Halo 4 Wish List

Halo: Reach is finally out in stores and receiving favorable reviews from critics and fans alike. While we're glad that Bungie has ended its involvement with the series a high note, we're sure to see more from Microsoft's flagship franchise in the future. There's simply no way MS will let its most popular and exclusive sci-fi action series end just because Bungie wants to move on and try something new. Before you shudder at the thought of endless Halo sequels, the departure of Bungie signals an exciting time for the series, opening the opportunity for a new developer to bring fresh ideas to the table. Whoever ends up making the next Halo game, here's a list of things we wouldn't mind seeing.

Wouldn't it be cool if the next Halo game had...

The Ability To Carry More Than Two Weapons

The original Halo invented the two weapon limit in first-person shooters, and the restriction has served the genre well. Only having two weapons at a given time forces players to be resourceful, and gives the developer greater control over the action.  The sense of realism instilled by a two weapon limit makes a lot of sense for military shooters, but for Halo the mechanic has become an unnecessary burden, given the franchise's vast and creative arsenal.

Halo games throw you into constant chaos. At any given time you might face a dozen enemies packing different overpowered alien weapons, or be expected to single-handedly take down a fleet of alien vehicles - why are our hands still being tied? Passing up a sniper rifle or rocket launcher because it only packs a few rounds of ammo is a bummer, and doesn't make a game about invading aliens and space marines any more realistic. Let us carry a full arsenal into battle so that we can take on enemies the way we see fit.

New Enemies

Halo's enemies are as iconic as Master Chief himself, but it's time for a change. The original Halo had the subtitle "Combat Evolved," but you can only evolve gameplay so much when you're shooting the same grunts, jackals, and elites game in and game out.  Sure, subsequent installments introduced brutes and different subclasses of enemies, but we've still been engaged in basically the same war for almost a decade now, and the tactics that worked in the first game are just as viable in Reach.

The next Halo should introduce a completely new threat to mankind, one that makes the Covenant look tame in comparison. Not only would a new foe change up the action and provide gamers with the novelty of discovering and adapting to the new adversary, it would allow the developer to create new weapons and vehicles for us to play with as well.

Vehicles That Are Fun To Operate

Back when the original Halo came out, not a lot of gamers had experience switching between first-person shooting and operating vehicles on the fly - especially on consoles. Bungie eased the transition by making the vehicles control as similarly to being on foot as possible. As a result, Halo's vehicles are definitely easy to pilot - but it doesn't actually feel like you're in control. Instead, you merely point in the direction you would like to go and hope the vehicle corresponds.

Whether the decision to dumb down vehicle controls was necessary for the time is debatable, but one thing's for sure: Gamers have grown up since then. So how about making driving fun? Games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 have featured exciting driving segments by staying in a first-person perspective and utilizing traditional racing controls. Some of Halo's vehicles demand a third-person view, but for the love of God, give us real steering mechanics already!

A Comprehensible Story

Maybe it's just me, but for some reason whenever a Halo game gets to the story bits, my eyes instantly glaze over. Perhaps the reason I have trouble following Halo's storyline is that a lot of the plot feels like it was created just to lead from point A to point B, or the fact that the onscreen action rarely matches the storyline (I'm saving the galaxy by shooting an orb with a laser and pressing a button how?). Or maybe Halo's fiction just doesn't make any d*mn sense (I still don't know what was with the Little Shop of Horrors plant at the end of the second game).

Whatever the reason, now is the perfect time to change up the fiction. A new storyline is a great opportunity for the next developer to set the tone for the future of the franchise. We wouldn't mind seeing the next game explore the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana more, but perhaps the best move would be to jump a couple hundred years into the future and do something completely different. Whatever the developer decides, we hope they limit the number of surprise twists to a comprehensible level. And please, no more talking plants.

Another Great Soundtrack

Here's one aspect of the Halo series that we don't want to see changed: the iconic soundtracks. Few franchises have such epic and memorable scores as Halo, but now that Bungie is leaving, so is Halo's brilliant audio director and composer, Marty O'Donnell. The next Halo game will probably have enough clout to snag a big name composer, but we hope the next developer picks a really great copycat instead.

A Less Linear Battlefield

Every Halo game features at least a couple of large-scale firefights that play out across a giant battlefield. They're awesome. Unfortunately, the player also spends a lot of his or her time traversing linear paths and tracking down boring objectives in a rigid order. The next Halo should go big: Give players a more open world, with dynamic objectives that change based on your decisions. Take a cue from Mass Effect and present players with difficult decisions in the context of gameplay: Do you head behind enemy lines to attempt a daring rescue of your squad mates? Or do you sacrifice them in order to defend a human colony that's under siege? Despite being a Master Chief, Halo games always have you taking orders. We're tired of being led around by the hand - give us an open battlefield and let us call the shots.

Better Characters

Speaking of the big man in charge...Master Chief is instantly recognizable to gamers, but the Spartan aesthetic makes it difficult to tell a compelling story because you can't see any emotion behind a giant, reflective helmet. Halo Reach: tried to remedy this by having characters take off their helmets during some of the cutscenes, but that only proved the problem isn't just obstructive armor - it's the stoic space marines underneath the heaps of metal. For a Halo game to win over detractors, it needs to tell a story that people care about, and that starts with empathetic characters. Ditch the soldier clichés, the stupid accents, and mediocre voice acting, and make them do something more than kick ass and eventually die. Also, take a page from Gears of War and incorporate real characters into the co-op so that our teammates aren't just  unexplained Spartans with no connection to the story.

Upgradeable Mechanics

 Halo: Reach features an intuitive XP system that grants players points regardless of what mode they're playing in. Garnering these points is addictive and fun, but the only upgrades you can purchase with XP are purely aesthetic, such different (but very similar-looking) pieces of armor for your character. In the next Halo, we would like to see some gameplay incentives for gaining XP, be it stronger armor, greater carrying capacity for ammo/grenades, or even new ammo types or weapon functionality. The developer would run the risk of unbalancing multiplayer with such additions, but games like Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2 managed to figure it out - and Halo's balance is kind of sketchy anyway. We don't want to see Halo become an RPG, but if you want players to invest hundreds of hours into a single title, why not reward them for their devotion with upgraded gameplay?

More Co-op Multiplayer

Multiplayer is a big reason Halo has remained popular over the years, and part of that popularity stems from the creative multiplayer modes that Bungie has dreamed up. Halo: Reach is no exception, with its new CTF variations, tag-style modes, and objective-based matches. So why not more co-op modes?

Firefight mode - although a ripoff of Gears of War's Horde mode - is evidence that Halo's intense battlefields and clever AI are perfect for co-op gaming. We want to see more co-op modes from the series in the future, which are as creative as the competitive multiplayer modes, and just as customizable - imagine if you could use Forge-made user maps to create new Firefight arenas?

Comprehensive Editing Controls In Theater Mode

Halo's Theater mode is awesome: Being able to save an entire campaign play-through is something we wish every game allowed, and sharing videos of unforgettable multiplayer matches with your friends means you never have to try in vain to explain what was so cool about your latest gaming session. While Bungie's innovations probably inspired the upcoming video editor in Black Ops, Halo's Theater mode could still be improved.

We hope the next Halo game gives players even more editing power when watching saved films. The ability to record multiple clips at a time, set up different camera angles, and merge saved clips together for a highlight reel would undoubtedly make user films a lot more entertaining. You could even include the ability to record voiceovers via your Xbox headset to shame your teammates' mistakes and entertain the internet. We don't want it to be as complicated as Premiere Pro, but a little extra functionality would go a long way. Like say, a speedier fast-forward button.

Better Matchmaking

Halo has always offered unparalleled customization in its multiplayer; by customizing various gameplay attributes, players have created their own unique multiplayer modes, some of which have been included as official game types in subsequent installments of the series. Halo: Reach gives you the ability to easily search and download these custom game types (as well as custom maps made in Forge mode), but even when you've downloaded the most popular files, you can't play them in matchmaking. In fact, you can't even choose to play any of the built-in game types - matchmaking only allows you to join preset playlists, which rotate through a variety of different matches based on what the other players in your lobby vote for.

We're guessing Bungie did this to avoid splitting the community up into too many chunks, but Halo is one of the most popular games on Xbox Live. We're hoping the next developer to work on Halo can come up with a way to fix matchmaking so that players can choose to play the game types they want to play. Some ability to play custom game types and maps in matchmaking would be great too - after all, what's the point of having so much customization and file sharing if you can't enjoy it with other people? Not everyone has 15 people on their Friends List waiting to play Halo with them.

What would you like to see in the next Halo?