Key Areas where Halo can Improve

Community General Discussion
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I will be linking 3 really fantastic constructive criticism videos that really do a lot in summing up a lot of Halo’s problems in the last few years… all sensible and prominent YouTube figures and/or larger voices in the Halo community. Lots of what I consider informed, “real-world” opinions…

Angry Joe’s Halo 5 review
Act Man’s assessment of Halo’s decline
Favyn’s thoughts on effectively satisfying the broader fanbase

Long but entertaining videos everyone… grab some popcorn and check them out lol. The community has a voice everyone. Let’s explore the game’s issues and formulate some solutions. Resources need to be managed and directed more effectively going forward. It’s essential. And seeing that H6 may be potentially delayed given that it will not appear at E3 this year, it’s only a good thing and tells me that 343 and Microsoft are listening.

I really believe that these 3 videos in particular, represent a LARGE portion of Halo fan’s perceptions of the series as of late… The game needs to start hitting on some of the points that it did in the past, and that’s not to say that the gameplay needs to go full on classic… I think it should be a supported style of play, but I think it’s much more important that it hits on the tonalities of Halo CE and H2… and FEELS like it’s set in the same universe. There’s just been too much change in this series and it needs to start feeling a little more like the Halo we loved a decade+ ago. Again, the new gameplay is great and all, but the game just needs that Halo “stamp” and sense of identity and better utilize and cross-utilize developed in-game assets in MP in intelligent, even innovative ways… Just bring much more value to the player and offer a more satisfying experience. Especially in the critical launch window…

I feel like I’m rambling, it’s late, I’m tired… but hopefully this can gain some attention and spark some good discussions and proposals.

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I strongly disagree with the perceptions of Halo presented in the three videos you linked. I believe they’re hyper-critical to the point where they fail to see what is done well due to their exaggerations regarding the amount of impact aspects that weren’t done well have on the games.
In my experience as a long-time Halo fan who occasionally has marathon gaming sessions where I play through all of the Halo games in story-chronological order, I’ve found that the quality of Halo games has remained high, and that the perception of decline is (I believe) due to two factors:

1: Nostalgia Goggles. People tend to compare the best of the past to the worst of the present, and get a distorted view of what’s actually going on. I’m sure we all have experience lining up the perfect sniper or Scorpion shot in Halo CE around cover, only for the shot to explode in our face instead of where our cross-hairs were aiming, because the shot doesn’t actually originate where the barrel of the weapon is animated.

2: High Expectations. The original Halo Trilogy was lightning in a bottle. Most franchises don’t accomplish this once, much less three consecutive times. Expectations for Halo have risen through the roof, so much so that games that are at least of the same quality as what established the expectations, somehow don’t meet the frankly absurd expectations imposed on them.

Look at the Halo Games in order, make a list of what they do well and what was not done as well (Note when these are objective ups and downs, and when they are your personal preference). Then compare each game to the next one. Every game tries something new, and if that addition is met with approval (again, general, not every individual) it stays, and if it isn’t, they drop it. Every new game makes some mistake the previous one didn’t, but at the same time it fixes the mistakes the previous game had, so all around the quality is at the very least being maintained.

All around, I’m happy with the Halo franchise, because I can see that there is a drive for improvement, even if my personal preferences don’t line up with every idea they decide to use.

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> 2533274883501878;2:
> I strongly disagree with the perceptions of Halo presented in the three videos you linked. I believe they’re hyper-critical to the point where they fail to see what is done well due to their exaggerations regarding the amount of impact aspects that weren’t done well have on the games.
> In my experience as a long-time Halo fan who occasionally has marathon gaming sessions where I play through all of the Halo games in story-chronological order, I’ve found that the quality of Halo games has remained high, and that the perception of decline is (I believe) due to two factors:
>
> 1: Nostalgia Goggles. People tend to compare the best of the past to the worst of the present, and get a distorted view of what’s actually going on. I’m sure we all have experience lining up the perfect sniper or Scorpion shot in Halo CE around cover, only for the shot to explode in our face instead of where our cross-hairs were aiming, because the shot doesn’t actually originate where the barrel of the weapon is animated.
>
> 2: High Expectations. The original Halo Trilogy was lightning in a bottle. Most franchises don’t accomplish this once, much less three consecutive times. Expectations for Halo have risen through the roof, so much so that games that are at least of the same quality as what established the expectations, somehow don’t meet the frankly absurd expectations imposed on them.
>
> Look at the Halo Games in order, make a list of what they do well and what was not done as well (Note when these are objective ups and downs, and when they are your personal preference). Then compare each game to the next one. Every game tries something new, and if that addition is met with approval (again, general, not every individual) it stays, and if it isn’t, they drop it. Every new game makes some mistake the previous one didn’t, but at the same time it fixes the mistakes the previous game had, so all around the quality is at the very least being maintained.
>
> All around, I’m happy with the Halo franchise, because I can see that there is a drive for improvement, even if my personal preferences don’t line up with every idea they decide to use.

I’m not saying any Halo games are bad games, H4 kinda was lol… but you can’t deny there are at least some shortcomings… like with H5, there was no reason to split off all the game modes and map pools into separate entities. It’s just a formulaic change that wasn’t necessary that’s brought on negative perceptions and a drop in quality to the game. Many gamers don’t even touch certain aspects of H5 or enjoy them remotely to the same level. And their preferred experience was forced to take a hit because of the development of another…

There’s just too many costly, risky changes taking place… offer players the Halo experience that has proven to work successfully throughout the whole OG trilogy. H3 didn’t reinvent the wheel that H2 established. It refined it.

It’s not even a matter of sprint or Spartan abilities at this point. Just let Halo be Halo. Give people the experiences and variety that people expect, don’t change things on a whim. Give people what they want, when they want it… the game needs to launch complete, and have GOOD DLC offerings post launch that don’t rehash existing content. Give people the old formula, ya know?

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> 2533274873580796;3:
> I’m not saying any Halo games are bad games, H4 kinda was lol… but you can’t deny there are at least some shortcomings… like with H5, there was no reason to split off all the game modes and map pools into separate entities. It’s just a formulaic change that wasn’t necessary that’s brought on negative perceptions and a drop in quality to the game. Many gamers don’t even touch certain aspects of H5 or enjoy them remotely to the same level. And their preferred experience was forced to take a hit because of the development of another…
>
> There’s just too many costly, risky changes taking place… offer players the Halo experience that has proven to work successfully throughout the whole OG trilogy. H3 didn’t reinvent the wheel that H2 established. It refined it.
>
> It’s not even a matter of sprint or Spartan abilities at this point. Just let Halo be Halo. Give people the experiences and variety that people expect, don’t change things on a whim. Give people what they want, when they want it… the game needs to launch complete, and have GOOD DLC offerings post launch that don’t rehash existing content. Give people the old formula, ya know?

I didn’t deny that all games have shortcomings, including Halo. Fallible people aren’t going to make anything that’s infallible. They’ll do their best, and we should appreciate what they do right instead of throwing out the good with the bad.

Most of the complaints I’ve heard regarding Halo 4 and 5 would fall under the category of “preference”, in that the games deviated from what certain people wanted, but that the change is not objectively negative. I’ve seen so many petty arguments from gamers that I don’t place value on any sort of appeal to the majority on the topic of what games are good. It’s not about you, and it’s not about me. The games are made for worldwide distribution, and as such they won’t be to every specific individual’s preferences. Accept this and move on.

I already noted that the original trilogy were lightning in a bottle, that doesn’t mean that the games shouldn’t be refined any further. Every Halo game has refined the experience. As I’ve said, there have been stumbles, but over all the quality has remained high.

> Give people the experiences and variety that people expect, don’t change things on a whim.

I don’t believe this statement accurately reflects an understanding of all that goes into creating a game. Halo is a multi-million-dollar franchise. They’re not going to be messing with the formula “on a whim”. A lot of thought and analysis goes into every change.

> Give people what they want, when they want it… the game needs to launch complete, and have GOOD DLC offerings post launch that don’t rehash existing content. Give people the old formula, ya know?

What about when what people want isn’t logistically possible? It is frankly absurd to expect every Halo game to raise the bar above what we can imagine, yet still expect it to not change anything from the old formula. Either you’re innovating, or you’re stagnating, you can’t have it both ways.

MCC wasn’t given enough time to work out all of the bugs, so it launched with everything, but everything was buggy, and that wasn’t deemed acceptable.

When Halo 5 wasn’t given enough time to complete everything before launch, they decided to complete the core of the game and make sure it was working well, and they accomplished this. And to to make up for the limited content on release, they released All of the rest of the content, as they finished it For Free to everyone who purchased the game.

Both decisions were criticized. The only way to not be forced into doing one or the other is if the game’s launch date is set after the game is completed, but these sorts of decisions are made by the controlling entity (Microsoft) over the heads of the videogame creators (343), so the people pouring their hearts into the franchise we profess to enjoy should not be criticized for making the best of a bad circumstance.