I have been recently playing Halo Wars 2, and while the game is far from perfect, in many ways it is a step in the right direction. For the first time ever since Halo Reach, a Halo game actually looks like it is taking place in the Halo universe instead of a bad Tron knock off. The Banished seem to be a promising enemy, and although my understanding of HW2’s story is basic at the moment, it was really the first Halo campaign I enjoyed since Halo Reach. With the recent new of split screen being a permanent return to FPS games, I figured that I would return once again to this franchise and share some of my thoughts on what the future of the franchise should be (Yes I know most people won’t actually give a yoink). TL;DR at the bottom.
Story
-Unfortunately, Halo 6 has been kinda been set up for a bad story. The whole Cortana turned evil thing, isn’t really a “Halo” kind of storyline, so I am not expecting much from H6 in terms of story. However, I think H6 needs to be the game that wraps up this narrative arc completely, so that Halo 7 can have a fresh start.
-Building off the last point, Halo 6 should be the game that ends to Promethean storyline. I can’t stand Prometheans at all, I can’t stand their design, how dealing with them in combat feels, and story wise they are uninteresting. I don’t really see how H6’s story could not include Prometheans in the game, so I more so hope that Halo 6 is the game that concludes any conflict with the Prometheans so that we can move onto other adversaries (such as the Banished).
-Banished seem like a perfect example of making something new, that is familiar and recognizable, as the Banished are comprised of Covenant species we are all familiar with. I personally found Atriox’s backstory to be very cool, and I really hope that Atriox is a major villain for sometime to come. If I had my way, H6 would conclude the Promethean/Cortana/Guardian storyline, and Halo 7 would dive right into a UNSC-Banished war, Atriox possibly being a villain for the next trilogy.
-BRING THE FLOOD BACK. While there are some (strange) fans, that do not like the Flood. It seems like for a lot of people, the Flood would have a very welcomed return. The Flood is creepy and cool and menacing, and it is really a shame they have been absent from the series for so long.
Multiplayer/Gameplay
-Gameplay needs to slow the hell down. Due to the implementations of things such as Spartan Abilities (more on this in a bit), Halo’s gameplay has moved towards focusing on quick reflexes which has NEVER been an important element in Halo’s vanilla gameplay, leading to many like myself to feel that Halo 5 simply doesn’t feel or play like a Halo game at all.
- Spartan Abilities need to be removed altogether, or at the very least drastically reduced. I personally absolutely despise thrusters, although I have issues with many others as well.
I feel that thrusters in Halo 5 this spartan ability did more damage to the gameplay than any other spartan ability. Thrusters effectively act as an “escape death” button. Are you getting shot at by an enemy? In any other Halo game you would either have to fire back or rush into cover. In Halo 5, you don’t have to worry about it. Just thrust into cover and everything will be fine. This is how a vast majority of my encounters with other players in H5 played out. I utilized thrusters all the time to escape death, and many other have done it to me. This SA in particular has removed much skill from Halo’s vanilla formula. Furthermore, thrusters have drastically changed the way players navigate around the map, creating awkwardly designed maps that feel more like a jungle gym than an actual location.
While I have heard a great many varying issues with various SAs such as ground pound, spartan charge, etc. It seems like the general conscientious is that the current system we have is -Yoinked!-, and needs to be DRASTICALLY reworked, and stripped down. Perhaps a system such as in Halo Reach’s in which each player can choose one ability upon spawn could work, if you must have SAs. However, these abilities should really just be removed from vanilla gameplay.
“But…but…I FEEL LIKE A SUPERSOLIDER IN HALO 5”
I won’t harp on this point for too long, but the problem with this claim is that you are only superficially a super solider. Anyone loosely familiar with Halo lore knows that Spartan IIs are a hell of a lot more than MJONIR armor. What feels more like being a Super Solider? Tactical thinking, and using nothing than your knowledge of the map and game in order to win, or flying around around the map, and smashing into walls with some fancy tech.
I am okay with Sprint, although I understand why many would take issue with it, and I would be equally fine with its absence.
-Another incredibly important thing. NO MICROTRANSACTIONS. ZERO. NONE. We tried it with Halo 5. It may have made Microsoft plenty of money, but adding microtransactions to an already damaged franchise only further alienated many Halo fans. Many Halo fans sticking around on these forums may try to defend it, but ask any disenfranchised Halo fan and they will tell you that Warzone is pay to win and they are completely right. Like it or not, when you introduce IRL money into gameplay, then it becomes impossible to create a completely skill based experience.
I won’t go into too much detail here, as it seems like most already feel this way, but the REQ system is horrid for unlocks. People don’t like random drops in their Halo game, they want to purchase armor the old fashioned way such as in Halo Reach.
I know Microsoft love money and who doesn’t. While removing microtransactions from Halo may make less money in the short term, it would go a long way towards bring players back into the franchise, which means more game sales, more Xbox console sales, more merchandise sales, and an overall healthier IP. It is actually in Microsoft’s best interest to remove microtransactions.
“BUT FREE DLC”
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying $10-15 for a handful of map packs. Considering the great many issues REQs have introduced to Halo, the free dlc simply isn’t worth it. I would rather get a larger more complete game at launch, with support for the game provided via community content such as forge maps and gametypes. Halo 3 had an incredibly long lifespan. They did release map packs, but the forge maps and gametypes went a looong way towards keeping the multiplayer alive, aside from the obvious fact that Halo 3 is just an amazing game.
TL;DR
-PLEASE KEEP WITH THE ART DIRECTION OF HALO WARS 2. Whoever, did the work for Halo Wars 2 was on point.
-Future Halo games need to be complete games at launch. No more MCCs, and Halo 5s.
-Get rid of Promethans
-Banished are good, keep them
-NO MICROTRANSACTIONS
-Spartan Abilities are bad. Remove most if not all (Thrusters are a must remove).