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With big shoes to fill, Halo 4 (and subsequent games in the Reclaimer trilogy) will have the gaming industry’s critical eye squarely fixed on any little blemish to come out of the 343 Industries camp.
It’s little surprise then that the departure of Ryan Payton (of Metal Gear Solid 4 fame), one of Microsoft‘s key creative directors, has a raised a few eyebrows.
Payton, who has suffered from severe depression, was quoted as saying,
“I had a great run at Microsoft, I don’t regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn’t creatively excited about the project anymore.”
He went on to say,
“The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don’t think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through.”
[source: Kotaku]
As a Halo fan, one has to ask oneself; “is this a sign of things to come”? Non-Bungie Halo projects have had a history of falling apart (Peter Jackson‘s much anticipated Halo movie, Halo: Chronicles spin-off game and Ensemble Studios Halo themed MMO to name a few) and the cracks in the Reclaimer trilogy are already starting to appear.
Halo 4 is scheduled for release late 2012.
I am looking forward to seeing what Halo 4 brings to the table. I’m not a hardcore Halo player but if Halo 4 is as good as Halo 3, I’ll play it and that’s for sure. And yes, I agree. If you look at Call of Duty for example, I think there is a lot there to like but there’s also a lot of repetitive content returning. Halo will be entering a new era with 343 at the helm, new company, new direction perhaps (I know 343 has a lot of the same devs working there but it’s essentially a new beginning for both the company and the game).
I think a lot of it comes down to the players. A lot of players will find every little thing that is different to Bungie’s Halo games and compare it in that perspective. There will be a lot of people who won’t want 343 to change anything, so they may be disappointed. But then again, change might be what Halo needs to feel fresh and new again. Reach achieved this well with the armour abilities, which added a whole new perspective on the gameplay. So it could probably go either way really…