The Halo 3 Wishlist
The top 10 things we'd like to see in the next Halo (plus everything we know about it).
Updated: May 18, 2012 9:38 am
Posted: Apr 13, 2006 1:28 am
While Sony and Nintendo toil away on their new systems, Microsoft and its software partners are well under way creating the second wave of Xbox 360 games. The most notorious of these partners is Microsoft's first-party developer Bungie, once known for its first-person shooter, Marathon, and the PC Myth series, but needless to say, far better known for the mega-blockbuster Halo. Not much has been said about the next Halo these days, though the occasional rumor pops up here and there. The plain facts are these: Aside from Bill Gates' un-official statement and subsequent retraction that the next Halo will appear when PlayStation 3 does, there ain't nothing.
Following Microsoft's unfortunate, rumor-ridden E3 2005 efforts, in which every single surprise appeared on the Web before it was officially announced, the Xbox 360 manufacturer has taken a different tact: keeping its mouth shut tight. Thus far, they're doing a pretty good job, too. In a way, that's good. Real surprise generates real excitement. And after last year's E3, we could use some real excitement. So, what have we learned thus far about the next Halo? Microsoft is making it difficult for us. All of it is speculation, but we have been able to separate fact from fiction regarding the following rumors, and we've created our own wish list for Bungie to use cost free.
First and foremost: Halo is not coming out this year. Microsoft hasn't announced it, but Bungie is notoriously slow and Microsoft is willing to give their most prominent developer the time to slow-cook their ideas to perfection. That's old news. From what we have gathered, Bungie is still working on fleshing out its engine, fleshing out story details, and figuring out how to work along with those folks from Hollywood. Count on Gears of War, Mass Effect, Too Human and a few other internally-developed games from Microsoft in fall 2006. Just don't count on Halo 3.
Halo 3 is not called Halo 3, nor is it called Halo: Forerunners, as Game Informer suggested. The next Halo doesn't have a full, official name yet. It's just Halo for now. Game Informer's suggested title was speculative, based on a previous name for the game that had long been discarded. When contacted on the subject, Microsoft declined to mention a thing, confirming only that the GI idea was incorrect.
Microsoft and Bungie will show Halo in some form at E3 this year, almost assuredly in video form. Don't count on any playable Halo games at E3 2006 (unless it's Halo 2 running on Xbox 360).
That's it for the rumors. On to our top 10 wishlist. We admit it, we're not game designers. We're gamers. Having played thousands of games, and not just the good ones, hundreds of bad ones too, we've formed some opinions on what makes games good and what makes them bad. We know that Bungie wouldn't hire us as game designers, and honestly, being a designer there is actually one of the hardest jobs in the world right now. We're not jealous. We have, however, played a hell of a lot of Halo and Halo 2, and we all have opinions about how we'd like to see the game's next iteration improve.
We want aliens, not chickens.
10. Aliens That Are More Alien
In some ways, the aliens in Halo and especially in Halo 2 aren't so much aliens as they are anthropomorphic creatures that behave like humans. The covenant comprises a hodgepodge of small-minded aliens from across the universe, but interestingly enough, they don't seem all that alien. The humorous grunts are, ironically the most alien, as they require internally created suits to breathe. We would like to see elements that better demonstrate the various aliens' physiology. You can see examples in the Flood, which looks and acts like something vastly more alien than the Covenant. We'd like to see changes that affect gameplay and AI behavior. Take Hunters, for example. They comprise thousands of little mind-hive creatures, which are able to stretch and reform. Please give us bizarre, unthinkable alien aliens.
9. Tighter Single-Player Level Design
There were few complaints about Halo 1: Combat Evolved, but one legitimate issue revolved around repetitive level design. Halo 2 partially solved the issue, but the sequel didn't kill it altogether. Strangely, there were still a lot of generic looking interiors that blended together.
Fewer repetitive corridors.
And on the flip side, the wide-open spaces were fantastic in one sense, and seemingly extended for no real purpose in another. We'd like to see better, more original single-player levels that alternated between linear and open level design that improved on Halo 2 offerings. Cortana doesn't need to point out every single level, door or path to take either. (Plus, she should be nude at some point. Really.)
8. Expanded Vehicle Usage
Halo and Halo 2 take place all across the universe on various planets and in space. Why not enable players to take control of the Pelican or even bigger ships, such as the Pillar of Autumn, and engage them in space battles? One of the most riveting scenes in the Halo books was Captain Keyes' strategic space battle against the Covenant. A scenario would go something like this: Master Chief narrowly escapes an army of Covenant soldiers by jumping on a ship. He's then followed by an enemy warship, and he takes control in an all-out space battle. That idea in itself isn't terribly original, but what if the idea was expanded? What if, at some point in the battle, he had to leave the ship to repair something or to fight the Covenant in space, with zero gravity physics? There were hints of that in then first full level of Halo 2, and it was great. Also, everyone remembers that last scene in Halo 2 when Master jumped a ship headed toward Earth. Wouldn't it have been great if there was some kind of space firefight? Lastly, if you read the books, you'd know Master Chief did, in fact, fight in Zero G atmospheres. This mixture of spaceship battles and zero G fighting wouldn't take up the majority of the game. They'd appear once or twice in the game to break up the pace, and to give gamers something totally different to do, sort of like the way Bungie originally introduced the successful use of the Warthog in the first Halo.
7. The Battle On Earth Should Be Massive and Devastating
If the next Halo linearly follows Halo 2 and it does, in fact, take place on Earth, the game should transport players all across the globe in a wide variety of fights. We would love to see the fully fledged Earth war appear in African jungles, Louisiana swamps, and cosmopolitan centers like New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Sydney. It should go to far-out places like the Rocky Mountains, the volcanoes of Hawaii, and even in the snowy exteriors of Antarctica. Some of the best levels in Halo 2 took place on Earth, and we'd like to see more. In that light, the next Halo should include storming mad Covenant warriors slaughtering innocent civilians followed by the spread of the Flood on Earth, followed by the Covenant teaming up with the humans to destroy the Flood once and for all. Just a little demand, nothing big.
6. Return of the Pistol
Halo 2 introduced many new things to Bungie's brand of multiplayer, but it was the removal of one thing that most changed the experience. The original Halo's pistol practically defined what it was to play Halo with friends. Epic pistol wars and skillful three-shot kills composed the bulk of multiplayer showdowns before Bungie transformed the awesome pistol into Halo 2's puny magnum. Bring back the pistol!
Master Chief needs only one thing: The original pistol.
The all-purpose handgun, while arguably unbalanced on its own, served as a valuable equalizer among the Halo arsenal. Respawn with a pistol and a grenade and you can compete with anyone, no matter how much they may be whoring the sniper rifle or causing chaos in a ghost. It'd also be nice, as a side effect, to replace the obnoxious clatter of Halo 2's SMGs with the sweetly familiar bang-bang-bang-slump as the standard "somebody just got dropped" audio signature.
5. Flashback Levels (and a Real Ending)
Bungie should incorporate the use of flashback levels to tell a better, deeper story. With three novels out based on the Halo universe, Bungie's writers should feature flashback levels offering young Master Chief and the young SPARTAN teams in training and in certain levels from The Fall of Reach. This would please fans to no end, while also enabling Bungie to legitimately include former SPARTANS in the multiplayer game. Flashback levels would break up the game's pace, add new levels of depth and meaning to the story, and explain many things that weren't explained in the games (but were in the books). Likewise, Bungie? We know you're listening. Please give us a definitive hard-hitting ending. Do what you will, but please don't leave us clinging to a ship during the heat of battle and flying to another planet.
Flashback levels featuring scenes from the books would be awesome.
4. Melee Attacks
Master Chief should be able to grab an enemy, use them as a meat shield, and discard their dead bodies willy-nilly. In addition to this move, he should be able to perform smaller melee style tasks, such as disarming enemies, neck-snapping, and or head butting them. This would greatly change up the single-player game.
3. Balanced Achievements and a Demo
Unlike the insanely unbalanced Achievements offered in King Kong and Quake 4, the next Halo should offer half of its achievements in the single-player game and the other half in the multiplayer game. Balance between the two is the key. Also, Bungie should drop a Halo 3 demo on Xbox Live Marketplace with online connectivity and watch as the world lights on fire with wild fanboys playing 48-hours straight, screaming into their headphones and breaking records in pizza orders and Mountain Dew purchases. Can you imagine it? If there was a demo, this is how it will play out.
2. Improved Lobbies and Party System
The Party System was great in some ways and less so in others. Playing the next Halo, however, should permit you more choices. You should be able to pick a server. You should be able to pick the friends you want to play with. There should be friend slots for games. The brilliance of the Party system can continue, but it needs to enable you and your buddies the ability to set the parameters. We would love to be able to find friends with greater ease and hang out in better organized lobbies. Playing with strangers can be surprisingly fun at times, but playing with friends, without the intrusion of psycho-chocolate-milk-drinking grammar-school kids is better. Just a little.
Revise the party system for more customization.
1. Four-Player Online Cooperative
This is a no-brainer request. No doubt, it's something Bungie is working on for the next Halo. Halo 2 sorely missed the inclusion of an online cooperative mode, and games such as Doom 3 showed that, however clunkily implemented, the experience was enormously entertaining. And we're not just talking about two-player co-op, we want four player co-op. Players could team up and storm through the single-player levels, or Bungie could create separate side-story missions specifically for the online co-op games. Wouldn't it be cool if you could play some of the flashback levels, based on Fall of Reach or First Strike in co-op? We're wet just thinking about it.
+Plus 1
We had to add this extra special bonus option to the list. We know this idea won't make Bungie's to-do list any time in the next century, but what the hell. One IGNer suggested that the next Halo should include transforming weapons and vehicles. Or rather, "Transformer" weapons and vehicles. The idea being that you could combine a shotgun and a Needler to create, say, a "ShotNeedler." Or a "Sniper Grenade Launcher." Crazy, yes. Likely? No.
Merge vehicles...no,
The vehicle thing is different. Here, the notion is, while online, you could connect your Pelican to, say, a Warthog, creating a stronger, more powerful vehicle. This idea would promote cooperative play and simultaneously satisfy the core audience's dream of re-living the Transformer Saturday morning cartoon in a different guise. Perfect!
Things We Don't Want to See
There are a bunch of ideas we threw out while composing this top 10 list. While it's not likely Bungie will include melee attacks in the next Halo, we realized a bunch of ideas would be terrible. Those include flame throwers. Oh Bungie, please do not include flame throwers in Halo 3! Another thing we really don't want to see: Multiple story paths. Yes, please ignore the cries for more than one ending. These would dilute the story big-time.
Let Brothers in Arms handle squad AI. Let Halo do its own thing.
And, after much thought on the subject, we decided (well, I decided) that commanding your AI might also ruin the game as well. If Halo is about fast, spontaneous combat and warfare, then please don't include an AI system that gets in the way. There were also a few ideas we were very mixed on, such as eliminating the Energy Sword and the one-hit kill. The Energy Sword is fun and all, but it has also led to many really bad moments in the game. It's just too simple of a way to kill others.
No doubt Bungie has its own, more realistic -- and hopefully, better -- ideas than these. We sure hope so. But these are the things we'd love to see when that famous armored SPARTAN comes rolling around again. Feel free to add your own comments on the boards.
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