As you all know. Halo has been nothing but 10 straight years of amazing gameplay, true skill, and an epic story with meaningful characters. Unfortunately, games as we know it, change. Yes, some of us saw it coming. We knew it would happen. But the real question is are the changes 343I has implemented into this new era of “Halo” wise? Is it still the Halo we all know and love? Well, it’s more than just a mere title name. It’s a symbol. A beacon of what a good FPS game is. For years Halo has led the fray against many other FPS titles and held the crown. Well, at least until COD. But, even though, Bungie saw the need to continue to innovate and impress the fanbase. That being said, 343I has arguably done more to Halo in a few short years than what Bungie did over the course of 10. Is that a good thing? Yes and no.
There comes a point when “innovation” becomes a scapegoat cover for using gimmicks like ADS and Sprint, found in all currently popular FPS titles. There also comes a time when change becomes so severe that it completely changes the game that it becomes a completely unrecognizable construct. Has Halo reached this point? It depends on who you ask. To the “conservative side” of the fanbase, the answer is yes. To the “liberal side”, no. Why is this. Well, it all depends on how we define the game “HALO”. For me, Halo is always about skill. Understanding where you rank in the slurry of closed skill-gap games where kills are a dime-a-dozen, even for noobs. Halo has always been the game to say “YOU SUCK! GIT GUD M8!” A game that if you were good at, you knew you were a pro. Halo has always been about the story. A meaningful quest between you and your allies struggling through perils while simultaneously preventing mass-extinction of your kind. It was always mysterious, dark, and epic and it still is. Even if the skill gap is gone. Halo has always been about the art of Halo, and it’s music. I don’t know if I’m the only one who thinks this, but when Martin O’ Donnel left, HE took the music and sound of Halo with him.
Unfortunately, times have changed, and so has the beloved franchise. But I digress, like I said, change is mandatory if we expect games to thrive through innovation. The only issue today is that…there is no innovation. It may be new and innovative for the series, but in terms of the entire genre, thruster packs, ADS, Sprint, none of it is new. It’s all been seen before one time or another within the FPS genre. So what IS HALO? Does it still hold up under the definition of a HALO title? Well, Halo is about skill. Does it require skill? If it does, it holds up pretty well. Is it about an epic story with characters that are identifiable and relatable? Last time I checked, it still is. XD What about the art and music of Halo? Well, we lost Martin. He was with us unto the Fall of Reach. Until Halo 4 that is. The irony about him leaving is that when the sound and music left, that’s when the CHARACTER of Halo left. In fact, the Halo 5 OST is like an antitype to the current Halo in the eyes of a “conservative” Halo player. The entire OST as far as I can tell, has about two or three queues at most from the original trilogy’s soundtrack. This is similar to the character of the current Halo game. If you ask any conservative Halo player, he would tell you straight up that it looks like a different game with “Halo” slapped on it. It may take a few queues from the originals, but in the end, looks more like a different game.
I love Halo, I really do. I’m optimistic about the current title as it shows potential with the focus on story. It looks good and I can’t wait to try it. I just hope the 343 learns to start innovating rather than using cheap gimmicks to appeal to a wider audience. Cheap developer scams like bullet magnetism, low Time To Kill, and easy scores that ultimately alienate the fanbase (or what’s left of it) and appeal to casual noobs who want to look cool thereby giving a slight increase in profit. Halo has been unique in character and style up until 343 started working on it. Is this a coincidence? I think not. For two years straight, the fanbase has been bombarded with one level of incompetence after the next. Need I remind us of the MCC tragedy? What about Halo 4s bullet magnetism and undeniable appeal to the Generic shooter fanbase? When I first saw Halo 5 and what they did with the “new” abilities, I couldn’t believe that I was starring at Halo. Maybe it’s just nostalgia. Maybe it’s my lack of acceptance. But I can usually tell innovation from cheap gimmicks. What I’m saying that if Halo is still Halo, the core mechanisms of what made the first games should stay relatively intact. Not get ripped out because “people hated Halo because of X”. We are the fans of Halo. What is a Halo game?