Halo: What Microsoft should do next

With Bungie now an independent studio, the Halo franchise is in the hands of the recently founded Halo Studio, part of Microsoft Game Studios. We’ve seen the company take Halo on its first tentative footsteps beyond the comfort of the Bungie FPS with console RTS Halo Wars, for many a surprising choice, and Halo 3: ODST is inbound this Christmas, but what can Halo fans expect from Halo Studio in 2010 and beyond? Here, in our Halo wish list, we speculate on the future of gaming’s most famous world saver.

Halo Wars on PC

Halo Wars was great, indeed it’s the best RTS on a console, but we couldn’t help but think, as we worked our way through its compelling campaign, that it would have been better on PC. We’re sure a reworked version, with more units, increased strategic depth and perhaps the addition of a Covenant campaign would be well received by PC fans. We know Microsoft doesn’t publish many PC games these days, but it will have watched with interest the excellent sales of high-profile PC-exclusive RTSs Empire: Total War (Creative Assembly) and Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment). Games for Windows’ Dave Luehmann recently told Gamasutra that the company has “several titles in development right now, both internally developed and with external partners” and is “putting more money into Windows games than we have in quite a while”. Could some of that money be going towards Robot Entertainment, formed out of the ashes of Ensemble’s closure and already confirmed to be continuing work on Halo Wars? We certainly hope so.

Halo Wars 2

Halo Wars sales have topped one million, therefore, there will be a sequel. But what do we want from it? A playable Covenant campaign is a must, as is another playable faction, whether it’s the Flood or something else. We also want better graphics, more units and maybe, just maybe, the appearance of a certain Master Chief. Could Robot Entertainment be working on a follow-up? Fingers crossed.

Halo: Chronicles

This one isn’t particularly wishful, since we know it’s in development, but we can still have a bit of fun discussing what we want from the Peter Jackson/Microsoft collaboration. Details are thin on the ground, but what we do know is that Halo: Chronicles will be a downloadable episodic mini-series, and that Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Interactive will have a say on it. Beyond that though, it’s static. Bungie has said fans should be very excited by the project. We are, but what do we want from it? If it’s going to be episodic, expect a cheaper, cut down Halo experience. A more story driven game, perhaps? Maybe one heavy on interactive cutscenes? With a title like Halo: Chronicles, could the episodes tell the story of how the Forerunners created the original Halo Rings and destroyed themselves in a vain attempt at starving the Flood of sustenance? Only Peter Jackson and Microsoft know the truth.

Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 remake

We’re talking about fully-fledged remakes here, not bog-standard XBL releases, as we’ve already seen with Halo: Combat Evolved. We reckon a Halo: Combat Evolved remake in particular has the potential to sell even more copies than Halo 3, which, by the way, broke all sorts of records when it was released towards the end of 2007. For precedence, see Starbreeze Studios’ remake of the superb Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which will be included in the upcoming Assault on Dark Athena, and Crystal Dynamics’ excellent remake of the original Tomb Raider. The remakes of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 could use the latest Halo engine, indeed might look even better than Halo 3, and would have much improved AI, physics and lovely “next-gen” effects due to the increased power afforded by the Xbox 360. Whatever developer’s put in charge, we wouldn’t mind it tinkering with the story and level design, either. How about going back and addressing that trenchant Halo: Combat Evolved criticism: that the same areas are recycled over and over until you’re bored to tears? And while they’re at it, adding online multiplayer, something the first Halo game never had, wouldn’t be a bad idea. Or maybe tweaking Halo 2 so that it’s not so short, and includes new levels that show what Master Chief was up to when you were playing as the Arbiter? We’d love to revisit Master Chief’s original adventures in glorious HD. Would you?

Halo open world RPG

That’s right, we said open world RPG. Don’t scoff – word is Halo 3: ODST will include an open world and will have the player embark on the odd stealth mission. This could be a precursor to an out and out Fallout 3-esque Halo game, which sees you play a UNSC soldier lost on some god-forsaken Covenant/Flood-infested planet with only his or her wits and a trusty Assault Rifle to keep him alive. There’d be levelling up – perhaps you begin as a UNSC cadet who’s in way over his head – perks, a heavy focus on narrative and branching storylines; all the mechanics that make a great Western role-playing game. And of course, it would have wonderful first-person shooting – this is a Halo game after all!

Halo MMO

As revealed by Gamasutra towards the end of 2008, a Halo MMO was in development at Halo Wars developer Ensemble before being cancelled. Screenshots and even prototype UI details were revealed, showing a heavy World of Warcraft influence. While we’d love to see a Halo MMO in some form, the kind of game suggested by the leaked assets isn’t what we have in mind (Psion for mana, swords?!). Instead, we’d love a kind of persistent online Halo universe, one where players are able to dip in and out and blow each other to bits in classic Halo FPS fashion. But instead of the action being restricted to short bursts, as they are in Halo 3, they could go on, in theory, for ever, with bases under constant assault and strategic points that grant bonuses and perks when held changing hands as clans scrap with each other. With the player cap limited only by the server, the introduction of Spartan specialists (ie. Classes), the game could provide a true evolution in the online shooter space.

Side-scrolling Halo XBLA game

Just for the laugh. We reckon this could be fun in a cheap and cheerful, pick-up and play kind of way, with a side-scrolling Master Chief going all guns blazing against the Covenant and the Flood. There’d be floaty jumping, all the weapons we know and love from the series spraying 2D Brutes and Elites with pretty laser beams and bullet streams. It won’t be for everyone, and might even upset one or two Halo purists, but it could be, could be, a lot of fun. So obvious is this game idea that we’re surprised it’s not already out.

Halo space combat game

Halo isn’t just about Master Chief hurling himself into a pack of Elites and showing them the meaning of pain. It’s also about great giant spaceships ripping each other to shreds with massive cannons. Indeed much of the Covenant-Human war takes place in outer space – in-game cutscenes throughout the series have shown Master Chief flying through space from spaceship to planet and back again. The books go into great detail on epic space battles, detailing even the movement of the UNSC and Covenant fleets as they tussle for supremacy. We reckon there’s scope for a game that sees you play the role of a Captain (think Captain Keyes from Halo: Combat Evolved) in the UNSC navy or a Prophet (think the Prophet of Truth) in the Covenant fleet, controlling scores of vessels in an effort to dominate the galaxy (and the Halo rings). It could be a pseudo RTS/Elite game that’s heavy on strategy inspired by the ship battles in Creative Assembly’s superb Empire: Total War game. This might be one for the hardcore, but it’d be welcome nonetheless.

Halo: The Fall of Reach video game

One of the great things about the Halo universe is that it’s been fleshed out not only with video games, but comic books and novels (and potentially a film). Perhaps the best universe expanding venture is Halo: The Fall of Reach, a 2001 science fiction novel by Eric Nylund that acts as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. The book tells the story of the Spartan II super soldiers project, and how a young boy called John came to be the double-hard super soldier he is in the games. We reckon the book’s perfect fodder for a video game, with the player taking the role of a young Master Chief as he learns his trade, embarking on missions as the leader of a squad of fellow Spartans in the war with the Covenant. A squad-based Halo game has been heavily rumoured in the past. Could this be it? Could this be the Halo game where sound battlefield tactics are as important as your ability to run and gun? Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to dish out orders to other AI-controlled Spartans, coordinating flank attacks on entrenched Covenant blockades? Or, even better, how about coordinating attacks via the headset through Xbox LIVE with player-controlled Spartans? Oh yes.

Halo 4 (Vague Halo 3-related spoilers follow)

Halo 3 ended with Master Chief deep in cryonic sleep and floating endlessly in space. But if you finished the game on the Legendary difficulty you’ll know that doesn’t tell the whole story: Master Chief and sexy AI companion Cortana are heading towards a mysterious planet. What it is we don’t know: a Forerunner home world perhaps? The origin of the Flood maybe? What’s clear is that Master Chief’s adventure is not over, and we want it to continue in Halo 4. Not only that but we want it to be an FPS, and a Bungie-developed FPS at that. The studio has said Halo 3: ODST, due for release at the end of the year, will mark the end of the studio’s support for Halo 3, but, interestingly, it hasn’t said it’s done with the franchise as a whole. Halo 3 might have marked the end of the current story arc, but with Microsoft at the helm, all bets are off. And why wouldn’t it make the most of its most bankable star? The last thing he tells Cortana before nodding off is: “Wake me when you need me.” We need you Chief. And perhaps Microsoft will need you too, starring in the launch game for the next Xbox console.

What games would you like to see from Halo Team? Let us know in the comments section below.