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GLIXEL: Is Halo Broken?

As someone who hated Halo 4 and really likes Halo 5, I think the biggest missing element is the sense of fun. Halo 5 is so goddamn dreary and dull looking.

Please, 343, fill Halo 6 with colorful maps. Bright green grass, bright purple Covenant tech, architecture that isn't a palette swapped corridor. More levels like Molten and Plaza!
 
"The fact is Bungie’s games were often more important than they were good,"

giphy.gif

You appreciate that someone else shares a bad opinion? Lot's of people have bad taste - it's nothing to celebrate.
 

JDHarbs

Member
I love me some Halo, but the series hasn't made a worthwhile contribution to gaming since Halo 3's social features. Halo isn't broken, it's just uninspired right now. It has more competition today than ever, and less excitement to jump aboard than ever. That's a bad combo for any franchise.
 
Does the shitty aiming system not affect you?
Im 💀
I don't know what Halo 5 did to you to make you hold such a grudge but I don't see how anyone can deny how incredibly tight-feeling and satisfying the gameplay is. You "lmao'd" at all the responses about it having the best gameplay of the series, but there's obviously a reason that sentiment is shared widely throughout various websites.

Sure, the aiming can be wonky at times, but the shooting feels powerful, the movement is slick and the spartan abilities perfectly complement the environments to create an interesting and level playing ground.

"Lmaoo at everyone saying Halo 5 is bad, ya'll are just repeating what you read, you can't even explain why it's bad."
 
Lmaoo at all the responses and ones that follow that say H5 is the best gameplay in the series, yall are repeating shit you read, and cant even say why its the best in the series

Shit isnt fun, better than halo 4 though
That's a really interesting point you brought up, Zeus.

GLIXEL: Is Halo Broken?
Halo 5 just isnt fun to play.
But you didn't say why it's not fun to play. This post actually came after the post above for the record...

343 industries looking for a new Narrative Director
They need a new multiplayer director
Acutally halo just needs a brand new developer
A thread about campaign narrative and you make a short drive by post about multiplayer.

What series did you follow since its inception and just recently decide "I'm done"?
Halo. Im done until microsoft throws 343 away.
Wow I guess I never looked at it that way, I'm sure Microsoft will get right on that.

Times you were tricked by shady marketing
Heres my obligatory fuck 343 for the day.
Fuck 343i

Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass subscription service
Now they just need decent games

That's just from the first page of your search results. The only valid criticism you have is on aiming, otherwise you seem to exist solely to type word vomit onto the screen.
 
That's a really interesting point you brought up, Zeus.

GLIXEL: Is Halo Broken?

But you didn't say why it's not fun to play. This post actually came after the post above for the record...,

343 industries looking for a new Narrative Director

A thread about campaign narrative and you make a short drive by post about multiplayer.

What series did you follow since its inception and just recently decide "I'm done"?

Wow I guess I never looked at it that way, I'm sure Microsoft will get right on that.

Times you were tricked by shady marketing


Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass subscription service


That's just from the first page of your search results. The only valid criticism you have is on aiming, otherwise you seem to exist solely to type word vomit onto the screen.
giphy.gif
 
I can honestly say I've never read a constructive post from Zeus from the countless times I've seen him shitting up threads. The same can be said for several others too, like Jack The Nipper lol.
I love me some Halo, but the series hasn't made a worthwhile contribution to gaming since Halo 3's social features. Halo isn't broken, it's just uninspired right now. It has more competition today than ever, and less excitement to jump aboard than ever. That's a bad combo for any franchise.
While I'd argue against the heft of "worthwhile contribution" seeing as how not many can come close to H5's Forge, there's merit to your point.

Halo 1, Halo 2, and Halo 3 have each come with significant milestones for console gaming. Halo 1 for its overall design (single player and multi). Halo 2 for its matchmaking. Halo 3 for its Forge, Theater and expansive Custom Game options. But after that? Can't really point to any significant tentpoles that set examples for the rest of the industry. Perhaps Warzone, especially if they expand upon gametypes and different modes a la Firefight and Invasion?
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Which Penny Arcade strip are they referencing? The only Halo strip I remember is the one where they talk about pounding nails through their dicks instead of playing the Flood levels in CE was while holding giant Duke controllers.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Different sects of Halo fans infighting really must constrict what 343i can do. At least, as an outsider, that's the way it appears.

I mean, I like HALO games, but not enough to argue the minutiae online.

Well, this is certainly part of it. There's a sliding scale of fans who like X game more for Y quality, and a lot of those opinions in aggregate are completely opposed—witness the people who want the games to go back to just being about Chief, versus the ones who want to jettison him entirely, in the narrative director thread.

I think the premise of the article is flawed, in that I don't think Halo (or any other game) can exactly reclaim Halo's throne. That time has passed; we're in a world with a lot of good to great console shooters, and Halo is just another one of them.
 
That's a really interesting point you brought up, Zeus.

GLIXEL: Is Halo Broken?

But you didn't say why it's not fun to play. This post actually came after the post above for the record...,

343 industries looking for a new Narrative Director

A thread about campaign narrative and you make a short drive by post about multiplayer.

What series did you follow since its inception and just recently decide "I'm done"?

Wow I guess I never looked at it that way, I'm sure Microsoft will get right on that.

Times you were tricked by shady marketing


Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass subscription service


That's just from the first page of your search results. The only valid criticism you have is on aiming, otherwise you seem to exist solely to type word vomit onto the screen.

Dayum, son.
 
Even with Overwatch out on consoles, I still think Halo 5 is the best console shooter out there. At least it terms of its multiplayer and its gameplay. They need to fix that damn story though. It was such trash.
 

Outrun

Member
As long as the singleplayer of Halo 6 is vastly improved I'll be satisfied. Halo 6's multiplayer could frankly have the exact same gameplay flow as Halo 5 except with more maps/weapons/vehicles/customization/etc. and It would be godlike.

Also, the Forge team: just keep doing what you're doing. You guys are the best.

This is where I am at.

On MP front, throw in some new maps and proper BTB maps, and we are good.

Campaign.... 343i need to hit it out of the ballpark. No Osiris, just MC117. Play time needs to double at least.
 

Rymuth

Member
The old Bungie games were both good and important. Halo 2 was a really solid first person shooter. Halo 2 also laid the foundation for how basically every game from that point forward handled online multiplayer/matchmaking
What first post failed to grasp is that Bungie's games pushed boundaries in some way that made them feel mythic, a monumental milestone you need to be part of. Halo 1-3 and Destiny were big. Destiny 2 will be even bigger.

Bungies games are a historical event.
343i games barely qualify as a footnote
 

Yoday

Member
"The fact is Bungie’s games were often more important than they were good,"

giphy.gif
I love Halo, and completely agree. The article makes some great points, and I tend to agree. Halo is caught in a really strange place of needing a reinvention, but also needing to keep true to the series so not to pias of its vocal fans. Honestly, I hope Halo 6 is a redesign from the ground up. If Halo 6 doesn't land with a bang then I think the series will need to be put to rest for a long time.

That said, Halo 5 MP is damn good, and the campaign was more fun than people give it credit for.
 
The problem is MS's goal of creating an entire studio just to create Halo games....

Imagine 343i trying to put everything into Halo 6 only to hold off in the end and need to leave some strings dangling for the inevitable Halo 7 (or whatever next game it will be)...

The narrative will never be good as other games because of the need to push Halo into a multimedia franchise...

Let's be honest here.........Halo is NOT Star Wars.


(P.S. Gears of War suffered the same issue and Gears of War is DEFINITELY NOT star wars)..
 

Cranster

Banned
The problem is MS's goal of creating an entire studio just to create Halo games....

Imagine 343i trying to put everything into Halo 6 only to hold off in the end and need to leave some strings dangling for the inevitable Halo 7 (or whatever next game it will be)...

The narrative will never be good as other games because of the need to push Halo into a multimedia franchise...

Let's be honest here.........Halo is NOT Star Wars.


(P.S. Gears of War suffered the same issue and Gears of War is DEFINITELY NOT star wars)..
Halo may not be Star Wars per say, but it's the closest thing to Star Wars any science fiction game franchise has been able to achieve in both sales and impact on the industry.
 

Seventy70

Member
As someone who hated Halo 4 and really likes Halo 5, I think the biggest missing element is the sense of fun. Halo 5 is so goddamn dreary and dull looking.

Please, 343, fill Halo 6 with colorful maps. Bright green grass, bright purple Covenant tech, architecture that isn't a palette swapped corridor. More levels like Molten and Plaza!
Absolutely. With the Bungie games, you could tell the developers had a shitload of fun just while making the game. The best way to describe the new ones is soulless. While the mechanics are an improvement, the general tone of the series has gone.

I also agree with the maps. All the textures looks monotonous and all the colors have to be crushed for some reason.

I don't have much hope going forward though. The early Halo trilogy is just one of those things that was so great because of the tight knit developers making it and the community surrounding it. That connection and charm seems to be gone. Go watch some early documentaries of Bungie working on the series and you can just tell how much they were pouring into it. It felt like a game made by a bunch of close friends and that feeling made it through all the way to the end product.
 
That's a really interesting point you brought up, Zeus.

GLIXEL: Is Halo Broken?

But you didn't say why it's not fun to play. This post actually came after the post above for the record...

343 industries looking for a new Narrative Director

A thread about campaign narrative and you make a short drive by post about multiplayer.

What series did you follow since its inception and just recently decide "I'm done"?

Wow I guess I never looked at it that way, I'm sure Microsoft will get right on that.

Times you were tricked by shady marketing


Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass subscription service


That's just from the first page of your search results. The only valid criticism you have is on aiming, otherwise you seem to exist solely to type word vomit onto the screen.

*slowclap.gif*
 

Goldboy

Member
Even with Overwatch out on consoles, I still think Halo 5 is the best console shooter out there. At least it terms of its multiplayer and its gameplay. They need to fix that damn story though. It was such trash.

Agreed, Halo 5 is spectacular for its multiplayer. The mechanics are well-balanced and fun, and frequent updates go a long way towards keeping it interesting.
 

Flipyap

Member
"The fact is Bungie’s games were often more important than they were good, at least after the initial thrill of Halo: Combat Evolved. "

This is complete nonsense.The only games you can say that about without bringing in your own subjective preferences are Halo 1 and 2 (those were important games that changed the way shooters are designed, the way online multiplayer works, they're the only ones you could play to experience something new to the medium) and the article even acknowledges this with:

"Halo 3 was more of the same, a victory lap that doubled down on Halo 2’s multiplayer dominance," "The studio’s final two Halo games – ODST and Reach – have the feel of contractual obligations"

Yet the point didn't get edited out because the writer got the idea that he stumbled upon some revelation that explains the phenomenon.
Sorry, fella. Most of those games weren't "important," people kept playing them because there is nothing else, not even remotely, like the Halo combat loop.
 

Magwik

Banned
Halo under 343 really needs to stop chasing whats popular. The best thing they can do is push and construst an excellent linear campaign. With so much having RPG and open world bullshit tossed around, a strong narrative experience with exceptional levels (Titanfall 2) Halo could really shine again. The narrative works best when Halo is about everything but Master Chief and Cortana, it can star them, but they shouldn't be the focus.
 

Trey

Member
I think if 343 finds their focus for single player, they can make Halo 6 into something fantastic. Halo 5 is a good start, but it meandered a bit, and was hamstrung by the poor teammate AI.
 
Halo 5 has really damn good movement and gunplay, though I found the maps to be largely forgettable (might be due more to how bland looking a lot of them are rather than map design). Still, the multiplayer is pretty good overall.

The main problem with the series is writing/storytelling. I'm not saying Halo has ever been some incredible piece of fiction but people used to be crazy hyped to play the next installment and not just for multiplayer. Microsoft didn't advertise the hell out of Halo 3 based upon multiplayer or gunplay or whatever. It was all about "finish the fight", etc.

Halo 5 is such a mess in terms of writing. It is also even worse than Halo 4 in terms of alienating people who are not into the expanded lore. Say what you will about Bungie's writing but Halo CE-3 were all very straightforward and easy to follow narratives with characters that had clear, understandable motivations. They also didn't require huge exposition dumps/internet research to know what people were talking about.

Maybe Halo should be rebooted? Maybe just a "soft reboot"? I don't envy whoever has to write the narrative that continues from Halo 5.
 

R aka Bon

Member
This is where I am at.

On MP front, throw in some new maps and proper BTB maps, and we are good.

Campaign.... 343i need to hit it out of the ballpark. No Osiris, just MC117. Play time needs to double at least.



... Master Chief is a very generic super soldier, and i totally get what he stands for, but prior to H4, he could just have been replaced with anyone like him, i actually think Locke or someone similar could have replaced him if it was implemented well. But now since Locke and his team and somewhat blueteam felt like an unnecessary addition, people are quick to draw the conclusion that it's due to John not being the main protagonist.
And you could easily argue that the arbiter in Halo 2, games like ODST and reach still remain as good entries, even though it wasn't chief we played as.
 
A soft reboot could be cool, something done a bit like the recent Star Trek.

Like send a message back to Chief or Keys that alters how the new time line plays out but only a little.

(I don't think I explained that very well).
 

Mandoric

Banned
Not buying it. They were far from perfect but they were damn fun. FWIW, Halo 2 MP was better than anything else on consoles at the time. It wasn't until COD4 that there was a real viable alternative that the masses gravitated to.

EDIT: I think they should look at FM and FH for a way to push the franchise forward and test new ideas. Granted this is not a new idea as Activision/COD last gen showed that you need at least two studios to keep churning out FPS games and testing new ideas.

This kind of seems like exactly what they're saying, though? I put my hundreds of hours into 2 online, too, but precisely because it was important (massive playerbase driven by AAA marketing, innovative matchmaking solution) rather than good (when I could put together groups of comparable skill level, I always went with UT or Quake instead.)
 
I think 343i are incredible Devs.

Their just shit at making Halo games, MS need a new team and let 343i make something else they are more committed to
 

3JORN

Member
Halo CE and Halo 2 were some of the best gaming experiences I have ever had. I hope 343i nails the feel of these 2 games as I am really keen on going back to Halo.
 

Lasty95

Member
I was a Halo obsessive

Went into 343's H4 with an open mind.

Ditched Halo and XBOX forever.

They haven't got a clue.

Destiny's the real Halo 4.
 

Cranster

Banned
I was a Halo obsessive

Went into 343's H4 with an open mind.

Ditched Halo and XBOX forever.

They haven't got a clue.

Destiny's the real Halo 4.
I think your the one who doesn't have a clue. I would sooner play nothing but 343i's Halo games over Destiny any day of the week.
 
I played Halo 1/2/3 & Reach for the single player campaigns.

Stepped back from the franchise after that.

I still keep up with all marketing material for Halo.

The games in general still look great and fun, Halo 5 especially.

But it's not exciting no more for me.

What's frustrating is Halo always feels like it is aiming for the sun in terms of wanting to innovate and be an exciting new release. Amount of polish, content and attempt to refresh itself is always evident in Halo, it's unquestionably MS's flagship in terms of resources it's given.

But it always feels like it's one step away from having the game that has all those pieces. Something always holds it back. I don't know what it is, but there's just that aspect of Halo in recent years that ain't enthralling anymore. It needs to be more than just a fun game.
 

Cranster

Banned
Struggling with this.

Have you played both?
Yes and Destiny was a huge disappointment and that's before even the fact that it was made by Bungie. What bothers me is that everything people criticize 343i of doing with Halo 4/5 they somehow give Bungie a pass and praise them for it.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Most of the stuff in that article is about the corporate culture around the games, not an insight into why the new games don’t work. It’s basic talking points for somebody who doesn’t quite understood what the franchise is. All of his insight is mostly based around what other people thought of it, how it was marketed by transmedia or what 3rd party website made a funny joke. At best it’s an uneducated drive-by post, when dissected is hollow in its reasoning. I’m all for giving new Halo games a good ribbing, but that is the most empty article I’ve seen in recent months.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
343i is nailing the MP IMO.

Continue in that direction 343i, let the haters hate.
 

Lasty95

Member
Yes and Destiny was a huge disappointment and that's before even the fact that it was made by Bungie. What bothers me is that everything people criticize 343i of doing with Halo 4/5 they somehow give Bungie a pass and praise them for it.

Well that's just nonsense.

First of,f Bungie got loads of criticism for Destiny. But the quality shone through and is become what is become.

Halo?

Well, just look at the thread title.
 

Flintty

Member
Halo 5 deserves way more credit. As a shooter it felt solid and the multiplayer was awesome. Those boss fights can fuck off and die though.

I'm quite confident 343 can learn from the feedback and give us a bangerang story in Halo 6. The story is the weakest link and they need to fix that. I think they know this.
 
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