The Art Design of the Halo Games

Community General Discussion
#1

You know, I would like to hope that 343 reads this. Really, I do. I have been playing Halo since I was a child, and I cannot say how much it has influenced me personally. But this is not a forum to discuss my life, I just want you all to know: I care a lot about Halo. Let’s get started.

Halo Wars 2 did so many things right. The art design is a step in the right direction for sure. Its amazing and Red Team look stunning in their badass armor. The covenant look awesome; the banished? Damn near flawless. I personally love how they implemented the new Unggoy design from Halo 4 and 5 into the game via suicide grunts. Brilliant! But my problems stems first from the design of the UNSC Marines. Now, when we talk art design I personally love the design of Halo Reach. that, for me, was the most realistic design of marines to date. Their gear felt familiar yet futuristic. They didn’t wear molle gear, which made sense because surely that gear is outdated. They made sure to include everything they may need, and overall looked realistic. My second favorite is the Halo 2 Anniversary marine design. Again, the common factor with these is realism. They make sense.
I do not understand why some of the marines designs, such as the Halo Wars 2 designs, do not contain pouches of any sort. they just have armor. That is not realistic, not practical. It doesn’t make sense. My only desire for this design is to see that the UNSC art design gets a much more realistic and practical look.

#2

I feel ya man. At least in the trailers and cutscenes of HW2 the Marines are in the old art style.

#3

Whoops, double post.

#4

Personally, I think the 343 Marine armor makes more sense than Bungie’s designs. The only criticisms that I would be the lack of pouches and attachments, as well as the bizarre color choices.

#5

On the marines note, my favorite design was the Halo 3 design, it just seemed to be the most quintessentially Halo design.

I agree that Halo Wars 2 took things in the right direction with regards to art direction, but there are aspects that just seem far too over designed for my liking. I also think that 343 needs to return to the glyphic, monolithic design of the original forerunner architecture, rather than the new, dissolving walls and floating spikes. Halo Wars 2 only did this in the cutscenes, and likely only because Blur was reusing assets from Halo 2A.

#6

I keep hearing about how Halo Wars 2 has returned to the old art style, but I just don’t see it. The new design of the marines isn’t the only thing that bothers me. Pretty much everything about the new style bothers me. I would be so happy if the art style resembled Reach more. Reach really honed the near perfect style of Halo 3.