Campaign Evolved not having a multiplayer is fine, BUT

The game must be balanced TO A GODAMN T.

I see many people complaining that Campaign Evolved will be the first mainline Halo not to come out with its own multiplayer, and to be honest I don’t see the criticism.

Since Halo 2, the weapon sandbox has been primarily balanced for multiplayer first, campaign second. This has lead to many weapons becoming pretty boring and samey post CE, as multiplayer balance needs to be REALLY specific and tuned to avoid exploitation (people WILL exploit bugs or potential overpoweredness)

This has led to many weapons losing single player viability, like the plasma rifle. In CE, it had a brief slowing effect when shot at enemies that is yet to return.

By not having a multiplayer, Halo campaign evolved can finally bring back this style of balancing.

I HIGHLY recommend watching “Ruby’s Rebalanced Halo 2” series on YouTube, which is about his creation of a mod that aims to rebalance and fix Halo 2, down to it’s AI, weapon retuning and cut content. It’s made by someone who truly understands classic Halo at its core, and aims to refine the sandbox.

He already has a Mod on steam for Halo CE, called “Halo CE rebalanced” which is the DEFINITIVE way to play Halo CE. This is what Halo Campaign evolved should aim to be. Every weapon must have an expressed purpose and role.

What I DONT like is how the game has shown it’s probably NOT going to do this.

Halo Campaign Evolved has broken some of the core staples of halo, repeating some of the offences seen from Reach-Halo Infinite.

It has

- No weapon descope, which is a key pillar of how aiming in halo works. Halo 4 felt super campy and lame because that game has the same issue. This is a HUGE problem

- Super fast and impossible to react to melee attacks from the Elites, which was present in Halo Reach and Halo 4, which worsens close quarters combat. Halo 1-ODST and Infinite understood the value of this.

- Invisible Elites make your reticle turn red, which pretty much ruins the purpose of their stealth.

- No drawbacks to the sprint. While I am team no sprint, it’s clear that it’s pretty much here to stay in Halo, and the one in campaign evolved has virtually NO drawbacks to it. Halo reach had it be a swappable item and a limit , Halo 4 also had a limit, Halo 5 made it unlimited, but also had it so you can’t sprint and regain shields, and infinite made sprint not that fast, allowing you to slide to compensate.

Halo Campaign Evolved (as it stands, it could change in the future hopefully) seems to have an unlimited sprint that is super fast and allows for regaining of shields at the same time. The issues of this are SUPER evident in some of the gameplay clips, where many players (and the play testers themselves) seem to just run past half the enemies, leading to a pretty ignorant playstyle. Hell, in one of the clips, you can literally see a dev running past invisible elites, and only noticing them due to the red reticle issue.

Many of you may say “oh it doesnt really matter does it”. Well it does. Attention to meticulous detail and gameplay are what make fun and nuanced gameplay experiences like what Ruby has done for Halo CE and soon to be Halo 2.

This is not a “bungie good” post, because boy they also have some issues, nor is this a “343/HS bad post”.

This is meant to be why a campaign only experience can truly shine better than any other Halo has before.

Halo Studios can potentially make the greatest Halo game ever, they already have a tried and tested smash hit story, all they need to do is nail the gameplay and show why Halo should be played over other shooters. Detail and character matter.