Summary
- Renamed Halo Studios, former 343 Industries continues the franchise's evolution.
- An increased pace of play and diversified weapon meta shape Halo's future.
- Enhancements to Forge mode, character development, and expanded universe are indicative of 343 Industries' tenure.
With the announcement of a drastic change in name and leadership - ahead of the final match within the Halo World Championships on October 6th, 2024 - 343 Industries' seventeen years working on the Halo franchise ended. Transformed into the aptly named "Halo Studios," the developers proclaim they are "entering a new dawn for Halo." As such, the spotted past of 343 Industries' time at the franchise's helm can be put into perspective.
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Though the Halo franchise doesn't churn out a title yearly, it has amassed a collection of phenomenal games, as evidenced by their ratings.
For every seemingly botched Sangheili design and missed opportunity, it's unfair to say that 343 Industries has nothing to show for its seventeen years of working on Halo titles. From cementing Master Chief's legacy titles to introducing much-beloved new elements, Xbox's flagship franchise has been - for better or worse - irreversibly shaped by the studio.
1 Increasing The Pace Of Play
Even Without Spartan Abilities, 343 Industries Made Combat Faster
Although the Bungie-era of Halo titles has remained seemingly favored by critics and fans, the landscape of first-person shooters has drastically changed in the years since 343 Industries took over the reins of the franchise. Respawn Entertainment's influential work with the Titanfall universe, alongside Call of Duty's FPS dominance, has increased the pace of combat substantially since 2010.
With instances of faster-paced PvP game modes like Halo 5: Guardians' "Breakout" and the inclusion of sprint in Halo since 2015, 343 Industries has had a constant eye on increasing the pace of play. While they have not always succeeded in striking a balance, their achievements lie in bringing the solid core of Halo gameplay into a world where it plays as fluidly as any of its FPS contemporaries.
2 Striving To Strike A More Balanced Weapon Meta
Diversifying The Sandbox Beyond A Battle Rifle & Magnum
When comparing notes on the most efficient way to kill an enemy Spartan across the Halo series, a focus on bestowing players with powerful precision weapons in the Bungie-era titles is apparent. Halo: Combat Evolved had the M6D Magnum, Halo 2 had the BR55 Battle Rifle, and Reach had the M392 DMR.
Halo: Every Covenant Species, Ranked From Weakest To Strongest
The Covenant nearly brings the universe to destruction in Halo. Their strength is great and diverse, yet some species are better than others.
Contrast that with 343 Industries' attempts to diversify players' arsenals, with elemental firearms such as the Disruptor pistol and bringing increased damage to Halo staples such as the SMG. Although precision weapons still arguably dominate competitive multiplayer, 343 Industries' openness to adapting and altering the weapon sandbox to accommodate more combat styles is refreshing for the series moving forward.
3 Attempting To Update Moment-To-Moment Gameplay
From The Ground Pound & Grappleshot To An Open-World Design
One such aspect of the Halo series that has brought it such critical and commercial acclaim has been its distancing from traditional cramped corridors and closed-lane level design. Halo: Combat Evolved's opening levels act as a conscious pushback against a more limited design layout, with the claustrophobia of "The Pillar of Autumn" released at the outset of "Halo."
343 Industries may have struggled with some arguably by-the-numbers level design in its traditional titles but with the 2021 release of Halo: Infinite's open-world campaign, some players have harkened it to "taking The Silent Cartographer's foundation and cranking it up to 11." As a result of this openness, alongside experimental additions to the Halo formula such as Halo 5: Guardians' Warzone and Spartan Abilities, 343 Industries has seemingly made a conscious effort to inject Halo's moment-to-moment gameplay with a level of diversity arguably unseen in Bungie's FPS Halo titles.
4 Willing To Introduce Weapons, Factions, & Characters
Expanding The Sandbox & Character Roster
Although 343 Industries may have stumbled with some of its additions to the Halo franchise, most notably the Promethean Crawler and the Z-130 Suppressor, its continuous evolution of the Halo sandbox stands in stark contrast with Bungie's more reserved approach. Although, Bungie did introduce additional Covenant species like the Brutes and Drones and weapons such as the Needle Rifle, the level of constant pursuit of something new is somewhat unique to 343 Industries' tenure with the franchise.
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Spartan Locke and Team Osiris may not have been a warranted replacement for following Master Chief, but the ideas behind their inclusion are intriguing enough that they have been explained further by multiple aspects of the expanded Halo universe. Beyond that, the introduction of new factions like the Prometheans, Endless, and The Banished have made for an arguably more lived-in feeling for players, and the destructive capabilities of the Mantis and "Hydra" rocket launchers have become quick fan favorites.
5 Providing Astronomical Depth To Forge Mode
From Expanded Item Libraries To AI Scripting
As an additional pillar of the gameplay experience of Halo 3, alongside Theater and File Share, the 2007 introduction of the Forge map editing tool became a swift fan-favorite staple of the FPS franchise. Incrementally evolving in the remaining releases of Bungie's tenure with the franchise, 343 Industries has arguably overhauled the legacy game mode more than even its initial creators.
Although 343 Industries released Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: Infinite without the much-loved system, the outcry from fans of the series was enough that it was promptly added to the titles post-launch. Beyond that, the Forge mode that was implemented was not only as capable as those that came before but expansively overhauled to include dynamic systems such as lighting, color variations, and even AI scripting. With the 2023 Halo: Infinite Season 5: Reckoning update, Campaign AI scripting was added to the title, and as such the Halo community has even gone so far as to create its own custom campaigns. While the foundations laid in 2007 were revolutionary for the franchise, the continuous updates of recent 343 Industries titles are arguably the game mode at its very best.
6 Humanizing The Master Chief
From Halo 4 On, John-117 Is Less Avatar & More Character
Bungie's interpretation of Microsoft's flagship character, Master Chief John-117, is arguably the purest form of the character. The necessity that he remained a conduit for player expression resulted in him appearing as less of a personality and more of a blank slate. Bolstered by expanded universe materials and a pursuit to inject the Master Chief with a hearty dose of emotion, 343 Industries has formed a version of the Spartan that players can not only occupy but empathize with.
Halo: Every Starting Mission In The Franchise, Ranked
Halo has consistently crafted incredible opening levels, but some missions are better than others.
Starting strong with their first original title, John-117's harrowing backstory of child indoctrination and grief in the face of losing his companion Cortana throws 343 Industries' version of the Master Chief into an emotional quagmire. Reinforced by every progressive entry in the Reclaimer Saga and beyond, Master Chief now seemingly no longer shirks off the weight of loss and war but goes through the tumultuous stages of grief and acceptance in a much less mechanical way.
7 Endorsing & Incorporating The Halo Expanded Universe
Characters & Themes Shared Across Literature, Games, & Motion Pictures
Regardless of the critical or fan reception of the multiple Halo projects seen with the franchise's Xbox FPS roots, the fact that the series has a foothold in the worlds of literature, television, and cinema is a landmark statement to 343 Industries' progression of the sci-fi IP. Now more than just video games, the burgeoning novelizations and multimedia projects of the Halo franchise that existed in the Bungie era are more than just tumultuous additions to the source material.
From audio dramas, novelizations, and live-action motion pictures - such as HUNT the TRUTH, the Kilo-5 trilogy, and Halo: Nightfall respectively - 343 Industries has overseen an explosion of Halo content during their time at the helm of the series. While the quality of these titles can vary from genre-defining pieces of fiction to seemingly unjust interpretations of the Halo series' universe, the fact that such works exist is tantamount to 343 Industries' time with the franchise.
8 Developing & Supporting The Master Chief Collection
The Halo Series' Legacy - Bound, Updated, & Available On Xbox & PC
Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Released
- November 11, 2014
- Developer(s)
- 343 Industries
- Platform(s)
- Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- First-Person Shooter
While The Master Chief Collection's six-game retrospective package has cemented itself as a staple of Halo's legacy content, the memories of fans who played the title earlier in its life are seemingly somewhat tainted. With a botched launch riddled with technical problems, these issues reached a fever pitch when, then Studio Head at 343 Industries, Bonnie Ross offered her "heartfelt apologies for the delay and the negative aspects of your experience to date."
However, in the coming years since its shaky start, The Master Chief Collection has expanded to include side games like Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach while also being ported to PC, and fixing/balancing bugs and gameplay. Though the bitter taste of its 2014 launch still lingers with some fans of the franchise, the amount of effort and expansion that has been placed into Halo's legacy collection is arguably unparalleled in the modern gaming space. Even with the critical highs of Halo: Infinite and Halo Wars 2, the timelessness of The Master Chief Collection and its commitment to upholding the series' past is arguably 343 Industries' greatest achievement.
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