Outside of the high concept of what Halo 4 is aiming to achieve, we see some specific multiplayer. Two maps are revealed – Wraparound and Warhouse, both small arena-style levels – and we see fly-throughs and gameplay itself.
Characters are now fully customizable in multiplayer; Spartans will have load-outs. The big news for Halo online fans is that 343 has decided to include game-changing unlocks in return for level progression, a similar system to that found in Call of Duty, for example.
When I ask Frank and Kiki about the inevitable comparisons to popular military FPS, they’re well-prepared.
“It’s super-dangerous to chase somebody else’s tail, but it’s also incredibly dangerous to ignore the changing habits of players, so really rather than looking at the specific games and their functionality, you look at changing and emerging trends for players and what players expect,” says Frank.
“That’s a really important one to get. You have to at least meet their baseline expectation for various gameplay features. But if you chase someone else’s tail and do it badly then it’s twice as bad as if you hadn’t. We have to make sure that the things we’re adding are our things, from our vision, and, yes, they’re modern and involved. Halo has such a grand history of, if not revolutionizing the console FPS space, at least pushing it and nudging it forward, and we’re going to to try to continue to do that in our own way.”
Kiki adds: “There are very few things we could do that wouldn’t put us in danger of someone saying, ‘Oh, you’re chasing this or that.’ The reality is that the industry moves in different directions and we have to look at what’s best for Halo and what’s best for the Halo player.
“Also, how do we bring people into the IP? It’s been a long time since Chief was out there, and there are new gamers coming up that have never experienced Halo. Are there going to be similarities with things we do and any number of other games? There always are. But for us it’s about what is uniquely Halo, and how do we make that uniquely Halo thing something that’s differentiated and fun for the player.”
