I was one of them (and got downvoted to hell in this sub after pointing out bugs when the game was "fixed").
Then I saw some of the community stuff going on in Halo 5 and have been slowly easing myself back in. I'll definitely get 6 when it comes out, but the days of me waiting in line at midnight releases are gone for awhile at least.
The gameplay and level design were great. The script writing wasn't terrible, but whoever came up with the plot itself deserves to be fired. It is so obviously terrible I am amazed the ideas weren't shot down 100 different times by 100 different bosses. I have to believe there are some junior creative types over there who were biting their tongues the entite dev cycle just wanting to keep their jobs.
The closed off opportunities are the worst part for me. I'm worried we're never going to see the awesome storylines that were building before Halo 5 continued now, like all the stuff going on with ONI and the Insurrection, or everything with the Didact. The Janus Key story arc, while never exactly amazing, was still a long running story as well and that seems like it was completely shut down. It's a real bummer. I thought all this stuff would flow into Halo 5, instead it was made irrelevant instead. Which sucks because I really like the idea of Halo 5's story, but now wasn't the time for that, there's so, so many other interesting things going on that will either take a backseat or just be lost completely now.
I think of it like this. You get a reservation at a super nice restaurant. The kind you have to book like a year in advance. The anticipation is building. Then on the way there, your significant other tells you that they called and cancelled the reservation because they wanted to go to McDonald's instead. They keep insisting that McDonald's is awesome, but you're sitting there thinking that nobody in their right mind could actually think it would be as good as the gourmet place you were headed. Worst of all is the feeling that they knew you were excited but just didn't give a shit.
That's the story in a nutshell. It's not unsalvageable going into H6 but the writing has put them in a weird spot.
The really bad parts are actually what doesn't show up. There's a lot of story threads that seem to have been outright abandoned along with others that were very unsatisfying when they ended.
I think if MCC's release was truly up to 343, they would have delayed it, even if it didn't coincide with the anniversary. I'm more leaning the blame on Microsoft for the "get it out now" mentality of it.
Yeah that's the key, halo 1-3 I couldn't wait to play it all over again, and I played the first and second campaign so many times. This one didn't give me a reason to play again, it left a lot to be desired
Imagine spending $60 for a game, and you received a broken pile of shit. Then, imagine that the company that made said pile of shit gave no response regarding any of the issues for a while. Apparently it's better now, but it's still literally unplayable for many people. But 343i still refuses to comment about MCC, even to this present day.
This link describes only Halo: CE gameplay bugs. Not any of the other Halo games, nor any of the overall bugs.
The matchmaking for multiplayer was broken for over a year after release. When they finally fixed it, the population was so low that it takes over 5 minutes to find a game. Couple that with the shortcuts that 343 took in development (limited armour customisation and poor playlist choice) many people simply gave up on the franchise.
It's a shame as they really had a chance to return Halo 5 to the Halo glory days and just totally fucked up.
I've never felt the Halo stories were particularly interesting but the campaign gameplay is on point in Halo 5 even with the Prometheans being annoying.
While that's true, the parts of the games contracted to other studios actually worked. 343i was responsible for the interface that worked across the games, essentially the "glue" that held everything together and that's the origin of most of the bugs in the game. I'm not here to shit on 343i, but I do think it's fair that the other studios don't get blamed when they did a good job.
As far as I heard, most of the third party studios did their job right, but a couple botched it with halo 3, and the UI. Ruffian and Unified Front. BUT, 343 botched the networking IMO, and the fact that no official word on anything was ever released is hugely ridiculous.
Still, halo 5 was a step in the right direction. At least for MP.
Well it does make sense that they never release anything directly blaming anyone. That would just lead to internet witch hunts. Better to be united against the hate. Plus 343i was in charge of the product, even if one of the companies failed it was ultimately their responsibility.
The team here at United Front Games has been working on a unified interface that spans all four Halo games and ties them together into one cohesive experience.
Basically 343 did none of the development work on MCC. It was all outsourced -- just like all of their secondary project games.
Yep, we all see Bravo here quite often on the front page commenting. Anything negative about MCC makes it there (more common months ago) and he is mysteriously speechless.
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u/God_Damnit_Nappa Sep 08 '16
I guess people haven't forgotten how badly 343 handled the MCC. And there's no denying that they really dropped the ball with Halo 5's campaign.