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Do you believe that 343 and The Coalition could rebuild Halo and Gears as new fresh games?

Could they do it?

  • No, this isn't Nintendo or Sony Santa Monica, it's beyond them

    Votes: 12 16.7%
  • Perhaps, but they wouldn't get the greenlight from Xbox in case they destroy the franchises

    Votes: 7 9.7%
  • 343 could, but not The Coalition

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Coalition could, but not 343

    Votes: 14 19.4%
  • They ain't gonna spend 6 years building a new game when they can milk the current game models

    Votes: 13 18.1%
  • Halo and Gears is fine as they are, no need to change

    Votes: 26 36.1%

  • Total voters
    72

Bragr

Banned
I want a cataclysm, ditch the shields in Halo, ditch cover mechanics in Gears, rip it all out. 343 and The Coalition are terrified of destroying what they hold. They cling on too fucking hard and it's sucking the life out of them. But do they have any other choice? do they have the expertise to build something new and better?

Halo came out a strange intersection when console shooters were exiting the Goldeneye and Perfect Dark era, Halo 3 managed to bring the glory of Halo 2 onwards, but Call of Duty 4, which also came out in 2007, successfully merged PC and console gameplay and shooters went in a different direction. Halo's multiplayer has struggled to update itself and feel fresh ever again. Gears started to feel worn after Gears of War 3.

We have played soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much Gears and Halo at this point. Hundreds and hundreds of hours. All with the same gameplay. It's tiresome.

We are facing a whole generation of trite gameplay from 2 legends that deserve better. Like God of War, like Breath of the Wild, they need to gut the old games and build something new. Destroy it all. But do they possess the will and drive to pull something like that off? it would take a lot longer development time, and the pressure to be a success would be 10 times higher. It would take massive balls and unwavering commitment.
 

VAVA Mk2

Member
I think if 343 gets rid of Bonnie (they need better leadership) and Frankie and lets Staten take over the lore direction going forward, he can steer things back on the right path (Halo Infinite story was complete before he arrived last year). Question is how long it will take.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Regarding Halo they should be thinking about advancing FPSes in the same way CE did back in the day, but I'm not going to pretend I have any clue what that would look like so its a massive undertaking and there are maybe only a few devs in the world who are up to it.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
I recently played Gears 5 and that style of cover shooter holds up just fine. Very solid game. In fact I like it better than God of War 2018 which I thought was kind of a slog. 343 I actually have no faith in. They have not made a good Halo yet IMO. Maybe they can turn it around with Halo Infinite but I wouldn’t count on it. I think they are just an untalented bunch with a giant checkbook.
 
Regarding Halo they should be thinking about advancing FPSes in the same way CE did back in the day, but I'm not going to pretend I have any clue what that would look like so its a massive undertaking and there are maybe only a few devs in the world who are up to it.
Halo CE with Battlefield Bad Company 2 style terrain deformation. @4k60
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
I want Gears of Halo. An epic cinematic 3rd person sci-fi apocalypse masterpiece set on earth where you play as Master Transgender ready to kick dicks and chew nipples searching for a weapon of mass destruction to kill all white cis males.
Season 4 Dunder Mifflin Infinity GIF by The Office
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I dont think either series needs a "reinvention".

It is possible to make a good SP campaign for a Halo game that still has all the DNA of a Halo game.
From playing the Tech Flight I think Halo MP is fine, give us new modes buts thats about it.
I actually really like the Warzone variants.

Gears of War and ill probably get flack for this, is best third person shooter series available from a gunplay perspective.
They could "reinvent" it as being more of a horror series I guess for the campaign.
But we might lose the Gears of War gameplay that I ohh so love.
I can play Horde mode for entire weekends only taking piss breaks, and thats mindless shooting at enemies.


P.S You do realize they could make a coverless Gears game and just call it Gears Breaded.
We already got a Gears Tactics games thats absolutely amazing.
Gears of War doesnt need to go away for there to be other types of Gears games set in the universe to exist.

P.P.S The Coalition B-Team should give me a spiritual Splinter Cell game since Ubisoft are adamant about not making a stealth game because they are too hard for the casuals.
Ray Traced Global Illumination and no option to just gun my way through the game.....you must stealthily achieve objectives.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
I believe the coalition can if they are given free reign but 343 I have a lot of doubts.But I believe both formulas need to change I've grown tired of playing the same games with a neew coat of paint.But I also understand those that want those franchises to stay that way because that's what they like about it.
A good shake up would make me play them again but other than that I feel they are too samey to keep playing them and I like franchises that takes risks in changing a lot instead of simply iterating.That's also why I think it was good to end the uncharted franchise or change the formula completely.
 
Gears 4 and 5 are pretty much above average games. No complain here… Now Halo really needs a facelift. The lore was so good, I really don’t get why 343 decide to move to the present direction.
 

Stuart360

Member
Gears just needs a feshen up a bit. Going fully open world with main missions and side content would be a good change for me.

As for 343, well they cant really win no matter what they do.
If they try and update the Halo gameplay, the oldschool hardore lose it over it and call 343 hacks.
If 343 try and keep the Halo gameplay to what it was years ago, yonger and none hardcore fans lose it over it, and call 343 hacks.

Its a tough situation for 343. I suppose that comes with making such a famous franchise.

Also i didnt pick an option as its 5 negative options, and one neautral lol.
 

Markio128

Member
I loved Gears 1 and Halo 1, both incredibly refreshing and exciting in their own right. However, for me, both games have lost that single player magic and I wish the current developers would look into creating new single player IPs, with maybe smaller teams providing a multiplayer aspect for Gears and Halo Moving forward.
 

BlvckFox

Gold Member
Removing the cover mechanic from Gears is removing mushrooms from Mario, it’s a mechanic that’s aged well and is staple of the series. Gears’ mechanics in general are super tight and should be left alone. They could refresh this series in areas outside of that.

i have no thoughts on Halo except you can’t make everyone happy. Id imagine the coalition could do some insane shit with the series.
 

yurinka

Member
I think they should continue in charge of these IPs as the lead studio, but they acquired a few studios like ID, Arkane or MachineGames that can help them in many areas and teach them how to improve many things.

I think they must keep the pillars of what made these IPs popular and iconic and to keep what it works, focus on where they shine, while trying to polish these areas to the top while maybe changing anything else trying to make them feel fresh and modern, and to achieve top notch visuals and audio. Something similar as Sony did with GoW 2018.
 
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I was pretty darned happy with Gears 5, not sure that they need to make big changes just for the sake of change

Halo is in a tough spot. 343 is pretty much damned no matter what they do. When they move too far away from classic Halo multiplayer (all the changes in Halo 4) they get shit on by their fans. Of course I'm part of the problem. I think Halo 5 multiplayer was the best Halo multiplayer experience ever. I am really hoping they can go somwhere further storywise though.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Halo Infinite will be the first game in the franchise that I will have ever played so no comment regarding the series but I do agree that Bonnie Ross should be gone and Joseph Staten be the studio head and leader of the franchise because he does seem to be the only one capable of knowing what to do with Halo.

As for Gears of War, I prefer it to take a massive long break but only after Gears 6 so the current storyline with Kait can be wrapped up as I don't want to wait a decade for it to do so. A good spin off into survival horror would fit perfectly. Think The Evil Within but set in the Gears universe. If they don't give it a break and keep things the same, I prefer it to be like Hivebusters which is simply better than Gears 5. Just give me the same linear story focused action packed cover based shooter over 12-15 hours or so and call it a day. I do not want it changing whatsoever. Stealth should not exist nor should melee combat because that's not what it's meant to be or should be.

Gears is also one of the few third person cover based shooters with action sequences and set pieces with solid characters and a story. I don't want it changing. Does it need a break? Yes. But does it really need to change? No because at that point, it would no longer be Gears which in turn means, The Coalition would be better off creating a new IP instead.
 
I don't know, I have zero confidence in 343, I had higher hopes for the coalition but they've made the two worst gears games when it comes to single player. Their big idea of changing everything was giving us a female lead who feels exactly the same as the male characters before her did to play. I think gears gameplay loop has aged poorly, it just isn't that fun to have to empty an entire clip into each enemy, it's too slow and the melee combat sucks. I would much rather they made it more of a larger open battle with vehicle options more often and not so much just walking through empty buildings waiting for enemies to come up through the ground or fly through a hole in the ceiling.
 

Griffon

Member
The truth of it is the license themselves are not that valuable anymore. It's old shit. Everybody knows what it plays and looks like. It's boring.

MS best bet would be to let those studios do something else, something new.
 
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Riky

$MSFT
What I've played of Halo Infinite is quite superb, lots more to see but could be the best multiplayer ever from what I've played. Also Gears 5 multiplayer was brilliant.
Playing both these at 120fps you're never want to go back.
 

Sleepwalker

Gold Member
Gears just needs better characters, the current crop is completely uninteresting and bland, Kait is stupid, Del is dead at least in my game. JD literally only exists to shoehorn Marcus in there somehow, he's so bland it hurts.

The whole Robot thing needs to be dropped too for a better enemy variety. the open world stuff hopefully was just a experiment, cause it dragged too much and added little to the game.


Hivebusters DLC gives me faith The Coalition can make an excellent gears game, hopefully they do.
 

Chukhopops

Member
I don't understand the need to reinvent the wheel for Halo when there is basically zero sci-fi shooter at this point, hell even FPS in general are hardly a saturated genre at this point. Gears has a slower, more tactical playstyle that also is fairly different from other shooters.

I think there is a big difference between forum echo chamber talk and the actual popularity of those games. Both games have very active communities today (hell, even MCC is doing fine).

Also please never ever do a GoW reboot style...
 

MCplayer

Member
After several attempts at it by both studios, for some reason people still ask these questions...
 
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Microsoft will never let them change anything. Their job is to keep squeezing blood from those stones for the rest of eternity. 343 and The Coalition were founded for this purpose after the original studios moved on.

I really wonder how long Satya plans to keep finishing perpetually in 3rd place to Sony and Nintendo. At some point they must realize that Xbox isn't realizing any goals that MS has ever set and never will.
 
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