Spoiler: All of this connects with Halo Infinite
As a long time Halo fan, I have a great deal of passion for this franchise, for the story, for the characters, and for the universe that has been created. I am certain that many of you share those same feelings about this franchise. So that begs the question, what is it about Halo that drops everyone’s jaws, that makes us come back time and again? That has people STILL playing Halo 3 and Reach Multiplayer, well after those games have been replaced by the new Halo games? Ask yourself, how many times have you replayed a Halo campaign? Now ask yourself, why? What is it about these games that keeps us coming back after so many years? I want to shed a bit of light on what I think, now to start off, do not confuse me for a bungie faithful Halo fanboy, because I love Halo 4 and Halo Wars 2. Halo 5 is a seperate topic, ANYWAYS! What is it that makes a Halo game extraordinary? I don’t know that there is a definitive answer, but here are some of my thoughts. As far as campaign goes, there are a lot of moving parts, but the primary thing is the accesibility. Can you understand what is going on, are the missions diverse enough where you don’t get bored, are there secrets hidden in the sandbox to discover, does it feel real? All of these I believe are necessary to create a good Halo campaign, but even just to make a good mission. A Halo campaign mission, is a massive sandbox that has a desired path for the player to take, how you get there though is up to you, how many times have you attempted to get the warthog to a place you weren’t supposed to take it, just because you could? There are hidden weapons scattered around, easter eggs, and just so much care and life and humor put into these stories. The thing that makes each mission special, is that we are able to take our time and explore, all of the power is given to the player for every single mission, how you approach it is up to you. If you want to try and take on a scarab with nothing but your trusty AR, there is nothing stopping you. And the fact that you can do it with a friend only makes it more special. And the stories, they make Master Chief a shell that you (the player) fills, it is you doing all of this crazy heroic stuff minus the occasional badass one-liner. And each character is filled with personality and life that we care about them. The story is also so compelling, a little complicated but so so good. All of these great things culminate into an experience that players want to have again and again whether they want to play on a higher difficulty, get that par score, speedrun it, or simply explore to find all the easter eggs, maybe even just to do it again but this time with friends. Halo is really something special. Now, what does Halo Infinite have to, HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO learn from its past to make an off the charts game? First, we need characters that we can love and relate to outside of Master Chief, because the player is Chief, every other character is talking to you. To state the obvious, we need a good story, but we need a story just like Halo 1-3 where no matter when you found Halo, you can jump in and still understand what is happening. No one wants to have to do homework to understand a Halo campaign… (Halo 5) Each individual mission has to have variety, different gameplay, different setting, and different weapons. Halo has a HUGE sandbox to work with, so use ALL OF IT in the campaign. Now the last thing, and this is what really worries me, is the core mechanics. No I don’t think sprinting is the death of halo, but sliding… are you serious? Halo is an experience by itself, remember when every game was copying Halo? Yeah because it was amazing, now every game has the same base mechanics, there is nothing unique, I can play 7 different shooters, and Walk, Sprint, Slide, Crouch are how every single one works. 343! STOP COPYING OTHER GAMES! Halo is a unique game, make it Halo, don’t follow trends, set yourself apart. I firmly believe that sliding, should just not be a function in Halo Infinite, because all it does, is blend Halo into every other shooter on the market. The grappling hook I adore, if its just a pickup in multiplayer i have 0 complaints. Thank god they are removing all of the spartan abilities from halo 5. Honeslty for what we have seen, the only place I think they went wrong is with adding sliding, just strip that out and you’ve got yourself a halo game. Also, please for the love of all that is Halo, MAKE A BANISHED SCARAB FIGHT IN THE CAMPAIGN. HOW HAVE WE HAD 2 GAMES WITHOUT A SCARAB FIGHT. and no the kraken does not count. I am hopeful, but so unbelievably worried that there will still be so many mistakes left over from Halo 5.