- jonesy90000
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- Exalted Legendary Member
Halo Combat Evolved: This was the base of the Halo series, this game put a heavy emphasis on moving around the map to get power weapons and it also tried hard to start players on a even footing
Halo 2: This game introduced an online Mutiplayer component to the series along with duel wielding weapons, plus vehicle jacking. The game also removed visible health and the need for Heal Packs along with it.
Halo 3: This game introduced the forge and Theater mode, it also added equipment.
Halo 3 ODST: This game introduced the firefight mode, brought back healthpacks and added the visor mode.
Halo Reach: This game added a disparity between the strength of the Elite and Spartan player models, it added assassinations and it also converted equipment into armor abilities. (It was also was the first halo to include something similar to a load out system.)
Halo CEA: A remake so I won't say much on this.
Halo 4: This game made sprint usable at all times, it added loadouts and it removed most weapons from the maps (Preferring that players instead use the new support package system.)
Look at the higher on this page who posted a more comprehensive list of the changes throughout the series.
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Alright, so why did I put that up there? Well it was to show one of two things.
1) Halo has incorporated changes throughout the franchises history.
2) And that there was a change in the direction of Halo after Halo 3.
Now I'm actually going to focus on the later point throughout the rest of this post but if you feel the need to disagree with me on the first point, by all means just quote the first point of my post and we will get moving with the debating.
So yer, what do I mean by there was a change in the direction that Halo was moving? Well if you look at Halo Combat Evolved through to Halo 3 you will see a heavy focus on a more arena style of play, players started equal and they had to move around the map to gain a temporary advantage over there peers but at no point did any player start a game on a lower footing.
Now we move towards Reach and Halo 4, you see the big change here is that the game moved towards the trends that other first person shooters use. For example, the games started to put emphasis on making your tactical choices before you entered the battle (Loadout system) and started lowering the amount of equipment you could find on a map (Less grenades and obviously no equipment).
I'm not going to say that these changes are bad because they are not, it's just a new direction for the franchise. What I will say however is that these changes have been done in the wrong way as it has alienated a large amount of the original player base and it hasn't satisfied a large amount of the new target audience.
You see the thing with other First Person Shooters is that they have adopted this new style of Gameplay to maximize on another feature of there game which is the carrot and stick unlock system. These games are designed to reward you with a new piece of equipment every few games and to make using new piece of equipment as enjoyable as possible until you unlock the next piece of gear (Which is why easier to use equipment like Grenade Launchers are unlocked first).
If they want to keep the franchise popular while sticking to this new direction, you will find the franchise slowly but sorely introducing the carrot and stick method of prolonging gameplay.
Lastly I would just like to say there is a reason I haven't mentioned ODST in the second part of my post. The reason is that it was the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to make the franchise go in both directions. They could of used ODST to go down the road most other First Person Shooters are going down and they could have used the new trilogy to expand on the old direction (Games like Reach could have been used to cross the two directions.)
Gah, there might be some incoherence in this post as I left it and came back half way through writing it. Oh and BTW, I don't mind Halo 4... I though it was going to be a terrible game but I was surprised to find I was wrong enough to still get though the campaign on the game before getting bored.
[Edited on 01.02.2013 11:48 AM PST]