Structure
One of my favorite parts of ODST was the atmosphere, with most major gameplay elements being utilized to give the player a sense of being a solitary soldier in a huge, abandoned city filled with alien invaders. I can't be the only one to get major Metroid Prime vibes from the
Concept Art teaser from Halo Fest, and it's worth noting that Kynan Pearson (lead designer on Metroid Prime 1 & 2) and Jason Behr (lead level design on Metroid Prime) are now at 343. The Prime games were
fantastic in terms of exploration and atmosphere, especially in the sense of being alone on a hostile planet.
Part of me is hoping for a game structure similar to ODST: Master Chief is all alone on a mysterious forerunner world in the unknown reaches of space, surrounded by hostiles. All of the stages branch off from a single hub you have to carefully pick your way through because there's Very Bad Forerunner Things out there waiting to rip you to shreds.
This also allows for non-linear progression through the game; in the stage "Halo" from CE, players are able to pick which group of Marines they wish to rescue. This is roughly the same thing, expanded; the player might have several stages they can complete in any order. For example, there might be a Forerunner Armory, a version of the Silent Cartographer and a chunk of the Forward Unto Dawn. Each offers a useful reward;
- The Armory grants access to Forerunner weaponry.
- The Cartographer reveals parts of the Hub World.
- The Dawn has vehicles aboard which allow you to traverse the hub easier.
I am not suggesting a Metroid-like progression (
get Item X to access area A) through the game, simply the atmosphere and sense of an interconnected world that the Prime games pulled off extremely well. I am also not suggesting that Halo 4 feature lots of backtracking; you cross the same large area multiple times, unlocking access to new sections as you go. You only have to return to areas previously explored if they're on the way to the next level or if you're looking for unlockables... which brings me to my next point;
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Unlockables:
Scattered through the hub world are chunks of the Forward Unto Dawn (offering ammo replenishment for your UNSC weapons) and all sorts of goodies to uncover if you just open your eyes and look for them.
This includes all armor permutations for the multiplayer aspect ("Create-a-Spartan"), which are no longer unlocked via Credits (which rewards grinding and raw time investment rather than skill anyways).
This rewards and encourages exploration of the hub, makes perfect sense (you're finding stuff that survived the crash rather than buying armor with an arbitrary currency) and diminishes the artificial inflation of playtime. Halo 4 should be fun enough that it doesn't need a carrot-and-stick to keep people motivated, and doesn't require the COD skinner box bullshit to keep people hooked.
Skulls would be hidden within the levels themselves, not the hub; that allows players to put the search-mode skills on pause and enjoy the action sequences, but still have one thing to hunt for (which is the current model).
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Enemies:
I think we all can agree that the Covenant will be both too broken and too far removed to represent a threat in Halo 4, and the inclusion of the Flood on such a distant Forerunner world seems unlikely. And to be honest, though they are both fantastic enemies and key to the Halo mythology, they're both a little tired at this point.
I'm envisioning Halo 4 as featuring lots of Forerunner enemies;
Sentinels,
Enforcers and tons we haven't seen before (for example, this "Strato-Sentinel" cut from Halo 3:
The idea of stepping into the shoes of Master Chief, alone on a planet filled with crap like
THAT THING hunting me as I make my way across a vast and impossibly ancient landscape gives me goosebumps.
The Forerunner planet could also be home to a variety of non-intelligent indigenous creatures, similar to the
Gúta in Reach. In fact, one of my disappointments with Reach was that we didn't really see much alien wildlife beyond those and the Moa. These wouldn't be enemies in the traditional sense, but they could be hostile and, if used sparingly, really make for some interesting encounters.
Finally, there are a few hints that suggest other enemies that might appear; The terminals in Anniversary imply that the Didact and something called "Prometheans" are possibly alive and kicking, so in theory we could be fighting Forerunner robots AND forerunners who have somehow managed to survive all these years too.
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Weaponry:
In my opinion, the weapon sandbox in Halo has gotten a bit too large and unfocused. I feel each weapon should have a niche, with very little overlap with other weapons.
First off,
Bloom is removed. Instead, each weapon has a physical amount of recoil that impairs sloppy or improper firing. Halo 2's SMG 'Ride up' is the perfect example; instead of having an arbitrary mechanic like bloom, the gun simply became more unstable (and thus inaccurate) the longer you fired. Sniper Rifles would sway wildly from the kickback (reduced by crouching, of course). ARs spray their bullets everywhere because the player's screen is jerking about the longer the trigger is held. The goal is to have weapons react in a way that players can 'feel'.
Second, Covenant weapons will not appear in the campaign but will be retained for the sake of multiplayer. There will be substantial trimming here as well, so each Covey weapon has a niche as well.
The setting also demands lots of new Forerunner weaponry. I like to think of this as the natural evolution of Halo's current Trinity; Melee / Gun / Grenade. On top of that layer, there is now Human / Covenant / Forerunner technology. The above example is from Halo: Legends, as is the only Forerunner weapon we've really seen apart from Sentinel Beams.
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Default Weapon: The Silenced SMG
Can you tell I'm a fan of ODST? I feel that the Assault Rifle, though a Halo staple, makes for a piss-poor starting weapon (especially in multiplayer) and is probably
underpowered because it is meant to be so common. I am also not a fan of the DMR as a starting weapon as it has too much versatility and ranged capability; why switch to anything else?
The Silenced SMG makes perfect sense as the Halo 4 "Default" weapon; Master Chief would want to be as quiet as possible to avoid drawing attention to himself on the Forerunner world, and the huge ammo capacity means less chance of running out. From a gameplay perspective, it has a scope (2x, no where near as powerful as the DMR's 3x), high rate of fire, and the ideal range to compliment the other traditional "staring weapon" (the pistol), falling into the close-to-medium range. It would not be Headshot capable, but it would cause a great deal more damage when zoomed in. Like in Halo 2 and ODST, counter-aiming the recoil can lead to true mastery with the weapon.
The goal is to make the default weapon of Halo 4 powerful enough that you can function well with it, but don't keep it at all times, and rewards skillful use.
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Activated Abilities:
Finally,
Armor abilities are gone, but some of their functions (as well as bits of Halo 3's Equipment) are rolled into Halo 4 in a new way;
weapons can have special activated abilities. These essentially function like Armor abilities, with a similar UI element and recharge time, and an identical activation method. However, a weapon ability can
only be used when that weapon is in-hand, and not all weapons have them.
I wanted to include some degree of AA-like function because I honestly like the variety they bring to the game, just not in the way they were implemented in Reach. It also touches on my comment earlier about certain Halo weapons starting to feel redundant or pointless; AAs can be something extra to differentiate them from other weapons that are too similar in form or make a cruddy weapon suddenly have a more desirable function. Covenant weapons, for example, really need something to make them distinctive again. I also like the concept of having a Secondary Fire mechanic but don't think the standard implementation would work for Halo.
The important part is that the abilities are now paired exclusively with weapons, limiting the potential for abuse. No more Active Camo + Sniper Rifle bullshit.
Here's a few examples;
Assault Rife
The AR could generate a small "Overshield Pulse" when activated; your shields temporarily gain a small amount of Overshield for a few seconds when activated. This makes the AR feel like a heavy on-point infantry weapon, and provides a sort of AR-metagame; knowing when to pop your extra shield boost while bearing down on somebody with the AR would require a great deal of skill to judge. Too soon and they just chew the extra shield up, too late and they chew
you up. This would be an interesting dynamic without the cheapness of Armor Lock.
Shotgun:
To promote the Shotty as a heavy weapon and to give it a little more function beyond its very short range, an interesting Activated Ability would be an underslung grenade launcher that uses the grenades you're carrying as ammo. Thus, you have a slow reloading, limited range power weapon that can also chuck grenades out quite a distance (faster and further than you can throw). Think of it as the Bastard son of the Pro Pipe.
Sniper Rifle
The Sniper Rifle is such a powerful weapon, it's AA is kind of basic; a target locator. Not only can it call out where an enemy is at to all of your team mates, but in single player allows you to mark your targets when you and your friends want to take out as many targets at once and wish to avoid doubling up on the same guy.
And of course, covenant weapons can have mini-stealth generators, Forerunner weapons could have enemy-seeking shots... there's a lot of potential there.
Another neat feature might be weapons that have secondary firing modes (with the recharge timer representing a delay in switching), like having the BR and DMR merged into a single weapon with ultra-precise single fire mode and less-accurate but faster burst mode. Imagine using Burst mode to take down shields then switching over to single-fire for the headshot. Because there's a delay in switching, it's not something you can do immediately again.
There could even be weapon abilities that could regenerate a small amount of health, to say nothing of Armor Abilities and Equipment that could be converted and put on the right weapon, like decoys, radar jamming, EMP bursts... give an anti-vehicle weapon the ability to drop a land mine, perhaps? The point is, you are limited to whatever AA appears on the weapon, which should help rein in the potential for abuse.
And yes, I have too much time on my hands.
(a/s/l?)
