Halo 4 is the first chapter in an all-new
Halo triology, now developed by 343 Industries.
This latest installment will finally reveal the
fate of Master Chief (and his AI companion
Cortana) following the events of Halo 3. Just
this week, Microsoft announced that Halo 4 will
launch November 6 – making 2012 that much
sweeter for anyone with an Xbox 360.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled about Halo
4 when it was revealed at E3 last summer – in
fact, I joked that George Lucas must have taken
over the development of the franchise. Now that
some of the juicy details of Halo 4 have
actually been confirmed, I feel completely
different – “elated” would be an accurate
description. Everything that I have seen – the
trailers, teasers, Conan’s video, Game
Informer’s huge preview – has brought back that
Halo-loving side of me that I thought I’d never
see again after being crushed with
disappointment by Halo: Reach.
All this exciting Halo 4 news makes me
wonder; what new features will we see in Halo 4?
Obviously, the multiplayer concept was explored
in the GI preview, but what gameplay mechanics
will make Halo 4 stand out from its
predecessors? Here are the four kickass features
I would love to see implemented into Halo 4 by
343 Industries:
#4. Dynamic Melee Abilities
Right in the
kisser.
Although the melee attack in the Halo games
has always been a trusty method for dispatching
opponents, it has always been pretty basic –
press the melee button, thwack whatever happens
to be in front of you. This changed slightly
when the sword was introduced in Halo 2, with
the crazy lunges that could be pulled off – and
even further in Halo 3, with the addition of
“melee-swiping” (pressing the melee button
rather than lunging) and clashing sword attacks.
I think this idea needs to be taken further
with all melee weapons, and possibly even the
close-range attacks for the entire arsenal of
firearms in Halo 4. Again, while I think the
melee mechanic actually works better in the Halo
games than any other shooter, I think it would
be pretty cool to see some of the close-quarters
abilities of the SPARTANS come alive.
I am not exactly sure how it could be
incorporated into the control scheme, but what
if Halo 4’s melee button didn’t immediately fire
off a punch, but instead you could hold the
button and flick the right analog stick in one
of the four basic directions to pull off
different attacks? This would obviously prevent
you from turning or looking up and down, but you
would definitely still be mobile and able to
strafe or back away if necessary.
To be honest, I
wouldn’t complain if the melee attack in Halo 4
was exactly the same as it has always been – but
I definitely think it would be sweet to see more
dynamic attacks in the close-quarters combat
situations.
#
3. All-New “Load-Out” System
Customized
load-outs will change Halo for the
better
It has already been confirmed that Halo 4
will utilize a “Load-Out” system, just like the
Call of Duty franchise (and almost every other
major FPS series in modern gaming). This is
actually one of the things I am most excited and
nervous about – I want to see 343 Industries do
something unique with the load-out system,
rather than simply copying the exact same
“primary/secondary/equipment/perks” system that
has been in everything since the first Modern
Warfare game.
My idea is this: what if Halo 4’s load-out
system worked somewhat like that of the
inventory management from Resident Evil 4 and 5,
where you have a grid with limited amount of
space (maybe even broken up into “squares”), and
your inventory is composed of whatever you
choose to fit into that grid. For example, say
you have a 3×3 grid to work with – potentially 9
inventory spaces. Perhaps the battle rifle takes
up four spaces, your grenades take up two, while
your active camo module and pistol fill up the
rest of the space. Obviously this is just an
example, I think there could be even more depth
added to the system.
When discussing this idea amongst other Halo
players, the topic of weapon attachments and so
on came up – we agreed that Halo 4 probably
shouldn’t focus so much on customizable weapons,
and instead it should direct its customizable
options to unique armor sets equipped by each
player. Perhaps certain armors – purchased with
credits, earned by playing matches online –
could allow you to have more inventory space;
maybe others could boost your ammo supply. I
would really like to see Halo 4 differentiate
this aspect of its multiplayer component from
the rest of the genre; though it’s only #3 on
this list, I think a unique load-out system like
the one I’ve proposed could be a really exciting
part of the Halo 4 Xbox Live experience.
#
2. Proper SPARTAN Movement
SPARTANS are
always in Beast Mode.
Have you ever read the Halo novels? First of
all, if you never read Fall of Reach and you
enjoy the Halo video games, stop reading this
and pick that up immediately. Once you’ve
returned, you’ll understand something that is
actually somewhat disappointing about the Halo
video games: despite being pretty accurately
modeled as an 8-foot tall supersoldier, Master
Chief (and all SPARTANS, for that matter) has
never really reflected the acrobatic abilities
that all SPARTANS have in the novels.
In the Halo novels, a SPARTAN is more skilled
than a parkour master, Olympic gymnast, and
martial artist combined. With all the genetic
enhancements, even the bulky armor suit
shouldn’t prevent a SPARTAN from kicking every
ass on the planet with ease, not to mention
smoothly navigating just about every surface and
obstacle in his or her path. Rather than being
somewhat slow and lofty, I feel like Master
Chief should be more like the character from
Crysis 2 – nimble, quick on his feet, and
definitely capable of grabbing a ledge and
pulling himself up without breaking a sweat.
Halo 4 really needs to implement a smooth
system of movement similar to that of Crysis 2
or even Brink, though I hate to muddy up this
editorial with discussion of such abomidable
games as Brink. One thing that it did very well
was movement; you were able to run around the
environment and vault over just about any
reasonably-sized obstacle, making the otherwise
terrible game feel pretty damn nice to control.
Since all players online have the ability to
sprint at any time, why not make the general
feeling of movement more acrobatic and fast-
paced? This idea goes very well with #4 on this
list (dynamic melee mechanics), and could make
Master Chief feel as much like a badass during
gameplay as he is during all those awesome cut-
scenes.
#1. Spot-Dodge
What if you
could dodge fatal attacks?
Imagine you’re playing a heated round of Team
Slayer. Some crafty jerk on the other team
scooped up the SPARTAN Laser, and has been
picking off your teammates left and right. You
spot a sniper rifle out in the open, but that
bastard sees it – and he’s just waiting to blow
you to smithereens if you foolishly take the
bait.
But what if you could put those awesome
SPARTAN acrobatics to use in yet another
incredibly useful way? Even better, what if this
mechanic required skill to pull off effectively,
serving as a legitimate “risk-reward” gameplay
concept? What if you could just press a button,
and at the very last second, roll to the side or
leap into the air and dodge the laser blast?
The “Spot-Dodge”, as I like to call it, was
actually one of the ideas I wanted to see most
in Halo: Reach, but obviously it never happened.
I have actually debated this idea with some of
my most hardcore, Halo-loving friends, and all
of us seem to agree that it would be pretty cool
to be able to pull off a maneuver that allows
you to survive certain one-hit-kill attacks,
such as the charged SPARTAN laser and even the
rocket launcher. Obviously there would need to
be limitations; one idea was that you could only
pull off the dodge ability if you were facing
the attacker. Perhaps you could even pull off
the dodge multiple times in a row – that could
potentially make Team Rockets/Lasers games even
more insane than they already are.
So, what do you think about all of
these ideas? What are your thoughts on Halo 4 in
general? Let us know how you feel in the
comments section! I’d love to engage in some
discussion and speculation about Halo 4!
