So, seeing the various reactions here 343 has obviously met a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with this game, as it was pretty much expected
But the first day sales suggest that the game will do well enough to justify a Halo 5, even though we don't know how well it will sell through the next few months (most of the previous Halo games kept selling very well).
So what should change in Halo 5?
- I think 343 should get more bold and make some serious changes. Get rid of more sandbox elements and replace them with some radically new ones. We've seen enough of Wraiths and Carbines and Phantoms. If anyone wants to play such a Halo game, get beck to anything from CE to 4 and let us have new stuff in 5.
For example, get the Storm Covenant fraction equipped with Forerunner armor and weapons. The one thing the Didact has never been short of is tech, they have machines to mine entire planets without help so he could equip all his worshipers with the best things available.
Get the eel-creatures that form into the Hunters into new shapes with Forerunner tech, make Grunts fearsome, and Elites terrifying. Bring in the War Sphinxes from the books that can work with a pilot or on their own and even combine into a more powerful version. Also add at least one more type of Promethean that has good synergies with the existing ones to create more complex encounters.
And of course it's time to face real, living Forerunners too. I still think that the ending monologue takes place in some surviving community, on another shield world or some other yet unknown installation. The Didact should be able to convince some of them to join him in the campaign against humanity.
- Get the Chief into some Mark VII armor to compensate. Bungie's philosophy was that it's OK to have overpowered stuff in the game as long as everything is overpowered. Just think about it, how many games have a pistol that's useful throughout the entire campaign? You can keep scope-headshotting Crawlers until the very end, it's a perfectly valid approach.
Also give him new UNSC weapons. It's overkill to keep all the favorites - BR, DMR, SR, Magnum etc. - and leave no room for some innovative new stuff. Humanity has been adopting Forerunner tech, so there should be some nice new gadgets. It's already been strange to have billions invested in augmenting and armoring Spartans and then having them use the same weapons that regular marines have. Good survivability and efficiency, yes, but where's the firepower?
Okay, there were some new weapons in the campaign but I've found that lack of extra ammo for the SAW made it almost invisible, you always had to replace it with something else after like 2-3 kills; same with the otherwise excellent railgun. You get to kill 3-4 Knights and then goodbye.
- Also, do more things to the Chief. He should slowly become even more than a Spartan II, and he has to in order to defeat any Forerunners, not to mention the Didact himself.
- Although, considering the hints in the novels, these two may have to join forces against the Precursor/Flood threat in the end... Maybe even have the Didact redeem himself? Or would that make him too Darth Vader?
- Keep the current story direction. Yes some people liked the bright colored aliens and all, but there's been enough of this as well. I like the Chief talking more, having some depth, and the game treading into classical sci-fi territory.
And H4 had it's share of humor and even some nice Star Wars references - Cortana in the Ghost escape scene: "It's not like I can get out and push!" reminded me of Leia at the beginning of Empire, offering to do the same with the Falcon. And final level trench run, of course.
- While I like Lasky and Palmer could get more interesting in the future as well, it's still time to bring the Arbiter back. He's the closest thing to a friend that the Chief has.
- Bring the Flood back. But make it fun for everyone, even the haters. It should be possible to get it right.
- Unsure about Cortana, but a Halo game without Jen Taylor?
- Also, a Halo game without a Halo? As far as we know Ifinity has only got to Installations 3 and 5, with 4 destroyed there should still be another three and they can all have something special to them. Not sure what happened to the Ark either.
Can't really comment on multiplayer
And I'm sure the graphics will get better. Gunplay and other mechanics are spot on already, although the AI seemed to falter occasionally and encounters were scaled down a little. But more CPU power in the next Xbox will surely help here...
the return of MIA Spartan-IIs. MC's old friends.
