And so we arrive, yet again, on the advent of a “Halo” release from the esteemed Bungie. Of course, it’s a somewhat sentimental moment, because they’ve made it perfectly clear that “Reach” is the end of the line for them, the last hurrah, the final waltz. Seeing these guys walk away from Master Chief is a little bit like watching Jordan quit basketball: you have a profound sense that disorder has gained a foothold in the world, that things are not as they should be. I confess, I sit up late at night, wondering how it will feel to hear that Bungie is making some game with orcs and elves. It could quake a man to his bones.
Anyway, because we’ve reached this historic occasion, I thought I’d hit you with some List action. Here below are the five best things Bungie accomplished with their venerable “Halo” franchise. And, to be balanced about it, I’ll also include the five things they most conspicuously left undone.
Halo’s Greatest Achievements (In No Particular Order)
-The Xbox. Before “Halo,” the Xbox was a joke; after, it was a household name. Microsoft’s newfound desire to be a Wii clone is made all the more reprehensible when you consider the debt they owe to Master Chief for getting them where they are. They swooped down and took Sony’s position as the hardcore gaming console, or at very least they put it in contention. Of course, Bioware and others played their part, but without Bungie, they never would have had the opportunity to step up to the plate.
-Console FPS. Even though “Goldeneye” and “Perfect Dark” made a compelling argument for the existence of shooters in the console world, the creature they birthed was a distinct entity from their PC counterparts. These were ultra-streamlined, graphically inferior, and significantly less ambitious products. While “Quake” was blowing the modding world into pieces, Rare could barely put four people in a competitive match smoothly.
Bungie changed that with “Halo,” which became the first truly PC shooter to exist on a console. It had the scope and ambition of a Windows release. Their singular genius was in tweaking every single inch of “Halo” for controller manipulation, bridging the gap between the two gaming mediums. No one could point to any one big change Bungie made, they just gently nudged and tinkered until they fell upon the secret.
-Console Internet. “Halo 2” brought console matchmaking to life, plain and simple. Although the game is gently disowned by its creators for being rushed, incomplete, and unbalanced, it actually remains the most trailblazing entry in the series by far. Their matchmaking and ranking systems were revolutionary, and they took internet on a console from a novelty to a way of life overnight. Before “Halo 2,” LAN parties were the way of the world, and it was a completely different existence. I still remember the first time I played a 12-person Team Slayer match in my dorm room, and I couldn’t get over the fact that I didn’t have to go anywhere to do it. Did Xbox Live exist before “Halo 2”? Technically, yes. But Bungie made it what it is today.
-The Perception of Modern Gaming. The sheer amount of money the “Halo” franchise made permanently altered our art form. “Halo 3’s” release was a fiscal shot heard ’round the world; suddenly other entertainment mediums that fancied themselves superior to us couldn’t match our numbers. And although I doubt we’ve achieved real mainstream status yet, Bungie was our first big step to legitimacy and respect in the mainstream world of entertainment.
-Vehicles. “Halo” took vehicles to a different level in gaming. They had existed before, but Bungie committed to them in a unique way. The first time you hopped in a Warthog, the enormous personality of the thing was striking. It had a feel to it, like a real vehicle, and that kind of tactile attention had never been paid to wheeled transportation in the FPS world. The integration of vehicular combat into “Halo’s” formula, again, wasn’t totally original, but it was definitive. Almost every modern shooter now features lengthy rides across a sweeping plain in the hot seat of a tank or air vehicle, and where they got that idea is no mystery.
Halo’s Unfinished Business (Again, No Particular Order)
-Custom Map Matchmaking. Something I know we all assumed they would finally put in “Reach,” but alas, it appears it was never meant to be. Bungie really shoots themselves in the foot with this. They unleash a bevy of tools for gamers to invent new maps and game modes, but they don’t adequately provide a platform to expose these experiments to the wider world. The truth is, very few of us are ever actually going to have sixteen friends together at the same time, and so many hundreds of possible custom permutations will never be investigated fully. The vast majority of Forge maps are played by 2 or 3 people, and that really is just too bad.
–Bots. Bots would have gone a long way, especially if they could have somehow been merged into the custom maps. Warm bodies that can pull a trigger to fill out those private matches you can’t quite staff up would really have been nice. Sometimes I imagine all the toys Bungie might have discovered if they had really committed to bots: personality tweaking, appearance modification, maybe even some basic programmable behavior. It could have been exciting stuff, but now we’ll never know.
–Large Battles. “Halo” has always needed to step up the player count. If it was a corridor shooter I wouldn’t mind, but this is an epic franchise, and it needs epic battles. 16 people doesn’t cut it, they should have gotten us up to 24 for “Reach” at least. I know it’s apples and oranges, but if “Resistance 2” can hit 60, I don’t think there’s much excuse. It could have been done, and I think it should have been done.
-Story. The “Halo” games are an interesting specimen when it comes to story in videogames. If you accept the idea that form is content, then Bungie’s flagship is one of the most story-rich experiences ever made. It has personality, it has style, it has a tangible sense of emotion, all of which are created within the confines of the video game as an art form. Still, Master Chief has never really evolved into a person; we’ve never gotten behind that damned helmet. Cortana was a big step in the right direction, and maybe it’s even close enough for government work, but the fact that the only relationship the Chief had that I cared about was with an AI tells you something.
–Space Combat. In general, my most consistent gripe with Bungie’s run on “Halo” was their fear of change. They branched tepidly out with double-wielding, then nerfed it in ODST and “Reach” and have clung to their original document ever since. This kind of single-minded “take you back to the day” thinking does not impress me. I felt certain that at some point, they would give us space combat in multiplayer, and now we know they never will. Oh we’ll get all “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the campaign, sure, but for how long? One mission? Hardly a bold step forward. I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that Bungie’s fanatical obsession with balancing weapons and play styles kept them from looking upwards and dreaming big. By far, the biggest leap they took was the original “Halo,” and none of the sequels ever really dared to go for it on the same level again. “Halo” never exploded into new game play dimensions, and I think it should have.
So there you have it, Bungie. All in all, I’d say you did a fantastic job entertaining us this past decade, and I admit it makes me a little sentimental to know we’ll never get another ride in Master Chief’s boots from you. My criticisms are all sincere, but none of them stand in the way of the fact that the “Halo” franchise has kept me consistently enthralled for its entire existence. I’ve purchased every game, I’ve played every campaign and multiplayer mode, and I am a believer. Godspeed, Bungie. See you soon.
