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Halo 4, One Year Later: What Happened?

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Demon Ice

Banned
Its not a bad game. The Halo community is just impossible to please with their rediculous expectations.

Yes, the expectation that 343i literally keep the Halo gameplay that Bungie came up with instead of shoehorning Call of Duty - lite into every facet of the game is so ridiculous and unreasonable.

Keep telling yourself that.
 
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But they outbungied bungie.
 

Sai-kun

Banned
The hyperbole is amusing in this thread. Halo has had one game that's received mixed reaction and the series is doomed. The franchise will continue to sell millions regardless of quality as the series gains new fans just as old fans leave.

Going from 900k-1.1M to <30k players after a year doesn't seem like hyperbole to me.
 

Hindle

Banned
Because it's all about how much money the game makes to us.

Halo 4 was 343s first actual game and they had a lot to live up to. They got a lot wrong no doubt, but they'll learn as a studio and I'm sure they will continue to grow more confident. I doubt they will make the same mistakes going forward.
 
Halo 4 is what happens when you have a bunch of people who don't have adequate respect and/or understanding for the original IP. All backed up by their paymasters who couldn't care less as long as it continues to rake in the money.

It lacks a soul and most of those working on it clearly didn't know what they were dealing with.

The most bizarre thing was the decision to turn one of the only franchises that stood shoulder to shoulder with CoD into something more akin to a CoD clone, in what was probably one of the most misguided decisions I've seen for a long time in this industry.

They threw out fundamental gameplay concepts in the name of chasing that crowd, only to instantly lose them when the real thing came out. You'd expect to see this from low-tier devs with a fraction of the popularity of CoD, but not from one of its biggest competitors.


Bungie made mistakes with Halo over the years, but whenever you interacted with any of them you saw the passion they had for their product, and that they were dedicated to trying to understand and refine what made Halo, Halo. They had a vision, and were the ones breaking new ground or raising the bar. Hell, their online stats system for Halo 2 beats out almost everything else out there. The playlist format has had a huge impact on console gaming. And obviously the series has had a huge impact on console shooters.

I think Reach shares quite a few of the problems of H4, and I attribute a lot of that to Bungie bringing in someone new to be in charge of the sandbox, instead of recruiting from within. The fact that jumping and movement had to be tweaked due to the negative feedback from the beta -- serious fundamentals that should have been perfected a long time before that -- was a huge red flag for me.

Even with the flaws that Reach has, it did a lot of things well, and was far more worthy of belonging to the franchise than Halo 4 ever was.


I like Frankie and think he's a good guy. But I did privately question the decision to recruit him from a writing position at Bungie to head a studio with no prior experience, and I think the team he's built have repeatedly proven that they're not cut out to handle the franchise.
 

jem0208

Member
Note: I have bought and played a LOT of every single FPS Halo game. (I never got around to buying Halo Wars.)



I really enjoy Halo 4.

I thought the campaign was great. Not quite as good as CE or ODST, but still pretty fantastic.

It is also probably one of my favourite for online multiplayer of the series. I just find the base gameplay really satisfying and entertaining, the loadout and perk system never really bothered me because it doesn't affect the gameplay all that much.

The customs on the other hand, are no where near as good as Halo 3/Reach. 343 really screwed up with the customs.
 

Magwik

Banned
Its not a bad game. The Halo community is just impossible to please with their rediculous expectations.

I forsee a posibility of Halo going the UT and Quake route tbh. The community is against change so much that it will just keep playing the same and die with that community. Just like those games.

Not this shit again. It has absolutely nothing to do with changes being made, and everything to do with fundamentally changing what made Halo, Halo. It would be the same as the next CoD completely removing killstreaks and loadouts and having weapons on the map only or Battlefield removing it's classes and has a max of 18 players in arena sized maps.
 

PhatSaqs

Banned
I thought Halo 4 SP was amazing myself and up there with the best in the series.

Guess im not one of the cool kids.
 

Saucey

Neo Member
The game had very little longevity, which imo lead to its swift downfall.

No in game ranking system hurt the game a lot more than I think Bungie / 343 ever really anticipated, because it gives players no real reason to stay on the game.

Combine this with the super 1337 Doritos Double EXP codes, I reached my SR-130 in a weeks time when the game came out. To put it in perspective I only have an Eclipse on Reach ( and I played everyday) While I despise Reach, at-least it gave people a goal that could not be achieved in 1-2 weeks time.. and kept a solid population online with something to do.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
9637671415_c38b187699_z.jpg


I'm a "big fan" of the series. Not huge, mind you - really the only game I'd consider a personal favorite is H2. And I feel like they've gotten progressively worse since then.

I even bought another console when the f****** lied and bullshitted me and the public about my early copy of the game.

But Halo 4 completely moved away from what made the series special - simplicity, a slower pace, and a high skill ceiling that was dependent on teamwork, strategy, coordination, and actual skill.

Now it's just shoot, bang, die, weapon drops, mechs, support, no communication free for alls.
 

Sulik2

Member
I thought the campaign and Coop story stuff was really good, but the multiplayer never grabbed me. I really did not like the unlock system.
 

Tunavi

Banned
Halo 4 was 343s first actual game and they had a lot to live up to. They got a lot wrong no doubt, but they'll learn as a studio and I'm sure they will continue to grow more confident. I doubt they will make the same mistakes going forward.
I'm confident they will.
 

Smokey

Member
Not this shit again. It has absolutely nothing to do with changes being made, and everything to do with fundamentally changing what made Halo, Halo. It would be the same as the next CoD completely removing killstreaks and loadouts and having weapons on the map only or Battlefield removing it's classes and has a max of 18 players in arena sized maps.

Fucking this
 
This is the same studio that saw all the complaints about Armor Abilities in Halo Reach, said "Yes, we hear you!", then fuckin' double-downed on them in Halo 4.

But yeah, keep that blind faith going
 

Nyoro SF

Member
This is the same studio that saw all the complaints about Armor Abilities in Halo Reach, said "Yes, we hear you!", then fuckin' double-downed on them in Halo 4.

But yeah, keep that blind faith going

LOL, I remember reading about this. Talk about a company that just doesn't give a fuck.
 
Campaign was good

Couldn't get into the multiplayer

Literally played 3 games and knew it wasn't for me

Played 1000's of hours of Halo 3 multiplayer but 4 held nothing of interest for me in the MP regard
 

oVerde

Banned
As a fan of the series, and the reason I came to Xbox from PC gaming, am really sad with it.

You can't cortege CoD kids to like space shooter with game play, they don't understand it, they don't damn like SciFi, and Halo 4 got a massive knockout of players because of that.

After you have all the weapon unlocks the base game play is awesome, but why WHY on earth I had to pass that proving grounds of shameful grind up just to make the game 'complete' ?

My inner fan will be awaiting for next Halo, I know.
 

lilty

Member
Halo 3 - The reason I bought a 360. Absolutely loved that game and still play it from time to time.

Halo 4 - Destroyed everything about the series and the main reason I'm not getting an Xbox One. Without Halo, the only MS exclusive series I care about, I see no point in grabbing another Xbox. My 360 is pretty much retired at this point.

I have absolutely no faith in Halo 5, although being proven wrong would be a pleasant surprise.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Halo 4 was 343s first actual game and they had a lot to live up to. They got a lot wrong no doubt, but they'll learn as a studio and I'm sure they will continue to grow more confident. I doubt they will make the same mistakes going forward.

.

we learned a lot.

as a team and a developer.
 

Pein

Banned
Halo 3 is still king because its simplicity, fuck armor abilities, fuck perks. Just go back to being Halo.

I'm so happy 3 went free and it breathed life back in to the community.
 
It was a sad day when I realized I hated Halo 4. All the changes just ruined the experience for me. I regained some hope when I was at the Halo my panel at PAX East but it was never enough to re spark my interest especially when it took so long to implement any changes mentioned.
 

Salz01

Member
Halo 3 is still king because its simplicity, fuck armor abilities, fuck perks. Just go back to being Halo.

I tried to go back to Halo 3 mp, the other week, I couldn't stand it after an hour. I felt like I was moving in slow mo. You can't take the series back to that.
 

mcw

Member
At this year's PAX Prime, Microsoft held an event called the Halo 4 Global Championship, intended to take place over the first three days of PAX. They rented out Benaroya Hall-- all of it-- for the event, and if you went in there anytime during the weekend, you would see a lot of money on display. Huge banners, an actual Halo store, tons of TVs... They were clearly expecting a big crowd.

But no one showed up. I went over there several times throughout the weekend, and every time, the place was a ghost town. They were having an event on Saturday where you could register for a free-for-all tournament, and (I think) the top 20 players in the tournament would each win a Gaems case (these things cost $200 apiece!); but they ended up cancelling that tournament because fewer than 20 people signed up for it.

I don't know that I would go so far as to say that no one gives a shit about Halo anymore, and I certainly wouldn't agree with anyone who says that 343 doesn't care about the game. They did a much better job with Halo 4 than anyone expected. But Microsoft, not 343, is the face of that franchise now; and they're representing it in the same way they represent everything: heartless, soulless, and completely tone-deaf.
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
"Spartan IVs don't know how to shut the fuck up and act like Spartans." - Yes, what Halo definitely needs is more stoic, nearly-silent protagonists and secondary characters. Can't get enough of that. The point of Spartan IVs is that they are cheaper to produce than the Spartan 3s and require less intensive genetic re-engineering and physical enhancement. They're SUPPOSED to be a mid-step between the ODSTs and Master Chief. More capable than human soldiers, not quite as ungodly as the Spartan IIIs, and nowhere near as emotional detached/broken because they haven't been subjected to such nightmarish 'training'.
I'm sorry but there's a difference between having a personality and being a complete blundering idiot. The IV's did generally nothing to indicate that they were not people picked up from a local gym and given a supersuit. They're blatantly disrespectful, lack training and are just a bunch of brave fools. The ODST were in every way better.

Let's not forget that that the SIV's do things like kick ancient artifacts, run headfirst into enemies despite being ordered not to, disrespect their superiors and basically paint one of their own creators(Halsey) in a bad light. These are just some examples about the band of jackasses which are supposed to replace not only the ODST, but Chief as well.
 
I'll tell you what happened.

They lost track of what the series excelled at. Simplicity.

They lost track of catering to the top percent of the competitive crowd. Creating a watered down competitive game where the skill level never goes beyond casual.

They lost track of how to tell a story without needing to read a book to understand its intricacies.

They lost track of providing cutting edge features out side of the main game.

They lost track of how to interact with their community with honesty and humility. It's okay to say we screwed up.

Which makes me more sad then ever, because Frankie, David Ellis and Co are good people.

You'll tell me what happened, will you?
 

GhaleonEB

Member
It is a bad game nobody wants to play. That is what happened.

This is the bottom line.

Juices over in the Community side once said something that described the fundamental problem with what 343 did in making Halo 4. To paraphrase, they were chasing a group of players they are never going to catch - CoD - and lost Halo fans along the way. Now they've got almost no one.

I loved Halo, passionately. It was the reason, alone, I bought a 360. I put more time into Halo 3 than any other game, ever, until that time. Nightly romps in matchmaking, GAF custom game nights, picture stories (and later, video) were swapped daily. I made the GAF OT's for the Halo 3 Beta, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Reach, Halo: CEA and Halo 4.

I gave Halo 4 away for free to a GAFer a few months after it came out, after not playing it for a few months before that. (Foolishly, I had bought the LE; I never redeemed the codes that came with it, and gave those away, too.) I'm buying a PS4 for next gen and will never own a new Halo game. The game is that bad.

343's first and biggest mistake was failing utterly to understand what made Halo, Halo.

Exhibit A: Instant respawn. Halo's combat is designed around a certain pacing. There's a cadence of combat, reprieve, shield recharge, and then re-engagement. Getting cleaned up by that guy you just killed because they respawned instantly, before your shields could recharge broke that cadence entirely.

Exhibit B: Global and Personal Ordnance. Goodbye, map control. Goodbye, rallying your team by securing that rocket launcher and taking out a vehicle. Goodbye, knowing what power weapons the other team has. Goodbye, any semblance or pretension of balance. Goodbye, fun.

Exhibit C: Flinch. Through the rise of CoD, Battlefield and other shooters, Halo has always been the game that prioritized combat clarity. It was the game that didn't screw with your ability to see during combat: no aim down sights, no strawberry jelly on the screen, no visual impairment from explosions. It was also that game that didn't add layers of interference and pushback to its weapon mechanics. Targeting reticule are stable as you move, (used to be) stable when firing, and stable when you were hit. The skill was learning how to use weapons, when to use them, and how to survive encounters of longer than normal duration.

Between the long range of the DMR and the addition of flinch, much of the combat was reduced to grappling with a bucking targeting reticule. That's not fun, or balanced, in any way. It's frustrating. It's my most hated addition to the game, over and above the horribleness that is....

Exhibit D: Perks. Prior to Reach, when you shot someone, or began an action, you could expect a certain action to follow it. I know I can four shot this guy; I know a grenade will strip shields and a head shot will kill. I know this dudes movement options, and that I have him cornered. I know if I get the jump on someone I have the advantage.

Enter perks, and all that goes out the window. When I EMP this vehicle, I wonder how effective it will be? When I engage this guy with the DMR, I wonder how stable his reticle is compared to mine? I wonder how fast this guy's shields recharge, or how fast he can reload, or how many shots he takes to kill? It breaks our ability to mange combat and make smart decisions, and reduces a lot of it to dumb luck. Shucks, I didn't think he had Stability on. Oh well! Better luck next time; maybe I'll run into some dudes where my perk selections give me the leg up next time.

And then they compounded perks, as other systems introduce problems. Hmm, adding the plasma pistol to loadouts totally breaks the vehicle balance. Let's add a perk to reduce the EMP stun! Let's add a mechanic like flinch - removing de-scoping for some reason - and then bring in a perk to partly offset it. Because balance or something.

Just one layer after another of decisions diametrically opposed to Halo's core combat design. Strip all of it away, and that core is pretty good. But you don't play the core, you play it all, and it was a terrible, unfun experience. The population flight looks like throngs of people buying the game, and then recoiling from it in response.

I'm ignoring the campaign, the horrible UI, the awfulness that was Spartan Ops (though to be fair I only played the first three episodes) and the gimped feature set (RIP campaign Theater), not to mention the poor post-launch support (which Fyre covered in the superb OP). But those are surely factors as well.

I hope Halo 5 goes back to Halo's roots and is aimed at Halo fans rather than trying to poach features of other games. But those DLC perks do not inspire confidence.
 

InvisibleKnight

Neo Member
What happened? 343i happened.
Most confusing campaign ever. No way you can understand anything without the books or the godawful waypoint terminals. They wanted "their halo" and so they went ahead and fucked up Bungie work by changing virtually everything.
Multiplayer? Awful and chaotic maps, unbalanced sandbox, perks, indicators, loadouts, boltshots and other bullshit.
Skill GAP in nonexistent in this game, the OP doesn't mention that MLG dropped the game and Virgin took over with their marathon tournament.
Then what? They actually REMOVED gamemodes, options and features because who cares.
And what else? Ohh right they managed to fuck up split-screen as well with unplayable framerate.
I could go on forever but I would sound like a broken record.
So the story is that me and my friends stopped playing halo (via live, system link, split-screen...) and most of us are not renewing our gold subscription.
A personal consideration about Microsoft. I can see so many analogies between the Halo 4 course and Windows 8's and Xbox One's. Microsoft gathers the wrong audiences without caring about the existing user-base. MS is making turnarounds and keep going like there's nothing wrong.
I'm out of this. Me and my friends are switching to PS4 next-gen. MS did its best to fuck up and succeeded.
 

Nebula

Member
.

we learned a lot.

as a team and a developer.

I really hope so. I've said some nasty things about 343 and MS but I'd be more than happy if you guys can prove us wrong with Halo 5. I'm not going for an Xbox One but if I hear great things and see great things about Halo 5, it could definitely result in me getting one.
 
I did not really like Reach a lot, but Halo 4 was so much worse. It also made me lose interest in any upcoming Halo titles since they will be made by 343 industries.
 
Holy crap, the developers made you pay for more perks, and made Team Slayer a DLC-required playlist?

I can't get over this line of reasoning. Why hasn't Halo copied COD's DLC system already?
 

-PXG-

Member
Someone do a similar thread for Gears. Now THAT is depressing. Judgement is almost as bad as Gears 2. That's a helluva stinker right there.
 

Hindle

Banned
343 need to return to open ended level design, I can't stress this enough. If that's the only change that they do then I'd still buy the game. Linear Cod stye levels isn't something I'll buy Halo again for though.
 
The campaign was terrible. Story was awful, baffling, and overall just dull. Terrible antagonist who barely anyone outside of hardcore novel readers even knew who the fuck he was. What they did to Cortana was unforgiveable.
I was a huge fan of H3 & Reach online but yeah, H4's MP was just chasing that CoD dollar. Halo works best as a 4v4 or 5v5 game where the only thing that separates players abilities is their individual skill, not a bloody perk or unlock.
 

MORTALIS

Member
I liked it. I thought the multiplayer was awesome.

I dont understand the hate.

The new enemies in the single player were pretty shitty.

I enjoyed the campaign immensely, but ya, something has to be done with the promethians. They were not fun to fight. Some of the covenant based skirmishes early on were incredible. Dat elite and jackal ai. Bomb.

I actually enjoyed Spartan Ops to some degree. Yes, it was repetitive but there was something about that take the hill gameplay that was great.
 
Foes and false friends are all around me, Lord Davos. They infest my city like roaches, and at night I feel them crawling over me.” The fat man’s fingers coiled into a fist, and all his chins trembled. "Halo came to the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Frankie's bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with his friends. And they murdered him. Murdered, I say, and may 343i choke upon their fables. I drink with Jessica jape with Bonnie, promise Kiki the hand of my own beloved granddson…but never think that means I have forgotten. The fans remember, Lord Davos. The fans remember, and the mummers farce is almost done, my son is home

Microsoft and 343i

What happened? Everything happened, Microsoft, the core fanbase, 343i, everything.

Microsoft having greater control over the series was always going to be a problem, Microsoft are incompetent and have mishandled and greatly damaged every single entertainment IP they've ever been responsible for. Their management, perhaps indisputably, are fucking stupid; not one of them challenged

- Releasing ODST at full price vs Modern Warfare 2
- Having Halo: Reach try and emulate CoD
- Making an independant canon that doesn't at all link to the series
- The low standards introduced by Halo: Spartan Assault
- The absolute massacre of the canon we saw in Halo 4

343i also proved to be a disaster. Frank O' Connor goaded the community relentlessly, bragging that their own vision was superior to that of the Halo fans that had lived and breathed since that beautiful day in 2001. Little care was put into Halo 4 at all

- They lazily reintroduced the Covenant as foes, essentially retconning the entire Halo trilogy in the opening 10 minutes of the game
- They have EVEN retconned the new trilogy, admitting they had absolutely no long term plans with the story of Halo 4, and as a result have cancelled Halo 5 and 6.
- They answered none of the questions the old trilogy left behind, and made no attempt to do so. The Master Chief; the greatest hero in humanity's history, was discovered to be alive.

"I THOUGHT YOU'D BE TALLER, LOL"

- The new faction were if anything, an afterthought, and were introduced unsuccessfully into the series.
- They slaughtered the canon. The ODST's were removed, old characters were nowhere to be seen, new Spartan's were introduced. They were the worst, the specialness of the Spartan programme was finally laid to rest, and the new Spartan's were your average bro figures, what was even worse was that they were not even questioned by the Master Chief. You want to make the Chief a human character? WHY NOT FUCKING HAVE HIM VOCALISE SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT A NEW PROGRAMME BEING INTRODUCED, WHICH WAS THE BASIS OF HIS ENTIRE EXISTENCE, AS OPPOSED TO SOME SHITTY FUCKING LOVE STORY WITH AN OVER SEXUALISED BLUE BLOB, YOU FUCKING CUNTS.

It was a great tragedy what the two companies did to Halo and look how the fanbase have suffered for it. Not that the fanbase are entirely blameless...

The fanbase

Neogaf was a wonderful opportunity. Members of 343i were active on this forum, and we had a large community to vocalise our ideas to them. unfortunately however, they were a community and not a fanbase. All of the Halo fans died at the Red Wedding with the Chief, me included. There are perhaps three real Halo fans left on this forum, the rest are a fucking joke. People would refuse to see the importance of custom game browsing and dedicated servers for the future of this IP, they ridiculed the thought that Microsoft's most important IP should be feature competitive with CoD, Battlefield and the Valve FPS's. Instead they only cared about trivial issues, such as the frame rate, camopaign scoring, whether theatre should be co-operative. They didn't even seem to care that Forge had been outsourced, and Halo 4 was in no condition ready to launch.

I valiantly called out 343i, but was shouted down by the greater community. See below an actual quote from a Halo Gaf member



And so as you can see, the Halo fanbase will never recover, it will never again be what it was.

uZf6THI.jpg


Afterword

With Destiny soon to be released, the real Halo fans, who now live on a peaceful haven on a solitary asteroid somewhere in the stars, will once again be looking to Bungie to be their saviours, we will pray for them and hope they are brought to peace.

As for Microsoft? They should have done the noble thing and sold the IP to Nintendo or Rockstar, of course they didn't however and this whole disaster has been completely out of control.

Goodbye Halo, we will never forget you.

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh.

ODST? Yeah, please tell me more.
 
I gave up on it when black ops 2 released , yup it was fun that release week but I just found blops 2 better.

had it released in September like other halos I think it would have done better.
 

Brannon

Member
Yeah it's old as shit, but it's true as shit, too; they really went all Call of Duty with the game. Just looking at the whole package makes you think, 'who the fuck are these... PEOPLE making this game?'.

Making a COD clone when people can just get the real thing. That doesn't make sense, are you ... no, NO. I'm not going to say something that gets me banned on account of THIS game. Fuck that.

At least their lot got paid money. Maybe they can buy some [redacted]... holy crap maybe I should stop gettin' mad at videogames. Press (X) to close thread... +5 Success
 
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