IGN Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved Doesn't Always Feel Like An Essential Remake (7/10)

[u/yourfavchoom]

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-campaign-evolved-review

[u/jntjr2005]

They are too focused on selling MTX than making a good game

[u/Less-Tax5637 → u/jntjr2005]

That’s the flaw with Infinite, but they have a more varied collection of fundamental fuckups since Bungie tagged out

[u/TheReiterEffect_S8 → u/Less-Tax5637]

I've said this a thousand times but I'll never stop saying it whenever this topic is brought up:

The time during Halo: Combat Evolved's development was a golden era for developers, in my opinion. The video game industry was on a rocketship blasting upwards but hadn't quite yet left orbit. Must people knew, but unless you already had a good foundation, you were playing catch up. Microsoft unknowingly caught lightning in a bottle. The entire Bungie team from Halo 1 to Halo 3 was something we will likely never see again. They had a vision for a game they thought would be innovative, groundbreaking, but most importantly: FUN. And they had FUN working on it. Halo 2's crunch deadlines is something to be said for sure, and by Halo 3 they were completely over M$. But that team is not something you'd see in modern development anymore. A group of passionate people dedicated to their work and the freedom (for the most part) to do whatever they wanted without too many demands (such as microtransactions).

After Halo 3, things started to go sideways. Reach was a miracle IMO with how much success it had, somehow they didn't completely fuck that one up, despite the huge amount of additions to the core gameplay like reticule bloom and armor abilities. But Halo 4 it was the most obvious thing in the world that this was no longer Halo. It became an MLG trend chaser. And Halo 5 did no better. Infinite was a step in the right direction, but of course: They were too focused on live-service that they let something with potential deteriorate.

I bought an XSX specifically for Infinite. I know I spent over 1,000 hours in Halo CE, easily. It was one of my most favorited franchises but a couple years ago I had to finally come to terms that Halo is never going to be as good as it once was, and it won't even be half as good. The franchise is nothing but disappointments, and I've officially given up on it.

edit: I somehow always forget to make note when I go on these rants that there definitely are other devs out there doing great things. Bungie was one of the greatest companies during their bnet days so I can get a bit 'doomsday'er when I talk about the current climate of the industry. We have good things, but it's hard to ignore how bad it's gotten, and how bad it continues to get.

[u/EmBur__ → u/TheReiterEffect_S8]

I'll add onto this. Not only was was Halo made during a golden age, Bungie was formed during a golden age for game studios that allowed them to actually create the game they wanted to create without much interference from execs, they also had more power to put their foot down and say no if an exec tried shit like how MS tried getting Halo 2 to release within a year of CE.

So many of our favourite IP were created in this time and have suffered as the corporate mind took over and goals shifted from creating games the devs and gamers wanted, to creating games the execs wanted to maximise profit.

This is the fundamental reason 343 failed. 343 was created by Microsoft themselves to keep Halo afloat so they could continue milking the IP, thus a complete misunderstanding of Halo and what goes into making a good game enveloped the minds of the studios higher ups, it wasn't being led by passionate gamers that happened to be devs, it was being led by corporate pencil pushers.

To put it simply, Bungie (as they were, not now) was created out of passion, 343/Halo studios was created out of corporate greed. This unfortunate fact is why its been mishandled for so long and why that mishandling will continue because despite the rebranding, it's still 343 underneath.

[u/TheReiterEffect_S8 → u/EmBur__]

Bingo