What Will Halo 4 Be About?

Now that Bungie’s moved on to bigger and better publishers, some say Halo won’t survive for long. Those people clearly don’t understand this industry.

No matter who’s in charge, there will always be Halo fans that legitimately care about the series’s fiction. Bungie and others have spent a decade crafting a pretty fantastic story, through the games, comics, books, anime and more, and despite a satisfactory ending to Halo 3, there are a lot of places the Chief can still potentially go.

A Toast to Onyx

One of the most popular (and probable) guesses so far is that the planet-sized structure glimpsed at the end of the recent Halo 4 trailer is actually Onyx. The “shield world” featured heavily in Eric Nylund’s official 2006 novel The Ghosts of Onyx, and it’s where the few remaining Spartan IIs and IIIs  – including favorites Kelly and Fred – will be found. The all-important Dr. Halsey, who made her first in-game appearance in Halo: Reach, was also last seen on Onyx.

The only problem is that Onyx was sort of destroyed at the end of the book. The entire planet turned out to be made of millions of Forerunner sentinels (the same flying bastards seen throughout the games), who disengaged from one another and decimated a Covenant fleet toward the novel’s conclusion. Halsey and the rest of the Spartans found themselves trapped in a dyson sphere – an inverted planet in a slipspace dimension adjacent to ours – searching for a way out.

The Chief would no doubt be thrilled to reunite with his oldest friends, and Ghosts of Onyx left plenty of unanswered questions. If there’s even a slight chance Halo 4 will answer them, Microsoft’s going to get even more of my money. There are a couple other options I can think of, though..

A Four-Legged Marathon

Halo 3′s ending was hardly ambiguous, but there was one aspect that left some questions dangling in our minds: beating the game on legendary unlocked the briefest of teaser videos showing Cortana and the sleeping Chief’s busted-ass ship approaching a planet that looked more than familiar to long-time Bungie fans.

You see, Halo wasn’t Bungie’s first series. Many of you probably know this, but back in the ’90s the enterprising developers made a series of Mac games (what? why?) called Marathon. Thematically, they were pretty similar to Halo; the Marathon games teemed with lone super soldiers, rampant AIs and millenia-old sci-fi structures. And the planet that makes its cameo in Halo 3′s secret ending has a pretty big Marathon symbol on it. The inclusion of this otherwise pointless scene fueled the already-widespread speculation that the Master Chief and the protagonist of the Marathon series are one and the same. Despite Bungie’s repeated claims otherwise, Halo is in Microsoft’s hands now, and number four may well tie neatly into the Marathon series.

Something Completely Different

Of course, it could always be about something else entirely. Although it seems 343 Studios would be missing out on some incredible narrative opportunities if that’s the case, they’ve probably got loads of perfectly decent ideas that have nothing to do with “the story so far.” Say goodbye to the other Spartans, screw Dr. Halsey’s mom complex, and forget the forerunners ever existed. After all, it’s Microsoft we’re talking about. Selective consumer amnesia is an important part of their business strategy.

I’m sure there are plenty of other good ideas out there, so lemme have’em. What have I forgotten?

How balance (almost) ruined Halo

“Everyone, stick to the plan!” my teammate urges as the match begins. We all know the drill by now, though, a mere two days into the Halo: Reach beta, well enough to instinctively hop over the railing, mash the left bumper to sprint forward, and fire off our supplies of grenades the second the game starts. One-flag Capture the Flag on Sword Base, the azure map with multiple levels and ramps, plays out the same way every time. The flag’s defenders have little choice; they can wait until our grenade bombardment lets up and hope they’re not too late, or go around the back way, allowing us to steal their precious flag, though flanking us in the process. Few teams choose the latter strategy.

Sword Base games unfold the same way every time

This is, technically, a very balanced experience. The red and blue teams take turns defending and attacking, always spawning in the same locations, usually with the same armor abilities. Attackers choose sprint to get to the flag quickly. Defenders choose armor lock, the temporary impenetrable shield, to survive the avalanche of grenades. Once the flag has been carried out into the main courtyard of the level, which rarely takes long, members of each team fall back to the tried and true jetpack-enabled Airborne loadout. The attackers attempt to launch the flag into their base using the gravity lift, which may or may not have been its original purpose, and the defenders attempt to shoot them. Grenades are thrown upon spawning, and clusterfucking ensues.

It’s difficult to defend the flag, but it’s also difficult for the attacking team to carry it all the way to their base, even with the (perhaps unintentional) advantage provided by the central grav lift. (For some reason, I like to imagine that Bungie envisioned players running, pack-like, through the level’s cramped corridors, working together and checking around every corner, rather than spamming grenades into the middle of the level while the flags floats up and down helplessly. If that’s the case, their vision was, sadly, not achieved.)

Regardless, this experience is a far cry from those halcyon days of Halo: Combat Evolved. This is the complaint most frequently leveraged against Bungie’s beloved franchise, and even discounting the heady influence of nostalgia, the detractors have a point.

My transformative years were spent right here

When the original Xbox’s sci-fi green, quasi-holographic dashboard greeted my 13-year-old eyes for the first time, I was mesmerized. When Captain Keyes handed me that fabled pistol, I hardly knew how to thank him. Getting the feel for the new controller, innovative game mechanics and unearthly graphics was an incredible experience, one made infinitely better by the fact that I shared it with my closest friends. Though technically young, we were hardened veterans of the frenetic battlefields of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, and thanks to Halo‘s multiplayer, making the transition from Nintendo’s trusted quirks to Microsoft’s unexplored frontiers wasn’t as hard as we had feared it would be. We were lucky trailblazers.

Our favorite was, of course, Blood Gulch. A match’s initial moments were spent hurling pistols slugs at one another while scrambling toward the Scorpion Tank in an all-out race for supremacy. Whomever controlled the tank controlled the entire level. The first of us to reach it usually headed for the hills- literally- jamming the Scorpion behind the elevated rocks at the far end of the canyon, raining military-grade death down on anyone and everyone who dared move. The others, like those left behind at the Rapture, tip-toed through the shadows and clambered up the hill, intent on toppling the Scorpion God, lest more judgments be hurled down from on high. These efforts were usually in vain, and matches often ended with vast differences in scores.

The battle rifle eliminated experimentation

It was fun to watch on the Scorpion God’s portion of the screen as you bobbed up and down between the gulch’s hills, brashly attempting to reach the rocket launcher and fire off one desperate shot before being force-fed oblivion by the tank’s main cannon. Equally fun was teaming up, if only temporarily, to man a Warthog and distract the tank with errant chain gun fire and tenacious meandering long enough for a fourth player to get the jump on him. Experimentation was the name of the game, and this proved true on all maps, through single player, multiplayer, in every game type, and in every scenario.

Something happened, though, during the creation of Halo 2. Balance was given import over experimentation, and the three-round burst battle rifle was introduced. All players were equal, provided they didn’t try to pick up any other weapon. The masses of Xbox Live and the elitists at Major League Gaming controlled the tides of gameplay, influencing title updates, weapon tweaks, and matchmaking playlists- elements that hadn’t even existed a few years earlier. Vehicles were gimped by the rocket launcher’s shiny new lock-on feature, and the ‘Gulch, remade as Coagulation, was an over sized mess.

Though the return of Halo‘s assault rifle boded well for Halo 3, the same issues persisted in its multiplayer. It was fair for every player, it was difficult for one team to gain a distinct advantage, and it truly wasn’t as fun as it used to be. It’s difficult to articulate where the magic went, but for fans, the difference was palpable. Halo 3: ODST‘s Firefight mode went miles in the right direction, though spotty connections and a lack of matchmaking (my friends and I live worlds apart by now, after all, and we rarely have similar schedules) made it ineffectual, a blip on the radar.

Firefight, though excellent, was overlooked

Halo: Reach may be Bungie’s last chance to recapture some of that old magic. The first few days of the multiplayer beta, which began on May 4, demonstrated that they were certainly trying. The internet weeps at the removal of the battle rifle, though many players shed tears of joy. Its replacement- the DMR- is a far more subtle weapon, capable of great damage, but with numerous weaknesses. That’s as it should be.

Something was still awry, however, and it struck me as my friends and I- the same ones I devoured the original Halo with over eight years ago- stormed the Sword Base’s flag for the umpteenth time.

“This is not why I play Halo,” I said, half aloud.

“What?” responded my friend.

“This is not why I play Halo,” I reiterated. The discussion that followed led to a revelation. After years as a Halo fan- the kind that reads the books and scours the Wiki, not the MLG kind- I could finally put into words some of what I had been feeling for years- I missed the experimenation. The discussion ended with a pang of hope, however, as the following day was to see the release of Bungie’s true ace in the hole: Invasion.

Elites and Spartans are no longer evenly matched

Invasion pits Spartans against elites in a three-part game of territories-meets-capture the flag. Spartans desperately try to hold their ground as the agile, powerful elites storm a simple complex from either side. The Spartans are eventually forced to retreat into a larger base, where more objectives must be achieved before either team can claim victory. Players are no longer evenly matched; elites now possess a versatile dodge maneuver, allowing them to negotiate an advantage against Spartan players in almost any face-to-face confrontation. Spartans possess generally superior weapons and vehicles, however, and the equipment in play becomes more lethal as the various objectives are met. Toward the end of a match, plasma rifles and DMRs are replaced by energy swords and grenade launchers, and vehicles, including that good old Scorpion Tank, are dropped into the map for extra chaos.

Teamwork is important for both sides, but especially for elites, who must decide whether to storm the Spartans’ base guns blazing or opt for the more stealthy Assassin loadout. During the final phase of most matches, players are presented with limitless choices. Spawn far from the action and hop in a vehicle, or ask your teammate to kindly find a quiet corner so you can join the game at his or her side? Elites can choose the deadly energy sword, the long range needle rifle, the plasma rifle or the needler. Spartans have an even harder choice between the DMR, shotgun, grenade launcher or assault rifle. All are accompanied by different armor abilities. There are multiple objectives, only some of which must be completed for the game to advance. Strategies are endless, and teamwork, wit, and, yes- experimentation- win matches.

Invasion is what I’ve been looking for all these years. Halo has come a long way, and I would have never guessed that it would take an experience so vastly different from the original game to finally achieve a similar feeling. If Bungie can deliver even more come September, Reach may be the actual Halo-killer the industry has been seeking for so long. Is it balanced? Sometimes. Is it perfect? No- and thank God for that.

Past Deadline Review: “Halo 3: ODST” is better the second time

There is a very small middle ground when it comes to last fall’s Halo 3: ODST. Although the game was well received by some, many long time Halo fans were disappointed by the apparent lack of content and innovation in ODST. These are people who, like myself, stuck with Halo throughout the years despite ever increasing criticism of series’ seeming inability to evolve in a gaming world filled with sprinting, cover systems and insanely fast paced gameplay.

laser eye surgery in the future is actually a lot more dangerous

I think many of the now disillusioned and bitter fans should go back and try again. ODST, like every Halo game since Combat Evolved, was built up to the point of mania months before its release. Bungie encourages this degree of hype, seeming to bask in it as the tiniest imaginable bits of information to trickle down to starving fans. In this case, they may have standby’d themselves.

With expectations running high, ODST was doomed to disappoint. Fans who weren’t expecting what they got- a detailed, excellently produced, balanced, and interesting expansion to Halo 3- didn’t do enough research and saw too many TV ads. The pacing of the campaign, called plodding by some, I call deliberate; the atmosphere, likewise, is brooding and intriguing. The combination makes for a game very unlike its contemporaries in that players are asked to fill the role of the lost, stranded soldier, outnumbered in a war torn metropolis, and experience the parts that make them wonder what that soldier must be thinking and feeling in addition to what he will be shooting at next.

It requires a certain attitude to fully appreciate what Bungie has done. I would challenge fans who were unpleasantly surprised by ODST‘s campaign to try playing through it again with a different mindset. Notice things like the way the story, especially the subplot heard through the various audio logs scattered around the crumbling city, parallels Dante’s Divine Comedy (hint: the logs are identified in your VISR menu according to which of Dante’s 9 circles of Hell they correspond to- read more here, it is very much worth it). The bottom line is, the best parts of the campaign can’t really be experienced like a normal Halo game.

safari zone is the only place to catch the elusive Tauros

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’d like to talk about my favorite part of ODST: Firefight! Team up with other players and struggle to survive wave after wave of enemies with limited ammo and health packs, while being subjected all the while to ever shifting sets of variables that force players to think up new strategies after every single round.

Four waves of randomly generated enemies, followed by one wave of heavily armored Brutes and Brute chieftains, make up a round. At the end of each round, ammo and health packs are dropped into the map, and a new variable- in the form of skulls that cause enemies to drop less ammo, throw more grenades, and be more cunning- is added to the mix. After three rounds, a set is completed, and more new skulls are turned on. This may sound confusing, and it is. And on Heroic difficulty, which I recommend for four experienced Halo players to really stretch their legs in, one set can take more than half an hour to complete.

I know this game came out four months ago, but it took me almost that long to actually get on a message board and find three other people to play with. Prior to this I had played with my girlfriend in split screen and with real life friends over Xbox live. However, I have found through experience that yelling at my friends for wasting all the rockets shooting at drones does not go over well. I have no such qualms about yelling at strangers.

Firefight: the best thing since THIS?! you betcha.

The biggest downfall of Firefight is the lack of a matchmaking, lobby browsing, or another in game system of finding strangers to play with. Posting on a message board and waiting for three people to respond is, admittedly, way more effort than should be required to team up with fellow players. And to top it off, it’s borderline maddening trying to connect with players who won’t quit or get disconnected in the middle of the match, sending everyone hurtling back to the main menu, crying all the way. Lagging out after an hour and a half of careful strategizing and cautious progress is enough to burn you out for a week or two.

Find three other compatible connections, however, and the resulting game will be well worth it. Tactics and communication are key to surviving past the first few rounds. Lives run out fast. Heavy weapons must be kept track of, and each player needs to stick to a specific role, from recon to ammo scout, especially on larger maps. Every match with different players will force you to examine your strengths and those of your teammates so you can tweak your strategies accordingly. Everyone on your team will die a lot.. at first. However, once all four players find their roles in the squad and get into the rhythm of the game, frustration turns to satisfaction and the points rack up.

will "Reach" include Firefight? if Bungie knows what's good for them.

Firefight is at its best when you’re playing with a full squad of experienced, intelligent players over Xbox Live. Unfortunately, unless all your friends are Halo geeks, connecting with other players will require too much time and effort to be practical most of the time. Because of this, Firefight will, for most people, remain something that could have been great. If you experience it the right way even once, though, you’ll discover what amounts to the freshest Halo experience since Combat Evolved‘s multiplayer in 2001 forever changed the way I play games with my friends. It is so good that I just wrote about 700 more words than I originally intended to. If Bungie remembers to include Firefight in Halo: Reach with a matchmaking mode, I’m pretty sure I would never have to play another Call of Duty game again, and that would be a relief.