This is a video that I think all of 343 industries should watch. Microsoft entrusted Halo to you, a series so beloved and cherished by so many people. Bungie was the studio that had built that legacy. In a way, all of you have inherited the Mantle of Responsibility from those before you. Many fans have already lost their faith in your handling of the series, but there are still many people who are counting on you all to make Halo the thing that we love so dearly. Respect the source material, and continue the philosophy of how Halo was and is meant to be designed.
https://youtu.be/6qfx9eoB-88
The following is a wish list for Halo 6. I really want Halo 6 to be the best Halo game yet, and I feel that these things will help it achieve that goal.
1. Don't make the Halo 6 "simulation" completely depend around 60 frames per second. Allow it to be able to function at all kinds of FPS.
2. Halo 6 needs to have AT LEAST 2 player splitscreen in Campaign, Custom Games, Forge, and (Halo: Reach-style) Firefight (that doesn't require Xbox Live Gold). 4 player splitscreen would be highly preferable for Custom Games and Forge.
3. Custom Games, Forge, and a Reach/ODST style Firefight should not require Xbox Live Gold to play locally.
4. Customizable or all black undersuits/techsuits. Please!
5. Arbiter should have his Halo 3 Elite/Sangheili anatomy (Arbiter's face shape, skin, etc. should look like it did in Halo 3, except Arbiter would look aged and older), not the Elite anatomy that started with Halo 4 and the kind he has in Halo 5.
6. Bring back all of the Halo 3 armor permutation designs please! (EOD, CQB, maybe Hayabusa, original Rogue! MK VI armor's chestplate should look more like it did in Halo 2 and 3, make Recon look like Halo 3 Recon without the huge jaw fins, crotch and waist armor, inner-thigh layered plating)
Edit: The 2017 helmets seem to fix most of these. Good job 343i! But the body armor could still use a little work.
7. Interchangeable armor pieces (helmet, chest, shoulders, legs, possibly more, like Reach)
8. Bring back the Falcon (an airborne troop transport), Troop Transport Warthog (multiple Spartans can sit in the back, why doesn't the Scout Warthog do this?), Chopper, Revenant, H2A Gungoose, Brute Prowler (maybe)
9. Perhaps a Forerunner tank?
10. Bring back some of the classic weapon designs like the CE through 3 Shotgun and the unique side-magazine caseless SMG
11. Make the Assault Rifle have 32 rounds in a magazine!
12. Have the 12-round-magazine-capacity super-fast-reload CE shotgun return as a power weapon variant/REQ variant.
13. Wacky, less dramatic stances mixed in with the serious ones.
14. Opinion: Your skill/rank in multiplayer should NOT be determined by whether your team wins or loses AT ALL. Your skill used to determine who you are matched against in matchmaking should be determined by how skilled you are as a player and how much you contribute to your team.
15. Perhaps consider Halo 6 to not have sprint or Smart-Link. Part of what originally made Halo so unique and successful was that it didn't have sprint or aim down sights. And the few weapons that did have aim down sights weren't even really aim down sights — it was zooming, allowing the player to see enemies farther away. With sprint, combat is separate from movement. Sprinting prevents the player from shooting, and with maps designed around sprint, if a player chooses to be gun ready and walks, then he/she will be vulnerable for not being able to cover distances quicker. There is much more discussion to be had on this which I will not put here for now. If Halo 6 doesn't have sprint or aim down sights animations or Smart Link on every weapon, it would stand out even more in the FPS market and potentially more people would want to buy and play it because it would be refreshing.
16. Don't try to make Halo appeal to the Call of Duty audience or a "wider audience" by introducing aim down sights animations or sprint or loadouts. Respect Halo's roots, its original vision, and seek to constantly improve that. Do not try to copy other games and what they are doing. Innovate as a developer. Halo used to be the leader, the game that would set the bar. Now, it seems to just follow the trends. Not completely, but I think it still does.
17. Do not intentionally and exhaustingly try to make Halo 6 a "competitive" esports game. Bungie did not set out to make Halo the greatest competitive FPS in 2001 with CE — Bungie set out to make a fun game, and the rest is history. Halo did not become the esports giant that it did in the Halo 2/3 days because Bungie was trying super hard to make Halo an esports game, Bungie focused on making Halo fun and naturally competitive first, and then the community turned it into the esports giant that it was. If Halo 6 is a genuinely fun game that players naturally want to compete in and stick with for years to come, then it will become a major esports title. Do not try to force Halo 6 to become the esports king like the original trilogy was – that's what I feel was done with Halo 5.
https://youtu.be/6qfx9eoB-88
The following is a wish list for Halo 6. I really want Halo 6 to be the best Halo game yet, and I feel that these things will help it achieve that goal.
1. Don't make the Halo 6 "simulation" completely depend around 60 frames per second. Allow it to be able to function at all kinds of FPS.
2. Halo 6 needs to have AT LEAST 2 player splitscreen in Campaign, Custom Games, Forge, and (Halo: Reach-style) Firefight (that doesn't require Xbox Live Gold). 4 player splitscreen would be highly preferable for Custom Games and Forge.
3. Custom Games, Forge, and a Reach/ODST style Firefight should not require Xbox Live Gold to play locally.
4. Customizable or all black undersuits/techsuits. Please!
5. Arbiter should have his Halo 3 Elite/Sangheili anatomy (Arbiter's face shape, skin, etc. should look like it did in Halo 3, except Arbiter would look aged and older), not the Elite anatomy that started with Halo 4 and the kind he has in Halo 5.
6. Bring back all of the Halo 3 armor permutation designs please! (EOD, CQB, maybe Hayabusa, original Rogue! MK VI armor's chestplate should look more like it did in Halo 2 and 3, make Recon look like Halo 3 Recon without the huge jaw fins, crotch and waist armor, inner-thigh layered plating)
Edit: The 2017 helmets seem to fix most of these. Good job 343i! But the body armor could still use a little work.
7. Interchangeable armor pieces (helmet, chest, shoulders, legs, possibly more, like Reach)
8. Bring back the Falcon (an airborne troop transport), Troop Transport Warthog (multiple Spartans can sit in the back, why doesn't the Scout Warthog do this?), Chopper, Revenant, H2A Gungoose, Brute Prowler (maybe)
9. Perhaps a Forerunner tank?
10. Bring back some of the classic weapon designs like the CE through 3 Shotgun and the unique side-magazine caseless SMG
11. Make the Assault Rifle have 32 rounds in a magazine!
12. Have the 12-round-magazine-capacity super-fast-reload CE shotgun return as a power weapon variant/REQ variant.
13. Wacky, less dramatic stances mixed in with the serious ones.
14. Opinion: Your skill/rank in multiplayer should NOT be determined by whether your team wins or loses AT ALL. Your skill used to determine who you are matched against in matchmaking should be determined by how skilled you are as a player and how much you contribute to your team.
15. Perhaps consider Halo 6 to not have sprint or Smart-Link. Part of what originally made Halo so unique and successful was that it didn't have sprint or aim down sights. And the few weapons that did have aim down sights weren't even really aim down sights — it was zooming, allowing the player to see enemies farther away. With sprint, combat is separate from movement. Sprinting prevents the player from shooting, and with maps designed around sprint, if a player chooses to be gun ready and walks, then he/she will be vulnerable for not being able to cover distances quicker. There is much more discussion to be had on this which I will not put here for now. If Halo 6 doesn't have sprint or aim down sights animations or Smart Link on every weapon, it would stand out even more in the FPS market and potentially more people would want to buy and play it because it would be refreshing.
16. Don't try to make Halo appeal to the Call of Duty audience or a "wider audience" by introducing aim down sights animations or sprint or loadouts. Respect Halo's roots, its original vision, and seek to constantly improve that. Do not try to copy other games and what they are doing. Innovate as a developer. Halo used to be the leader, the game that would set the bar. Now, it seems to just follow the trends. Not completely, but I think it still does.
17. Do not intentionally and exhaustingly try to make Halo 6 a "competitive" esports game. Bungie did not set out to make Halo the greatest competitive FPS in 2001 with CE — Bungie set out to make a fun game, and the rest is history. Halo did not become the esports giant that it did in the Halo 2/3 days because Bungie was trying super hard to make Halo an esports game, Bungie focused on making Halo fun and naturally competitive first, and then the community turned it into the esports giant that it was. If Halo 6 is a genuinely fun game that players naturally want to compete in and stick with for years to come, then it will become a major esports title. Do not try to force Halo 6 to become the esports king like the original trilogy was – that's what I feel was done with Halo 5.
