Microsoft Games Studio feels Halo will find its way with new trilogy
It’s been nearly half a decade since the last we saw of Master Chief, excluding his easter egg appearance in Halo: Reach. But that hasn’t stopped the development of two full, new campaigns exploring the Halo world without the game’s main protagonist. Well, now that Bungie is out of the picture, Microsoft Games Studio head Phil Spencer would like everyone to know that Halo had taken a turn for the worst with the last two entries in the series.
Some might argue that Halo: Reach was a much deeper experience than any of the games released prior, but that hasn’t stopped its criticism from Spencer:
“The key question for me in managing the studio and the creatives is ‘what is Halo?’, making sure Halo lives up to what I think gamers fell in love with [playing Combat Evolved].”
What does that mean? Playing Master Chief. We kind of lost our way a little bit, I’ll say. And that’s why I wanted to make sure that at the unveiling of Halo 4, you knew you were playing Master Chief, that John was back. Because Master Chief is the John Wayne character of that universe, and that’s who you want to play.“Halo has this interesting mix of open world, more varied gameplay. Some other of those franchises that I love have very setpieces which really kind of draw certain dramatic elements out of it. Halo has the vehicles, the weapon types, the deep fiction - the fiction around Halo is incredibly deep.”
Pretty bold words to say the least, especially after both ODST and Reach have sold upwards of 13 million copies together. But I suppose this is just Microsoft’s kind way of saying goodbye to Bungie who’s decided to go from an exclusive partner to a multi-platform studio.
In other news, get used to Master Chief and his usual one-liners and silent treatment despite the galaxy’s near collapse for at least another half a decade.