Its been a while on this forum, and I could help notice common trends of what people are asking and what people disagree on. At first I felt helpless, as everyone seems to give off the same vibe towards each other: You cant have the halo you want.
But as of recently, I fail to let that implied statement prevent me from writing what is on my mind. I believe, we, the community, can help 343 with the mass amount of numbers we have with great ideas. I believe they value our feedback. I believe if we all agree on something, its a no brainer for 343 to do us fan-service and give us a nod and implement it some way. ‘Development takes time’ argument, and ‘Its their franchise’ argument: 1) Criticize/Suggest earlier better than later. 2)Yes its their franchise, but it is ultimately we, the customers and fans that buy the game and technically provide the company with funding. I think its also note worthy that I have been playing halo since 2001 and Halo is my childhood, Master Chief is my hero, but I will try to look at this as objectively as possible. (AKA bracketing)
Lets dive straight into the elephants in the room. Movement Mechanics, Open Spaces/Open World, Art Style, Micro transactions, Playable Species, and Split screen.
What I am about to say ARE MY OPINION on the suggestions. You are entitled to your own opinion, as am I. And we can disagree or agree… also fine.
Movement Mechanics: Without a doubt there is a split in the community of whether or not to have advanced mechanics, or classic mechanics. Pro Advanced Mechanics Spartans argue they wish to traverse the map faster, or that a modern game must implement sprint. Pro Classic Mechanic Spartans argue that sprint and other abilities that trap you in animations break the traditional halo golden triangle (grenades, Weapons, melee) and perhaps make the game overly complicated, especially for map designers. Another reason they say is that it makes the game too fast paced like other fps. So, one likes sprint, the other doesn’t… but thats not true.
The underlying reasons differ. There are other games that implement forms of sprint that keep you battle ready… prepared to shoot always, prepared to melee always, prepared to grenade always. Sure we could take from games mechanics that work well, only if they can be implemented well in a halo game without feeling forced or out of place. My Suggestion: Remove Sprint, Keep thruster pack but always combat ready… and have it not lock you in an animation… and as the following.
When X is down, and thumb stick direction applied, Then accelerate in direction of thumb stick
When A is down, and player is in the air, Then apply upward acceleration (this cannot act as a jet pack, rather, may increase jump height by a little, or slow down a fall)
Mechanics like thrusting into someone with a melee attack can simply be replaced with the utilization of running forward with a little thruster speed boost and then applying the melee like you would normally. Maybe… the damage done is proportional to your speed?
Important: Thruster pack shouldn’t immediately change your velocity, but rather over time. Not fast enough to disorient the person who is taking aim at you. This should encourage more strategy with utilizing thruster pack more as a mobility enhancement, rather than as a combat evasion ability. useful in low gravity environments for navigation if available. Because of non-instant acceleration, in tighter spaces people wont be moving super fast. In larger environments very useful to traversing the map faster.
(im calling it thruster-propulsion for now [TP])
Open World/Map : Obviously my previous point ties into this one. With TP, traversing these larger maps wont be a headache. But here we have some people saying they welcome an open world… and others that want it to be much more linear. But a halo 3: odst style mission/ side missions are rather welcome by a lot of the community… perhaps preferably side missions as we know there are the action junkies who wont settle for much except a gunfight. Personally I love exploration. But I see a reason for there to be easy to follow, linear missions. An open map with a set objective can allow for both. (less boundaries please). Looking at halo 1 for inspiration of these kind of maps.
For those who like to explore have the room to explore, and for those who want to complete the objective have a nice route to the objective.
Artstyle: Ima make this brief. Yes, it may not be final atm. But the whole engine demo was full of fan service, especially to those who have been there from the start (thank you). Opinions i think are note worthy: Some think its a bit plasticy/cartoony… i think they are referring to master chief. I think they might be referring to the marines when the camera pulled up behind them. (scenery looks great thou 10/10). I dont share their opinion, but i guess if there was someway to add a more metallic look to chief and a more fiberish (that might not be the word im looking for) look to the marines clothing, then go for it. Im sure most of the fans wouldn’t mind (but ask them anyways). Also noteworthy: Elites… HW2 style influence please.
Micro transactions: Most people oppose… but its gonna make its way in anyways. Only question is how. <I might be totally wrong, i Hope im totally wrong with my statement>
Non central, cosmetic based micro transactions. Im sure plenty of people will buy even skins for an in game skull variants for odd ball, or Skins for the energy sword… or what not. There can be Unsc, Military, Rebel, Oni, honor guard, Heretic, Banshied, Sanghelios, Storm Covanant, Traditional Covanant skins etc. (UNSC and military are different) . I promise people will buy those i know i may Xd. Sounds tempting. I think most of these ideas are things people would absolutely love. Also, it would be great if these were obtainable by in game means (unless you want to upset the community ;p maybe have like 1 skin set for each weapon reserved for the ultimate edition for halo infinite)
Playable Species: for crying out loud, people have been begging for elites to make a return as playable characters (me included)…at least in custom game modes give them what they ask. You can go the extra mile and give them a ton of customization options… the community has spoken. This doesn’t need to be clarified more, there is already a forum hundreds of pages long about this. Next
Split screen: Alas its been confirmed halo infinite will be split screen. what is there to be said?
I have a huge concern that this is 2 players and not 4. Please. Halo was a game I played with them and even friends as a party game, where everyone gets in the room and watches and plays along. System link is a concept that still exists, as is offline gameplay (at least on consoles please)
There are other things obviously to be talked about. Campaign: that is for 343 to pull off. Forge, Tons of ideas…
I would greatly appreciate it if someone could take what im saying and make a more organized post we could all go to and put our inputs in. This time is more detrimental than ever that we can agree on things we would like.
If time allows… ill edit this post and write any conclusions about these topics we agree on in the area below. I will ask you if the way i phrase the opinion is ok with you before i update this post.
Community Opinions: