> 2533274833656619;6117:
> > 2535440283237581;6113:
> > > 2533274833656619;6112:
> > > > 2535440283237581;6110:
> > > > > 2533274833656619;6107:
> > > > > Halo needed to adapt to the future. Every popular shooter game now has sprint, slide, and clamber. Playing a game without those abilities feels old and clunky.
> > > >
> > > > Honest question: have you played either Doom (2016) or Doom Eternal? If so, did you find it/them “old and clunky” or otherwise lacking in the gameplay?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > How can Halo be a rival to games like Warzone, Apex, and Fortnite?
> > > >
> > > > I’m not convinced that Halo should try competing against Battle Royale games. I think it should instead set out to live up to its reputation and legacy as a more traditional FPS. Why do you think Halo should set itself up as a rival to a different genre of games?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > They need advanced movement mechanics like them to stay in the fight.
> > > >
> > > > ”Advanced movement mechanics” has become a bit of a buzz phrase, hasn’t it? What makes a movement mechanic advanced?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > I will still say Halo 3 was the best shooter of all time in my opinion, but going back and playing it now after all these years with technology and games creating better mechanics, now my favorite game feels old and clunky.
> > > >
> > > > The absence of mechanics like Sprint in Halo 3 was not due to technological limitations. Sprint was tested and scrapped in Halo 2’s development on the original Xbox because the devs felt it had a negative effect on the gameplay.
> > > >
> > > > My condolences for Halo 3 feeling too old and clunky for you. Another honest question: have you played Halo 3 in the Master Chief Collection? If so, have you adjusted the FoV to something higher than the paltry 70(?) degrees it had on the 360? If not and if possible, I highly recommend doing so.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > TLDR; Adapt to the future.
> > > >
> > > > Sprint has been around for well over a decade. It is not new or innovative, nor is it something to be shoehorned. It perplexes me that many treat it as some inevitability, as if FPS games are ultimately fated to reach a singularity of design.
> > > >
> > > > We all want Halo’s next iteration to be different from any previous entry though. Many of us simply find Sprint to be incongruous with Halo’s gameplay style that encourages free movement in combat.
> > > >
> > > > Sprint works in games like Gears of War (which came out in ‘06), because the gameplay style centers around cover-based shooting and rushing between cover fits that theme.
> > > >
> > > > Sprint works in games like CoD, Battlefield, and virtually every other modern military shooter because their gameplay style centers around a balance between lethality and mobility. ADS and crouching make the player move slower but improves accuracy. Moving (including jumping) reduces accuracy. A mechanic where the player can forgo weapon usage in exchange for faster forward movement fits that theme.
> > > >
> > > > But Halo? Halo’s combat can be likened to a dance! You aren’t penalized for strafing or jumping; you’re encouraged to be a moving target! A mechanic that not only restricts weapon usage to move optimally, but also limits that movement to the forward direction is antithetical to Halo’s theme… and those are the two essential aspects of Sprint.
> > > >
> > > > Don’t you agree there are better ways to iterate on Halo’s formula?
> > >
> > > Doom was too fast.
> >
> > So obviously not slow. Did you find it clunky?
> >
> > What about the other questions in my post? I was looking forward to reading your responses.
>
> You have to find that sweet spot between old and new feeling. You don’t want too many new mechanics where the game doesn’t feel like Halo. But at the same time you don’t want it to feel old and clunky. Even though Doom is fast, doesn’t mean its good. Being too fast changes the strategy of the game, and makes people too slippery.
Right, you want it to be fresh in that there are new discoveries to make, experiments to test, and maneuvers to master; but you also want it to be familiar and recognizable. You say you don’t want too many new mechanics, but I’d argue the nature and effects of new mechanics are at least equally important to that balance as the quantity of them.
To clarify, I’m not advocating for Halo adopting Doom-like movement speed. I think Halo Infinite’s movement speed is a good pace. I brought up those games as examples of modern games that lack a sprint mechanic and yet aren’t slow or “clunky”, although I’m still not sure what you mean by clunky in this context.
> Strafing is a main movement mechanic for defense. I felt like it was ruined from H5 thrust ability. The thrust to me was like a get out of jail free card. A way to just run away and escape. And I don’t feel like an escape mechanic was good to put into Halo.
Strafing isn’t what I would consider a mechanic, per se. It’s more of an emergent player behavior made viable by the game’s mechanics (or lack thereof). Thrusters were essentially an attempt to augment and automate strafing. It’s a similar case for Sprint, Clamber, and Slide, isn’t it?
Wasn’t Sprint at least as much “a way to just run away and escape” as Thrusters? Sure, H5’s iteration of Sprint meant you had to break line-of-sight first and it’d delay your shield recharge, but if you could get out of sight you could then move faster than your attackers. If your attackers decided to give chase, they’d also be stopped from recovering shields and would have to stop sprinting (letting you continue to widen the gap) just to take a shot at you. The shield recharge delay (meant to discourage running away) was a double-edged sword, punishing players that pursued as well.
Halo Infinite’s iteration of Sprint thankfully doesn’t have much utility as an escape mechanic, but it doesn’t seem to have much utility at all aside from transitioning into a slide. It feels redundant, involves a significant motion tracker rework (one that I’ve not made a determination on yet, mind you), and takes up an input on the controller/keyboard that could’ve been used for something else.
> To me Halo is all about starting the same as everyone else. And getting in intense 1v1 fights, and having teamwork that will melt people if focused fire correctly.
Those are definitely things I hold as central to Halo’s gameplay identity too, but I think there’s a good bit more to it than that. I’d add to that list (in no particular order):
- the layered shield/health system - conditional weapon attributes (unshielded headshot modifiers, plasma weapons’ increased damage to shields, etc.) - moving and shooting at the same time without compromising either - on-map weapons, power-ups, etc. for players to scavenge and fight over - a fun and varied weapon/vehicle sandboxEvery iteration of Halo (so far) has kept to at least most of these, but you can see how not adhering to even one impacts the gameplay significantly.
> Your right Halo shouldn’t compete against battle royale games. But at the same time don’t you think Halo should compete with the top shooters. And right now the top shooters are battle royale games.
I think Halo is at its best when it stays true to itself. I also think there are better ways for Halo to adapt than mimicry. People play different games for different experiences, after all.
You didn’t really answer this question and I’m still curious to hear your answer to it: What makes a movement mechanic advanced?