Sooooo…. How we feelin’?
I think the biggest issue or me is that they just gutted the team for Infinite like a year after it dropped. I don’t quite understand why the game failed to keep a larger player base, but maybe I am just in a bubble for that. The game was flawed, but they really did their best to make it what it should have been at launch (at least on the MP side, SP still missing local co-op sucks). I don’t know what the answer is for Halo, but this game doesn’t feel like it is it for me so far.
I don’t know how a casual multiplayer game is supposed to keep a playerbase over time anymore - but I do know this wasn’t a deal-breaking problem when the games’ primary objectives weren’t doing that in the first place.
So a game that eschews multiplayer expectations altogether could be a nice change of pace.
Also local 2-player co-op is back!
My issue with remakes like this is the lack of… what’s a phrase I’m trying to convey… story creation.?.?.? It almost feels like an easy button because the challenge of trying to create a cohesive singleplayer story that works with what’s possible with the technology is already done. Ex: You can find developer commentary talking about how The Library was supposed to be open to the middle so you could see the center of the space from top to bottom. But the developers ran into performance issues and had to block it off. That’s part of the reason the mission feels so repetitive. You can also watch the Double Fine documentaries and realize they don’t have they don’t have a full idea of the game until way into the development process. Okay, Double Fine may be a bad example, but I hope you get the idea I’m trying to say. The team at Halo Studios already have “a script.” They know what’s to happen with the story, and so it’s “painting by numbers.” I know. Development isn’t that easy. There are thousands of hours involved in getting a game like Halo recreated. But come on. Let’s not rehash the same game for the 3rd time (X360, MCC, now).
Please remake promising games that had issues, especially technical issues, over “known successful" games. I’d take a second attempt at Aliens: Colonial Marines over Halo: CE, like please make changes, nowhere to go but up lol. Or untangle legal messes like with No one lives Forever, there’s probably some publishing conflicts that got resolved by MS owning both the devs and publishers.
If I was rich, I’d spend big to greenlight a Heavenly Sword remake that had zero performance issues.
Hopefully it’s good, but I’m pretty sure we all have VERY low expectations.
I’d say my expectations are mid to high. I expect it to be a fun new twist on CE with nice graphics. My biggest concern is the typical UE issues.
DF was pretty reasonable and balanced about it:
Bit late to this discussion, but I actually hope they decide to make more changes to the game. I don’t want just another graphical face lift considering that’s pretty much all Halo: CEA was. Given they’re already working with a bunch of the old infrastructure from Reach it’d be nice to see them work with the canon of that and implement what they can from its armory and enemies. We’ve already seen that they’re dropping the magazine capacity down to 32 rounds and it even looks like it’s using the same crosshair and bloom as the MA37 from Reach so why not just update that model and put it in as a 32 round varient? No reason there couldn’t be older model ARs lying around. Canonically too, the Covenant had all the “new” weapons in Reach prior to CE so it’d make sense that they would now appear in a new adaptation of the campaign; same with enemies like Skirmishers. Don’t think they need to bring in armor abilities though, Noble Team had a newer generation armor so it makes sense that they have some gadgets Master Chief doesn’t at the time.
I’m going to withhold judgment for now though. Not a big fan of how UE5 games look, but hopefully they’ll clean it up more before release. Big thing for me is going to be how they price this. Given it’s only the campaign, if this is more of a remaster than a remake/adaptation then they’d better not be trying to price this at $70.
Yeah I’m definitely a fan of going FURTHER with the changes.
Fix The Library. Blend in the missing old stuff. Give us Brutes and the missing enemies. Clean up some of the pacing. Go all-in.
Curious if anyone’s thoughts have changed about this game now that Halo Studios is supposedly doubling down on the use of generative AI, and their new chief of staff is the founder of an AI consultation firm. As far as I’m aware it’s just speculation from an insider, but given they’re under Microsoft it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true.
I can get past them using UE5, if they work on the art style a bit more, but if the claims about generative AI usage turn out to be true then that’s going to be a deal breaker for me.
Very nervous about the GenAI claims - but also literally every major corporation on the planet is fluffing up claims of AI use in order to bait more investment since investors are only going for AI things at the moment.
Hopefully we’ll find out more closer to release. If it is true I have a feeling they won’t be trying to hide it for exactly that reason. For now though all I’ve seen is speculation from second-hand sources, so it could go either way.