The fall of Halo and my gaming community.

I am a Halo FPS fan. Or at least I was.

My story of getting into Halo is pretty simple. I was a Playstation Fanboy. I had decent collection of games, and literally wrote off Sundays as a teen/young-adult to play video games. After a trip to the other side of the country to attend a mates wedding with my girlfriend (now wife), I was introduced to a co-op game of Halo while there. I was hooked, literally bought an Xbox over there and brought it home, just for Halo (2003).

Here in Perth I became part of a community that started with friends (old and new) having LANs at our homes, to then hiring halls and hosting Halo events monthly. It was great, I was part of a community that enjoyed the games and played regularly. I even collected the books and spoke about the lore of the universe with my friends, we shared in the joy that was all things Halo.

It hasn’t been the same since Halo 4 (2012). With the release of Halo 4, the game went from Bungie’s lovingly crafted game to 343’s business investment, and it felt like it. Rather than introduce elements to Halo that felt organic and part of the universe, they took ideas that were popular in other games and tried to skin them in Halo. In hindsight, and something I didn’t want to admit to myself at the time, Halo 4 was a poor effort.

This left our local community divided. Some stayed with the existing Halo games, others (myself included) pushed on with 343’s offering in the hopes that newer is better. But our community was divided, and that meant the end of the way things were. LAN attendance dropped and we held out for a new hope, the hope that Halo: MCC (2014) would save us.

The launch of MCC was dismal. The game was so broken at launch, we couldn’t get matches online, let alone get matches to work when holding LANs. It ended our community. A number of people even got refunds. A number of us turned to Destiny, but the community did not exist as it was, and never would again.

Halo 5 (2015) had a very good avertising campaign leading up to its release, I was expecting to be the MC taking on the remnants of the Covenant, the Promethians, and next Gen Spartans that were hunting the MC. It was far from accurate. In what can only be described as outright falsehoods, the game did not reflect the advertising. Warzone had some redeeming features, but it was not enough to bring the old community I once had back to the fold.

With the run up to Halo: Infinite (2021), we saw a lot if interest from my player group when it was released, and honestly, I felt like it was going to be like it was, but even after getting the game to play as it should and having the old Bungie feel to it, it was missing content. No Co-op on the release of the game, unbeleivable. Next to no multiplayer content with the release either (forge?), obscene, 343 again took something the community held out hope for and wasted it. I honestly have a hard time trying to get my friends to consider playing it anymore, and right now, I am even questioning why I play it.

Then what really hurt me was the Halo TV series (2022). It literally felt like a spit in the face. They took the universe we love and told us it wasn’t good enough and then proceed to make trash. Don’t get me wrong, I felt that Pablo Schreiber was an absolutely fantastic choice to play the role of Master Chief, but what they did to the story and the universe was a travesty.

There are so many existing stories to be told or that could be told that can be kept in the universe, and they instead chose to disregard the entire community and do what they wanted, and it failed, because at its core, they didn’t understand the characters or universe nor appreciate it the way the fans do.

Since 343i took the helm of Halo, I have been repeatedly disapointed with every release. It is also very cutting that the first time we get a proper Master Chief story in film or television, that they make such a mess of it.

I don’t know if Microsoft, Xbox or 343 can undo the last 10+ years of poor helmsmanship of the franchise. I think another poor release could see the game suffer from the same infamy earned by the last season of Game Of Thrones. For that reason, I am not sure if I even want them to try.

I wish I could be more optimistic about the future of Halo, but the “Fool me once…” quote doesn’t go up to “Fool me six times”, and someone should definitely be ashamed.