Not lost, but confused. And do you know who is confused? Parts of this community including myself.
The rather interesting language that some people use such as "prey" , "pursits", "trinity of halo gameplay"...
I am not sure why i feel the way i do towards halo entirely. I dont know why I feel the way i feel towards halo infinite. But I do know I hate the way I feel towards part of this community becasue they think they know why they feel towards those things.
How about lets have a dialogue and discussion before we make up our minds about things? A dialogue, and not a monalogue, not a lecture.
What makes halo halo are many things.
Here are some parts of what I think makes halo, halo.
Simple yet fun, appealing and rich gameplay, aesthetics, characters, story, community, lore, music, ai, sounds, and sandbox (i might be missing like 20 other things :P)
To narrrow that down, some symbolic staples of the franchise, like sheilds as a base trait, the master chief, a halo ring... etc
When we talk about our expereinces with halo, I beleive often times some of us re-imagine what our first expereince was like.
For me, that was halo CE... a halo that started a group of traditions that followed through arguably all the halos... and some other traditions that were followed through a few halos, reintroduced in other halos, removed in others. *Some* of which continued through all 3 of the first trilogy.
Some traditions were introduced after CE, like dual weilding and hijacking in halo 2.
So what halo means and represents is a very diverse set of range of things. For me: something that was present in ALL of the previous halos, including CE,2,3,4, and 5... but not in infinite is a spectacular sky box. *gasp*
Some thing that i believe was in CE,2, and 3... but not in 4 and 5, but in halo infinite is the way campaign gameplay plays out... at least from what *I felt* from seeing someone else play it.
Grapple hook is something new, I dont know how I feel about it yet. Yet you have people who are complaining about its existence, and people who praise it before even playing it themselves or giving it much thought. Im conflicted. not sure how to feel about it, reserving my opinon for now.
Art style: different people can hold different opinions... my opinion is brtues shouldnt be hairless, and that is my only complaint that i recognize as of the moment.
What im doing here is offering you a method of communicating your ideas, thoughts and opinions, being opinionated, while also not being a jerk to others (see what i did there? I was a jerk by being passive aggresive, that, and even this comment, is a poor way of communicating.)
Who is lost? its us. The majority, including 343, including the community, including the og. Identity in philosophy is very complicated. Everything that built up to or is associated with our halo experience contributes. It can even be playing *Xbox*... it can even be the controller... it can be your freinds that you used to play with. Or it could be the specific scenarios that you ended up having while playing halo.
When people say this is halo, or this isnt halo, that is their personal preference , and they are entitled to that. It doesnt mean they are correct or incorrect, but the essence of what they are trying to communicate is true to themselves (unless... they are lying to themselves XD)
Consider that they want to repeat an expereince they found plesant to themselves. I liked in halo 4 flying the broadsword and the music that played during it. I liked lasky. Both of which i associate with halo. I liked evade in halo reach... a feature i actually fantasized having since halo 3. You bet I believe its halo.
How about armor lock, jet packs, thruster packs....
Yes...
But i will make an exception. If it was clearly inspired by other games, to the point where it takes the identity of another franchise, then you might argue then that it seems to be un-halo lol. Or more accurately, it feels more like the expereinces you had another game more than it feels like your previous experiences of halo.
Like sprint to many many people. Like clamber and slide to many many people. For me, becasue im a noob and I dont play many other games, I find it fine... since i didnt play many other games. If halo had dolphin dive like black ops, maybe then id feel like it didnt belong, becuase it seems something like i would experience in the game i played very often.
Extending this idea, as long as halo remains unique... that seems like the route we want to take with respect to its identity.
That and continuity...