Hey guys, I think that now is a good time to start talking about ideas and suggestions for Halo 6. With Halo 5 having been out for like a year and a half at this point, and halo 6 probably coming out late next year, I thought that it’d be fun to talk about what we hope to see in halo 6 and, who knows, maybe 343 will even implement some of our ideas into the game.
Don’t get me wrong guys, I do enjoy halo 5 but I definitely think that there are a lot of improvements that can be made to make halo 6 an awesome game, and overall just more fun. I personally, would really like if 343 went back to the more classic halo feel. Now I know, some of you are probably already getting ready to respond to this thread about how you’re sick of people complaining about the change in gameplay formula, but maybe my arguments will change your mind. I will probably enjoy halo 6 however it comes out, but I have a few different improvements that could be made to make it more fun, and to make people want to play it longer. I believe that it is imperative to the franchise that Halo 6 does well, not only because of the comeback Halo’s popularity has been making since Halo 4, but also because of the fact that Halo 6 will be modern Halo’s debut on the PC gaming platform. If Halo 6 makes a good impression on the PC community, it could massively increase the player base and the size/interest in the MLG/ESL circuit. Obviously, 343 isn’t going to have PC and Xbox players play with each other besides custom games, because that would be unbalanced and stupid, but having a large PC community and large Xbox community definitely won’t hurt the game. Having content creators on both platforms (Twitch, YouTube etc.) will increase interest, leading to more people playing the game on both platforms, which is a great thing. I’ll be bolding my main points for those who don’t want to read all the text.
Enough with introductions, let’s get into the fun stuff! Personally, I would prefer if there was no sprint in halo 6. I think that if Halo 6 has a movement style similar to Halo 2, it will help to give it that signature halo feeling, and distinguish it from other shooters. If Halo 6 has Halo 2 style movement with thrusters like in Halo 5, I think it’ll make a really fun movement system that requires people to think more about their positioning than most modern games, while also allowing for a little bit of special movement to make encounters more interesting.
This next point, while not ultra important to gameplay, would, in my mind make halo 6 look better, and again, give it that true halo feeling. 343 should have classic style weapons in halo 6. Guns like the battle rifle and rocket launcher are just so distinctively Halo, yet 343 has decided to change them for no apparent reason other than to say that they are new versions of the older guns. Look at how excited the community got when 343 added in classic weapon models! Most fans prefer the older weapon designs. Having guns that look more like the older models could even be explained in the lore by saying that all weapons are needed for the war against the forerunners (and flood fingers crossed) so older weapons that still are functioning effectively are being used along side the newer guns. Another explanation would be having a new permutation of guns that look like the older models (i.e. halo 2/3 mixed with the higher detail of halo 4/5’s guns) as an upgrade to the current weapons in game.
The points that I’ve discussed so far have been all about making Halo 6 feel more like classic halo games, and this is by far the most effective way to achieve that. 343 needs to have a more halo-y art style. The gritty feeling of Halo 1-Reach was so good I truly don’t think that there is anyone out there who prefers 343’s weird plastic-y art style (and if someone says they do I would question weather they know the difference between art style and graphics) Halo wars 2, at least in cutscenes actually has a really good halo look to it, but I’m assuming that was blur studio’s work, not 343’s, so I don’t know if we can count on that look as 343’s new style for halo. Either way, going back to the older art style would drastically improve the way Halo looks.
Another important point for what would make Halo 6 better would be having map design akin to halo 2/3. Obviously I don’t just want remakes of maps from halo 2/3, but I really preferred the flow of those maps to Halo 4 and 5’s. While I think halo 5 did a decent job at maps, I miss the outdoor maps with environmental elements and the more arena-shooter feeling maps, and I definitely dislike the excessive amount of clean, fake-looking UNSC facility maps. In my opinion, Bungie is/was really fantastic at map theming. Even though I hate the flow of a lot of destiny maps, you can see a reason as to why the map is there. Nothing looks forced like maps in halo 4 and 5 do. That aspect was one of my favorites of halo 2 and 3 (can’t really say the same for CE since those maps were sort of just there, but that’s excusable seeing as it came out in 2001 and graphics just weren’t there yet) every single map in halo 2 and 3 looks like an actual location that should be there. None of them look like it’s a facility specifically built for training like every map in halo 5 does, and barriers/cover all make sense in the context of the map. Plus, it was fun playing on maps that were wildly different. In halo 5 its like, “Oh, here’s a unsc facility in a cold place, here’s one in some lava, here’s an underwater one, oh, look, a city! That’s different! Never mind it looks just like all of the unsc facilities anyway”
My last improvement is about the progression system in general. I think having daily challenges like in Halo reach would be great, because it gives people an incentive/goal to work forward to every day that they play the game. I think that the level progression system should go back to a named rank system. As it stands right now, no one cares about ranking up, because it’s just a number, not a named rank that you want to reach, and if people have a goal, they want to play more. Going along with the whole goal thing, 343 should make it so that armor and helmets are unlocked through achievements instead of randomly. Guns and stuff for warzone could still be random if that element is necessary, but having to complete an achievement to get a helmet/piece of armor is way more satisfying and fun.
Like I said, I really have enjoyed halo 5. The base mechanics are awesome, and the multiplayer is one of the most fun, but if 343 makes halo 6 with more of the elements I’ve suggested, it will easily be my favorite halo game of all time. Please comment any ideas you guys have that would make Halo 6 your favorite Halo game, or at least one that you have a lot of fun playing.
