This is a list of links to comments made by 343 Industries employees in this thread:
* [Comment by Haruspis](/r/halo/comments/ynucza/halo_4_tenth_anniversary/ivaswqv/?context=1000 "posted on 2022-11-06 16:37:01 UTC"):
> Will have been at the studio for a year as of the end of this month. Living *every* day with the wide-eyed awe and enthusiasm I had on day one :P
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Its great were getting Theater Support and new skulls for Halo 4 but one of the things that could really accompany Theater for the Campaign and Spartan Ops is adding in Campaign Matchmaking and Spartan Ops Matchmaking (which is actually a LEGACY mode in the Xbox 360 Version that still needs to return) into the MCC, so you can really justify using Theater with looking up your matchmade missions you played on and re-watching the content! I have been begging for this for the last 4-5 years now (and longer than that when Spartan Ops was brought to MCC originally back in 2015). For Campaign Matchmaking specifically, we really need this for the other Halo games too (Halo Reach, CEA, 2A, 3 and ODST) and upgrading CEA and 2A's Campaigns to support 3-4 player coop. I can guarantee this will be really fun in the MCC now if this were brought back....
Halo 4's issues feel like a result of the "it had to be different" attitude in all of these quotes. I love the game quite a bit for its own merits, but I think they were too close to things to see that they had strayed too far.
Yeah I think this philosophy sort of bit them in the ass and they are still feeling the effects of those decisions over a decade later, because they basically created two subsets of the fanbase that they have to cater to. That said, Halo 4 was still a complete Halo game in my eyes and I had a lot of fun with it, even the multiplayer.
The main issue in my opinion is the audacity to change things - as if 343 knew what was best - and evidently they were wrong about it.
Every change they made in halo 4 was, in one way or another, undone in a subsequent game.
They did not know better and it was a colossal display of arrogance when ultimately, The decision making was done by some talentless hack higher up in management who probably thought themselves a genius because they suggested "copy killstreaks and loadouts lol"
Happened with 5 too where they still were too different and then it all got undone in infinite. I have said it elsewhere but I feel bad for people that liked the gameplay of 5 more and then they get thrown into infinite. If 343 didn't carry the mantle of halo they could have made their own multiplayer IP with the systems they wanted and built on them because now there is no experience like Halo 5 out there. I say this as someone that did not enjoy either game for their differences.
You hit the nail on the head.
Halo 4 and 5 *WERE* good games, they were great in some aspects - But they weren't good Halo games - At all, They completely missed the mark on what halo was. And that's where you see this whole meme of "Hated it then, love it now" thing. Everyone realises that for the most part, they were decent games - but they're not what you go for when you think halo.
Imagine if a new Counter Strike game came out and they made it like Overwatch where you had "heroes" with special abilities and set weapons.
Cool - But it's not fucking counter strike then is it? So why did you do that?
Halo is - In a nutshell - A sandbox game, it's a game where you have your spartan and the game can be as fun or serious as you want to make it. The physics are finely tuned to let insane fun shit happen, but the weapon balance is comprehensive enough for the game to be taken seriously too - Features like Forge and Custom games were always a focus because they complimented both.
Halo 4 and 5 saw Forge as nothing more than a means to crowdsource map development.
> Every change they made in halo 4 was, in one way or another, undone in a subsequent game.
Inherent sprint wasn't undone, but I think it's much better implemented in Infinite.
Also getting rid of the plasma rifle hasn't been undone :(
It’s easy to think they were just being flippant about it from the outside, but I don’t think these quotes in this article detail that attitude at all. I think it’s a team who realized they had a game property on their hands with a massive fan base and following and they were terrified of fucking that up. But they were the ones in the trenches who had to make the decisions. They were the ones with the vision for the game. It’s easy for us as fans to see from the outside that Halo 4 wasn’t all that it could have been, but when you’re making decisions on how to develop it day to day, you have to decide if certain things fit with your team’s vision for the game, or if they need to be altered however.
Basically, I wouldn’t dispute that 343 flew too close to the sun in “making the game their own”, but I just hate this interpretation of events that 343 was petty and mandated every detail be different from the Bungie games just to show the world that they were better. I don’t think that was the case.
Also, I should note OP that I don’t think *you* are one of the people saying 343 was petty, but your comment comes close to that interpretation without directly stepping in it, so
Without a doubt I think they had the best intentions. I can really see where they are all coming from in these quotes. It's a lot easier to see these kinds of things as an outsider. When your in the thick of creation it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.
Yep, there are always prevailing voices in fandoms like this that think the new developers are secretly malicious and want to destroy what they hold dear.
When you spell it out like that, it's laughable.
It's great to see that Bandana skull is coming soon, I really hated the ammo scarcity in Halo 4, especially when you had bullet sponge enemies like the Promethean Knights and the Drones who would just fly away as soon as you started to shoot them, it was really a pain in the ass and something that prevents me from playing the game again.
Bandana will finally allow me to run through the story with UNSC weapons only and not have to scavenge for a Light rifle, Scattershot, or Binary Rifle in order to get through it. I never understood the thought behind reducing the ammo capacity.
> Now… as my son and I are about to dive into Halo 4, this piece particularly is poignant, because unknown (I think…) to all at 343 at the time, Claire and I weren’t simply collaborating in a musical sense, but our shared love for music… music being what had brought us together… had become a love for each other too, and so, our son was and is, quite literally… a child of Halo 4.
Such a wholesome ending.
Halo 4's soundtrack really grew on me, to the point I would consider it one of the best OSTs in the series. Reading Neil's piece and how they made the song 'Revival' made me appreciate it so much more.
Sometimes I think about how u/Haruspis is living his best life
- Working at 343, and contributing to the Halo universe
- Writing short stories
- Didact returning
- Halo 4 campaign theater
Man, Halo 4 was a really fun game, I liked it a lot. Hopefully those missing stances can make their way to the MCC at some point, now that stances have been added back in. (And also the ability to use multiplayer weapon skins in the campaign, it that functionality hasn't been added already)
>First of all, mod tools. We’ve been gradually providing mod support for each successive title, and Halo 4 is next on that list. As ever, we can’t wait to see what this enables folks to alter and create!
>We’ll also be implementing new skulls to the game, namely Acrophobia and Bandana, along with golden moa collectibles in the campaign and some legacy multiplayer perks that haven’t yet come to MCC.
>We’re looking to get Theater mode operational for both the Halo 4 Campaign and Spartan Ops for all players!
>So, when will these things be coming? Some are due to arrive later this month with the November MCC content update, while others are a little further down the road. Stay tuned for further information!
W
The emotional beats in Halo 4's story is something that the series has never come close to reaching since, in my opinion.
For me, Halo 4 was the first mainline game whose launch I got to be apart of. Reach was my first game, and I had played most of the Bungie Halo's a few times with my older cousin, but for 12 year old me, Halo 4 was an insane ride.
I delved into the entire Halo lore that existed by 2012, watched as many Halo hype vids as I could (hello Halo4Follower), avoided spoilers somehow, and when Christmas came, I finally got to step into the boots of the Master Chief on my own.
I have so many memories playing Halo 4 with my friends, 1v1ing on Haven, completing Legendary solo in order to unlock the Mark 6 helmet and visor, running co op and Spartan ops with my best friend, forging on Ravine and playing Customs... for me, it was amazing.
Halo 4's ending, leaving Cortana dead and Master Chief finally questioning himself, alone... the series' writing peaked here for me.
It's the video game that got me interested in writing.
Now, 10 years later, I am in Ireland studying my masters in media, still chasing the dream to make something that affects me as much as Cortana and John's goodbye scene affected 12 year old me.
**Thank you Halo 4**, for being the thing that brought me so much joy and cemented my love for such a beautiful - fictional - universe.
And thank you to everyone who worked on it, for making something so bold and passionate.
> The emotional beats in Halo 4's story is something that the series has never come close to reaching since, in my opinion.
Its pretty true. Halo CE-3 didn't give Chief emotions by design, they wanted it that way. When 343 took over with 4 they wanted to humanize him with emotions and they definitely did that.
The most hurtful thing they could do to Chief at the time was what they did to Cortana, they didn't really mess with much else that could cause an emotional response. 5 probably could have done it too but they delivered a weird story with a gap in marketing that misled people. Infinite reigned itself in a bit its still there just not as intense. 343's character stories don't really do it for me personally as I liked the bigger event style the earlier games had but I can see why people enjoy them.
man i feel you, i was 9 when halo 4 came out, i still remember my mom picking me up from school and taking me to the store to buy it. shit, i remember we ate burgers that day but i just ate half of it due to the excitement of getting to play it already lol. it was the second halo release i got to be a part of, and for me at the time the game just did everything i wanted to, ten years later i see some of its faults and misses but i mean all halo games have theirs of their own right? yeah the art style transition was pretty much inexistent, the introduction of the storm covenant wasn’t put in the main story, the prologue wasn’t canon correct in some parts, chief was talkative right away, and so many other things that could’ve been improved. i was just playing yesterday and i was like fuck, i hope mod support comes soon so someone can make a more fluid art style transition, have master chief wear the old halo 3 armor in early missions and by reclaimer have him get the new suit after he reaches the infinity, have the elites and covenant be the old art style to have some familiarity but let requiem and the prometheans remain as is, etc. i remember the ending at the time got me so intrigued as to what would happen next, and when halo 5 got announced i was dying to know what the story would follow up with and while we know it didn’t lead up to much i still try not to think much about it. though yeah lmao i pretty much always wonder what it could’ve been had halo 5 followed what halo 4 set up, and while infinite is a decent return to form, i think you pretty much said it, halo 4’s emotional beats were at its peak right there and then, i still like infinite but i mean it doesn’t come close in my opinion. i think this comment is getting awfully long lol but to tie things up all i can say i same bro, thank you halo 4 for making me all excited for a halo game and delivering as a kid, for having a heartwarming story, awesome cutscenes, and a beautiful and intriguing ending, here’s hoping what comes after in the franchise can have the same amount of narrative weight as halo 4 and all the past entries did for me.
So just for clarity. The didact "died" in 4 but then actually died in a comic strip or book somewhere unceremoniously. Then now they are bringing him back because they figure they can use him? I know there will probably be some writing lore wise that justifies it but I just want to make sure I understand this. I also am guessing that if we ever get ODST 2 we will just get a new guy under the rookie title since it wasn't so much a name as it was a rank. Just undoing their own damage which is funny since that is the kinda standard I feel used to seeing for the story.
He was supposedly immune to the composer so they hit him with I believe 6 composers at once which led him to being composed and ending up in the domain.We'll know more when the book comes out
4 is weird in that i didn’t like the story, the art style, loadouts and the other changes.
But man i wrecked tf outta people in halo 4 mp in a way that i never have since.
Halo 4 will always be one of my favorite Halo games, despite it’s issues. Maybe it was just the timing of when it came out, but I played it a ton back in the day and I still try to play it where I can on MCC, bit harder to find matches these days but nor impossible. Super happy to see we’ll be getting the missing perks and more skulls. Acrophobia on Shutdown will be fun
That's absolutely correct! And 343i learned nothing from what fans didn't like about Reach. Instead they decided to lean further into those divisive mechanics for it to plunge the multiplayer population within 3 months. Why do think Halo 5 brought back equal starts? It was a stark contrast to the cod rip off that H4 was. So basically 343i just made things even worse.
I disagree. Halo was guaranteed to die the moment people stopped caring about arena shooters. Halo is part of a dead genre. It was inevitable it would die. Copying and pasting Halo 3 wouldn't change that.
You can disagree but you'd be wrong. Copying and pasting Halo 3? What a fallacy. The series literally peaked right there. Not only that but who says that having another Halo 3 would be what changes that? You're not thinking enough. It's why you don't understand why Halo failed and how it could've succeeded. Both Bungie and 343i alienated their core fanbase. Halo Reach and Halo 4 are not halo titles. They fundamentally do not meet the requirements to be considered a halo game. They chased the modern trends of the day popularized by call of duty and that caused a division from within the fanbase. Nearly every franchise has fallen victim to alienating their core fanbase in an attempt to make it more "accessible" to a wider range of audience. This always fails and they wonder why lol
You know who didn't alienate their fanbase? From Software with Elden Ring. They made a game just for their fans and it worked wonders for them. Fans remain happy and loyal. They are only preparing themselves for From Software's next latest and greatest. Anyone here excited for what Infinite has to offer? Lol
Yeah 343i has had such great success with Halo over 10 years. Got such a bright future ahead of them there's no division, releasing fully featured games just like in 2007 and 2011. We don't have to pay for colors. Man we got it so good! Halo Infinite was a massive success! Put the franchise back on the map!
How is it wrong? Infinite is a free game and has extremely low steam numbers and can't even crack the top 20 most played xbox games.The launch was a disaster and the game Still needs a shit load of work.Stop ignoring their faults
Infinite had a disastrous launch, obviously, and needs a lot of improvements.
My problem is with the blind nostalgia goggles worn by so many Halo fans that boils down to "everything was better in my childhood therefore everything since then sucks".
It's not even nostalgia. That's not an argument. Those older games were built with passion, were fully featured, fun games. Now we get broken scraps for so many franchises gone down the tubes.
>My problem is with the blind nostalgia goggles worn by so many Halo fans that boils down to "everything was better in my childhood therefore everything since then sucks".
Word to the wise, stay off subreddits devoted to these kinds of franchises.
If this upsets you *now*... people are immovable when it comes to their childhood properties.
Because arena shooters are a dead genre. People aren't interested in playing them anymore. It was obvious even before Infinite launched that people would drop off fast. It's exactly what happened with MCC. It's just like RTS games, they've lost their popularity.
MCC was in great condition when it released on the PC, and it went from a massive population to just a few thousand in a couple of months. Once the nostalgia wore off people stopped playing.
It was not nostalgia wearing off.You can't just brush off the massive problems it had for alot of people and then say nostalgia wearing off is the reason people left.The game wasn't fixed for 3 AND A HALF YEARS
I can still remember being in high school seeing the trailers and then being out at a sports dinner when the game came out. I can remember because it was also Election Day! I remember running inside afterward just so I could get an hour of play time on the campaign and multiplayer and loving every second of it.
Finally, a new Halo with Master Chief. The new armor abilities and Chief’s kickass new suit. 3 Forge maps?! And actual BTB maps that weren’t Invasion maps? It was insane.
Then on top of it Dominion, essentially Battlefield but Halo? I never felt the love for Halo 3 that a lot of people on here do, but I sure as hell understand it. Because Halo 4 brought that out for me.
I unironically love Halo 4. For a first attempt so late in the game for 360, I thought they did an incredible job in making Halo without being “safe” like Guitar Hero 3 or Gears 4 were when those series switched developers.
Back then, I reviewed games for an Xbox fan site that no longer exists. Getting the game early for review, beating the game then going to the cinema and seeing a trailer for the game in a room full of people was weird. I remember thinking “I’m the only person here who has played this game”. It wasn’t my first or only early access game but it was very special to me. Working on the review for almost a week then making sure that I could wake up during the (UK) night to launch the review page and post on social media to try and make sure Xbox/343 could hopefully retweet the review for extra traffic. Very tiring but it was such an exciting time.
It will always be special to me and I still enjoy it on MCC. For a 360 game, the technical achievement is still extremely impressive.
It was a sign of the bad to come. Changing everything for the sake of change. Changing the art for no reason leaving people confused, more linear level design with less open areas, AI intelligence regression, taking elements from Call of Duty, making a new generic robot faction that are boring to fight, the need for multimedia consumption to understand anything, removing the sandbox design in favour of redundant weapons, removing fan favourite features for their own “uniqueness”, the first push for a “wider audience”, etc
Halos fall from grace can be traced back here. Everything wrong with the franchise going forward is in halo 4. They took a franchise made out of a passion for the industry and corporatized it when the creators outgrew the passion for their creation. Every release has been a significant decline in quality.
He's still not wrong though because 343i learned nothing from Bungie's mistakes with Reach at least not until H5 where they at least brought back equal starts. Game was still abysmal tho
Changing the name of armor abilities to spartan abilities essentially giving everyone like 6 abilities at once and making it even worse then halo 4 was imo
Yeah spartan abilities were unnecessary along with sprint. That's what made it worse. The only thing they got right was that everyone was on an equal playing field. They still haven't learned with Infinite.
Not as bad and that was a spin off by a company that was over making halo games.You can get away with stuff like that in spin offs but not mainline games
The only thing reach did was add the load outs which no one liked but they were far more balanced than 343s approach allowing you to make your own. The damn bolt shot ruined the multiplayer. Everyone had a pocket shotgun.
Reach didn’t waver in the campaign. It had really large open sections as well as a well rounded sandbox. If they removed something, it was replaced with another unique item. They didn’t on out all the time but knowing bungie, had they made halo 4 they wouldn’t have continued it if players didn’t like it.
343 didn’t learn from the mistake. They made them worse. The armor abilities, they made part of the standard movement.
Reaches art also fits very well with the previous titles. Halo 4 did not.
I knew what was in store back then. I was railing against 343i back then and still am. I knew they were wrong for Halo back in 2012 before H4 even came out. I was unfortunately right especially after each title they put out including MCC. Never felt worse being vindicated because it meant the death of the Halo franchise.
I am pretty stoked to see that H4 is getting theater mode for campaign and spartan ops. As well as some of those perks. They should allow you to change your loadout during a match at the pause menu like the original game did. I hate H4 with a passion but it needs to be on par with the 360 version just like all other games in the collection.
Nah that would make no sense. Halo 3 anniversary is a lame move. H3 doesn't need one at all. And don't even start with the bad human faces as justification for it. HCEA and H2 Anniversary were terrible bastardizations of the original artstyle, soundtrack composition, and cutscene cinematography.
Cutscenes were way better for h2a.I started with halo 1 back in the day and I don't get the hate for halo cea at all.Might want to look up what bastardization really means.
I personally can't stand the H2A cutscenes. There's a complete disconnect from the gameplay. No longer is there seamless music and transitions. Instead, we get constant fade to blacks and loading screens.
The cutscenes for H2A were even worse due to the trimming of the time because they were trying to save money on rendering which is expensive. The cinematography is also vastly inferior to the original.The sounds they use are also just generic sci-fi versions of the iconic halo sounds. You might want to take your own advice because I'm using it correctly. Everything about H2A is inferior to the original.
Might want to look at this because you are unable to see why HCEA is so terrible on your own.
https://youtu.be/MyeCb99cb2Q
10 years?! Hard to believe. I remember the launch so well.
It’s a really good game. Not the best Halo, but arguably the most interesting and unique franchise installment for a variety of reasons (new studio, different art style, focus on a more intimate story, etc). It’s a beautiful game in many ways. Perfect, nah. No game is. But it felt like a very confident and bold swing
Halo 4 isn't a bad game, I respect it for at least trying some new ideas to try and push the franchise in a new direction at the time. It's still a fun ride and a decent shooter even though it didn't quite hit that halo 'feel' for me back then.
That said, the parts that let it down for me were the limiting, changing or removal of fan favourite features and storylines that were proven successful in previous Halo games, which is sadly the trend that 343i has continued throughout their time as a studio, even between their own titles.
I was happy to let the Bungie and 343i era's of Halo be their own thing and was curious at the time of 4 to see where they would go with their so-called 'reclaimer trilogy', but all of 343i's releases since have felt far too disconnected from each other as a series of games to feel cohesive as part of the same franchise.
In the 343i's own era, and not considering the legacy of the franchise they continued, they have still slipped and faltered by their own standards of quality over time, and that's a shame. I respect that there were hardworking efforts put in by the people that work at 343i's on the individual aspects of these games, but as a whole, the vision for what Halo is and could be has been wildly unclear for the last decade.
Incredible. Halo 4 will always have a very special place in my heart. I’ve been into Halo since around 2002, and I was so excited to play as Master Chief, again. The hype was real.
At the time of release, I was in the middle of college. I literally cannot believe it’s been 10 years. Feels like so long ago but also a blink- it’s wild
10 years… so much has happened, since
>It was an effort fueled by a pure love for the Halo games and universe
Well I guess they didn't like the art direction... And the music... And the lore (Forerunners are ancient Humanity)...
This is a list of links to comments made by 343 Industries employees in this thread: * [Comment by Haruspis](/r/halo/comments/ynucza/halo_4_tenth_anniversary/ivaswqv/?context=1000 "posted on 2022-11-06 16:37:01 UTC"): > Will have been at the studio for a year as of the end of this month. Living *every* day with the wide-eyed awe and enthusiasm I had on day one :P --- This is a bot providing a service. If you have any questions, please [contact the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fhalo).[](#AUTOGEN_TSBREPLIEDBOT)
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What's bump possession?
Was a debug tool on Halo CE for PC back in the day. Lets the player take over control of any NPC on contact.
Yes!! I remember this, so fun.
Its great were getting Theater Support and new skulls for Halo 4 but one of the things that could really accompany Theater for the Campaign and Spartan Ops is adding in Campaign Matchmaking and Spartan Ops Matchmaking (which is actually a LEGACY mode in the Xbox 360 Version that still needs to return) into the MCC, so you can really justify using Theater with looking up your matchmade missions you played on and re-watching the content! I have been begging for this for the last 4-5 years now (and longer than that when Spartan Ops was brought to MCC originally back in 2015). For Campaign Matchmaking specifically, we really need this for the other Halo games too (Halo Reach, CEA, 2A, 3 and ODST) and upgrading CEA and 2A's Campaigns to support 3-4 player coop. I can guarantee this will be really fun in the MCC now if this were brought back....
And scoring/medals.
If you're gonna go back to Halo 4 and do some tweaks why not fix the despawning weapons/vehicles in Campaign/Spartan Ops?
Halo 4's issues feel like a result of the "it had to be different" attitude in all of these quotes. I love the game quite a bit for its own merits, but I think they were too close to things to see that they had strayed too far.
Yeah I think this philosophy sort of bit them in the ass and they are still feeling the effects of those decisions over a decade later, because they basically created two subsets of the fanbase that they have to cater to. That said, Halo 4 was still a complete Halo game in my eyes and I had a lot of fun with it, even the multiplayer.
The main issue in my opinion is the audacity to change things - as if 343 knew what was best - and evidently they were wrong about it. Every change they made in halo 4 was, in one way or another, undone in a subsequent game. They did not know better and it was a colossal display of arrogance when ultimately, The decision making was done by some talentless hack higher up in management who probably thought themselves a genius because they suggested "copy killstreaks and loadouts lol"
Happened with 5 too where they still were too different and then it all got undone in infinite. I have said it elsewhere but I feel bad for people that liked the gameplay of 5 more and then they get thrown into infinite. If 343 didn't carry the mantle of halo they could have made their own multiplayer IP with the systems they wanted and built on them because now there is no experience like Halo 5 out there. I say this as someone that did not enjoy either game for their differences.
You hit the nail on the head. Halo 4 and 5 *WERE* good games, they were great in some aspects - But they weren't good Halo games - At all, They completely missed the mark on what halo was. And that's where you see this whole meme of "Hated it then, love it now" thing. Everyone realises that for the most part, they were decent games - but they're not what you go for when you think halo. Imagine if a new Counter Strike game came out and they made it like Overwatch where you had "heroes" with special abilities and set weapons. Cool - But it's not fucking counter strike then is it? So why did you do that? Halo is - In a nutshell - A sandbox game, it's a game where you have your spartan and the game can be as fun or serious as you want to make it. The physics are finely tuned to let insane fun shit happen, but the weapon balance is comprehensive enough for the game to be taken seriously too - Features like Forge and Custom games were always a focus because they complimented both. Halo 4 and 5 saw Forge as nothing more than a means to crowdsource map development.
> Every change they made in halo 4 was, in one way or another, undone in a subsequent game. Inherent sprint wasn't undone, but I think it's much better implemented in Infinite. Also getting rid of the plasma rifle hasn't been undone :(
The Call of Duty style multiplayer was atrocious.
no
It’s easy to think they were just being flippant about it from the outside, but I don’t think these quotes in this article detail that attitude at all. I think it’s a team who realized they had a game property on their hands with a massive fan base and following and they were terrified of fucking that up. But they were the ones in the trenches who had to make the decisions. They were the ones with the vision for the game. It’s easy for us as fans to see from the outside that Halo 4 wasn’t all that it could have been, but when you’re making decisions on how to develop it day to day, you have to decide if certain things fit with your team’s vision for the game, or if they need to be altered however. Basically, I wouldn’t dispute that 343 flew too close to the sun in “making the game their own”, but I just hate this interpretation of events that 343 was petty and mandated every detail be different from the Bungie games just to show the world that they were better. I don’t think that was the case. Also, I should note OP that I don’t think *you* are one of the people saying 343 was petty, but your comment comes close to that interpretation without directly stepping in it, so
Without a doubt I think they had the best intentions. I can really see where they are all coming from in these quotes. It's a lot easier to see these kinds of things as an outsider. When your in the thick of creation it can be hard to see the forest for the trees.
Yep, there are always prevailing voices in fandoms like this that think the new developers are secretly malicious and want to destroy what they hold dear. When you spell it out like that, it's laughable.
It's great to see that Bandana skull is coming soon, I really hated the ammo scarcity in Halo 4, especially when you had bullet sponge enemies like the Promethean Knights and the Drones who would just fly away as soon as you started to shoot them, it was really a pain in the ass and something that prevents me from playing the game again.
Bandana will finally allow me to run through the story with UNSC weapons only and not have to scavenge for a Light rifle, Scattershot, or Binary Rifle in order to get through it. I never understood the thought behind reducing the ammo capacity.
I really like it, makes you use a bunch of different weapons instead of gravitating to your favorite
Still no mention of when black techsuits will be coming to *Halo 4?* For shame.
> Now… as my son and I are about to dive into Halo 4, this piece particularly is poignant, because unknown (I think…) to all at 343 at the time, Claire and I weren’t simply collaborating in a musical sense, but our shared love for music… music being what had brought us together… had become a love for each other too, and so, our son was and is, quite literally… a child of Halo 4. Such a wholesome ending. Halo 4's soundtrack really grew on me, to the point I would consider it one of the best OSTs in the series. Reading Neil's piece and how they made the song 'Revival' made me appreciate it so much more.
Sometimes I think about how u/Haruspis is living his best life - Working at 343, and contributing to the Halo universe - Writing short stories - Didact returning - Halo 4 campaign theater
Will have been at the studio for a year as of the end of this month. Living *every* day with the wide-eyed awe and enthusiasm I had on day one :P
As someone with the ability to make things canon, what’s your favorite *non-canon* theory or idea you have about Halo?
Man, Halo 4 was a really fun game, I liked it a lot. Hopefully those missing stances can make their way to the MCC at some point, now that stances have been added back in. (And also the ability to use multiplayer weapon skins in the campaign, it that functionality hasn't been added already)
>First of all, mod tools. We’ve been gradually providing mod support for each successive title, and Halo 4 is next on that list. As ever, we can’t wait to see what this enables folks to alter and create! >We’ll also be implementing new skulls to the game, namely Acrophobia and Bandana, along with golden moa collectibles in the campaign and some legacy multiplayer perks that haven’t yet come to MCC. >We’re looking to get Theater mode operational for both the Halo 4 Campaign and Spartan Ops for all players! >So, when will these things be coming? Some are due to arrive later this month with the November MCC content update, while others are a little further down the road. Stay tuned for further information! W
The emotional beats in Halo 4's story is something that the series has never come close to reaching since, in my opinion. For me, Halo 4 was the first mainline game whose launch I got to be apart of. Reach was my first game, and I had played most of the Bungie Halo's a few times with my older cousin, but for 12 year old me, Halo 4 was an insane ride. I delved into the entire Halo lore that existed by 2012, watched as many Halo hype vids as I could (hello Halo4Follower), avoided spoilers somehow, and when Christmas came, I finally got to step into the boots of the Master Chief on my own. I have so many memories playing Halo 4 with my friends, 1v1ing on Haven, completing Legendary solo in order to unlock the Mark 6 helmet and visor, running co op and Spartan ops with my best friend, forging on Ravine and playing Customs... for me, it was amazing. Halo 4's ending, leaving Cortana dead and Master Chief finally questioning himself, alone... the series' writing peaked here for me. It's the video game that got me interested in writing. Now, 10 years later, I am in Ireland studying my masters in media, still chasing the dream to make something that affects me as much as Cortana and John's goodbye scene affected 12 year old me. **Thank you Halo 4**, for being the thing that brought me so much joy and cemented my love for such a beautiful - fictional - universe. And thank you to everyone who worked on it, for making something so bold and passionate.
> The emotional beats in Halo 4's story is something that the series has never come close to reaching since, in my opinion. Its pretty true. Halo CE-3 didn't give Chief emotions by design, they wanted it that way. When 343 took over with 4 they wanted to humanize him with emotions and they definitely did that. The most hurtful thing they could do to Chief at the time was what they did to Cortana, they didn't really mess with much else that could cause an emotional response. 5 probably could have done it too but they delivered a weird story with a gap in marketing that misled people. Infinite reigned itself in a bit its still there just not as intense. 343's character stories don't really do it for me personally as I liked the bigger event style the earlier games had but I can see why people enjoy them.
man i feel you, i was 9 when halo 4 came out, i still remember my mom picking me up from school and taking me to the store to buy it. shit, i remember we ate burgers that day but i just ate half of it due to the excitement of getting to play it already lol. it was the second halo release i got to be a part of, and for me at the time the game just did everything i wanted to, ten years later i see some of its faults and misses but i mean all halo games have theirs of their own right? yeah the art style transition was pretty much inexistent, the introduction of the storm covenant wasn’t put in the main story, the prologue wasn’t canon correct in some parts, chief was talkative right away, and so many other things that could’ve been improved. i was just playing yesterday and i was like fuck, i hope mod support comes soon so someone can make a more fluid art style transition, have master chief wear the old halo 3 armor in early missions and by reclaimer have him get the new suit after he reaches the infinity, have the elites and covenant be the old art style to have some familiarity but let requiem and the prometheans remain as is, etc. i remember the ending at the time got me so intrigued as to what would happen next, and when halo 5 got announced i was dying to know what the story would follow up with and while we know it didn’t lead up to much i still try not to think much about it. though yeah lmao i pretty much always wonder what it could’ve been had halo 5 followed what halo 4 set up, and while infinite is a decent return to form, i think you pretty much said it, halo 4’s emotional beats were at its peak right there and then, i still like infinite but i mean it doesn’t come close in my opinion. i think this comment is getting awfully long lol but to tie things up all i can say i same bro, thank you halo 4 for making me all excited for a halo game and delivering as a kid, for having a heartwarming story, awesome cutscenes, and a beautiful and intriguing ending, here’s hoping what comes after in the franchise can have the same amount of narrative weight as halo 4 and all the past entries did for me.
So just for clarity. The didact "died" in 4 but then actually died in a comic strip or book somewhere unceremoniously. Then now they are bringing him back because they figure they can use him? I know there will probably be some writing lore wise that justifies it but I just want to make sure I understand this. I also am guessing that if we ever get ODST 2 we will just get a new guy under the rookie title since it wasn't so much a name as it was a rank. Just undoing their own damage which is funny since that is the kinda standard I feel used to seeing for the story.
He was supposedly immune to the composer so they hit him with I believe 6 composers at once which led him to being composed and ending up in the domain.We'll know more when the book comes out
*"We Hired People Who Hated Halo"*
With the post above you're literally patrick in the meme where a supervillian tries to prove him his wallet is his
4 is weird in that i didn’t like the story, the art style, loadouts and the other changes. But man i wrecked tf outta people in halo 4 mp in a way that i never have since.
I don’t care what anyone else thinks, I’ve been a Halo fan since 2004 and I love Halo 4.
I don’t think anyone is going to think anything negative of you being a fan Im confused on the downvotes
I don’t care what you think. H4 was awesome.
Im literally saying i dont think anyone is going to be negative about that, I am not sure how you took that in the worst way possible.
No. Halo 4 was the time when Halo started being the flagship for mistake.
Personally my favorite of the 343 campaigns. The Cortana story was great
Man… what a believer I was when Halo 4 released…
Halo 4 will always be one of my favorite Halo games, despite it’s issues. Maybe it was just the timing of when it came out, but I played it a ton back in the day and I still try to play it where I can on MCC, bit harder to find matches these days but nor impossible. Super happy to see we’ll be getting the missing perks and more skulls. Acrophobia on Shutdown will be fun
Halo 4 was a great game
Happy 10 years to the best Halo game.
Pffft
**grabs popcorn**
I bought the $100 collectors edition of H4 when it released and 10 years later I’m still mad about it.
The beginning of the end.
Wrong.
No, he's right. Even back then Halo's popularity waned. It's not relevant anymore.
Halo’s popularity started to wane with Reach.
That's absolutely correct! And 343i learned nothing from what fans didn't like about Reach. Instead they decided to lean further into those divisive mechanics for it to plunge the multiplayer population within 3 months. Why do think Halo 5 brought back equal starts? It was a stark contrast to the cod rip off that H4 was. So basically 343i just made things even worse.
I disagree. Halo was guaranteed to die the moment people stopped caring about arena shooters. Halo is part of a dead genre. It was inevitable it would die. Copying and pasting Halo 3 wouldn't change that.
You can disagree but you'd be wrong. Copying and pasting Halo 3? What a fallacy. The series literally peaked right there. Not only that but who says that having another Halo 3 would be what changes that? You're not thinking enough. It's why you don't understand why Halo failed and how it could've succeeded. Both Bungie and 343i alienated their core fanbase. Halo Reach and Halo 4 are not halo titles. They fundamentally do not meet the requirements to be considered a halo game. They chased the modern trends of the day popularized by call of duty and that caused a division from within the fanbase. Nearly every franchise has fallen victim to alienating their core fanbase in an attempt to make it more "accessible" to a wider range of audience. This always fails and they wonder why lol You know who didn't alienate their fanbase? From Software with Elden Ring. They made a game just for their fans and it worked wonders for them. Fans remain happy and loyal. They are only preparing themselves for From Software's next latest and greatest. Anyone here excited for what Infinite has to offer? Lol
You just can't help your self can you
You just can't argue a point can you?
Don't want to with someone like you.Had you not been condescending then I would have
True. Campaign had its good parts but the multiplayer at launch was miserable for anything outside of silly custom games.
Being no longer the biggest FPS franchise in the world doesn't mean it's over.
Yeah 343i has had such great success with Halo over 10 years. Got such a bright future ahead of them there's no division, releasing fully featured games just like in 2007 and 2011. We don't have to pay for colors. Man we got it so good! Halo Infinite was a massive success! Put the franchise back on the map!
How is it wrong? Infinite is a free game and has extremely low steam numbers and can't even crack the top 20 most played xbox games.The launch was a disaster and the game Still needs a shit load of work.Stop ignoring their faults
Infinite had a disastrous launch, obviously, and needs a lot of improvements. My problem is with the blind nostalgia goggles worn by so many Halo fans that boils down to "everything was better in my childhood therefore everything since then sucks".
Based on population numbers and interest for halo currently, are we wrong?
It's not even nostalgia. That's not an argument. Those older games were built with passion, were fully featured, fun games. Now we get broken scraps for so many franchises gone down the tubes.
>My problem is with the blind nostalgia goggles worn by so many Halo fans that boils down to "everything was better in my childhood therefore everything since then sucks". Word to the wise, stay off subreddits devoted to these kinds of franchises. If this upsets you *now*... people are immovable when it comes to their childhood properties.
It's not nostalgia that makes people like me.not like the current direction of halo
Because arena shooters are a dead genre. People aren't interested in playing them anymore. It was obvious even before Infinite launched that people would drop off fast. It's exactly what happened with MCC. It's just like RTS games, they've lost their popularity.
And yet counter strike is still popular
Counter-Strike isn't an arena shooter...
Pretty close to it
No, it's not. It's the complete opposite of an arena shooter.
My mistake,was thinking of something else
Mcc dropped off because they didn't fix it for years.Imo it would've been a little more popular for longer if they didn't take so long to fix it
MCC was in great condition when it released on the PC, and it went from a massive population to just a few thousand in a couple of months. Once the nostalgia wore off people stopped playing.
It was not nostalgia wearing off.You can't just brush off the massive problems it had for alot of people and then say nostalgia wearing off is the reason people left.The game wasn't fixed for 3 AND A HALF YEARS
I specifically said the PC version. It was fixed when the PC release happened.
When did the pc version first release?
I can still remember being in high school seeing the trailers and then being out at a sports dinner when the game came out. I can remember because it was also Election Day! I remember running inside afterward just so I could get an hour of play time on the campaign and multiplayer and loving every second of it. Finally, a new Halo with Master Chief. The new armor abilities and Chief’s kickass new suit. 3 Forge maps?! And actual BTB maps that weren’t Invasion maps? It was insane. Then on top of it Dominion, essentially Battlefield but Halo? I never felt the love for Halo 3 that a lot of people on here do, but I sure as hell understand it. Because Halo 4 brought that out for me.
I unironically love Halo 4. For a first attempt so late in the game for 360, I thought they did an incredible job in making Halo without being “safe” like Guitar Hero 3 or Gears 4 were when those series switched developers. Back then, I reviewed games for an Xbox fan site that no longer exists. Getting the game early for review, beating the game then going to the cinema and seeing a trailer for the game in a room full of people was weird. I remember thinking “I’m the only person here who has played this game”. It wasn’t my first or only early access game but it was very special to me. Working on the review for almost a week then making sure that I could wake up during the (UK) night to launch the review page and post on social media to try and make sure Xbox/343 could hopefully retweet the review for extra traffic. Very tiring but it was such an exciting time. It will always be special to me and I still enjoy it on MCC. For a 360 game, the technical achievement is still extremely impressive.
It was a sign of the bad to come. Changing everything for the sake of change. Changing the art for no reason leaving people confused, more linear level design with less open areas, AI intelligence regression, taking elements from Call of Duty, making a new generic robot faction that are boring to fight, the need for multimedia consumption to understand anything, removing the sandbox design in favour of redundant weapons, removing fan favourite features for their own “uniqueness”, the first push for a “wider audience”, etc Halos fall from grace can be traced back here. Everything wrong with the franchise going forward is in halo 4. They took a franchise made out of a passion for the industry and corporatized it when the creators outgrew the passion for their creation. Every release has been a significant decline in quality.
Everything you just pointed out started with reach
He's still not wrong though because 343i learned nothing from Bungie's mistakes with Reach at least not until H5 where they at least brought back equal starts. Game was still abysmal tho
Changing the name of armor abilities to spartan abilities essentially giving everyone like 6 abilities at once and making it even worse then halo 4 was imo
Yeah spartan abilities were unnecessary along with sprint. That's what made it worse. The only thing they got right was that everyone was on an equal playing field. They still haven't learned with Infinite.
Not as bad and that was a spin off by a company that was over making halo games.You can get away with stuff like that in spin offs but not mainline games
Well that was an excuse, what ever put the goal post where ever you want my point still stands
Patronizing redditors coming out the woodwork tonight
The only thing reach did was add the load outs which no one liked but they were far more balanced than 343s approach allowing you to make your own. The damn bolt shot ruined the multiplayer. Everyone had a pocket shotgun. Reach didn’t waver in the campaign. It had really large open sections as well as a well rounded sandbox. If they removed something, it was replaced with another unique item. They didn’t on out all the time but knowing bungie, had they made halo 4 they wouldn’t have continued it if players didn’t like it. 343 didn’t learn from the mistake. They made them worse. The armor abilities, they made part of the standard movement. Reaches art also fits very well with the previous titles. Halo 4 did not.
Story, cool, not what I might have done but cool. Art, some good some bad Multiplayer, what is this COD garbage
It's one of the reasons that the population dropped off so hard in 3 months.
The beginning of the end.
10 years to the day since the franchise turned to shit. If only we knew what was in store for us back then.
And yet here you are.
Oh, are posts and discussions about the original trilogy and Reach not allowed here or something?
Ohhhh is that what you were doing? Ya see, to me it just looked like you were bitching just to bitch. My mistake.
Yes, it was your mistake. Thanks for owning up.
I knew what was in store back then. I was railing against 343i back then and still am. I knew they were wrong for Halo back in 2012 before H4 even came out. I was unfortunately right especially after each title they put out including MCC. Never felt worse being vindicated because it meant the death of the Halo franchise. I am pretty stoked to see that H4 is getting theater mode for campaign and spartan ops. As well as some of those perks. They should allow you to change your loadout during a match at the pause menu like the original game did. I hate H4 with a passion but it needs to be on par with the 360 version just like all other games in the collection.
Solid campaign. ATROCIOUS in almost every other way.
What's that? We should've made halo 3 anniversary and we don't know why we haven't.My thoughts exactly
Nah that would make no sense. Halo 3 anniversary is a lame move. H3 doesn't need one at all. And don't even start with the bad human faces as justification for it. HCEA and H2 Anniversary were terrible bastardizations of the original artstyle, soundtrack composition, and cutscene cinematography.
Cutscenes were way better for h2a.I started with halo 1 back in the day and I don't get the hate for halo cea at all.Might want to look up what bastardization really means.
I personally can't stand the H2A cutscenes. There's a complete disconnect from the gameplay. No longer is there seamless music and transitions. Instead, we get constant fade to blacks and loading screens.
And as if there hasn't been shit in the regular cutscenes that isn't a total disconnect
Ok
The cutscenes for H2A were even worse due to the trimming of the time because they were trying to save money on rendering which is expensive. The cinematography is also vastly inferior to the original.The sounds they use are also just generic sci-fi versions of the iconic halo sounds. You might want to take your own advice because I'm using it correctly. Everything about H2A is inferior to the original. Might want to look at this because you are unable to see why HCEA is so terrible on your own. https://youtu.be/MyeCb99cb2Q
Agree to disagree
Cop out answer because you have no retort
Nah it's because people like you are condescending douchebags and whatever I say you'll just respond with a snarky remark so why bother
Trying to save money on rendering while employing blur which is an expensive studio
It's Halo 2 and microsoft has millions. They should spare no expense.
And they did
Bad game. Fuck 343.
Get a life
Shilling for 343 is not much of a life, sport. I can safely say mine is more fulfilling.
Halo 4, the least worst of the worst.
Really loved the campaign. Was really epic and action packed, PVP was cool but the BR was broke and overused by most players.
I like the Axios at the end, very nice touch.
Scoring in Spartan Ops would be awesome
10 years?! Hard to believe. I remember the launch so well. It’s a really good game. Not the best Halo, but arguably the most interesting and unique franchise installment for a variety of reasons (new studio, different art style, focus on a more intimate story, etc). It’s a beautiful game in many ways. Perfect, nah. No game is. But it felt like a very confident and bold swing
TL:DR
They rectified it in Infinite but I’m still salty about Chief’s armor redesign in H4. What were they thinking.
Halo 4 isn't a bad game, I respect it for at least trying some new ideas to try and push the franchise in a new direction at the time. It's still a fun ride and a decent shooter even though it didn't quite hit that halo 'feel' for me back then. That said, the parts that let it down for me were the limiting, changing or removal of fan favourite features and storylines that were proven successful in previous Halo games, which is sadly the trend that 343i has continued throughout their time as a studio, even between their own titles. I was happy to let the Bungie and 343i era's of Halo be their own thing and was curious at the time of 4 to see where they would go with their so-called 'reclaimer trilogy', but all of 343i's releases since have felt far too disconnected from each other as a series of games to feel cohesive as part of the same franchise. In the 343i's own era, and not considering the legacy of the franchise they continued, they have still slipped and faltered by their own standards of quality over time, and that's a shame. I respect that there were hardworking efforts put in by the people that work at 343i's on the individual aspects of these games, but as a whole, the vision for what Halo is and could be has been wildly unclear for the last decade.
No way it’s been 10 years. Fuck…
Incredible. Halo 4 will always have a very special place in my heart. I’ve been into Halo since around 2002, and I was so excited to play as Master Chief, again. The hype was real. At the time of release, I was in the middle of college. I literally cannot believe it’s been 10 years. Feels like so long ago but also a blink- it’s wild 10 years… so much has happened, since
>It was an effort fueled by a pure love for the Halo games and universe Well I guess they didn't like the art direction... And the music... And the lore (Forerunners are ancient Humanity)...
Halo 4 (without ordnance) has the second best multiplayer in the series, Halo 2 being #1.