So, I know, very dramatic title. I have been playing Halo since the day CE was released. I have logged literally thousands of hours into Halo 2 including a mind boggling number of runs through the campaign, glitch hunting, and learning different speed running tricks to make it through the legendary campaign without going *completely* bald. I've played multiplayer in LAN parties or splitscreen with friends and family since days I can hardly remember because I was so young when I first started playing (my parents weren't exactly scrupulous when it came to censoring things that didn't involve nudity or sexual content). For me, Halo was one of the biggest parts of my childhood. Please understand that when I say this series means a lot to me, I know it is a stupid thing to have as my fondest memories, but it was one of the few escapes in an otherwise shitty childhood full of abuse and emotional neglect. So, when I say that seeing the state of Halo right now is physically painful for me, I am being pitifully genuine.Now, I am not one of the Halo purists that believes Bungie=good, 343=bad. I enjoy the story of Halo 4 thoroughly (in my opinion, the best story in the series from a purely literary view). I really enjoy Halo 5 multiplayer, I think it is better than both CE multiplayer and Reach multiplayer (CE was fun, but obviously dated. Reach was the second worst in the series, just edging out over Halo 4 because it still *felt* like a Halo game to me.) There are even components of Halo 5 Multiplayer I like better than many of the offerings in the beloved Halo 3 multiplayer (Warzone is incredibly fun. It's just a shame it takes so long to get into a game from my experience.) 343 has made some good games, but those games have been filled with mistakes that have greatly tarnished the series.Enter Halo Infinite. This was 343's chance to buck the yoke of past failures and move forward into the future. Tight lipped marketing teased just enough about art direction and character to show that they had listened! Halo looked like Halo, Chief has perhaps the best look he has had in the series. The Banished were in! Something new to the series during the tenure of 343 that I actually really liked! They took something that was their own, but still felt like Halo and put it into the game. I was excited, they had finally made me feel like they understood they could put their own spin and direction on the series without ignoring the people who have made this series one of the most beloved and successful franchises in the history of gaming. Then came the gameplay reveal and I was... Disappointed. Not angry mind you, I actually really liked the gameplay itself. The art direction looked cool, there were cool new sandbox elements, the grappling hook turned out seeming pretty damn fun to use. I even really dug the idea of a semi-open world sandbox and liked the way encounters played out. The only issue, it seemed, was mediocre lighting, a few subtractions from the sandbox that were loved and to a much lesser degree I didn't like the inclusion of sprint (though this is something that has never been and will never be a total deal breaker for me.) So yes, I was disappointed that the first showing after years of work and holding things close to the chest the game still looked incomplete with only a few months to launch. It wasn't that I had lost excitement, I honestly didn't care about lighting as much as many, I was more annoyed that 343 had shown they hadn't learned from their past mistakes.We've been through this rodeo twice, 343 releases a game in an incomplete or broken state, people get mad, they fix it and it becomes a pretty solid game over time, but it is too late and people have already jumped ship. This was one of the biggest lessons they should have learned by now and it seemed they somehow didn't. Some time passed though, and MCC started to get better and better, and we learned they made the decision to delay Halo to make sure it was complete! They were listening to community feedback, they were promising awesome customization (which is the only reason why I rate Halo Reach highly in spite of one of, in my opinion, the worst multiplayers in the series), they were making things like grappling hooks equipment in the sandbox! Not only that, they were knocking MCC out of the park all of the sudden, all good news! Faith restored. I became something of a 343 apologist for a short period there."Yeah, the shotgun isn't there, but they can release that later and it isn't too bad to miss out on a gun or two from the old sandbox.""Sure the lighting was bad, but the graphics outside of that looked pretty good, and the art direction was exactly what many of were hoping for!"And finally, "Coatings sound scary, but I am sure they are just cool patterns and we can change colors!"Then, Halo 4 came to MCC, they had wildly improved the customization (Seriously, it approaches reach in my opinion,) they had added new options, and they had a little blurb next to different armor patterns. "Coatings" they called them, and you could change the color independently! They were listening, I was right, and 343 had learned that ignoring the community was stupid so they gave us a little breadcrumb to show us they were listening. Then, not terribly long after (and I have to believe as a result of that little mishap), they let us know the truth. They were removing a major tenant of spartan customization that has been around practically forever. Let me level with you, I honestly don't care all that much about coatings versus colors. Yeah, I will miss the longstanding tradition I have of making my spartan colors match the colors of the A-team van as closely as possible, and then using the EOD helmet so I look like a badass red and black stormtrooper... But, frankly, you rarely see that in multiplayer or campaign anyways. 98% of the time spent playing you are either red, blue, or green. The problem with this change isn't that I can't live without my childishly A-team themed spartan, it is simply that 343 just isn't listening to us.They have shown time and again, through broken releases, incomplete releases, arrogant changes to make the series *theirs* without giving proper respect to the people who made this series the cultural phenomenon it was, and much more. This change isn't the reason I am upset, this change is only a part of a long history of a one sided relationship with a company I want to believe cares (and I honestly believe that the MCC team at least cares because they have done so much to show they are listening) but clearly is either too arrogant, ignorant, or belligerent to care what their community wants. Many of you may think this is a REALLY stupid and meaningless thing to get upset over, and you know what: you are absolutely right.In the grand scheme of my life or anyone else's life, a video game will never be more important than their family, their home, their health, their livelihood, or any of those other truly essential things. I understand that. Even if I have great memories, even if it hurts to see something I love mistreated by a company I want to like in spite of the fact that they keep showing (again, outside of the incredible MCC team) that they don't care enough about the fans to listen: at the end of the day it *is* just a videogame. It might hurt, but if I choose not to spend $60 because I don't like the direction a video game is going it will be no skin off of my back. I won't lose my house, my wife, my kids, my job, or my car because I didn't get a $60 videogame. I will just move on and spend my $60 on something else, and you have to believe that the majority who isn't nearly as attached to the series will do the same with far less trepidation. But, it might help to remember that for the developers of the game, this IS their livelihood. This game pays their rent, pays their mortgage, puts clothes on their kids back. So , while for most of us the choice not to buy this game is no more than a passing thought or a pang of longing for what was: for the people who are making this game it is so much more important that people like me choose to spend their $60 on something that is *just* a videogame at the end of the day. via /r/halo https://ift.tt/3dQwMiL
No comments:
Post a Comment