You don’t know how much Halo means to me. It was the first game I ever played by myself and it was the first game I demoed when it came out. I was only 5 when it happened and I remember having the choice to play either Metal Slug 3 Demo or Halo Demo and the choice was always clear: play the beach level another thirty times. It was even my first game I played with friends and the only game I can play with friends without feeling this slight boredom in the back of my mind. Halo 2 was a perfect game and the devs couldn’t go with what they wanted because of their passion. Their passion on creating the next revolution or multi-million dollar game took them over and over strived and lied to their own audience saying this ain’t no smoke and mirror bullsh*t. Hearing this story with the developers struggling to create this game that was near the deadline for the game after completely trashing on overcomplicated game for a console too simple to play it made me want to be one of those people. This game is the reason why my dream job is being a Game Dev. This game is the reason why I love gaming. This game changed my life for the better or worse.
The Master Chief himself was the ultimate cool guy that made the game so amazing and the developers saying that they didn’t even need to make the Chief have character because the player was supposed to identify as him or see him as a large weapon with legs. Every other game made you put yourself in the character’s boots or either tried to make a character out of them that just made John Carmack’s make sense, “Games are like Pornos. The Story’s there, but it doesn’t matter.” These people that were new to this kind of business walked in it and already reviewed every rule in the book overnight. And if you think CoD is better and they would never beat it, well the only reason you watch eSport matches of anything or even your favorite game, CoD, created this kind of sports media with the MLG program. Halo was revolutionary with almost every aspect of its creation and it inspired me and many people as we awaited anything they had coming next.
I know you may look at this trilogy and say there are only three games, but there were great spin-offs of the game that fed the fans ever so greatly. Yes, they may be made to cash in for more money, but behind that corporate mask was a passionate man that wanted to tell another story from the great trilogy he made. Halo Wars introduced to us the RTS aspect of what could have been. Although this game could have alienated fans, it was a perfect game that was well made for any kind of a fan of the Halo games. They knew their audience and they made sure the game could be played by any kind of player. It had easy controls for the player navigate their troops and the game gave a good challenge as well, without making the game try to alienate fans.
Then there was Halo 3: ODST, a great game in my opinion and is my favorite out of the entire franchise. The game kept the aspects of Halo 3, but had a different story to tell and a different perspective to see the battle of Humanity. I really don’t know what else to tell you besides it’s a great game I hope everyone who is interested plays it, but I wish I can say more. The music is so fitting to the game’s setting and perspective, giving off a relaxing Jazzy feel that felt so somber and depressing which really gave you a picture of what you’re playing as. You’re no longer playing as a walking weapon, you’re playing as a soldier that is no different than the Marine next to you. And the story, although cut in parts and puts the lore in a real knot, is so fun to explore and the open feeling when you start as a Rookie, after crash landing on a drop pod, classified as MIA until later that night, makes you feel so alone and without purpose, like you don’t belong here with enemies prowling the streets looking for you. But when you play as the scattered ODST Team members, you have a clear mission that fills that empty feeling and makes you feel like this hero you just took over to tell his past events and reason why you’re stranded as a Rookie looking for them to go back home before this planet is glassed. A marvelous game in my opinion that made my first fives years in this decade. I wish I didn’t Pirate the game...
Then there’s the farewell gift that Bungie made as they left the Halo franchise that was rightfully owned by corporate giant Microsoft, Reach. Reach is the game that was suppose to tell the story of Spartans before Master Chief and how Cortana was created and given to the Chief. A direct prequel to the first Combat Evolved that no one thought they would ever get. It was a great love letter to the games and it made for some great stories and symbolic deaths. I mean, come on! Kat is a Sniper and she dies to a Covenant Sniper Headshot. Tell me that isn’t symbolic! And Jun never died in the game and Team Noble is considered dead. He was the Ghost of the team and he was never seen. Symbolic!
The entire campaign was unique, but there were some ups and downs with it. The game was cinematic, but the mentality of the other games where the devs questioned what’s not making them skip this scene was attempted to be thrown out the window, but instead just broke the glass and hangs on the window. I’m not saying it was bad or worse than any others, but the game had some flaws that could easily be looked over.
Reach’s multiplayer introduced some new concepts such as creating your own emblem and spartan (as well as Elite), and even something that you can brag home with, Assassinations. It was a concept of the original games, but the feeling you kept when you patted someone’s back was so stale and strange, but when you held down the melee button it performed a gruesome animation of the player stabbing someone in the back or pulling someone to the floor and driving a knife to their chest. Sounds so awful, but was so satisfying as those few seconds of defeating someone without them knowing sent that lovely drug to your brain called Dopamine. Although there were some other things, that’s the only thing I can think of that made me love the multiplayer so much… That and maybe the Firefight modes… The game was a great goodbye although not as great. The game doesn’t become a cash-in like most games of today, they wanted to make sure the fans were left with a good taste in their mouths and they succeeded more or less.
Halo was considered a masterpiece as they made clever ways to advertise the games as well as some great art, not insult the fans by believing the player doesn’t know a great piece of work from a golden trash bag, the people behind these ads wanted us to see the passion of the devs put in the game’s story, animation and gameplay. They put a lot of work and effort in Halo and they shouldn’t be remembered for making this game, they should be remembered for leading a generation of games as well as gaining so many people’s respect.
Since the great Bungie left the franchise with one final game, what will become of the Halo franchise? What happened to a game in an era of competition and risk? What will become of our Master Chief? The shaky hands of Microsoft trusted only one company of theirs and that one company to hold the Halo mantle was 343. They told us all will be okay with the upcoming sequel to the great trilogy that left us with such a great ending, but how did they fair? Poorly.
The game was riddled with so many mistakes in the story, design and even some of the gameplay that felt like a CoD clone, the exact game that was the competitor of Halo. The way the third game ended was the Chief and the Arbiter defeating the Flood after a great uniting of another common enemy of both sides. Chief is parted off in a ship that would drift in space as the Arbiter and other people are ready to accept what happened to Chief and commend the loss of hero with a tribute and memorial. The Chief was both dead and alive, but he was neither one. It was up to the player to decide his on his life, but there was so much room for a sequel since the Chief’s last words were, “Wake me when you need me.” How did Halo 4 follow this up? Covenant attack. I thought they were in peace with the humans? And on top of that, the game gave him a character that wasn’t needed. He was a weapon, but now he’s struggling to find humanity. Why? He never questioned his self-belonging, he only followed orders and did what was not expected of him because he was a *** badass. He follows protocol to his training because he lived with this kind of lifestyle since he was a child! Don’t tell me he’s having an identity crisis!
And to add to this awful flame, they tried to make this franchise their own by adding new enemies and conflicts instead of sticking to the lore or properly respecting the original devs on the original games! The whole method to ask yourself what’s not making me skip this cutscene or the 30 seconds of fun was thrown completely out the window as they continued to destroy this mantle they proudly hold, without anything new to the table or something to bring players back to this new game, just a look that never suited the chief.
Then they created the “Masterpiece” known as Halo 5. They wanted to divide the fanbase with Locke which was an awful marketing campaign since no one’s going to like Locke. Every fan of the Halo Franchise is always going to pick Master Chief. Why would we think otherwise? And why would you try to make us like a character be barely even know or have barely any information about him? This boggles my mind that they thought this new character people are introduced to is going to be over liked than the Chief. And I’ve seen so many videos showcasing the mentalities of the two companies work on this franchise, and Bungie is the only good guy, focusing on design and the fans while 343 talks skins and lootboxes and how people love them!
You may be thinking I’m over exaggerating this whole thing because it’s just a game, don’t worry about it, but they’ve taken away something from this game that meant a lot to some longtime fans of the Halo games: Split Screen Co-Op and Multiplayer. Halo 5 is the only game of the entire Halo franchise that does not include split screen and this made a large uproar in the community. Although they were nice about it, they still questioned this choice along with many others. I know a lot of people like the Multiplayer in Halo 5, but do you remember people saying it has a “Call of Duty” vibe to it? That’s the one thing that stuck with me when I watched the tournament when the game launched. And they’re not wrong, the game has so much of a CoD vibe to it that’s it’s almost hard to call this game a Halo game! The name Halo meant something to a lot of people and now it’s something CoD kids will consider something meaningful until they turn 18.
All of this talking of 343’s mistakes has gotten me mad a little. I want to see some happiness in the life of Bungie, why don’t we check how they’re doing…
Although, Destiny was bad at launch, but the game was amazing with all of it’s DLC. I’m not saying it’s okay for them to do that because they delivered great DLC, I wanted to say that they should have put this in the game from the start. That sentence… That’s so commonly said about today’s games, I hate it. Why am I saying that about a Bungie game? I mean, they left their last game with such a bang, there’s nothing that’s going to match it, but they have such great morals and mentalities, I can’t help but ask why? I can tell you something that made me sad for a while. The man behind the great story and lore in the game had the story of Destiny under his sleeve since Halo 3’s announcement and couldn’t wait to make this story into a reality. Once he left Microsoft’s arms, Activision was going to be the only option to hold on to this story of his and they accepted his concept, but nothing in his story. Activision fired him and took his stories they rejected and made them DLC. It fills the hole that was the worry for Bungie’s well being, but it dug another hole that made us question Bungie was still itself. I love Destiny because it’s a great game in its own means and has such a great style and story to it that feeds any Bungie lover out there willing to give them a chance.
It wasn’t until their Second installment that made me want to leave Bungie, not because they did something wrong, but because Activision was wearing their skin and posing as them. My friends played the game and called it great for months and once there was nothing to do, we stopped playing and went something like Fortnite. When I look at anything that says Bungie, I don’t think of the great things they did or how much they made my life and so many others out there, I see a corpse that has it’s skin ripped out and worn by someone else trying to take their money.