Make Halo Great Again
Three things Halo Infinite needs to have (IMO) in order to re-capture it’s glory days of old.
As of this writing they’ve revealed a few details about the game so I won’t be covering any of those. My focus is also going to be centered on the MP aspect of the game. Campaigns are great but most people will spend the majority of their time playing in MP.
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Approachable by the common gamer, loved by the Pro’s:
The Halo of old was legendary for this very reason. Any gamer could pick it up and immediately have an idea of what was going on. The Pro’s could spend countless hours perfecting their craft for the tournaments. It was easy to pick up but difficult to master. The way I see it, there were two reasons for this that go hand in hand. Simple movement + complex maps. The classic movement system paired with killer map design is going to be key in Halo Infinite becoming the best Halo ever to grace our existence. Think about it. I can move, jump, shoot, crouch, and throw stuff. A 5 year old could grasp that (not that I want 5 year olds playing the next Halo…). The maps need to be difficult to master, with predictable weapon spawns/power ups. The common gamer should be able to grasp the basics of the map somewhat quickly, but the pro gamer needs to be able to take it that extra step and learn the spawns, jumps, special alleys and so on. It’s that equation that made Halo the dog’s bullocks of shooter’s back in the day and will be the key to unlocking it’s potential today. Halo 5 tried the opposite with complex movement and average maps (in terms of difficulty to master) but it didn’t work. Spartan charge and ground pound, namely, made it unapproachable by the casual gamer because it was too complex to pick up and just play. Even “Social” matches get super sweaty these days because the movement makes it casual unfriendly. You can walk, sprint, slide, spartan charge, ground pound, crouch, shoot, throw things, jump… you see where I’m going with this? The average gamer doesn’t want to manage all of those mechanics. Hell, I don’t want to most of the time and I’m a pretty competitive dude who loves Halo. And, for the sake of argument, I’ll even give you another example. Let’s look at Fortnite. What can you do in Fortnite? Walk, Sprint, Crouch, pick up items, throw items, shoot, and build. When you add building you get walls, floors, stairs, and that pyramid looking thing. The mechanics are relatively simple and straight forward so even little kids get the idea. But pro’s are able to take it that step further and do some insane stuff on that game (i.e. Ninja). In other words, you’re going for easy to pick up, difficult to master. Classic movement, complex maps. That’s the recipe for success. I think you get the point here so I’ll move on. -
Bang on net code:
Hit detection needs to be perfect or the game falls apart. Period. I didn’t notice those problems so much in Halo 5 but I see it in a lot of other games (cough cough… COD). Just nail it from the beginning and avoid that drama altogether. Done. Moving on… -
Classic CSR system:
Ditch that goofy metal system. It’s unnecessary. 1-50 or 1-100. 1= Total Noob, 50 or 100 = Pro. Use the classic method of working your way up from 1 to the top. When you level out, that’s your skill. It’s simple, it works, and the grind is fun as hell. CSR in Halo 5 was unnecessarily complicated and inaccurate for a large amount of players. It also looked about as good as it performed. Get rid! It was tried and it failed. Go back to the tried and true, 343. The community will thank you.
Obviously, you can all see where my biggest point of contention lies, but it’s essential to the franchise that this game is amazing from the start. If Halo Infinite flops, we could see the end of the series and no one here wants that to see that happen.