Et tu, Brute?

Wow, what a week at E3 huh? E3 is the gaming world’s biggest expo and it’s filled with a cornucopia of fresh gaming news and new reveals. I’m always excited to see what game developers and publishers have planned for the future, and I can say that I was easily tossed off of my feet with this week’s news. Two items caught my interest more than the rest and I found that their reveal came with near impeccable timing. If you’ve read my most recent post, “This Gaming Life Part II: Halo is Good for the Soul”, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Monday it was revealed during the Microsoft Press Conference that there was a dawn of a new trilogy, beginning with HALO 4! Sitting in my lonely cubicle, sifting through records at an extremely boring pace, I was listening to and watching the conference on my phone when the trailer made its premier. Seeing Master Chief burst out of his cryo chamber to the frantic calls of Cortana trying to wake him was an extremely surreal experience. Watching the Chief float through the battered ship to the open space were the other half of the ship use to be, and getting the first full view of him as the camera panned away, gave me goose bumps and excited me the same way I was excited watching Halo 3’s reveal trailer. Finally, after two Halo games (ODST and Reach) that omitted the Chief as the main character, the series is headed back to the bread and butter, the character that any die hard Halo fan has fallen in love with over the years.



Excitement aside, this post isn’t going to be about that game, even though I’m extremely excited to see what it’s going to offer. This post is aimed at the other exciting announcement, Halo Anniversary (Halo one remake). This announcement and the other one combined together were almost enough to make me wet myself. I had heard rumors for months prior to E3 that Halo Combat Evolved (Halo one), the game I spent most of my efforts talking about in my last post, is now making an amazing return to the Xbox with better graphics, online co-op, and my favorite, achievements. I was a tad skeptical about the multiplayer aspect though because the trailer stated that there would only be seven returning maps rather than the thirteen that came with the original game. I decided to wait for more information before freaking out about this, but the fact that there would be Halo Combat Evolved online multiplayer was something I had desperately wanted for close to ten years now. Sure I got my taste of it with Halo PC, but I’m a console gamer and I’d much rather have this sort of functionality on a system I’m a lot more comfortable with. Halo one has given me the most memorable gaming moments I’ve ever had since becoming a gamer (which actually took off because of Halo CE). The idea of being able to relive these memories and enjoy the campaign online is amazing!



Tuesday comes and I finally get more information on the multiplayer aspect of the game. It was made perfectly clear that the campaign was completely untouched; it will be the exact same game I remember; only now it had updated graphics. I can’t say the same for the multiplayer though. I read articles on G4 and watched an interview with Frank O Conner, a man who previously worked with Bungie and now works with 343 Industries (a company dedicated to everything Halo), and my nostalgia began to subside considerably. It felt as if my heart was sinking into my stomach. Basically the information I gathered was that the Halo re-make will be exactly the same minus the multiplayer, which will be portrayed through the Halo Reach engine. I don’t like Halo Reach multiplayer, I feel like the core of what makes a Halo game, Halo, was stripped and replaced with whatever makes Reach, Reach. It’s a completely different game, but it’s okay to do that because it’s a separate game that ties into the Halo universe. Please explain to me why the classic Halo multiplayer is being replaced in the remake with this new age multiplayer Halo experience? Who seriously thought this was a good idea? Frank O Conner explains in an interview that they didn’t want to separate the fan base and that people are use to the current way Halo is played.



Hi Frank. My name is Cody, I’ve been a diehard Halo fan for nearly ten years now. I own every single Halo game, novel, strategy guide, and soundtrack. I continued to purchase and support this title despite the mediocre releases of ODST and the less dull Halo Reach. I’ve fought through my disappointments of Halo games that lacked the Master Chief, even though I didn’t think they were colossal failures. I enjoyed them to an extent, but change is hard for me and I like the way the original trilogy panned out. My first thoughts on a remake of the original Halo game, quite possibly my favorite in the entire franchise, was, “they better not mess this up.” To my dismay, you did half of that. I think it’s great that you left the campaign untouched minus the graphics, but I fail to understand why the same couldn’t be accomplished for the multiplayer. The only answer you’re able to give is that you didn’t want to separate the fan base and that people are too use to the way Halo is played now? Come on! Is it really that big of a deal for people who want to play Halo Reach, to put that game in, and the people who want to enjoy the classic Halo multiplayer, to pop that in? Do you really feel that the fan base would be split anymore than it already is? Do you not read the forums and see the hundreds of “Reach sucks and the original trilogy is better,” threads?

As a longtime faithful fan of the Halo franchise, I feel that I have been betrayed. I feel as if I’ve been slapped in the face and had my shoes urinated on at the same time. How dare you remake a classic title like this and make the conscience decision to wipe the old school multiplayer from it. Who are you trying to make happy? The twelve year old children who never laid their adolescent eyes on the first two Halo games because they were still crapping in diapers during the original Xbox life span? When 343 started I was under the impression that it was to be dedicated to all things Halo. In a video you recently released, your employees talk about how people think of Halo Combat Evolved as the quintessential of Halo. To me, it’s like you stated that it’s the purest and most perfect example of what a Halo game should be. You praise how great Halo one is and yet you defile it? If I wanted to play the overrated, washed up, multiplayer that is Halo Reach, I’d put my own, extremely dusty, copy of it in. Why would I want to relive this classic now that you’ve changed it?



So in my eyes I feel that you have done a disservice to the true fan base that has been engulfed in this ten year journey of Halo. It shouldn’t matter how the community is affected by keeping the ORIGINAL multiplayer intact. What should matter is that you kept true to Halo and honored it the way it should be, the way you almost did. Sure, you’re going to modify the matchmaking to try and give us a reminiscent feel of the old Halo, but no matter your efforts, it will fail. Simply because I will be playing Halo Reach on modified versions of what use to be amazing Halo one maps. Not Halo one itself. I hope that if you decide to honor Halo 2 in the same fashion that you hear my plea to keep it as is. Don’t ruin another classic multiplayer with what YOU think will benefit the community and on top of that, listen to the community that has supported your efforts over the years.