This thread is inspired by another: view original post
With the last two Halo games Bungie made, ODST and Reach, it was apparent to me that they [Edit: Bungie] were ready to try very new and different things than what they were doing with Halos 1-3. People who call Halo 3 the "last Halo" are exactly right. The issue is that many seem to assume "If it doesn't fit the established Halo formula, it's bad." Taken on their own merits, ODST and Reach were very creative. A departure from the "Formula."
One essential part of what made Halo great was the sense of ownership of the character. Not seeing Master Chiefs/Noble 6/The Rookie's faces; then of course armor permutations going from solid color options in Halo CE to full armor customization in Reach. Seeing as their expansion of these themes was more or less linear, and given the extremely fast evolution of the Halo universe (H3>ODST>Reach are drastically different), Destiny is likely going to be something of an exponential increase in many areas. As for my topic, in terms of customization. I expect there will be a whole lot. This is pretty obvious, but it's the easiest to type about at 12am.
If anyone feels like sounding brainy on the internet, I'd love to hear any other themes or trends you have noticed throughout Bungie games, or even just the Halo series. I'm pointing out just one - the theme of personalization and ownership of the player character. Many other possibilities include weapon balance trends, UI trends, HUD trends, anything!
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Edited by ash: 1/26/2013 1:37:24 AMUm, I think Halo Reach was the last (Bungie) Halo. I don't think Reach was a major departure from the Halo formula at all. To me it was a full-blooded Halo bursting at the seams with every feature from the previous games. It had a linear campaign, it had online multiplayer, it had forge, it had theatre and it also added ODST's Firefight for good measure. There was no Master Chief of course, but that doesn't really impact how the gameplay evolves. The most significant change was Armour Abilities, but they were kind of an evolution of equipment. Everything was just incremental improvement. The most significant departure was ODST, yes. It was more experimental. The structure of the campaign was quite different (and I loved it). Obviously, swapping competitive multiplayer for Firefight was another big departure from the Halo norm. But it makes sense that it would be different as it was a smaller project.