Will 343 ever match the classic that is Halo 3?

[BitesizeCrayons]

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy Halo 4. However, many hardcore fans of Halo that have played since the glory days will agree that Bungie's magnum opus is Halo 3. It isn't without issues, but I haven't had a multiplayer experience this gen that matched Halo 3. My concern is that 343 is going to manufacture Halo, while Bungie lovingly crafted Halo and made sure every last facet was geared to the true-blue Halo fans.

I want 343 to lay my worries to rest. They hold the very last reason for me to have any interest in the next Xbox in their hands, and should the next Halo not be absolutely stellar (and not just in setting, har har), I'll no longer be on the Xbox bandwagon. Feel free to express your dissent; if you think 343 is moving in a better direction from Halo 3, do tell why.

 

[AvalonX]

No.

If anything 343 has shown that they are pushing forward with their vision of Halo. Aside from Team Throwdown they refuse to give Halo fans a classic experience even in customs.

Unless they allow removing Sprint, Flinch etc than classic Halo is dead.

 

[Avictus]

Halo is evolving

It will never have that classic feel again. 343i has their own vision for halo and that's fine with me. I'm just glad they are keeping halo alive

 

[Kibaman101]

I really hope that this does not happen. I can only imagine that 343 will try to put their own spin on it and make it so much worse. 343 needs to move on. Halo 3 was good back in the day and the only thing that I can see 343 fixing is the bloodshots. The registering system was not as good as it could have been and if it was fixed, then I do not see there being any other problem with the game. I am sure that they will remake the game because they want to make money. I am sure that they will not make it until the new xbox comes out.

 

[Inzombiak]

Probably not.

Even if they decide to turn Halo 5 into a HD version of Halo 3, it still wouldn't be as good as Halo 3 back in 07. Halo had a lot going back then that got people excited to play the game. You had MLG, you had that strong competitive community, Awesome ranked and social playlists, the epic conclusion of the Human-Covenant war. All that hype and excitement made Halo 3 such a memorable experience.

Which is why I strongly believe that all that love we have for H3 is just nostalgia. Halo 4 isn't perfect but not terrible either. 343 didn't tried to hype this game up as much as they could but fell just a tad bit short. Granted, they are a new developer and this is their first major game. For a first game, they did a fantastic job. I hope that 343 learns from this experience and make Halo 5 and 6 as epic as humanly possible.

 

[AvalonX]

The issue is 343i could have easily matched Halo 3 if they wanted to. When I play Halo 4 now its basically like playing a Fiesta playlist. 343i used a modified version of the Reach engine (which was a modified H3 engine) so the player mechanics are all there. Halo 4 is the way it is because of design decisions. I think there will be a shift for Halo 5, when your flagship game is being beaten by 2 year old shooters, NBA and Minecraft that means you did something wrong.

 

[Reptar7]

My opinion is that Halo 3 was a great game, and it was better than anything else out that time. It was almost like it was the only game, and everyone played it. The only thing close to it was COD4: Modern Warfare, which didn't come out until like 2 years later. Fast forward to today and Call of Duty has become a juggernaut, while the gaming landscape is full of FPS that are either modeled on Call of Duty or Halo.

Now comes the part you guys won't like. Halo 4 is a great game, and it is better than Halo 3 in every aspect excepts perhap its multiplayer maps (which still aren't bad and they have more detail). Halo 4 is years after Halo 3 and it fully realizes the technology capabilities of the Xbox 360. Graphically, it is a lot better. The campaign was more interesting, to me at least. There also were add ons beyond just multiplayer and campaign.

Halo 4 just isn't as big a deal as Halo 3 was because there are more options and lots of other good games. Halo 3 was way ahead of everyone else, whereas Halo 4 is just a member of the group of great shooters (COD, BF, Far Cry, Bioshock, etc). That doesn't take away from the fact that Halo 4 is an improvement on Halo 3.

 

[AvalonX]

I could not disagree more. Yes the graphics are better at the expense of the open sandbox. They had to remove campaign theater etc. The campaign was point to point, literally through portals. The enemy A.I. was poor and the forerunners were not really challenging, just bullet sponges. Let's not even start on MP, lack of ranks and a game so broken they are still fixing it.

 

[Joker99352]

Remove sprint? Slow movement was the biggest flaw in the Halo series to this point. There's nothing like seeing an enemy player walking around the corner and then trying to walk after him. It made the whole experience feel like it was in slow motion. Once I started playing Call of Duty online, I simply couldn't get back into the Halo multiplayer because of how slow it felt.

 

[AvalonX]

Did you play Halo 2 or 3? The only thing Sprint adds is players running away from you. The holy trinity of Halo was grenade-shoot-melee. Adding Sprint caused them to make the maps a lot bigger, its also made them add stopping power. So if someone has an AR now and you take fire you stutter. Past Halo's were fair because you and he other guy were on equal ground. That is gone now and Sprint is a big part of that. Sprinters with Mobility on just circling the maps with swords. Its a disgrace and the online population is proof of that.

 

[Joker99352]

Yeah, I played literally hundreds of hours of Halo 2. It's what introduced me to Halo multiplayer as a whole. It was amazing, but still a bit slow-paced. Like I said, it wasn't until I played other games with a sprint function that I realized how much it had been missing. I haven't played nearly as much Halo 4 online as I did Halo 2, but I've never had an issue with other players sprinting away from me. If anything, it's the other way around. I just hate the feeling that I'm walking everywhere, especially when it's a huge map and it takes forever to cross from one side to the other (without a vehicle, of course). And with people being so trigger-happy with the sniper rifles, walking around like a dope doesn't help my chances for survival.

I do think mobility is probably unnecessary. Adding a bit more sprint is one thing, but unlimited is way too unbalanced. I would support getting rid of that, or at least putting a limit on it.

 

[Zandril]

Hopefully, they can come close to matching Halo 3 with Halo 5. A lot of Halo fans are hoping for this.

But lately, success just hasn't been 343's strong side.

 

[Soku47]

I personally consider Halo 3 far superior to Halo 4, simply because it felt more like Halo. Though I guess that's because of the introduction to a whole 'nother species. I don't know, it's just that Halo 4 kind of felt like a glorified expansion pack to Halo 3 ha. I do agree though that Halo 4 just feels like another one of today's modern shooters. Like it's trying to play catch up or something.

 

[Gunz]

343 industries will never match Halo 3. The problem with 343 is that they have conformed to mainstream video-gaming. They introduced too many new, "flashy" concepts. It took away from the simplicity that was Halo 3.

Furthermore, they adopted the,"everybody is a winner," ranking system. Without the trueskill ranking system that Halo 3 had, the serious players no longer had a need to play once they had achieved the highest rank.

 

[CopGamerGirl]

Halo 3 is still my favorite of all but I'm pretty sure nostalgia will not allow us to ever see a new Halo in the same way. The industry is changing and everyone wants twitchy CoD shooters; even if they did create something refreshing like Halo 3 was, people wouldn't appreciate it.

 

[sparkblade14]

I don't think 343 can outshine the Bungie titles. Bungie revolutionized the industry and had a blockbuster with each game. Halo 4 was pretty lackluster. I honestly hope they do well with Halo 5, but I'm not holding my breath. I wish them the best of luck though.

 

[Livvy]

I dunno really. I think that if they get their act together than they could, but it seems like with every new game something is just...slightly lost, you know? The original Halo revolutionised everything, and then Halo 2 is held up as the perfect example since they had the time to take any issues they had and perfect them.

Then Halo 3 was just...more, and then they kept going

 

[cash_tuesday]

They will never match it, 343 just doesn't have what it takes, and coming from the dark future here: they totally failed and Halo 5 Guardians was a major disappointment. Horrible campaign, but I heard there were some pretty good steps taken in terms of their multiplayer.