14 DAY TRIAL // Halo was recently described as being one of the biggest franchises in the world of gaming by executives at Microsoft, and the fourth core game in the series will have to walk a fine line between familiar content and new concepts in order to keep gamers interested.
CVG asked Josh Holmes, the creative director at 343 Industries, about the balance between innovation and classic features in Halo 4 and the developer said, “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.”
He added, “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.”
One of the changes that the 343 Industries developers have already confirmed is a more frantic pace to the combat sequences of Halo 4.
Josh Holmes says he felt that the battles in Halo: Reach, the latest game in the series created by Bungie, were more tactical and slower than in Halo 3, and 343 Industries wants to push the balance back towards fast action and visceral reactions.
It is not yet clear how 343 Industries plans to reach its goal, but it will probably use both the nature of the enemies in Halo 4 and the weapons that Master Chief can use to change the nature of combat in the new game.
Halo 4 will be launched exclusively on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft before the end of the year and will feature both Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana.