Ruby of Blue

Episode 8 of the Halo 2: REBALANCE series is live on my YouTube! Examining what went wrong with Halo 2's Brutes and Drones, the lessons Bungie learned for future games, and what kind of other neat touches we can add that complement their characters. #halo #halomods #gamedesign

The game feels like it fundamentally lacks an identity.

And idk seeing the wild mismash of reused assets (voice lines from the OG game and Reach), Infinite assets, Reach designs we're STILL recycling (the Scorpion), Reach animations (Needle Rifle), all add up to make this remake feel incredibly scuffed and like not a real remake.

The more I look at Campaign Evolved, the less impressed I am with it and the less excited I am tbh. Playing CE level ports in Reach with an UE5 skin over it sounds exceedingly lame, this remake will need to do a lot more than look pretty and simply *exist* in Reach's engine.

It's really disheartening that we're 16 years of non-Bungie Halo and "it feels like Halo" is still the most common point of praise for any new Halo game coming out. It's become a meme. Like the bar hasn't risen at all beyond that point lol.

One thing I really like and am glad to see, powerups returning in Campaign Evolved. But not just that, changing how they function. Pocketing them upon picking them up, for you to use whenever you choose. I think that's a GREAT twist that's gonna add new layers of strategy.

And that's to say nothing about the removal of health packs in favor of regenning health. The balance of push and pull so integral to CE's gameplay pace has been diminished to an insane degree. The risk involved in constant aggression is negligable, dumbing gameplay down.

You gotta consider player conditioning. Sprint conditions players to hasten from point A to B, harming exploration, looking around, and ability for any atmosphere to settle. Sprint undermines the risk involved in closing gaps w/ enemies, fundamentally changing how encounters play

I really like what I'm seeing out of Campaign Evolved, they're really going HARD in the last week. Clearly a buncha the devs there are super passionate about OG, right down to subtle minutia. In equal measures though, the remake feels incredibly ambivalent about aspects of OG.

@LateNightHalo @HiddenXperia You can tell someone on the dev team loves how Halo 2's Shotgun looks in particular lol

@HiddenXperia I wish animations and the view model position were better. It feels great tho

Halo: Campaign Evolved's Shotgun is IMMENSELY satisfying to use - The exaggerated recoil animation isn't annoying on sustained use, actually gives it charm - Sounds cool (kinda mixes the metallic Bungie shotgun sound) - Balanced similar to OG Halo 1 (increased range and spread)

The Resident Evil 2 remake is legitimately one of the most influential games of all time, because its ripple effect has now led to NINTENDO jumping on the remake bandwagon with one of their biggest legacy hitters in Ocarina of Time.

I'm announcing now that I'll be working on a Campaign Weapons Tier List video for Campaign Evolved immediately upon release of the game! I'll be streaming my efforts and research on my Youtube when it drops! Need to finish my Reach tier list trilogy before then!

Nah but for real this new content looks very interesting, I hope it delivers.

That writing was so cringey lmao

Claire's just not allowed to wear fingerless gloves anymore wtf 😢

No more High Charity dev streams! The mission is predominantly complete, now it's a matter of polish work. :)

LIVE on YouTube right now working on development for Halo 2: REBALANCE, restoring and extending Halo 2's cut Warthog run! #halo #halomods