I’m just curious to see how other people feel about shifting the genre of the campaign a bit.
I think that for Halo to really evolve, draw in new players and keep it fresh for the old ones, rather than fundamentally changing gameplay or unnecessarily tweaking what already works, rather than just adding loadouts and armor abilities, it might be better to expand the actual genre of the game.
Metal Gear is doing it and if Ground Zeroes is any indication, it will be successful - merging the improved stealth gameplay fans love with a massive, new open environment.
Obviously Halo won’t ever become Fallout(no matter how much I might personally enjoy an RPG-like Halo), but it’s already a sandbox of sorts. Opening that up further, incorporating an assortment of objectives and branching storylines might really benefit the series and breathe new life into it.
There are only so many corridors and dropship battles we can play for a decade before that gets old.
I suspect I’m in the minority, but would like to hear what others think.
Yes, it would bring back the feeling of exploration and wonder. In the very least I would want longer and far less linear missions. However I think if the game had some sort of open world then there would be far more potential in fleshing out different elements of the story and lore. Maybe we could travel the streets of the planet Sanghelios brushing past crowds of Elites while wearing the cloak as a disguise. Just an idea.
Right on, Reaper. Love it.
> Right on, Reaper. Love it.
Thanks 
I would be very happy with an Open World adaption. If 343 did that right it would bring Halo back on the map
Bungee did a really good job with ODST in my opinion. Not entirely open world, but a pretty good broken-down version of it. If 343 does a fully open world Halo, it would be great in the right setting… But knowing the Master Chief, he is better off in a regular level by level world. Maybe the next spin-off they make, though…
Do you think Chief is better in a level to level environment because he’s kind of big and slow - tank like? Or something else?
I think he could work if there was an increased default movement speed/sprint in the campaign, and lots of vehicles. It would be cool if you could just press a button and call your vehicle (I’m imagining Chief on a badass hover bike, wearing that cloak), at any time like your horse in Zelda or Red Dead etc.
I’m just picturing this massive vista with lots of town, cities, and communities to explore, even caves, huts, and hideouts to raid. Wide open spaces that slowly funnel into corridors during missions etc, so a blend of old and new. I think the Crysis series is a great example of how fps games can run really well in a more open setting.
You’d really start to feel like Chief is a hero if he’s a fish out of water providing aid to regular people and aliens on a distant world. It would help ground him further and make the gameplay fresh.
Sadly, I don’t see these dreams coming true.
But I’m sure I’ll enjoy what 343 does. I like that they’re listening and that they love Halo so much.
No. Halo: CE is as open as any Halo game should be. No more than that. I don’t want future Halo games be as linear and boring as Halo 4, which was basically nothing but corridors, but a complete open world is absurd. You can’t just change the genre of the primary Halo games.
But why can’t you, Donkey Walrus?
It’s an aging franchise. The core mechanics should clearly remain the same, but the series might benefit from a genre shift (a considerably slight one, I might add). Just a large map to explore, the freedom to roam it, guided by objectives, and a consistent story to tie it altogether. Sounds like fun to me.
I’m genuinely curios to know why you dislike this idea so much, and think it should never be done.
Examples of this format working are numerous, but I’ll cite the underrated Crysis series (1&3 in particular), Farcry, and the latest Metal Gear Solid as support.
> Do you think Chief is better in a level to level environment because he’s kind of big and slow - tank like? Or something else?
>
> I think he could work if there was an increased default movement speed/sprint in the campaign, and lots of vehicles. It would be cool if you could just press a button and call your vehicle (I’m imagining Chief on a badass hover bike, wearing that cloak), at any time like your horse in Zelda or Red Dead etc.
>
> I’m just picturing this massive vista with lots of town, cities, and communities to explore, even caves, huts, and hideouts to raid. Wide open spaces that slowly funnel into corridors during missions etc, so a blend of old and new. I think the Crysis series is a great example of how fps games can run really well in a more open setting.
>
> You’d really start to feel like Chief is a hero if he’s a fish out of water providing aid to regular people and aliens on a distant world. It would help ground him further and make the gameplay fresh.
>
> Sadly, I don’t see these dreams coming true.
>
> But I’m sure I’ll enjoy what 343 does. I like that they’re listening and that they love Halo so much.
I say the Chief doesn’t belong in an open world environment because it isn’t his personality… Sure he will help someone if they are conveniently in his way, but he isn’t the type of person to go out of his way like an open world player would. He gets an order and follows it as quickly as he can. He is a soldier first and person second.
Now I don’t see it happening, but if they made an ODST 2, that would be great for open world play. Dropping into an unknown area… Searching for the rest of your squad to regroup and clear the area… That would be cool.
That’s a very good point, Chaos. The only counter I can come up with is that first and foremost I think good, fresh gameplay is more important than remaining that consistent with this character. He’s already a cypher for the gamer and open world characters tend to be that way. I’d like to see a Chief without orders in the next game, and that’s one way he could work in an open world and find himself in various missions, despite his very focused nature.
I’d like to see a Chief cut off from the UNSC (the generic soldier speak has really worn on me over the years, especially in 4), and I’d like to see a Chief in morning who wants to bring Cortana back (also that personal mission might dictate he get sidetracked, doing things for others so that they’ll help him).
Also important to keep in mind that second new Spartan character. Would love to switch between the two in an open world a la GTA 5.
I doubt ANY of this will ever happen though.
I’d love it if the entire campaign was centered around one main objective, in which you search for clues and such to find whatever it is that Chief is looking for, bumping into side quests and such.
Also, switching into the Oni Spartan’s view, tracking down Chief (possibly) and his trail would make a great linear campaign if others prefer such.
There, two different campaigns.
Halo started as a Shooter, should end like a shooter.
I will admit, it’d be nice to have some levels as open and big like they were in CE, or even H3.
> But why can’t you, Donkey Walrus?
>
> It’s an aging franchise. The core mechanics should clearly remain the same, but the series might benefit from a genre shift (a considerably slight one, I might add). Just a large map to explore, the freedom to roam it, guided by objectives, and a consistent story to tie it altogether. Sounds like fun to me.
>
> I’m genuinely curios to know why you dislike this idea so much, and think it should never be done.
>
> Examples of this format working are numerous, but I’ll cite the underrated Crysis series (1&3 in particular), Farcry, and the latest Metal Gear Solid as support.
The original Crysis was already a semi open world game. The original Halo was not. That’s the difference. That’s why it won’t work for a main Halo game. Changing the genre will only push Halo fans away. I mean, Halo fans are fans of Halo because they like Halo the way it is. There’s no reason to change Halo into something else.
This is what happened with Halo 4’s multiplayer. 343 decided to change it from an arena shooter into something completely different, because they thought it would be “new” and “fresh” even though it would just be like every other COD clone shooter out there. They abandoned what made Halo its own unique game to attempt to bring in new players. But they not only didn’t gain those new players they wanted, they also lost most of the old players.
Just because there are a lot of open world games coming out now doesn’t mean Halo needs to copy all of them and become open world itself. There are other ways to keep a gaming experience fresh without changing the game into something completely different.
> Halo started as a Shooter, should end like a shooter.
>
>
> I will admit, it’d be nice to have some levels as open and big like they were in CE, or even H3.
Making the game open doesn’t all of a sudden make it not a shooter. Look at Far Cry 3 for instance.
I agree with you for the most part, Donkey. There are other ways to keep it fresh, and it might alienate players. But the campaign is different than MP. I think there’s more room for experimentation in campaign than MP. Halo 4 mp was a botch because of the changes.
I’d argue that an open world Halo campaign is a natural evolution of the series - it’s already almost open world. And doing so wouldn’t make it derivative. It’s one such change that actually makes sense.
Believing that it wouldn’t work because it didn’t start as an open world series is akin to thinking Mario games would never work in a 3D open world. But then we’d never have Mario 64. That’s just one small example.
It would be in keeping with the tradition of series evolving to next gen consoles for a big shift of this kind to take place.
And regardless of specifics (open world or not), changes are coming. The cryptic statements from 343 and that new Spartan on the cover indicate as much.
For better or worse, I think the series is moving toward a massive online shooter.
I’d prefer just an open world campaign, but MS and 343 are going to want to do drastic, innovative things. That could be good, could be bad. But change is coming no matter what.
I will say this, too. Bungie gave up Halo to make an Open world game. Why did they not just make an open world Halo instead? Because they knew it would not fit.
> I will say this, too. Bungie gave up Halo to make an Open world game. Why did they not just make an open world Halo instead? Because they knew it would not fit.
Bungie gave up Halo because they’d been making Halo games for over a decade and wanted to try something new, as stated in their ViDoc. If you have any proof for your claim, let’s hear it, otherwise your comment can be discarded.
Yeah, Chaos, I mean I think their Halo-fatigue had more to do with it. There are any number of ways an open world Halo can work. And it’s pretty likely, based on what little we do have, that some big changes are coming to the typical format.
And that can work just fine.
I think in multiplayer we’ll see a return to more traditional things and in single player we’ll see a departure.
As a side game? Yes. But I would never want a main Halo game to go in that direction. Making it all part of one big world (rather than multiple missions) would shrink the beautiful vistas and giant set pieces traditional to Halo. The story would be forced into one world- which I would only like if it’s a Halo (otherwise it’d be boring). There is no way to capture the accurate scale of a Halo game in an open world without forcing hours of travel time, and that would also be bad. On top of all of this I have two points: Halo has always been a story driven game (which is hard and near impossible to get right in open world), and Halo’s gameplay doesn’t lend itself to a rich open world experience. What- you would like side missions in Halo? Go meet an NPC and he offers you a quest? It all seems so forced…
I love open world games, but I hate the recent trend to make every game open world. It makes open world games mundane and boring (especially if they are games, like Halo, that aren’t built to be open world). If they’re going to get it right, they’d have to reshape and realign the open world formula because as is it just won’t fit Halo.
Either way, I do hope (and believe) we will see a more open world- as in, no more corridor and canyon missions. That’s not to say that all the missions should or will be grounded on the same map, though (and I really, really hope they aren’t). At best, Halo could pull off optional side objectives, but side missions as a whole would just diminish the main game. “Oh, let’s go to the market place to buy some new weapons and armor!” Nope… There can’t be an open world ecosystem in Halo.
Sorry, guys, I just don’t see it.