In Halo 2 you could play as elites and in every game after you couldn’t anymore…
Was I the only person who liked this? Was there major flaws with elites? I always saw them on Halo 2 online so I don’t think it was lack of people showing interest.
Ok after doing research you could in Halo 3, I completely forgot about that. Also you could in Invasion but that was it if I recall, it’s been forever since I have played Reach online.
Real reasons are most likely because of not having enough time to implement them.
Official reason might be that Halo 4’s multiplayer is concidered “canon” and that it focuses on our Spartans, thus Elites have no room in the spotlight.
But then I find it strange that we have Flood models for Flood, a single gametype that’s a “goof around” gametype.
I didn’t play much Halo 2 and 3 multi player but wasn’t it a major problem that the Elites had a different hit-box to Spartans especially in SWAT?
That’s why they were separated in Reach. I preferred the Reach Elites anyway.
By the looks of things they didn’t even have time to implement all the armor they wanted to for the Spartans so any time for the Elites would’ve been out of the question.
Besides keeping the Elites as just enemies again was a nice touch to how CE was.
Now new players will have a similar experience we did in Halo 5 as we already did in Halo 2 with Elites starting off as respected foes but we end up as allies.
343 has done a good job with implementing content that the majority of people want like the Mantis and Forerunner enemies(To some extent) so I can see that bringing the Elites back would be one of their priorities in the future.
because 343i decided to make multiplsyer CANON…meaning elites are the bad guys and we cant play as them since we are just training in the war games simulation aboard the INFINITY.
Reason Prime:
Elites are noticeably larger than Spartans. Not just Spartan III’s but Spartans. This causes MP avatars to do 1 of 2 things:
Now Reason Prime in turns creates many side reasons which can then be “blamed” on time constraints and/or the want to focus the MP narrative.
At no point do I believe players who believe in balance want H3’s missing neck and equipment hopping Elites to return. I think those same players are against H2’s same hitbox but still differently shaped Elites too.
However I do believe Reach showed that many players would like an Elite vs Elite playlist (and/or gametype) and would definitely love to play Spartan vs Elite “Objective” gametypes ala Invasion and would take Reach’s varying attribute over hunchback Elite.
In the grand scheme of the community, we do have players that associate themselves more with Elites over Spartans and I do feel they need more immersion themselves.
If only for Invasion-like gametypes (or even custom), these players need something to attach their persona to… Video makers and RvsB could also use an MP interactive Elite skin or so… Ya know?
(An Elite campaign completely from the eyes of the Arbiter would be the NOVA for those players… I’d even like it. I just didn’t like it in H2 
So, I welcome the return of playing as the Elites, just more towards the Reach way of things and definitely not the H2/H3 way (especially not the H3 way).
> because 343i decided to make multiplsyer CANON…meaning elites are the bad guys and we cant play as them since we are just training in the war games simulation aboard the INFINITY.
I’m fairly sure that’s not the main reason. If 343 were going to put them in than they would’ve worked around it. In fact seeing them in MM would be an awesome hint towards the next Kilo-5 book.
343 knows that there’s a lot of Elite lovers out there so I have faith that they’ll return Cannon or not. The continuity errors made in the latest books show that 343 is paying more attention to how the game works over the story.
WOW…what rock have u been hiding under?
I concur…its a shame that 343 got rid of playing as Elites. Hopefully, they will appear in the next title along with Brutes as a second playable species.
HINT: reason why i said brutes, b/c there could be a chance of getting a Gravity Hammer assassination, lol
MP is a training simulator / holodeck for Spartans. While it may be interesting to play as the enemy, or walk a mile in their shoes, it really is for Spartans to become accustomed to their armour and new physical capabilities.
Another reason might also be that in Halo 4, elites have their own hitbox; in previous Halo multiplayer iterations, they had the same hitboxes as spartans.
> WOW…what rock have u been hiding under?
What I meant was is that 343 will allow the UNSC to things that don’t totally add up for the sake of the game.
Like bouncing back from the war so quickly so Infinity can be built, bringing back AAs and the DMR even though they were lost during Reach, Spartans becoming their own branch, MJOLINR becoming cheap, Forward unto Dawns insides being bigger so a level can be played in it etc.
I’m not saying the MM is without it’s problems it’s just 343 let continuity errors happen so that they could put the things they wanted too into the game.
Which isn’t a bad thing. Game play comes before story.
I suspect it came from a gameplay standpoint. In Halo 2/3, you were basically handicapping yourself because you were larger and easier to see. I don’t know for sure, but I suspected that the hit boxes were different.
In my experience, the only players that used elites, were noobs or people playing as guests. The only time I would use an Elite, is when my roommate and I would want to play Rumble Pit and work together. We would be big pink elites to identify each other.
In Reach they tried to give advantages and disadvantages to Elites/Spartans but you can only use them in invasion and if given the choice I would have rather been a Spartan because of the smaller profile.
I’m all for 343 making another Arbiter campaign in Halo 5. I felt that Halo 2’s campaign was the most interesting, seeing the Arbiter go from disgraced zealot to rebellious heretic, and having the chance to see the Covenant’s hierarchy and motives . Same can be said about the UNSC in ODST.
As for Elites in multiplayer, I’m very indifferent.