Nearly everyone on Waypoint can agree that Halo isn’t reaching its full potential. Even with the disputed amount of sales we’ve seen, even the higher ones aren’t as good as they could be. But no one can ever agree why, and I don’t plan on really unifying anyone but my answer is the best one I’ve been able to put together through spending far too much time thinking about it. Before I get started, I’m not a newcomer to the franchise, between this profile and an older one I’ve probably put more time into Halo than many of the people who will criticize what I say.
People have long held onto the legacy of Halo 2 and 3 as the pinnacle of the series, which in popularity and numbers they were. Halo offered the most immersive experience available in gaming at the time, and attracted many casual fans through both its popularity and gameplay. Now Halo has taken a dip in Halo 4 and 5 in popularity and overall quality. It’s campaign is disliked by the majority of the community from all appearances and this frustrations have a more than legitimate standing, they’re usually reasonable and correct in their critical analysis from the Lore Community and isn’t enjoyed by casual fans because it doesn’t give a dramatic story or a challenging but enjoyable gameplay experience. Many times the AI are less intelligent than those of Halo 4 and most definitely not as intelligent or clever as Halo Reach’s AI.
The multiplayer is also divisive but to a lesser extent, with many members of the Waypoint community enjoying it but with most outside the hardcore community being turned off by most of the experiences outside of Warzone, and even that isn’t enough for many people.
I think we can mostly all agree on these points but what no one can agree on is how to fix them or what has caused them. Well, I have my mind mostly made up on who has blame in all this and the answer isn’t 343; it’s the community. Most of the decisions 343 has made, while yes, have to be oked by management, but what was going through their heads after Halo 4’s release? So many people hated Halo 4 but more than less often they had little logical arguments behind them. Yes, the multiplayer wasn’t the best but to be fair, it was one of the most populated and easy to find matches in in the Master Chief Collection but it wasn’t as bad as what many people claimed. I mean, come on guys, it was 343’s first game, compare Combat Evolved’s MP to Halo 2 or 3’s.
I was watching gameplay of the Beta again and I think the game we would have gotten with that would have been a better game. Many of the changes, such as the Assault Rifle getting precision damage and a darker art style would have been accepted and taken in stride but instead they completely changed the game. This may not be a big deal to many people here are more than happy with the changes but that’s kind of the point. The hardcore Halo MP community always fights for balance but “balance” only ever seems to mean the same weapons dominate and the game can’t dare break the basic Halo 2/3 formula.
Going back to watching early gameplay footage of people like Greenskull, it really made me think of the entire MP community differently when I realized how every new change went the same way. Take the Hydra, it fits into the sandbox very well, how was it accepted when first shown off? “Eh, I don’t know about it, I don’t know if it’s really Halo.” The Plasma Caster? “Eh, I don’t know if it really fits the sandbox well.” This was what most were saying around Waypoint and YouTube.
People were claiming weapons were over-powered all the time and people still argue that automatics should be nerfed into near worthlessness even though the AR is dominated anywhere that isn’t between melee range or rather than a few feet. Despite what most people will say the Assault Rifle is often bested after a melee because the magnum user only has to land one shot, and the AR has a much smaller range of effectiveness than the Magnum. Other than the fact it’s stupid that a pistol could outrange an assault rifle, it doesn’t make sense to people coming into the game. Yes, yes, I know that as a Halo fan we’re all supposed to despise new players but that’s not how you make a game popular. Anyone can believe in their hippie Apple-like “Heeeeeey maaaan, they’re just a bunch of people gettin together an makin stuff for fun, maaaaan.” mantra but that isn’t reality, Microsoft is a business and that’s it and they will eventually either demand large changes or perhaps even cut the series years down the road when it doesn’t turn as large a profit as it could or goes in the hole.
Halo has to change, I don’t like it in some ways but it’s the truth. If Halo 2/3 was what the game should be, more people would be going to the Master Chief Collection. Yes, even though it was broken it isn’t now, people would still be flocking to the MCC.
People always use Overwatch and Doom as the examples of saying that Halo shouldn’t have sprint but what you never hear is their variety, and likewise, something Halo does not have. Halo has very little gameplay variety outside of Warzone. Overwatch has variety in its characters and Doom had variety, and even those evil custom classes. No one ever, ever, mentions that little part, you only ever hear about no sprint. I love the older games, they’re a lot of fun but that was state-of-the-art and great fun - in 2004 and 2007. People don’t want a reskin outside of the Halo community and other gamers don’t want a reskin of Halo 3. And if Halo 3 came out today you would all be complaining about equipment or something else.
Yes, in Halo 5’s story it reeks of rewrite and yes, the prevailing evidence says that Microsoft came in and changed stuff but by all accounts it was because they didn’t feel like they were popular enough and why’s that? Because people complained and complained about Halo 4’s campaign when it didn’t deserve it. A large portion of Halo 4’s dislike was routed in ignorance of the Extended Universe. Yes I know that a lot of people don’t like the fact that you have to know about the EU to enjoy the story but why not tap into that huge resource? Most of those stories and all characters were either created in or only truly characterized in the books. I feel like the only reason many people disliked Halo 4’s story is because they’re too scared to read a book or two. And the other half is because it just got cool to hate on. That’s really it. And I find it funny that I’ve seen many YouTubers like Ultimate Halo and such redacting their criticism of Halo 4.
So they wanted a Halo story that didn’t require any previous knowledge of the franchise or the EU to enjoy that was simple to understand. That sound familiar? And with the MP only focused around the Magnum, DMR, and BR.
I’m not saying that there can’t be a competitive mode but so much of the game is dedicated to the Waypoint community but that isn’t a large enough group to market to, and the community shouldn’t act like the game should be geared to only us.
So, in closing, I blame the community for the results of Halo 5, 343 needs to balance better with listening to the community but not letting a small vocal group control the entire way the game functions. Let the hate begin, I suppose.