Halo Franchise is Dead!

[Halfblind]

Halo was once a staple and moment of happiness in my life. Now it is a monument and memory of the past. My favorite games were Halo CE: for story and nostalgia and Halo 3 and ODST for gameplay and presentation. Here is why I think the Halo franchise is dead.

 

1. Old News: Months ago, Microsoft laid off over 10k employees corporation wide. Many of these were part of their gaming division and rumor has it that over 60 employees were fired from 343 Industries alone. Many of these employees were part of the Halo series since it first started.
2. New News: Just recently, Sony laid off many employees at Bungie because of Destiny 2's poor performance. Many of these employees were key members of the original Halo series creative staff. I think they jumped the gun, because Bungie was not solely responsible for Destiny 2's low profits, because can anyone say Activision.
3. Cortana: Just a personal rant, but I hate what the franchise did to Cortana's character. Ever since Halo 1 they have been pushing her character further and further into the background. This trend continued into the 343's story line to where they turned her into the main villain in Halo 5. Then in Infinite they just wrote her out entirely by creating a new model to replace her. Eventually pushing her into obscurity. I always thought that Cortana should have been the constant companion to Master Chief. Just like Link and Navi but exponentially better. Despite everything Halo Infinite had a charming message of teamwork and not leaving anyone behind buried underneath the main plot. This seems ironic, because I think the Halo franchise as a whole is slowly being left behind.
4. Netflix: Should I even mention the deplorable debacle that is the Halo Netflix series?

 

In other news,

 

There is a mod for Halo 3: ODST called Halo 3: Combat Evolved that attempts to recreate the Halo CE's campaign into the ODST's engine. This mod looks way better than the Halo CE Anniversary release that 343 did in my opinion.

 

Also, there is rumors that Rockstar has finished pre-production to a new Midnight Club game using the UE5 engine instead of their in-house RAGE engine. I don't know how well that would go over, because of how much hype RDR2 has garnered and how much excitement everyone has for GTA6's future release.

[kaleb.]

21 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

Also, there is rumors that Rockstar has finished pre-production to a new Midnight Club game

god i sure fuckin hope so. i am currently replaying MC3 right now actually, so i'd absolutely love this.

[Edward850]

You seem to be cherry picking here and only focusing on negative elements. Halo Infinite has just had its most successful season yet with the release of Forge mode, which has been exceptionally well received.

Additionally;

29 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

Just recently, Sony laid off many employees at Bungie because of Destiny 2's poor performance. Many of these employees were key members of the original Halo series creative staff. I think they jumped the gun, because Bungie was not solely responsible for Destiny 2's low profits, because can anyone say Activision. 

You might want to actually read up on who was responsible for Destiny's design decisions and problems, because it certainly wasn't Activision.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Edward850

[Halfblind]

Thanks @Edward850 for the info. Maybe it's actually a good thing that most of the original Halo design team has been let go. Maybe they will get back together to form a new company and create games like they want without any strings attached. Maybe there is a silver lining to this whole story, because one could only hope. Like the story of the original founding members of Criterion games having a new game studio free of the pressures of EA. Maybe it is a good time to step away from the industry for a while. I know that after C19 everything has been a little chaotic, and everything just needs some time to settle down.

 

I do think that Infinite has a lot more potential than Halo 5 did, but upon initial release it wasn't well received by the general gaming community and critics. I just think the game needs a little bit more time in the oven to see where it can go. Honestly, I haven't played the game yet because I don't have a device able to play it. 

 

Also, Pixelopus games, who were under the Sony umbrella, were also dissolved back in June. So, it's not just Bungie or 343 getting the slip. It also seems that most industries are getting a major restructure this year, not just the gaming industry.

[DNSKILL5]

Rip in peace halo guy 

[LadyMistDragon]

Your catastrophizing comes off like every disillusioned nerd says about x franchise. What seems more accurate is that Halo has been slowly bleeding away its profitability over the years. But the term "dead" often gets used to describe something that has stagnated like the Halo franchise has arguably done, and that kind of misuse is always guaranteed to grind my gears :P)

[Mr. Freeze]

Destiny 2 proves that sometimes, you need executives to step in on product development. 

[Halfblind]

10 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

But the term "dead" often gets used to describe something that has stagnated like the Halo franchise has arguably done.

It got your attention didn't it. Like most YouTube vloggers using the word 'dead' when talking about a game franchise or genera. Or when they say that most modern video games suck. Using verbiage like this brings interest into the topic when it might actually be about something else entirely. The whole point and argument with this thread was about the layoffs at Microsoft, 343 Industries, and Bungie more and was less so about the slow 'death' or stagnation of the franchise as a whole. Halo could be still made by an entirely different team, like they always do, and still be considered a halo game.

[xScavengerWolfx]

As a long time Halo fan myself since i grew up with that game series. The word "dead" means they legit abandoned it and left it to rot away like a imp corpse after it got punched in the face.

 

Now i will weight in for those who never played the OG halo games (Halo CE - Halo: Reach) yes they we're made by Bungie (before they left it in the hands of 343 industries which i found out it's a sister company to bungie) once bungie made the first two Destiny games (Destiny 2 is a joke now), bungie turned the series over to there sister company 343.

 

Now is 343 industries a good company keeping the halo series alive?.... Not really, i mean there's a lot of videos on Youtube you can listen to about how 343 basically fucked the series over and now with infinite being bad with all it's dev hell it went through, i think they should've let Halo quietly pass away after Reach came out. 

 

For those that don't want to read all of this i will put it in simple terms: Bungie's halo series = *chef's kiss* Childhood right there. 343i Halo series = Bad and too much like CoD with the micro trans actions, the battle pass, the whole load of bullshit it came with.

[Aaron Blain]

I recently set up OG Xbox emulation on my Steam Deck and have been playing a bit of CE. That's all I ever want. I'll probably play Halo 2 at some point, but they fully jumped the shark after that IMO. The first two games have distinct and interesting enemies with unique silhouettes a la Doom. Once it started becoming all about brutes with different weapon loadouts, and we lost our interesting worthy adversary after elites started becoming sympathetic, I had no further interest in the series.

[Rudolph]

Halo: Combat Evolved has some of the worst level design I have seen in a mainstream game, yet that did not stop Halo from becoming Bungie's flagship franchise as well as one of the original Xbox's killer app. I am still not sure I understand what is supposed to be wrong with the newer entries (except for the introduction of microtransactions, of course), but I do not see the IP dying out anytime soon.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rudolph

[Mr Masker]

1 hour ago, Rudolph said:

Halo: Combat Evolved has some of the worst level design I have seen in a mainstream game, yet that did not stop Halo from becoming Bungie's flagship franchise as well as one of the original Xbox's killer app. I am still not sure I understand what is supposed to be wrong with the newer entries (except for the introduction of microtransactions, of course), but I do not see the IP dying out anytime soon.

This brought back some horrible memories of getting lost with my Brother in Halo CE. Was a LITERAL maze in Halo form, who tf approved of that?!

[Rudolph]

Now, to be fair, the segments taking place outside were generally cool, which is another thing that is so jarring about early Halo to me: usually, it should the opposite with those older games that have to work with all sorts of technical limitations! Somehow, after moving on from the Marathon Trilogy, Bungie lost the ability to design compelling levels set inside space ships and buildings...

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rudolph

[Lila Feuer]

It's kinda funny to think that Turok 2 and Halo 1 are only three years apart but have massive leaps in technology yet are still being bottlenecked by the hardware they're designed for so you get copy-paste style maze maps for indoor environments in relatively modern looking games for their time.

 

That's been one of the advantages of older graphics, I mean look what happened to Invisible War after the first Deus Ex and it's the same issue.

 

When you see this sort of design occur after the fact though on a PC game like Chaser for example, that's not cutting edge tech getting in the way...that's just laziness.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Lila Feuer

[xScavengerWolfx]

45 minutes ago, Lila Feuer said:

It's kinda funny to think that Turok 2 and Halo 1 are only three years apart

I wanted to mention that Halo 1 was the main reason why i wanted to make levels in video games, since i grew up when it first came out. As far as Turok 2 goes, i've only played the remastered version of it and some levels are cool but others.......yeah no.

 

Also they we're three years apart? Huh i did not know that.

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, Lila Feuer said:

It's kinda funny to think that Turok 2 and Halo 1 are only three years apart but have massive leaps in technology yet are still being bottlenecked by the hardware they're designed for so you get copy-paste style maze maps for indoor environments in relatively modern looking games for their time.

I do not recall Turok 2's level design being as egregious as Halo: CE's interior levels.

 

I do remember some later maps being confusing to navigate, but maze-like levels are to be expected in a Turok game.

 

1 hour ago, Lila Feuer said:

When you see this sort of design occur after the fact though on a PC game like Chaser for example, that's not cutting edge tech getting in the way...that's just laziness.

Yeah, but at least Chaser has the excuse of being a budget title that was never expected to take the gaming industry by storm.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rudolph

[Lila Feuer]

@Rudolph First three maps are good, which is only 50% of the game. The other half however tells me they blew their wad on detailing and had to substitute hard by making the other three maps relatively non-taxing design wise, so a subterranean society, a literal insect hive and a corridor ridden spaceship is very safe but also not fun to navigate at all.

[Rudolph]

10 minutes ago, Lila Feuer said:

@Rudolph First three maps are good, which is only 50% of the game. The other half however tells me they blew their wad on detailing and had to substitute hard by making the other three maps relatively non-taxing design wise, so a subterranean society, a literal insect hive and a corridor ridden spaceship is very safe but also not fun to navigate at all.

Sure, but if memory serves, they were not the same ugly rooms and corridors being copy-pasted over and over again.

 

More importantly, Iguana wisely chose not to open their game with such kind of level. When I tried giving Halo: Master Chief Collection a shot during a free weekend, I was so shocked by how bad the Pillar of Autumn level was that I gave up on the game altogether. I have no idea how I was able to power through it the first time when I played the original PC port.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Rudolph

[Doominator2]

On 11/18/2023 at 4:50 PM, Mr. Freeze said:

Destiny 2 proves that sometimes, you need executives to step in on product development. 

What do you mean?

[INfront95]

Quote

Halo Franchise is Dead!

 

[Faceman2000]

3 hours ago, Mr Masker said:

This brought back some horrible memories of getting lost with my Brother in Halo CE. Was a LITERAL maze in Halo form, who tf approved of that?!

Yeah who would ever play a mazey FPS?

 

*Checks forum name*
 

Oh.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Rudolph]

59 minutes ago, Faceman2000 said:

Yeah who would ever play a mazey FPS?

 

*Checks forum name*
 

Oh.

Honestly, given how flat and repetitive Halo's Pillar of Autumn level is, I think a more apt comparison would be Wolfenstein 3D.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

The level design in Halo CE is so bad it killed my interest in the series for years.

[EPICALLL]

As someone who's favourite game ever created is Halo 3, it's been quite sad seeing the franchise slowly chipped away over the years. Even as a little kid, at the mere age of eight years old, when I heard about the release of Halo 5, I shouted aloud "Why are they still going? Wasn't three enough?" I didn't get around to playing Halo 5 until 2019, and I just hated the whole experience through and through. I felt that everything they did to make the game more eventful just ended up sidelining the Chief. I mean, seriously... He does practically nothing the entire game. And this was coming off the back of Halo 4, the game of which's entire goal was to centralize the narrative around the Chief, breaking down his character and developing it... Which only makes it even more polarizing to go from perhaps the most character-focused halo game to the least. And then, in 2021, Infinite released. I was super excited, I booted up the campaign and... Two years later, I just still can't bring myself to finish it. I feel the seamless transitions between the missions are probably the biggest offender. The Semi-Open world aspect is cool and all, but... With every mission seeming to just transition immediately into the other, no time skips, hardly any cutscenes, just... It's so dull, which is a shame because I feel like this is easily the most interesting concept for a game in the halo series, stripping everything back to the bare essentials, and focusing almost entirely on character conflict and development. However, I feel like it's lost it's edge... I haven't touched the campaign in a year (and I swear to god if you spoil the rest of it for me...) I really want to get back to it, but it's just... I can't bring myself to do it. Halo has overstayed it's welcome, and while it's definitely been battered and beaten a whole lot less than some other franchises, it's still just a shell of it's former self. For the sake of the fans and what little enticing things there are about the franchise... Please just let Halo rest.

[Rudolph]

Given how Activision has been rebooting/remaking Call of Duty Modern Warfare lately, I would not be surprised if Halo gets rebooted as well.

[nathanB404]

Rip halo 1995-2043 

 

 

Definitely was one of the games of time