Overview
I’ve been playing Halo games since Halo CE. I’ve enjoyed them all on different levels, but it seems every one of them improves in one area and detracts from others. Here I’m going to lay out what I believe to be the essential building blocks for the perfect Halo game; different features and elements from different Halo titles that have shaped the franchise. I think most people will agree that this list is more than a bit ambitious, but if even half of these ideas are implemented I think Halo 4 will be better off than any other Halo game to date.
This is my opinion, happy to add to the list if others have ideas.
Campaign:
-Flesh out Master Chief’s character - 343 has confirmed this and it’s about time
-Flesh out his relationship with Cortana - CE, 2 and 3 made this integral in their storyline and it will be great to see it continue
-Proper story for the Arbiter - I want to know moar, but without detracting from MC
-Covenant separatists involvement with UNSC
-Use of Elite, Grunt and Hunter separatists as squad mates possibly for missions, a la Halo 2
-Covenant as it stands after separation - Halo 2 gave us great perspective on the Covenant, as much as it is Master Chief’s story, knowing the enemy is just as important
-Information on Forerunners
-Status of the flood/gravemind - Don’t just gloss over it as if they are entirely defeated
-Big battles
-No stagnant AA portions or hand-holding - Let’s not do the ‘Use your jetpack to fly to derderp’, it’s stagnant, contrived level design and it feels pointless. If we are given armour abilities and if we need them for sections, let US figure it out. Some of us played Doom, Wolfenstein, Turok, shooters that made you figure out what you had to do on your own; some of us don’t need our hands held and if you ARE going to tell us what every button press does and when we should do it, at least allow us to turn that mechanic off. It’s frustrating.
-More tonal and intricate level design - Gravemind on Halo 2 always resonated with me, the opening sequence, the amazingly diverse and intense combat, the interwoven story as you watch the Covenant fall apart, Truth over the intercom, the amazing use of music that set the tone for each sequential portion of thelevel. It felt like a grand battle was going on, like you were in the middle of something huge, yet the environment was intimate. Halo CE and Halo 2 could create that atmosphere, but it was lacking in later games; please, for the love of God bring back those moments
-Less reliance on vehicular combat to indicate battle scope - The Maw, Gravemind, Uprising, these levels were designed for on-foot combat and still retained a grand scope, we don’t need wide open spaces conducive only for vehicular combat (which I find for the most part static compared to on-foot gameplay) to feel like we are in a large battle. I feel like vehicles were abused in Halo 3 and Reach in an attempt to make battles feel bigger. Vehicular combat was implemented far better in previous Halo titles and didn’t feel like a device.
-Make Legendary hard again - Halo CE on legendary was insanely difficult…well, the library was and Halo 2 was an experience for me like no other. Everything was against you and everything could kill you, especially sniper jackals. Halo 3’s legendary felt like Heroic and Halo Reach was even easier. I want that challenge back, having to plan every move, check every corner and know where every enemy is located before you even think about attacking.
-A good final level - The Maw was fantastic, enemies everywhere, plasma flying through the air, great combat variety and hunters exploding flood at every turn, all capped off with a warthog race to the finish line. The Great Journey on the other hand, despite the 3 minutes of entertainment of having Hunters and Council Elites crushing brutes faces was…lacklustre when it came down to it. Then we get to Halo 3 and it really went out the window. One type of enemy, everyone’s favourite; the flood. A barren snowcapped land of boredom and guilt spark firing its lazorz? It was boring to say the least, but at least we had the joy once again of careening through explosions in our trusty hog. Reach did well, big battles, tough enemies, but that final phantom whack-a-mole sequence with the cannon? Who honestly enjoyed that? Let’s get a final level with big battles, ground fights, dog fights, vehicular and on-foot combat, enemy variety and a cohesive story to hold it all together.
-More overall enemy variety – Halo 2 and Halo CE felt like they had more enemy variety, the battles intertwined flood and covenant battles. With Reach we got ONE new enemy (skirmishers) at the expense of another (drones), let’s hope this new foe gives us a bigger bunch of enemies that are interesting to fight.
-Final cutscene - Halo CE let you know more was on its way, with the start of a new trilogy, let’s kick-start it right and give us a cut-scene that will
leave us begging for moar.
-Vidmaster achievements – Bring them back and make them HARD. Halo 3’s final level, 4 players, only ghosts achievement was a blast. It took a while, most people probably had that one guy who kept dying, but it was still a great source of fun, it required team work and patience. ODST’s Endure achievement meant you needed a group you could trust, it was time-consuming, at times incredibly painful, tense and incredibly fun (for me anyway). Bring back these great sources of fun and make the word ‘Achievement’ mean something.
-If Brutes are in, strip them back a bit- As much as the Brutes in Halo 3 and Reach were far more interesting to fight than the bullet sponges of Halo 2 days, they just weren’t diffrentiated enough from Elites. I think if we are going to see Brutes, considering the Covenant’s fall from glory, we could perhaps see them in some form in between the two, to allow them to be different from Elites but still interesting to fight.
