Opinion: Halo- Xbox has to get it right this time

[Vivir]

@BadNews

Honestly, is the loud vocal Halo fans even that large? I feel catering to them did them no favours and they’re quick to abandon if things aren’t perfect. I think they can keep their core, but they need to look at growth .They need to make tough decisions and make the game they want to make, but take some suggestions from the community, but don’t take everything they say. As we can see with infinite it’s a fickle crowd because when it launched they said it’s one of the best Halo games. Then MP content wasn’t able to hold its end in the bargain and they’re now banging the drum that Infinite is a bad game.

I think their issue is, their current multiplayer experience is utterly boring for people outside of the nostalgic crowd.

I’m inclined to agree with that. It’s in a great place but I lost the urge to continue playing after 1-2 games. They need to be more ambitious with the MP experience.

[BadNews]

@Vivir

I think their issue is, their current multiplayer experience is utterly boring for people outside of the nostalgic crowd.

I’m inclined to agree with that. It’s in a great place but I lost the urge to continue playing after 1-2 games. They need to be more ambitious with the MP experience.

MP is tricky because in Halo the skill gap is more apparent than in something like COD, OW, BRs, and other non-br shooters.

I think main thing they need to do is make sure there is a healthy amount of modes and matchmaking to better match people. I think having something like husky raid early in MP would’ve helped. I think just having the basic modes like slayer, objectives, and BTB just isn’t going to cut it to get people. I tried to get some friends to play Halo, but once the skill gap became apparent they lost interest.

I am probably rambling a bit, but they really need to find a way to get casuals hook and not feel the skill gap or at least still have fun while playing. I know COD and OW they have a skill gap, but there is still something that hooks them into playing. I think Halo doesn’t have that kind of hook because it might be too competitive for it’s own good

[Vivir]

@BadNews

…like COD, OW, BRs, and other non-br shooters. I think main thing they need to do is make sure there is a healthy amount of modes and matchmaking to better match people. I think having something like husky raid early in MP would’ve helped. I think just having the basic modes like slayer, objectives, and BTB just isn’t going to cut it to get people. I tried to get some friends to play Halo, but once the skill gap became apparent they lost interest. I am probably rambling a bit, but they really need to find a way to get casuals hook and not feel the skill gap or at least still have fun while playing. I know COD and OW they have a skill gap, but there is still something that hooks them into playing. I think Halo doesn’t have that kind of hook because it might be too competitive for it’s own good

I don’t think the skill gap is bad at all. Their SBMM has been fine imo.

Arena shooters are just simply not fun enough. Especially slow ones like Halo. There’s no dopamine hit of unlocking weapons and leveling them up. There’s no huge sprawling maps. It’s just kind old as shit man lol. A boomer shooter.

[BadNews]

@Vivir

I don’t think the skill gap is bad at all. Their SBMM has been fine imo.

Arena shooters are just simply not fun enough. Especially slow ones like Halo. There’s no dopamine hit of unlocking weapons and leveling them up. There’s no huge sprawling maps. It’s just kind old as shit man lol. A boomer shooter.

Gotcha, I can see that being an issue. Me being a Halo guy I don’t mind. I agree that it doesn’t have a dopamine effect or moments that keeps you hook. The other games I’ve mentioned have something that hooks you in, but I think today’s audience want something more than pure gameplay

[Vivir]

@BadNews

Gotcha, I can see that being an issue. Me being a Halo guy I don’t mind. I agree that it doesn’t have a dopamine effect or moments that keeps you hook. The other games I’ve mentioned have something that hooks you in, but I think today’s audience want something more than pure gameplay

Playing devil’s advocate here but they could also just focus on delivering what they do best MP wise and accept that there’s a limited ceiling for that type of MP.

There’s nothing wrong with not being one of the top dogs anymore. Just adjust the budget/scale accordingly so you can still make a ton of profit without selling out the “DNA” of your game.

[BadNews]

@Vivir

Playing devil’s advocate here but they could also just focus on delivering what they do best MP wise and accept that there’s a limited ceiling for that type of MP.

There’s nothing wrong with not being one of the top dogs anymore. Just adjust the budget/scale accordingly so you can still make a ton of profit without selling out the “DNA” of your game.

I think they’re better off not chasing the current GaaS trends. They’re most likely better off not chasing the live service model of current games because unsure if they have the capacity to handle continuous updates like that. They can still of course charge for cosmetics because that’s expected, but they might be better off not nickle and diming content like they did for infinite

[Vivir]

@BadNews

I think they’re better off not chasing the current GaaS trends. They’re most likely better off not chasing the live service model of current games because unsure if they have the capacity to handle continuous updates like that. They can still of course charge for cosmetics because that’s expected, but they might be better off not nickle and diming content like they did for infinite

Completely agree.

[Ironfistchinmi]

Agreed. Their previous games weren’t bad by any means, but they definitely could have done a better job when it comes to modes being undercooked or not ready for launch.

Anyway, the news has me hyped for the future and hopefully they can pull this off.

[KakkaKarrotKake]

@BadNews

Honestly, is the loud vocal Halo fans even that large?

No, not anymore

What made Halo huge wasn’t the hardcore fans, it was casuals that were basically discovering multiplayer and online for the first time, things like Halo 2 and 3 were mind blowing for them

Then those people started drifting over to CoD because it was the new hotness and now Fortnite and every other BR/multiplayer game in existence

The people that are hardcore about Halo are nowhere near as big as they seem to think they are and catering to them is going to get the franchise nowhere, they need to move on and try new things if they ever want the franchise to b a big player again

and I say this as someone who thinks Infinite’s MP is great but people need to accept that sometimes great isn’t enough

@Vivir

Arena shooters are just simply not fun enough. Especially slow ones like Halo. There’s no dopamine hit of unlocking weapons and leveling them up. There’s no huge sprawling maps. It’s just kind old as shit man lol. A boomer shooter.

Sounds harsh but I think you are right, I enjoy Infinite a lot but it does feel “boomer”, like it does little to appeal to the new gen/zoomer crowd and in 2024, that’s no bueno

[PowerDrift (Paul)]

Found Halo Intine to be the best entry in the Halo series yet. It was just so much of it took place in the same looking environments not enough variety with the landscapes/environments that was disappointing, just to break the game up a little.

Don’t get the hate this game gets sometimes.

[nrXic]

@KakkaKarrotKake

My other hot take is that Halo needs to get crazier with the characters/skins, in the era of Fortnite you can’t rely on MTX that consist of Spartan with some different colours here and there, they need Doomslayer spartans and other IP crossovers whether the old Halo fanbase likes it or not

I’m surprised there aren’t any “Halo-ized” skins of popular IP. I think people would appreciate that. For example, a Doomslayer skin where the armour fits exactly into the Halo universe but is unmistakeably the Doomslayer.

Also, why aren’t armour coatings borrowing from pop culture? Just as we saw the “Ironman” armour colours, why not the same for Superman? Spider-Man? Wolverine? They could get away with not paying a license because it’s paying a homage and it doesn’t have to be exact. They could pretty much do a Samus Aran coating and Nintendo couldn’t do anything about it, as litigious as they are.

So I’m surprised with the direction they went with for armour and their coatings. None of it interested me except for the few that allowed me to make my Cylon and Stormtrooper inspired armours.

Maybe this won’t appeal to Halo fans but the wider gaming audience might dig it.

[nrXic]

@nrXic

I’m surprised there aren’t any “Halo-ized” skins of popular IP. I think people would appreciate that. For example, a Doomslayer skin where the armour fits exactly into the Halo universe but is unmistakeably the Doomslayer.

I’m finally listening to the last half of the podcast and Nick makes this exact same point.

So yeah I’m hoping it’s that obvious and they veer towards that.

[Bleedorang3]

@Sikamikanico

A ‘feature complete’ Halo game I don’t feel is ever on the cards anymore. It’s too much to ask from such a relatively small team. They need to complete change what Halo is, fanbase be damned IMO.

Yep. Halo needs to shed its toxic fan base carefully too by separating SP and MP so people can’t try to poison the narrative with this “feature incomplete” shit (lmao at people even agreeing on what ‘feature complete’ means or give a reason why Halo Studios is supposed to ship 4-5 games in one and only charge $70 for it).

Friendly reminder that over on the competitors side they launched TLoU II ‘feature incomplete’ (“unfinished” if you really want to use framing to set a negative tone) by literally scrapping the entire multiplayer and NEVER finishing it. Critics and people didn’t seem to care at all.

[Bleedorang3]

@KakkaKarrotKake

Sounds harsh but I think you are right, I enjoy Infinite a lot but it does feel “boomer”, like it does little to appeal to the new gen/zoomer crowd and in 2024, that’s no bueno

I mean they made Halo 5 which was the definition of ‘Combat Evolved’ and had faster-paced gameplay. Y’all (and I mean Y’all as in the wider gaming audience and critics) shit on it for daring to call itself Halo. I’m convinced that if they had just called it something else and rid themselves of the INSANE expectations of a Halo game it would have blown up. It was legitimately an insanely good game. It also had an incredible, forward-thinking and FUN mode in Warzone too.

Idk. I think Halo 5 is actually what people want. It was just doomed by calling itself Halo and releasing exclusively on a very unpopular platform at the time (Xbox One).

[nrXic]

@Bleedorang3

I’m convinced that if they had just called it something else and rid themselves of the INSANE expectations of a Halo game it would have blown up. It was legitimately an insanely good game. It also had an incredible, forward-thinking and FUN mode in Warzone too.

Or even called it Halo: Something (like ODST) instead of using a number to denote it’s part of the mainline games.

I didn’t check out Halo 5 because I’m a primarily Halo LAN player that hosts 16 player LAN parties, and it didn’t have split screen multiplayer. But I’ve heard nothing but good things about Warzone to the point where I should probably check it out one of these days.