14 DAY TRIAL // Bungie co-founder Jason Jones posted one of his first interviews in a long time and discussed not just recreating the original Halo: Combat Evolved in today's industry, but also the infamous pistol from the first Halo title.
Bungie impressed millions of gamers from around the world with Halo: Combat Evolved, as it delivered a new type of console shooter experience that practically guaranteed a loyal user base for the first Xbox.
While the game was quite popular, it also had a few infamous elements, such as the pistol, which was extremely overpowered.
Quite a few myths emerged concerning the pistol's power, and Bungie co-founder Jason Jones recently talked with IGN about this design decision.
"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.
Jones emphasized that changing values would have forced a reprocessing of gigabytes of data, taking the solution out of the question.
“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. Whether that was 'ninja style' or not," he said with a laugh, "I’ll be happy to let you decide."
The Bungie co-founder also talked about the possibility of crafting Halo: Combat Evolved in today's industry, as he considers it would've been a much better experience.
"I’m not sure how much different it would have been," he said. "I think it would have been better. We would have done things a little bit different. Certainly knowing what I do now from the experience, I would change a few things. I’d change the pistol."
Halo: Combat Evolved was re-released back in 2011 as Halo Anniversary by Microsoft's new 343 Industries, a developer that took over Halo from Bungie.