What (I think) Halo needs to become relevant again

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Now I’m gonna start off by saying that I -Yoinking!- love Halo 5. I’ve logged 24 days into the game since launch, but I feel that if Halo continues down this path it could kill (or for some, has already killed) what made Halo so special in the first place.

Art style:

Now, in terms of graphics, Halo 4 & 5 are great. But they don’t look or feel, in my opinion, like a halo title should look or feel. Of course this is purely subjective, but I feel like the newer games look a bit too “cartoony” and bland. I can’t really use evidence or anything here because it’s purely opinion-based, but Halo 3 had a good balance of cartoonish and realistic (ish) visuals. If Halo 6 has an art style akin to Halo 2 and 3 that would be awesome.

Sprint:

Spartan Abilities are freaking awesome in Halo 5, but they are so far detached from what made Halo Halo, especially sprint. I know this has been said so many times, but sprint is an illusion at this point. MS are too afraid that a game without sprint won’t sell because gamers are so used to it at this point, so they build the entire game around this broken feature that doesn’t belong in Halo. The maps have been stretched out to accomodate sprint, to the point where you aren’t actually getting anywhere faster. So really, what’s the point? It’s a pointless feature that brings nothing positive to the game.

Spartan Abilities:

In my opinion, the beauty of Halo’s gameplay was in it’s simplicity. While spartan abilities are great in Halo 5 with the maps built around them, they restrict the variety of engagements that can take place and also restrict creative map design. Stand-out maps from past Halo’s like Hang 'em High, Guardian and The Pit all played significantly differently from each other because there was nothing restricting the map design that had to be accomodated for like SA. In Halo 5, the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough maps, it’s that they all play the same because they are all designed with Spartan Abilities in mind. It feels like these maps were made by simply going through a checklist, making sure each map complemented each ability rather than focusing on making fun, creative maps.

The REQ system:

This is the one part of Halo 5 that I genuinely hate. And I don’t hate it because of microtransactions, in fact, I’m all for microtransactions providing free dlc. The problem is, this ‘free dlc’ is stuff that the game should have had at launch. But anyway, I hate the REQ system because cosmetics are incorporated into it, which completely ruins the point of ‘unlockable’ armors anyway. Do you remember Recon in Halo 3? Do you remember how hard it was to get? Do you remember how badass you felt when you finally got it after months of painful, yet engaging grinding? It added so much to the replay value of the game, because it actually meant something. It kept you playing, trying to unlock that awesome armor that had a specific requirement to get it. You saw a guy rocking Recon in Halo 3 and you thought: “Damn, that guy must be an absolute beast at Halo!”. Now, you see someone with a mythic armor set and you think: “Lucky -Yoink-.” Do you see the problem here? The REQ system should be completely limited to REQs in Warzone, and should have a “REQ store”, where you purchase what you want, when you want it. Microtransactions could still be incorporated (as much as I hate to say it) by purchasing REQ points themselves.

CONTENT:

I get why there are so few playlists, I truly do. We need a limited amount of options so we can actually find matches, and it saddens me that this is the case. However, this doesn’t need to be the case. If Halo 6 launches with a robust multiplayer suite filled to brim with maps, playlists, custom games options and more, the population would remain high enough to find matches in every playlist because people wouldn’t get bored of the game so quickly, because there would be so many -Yoink- things they could do depending on their mood. The reason Halo 5’s population plumetted so fast was because everyone got bored with having so little to do.
Also, if nothing else that I’ve said here is taken into account, please give us a classic playlist with dedicated maps that aren’t forged.

What do you guys think?

2

The Art Style lacks focus at this point. New and more ‘futuristic’ designs mixed with old and more grounded designs, and silly skins on top of that. As a sidenote, Halo 2 had a terrible art style. Halo Ce, 3, or Reach for inspiration.

Spartan Abilities…I mean, giving the player new abilities isn’t inherently a bad thing. Some (most?) of them just suck though. Clamber shouldn’t exist, or at the very least maps should be designed around jumping instead of climbing. As it stands even the most basic of cover requires clamber to get over it, which just severely breaks up the flow of combat in a bad way. Sprint sucks, I really don’t want to get into that rant again. Slide is alright, if a bit pointless. Spartan Charge is a step in the wrong direction (melee should be made less significant, not more). Ground Pound is so situational it doesn’t really make a difference one way or the other.

The REQ system is awful. Decent looking armor shouldn’t take eons to obtain, and it definitely shouldn’t be locked behind a diceroll either. The point of armor in the first place is to make your character look the way you want them to.

The amount of content is lacking, and too much emphasis is put on the wrong things. Community asks for more arena content and they give us an improved Breakout playlist instead.

3

> 2533274819302824;2:
> Spartan Charge is a step in the wrong direction (melee should be made less significant, not more).

I really dislike Spartan Charge as it is at the moment. The game has a decent skill gap that is being compressed by misuse of Charge. The fact that you can be killed by literally 3 AR shots after being Spartan Charged with no effective counter-measure is ridiculous. Also, it being a one-hit kill in breakout is just stupid.

4

I mostly think halo 5 is a great game but it could definitely use some tweaks. For the req system I think emblems should be unlocked by commendations and rank. They should not be in req packs. I think Weapon/Vehicle certifications should be tied to commendations for that particular gun/vehicle. For armor I think there should be a mix of luck and skill to getting great gear. Getting a lucky drop is just as fun as grinding and getting the gear you want, so I think there should be both. There should be at least 3 armor sets that involve solo grinding and not available in packs. There should be more armor/special weapons tied to spartan companies. The bronze/silver/gold grind is long and sometimes frustrating, but I’m really glad they didn’t allow duplicates for permanent unlocks. That would drive me crazy! At least there is a sense of progression through the different packs.

As far as the spartan abilities, I think they are pretty balanced overall. Sprinting hindering shield regen is very fair. Spartan charge is sometimes OP, but now that I’ve learned the movements better, I don’t die from it that often. I think the abilities add a new skill gap, and it keeps me playing the game to get better.

I agree there should be more playlists etc, but I’m patient for the dlc, and have a lot of fun in just normal slayer, that I don’t have a problem of getting bored with what is out there.

5

Seat hopping and clamber were the biggest upgrades in h5.

6

> 2533274819302824;2:
> The Art Style lacks focus at this point. New and more ‘futuristic’ designs mixed with old and more grounded designs, and silly skins on top of that. As a sidenote, Halo 2 had a terrible art style. Halo Ce, 3, or Reach for inspiration.
>
> Spartan Abilities…I mean, giving the player new abilities isn’t inherently a bad thing. Some (most?) of them just suck though. Clamber shouldn’t exist, or at the very least maps should be designed around jumping instead of climbing. As it stands even the most basic of cover requires clamber to get over it, which just severely breaks up the flow of combat in a bad way. Sprint sucks, I really don’t want to get into that rant again. Slide is alright, if a bit pointless. Spartan Charge is a step in the wrong direction (melee should be made less significant, not more). Ground Pound is so situational it doesn’t really make a difference one way or the other.
>
> The REQ system is awful. Decent looking armor shouldn’t take eons to obtain, and it definitely shouldn’t be locked behind a diceroll either. The point of armor in the first place is to make your character look the way you want them to.
>
> The amount of content is lacking, and too much emphasis is put on the wrong things. Community asks for more arena content and they give us an improved Breakout playlist instead.

to me personally, I actually think that thrust and clamber are the only abilities that make sense. Charge can be useful, but is OP, ground pound is really fun to use, but a little over the top. slide is just there, and sprint I am indifferent about.

As for art design, I am a little lost here, Halo 2 and 3 have nearly Identical art designs, how can one be bad and one be good? thats like calling two chocolate chip cookies bad event though you can barely see the difference between them, maybe its do to Halo 2 being older and the graphics having that weird, dark, washed out color palette, while 3 is more vibrant and colorful.

I think personally, 343 should have another studio create a spin off series taking place before the fall of reach, during the peak of the war. The base mechanics would be based around Halo 3, but base speed would be faster, no sprint obviously. to keep that sprinkle of new, thrust and clamber, the only useful abilities would carry over.

For art design, the covenant would take inspiration from Halo 2A, Halo 3, Halo 2 and Halo reach. UNSC would take from Halo 2A and Reach, and Forerunners would take from Halo 4 and 3. Spartan armor, for spartan III’s I think could have a hybrid design of Halo 4/5 and Halo reach, now I don’t mean a gritty Wetwork helmet, but like Halo reach armor, with the gauntlets and thruster packs of 4/5. they could take helmets from 4/5 and redesign them in a halo reach style, making them less, weird.