I’ve seen a lot about Halos level design and art style. How the old art style is thought to be better and how the new one is thought to be better. How level design has changed drastically in the new Halos. So I wanna ask the community this, what makes the Halo art style? What makes Halo level design? What makes it iconic to Halo? Is it the big alien worlds? Or is it that classic purple look of the covenant. Maybe the look of the forerunner ruins on delta halo? The absence of linear gameplay? Maybe even the AI? I wanna know what you guys think makes the level design and art style iconic to Halo and what makes it so good.
One of these days I’ll get around to making a good comparison compilation.
Forerunner designs are supposed to be simple, geometric, elegant, weathered, ancient. Worn and pattern-adorned metal where dim-lights serve as an accent without being distracting. Modern Forerunner designs are pretty much the exact opposite. Curvy, smooth, complex, extremely bright and shiny, clean, lights placed everywhere to the point it looks like you’re at a rave.
Compare this to this.
Or compare this to this.
The differences in design philosophy should be obvious. And in many ways I could apply those differences between new and old human designs as well but I’ll get to that later.
The beauty of the original halo art style is definitely shown in the design changes between the classic elite and grunt designs to modern ones. Why does it feel like a downgrade?
https://content.halocdn.com/media/Default/games/Halo-Master-Chief-Collection/media/hmcc-media/e3-2014-halo-2-anniversary-cairo-station---welcome-to-cairo-station-0bcb5a6854fc429f8432c0e8b030304c-d94a3f7d8eef400da987298e3c40db05.jpg ← this compared to this → http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/c/c3/Grunt_Heavy.png/revision/latest?cb=20121122235108
http://assets.vg247.com/current//2014/09/Press-Tour-2014-Halo-2-Anniversary-Cairo-Station-Sword-to-a-Gunfight.jpg <- this compared to this ->http://www.entertainmentearth.com/images/AUTOIMAGES/MF19213lg.jpg
This modern halo art style is so damn plasticky. The classic designs and textures look authentic. Then the structures. Forerunner structures used to be mysterious, elegant, awe inspiring, ancient, weathered. Now it’s smooth, plasticky, and new.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/b/b3/H2A_DeltaHalo1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140813030201 <- compared to this -> http://www.muchmoregaming.com/wp-content/gallery/halo-4-screenshots/halo_4_majestic_map_pack_monolith_establishing_04.jpg
But overall the biggest nostalgic moments that I have embeded in my memory are the ones where the music comes in. Each halo from 1 - reach had the very best sountracks ever created. It was marty o’donnell’s creativity and imagination at its finest. I thank the original bugie studios with jason jones, marty, and micheal salvatori for creating the masterpiece that I still crave.
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> The beauty of the original halo art style is definitely shown in the design changes between the classic elite and grunt designs to modern ones. Why does it feel like a downgrade?
>
> https://content.halocdn.com/media/Default/games/Halo-Master-Chief-Collection/media/hmcc-media/e3-2014-halo-2-anniversary-cairo-station---welcome-to-cairo-station-0bcb5a6854fc429f8432c0e8b030304c-d94a3f7d8eef400da987298e3c40db05.jpg ← this compared to this → http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/c/c3/Grunt_Heavy.png/revision/latest?cb=20121122235108
>
> http://assets.vg247.com/current//2014/09/Press-Tour-2014-Halo-2-Anniversary-Cairo-Station-Sword-to-a-Gunfight.jpg ← this compared to this → http://www.entertainmentearth.com/images/AUTOIMAGES/MF19213lg.jpg
>
> This modern halo art style is so damn plasticky. The classic designs and textures look authentic. Then the structures. Forerunner structures used to be mysterious, elegant, awe inspiring, ancient, weathered. Now it’s smooth, plasticky, and new.
>
> http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/b/b3/H2A_DeltaHalo1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140813030201 ← compared to this → http://www.muchmoregaming.com/wp-content/gallery/halo-4-screenshots/halo_4_majestic_map_pack_monolith_establishing_04.jpg
>
> But overall the biggest nostalgic moments that I have embeded in my memory are the ones where the music comes in. Each halo from 1 - reach had the very best sountracks ever created. It was marty o’donnell’s creativity and imagination at its finest. I thank the original bugie studios with jason jones, marty, and micheal salvatori for creating the masterpiece that I still crave.
In all but your last two examples, the best answer is: The armor changes. Seriously, the new Covenant and Human (Spartan) armor just looks so weird. I don’t understand how Sangheili, for example, went from being sleek to bulbous and clunky.
I also love the music of the originals (specifically CE, 2 and 3). I listened to the remasters of CE and H2…and it’s awful. Sounds nothing like the original music, and in H2 they completely did away with the rock/metal music that was originally in it. By making new rock music/songs for H2 Anniversary, it feels like a huge disservice was done (Incubus did the song that played when you are chasing the Heretic around the station on Threshold, and Breaking Benjamin did the song when you fight the Hunters and Elites and Brutes on High Charity. Then they don’t exist in H2A. WTF.).
A big part of the classic vs new halo level design in my opinion was the openness of the worlds. Take levels like the Silent Cartographer or Assault on the Control room from Halo CE and we can all recall good memories from it. Those levels let you freely roam around which in my opinion, made it more Halo. Another on was the Covenant, the part where two Scarabs fall out of the sky and you battle them as AI. This is important because many of the levels in Halo today are really scripted and one way. Especially in Halo 5, the levels are pretty much a big hallway, and you just move from one end to the other while shooting enemies. There really isn’t much to explore. And going back to the scarab, 343’s Kraken was pretty pathetic, because it wasn’t even really an AI. It was just turrets on a building. I feel if you were to let the players do more things and explore on their own, they would have more fun. Rather than just going from point A to point B while killing some enemies in-between.
BTW: most of my points come from LateNightHalo on Youtube. He makes pretty good points in his videos.
But on a positive note, I like how Halo 5 added small corners to levels where some things could be found like unique power wepons or special vehicles. They reward you for your exploration, which I feel is a classic Halo aspect. But these small corners dont really make up for Halo 5’s linear level design.