With all the criticism Halo 4 has gotten since its release, and with it being said that it’s less of a Halo game than Halo Reach, and with Halo Reach being called less of a Halo game than Halo 3, the question has to be asked; What makes a Halo game a Halo game?
Questions
Halo 3.
Why you ask? Because, it really showed the badass heroic personality in the chief and how he was still able to beat all odds , although the game kinda lost touch of that in halo 4 but it made sense because he was braking down . Also the soundtrack … You know the rest (EPIC) , and not to forget the level and multiplayer design. I’d love to see these features in halo 5 especially his iconic personality.
Sorry for the bad English 
First of all- this should be a VERY useful thread to 343i if they care to follow it. Nice thinking, and let’s keep it clean.
Halo 3. Why?
CAMPAIGN
-Awesome Campaign with a great story that capped the Halo trilogy better than I could hope (though the story itself was better in Halo 2).
-Fun missions that felt very open and Sandbox-y. The Campaign had LOADS of replay value with all the skulls, terminals and easter eggs as well as the general flexibility and fun that it allowed (more so than any other Halo game that I can remember).
-Memorable moments (such as non-scripted Scarab battles) with memorable music (all the classics- the Halo theme, Behold a Pale Horse, Never Forget, Finish the Fight and the Ghosts of Reach are a few notable examples and I hope some of them return) of the kind that has now become scarce in the Halo series (since Reach).
MULTIPLAYER
-Great maps: well chosen remakes and amazing new additions.
-Sandtrap. This deserves its own bulletpoint- Sandtrap is the epitome of Big Team gameplay with the structures, the dunes the banshee the tanks (on the heavy version) and the choppers and lets not forget the Elephants and the awesomeness they caused in gametypes like CTF, where the moving bases really came to play.
-The feeling that you really need to win (due to the experience system) really uplifted the importance of team-work and created an extremely Social game. I remember, at the time, just turning on the mike and speaking to random people around the world.
-Even starts are, to me, much more appealing than custom Loadouts and anything that has become mainstream multiplayer nowadays.
-A varied and awesome Sandbox.
-Double XP weekends gave me a reason to come back to the game every week and were nearly always wacky and fun gametypes that I wouldn’t have played otherwise. Locking away Griffball for the greater part of the week made it all the sweeter when I finally got to play it.
-Interactivity in maps made them feel more unique and much less static.
-Weapons on the map helped give each map its own unique identity and made the games much more based on level-control (which made them more competitive and more fun).
GENERAL (applies to both)
-Dual wielding at its finest- not too powerful but still awesome.
-Vehicles at their finest- a variety we haven’t seen since Halo 3 and also a good level of strength and toughness that doesn’t allow for them to get destroyed too fast but leaves plenty of weaknesses.
-Bright and colorful graphics that never failed too attract me into playing more.
-Good DLC that really added to the game (look at Sandbox) and brought the game back to life every time it began to dwindle.
-With Forge there was always something new to do (with DLCs) and all the limitations the game presented allowed for much more creativity in how to bypass them. When I look at a good Halo 3 Forge map I would say “Wow!” but when I look at a good Halo 4 map I say “Great…”. More creative tools that allow flexibility can return the wow-factor that Forge maps used to instill (look at Trials Evolution, for instance- people have managed to make things so far off from the basic motorcycle game that it blows my mind away every time). A terrain editor would help but if you do it make sure you don’t make terrain editing too easy. Make us work hard for a good canvas-map so every time someone finds a good one they’ll say “Wow!” again.
HIGH NOTES FROM HALO 2
-Badass story telling with loads of badass moments. Giving the Covenant back their bomb is a great example.
-Playing as the Arbiter was one of the highlights of the campaign
-Arguably the best OST in the series and in gaming as a whole. It really made a difference- the game became so much more epic because of the music…
-Awesome multiplayer with awesome maps.
-The best and most meaningful gameplay innovations any Halo game has ever done by far (in my opinion).
So what would you do to Halo 4 to make it the next Halo?
i.e. What would you take? what would you keep? What would you change?
Spartans + Covenant = Halo game pretty much a fact 
H2 was my favorite hands down.
> H2 was my favorite hands down.
> - proximity voice in ranked amped up the crap talking in games to make it even more personal
I miss this so much, not because I love trash talking but hearing the person complain when you beat them adds to the game.
I think this promotes less trash talk, as it’s done in game not all built up for the lobby. Haven’t you noticed in H4,when the game ends and you get those few seconds of “can’t back-out time” and all you hear is people bashing one another.
If you can’t do it in the game, the trash talk becomes more intense and verbal after the game.
The rest of your remarks were stop on as well, just really miss this one.
The X1 will have dedicated Servers, so the potential for a strong MM is already there. I would like a combination of CE, H2 and H3.
Take the base H2 movements, weapon and Power-Ups spawns.
Keep the Plasma Pistol like H3
Bring back CE’s Energy Rifle, WITH SLOW DOWN
Halo 3’s descope
Default load-outs Again
DMR and LightRifle GONE! No reason for weapons to be designed that cause MASSIVE maps. You shouldn’t be able to shot mid map to a base on any BTB, removing both of them does this.
I agree with your ideas and like where your head is at. De-scoping is a must and I would like to see the H2 unsc sniper and H3 beam rifle back. H4 unsc rifle is too heavy and the beam has way too much aim assist.
I’m excited about the dedicated servers, of course I’m hoping this game is worth the excitement.
343 has their work cut out for them, but the path to a great halo game has already been paved for them. All they need to do is follow the road and beautify it along the way.
I would of said 3 but the story was poorly written and IRIS didn’t connect to the full game whatsoever, the story in most of Bungies games felt to inconsistent and was overall rather boring, I liked ODSTs the most so I guess it goes to ODST, However Halo 4 had one of the best story’s, at least you got some sort of explanation for the villain (the Didact is angry at humanity for a war in the past and the terminals show how he survived) you get no explanation of the covenant or flood, Halo 4 was nice since it focused on one thing Bungie hardly did. Character Development, which Bungie really aren’t good at
Does gameplay matter to me? No, story does, the game can be horrible gameplay wise, but if it has a good story I will play it, I remember being more naive and thinking Sonic 06 had a decent story and I suffered through glitches and crappy gameplay thinking the story was good.
Having a firm hatred for multiplayer as a whole I really don’t care what it’s like (thanks Halo 2 for being broken and buggy and I quit about a couple of months in)
I never got to play 2 & I did have a lot of fun with my cousin when we played the CE campaign almost everyday but I’m gonna have to say 3/ODST. I love both their campaign’s, 3 for gameplay & being the end of the trilogy & ODST for story. 3’s multiplayer, slow as it is, is still my favourite out of the recent Halo games & Firefight in ODST was awesome.
I really want to try out 2 so I’m holding out for H2 anniversary.
What makes a Halo game for me is the campaign. And for me Halo 4 and Halo 3 come close but I personally pick Halo 3.
-Epic moments in-game
-Character’s were all top-notch.
-Flood was portrayed nicely.
-While the game was left on a cliff-hanger, the normal ending was a great conclusion.
Why I liked the Halo 4 campaign
-Much better Character development than others.
-Made big changes in the Halo Universe. Not just played it safe.
And a few more I can’t remember right now. All the Halo campaigns were great, I just liked these two the best.
I personally think the Halo 4 campaign was one of the best. It brought depth to Chief, Cortana, their relationship, even their enemy the Didact. It was a depth that had only been touched on at the end of Halo 2 and most of Halo 3, but Halo 4 really impacted.
Although I was dissapointed in the “boss battle” with The Didact. And I missed blowing up Scarabs.
However I’m not entirely sure which multiplayer was best. Unfortunately I didn’t get to experience Halo 2 multiplayer online, only LAN, but I’m still not sure which online was the best. I was very dissapointed in some of the changes 343 made to H4’s matchmaking i.e. removed classic playlists (assault, vip, juggernaut, even Reach’s Invasion, etc) and yes the lag was incredibly painful to experience, but thats being taken care of with the dedicated servers for the next game.
Halo Ce.
It was competitive at heart. Everything actually worked well and functioned as it should. The movement speed was perfectly fine, the maps were well designed, the vehicle combat was intense, and the weapons took skill to use.
For me Halo 2 had the best multiplayer, Halo CE had the best campaign but Halo 3 is my overall favorite.
Halo 3 had a very competitive and casual multiplayer that coexisted perfectly, you could hop on and play a few game just messing around in BTB and then go into Team Slayer for a bit of competitive play. I also found the campaign to be fairly fun and unique along with a lot of replay value. Finally the custom games paired with forge led to countless hours of random custom games messing around with friends or just random people you met in MM.
In Reach and 4 I personally think they failed on recreating these elements that made the past Halo games fun and unique.
I think Halo CE is my favorite game, but Halo 4 is a close second. The Campaign is the most important thing in a Halo game to me, and Halo 4’s was awesome IMO. Really great character development while still having the whole “sci-fi opera” feel about it, like a combination of the original trilogy and Reach tone-wise.
What makes a Halo game, exactly, is hard to nail down. I think most people here will say competitive multiplayer, but for me it’s the sheer scale of the Universe, and the feeling that the story you’re acting out is just one of many. I’ve never before felt that way about any story, except for maybe Lord of the Rings.
So I don’t know, it depends on the person. But that’s my reason.
What makes a Halo game? Combat Evolved. As you can guess I voted CE haha. But honestly, this is the root of Halo for me: trying new things with the FPS genre.
Here are some examples of evolved combat that each Halo brought to the franchise:
CE- vehicle combat
H2- dual wielding
H3- equipment
ODST- firefight
Reach- AA’s
H4- Loadouts, Ordinance, TacPacks, Support Upgrades.
343 should improve on what they have (including culling/modifying the things that don’t work well) and keep on thinking different ways to keep that combat evolving…
Halo 3
Campaign:
-Great Co-op experience.
-Great story.
-Diverse levels.
-Large scale firefights.
Multiplayer:
-Not too different from halo 2, yet still adding and fixing some things.
-Better interface and well organized menu and gametypes.
-Great maps.
-Dual wielding.
-Balanced and simple gameplay.
-DLC maps made AFTER launch.
-Great MM system.
-Double EXP weekends offered fun and different playlists.
-Bungie’s favorites and fileshare was at its best.
-Large assortment of vehicles and weapons.
Custom Games:
-Simple, pure and fun.
-Much more customizable.
-More fun content and creations from community imo.
Forge and theater:
-First appearance.
-Had fun in forge itself.
-Seemed like more creative, fun things came out of Halo 3 than its successors.
-Theater in campaign.
-Multiple people in theater lobby.
ODST was my favorite. Halo has always been about an out matched humanity fighting for survival. Halo 4 kind of got away from that and I was really disappointed. Halo for me is all about fighting the loosing battle.
Halo 2.
Best campaign
Longest campaign
Hardest campaign
Best multipalyer
Best multiplayer maps
Best gameplay
Best replay value
Most fun I’ve had with friends and still have fun in lan games
Top multiplayer game on XBL for many, many years
I love Halo 2, nothing will ever be able to replace it…