Despite having the unenviable task of picking up where Bungie has left off, 343 Industries - now official custodians of Microsoft's console defining Halo franchise - seems to be holding up well under the mountainous pressure.
While other developers would likely be crippled by the idea of having to shape the future of one gaming's most lucrative, high-profile franchises, 343 - a studio put together specifically for this task - is taking the proverbial bull by the horns, promising sweeping changes and claiming it's already got a 'story in mind' for Halo 5 and 6.
At Microsoft's Xbox Spring Showcase we sat down with 343's creative director, Josh Holmes, and had a chat about how it feels to take over Halo, the future of the franchise, and what's in store for Master Chief in Halo 4.
How does it feel to have the responsibility of releasing the next instalment in such a huge franchise?
Personally it's incredibly exciting, in a lot of ways it's an honor and it's daunting. I won't lie to you; it's something that is a tremendous amount of pressure on a new studio and a new team, and yet at the same time we built this team with this task in mind. We all came to the studio knowing that this was the goal, that we wanted to create the definitive Halo game and that we were following in the footsteps of giants in Bungie Studios. I think it's one of the things that energises us as a team and it gets me up every morning and motivates me to want to do everything I can when I go in to work each day.
How challenging has it been to keep Halo 4 impressive, considering it's the fifth instalment on current hardware?
I think you always want to set your goals high and exceed everything that's come before you - that's just part of what motivates you as a creative individual. The challenge is great for us and that's a motivation.
A lot of the talk during the reveal was about taking steps forward in gameplay innovations, but the footage you showed looked quite conventional for a Halo game. Can you explain how you're going to shake things up on the gameplay front?
We're definitely not creating Mirror's Edge set in the Halo universe - so I wouldn't go as far as to say we're radically changing the gameplay style in a way that it's unrecognisable. One of the things that we've said is that we want this to very much feel true to that Halo feel that we believe fans everywhere love. But we also want to evolve it and add new experiences, new ways to play and give players a greater sense of empowerment through choice.
I think one of the things that's fantastic about Halo and one of the things I love most about it is this idea that players have a set of tools that they can employ in any way that they want. They can go in to every encounter, every situation and chose from this sandbox of great weapons, abilities and vehicles and employ whatever means they chose to be effective and successful.
That's something that's one of the absolute design pillars for the game - giving players as much choice as possible throughout all of the experience.
So you're keeping the sandbox approach to combat?
Absolutely. As you can imagine, when any team takes on a new creative endeavour you go through a lot of exploration and thought. Very early on there were discussions around 'do we stay with the sandbox approach that has taken Halo to this place, or do we radically reinvent it as something that's maybe more scripted and constrained?'
My view personally is that what makes Halo so special is that sense of choice, freedom and creativity - the fact that I as a player can be creative in everything that I do throughout the experience, both moment to moment and then in the surrounding experiences like Forge and stuff like that - I can create my own experiences and stories to share. That's part of the foundation and bedrock of Halo for me, and we want to stay very true to that.
With such a big franchise and a fanbase in the millions, is it difficult to balance bringing in new ideas and keeping the features that fans loved about the originals?
I think it's important to give yourself the freedom to take chances. If you find yourself constantly in a defensive mentality where you're afraid to change because, 'what if someone doesn't like the changes that we introduce?' I think that would lead you to a place of stagnation, and that's obviously not what we want. We want to create a new experience that feels fresh and brings back those fans that love the universe, love Halo but also can introduce a new group of fans who've never experienced the Halo universe before.
You mentioned in the reveal presentation that combat's a bit more frantic in Halo 4?
Specifically I said it's faster paced and more intense in terms of the imerssiveness of the experience and just the overall visceralness of the experience - that's been a real focus for our team. When you look at Halo games throughout the series they've changed pretty substantially in terms of pace of play. Halo Reach is much slower and more methodical than Halo 3. What we wanted to do is push the balance back towards a faster paced combat feel. That's what we've really done.
What can you tell us in terms of specifics about how Halo 4 will play?
You're still a Spartan so all the Spartan-related rules apply. You have this amazing powered battle armour, you have a shielding system and you have the ability to do amazing athletic and physical feats. Those things are core to the fantasy and we wanted to make sure that was reflected in the gameplay.
So basically it still feels like Halo?
Yes, absolutely. It still feels like Halo.
There was a lot of talk of showing more of Master Chief's humanity in the new game?
From an aesthetic standpoint we have a whole new team of artists that have come together to create this game and there's going to be a unique vision that's brought to the aesthetic design experience, while trying to remain true to the universe and cannon.
So one of the approaches our art team under the direction of Kenneth Scott has taken is to look at everything from a functional standpoint and ask, 'how would this suit really be designed for the purpose that it is used? When I go in to combat and I'm moving with great agility around the battlefield, where would the natural bendy bits within the suit lie? How would it make sense?' I think that's what's informed a lot of Master Chief's suit design.
Coming back to story, does Halo 4's plot tie in to the original games?
The story is a direct continuation of the events of Halo 3. Everything that we've created has been designed with consistency and tie-ins to the existing cannon. So all of the historical cannon that comes before this game has been taken into account and connects in meaningful ways.
And there's been a lot of work that we've put in to building the franchise. Specifically, Frank O'Connor and the franchise team have been developing the fiction that surrounds the franchise and they've put a lot of effort into creating those tie-ins to the things that we're building for Halo 4. That's something that we've partnered together on for the last several years.
And have you worked out the story arc for all three games in the new trilogy?
We have a definite story arc in mind. We have a very, very clear vision and understanding of that story for Halo 4 obviously and as you go further out from that point in to the saga it obviously becomes a little looser. There are clear arcs that we have defined, but in terms of how we execute those arcs that will be worked out as we go through the creative process in the games.
How close to completion is Halo 4?
We've been building the game for roughly three years now and it's due to launch in Holiday 2012 so... the team right now is over 200 talented developers from around the world and around the industry to build this game and yeah, we're deep in production and working hard to make it the best game it can be.
THE 1: Do you like what you see so far?
