The Future of Halo

Halo is one of my absolute favorite video game series. I remember getting the original XBOX for Halo: Combat Evolved and having so much fun playing the campaign, and especially hooking it up to my dorm's network and playing some 16 player multiplayer with others in my dorm. I enjoyed the sequels, the expanded story and everything. Even after Bungie passed the baton to 343 Studios for Halo 4 I continued to enjoy the series. But the future of Halo is now in turmoil with Microsoft handing the reins to Activision, the studio behind Call of Duty. I'm not sure what that means for the future of Halo, but it's probably not good.

I think there's a general consensus that the Halo story fell off a cliff after Bungie relinquished control to move onto other projects. I think there is something to that thought. Halo 4's story was a little convoluted, but I thought it was a good addition to the story. I enjoyed the single player campaign and the continuation of the saga. I recall the multiplayer being a little weak when compared to Halo 2 and 3, but my memory is a little hazy. And even then, with how good Halo 2 and 3's multiplayer were, they were big shoes to fill.

Halo 5 is where I feel like the story really started to take a hit. There was a lot of consternation that you didn't play the game purely as Master Chief. Given the history of the franchise, I can understand that disappointment, but it didn't really bother me. The game as a whole though, sort of marked the end for me. I enjoyed Halo 5, but Halo Infinite was mostly a miss.

Halo 5 set up the plot line of an evil Cortana. Cortana, your partner in crime through the original Halo trilogy. The emotional goodbye at the end of Halo 4. Her character was so incredibly important to the story and your character as Master Chief. To have her turn evil was a fantastic twist and something that would've set up Halo 6 (Halo Infinite) nicely. And instead, Halo Infinite just sort of blows by it with Weapon. Sure you get the emotional goodbye again at the end, but it doesn't hit the way you'd want something like that to hit, especially with the "new Cortana" already setup.

The one thing 343 Studios / Halo Studios did nail with Halo Infinite was the multiplayer. I very much enjoyed it. I kind of wish the customizations weren't tied to microtransactions, but whatever, the multiplayer gameplay was fun and that's what matters. None of the customizations made you more powerful or anything. They were just cosmetic.

Ever since Halo Infinite came out though, things have seemed to go downhill for both Halo, and even XBOX as a whole. Halo Studios backed off of promises about local co-op, and like Halo 5, had no local split screen which was one of the awesome things about the Halo games. It seemed like the direction of Halo was lost.

And now, with the layoffs at Microsoft, the (probably correct) resignation of Phil Spencer, the push towards absolute profitability over creativity and gaming risks, Halo and XBOX as a whole seem to have no direction.

Activision is taking over Halo. The studio behind the popular shooter Call of Duty now seemingly has control of the Halo franchise, one of the other most well-known first person shooter games. I'm really not sure how to feel about that. In terms of Halo multiplayer, it might not be all bad. I'd hope that they'd recognize that Halo's multiplayer is probably a little less realistic that Call of Duty's tends to be (although it's been years since I've played Call of Duty multiplayer) and has its own quirks and playability. But advancing the Halo story, expanding the lore? I don't really trust them to do that. There's rumors of a Master Chief origin story. My thought on that is a hard pass. A game that touches on humanity's first contact with the Covenant might be fascinating, but I'm not sure we need a game delving into Master Chief being kidnapped by Dr. Halsey and conscripted to be a super soldier. We have Halo Legends for that.

So the future of Halo right now looks pretty bleak. It looks like we might very well continue to get the remastered Halo trilogy as started by Halo: Campaign Evolved, but beyond that, I'm not sure how much of a future Halo has.

There is a part of me that thinks it would actually be kind of cool if Bungie were to regain creative control of Halo, but I'm sure that ship sailed long ago. Sony now owns Bungie and nostalgia doesn't always equate with good results. You'd almost wonder where Halo would be today though if they maintained control.