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As of 2022, however, it’s been a while since this Halo made an appearance. The series was given up by creator, Bungie in 2011 to 343 Industries, the developer formed by Microsoft to helm the series thereafter. This transfer of stewardship has, for lack of a better term, had its ups and downs over the last ten years. While some have found plenty of enjoyment in the games that 343 has made in that time, many have felt their output to be stale and derivative, leaving both the series and its fans in need of series revitalizing in more than one category.
6 Developer Transparency and Communication Overhaul
343 Industries has never been known for how they engage with the halo community. Many of its members would go so far as to label them as liars for some of the things they’ve said or omitted over the years. Even now with Halo: Infinite, fans have accused 343 of stretching the truth too often, being too closed off from the community, and not adequately addressing its concerns about the game, such as the lack of content, unpopular monetization policies, and so on.
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This has created tension between the fans and the developers, which has been festering for quite some time now. Fans are finding it harder to support 343s endeavors and 343 in turn are less inclined to take fan feedback into consideration. All of this creates a toxic environment for both fans and developers, and it’s one of the things about the franchise that needs a drastic overhaul.
5 A Return to Content Complete Launches
Halo: Reach was the last Halo game to launch in a truly “completed” state. That is to say, it didn’t launch on September 14th, 2010 without any fan-favorite features, only for them to be promised at a later date. Once 343 Industries took over the franchise this began to change, however. Halo 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo: Infinite have all suffered from incomplete and/or buggy launches. Things like Forge, firefight, file sharing, campaign coop, split-screen, and a whole litany of game modes, weapons, maps, etc. have been missing on launch for pretty much every 343 developed title in the series.
This frustrating trend by 343, to release practically unfinished games, has undoubtedly been one of the driving factors in their games suffering significant player population degradation over time, and it must be reversed in order for Halo to succeed in the ways it used to. It’s not a good look when a series that was once known for being content-rich is now starving for it on day one.
4 Stop Relying on Common Gameplay Trends
Halo 4 was rather infamous for being, as many fans have described, “Call of Halo.” This was referring to many of the mechanics that 343 chose to incorporate into the game that were also recognizable Call of Duty mechanics, such as custom loadouts, perks, universal sprinting, etc. With Halo 5, some of this went away due to fan outcry, however, many other trendy mechanics of the day were added in their place. These include advanced mobility mechanics like thrusting and clambering (mantling), and also the addition of Aim Down Sights style mechanics.
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Halo: Infinite features a number of common gaming trends as well, such as an open-world single-player, movement mechanics like sprint and clamber, as well as a new focus on “free to play” monetization and content strategies. The common theme here seems to be that 343 goes out of their way to make Halo as trendy as is acceptable, relative to when the game’s release that is. This progression of unoriginality seems like a bizarre move on 343s part when one considers how groundbreaking Halo has been and could be still if they stopped chasing trends.
3 A Need to Prioritize New Gaming Features
Halo: Infinite really struggles to offer players something they can’t get elsewhere. Sure it might feel different to play in comparison to Battlefield or Call of Duty, but it doesn’t offer anything truly innovative for either the series or the genre. The older Halo games were some of the most innovative shooters of their day. Halo 2 introduced the online lobby system that’s still used today and Halo 3 added all-new social features like forge, theater mode, and file sharing. Halo 3: ODST flipped the script in both gameplay and narrative, whilst adding new fan-favorite modes like Firefight.
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Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, have barely moved the needle in comparison. In addition to an increasingly frustrating tendency to remove content with each release, 343 hasn’t seemed to prioritize truly new ideas and features for their games. This trend in 343s development style has resulted in stale and derivative ideas that only serve to detract from the Halo experience rather than enhance it. Innovation has always been Halo’s lifeblood, meanwhile playing it safe has done it zero favors.
2 A Return to a Consistent Narrative
There doesn’t seem to be any sort of Narrative cohesion between 343’s Halo games. Halo 4 began with the Didact returning to exact their revenge upon humanity. It was an interesting setup, and supposedly it was to be the start of a new era for Halo. This was until he was killed offscreen in a tie-in comic series and never returned. Halo 5 then rolls around and Cortana, who’d sacrificed herself in the previous game, returned as the main villain. Now finally with Halo: Infinite, Cortana is dead and no longer a villain, because a new race called The Endless has taken up that mantle.
This reeks of poor planning and a lack of confidence. During the Bungie Era, each of the game’s stories fit together to form a complete narrative all the way from Halo: Reach to Halo 3. With 343’s games, it seems that each of their games is a beginning chapter in a saga that may or may not see further development. Committing to a singular vision for the story is healthier for the universe than trying to hit the reset button on it three times in a row.
1 Stop Being Afraid of Bungie’s Legacy
Fans have noted over the years that 343 Industries seems to have a propensity for going out of their way to not imitate Halo’s original creator, Bungie. While this is somewhat admirable in many ways (Bungie did not devote as much attention to the extended lore, for example), this fact has more often than not been a thorn in the side of the 343 era of Halo. This can most easily be seen in 343’s art, UI design, music, narrative design, atmosphere, and more, where they deliberately choose to do things differently than Bungie (though over the years they’ve softened in some areas).
More troubling, however, is how this mentality has influenced the overall franchise direction from one that celebrated its community, to one that is constantly at odds with it. It has been proven continually over the past decade, in which 343 has slowly reincorporated elements of the Bungie era back into the franchise overtime after Halo 4’s massive departure. Perhaps biting the bullet and taking the series back to its roots beyond the superficial sense is what’s needed in the eyes of many fans.
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