
I’ve not been playing since CE (started with H2 in 2004-05ish), but I too have had a very good time with Halo 5.
Halo 5 failed cause there was no BR slayer playlist. On the serious note, there are pointless reqs in the game, broken mechanics, and some things are unfinished. I’m part of the unpopular opinion that Halo 4 was the best Halo game of all time and that the loadout system was great.
> 2533274873014868;5:
> you lost me at “obviously aimed towards more casual players.”
Same.
The exaggerations in this post make it difficult to take seriously.
Halo 5 is majorly flawed, but to call it a failure? Finances would say differently.
Halo 4’s population dropped off in a few weeks? I’d say the fact that I was still finding games quickly 1 year after it’s launch says differently.
Halo 4 and Halo 5 failed for the same reason? Well, I think popular opinion says differently. Halo 4’s multiplayer took a little too much inspiration from the CoD camp of FPS. Halo 5 did away with much of what made Halo 4 feel less “Halo”: no more loadouts, no more perks, no more ordinance. Halo 4 and Halo 5 may have turned parts of the “core” fanbase away, but for different reasons. To me, Halo 4 and 5 are almost inverses of each other: what one did right, the other did wrong, and vice versa.
I’m fine with critiquing Halo 4 and 5, and I am not afraid to point out their flaws. But I think we should point out actual flaws and not exaggerate or make up reasons to hate them.