Why do you want Halo to stay the same?

Games Other Halo
1

Now before I get this thread going I will say that the now notorious leaks have raised a lot more questions than answers; i’m just as curious as the rest of you. As a player since CE, I’m also worried about some of the things I have read. I, however, will refrain from accusing anyone from ruining the series, turning it into another game, or flat out come up with absurd reasoning. But within all this, I notice that more people want Halo to stay the same or go back to “its former glory”.

My question to you all is- “Why do you want Halo to stay the same and which Halo would you like this franchise to return closer to?”.

What i’m going to predict is that i’m going to get a wide variety of answers. And while you, the reader, feels your view on Halo’s glory is the definitive version of Halo, you’re still going to get many many many others who will disagree with you. There are people who’d like for it to bring back the memories of playing Halo CE; people were in hopes that Halo 4 would bring back Halo 2 or 3. Should it have equipment or not? Armor abilities? Sprint? A high jump height or lower like Reach? Hit scan, or a spread? Fast movement speeds or slower paced, or something in between? The list goes on and on.

The problem that I see is that it’s difficult to cater to what people call “the core” community. Like I said, some people started with CE, others with 2, even some on 3 and Reach. Each person has their own view on “what Halo is”. Just because someone, anyone, invested, their own time, by choice, into a game does not entitle them a louder voice for a developer to continue catering to him or her. If one thing is right, the something else is wrong. There is no possible way to get everything right for that one person and the best thing to do is compromise.

Believe me, I’m as skeptical as the next person, but for someone to keep continue feeling that Halo should be “my version” is, in a word, selfish. Right now is not the time to get up and arms about Halo 4. Truthfully, we have no real clue how things are going to work, how much was misunderstood or misinterpreted. I can honestly tell you that even now, I believe the core mechanics of Halo 4 are not going to change simply because a select group of people don’t like how it sounds. Play it first, or at the very least wait until we have some concrete footage and then we’ll talk.

Again, why do you want Halo to stay the same and which halo game do you want it to resemble closest to?

2

I think you might be on to something?

3

I somehow doubt I am. This community is probably the most difficult to persuade.

4

Why do I want Halo to stay the same? That’s an interesting question because, while I most certainly am against the new gameplay mechanics of Halo 4 and Reach, I definitely don’t want Halo to stay the same. You see, it’s not that I would want to play the same game over and over again, I of course want it to improve especially when it has gone downhill in the last eight years. But what Halo 4 did was not improvement, no. I don’t call taking features from other games ust for the sake of their popularity, improvement.

For me to be able to call a gameplay mechanic improvement it needs to fill certain criteria. It needs to be innovative, balanced, deep and unique. Now, comparing these to what we have been given, I personally don’t find much similarities. Sure, you could make the claim that these mechanics are innovative, but in the end, innovation can be divided down to balance, depth and uniqueness.

So while I most certainly feel like Halo should change, I think it should change for the better. And I certainly don’t like the current direction of the change as it doesn’t fit well into the game. None of the new mechanics have nothing to offer to gameplay, they only take away some aspects.

In reality, a succesful Halo 4 would’ve been made by following the core of the Halo formula, and then coming up with balanced and deep features that are built around the formula without damaging it. Sure, it definitely is harder than building a bunch of badly designed, unfitting mechanics. But it is also hundred times more rewarding.

5

I want it to stay the same because I enjoy NOT being matched up with betrayers, AFKs, and seemingly lower IQ players.
The amount of times I started a match in Reach just to be betrayed, see more than half my team sitting by idly or someone running away from fights, taking the warthog and flipping it on nearly flat ground…I can’t even count.

I just want a 1-50 really. ALL social playlists cannot…can NOT…return.
If they take halo in the direction I see it going, I wouldn’t buy it were it its own IP.
Meaning, it’ll be bought and popular simply for its name. If halo didn’t exist and this was the first of the series, I’d laugh it off and play something else.

While social playlists have a place in halo, undeniable, so do competitive/ranked. Reach took out ranked matches. Halo 2 and 3 CTF was some of the most fun I have ever had in any game. Know why? Because people played to win. They worked to cap the flags, defend their base. With reach came objective killfarming, statpadding…ignoring objectives altogether.

As long as there is a ranked section to reward winning, I couldn’t care less about the other things like spartan ops, heck I’m even excited for that to be honest. Even if it is copying CoD…it’s the one good thing CoD had. (Although co-op mission modes aren’t rare, they are incredibly fun…)

6

It does need to be a clone. Fans just want core mechanics to remain the same or changed for the good. Armor Lock never improved Halo and it was obvious when they first announced in the Bungie weekly update.

I want Halo, that is what I want.

Normal speed, normal jump, skill weapons with hitscan and no bloom

7

I don’t know why everyone is choosing Halo 2. IMO, it had the absolute worst gameplay of the entire franchise. Weak pea shooter guns. No power. I much prefer Halo CE over it.

EDIT: On topic, it’s because people fear change. There is no way to please everyone when making a sequel.

8

Halo 3 was what really made Halo, halo for me. I’ve been playing since Halo CE on my mac, I didn’t play H2 as much as any of the other Halos and Halo 3 was just everything I wanted and loved. I want Halo 4 to be new and fresh but all I want is to one day look back at Halo 4 with nostalgia just like I can with Halo 3. As long as its a good HALO game thats fun, has a lot of replay value and innovation, I will be happy. 343i is taking risks and trying new things to put the franchise in the right direction. Lets see if the steps they take them are the right ones or not. I can’t truly judge until im playing H4

9

Only time will tell. Just needs evolve intelligently.

10

Because Halo had a winning formula with it’s core gameplay mechanics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with change and innovation, but don’t fix what is not broken.

Halo 2 brought us dual wielding, the BR, vehicle highjacking, vehicle health, matchmaking, and a ranked 1-50 atmosphere. All good additions, but the core gameplay basically stayed the same. Aside from no more health packs and fall damage, which I’m glad was removed.

Halo 3 brought many new and great features to the table, but kept what was good and built on Halo 2’s foundation. In addition to keeping the core gameplay mechanics of Halo 2, we also got forge, theater, equipment and an armory.

Halo doesn’t need a drastic overhaul like they did with Reach. That is what made it such a disappointment. Just keep what is good, and improve on what is not so good.

There was nothing wrong with the core gameplay of Halo 1-3. Changing it was completely unnecessary. Adding bloom, jetpacks, camo, armorlock, taking out power-ups and throwing away 1-50 was all a mistake.

Halo 4 should not be Halo 3.5 in any way, but it should follow the path Bungie took with those games. Again, keep the core of Halo the same, improve on what needs to be improved for balance purposes, and add new features such as the recently announced Spartan Ops. This is what made Halo such a success all these years. The familiarity and the exciting new game modes and features. New vehicles, weapons, gametypes, enemies…etc

11

> Why do I want Halo to stay the same? That’s an interesting question because, while I most certainly am against the new gameplay mechanics of Halo 4 and Reach, I definitely don’t want Halo to stay the same. You see, it’s not that I would want to play the same game over and over again, I of course want it to improve especially when it has gone downhill in the last eight years. But what Halo 4 did was not improvement, no. I don’t call taking features from other games ust for the sake of their popularity, improvement.
>
> For me to be able to call a gameplay mechanic improvement it needs to fill certain criteria. It needs to be innovative, balanced, deep and unique. Now, comparing these to what we have been given, I personally don’t find much similarities. Sure, you could make the claim that these mechanics are innovative, but in the end, innovation can be divided down to balance, depth and uniqueness.
>
> So while I most certainly feel like Halo should change, I think it should change for the better. And I certainly don’t like the current direction of the change as it doesn’t fit well into the game. None of the new mechanics have nothing to offer to gameplay, they only take away some aspects.
>
> In reality, a succesful Halo 4 would’ve been made by following the core of the Halo formula, and then coming up with balanced and deep features that are built around the formula without damaging it. Sure, it definitely is harder than building a bunch of badly designed, unfitting mechanics. But it is also hundred times more rewarding.

To be fair, Halo 4 hasn’t done anything yet. To say that it took or will take features from other games (let’s face it, people are mostly talking about COD when they bring this up) is nearly impossible to deny not because a similar system to that of COD is very popular but because it is extremely difficult to introduce working systems that doesn’t share ideas of others now. They’re going to get similar eventually, but each game always has their on spin on it. And who knows, 343i might get it right and do it better than the rest. Halo 4 could have a similar system to COD but still hold the very core mechanics of what makes halo a halo game.

12

CE-3 carried what I thought of as Halo.

13

OP? Are you from the 505 area?

14

> To be fair, Halo 4 hasn’t done anything yet. To say that it took or will take features from other games (let’s face it, people are mostly talking about COD when they bring this up) is nearly impossible to deny not because a similar system to that of COD is very popular but because it is extremely difficult to introduce working systems that doesn’t share ideas of others now. They’re going to get similar eventually, but each game always has their on spin on it. And who knows, 343i might get it right and do it better than the rest. Halo 4 could have a similar system to COD but still hold the very core mechanics of what makes halo a halo game.

Considering the fact that CoD is the most popular game out of all the current games, it’s no wonder developers want to have mechanics such as the mechanics of CoD. The gaming industry these days is all about taking stuff from the most popular games and implementing it because the developers believe they might get lucky and make the most popular game. CoD isn’t the first game to cause a mass homogenization of a genre. The same problem has existed in the MMO genre a little longer, most MMOs are copying the most popular MMO, WoW.

And it most certainly makes sense from a business perspective. You are afraid to do anything new because you don’t know will it be liked or not. You have a company that is supposed to produce an AAA game. Now, with AAA titles you better not fail, therefore proper innovation is a big no. Thus the developer ends up doing the guaranteed deal, copying the most popular game. In reality that isn’t the optimal choice, but it’s the safest bet. On the other hand, it leads to homogenization which is bad for the player base. At some point it will boil down to the point where the players are bored of similar experiences and want something new. Then a small developer who has nothing to lose creates a different game and the cycle restarts.

In that situation, it’s better to be in the position of the shepherd than the sheep. Now in case of Halo 4, it’s obvious features such as loadouts, armor abilities (technically perks), progression systems are there because they are popular at the moment. It isn’t a coincidence that CoD too has all these features, just in a little different set up. But the exact reason why I wouldn’t have wante Halo 4 to do this is exactly to avoid the homogenization of the FPS genre. Had Halo 4 done something actually innovative, I wouldn’t have been so frustrated with its direction.

What furstrates me even more than the fact that Halo is adopting the most trendy mechanics of this generation is the fact that these mechanics basically directly contradict with the core gameplay of Halo. For example, loadouts directly go against the concept of even spawns. You can make even loadouts, but the in the end, the game won’t benefit from it. Progression system too goes against the same principle of all players being equal until they make their first decision after spawn. In the end, the mechanics, no matter how you look at them, simply aren’t the best “new” mechanics for Halo and are clearly there because 343i wanted to do something different, but also didn’t want to risk losing money, so they decided to go with “new” features that are popular at the moment. A choice any AAA developer wanting to do something “new” would take.

15

I want the fundamental aspects of Halo to stay the same because I prefer them over every other shooter I have played.

I don’t like progression systems
I don’t like class/loadout based shooters
I enjoy a consistent, simple arena shooter

That was Halo.

16

KISS

Keep It Simple Silly.

Halo 2.

17

I don´t, i want Halo 4 to be different than the previous games.

18

I don’t want Halo to be the same, actually. I think alot of people want halo to be same as Halo 2/3 because they had some great times on those games, and don’t want to see the beloved halo franchise change. Although I understand why, I think people should be looking into the future, looking for new opportunities for halo to evolve so that our beloved franchise can grow and prosper because honestly, if Halo stays the same every time there is a new title, what makes halo anything more than a cash cow?

19

I don’t want it to be the same. That was Halo 3’s biggest problem (whereas Halo 2 was radically different from Halo 1 in every way)

BUT THIS IS SO FAR DOWN THE WRONG PATH YOU CANT CALL IT HALO ANYMORE.

20

> Considering the fact that CoD is the most popular game out of all the current games, it’s no wonder developers want to have mechanics such as the mechanics of CoD. The gaming industry these days is all about taking stuff from the most popular games and implementing it because the developers believe they might get lucky and make the most popular game. CoD isn’t the first game to cause a mass homogenization of a genre. The same problem has existed in the MMO genre a little longer, most MMOs are copying the most popular MMO, WoW.
>
> And it most certainly makes sense from a business perspective. You are afraid to do anything new because you don’t know will it be liked or not. You have a company that is supposed to produce an AAA game. Now, with AAA titles you better not fail, therefore proper innovation is a big no. Thus the developer ends up doing the guaranteed deal, copying the most popular game. In reality that isn’t the optimal choice, but it’s the safest bet. On the other hand, it leads to homogenization which is bad for the player base. At some point it will boil down to the point where the players are bored of similar experiences and want something new. Then a small developer who has nothing to lose creates a different game and the cycle restarts.
>
> In that situation, it’s better to be in the position of the shepherd than the sheep. Now in case of Halo 4, it’s obvious features such as loadouts, armor abilities (technically perks), progression systems are there because they are popular at the moment. It isn’t a coincidence that CoD too has all these features, just in a little different set up. But the exact reason why I wouldn’t have wante Halo 4 to do this is exactly to avoid the homogenization of the FPS genre. Had Halo 4 done something actually innovative, I wouldn’t have been so frustrated with its direction.
>
> What furstrates me even more than the fact that Halo is adopting the most trendy mechanics of this generation is the fact that these mechanics basically directly contradict with the core gameplay of Halo. For example, loadouts directly go against the concept of even spawns. You can make even loadouts, but the in the end, the game won’t benefit from it. Progression system too goes against the same principle of all players being equal until they make their first decision after spawn. In the end, the mechanics, no matter how you look at them, simply aren’t the best “new” mechanics for Halo and are clearly there because 343i wanted to do something different, but also didn’t want to risk losing money, so they decided to go with “new” features that are popular at the moment. A choice any AAA developer wanting to do something “new” would take.

To be honest, I wish people would stop comparing every shooter out there to COD just how every MMO is compared to WoW. I don’t believe, at this point, using a system direct from CoD will be what we’ll see with Halo 4 simply because I do think everyone is getting to the point where CoD is becoming more of the same each year, just how people in the WoW community haven’t seen major changes to their game. From a business standpoint, I feel it would be the least safest route to go the CoD route only because CoD already does what CoD does. There is no need for copy cats. Do other games use progression systems? Yeah, but they aren’t carbon copies and you can bet CoD wasn’t the first game to utilize progression. You do see similarities only because they did at least get something working for them. I feel like the only blame to be placed is among the community for pointing fingers and coming up with these accusations that their game has been ruined. Just because the system will be similar in some ways to another doesn’t mean, in the least bit, that mechanics are a copy and will play like said game.

I share a concern however. That being where a progression system fits in a sandbox shooter like halo. Clearly, I don’t see weapons being unlockable, and as you said a progression system contradicts being on equal grounds, granted that abilities are to be unlocked. I was fine with reach’s credit system only because armor did nothing to gameplay. If, however, stats are involved, things are going to get ugly.