Four Ways To Fix The Halo Franchise

The Halo Franchise is still great but lately it has been getting stale. Bungie needs to bring the series back to its roots, here are four ways they can do this.

[SeanRL]

Agree with all of those, I had more fun playing Halo 2 with friends than I did playing Halo 3 or ODST.

[BeaArthur]

Yet you don't have a 360 username listed in your profile. So how much 3 and ODST did you play?

Anyways, I wasn't aware it was broken and needed to be fixed. Basically he wants a CE remake.

Psfan999...fair enough, I'm still skeptical but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

SOAD...I agree, I liked the Halo 2 maps better than the Halo 3 maps but 3 had some fun maps. I would love to see a Turf remake.

[SeanRL]

I played a lot, at friends houses, I assure you that I'm not just some fanboy trying to bash the new games. I really did like halo 2 more. They aren't bad games, but I wish they'd innovate a little more, which is what Halo: Reach seems to be doing.

[SOAD]

I liked Halo 2 more as well. The Halo 3 maps aren't as good as the Halo 2 maps.

[WLPowell]

It's still a blast, I noticed in CE the speed is faster. We were playing it a few months ago and I was like "holy shit MC used to be fast"

[RedDead]

Agreed, Ididn't care for any of Halo 3's maps at all. 2 kept Coagulation and had a few great ones. There was one in particuluar that was great for zombies aswell, it was containment area or something.

[Spenok]

Halo 2 was good, but the first was great. I havent seen a halo top that one yet. Not even close.

[Perjoss]

something has to be broken before you can fix it.

[EVILDEAD360]

LMAO @ this guy getting exposed as a fake the last time he tried to write an editorial..huddled in a corner..looked up all he could on Halo and came back to write on the same subject..

The fact that you wrote the original article saying you were bored with Halo and couldn't even come up with one reason at the time to fix it while trying to pretend you were an actual Halo fanboy was laughable..

Bungie is NOT listening to you..the millions of true fans are NOT listening to you..if you were a true fan you would have logged onto Bungie.net and aired your grievances..

This is the guy who never played Halo 3 multiplayer or ODST but tried to fake like he did.

Let it go..move onto another game that doesn't need fixed by your standard (LOL)..you can't fool real fans..

For the rest of us...HALO REACH in September FTW...

Evil

[Droidbro]

1. Keep it the same.
2. Don't change anything.
3. Halo is amazing.
4. Shut up.

[Natsu X FairyTail]

Why Fix something that isnt Broken anymore? Halo Reach fixed all of the problems from earlier titles.

[MariaHelFutura]

I just bought Halo 3 yesterday and the SP is kinda lame, I`m gonna try it again though, maybe I`ll change my mind. I didn`t try the MP since I don`t have XBL, I heard the MP was good.

[theonlylolking]

Dont listen to hardcore halo fans most of the time.

[Omega4]

Its not broken or people wouldn't still be playing it.

FPS are all about the MP.

[distorted_reality]

Hahaha so MW2 isn't broken either?

@ SOAD - i'm not disagreeing, was just a stupid argument to make that's all.

[SOAD]

Regardless, Halo 3 is no way broken. It's a solid experience with virtually no glitches.

[SixZeroFour]

give mw2 3 years...if its in top 3 most played on live, then i guess it isnt broken

keep in mind, mw2 isnt even a year old...the "fun" factor in mw2 will die down when other similar shooters come around, ie moh, black ops, reach, etc

[siyrobbo]

halo 3 has always been rock solid. Just because modern warfare 2 is a glitch fest doesnt mean every game is

[distorted_reality]

You missed the point.

[siyrobbo]

yeah your right, i get what you meant now

[ECM0NEY]

I still play Gears 2 and that game is broken.

[pat_11_5]

Alot of the changes they are supposed to be making to Reach is what I'd like to see. I discuss some of them in the editorial. The question is, will Bungie follow through with some of what I've mentioned.

[Unicron]

Every game has flaws. Halo needs some more memorable boss encounters or setups, and much better finales/endings. Like I said before, Gravemind got the shaft for freaking Guilty Spark... how lame is that?

MP is solid as ever though.

[BeaArthur]

MP is definitely where it's at. I don't think it's the best MP of all time but for some reason I always come back to it. I think for me it's the variety. Most games I only play 1 or 2 game types but with Halo I play 4 or 5 and then the special playlists they have up for double XP, etc. Bungie just knows how to keep it fresh.

Unicron...after playing the beta, I can assure you Reach will feel fresh. Invasion is awesome and there is a distinctive new feel with armor abilities. Instead of everyone just running around trying to get equipment everyone is focused on the objective.

[Unicron]

Totally agree. But I guess I'm a bit FPS'ed out. Most MP games feel the same to me, some variant on DM or TDM. That's why I appreciate a good campaign with spectacle. The Scarabs (I think?) in Halo 3 were cool for instance.

Still, I am glad Halo strays from the 2 shots and your dead mentality that nearly EVERY FPS is using these days. Hell, they even butchered Uncharted 2's online with it.

[Thrillhouse]

I think bosses don't really work out in Halo.

The warthog runs at the end of Halo 1 and 3 were much better than a boss battle.

The scarabs were insanely fun in 4 player legendary co-op, though.

[tdrules]

For consoles, the Halo MP is pretty well established with Forge, MLG servers, a lot of gametypes.
Pretty impressive

[SOAD]

1 Simplicity - no. Removing weapons just because one person thinks they're redundant is bullshit. There are advantages to having a mauler and a shotgun on a map. There are advantages to having spike grenades in one map and plasma grenades in another. Novelty weapons like the missile pod and the flamethrower add spice to the game. This guys wants Halo to return to the bare-boned roots of multiplayer gaming. Bungie has managed to add a lot of new weapons to their MP while still retaining a balance. They decide the weapons layout and the respawn rate. They decide the number of rounds, the range, and the weight of the weapons. Certain weapons are heavier and take a longer time to fire.

The mauler is not like the shotgun. You have to dual wield two maulers to get the same effect as a shotgun. With one mauler you have to shoot once and melee to get a quick kill. It takes strategy and good timing. Some people prefer maulers because they're harder to see. A guy runs into a bubble shield to confront an enemy when he sees the guy doesn't have a shotgun. But the guy has a mauler so he can still do a lot of damage.

Every weapon has its uses. Simple minds prefer simpler games.

2 Story - Bungie is working with a bigger budget. They owe it to their fans to make the plot-line seem like a big budget story. Halo's story is not very strong or original. It's been done before. The elites look like the alien from Alien. Yet this guy wants the story to seem more linear, more straightforward. Halo 2, in my opinion had the best story of the Halo series. There was a dichotomy in the plotline that was told in 2 different points of view. The alternation between Master Chief and the Arbiter was important to get both sides of the story. It made the story seem deeper because finally the player knew why the Covenant was attacking the humans. It wasn't just like every other alien invasion movie (i.e. Independence Day) where the alien's only motive is to kill the humans. The Covenant culture and hierarchy was explained, their religious beliefs was explained. It was excellent. Halo 3's campaign was a throwaway plot that only saw the player playing as the Chief because too many idiots were upset about playing as the Arbiter in Halo 2.

Halo CE's story had the potential to be a great mystery shooter but it wasn't executed properly. Halo Reach might have a pretty lame story as well considering we already know the ending and at that point, the humans are only concerned with fighting the Covenant instead of understanding them.

3 Enemies - the Brutes were fantastic enemies. The writer of the article says that the Elites were badass and scary. Yeah, because rolling around and yelling "wort, wort, wort" was terrifying. /s
Bungie should just redesign the Brutes as being really large, which is something they've hinted at considering the Elites are much larger than the humans this time around. The Grunts were a comic enemy that some people appreciated and adored but others hate and laugh at. I really like them, especially when they're sleeping. I haven't the heart to kill them.

4 Expansive Environments - that's been promised, especially for multiplayer. The Blood Gulch map is going to be much larger than the big team maps in Halo 3. Halo CE's environments all looked alike. Bungie regretted the design of the environments and I don't see them making any Cartographer-like environments for Reach.

[pat_11_5]

I'm "the guy," your opinions are sound but so are mine. We just he different perspectives on what we think makes Halo "halo." I like wort wort noises, you don't, I like elites you like brutes. To each their own. All I was basically saying is I want a return to what makes Halo great from my perspective.

A remake of Halo CE would be awesome by the way ;)

[SOAD]

I think that you think what made Halo CE great was the design choices. But I played Halo CE after playing Halo 2 and I felt that Halo 2 was superior in every way, from story structure to environment variety to level design and the creepy Food levels.

Halo CE feels like it was the best because it was the first. It was surprising. Every other game that follows can't capture the same magic because it's just a different permutation of the same game. I don't think that Reach will be a better game if it becomes more like CE. Maybe for the nostalgic it will, but logical improvements to gaming shouldn't be shoved aside for the sake of nostalgia.

[Thrillhouse]

SOAD, I respectfully disagree (at least in terms of CE's multiplayer).

Halo 1's multiplayer was pretty much perfect.

People say the pistol was overpowered, but when you think of it in terms of the weapon sandbox in CE, it was perfect. It was a utility weapon that worked in most situations, yet other weapons (shotguns, plasma rifles, sniper, etc) worked better in each of their environments. Alongside this, the pistol was NOT easy to use. Getting a 3 shot kill wasn't an easy and constant thing, and this created a much larger skill gap between noobs and veterans.

The spawn system was extremely complex, in which you could learn to spawn your team mates in certain spots of the map (depending on where you stand) in an effort to try to break a set up, and so forth. This level of mental play is far more advanced than the other Halo games.

The weapon spawning system was perfect, as it was on a constant timer, so you and everyone else knew exactly when the rockets or whatnot was going to spawn (well, that is if you LEARNED to). Knowing this promoted map movement, as the acquisition of each power-up and power weapon was a mini battle amongst two skilled teams.

The multiplayer map design was also highly balanced in most cases, where the threat of falling actually mattered.

But I can definitely see why Bungie went thr route they went. I think it was Frankie that said something like "We don't want somebody's mom to join a came and boom boom bomm, they're dead. That's not fun." In terms of casual gamers, Halo 1's skill gap wasn't going to be the best thing for them.

And this is all coming from a guy who has thoroughly enjoyed each Halo game. :P

/essay

[The BS Police]

Halo 1 got it right in more ways than Halo 2 did. While Halo 2 has the best multiplayer map design and more variety, Dual Wielding broke the game balance, the game was glitchy as hell, and there were various other gameplay issues.

With Halo 2's campaign while the story was great, the campaign stages were extremely linear compared to Halo 1's wide open sandbox environments. It also did not help that alot of campaign stages were either cut in half or entirely removed due to engine issues.

The enemy AI also suffered, Elites in Halo 1 were extremely fast and agile, Bungie slowed them down in Halo 2 and the Brutes, well they were tough in Halo 2, but in Halo 3 they had no concept of self preservation.

Halo: Reach is going back to what worked in Halo 1 and that is a good thing,

[SOAD]

Open environments vs. linear levels is debatable.

Bungie upped the variety of the levels and increased the linearity to have a better story direction.

Naughty Dog directs the player in Uncharted. GG directs the player in Killzone 2.

In Halo CE, the maps large but the structures all looked the same. The corridors were cloned.

In Halo 2, I can't even list the large number of areas the player was in. But I'll try.

Orbital Station
New Mombasa
The Highways of New Mombasa
Gas manufacturing orbital station above delta Halo
Delta Halo
The Library
The snowy, flood-infested environments of Delta Halo (or was it the destroyed Halo from CE)
High Charity

The campaign for Halo 2 was a much greater under-taking. Halo CE was a small slice of the ring and was still pretty restricted.

[RedDead]

I agree about Halo 2's story. Why didn't people like the arbitor and his missions? I've always wondered why? His missions were a nice change of pace, being able too use camo was good. I like the levels alot more in H2 than 3 aswell. Delta Halo is probably my favourite level of the whole series. And the arbitor level were you have a few covenant forces with you (including Hunters) . I also liked the civil war that was going on. You could watch elites take on brutes and just stay in the shadows in some levels, wait for someone to win and then finish off the victor

I disagree about brutes though. I thought brutes were a bit weak or something in 3 and too vicious or somethingin both 2 and 3. Elites were more like a Notable honourable worthy advisary, especially the Honour guards

Edit--Oh I LOVE grunts aswell. I always tried to keep them alive in the Arbitos missions. The poor things are so weak though. I prefared their voice in H2 than 3 aswell.

[SixZeroFour]

i think the main reason hardcore fans didnt like the arbiter missions was cause we spent a whole game hating and wanting to destroy the elites, that in the next game, we were shown that they have/had a reason for doing what they did

storywise, i loved it, but on a fanatical lvl, it just didnt feel right to suddenly have...compassion?, for a lack of a better word...for the being that we spent so much time hating in the previous game

[hmmmm]

@RedDead

I like the grunts too! Although their voices in all the games were done by the same bungie employee, i think it was jason jones?

Edit: My mistake, its joseph staten!

[RedDead]

Yeah I know the voices were done by the same guy but they were more em squeeky in 1 and 2 I thought.

MrAnonymous, maybe yeah, I played H2 before 1 so that's probably why

[PS360_37]

In Halo CE, MP and SP were both Epic. Halo 2 and 3 only really had an epic MP. I would like to see bad SP trend change with Reach. From what I have seen, it may happen.

As to knowing the ending of Reach...we knew the ending to Star Wars 3, but it still was really good.

[Jumper09]

LoL u cant fix a franchise that is not broken...

Someone should fix Call of Duty.

[xTrueLegendx]

Anyone who's says halo isn't stale is blind you can argue Sony has alot of sequels to but it also has more verity and quality wich halo hasn't had since halo 2 everyone thats real and blunt about it will tell you halo 3 and odst where not big steps in the franchise but with reach it look like that will change they should have done this with halo 3 and odst but they let it go for awhile and just Let it get stale that's why when cod4 came it topped xbox live and it's still on top hopefully they reboot halo on the next xbox with beyond killzone graphics and raise the bar like they did with the very first one

[jdktech2010]

Personally, I like Halo 3's multiplayer much better than 2 but to each their own. I have no doubt though, after playing the beta, that Reach's MP will destroy (in a good way) everything Bungie has done in the past for me. I can't wait for it and Reach and SC2 might just be enough to carry me until Killzone 2, Gears and SWTOR next year.

[The BS Police]

Halo 3 was the most played Xbox Live game in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

[capjacksparrow]

Just stop making Halo, come up with a new franchise. That would make it all better. I'd love to see a new FPS from Microsoft. Halo peaked (In terms of quality) with Halo 2. Now Bungie's not with them anymore, they should create a new universe.

[RockmanII7]

1 - How do you know if Halo's quality has peaked if you never played Reach
2 - That's like saying Nintendo should stop making Mario/Zelda games, its what sells the system.
3 - 343 Industries look like they will become great devs, capable of continuing the Halo name.

[TheColbertinator]

I just want a more original storyline in Halo games.That is why I loved Halo 1,it just had a serious story with many twists(Flood,343 Guilty Spark,Keyes still alive) and it had massive areas in which you could complete the game in any way you want.Give me a decent single player,screw the MP.

[pat_11_5]

That's what I like about the plot of Halo CE, it was simple yet very focused. It was also full of multiple twists and turns that always kept me guessing.

[Roozium]

that isn't broken? If anything, CoD is the series that should be improved. I'm glad that Bungie did the smart decision and not going for casualgamers and instead going back to the roots with health packs and CE pistol.

[WLPowell]

You know people will start bitching and the pistol will be neutered again with an "update" like last time. The weapons in the Reach Beta felt great (damn near perfect).

[finbars75]

Its easy to fix this problem.JUST STOP MAKING THE DAM GAMES ,just milked to death.GOT MILK ANYBODY?

[AEtherbane]

End it.

[dizzleK]

the only thing i want is some good pathfinding a.i. just once i'd like to be able to man the turret and not be driven off cliffs or directly into tank fire.

[Thrillhouse]

In a recent update Bungie said that the AI drivers are the best they have ever done in a Halo game.

We'll have to wait and see :)

[Dr Face Doctor]

Just like that Diablo game, or maybe that Counter-Strike game, or possibly that Starcraft game, or even that Team Fortress 2 thing. You know, all those hardcore games that were LAUDED over their simplicity.

Dammit gamers, sometimes I think you're just asking for the industry to go back to the age of Doom and Bad Dudes.

[jjesso1993]

halo sure dose not need fixing it needs bungie without the franchise will die know as cash in not one OF most greatest online experiences on consoles.

[distorted_reality]

.....What?

[voodoopickle]

Stop making them

[palaeomerus]

Fansites should just stop giving dumb suggestions about Halo.

[RockmanII7]

Haters gonna hate

[IHateYouFanboys]

lol at thinking that Halo needs 'fixing'. how many million copies did Halo 3 sell? how many hundreds of thousands of unique people still play it online every week?

this article seems like someones just read the things that Bungie have said theyve done for Reach, then hes gone and written this article saying they should do them so people will think 'oh he was 100% right! hes so smart!', hoping that people wouldnt realise that he wrote this 6 months after all of this had already been confirmed lol.

dont fix whats not broken, and if theres ever been a game thats not broken its halo.

[PandaJenkins]

All these articles that are always suggesting that it needs huge improvements just seem kind of stupid when majority of people love it the way it is. Personally I think it could be improved, but my opinion doesen't count for everyone's.

[gypsygib]

I just hate how most of the guns shoot from the hip, it seems antiquated. I like down the scope games; maybe the Halo franchise isn't for me anymore - I should just stick with my BFBC2 which I love!