VG247

Bungie co-founder and Halo creator Jason Jones believes the developer could do a better job of the seminal shooter if it had to do it all again – but that notorious pistol wouldn’t change.

Speaking to IGN, Jones said looking back on Halo, there are things he would change if he were to design it again now, with the benefit of years of experience.

“I’m not sure how much different it would have been. I think it would have been better. We would have done things a little bit different,” he said. “Certainly knowing what I do now from the experience, I would change a few things.”

“I’d change the pistol,” he added.

Halo’s pistol is considered over-powered by many fans – it’s something of a signature. It’s long been said that Jones sneakily changed the pistol’s power at the last minute to give himself an in-game advantage, but the developer revealed the reason was a little more prosaic.

“There was a moment towards the end of Halo 1 where we were very close to locking down. The balance on the pistol was such that both in the competitive game, but also in the solo game, it wasn’t where we wanted it to be,” he said.

“We didn’t feel comfortable actually changing the data anymore. The game was so locked down that when you changed a piece of data, gigabytes of crap had to be reprocessed. What we did feel comfortable doing was changing the code, and so I added code specifically, when the map was loaded, to change a single number on the pistol.”

As such, Jones is indeed responsible for the pistol’s balance, noting that he’d “take the blame for everything in Halo”. And he stands by it; clarifying his earlier comment, Jones said the pistol’s power isn’t the problem.

“Rather than do that change at the last minute, I would have made that change a lot earlier,” he said of his only regret.

If you’ve yet to experience the original Halo, the 343 Industries-built Anniversary Edition is available for Xbox 360.

Thanks, OXM.

I think everyone would be better if made now, the technology allows for it. But melee is very OP in Halo i though, you could probably melee through the whole game if you wanted to

Too many (same looking) corridors. I always knew that, but after playing through the Anniversary edition it became even more apparent.

Certainly something that could be improved nowadays.
Also adding an online mode.

Otherwise it's close to perfection.

pong would also be better if made today

"but that notorious pistol wouldn’t change."

"“I’d change the pistol,” he added."

The pistol isn't the only weapon-balance problem: The shotgun is actually a mid range weapon that can easily beat the assault rifle at a distance.

And then there is the 2 km/h road kills...


All of which goes to show how lazy 343i's Halo: CE remake really was, and the sales reflect it.

It wasn't lazy lol.

The whole point of the remake was to keep the physics and game mechanics as they are. Also it hardly sold bad for a remake.

Well, and the whole point was to be lazy - That way they could focus their efforts on Halo 4. The price was $40 for a reason.

I didn't say that sales were bad. I said that the sales reflected the efforts that they put into the title.

Who cares about the game mechanics......it took the lore 10+ years to develop where it is today.

As a 25 year old adult, the lore wouldn't impact me today anywhere close to how it amazed me in 2001.

Halo Anniversary is the best looking remake as far as im aware rather than just doing an HD remake that is barely different.  So id hardly say it was  lazy.  A remake is supose to keep everything the way it already was which is why the physics etc did not change but the graphics was over-hauled into a much more next gen look. So i disagree with you entirely.  Go look at other HD remakes and tell me that they put more work into them than Halo anniversary.  Halo anniversary is also either the best selling remake or 2nd to the one that got it started off which is  the God Of War HD collection.

Edit:  2nd best selling with 2.17m to as i said God of War collection 2.46m