4) Tactical Play
Let’s take that last point and go one step further. It seems unusual to me that as said 8 foot space Chief – in a game made popular by its AI no less – can’t actually issue any commands to his loyal band of accompanying soldiers. Surely a bunch of basic commands issued via the D-pad, for example, would be a sterling way to make you feel like that battle-hardened leader you’re supposed to be playing as.
There’s precedent here, too, as Halo spread its strategic wings in spin-off title Halo Wars – a top-down RTS circa 2009. It proved to be a little on the ‘lite’ side for the in-depth strategy veterans, but garnered pretty much universal praise from everywhere else. It then went on to become the best-selling RTS games of all time. Who knows, then, why it has been so largely ignored since. But some kind of mashup for Halo 5 would certainly be interesting. Think more Brothers In Arms’ on the fly commands rather than Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s optional sandbox faffing, though. Boy was that pointless.