Windows Central Insider
In a recent interview with popular Halo content creator Mint Blitz, former Bungie level and mission designer Niles Sankey, who worked at Bungie from 2006 to 2015 and also served as Lead Mission Designer for Halo: Reach, had some rather strong words about the current state of the Halo franchise.
First, though, before we dive into all of that, I do recommend giving the full 50-plus-minute interview a watch.
It goes into some genuinely fascinating details about original plans for Halo: Reach, alongside behind-the-scenes insight into Halo 3’s missions that fans like myself will probably love hearing about. So, with that said, let’s jump right in.
Jumping straight into the nitty gritty here, Sankey was asked what he would do if given free rein to do as he pleases with Halo. In response, Sankey said:
I think personally that Microsoft is missing a massive opportunity with Halo right now
Niles Sankey - Former lead at Bungie
Expanding, he continued:
“Microsoft has this great opportunity where they own the Halo franchise and they have this great opportunity to spin up a separate team to just build Halo titles that look like they were built from that era, from the Halo 3 era of gaming”
Honestly, given the current reported ongoings at Halo Studios, I’m all for this. I’ve personally always thought it was a shame that the Halo IP isn’t, at the very least, leased out to other studios to create new and interesting experiences.
Sankey goes on to lament just how expensive modern game development has become, arguing that as studios expand, they often lose the culture that made them successful in the first place. He also reflected on Halo: Campaign Evolved and some of the challenges that come with modernizing older Halo experiences, stating:
“You end up stepping all over the games that the fans like and then you have these unsolvable problems of should we have sprint or should we not have sprint or we need to make it look awesome but it's going to piss off part of the fans because the Forerunner structures are too clean”
To that end, Sankey believes the solution is fairly straightforward: “The obvious answer here is no, roll back to the 2007 era graphics and do it as a separate team.”
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this because, personally, I’d be more than happy with a new Halo game using graphics in the same style as Halo 3 or even Halo: Reach again.
To me, and I imagine many others, Halo was never really about graphics. It was always about the gameplay, sandbox, social features, story, and everything else that made those games special beyond simply “wow, game pretty.”
But those are just my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:
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