Halo 5 has a problem: To many veteran players, it is too different. I feel this way as well. Of course, I have seen differing opinions. Some vets like new Halo and some n00bs prefer old Halo but in general what I see are old players arguing with the new ones about the new design. One of the biggest issues being Sprint as an ability. So while commenting on a post a night or two ago I wrote this below. I’d like to get people’s opinions on this. I’m not here to insult or argue. If you take offense to anything in this post, it wasn’t my intention and also, you are probably too easily offended. Wall of text ensues.Upon reading some of these people’s posts saying that 343 can or can’t appeal to both new and old players, I was blinded by a heavenly light, a genius idea gifted from the great beyond. JK just had a neat lightbulb moment. WHAT IF: 343 continued with what they are doing (which I hate and haven’t played in months) and released a spinoff series, that was CLASSIC style. Maybe not necessarily prequels, but just OTHER Halo universe stories with the more traditional style of play. Throw in customs and a few multiplayer playlists, perhaps a forge and I guarantee you it would sell. Would the fanbase be split? Yes. Would the community separate? Somewhat, but it would actually remedy the current loss of players who like the classic Halo, increase sales, and quell a lot of the fighting in the forums.
Let’s just call it Halo Classic. They don’t have to keep that up to date as their biggest and baddest, they can reserve that for their new crap they want to push. Halo Classic could be set to a 5 year release schedule, meaning they can put it on the backburner and still release a quality game. The art, music, and gameplay elements could all essentially be taken from Halo 2 Anniversary. Good graphics, classic gameplay, but with NEW adventures. Perhaps some new twists on old situations or the great one-liners referencing the old trilogies or toss in some equipment from Halo 3 here and there but a nostalgic experience like that would sell just fine, cost less in production, ease the community, and give all types of players something fresh. The new players are obviously prioritized, and that’s OK because that’s just business. But when I see people who like Halo 4 and 5 telling those of us who prefer 1, 2, 3 or Reach to go play the MCC, I get a bit agitated because those experiences are old. We’d like something new that still retains all the old and familiar elements. 343’s New Halo could have done that but they changed it all, from art to music and even the gameplay elements. Sure, there are old characters and old weapons but that is all. There is very little old halo feel left. SOME, but for me it feels more like an odd mixture of Halo, Titanfall, and Destiny.
*Edit: Also, those of us who don’t like Halo 4 and 5 shouldn’t be told to go play MCC, there’s almost no one playing it and the MM times are horrid. Halo 3 sometimes has people online but I haven’t seen it in month, and Reach is the only Bungie Halo left still getting up to 10,000 players on weekends, but even that is dwindling quickly, and there are a lot of people now on Reach who blatantly cheat, what with the game being old and the population being low.
*Edit 2: Abilities, new maps, and new weapons could be introduced for freshness in Halo Classic as long as they don’t interfere too much with the traditional style of play. No insta kill abilities like spartan charge or ground n pound, and no god mode abilities like armor lock and we should be fine. Keep it strategic or movement based as far as abilites, that would prevent the pacing from being too slow without breaking anything. Again, nothing insane. Thus, Halo 6 should keep the current style and evolve from there while Halo Classic keeps the vets around for the next few years. Eventually the vets will phase out and when that happens they can just go ahead and close the spin off series, even if Halo classic only lasts for say 1-3 games it would be an amazing ride. I honestly believe everyone wins this way, but perhaps some of you can point out plot holes.
*Edit 3: A lot of people seem to believe that Halo 3: Anniversary would be the answer to the divide in players that prefer new vs players that prefer original. I actually believe this would be great, as long as they left the multiplayer untouched. If they want to update the graphics, great ! as long as its along the same line of H2A. If they want to throw in new maps or even new game features, (Firefight, spinoff campaign, new achievements) even better! in fact, they could make make H3A the Halo Classic of which I speak. If they pack it in with enough content and support (which should be easy because the only real work here is the graphical update) then it would last those of us who prefer it for a while. I’ve been told that Microsoft doesn’t prefer their games to have longevity anymore though, so I don’t know. But it would be nice to have a fully loaded Halo 3 Anniversary. If 343 was to take the extra step and add NEW content to it (say, from some of Bungie’s deleted Halo 3 map ideas or campaign levels or mm maps) and it was done right, I would probably buy Halo 6 just out of support for them, my trust restored. Even if I never played it because I’d be busy with H3A haha