Halo’s Supposed Third-Person Future Doesn’t Need to Be an End-All, Be-All

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 20, 2024 16 Views 7 Min Read
Halo's Supposed Third-Person Future Doesn't Need to Be an End-All, Be-All



For most of Halo’s 23-year-long history, gameplay has primarily been restricted to the view of first-person. While players were able to play in third-person when utilizing vehicles, turrets, hijackings, assassinations, and in some boss battles, most players only saw the game through the eyes of Master Chief, Arbiter, and multiplayer Spartans. Spinoff Halo games did change perspective occasionally with the real-time strategy games Halo Wars 1 and 2 as well as the twin stick shooter games Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike, but these were the only perspective exceptions. This restriction to first-person in mainline Halo games changed, however, when Halo Studios recently introduced a third-person option to Halo Infinite’s multiplayer.



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Halo Infinite’s Third-Person Mechanic Explained

In coordination with Halo 2’s 20th anniversary and Halo Infinite’s Operation: Great Journey update, Halo Studios released an experimental third-person Firefight gamemode into Halo Infinite’s multiplayer. According to Halo Studios Senior Community Manager John Junyszek, third-person was originally developed as just a fun feature used in Forge creations based on a debug third-person camera, but developers realized the feature could be fun in official multiplayer modes, starting with Firefight. While third-person is currently only accessible in Firefight playlists on Infinite’s matchmaking, players can still use the feature in custom games by toggling the third-person camera on under match overrides.


Similar to the third-person perspective seen in the Gears of War series, Halo Infinite’s third-person camera is situated directly behind Spartans’ backs, allowing for players to finally see their customized armor in its near entirety. Players can additionally see their own special armor effects in game for the first time with this feature. Despite the third-person view, players are still able to clearly see their weapon’s reticle, radar, weapons, grenades, and equipment just as they can by looking through their helmet’s HUD. However, zooming in with a weapon will return the player to first-person temporarily while scoped in, just as Gears troops are when zooming in with a Longshot Sniper Rifle.

Halo
was originally designed as an RTS for Apple’s Mac computers and later a third-person action game before it was acquired by Microsoft.


Halo’s Potential Future With Third-Person

Now that Halo Infinite’s third-person mode has emerged, Halo Studios can experiment with the feature in PVP gametypes such as Slayer and Big Team Battle. Third-person isn’t expected to be brought over to competitive gametypes because the feature can make some fights unfair by enabling players to look around corners without stepping into the line of fire. The new feature could be used in other gametypes, campaigns, and entirely new games to increase the player population. Brian “ske7ch” Jarrard noted in a community livestream that some gamers are adverse towards first-person games and only play in third-person. Including this feature in more modes and future Halo titles could bring in new fans.


However, the new third-person feature hasn’t been universally praised. Some players viewed the third-person perspective as not Halo-like and saw its implementation as a step towards going away from the franchise’s core values and gameplay. As both single and multiplayer third-person games become increasingly popular, such as Horizon and Fortnite, many are concerned that Halo Studios may deviate too much towards third-person in mainline Halo games in order to try to get younger players to try the series. While mainline Halo games could perfect the implementation of third-person in social playlists similar to the Star Wars: Battlefront games, it may be best to restrict third-person to spinoffs or have it be optional.

A Third-Person Halo Spinoff

To work around the divisive responses with third-person Halo, Halo Studio could develop a new spinoff title with third-person intended as the main gameplay perspective. This hypothetical third-person Halo game could be based on the long-desired Flood centric Halo game and be structured similar to Dead Space in terms of gameplay. Halo Studios could also make a third-person game centered on playing as Elites to help differentiate the game from common first-person games that typically have fans play as humans. While these games could be designed to play in third-person, Halo Studios could implement a toggle function allowing players to seamlessly switch to first-person to ensure that signature Halo feel remains in the game.


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