Today’s game is some more Halo 5. Me and my friends were in voice call while playing this, and we finally nailed what feels so off about this one to us (at least on a personal level). It feels too much like Borderlands. It’s something about the art style, the fast pace, and the way missions are structured. It’s not bad, but it is far from what we want in a Halo game. Someone mentioned last time that 343 at the time were hiring a bunch of employees who weren’t invested in the franchise, and as a result basically had people redoing the game in a way that disregarded what Halo was. I’m not sure how factual this is, but if it’s the case I can totally see them taking bits from Borderlands with how big it was.
We got too this one section in specific where we have to hold off enemies from a gate. It has been giving us so much trouble. We’re playing on heroic and we’ve spent maybe an hour on this section. It doesn’t help that the enemies are able to hijack vehicles now. So now we have Knights, in all their Spongy Pain-in-the-assiness on the back of a Puma. I might be being a little harsh on the Knights, here. I just have some disdain for them after how spongy they were in Halo 4. They just don’t want to die.
There was also this section in the beginning of the level we were struggling with. Turns out, we needed to find a control panel to enable the turrets. The panel was hidden behind a shutter door we had to blast open. It took a few tries, but I really didn’t appreciate it being so hidden. I think that’s this game’s other biggest flaw, sometimes everything blends in. There’s nothing to discern what can be destroyed or shot at from the environment. Idk how Halo 3 and Reach solved it with their fidelity level, but it’s an issue here.
Besides all that though, I would say I’m enjoying it. I’m sure having friends on makes it a bit more of a fun time. But I’m enjoying playing it nonetheless. It does make me miss Halo 3 though. (Though, in this game’s defense I’m a fucking addict for Halo 3. I’ve legit gotten to the point where I can play through the campaign on legendary in a single day)
343 hired people that hate Halo when they were developing Halo 4. I believe it was Frank O’Connor that said this himself in a video interview around that time. 343 literally could not wait to make Halo into something it was not. They tried for three games and each failed spectacularly. They failed so badly that their studio reputation had become so bad they needed to rebrand as “Halo Studios” to trick consumers into buying their next game.
Now that 343 has destroyed Halo’s future, theyre going to destroy its past. As George Orwell said “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” By remaking Combat Evolved and changing that game, they can distort the playerbase into thinking it was always supposed to be that way.
343 is literally attempting to come in and add new additions to the Mona Lisa painting. Or chiseling new stuff onto the David sculpture. Literal vandalism. The original was already perfect, and only needed a visual upgrade. CE Anniversary did that so badly they need to do it again, but seem convinved it is impossible to make a new Halo game without sprint or other features that mean level geometry and bullet speeds need fundamental redesigns.
In case you couldn’t tell, I have a lot of contempt for 343. They could not have mishandled such a monumental franchise any worse. They ruined one of my favorite franchises, and it was literally so easy for them not to.
In CE Anniversary, they reused a lot of Halo Reach assets and generally destroyed the art style of the original game.
In what they have shown of Campaign Evolved (actually comically stupid name), they have added Sprint (which hilariously their own gameplay showcases that sprint causes the player to miss a music cue that Martin O’Donnell specifically placed), removed Health Packs in favor of recharging health, removed the tree that prevented the Warthog from being used to fight the two hunters completely trivializing the fight, and they reused a lot of assets from Halo Infinite as well, which I really hope are placeholders but I fear they are not. Also the forerunner tech is too clean and shiny.
From just 13 minutes of gameplay, I already see a lot of problems.
Someone talking about how a bunch of employees who weren’t invested, oh hey that’s me!
Gamasutra has since gone belly up, but I found an archive of the interview with Frank O’Connor, halos franchise development director (at the time? Idk if that’s still the case).
On this page specifically, we open with the quote “We hired people who hated halo”
https://web.archive.org/web/20210116045012/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/191234/making_halo_4_a_story_about_.php?page=3
I didn’t reread the full article, couldn’t say in 2025 whether it’s worth a full read, but that sentiment did stay with me all these years later as a strange choice
I almost considered referencing you when I mentioned that, but I know some people aren’t cool with that.
Thanks for the source too. I was thinking to myself last night “I should look for a source for this” but decided to put it off for today lol.
Hiring people who hate the franchise seems like a horrible move. I suppose I can see what the idea was, but I still can’t believe nobody higher up thought “wow. This seems like a horrible idea. Why are we doing this?”
This doesn’t make me super want to play 5, the only game in the main series I haven’t played, but it does make me appreciate the rest, sometimes in ways I’ve recognized, and others not so much.
Halo was somewhat unique in the Halo 3 2007 era, where every game was shades of grey and brown, because enemies were still colorful, with distinct designs and silhouettes, and the game at least started in a lush jungle. While certainly waypoints made a difference, I want to say most interactive items were either brightly lit forerunner panels in blue, covenant panels in bright green, or human ones that were just a huge green button. Clearly that design was well thought out and done for good reason, even if it would be reasonable to consider them a little silly in their dramatic design. They stood out, even in halo 3s large setpiece battle areas
Halo 5, ultimately feels like more 4 to me, so I’d say you’re not missing much besides the lore. But yeah, the design is really the worst part here.
Now that you mention the bright colors and standout interactive pieces of the earlier games, that’s definitely the difference I’m noticing between these. Like with the shutter door I mentioned. It really does not look like you can smash through it or interact with it in anyway.
Yeah, and that’s okay, as long as you’ve taught your players to be looking for that.
If it’s the fifth game in the series and suddenly shifts to a couple of small, subtle interactibles and occasional pieces of important destructible environment, where those never existed prior, you better be using them all over, and from the start teaching players that they exist.
It’s so important to teach players what the game expects of them. Going “what do I do!?” Is such a horrible experience every time, even in otherwise good games
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343 hired people that hate Halo when they were developing Halo 4. I believe it was Frank O’Connor that said this himself in a video interview around that time. 343 literally could not wait to make Halo into something it was not. They tried for three games and each failed spectacularly. They failed so badly that their studio reputation had become so bad they needed to rebrand as “Halo Studios” to trick consumers into buying their next game.
Now that 343 has destroyed Halo’s future, theyre going to destroy its past. As George Orwell said “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” By remaking Combat Evolved and changing that game, they can distort the playerbase into thinking it was always supposed to be that way.
343 is literally attempting to come in and add new additions to the Mona Lisa painting. Or chiseling new stuff onto the David sculpture. Literal vandalism. The original was already perfect, and only needed a visual upgrade. CE Anniversary did that so badly they need to do it again, but seem convinved it is impossible to make a new Halo game without sprint or other features that mean level geometry and bullet speeds need fundamental redesigns.
In case you couldn’t tell, I have a lot of contempt for 343. They could not have mishandled such a monumental franchise any worse. They ruined one of my favorite franchises, and it was literally so easy for them not to.
What did they change in the CE remake? I don’t remember anything other than graphical changes.
In CE Anniversary, they reused a lot of Halo Reach assets and generally destroyed the art style of the original game.
In what they have shown of Campaign Evolved (actually comically stupid name), they have added Sprint (which hilariously their own gameplay showcases that sprint causes the player to miss a music cue that Martin O’Donnell specifically placed), removed Health Packs in favor of recharging health, removed the tree that prevented the Warthog from being used to fight the two hunters completely trivializing the fight, and they reused a lot of assets from Halo Infinite as well, which I really hope are placeholders but I fear they are not. Also the forerunner tech is too clean and shiny.
From just 13 minutes of gameplay, I already see a lot of problems.
Oh I didn’t even know they were remaking CE again. Yeah that doesn’t bode well.
Someone talking about how a bunch of employees who weren’t invested, oh hey that’s me! Gamasutra has since gone belly up, but I found an archive of the interview with Frank O’Connor, halos franchise development director (at the time? Idk if that’s still the case). On this page specifically, we open with the quote “We hired people who hated halo” https://web.archive.org/web/20210116045012/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/191234/making_halo_4_a_story_about_.php?page=3 I didn’t reread the full article, couldn’t say in 2025 whether it’s worth a full read, but that sentiment did stay with me all these years later as a strange choice
I almost considered referencing you when I mentioned that, but I know some people aren’t cool with that.
Thanks for the source too. I was thinking to myself last night “I should look for a source for this” but decided to put it off for today lol.
Hiring people who hate the franchise seems like a horrible move. I suppose I can see what the idea was, but I still can’t believe nobody higher up thought “wow. This seems like a horrible idea. Why are we doing this?”
This doesn’t make me super want to play 5, the only game in the main series I haven’t played, but it does make me appreciate the rest, sometimes in ways I’ve recognized, and others not so much. Halo was somewhat unique in the Halo 3 2007 era, where every game was shades of grey and brown, because enemies were still colorful, with distinct designs and silhouettes, and the game at least started in a lush jungle. While certainly waypoints made a difference, I want to say most interactive items were either brightly lit forerunner panels in blue, covenant panels in bright green, or human ones that were just a huge green button. Clearly that design was well thought out and done for good reason, even if it would be reasonable to consider them a little silly in their dramatic design. They stood out, even in halo 3s large setpiece battle areas
Halo 5, ultimately feels like more 4 to me, so I’d say you’re not missing much besides the lore. But yeah, the design is really the worst part here.
Now that you mention the bright colors and standout interactive pieces of the earlier games, that’s definitely the difference I’m noticing between these. Like with the shutter door I mentioned. It really does not look like you can smash through it or interact with it in anyway.
Yeah, and that’s okay, as long as you’ve taught your players to be looking for that. If it’s the fifth game in the series and suddenly shifts to a couple of small, subtle interactibles and occasional pieces of important destructible environment, where those never existed prior, you better be using them all over, and from the start teaching players that they exist. It’s so important to teach players what the game expects of them. Going “what do I do!?” Is such a horrible experience every time, even in otherwise good games