My Halo 6 Wish List

This is my Halo 6 wishlist – In true click bait fashion I’ve chosen 10 features or improvements I’d like to see in Halo 6.

1. Split screen

The entire reason Halo got so popular was the ease of access. For months after playing Halo for the first time, I didn’t even own my own copy, instead playing my friends copies. The first time I played Halo I rented the game from a video store and my friend and I stayed up until we finished the game at 4am. The ability to play through such an epic campaign with a buddy blew me away and all that was needed was an extra controller.

While having your own screen obviously has its benefits, it can’t replace the feeling of sitting on the same couch as your buddies as you trash talk each other with pizza and beer and it can’t replace the experience of snuggling up with your significant other and playing through the campaign together.

While there has been hints of split-screens return for future games from 343, the details have been vague, whether it would support split-screen online play, co-op, etc.

2. LAN

343 heard our cries and finally gave us the ability to host games locally. It was far later than it should be been, but it’s better late than never. Unfortunately, while it’s appreciated, it’s still less than ideal. You need a computer to run the server which is fine for tournament organisations, but it’s too hard for the average 14-year-old kid that just wants to play with their mate.

Bring back the ability to setup a listen server locally or play co-op over system link without an internet connection.

3. Release the game on PC

With Halo 5: Forge on Windows 10 and Play Anywhere it’s looking more and more likely that Halo 6 may release on computer. With multiple versions of the Xbox One released now, it only makes sense that Halo 6 should release on PC.

PC gaming has had a massive resurgence and PC gamers have been itching for some Halo action for a long time. So far, we’ve been disappointed with every release on PC. Halo Custom Edition on PC fixed none of the issues of the Xbox version while requiring crazy PC specs and having no lag compensation.

Halo 2 Vista required Vista – A very unpopular Operating System to play which most people skipped and the mouse controls were terrible.

Halo 5: Forge on PC is limited to custom games and again the movement doesn’t feel right at all.

Halo 6 is a chance for 343 to really take Halo to heights it’s never been before by embracing the PC community, which leads into the next item on my wishlist…

4. Proper modding support

We have Forge. It’s a great tool, but it’s very limited. Maps made in the tool often suffer from performance issues and it’s always immediately apparent it was made in Forge. The tool is also very tedious to use, and I’ve always given up on using it when I could learn a proper 3D design tool AND make a map in half the time it would take me to create a basic map in Forge.

The tool is great for beginners to mapping, but why should we stop there? Why not offer REAL tools for maps of professional quality? Some of the most famous maps played in eSports were created by fans. Aerowalk was made by a Quake fan and the map is famous in the arena FPS community being remade countless times in Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and other Quake clones.

By offering a real map editor like Unreal Engine we could see amazing new maps in competitive play and casual play.

5. Less auto aim

The auto aim in Halo 5 is ridiculous. I’ve never been 4 shot so many times in any previous Halo game, yet in Halo 5 it seems like every other kill is a “perfect”. The auto aim in Halo 2 was extreme, but it could be forgiven since internet speeds back then were poor. With more and more people being connected to each other by fibre and controls getting more precise, it makes no sense to still have such a massive amount of auto aim in the game.

6. Remove the melee lunge

Seriously, it was a mistake in Halo 2 and should have been forgotten about. You could argue the addition of lunge to the melee system made sense at the time due to the original Xbox controller, however with additional shoulder buttons and the option for paddles with the Xbox One Elite Controller, do we really need the game to aim our melees for us? Lunge makes close quarters combat too easy and its removal would instantly increase the skill ceiling of the game significantly.

7. Bring back health packs

I’ve made an entire video on this and it’s one of the most important changes 343 should make to Halo 6. At the very least 343 should include an option for Halo 1 style health packs, just so I can prove myself right. The lack of health packs in an arena shooter is horrible for the flow of the game.

Most people won’t even realise just how big a role health packs play a role in arena FPS, but the lack of health packs makes 1v1 unplayable and 2v2 also suffers greatly, but not to such an extreme extent.

Players need to be punished for their mistakes. Right now, players are literally punished for shooting a player without getting a kill. If Player A shoots Player B 3 times with a BR, Player A has wasted resources while Player B simply waits a moment, recharges their shields and is then free to make the exact same mistake again and again while Player A wastes more and more resources.

This is simply not acceptable for competition.

Bring back health packs and watch Halo 6 become an amazing 1v1 and 2v2 game. Games of cat and mouse will emerge with weak players frantically running for health packs while their hunter tries to cut them off. Players will be forced to come out of hiding and collect health packs instead of just cowering behind a wall for 5 seconds.

Give us the option and we’ll see the return of 1v1 duels.

8. Custom power ups

While Forge in Halo 5 is great, there’s an option missing that seriously missed – the ability to create custom power ups.

I want to create maps with a 1X Overshield and a 2X Overshield, much like the yellow armour and red armour from Quake. This would allow alternate spawns for larger maps like Plaza.

Camo is simply too over powered on many maps and in duels but there needs to be another power up on the map to force movement and rockets are simply free kills in many situations.

The option was in Halo 3 and with all the amazing new Forge tools in Halo 5 it’s a shame we didn’t see the return of one of the most used Forge items.

9. Big Team Battle

Eventually 343 added Big Team Battle to Halo 5 after many complaints from fans. Unfortunately, what we got was the worst Big Team Battle maps in Halo history. No real developer maps, just a bunch of Forged maps. Something that made Halo stand out from the competition was the massive maps. Not only were the campaign levels enormous, but the multiplayer featured some of the most iconic multiplayer maps in FPS.

Blood Gulch was legendary for its frantic 16 player capture the flag matches with Warthogs and Tanks. In Halo 2 we got even bigger maps like Water Works where you could fly around in a Banshee.

Sure, 343 gave us some enormous maps with Warzone, but the game mode works completely differently to what many Halo fans want, and they don’t support our favourite game modes like Capture the Flag.

In Halo 6 I hope to see the return of epic maps designed for 8v8 combat.

10. Higher Field of View

Halo has never had a great FoV apart from when playing split screen. Understandable when playing on a console with limited hardware as the less polygons displayed on screen at a time gives a better frame rate. However, hopefully Halo 6 will come to PC which means limited hardware won’t be a concern. Also, I’d like to see an option on console to lower graphics to allow for a higher FoV on Xbox.

2 thoughts on “My Halo 6 Wish List

  1. Daniel Correia Sa

    My God. I can’t believe I stumbled upon here.

    I doubt you’d remember me from the H2/H3 days on ACL (GT was Knuxx) but we played heaps of games back in the day.

    Good to see you’re still involved around esports.

    Also, good write-up. Well thought out.

    Reply

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