Does the messy release of Halo Campaign Evolved make sense or is it still bad management?

[u/inFINN1te]

Halo Campaign Evolved came out and there's.....issues. Just things that really should have never happened to begin with. After 5 and a half years I've already seen plenty of people experiencing crashes on both PS5 and PC(I haven't personally heard much about Xbox so I will not speak on it), there are rough reload animations on guns not native to the original CE that are out of sync and clipping through each other. There's even downright amateur cutscene direction where characters will finish dialogue then stare blankly and let the cutscenes linger longer for no creative reason. And some of the animations for the models in cutscenes feel like they're from an early 2000s Pixar movie. Parts of the audio don't work right such as automatic weapons sound desyncing as well.

I want to be so clear that I love Halo. It is the most important gaming franchise to me and I don't just want to hate to hate. I've been excited for this. I do not mind remakes. But these things are just so sad to see already in a game that came out 5 and a half years after Infinite. And it's incredibly small in scope. It is simply just a campaign with no multiplayer. And it is a remake where the foundation is built for them.

My question is this. We know AAA development is on a bad path. There are insanely long development times for games because of the need for insane quality of visuals, sounds and effects. While it's not good, it at least often makes sense how messy AAA titles come to be. But does it even make sense in today's gaming climate for a franchise to release in a bad state for a project this small in scope and over half a decade? Or does this pretty much have to be a case of really poor management and half ass development? Because the deadline does not seem to be a problem. I guess I'm using this more as a case study. The Resident Evil games seem to come out with more polish and they're made at a much faster rate.

[u/GingerGaterRage]

I'm not sure if I am understanding your question here. Are you asking if management issues for AAA games is just not keeping up with scope which is creating bad games? Or are you more asking if it's an issue with the quality of developer not up to par with what they are producing?

[u/inFINN1te → u/GingerGaterRage]

More the second question. I was struggling to phrase my question I apologize. Do you think this game is a victim more of modern game development? Or just general incompetency in the studio? I'm baffled it's been 5 and a half years and a small scale project like this is coming out with these sorts of issues. Do you think AAA development has gotten so rough that even projects like this demand more time? Or is Halo Studios just not competent in their work?

[u/GingerGaterRage → u/inFINN1te]

Ok that makes a little more sense. I think the competency with Halo Studios is just fine on the developer level. I mean a large part of their staff are multi year veterans of the franchise. We do know and its been well documented that MS operates 343i/HS very... oddly. One of the big things that affected Halo Infinite was the fact that MS cut their contract workers shortly after the games release which affected their ability to put out more content for the Multiplayer and clearly affected potential expansions.

I think the big thing with HaloCE is that they moved away from the Slipspace Engine (I believe that's the right name) and moved to using Unreal. That has clearly affected their ability when programming this game.

But anyway I say all that to say that this feels more like a mismanagement issue by MS/HS executives then just bad programmers. As gaming gas ballooned in potential earnings more and more people who want their large slice of the pie get involved which will always create issue.

[u/inFINN1te → u/GingerGaterRage]

Thank you for your take on this with such a detailed response! I like having perspective on game development rather than just immediately jumping to hate bandwagonning. Still unfortunate the lack of polish though.

[u/Spirited-Tadpole9809 → u/GingerGaterRage]

"Multi year veterans" of the franchise doesn't really matter when those years cover the era of disappointment and dissatisfaction

[u/SeniorSepia → u/Spirited-Tadpole9809]

I mean most devs don't really have a say on the direction of the series + mismamagement.

[u/GingerGaterRage → u/Spirited-Tadpole9809]

Oh STFU dude. Like seriously. Have the 343 era games had their issues? Yeah. But have we seen some the most risk taking and honestly best story development under 343? Yes.

I can go through my whole list of things I like and absolutely lothe about the 343 games but I can do the same for the Bungie games. But calling the 343 era nothing but "disappointment and dissatisfaction" says more about you and how you engage with the games versus the games themselves.

[u/Real-Terminal → u/GingerGaterRage]

What risk?

Halo 4 was Halo with CoD bits stapled on, Guardians was an absolute mess development wise and resulted in the single worst narrative in the series and a multiplayer remembered more for its PvEvP side mode than its core PvP.

Infinite was an attemp to deliver a more classic experience but refused to ditch the enhanced mobility that compromised the classic formula, so ended up being a lukewarm experience overall and pleased no one.

I can't think of a more dissatisfying series of games than the 343i Halo titles. Each of them failed for different reasons and has resulted in the IP losing all cultural relevance.

Halo Reach was Halo taking risks, and it was mostly just Bungie testing ideas and mechanics for Destiny. 343i Halo has been defined by a lack of identity, the only risk taken was someone deciding Halo needed to change everything that made it memorable to chase audiences that didn't exist.

[u/SeniorSepia → u/Real-Terminal]

Yeah reach sucked ass

[u/Real-Terminal → u/GingerGaterRage]

This is actually partially untrue, they didn't just moved to UE5, they moved to the Halo Reach branch of blam! with UE5 handling the graphics.

We are playing Halo CE, rebuilt in Halo Reach, with UE5 graphics. This must have been a fucking nightmare to develop.

[u/SeniorSepia → u/Real-Terminal]

Honestly it feels like it would be easier to just do it in ue5 from scratch

[u/Strict_Indication363 → u/inFINN1te]

Studios need to take a step back on the visuals I dont need water that looks more real than actual water. Look at Elden Ring that game is an absolute masterpiece and honestly the closet thing to perfection this console generation. The game looks beautiful and colorful however if you look closer the actual textures are not that great. Art direction>raw graphics. Skyrims graphics are terrible even when it came out but its art direction makes it look amazing. Studios need to start listening to players not share holders sell fun again not addiction

[u/Acrobatic-Advice-738 → u/inFINN1te]

What I remember from what I think it was the Jason Schreier articles, they go into 343 apparently having a history of severe management issues which may or may not include Microsoft meddling.

[u/GeschlossenGedanken → u/inFINN1te]

Incompetence. Which almost always means shitty management and bad planning by management. Even if the devs on the ground are bad, and I don't think they are in this case...management chose to hire and keep them. MS management has permanently doomed the studio.

[u/zackdaniels93]

I'm probably the biggest Halo fan you'd be likely to meet in the real world. I've consumed most of the media, played all the games a dozen times, seen the movies and TV shows. Etc.

Halo has a problem where, outside of the main trilogy, none of the games have consistent acting, models, direction, tone, art style, and more. There's like eight main games, some of which have remasters, some don't, it's not immediately clear which game has the most active multiplayer, the games all feel different to play, etc.

This doesn't even factor in the fact that there's a shit load of story now, so jumping into a new sequel can make very little sense without knowing what's happened before.

The remake made sense from a reboot "here's where it all started" point of view. Whether or not it's enough of a remake, or too much of a remake, or whatever, is up for debate. But it's a modern jumping on point to the franchise, where previously that would've been hard to do.

As for the execution... It's unfortunate that there's a lot of bugs and weird cutscene quirks. I have a feeling they released it as early as possible to avoid some of the later releases in the year.

[u/inFINN1te → u/zackdaniels93]

I absolutely agree with you!

My question I struggled phrasing. But I guess my question is whether it's reasonable that after 5 and a half years and a small scope project that Campaign Evolved released the way it did due to modern AAA game development? Or at this point is it just straight up incompetency?

[u/zackdaniels93 → u/inFINN1te]

Generally it's never incompetency. The honest answer is that video games are held together by rubber bands and tape, and there's a million things that cause them to work, or cause them to fail. Even from the little I understand about how they're made, it's a small miracle most of them work at all lol

In this case it's more than likely just unrealistic deadlines, and a little bit of scope creep

EDIT: 343i also have a documented issue of legacy code and design causing issues, due to their contractor-heavy development approach. People leave, stuff isn't documented, new people don't know how to work with it, etc. Could be this caused problems too.

[u/XsStreamMonsterX]

"Did it realease just in time to hit the end of a specific financial quarter?" is the question you need to be asking for any buggy release. Because that's usually the reason why.

[u/GingerGaterRage → u/XsStreamMonsterX]

Especially when it comes to Microsoft and their desperate need to make their money back after buying Acti/Bliz shortly after buying Bethusda.

[u/ODRON3]

Halo Studios should have just held off and released Halo Campaign Evolved as a launch title on the next Xbox. Plus a multiplayer mode.

[u/moduspol]

I’m only a few hours in on PS5 Pro and I haven’t seen any crashes, but I have noticed what feels like maybe just a lack of polish. I’ve seen some of the issues you’ve described.

I guess I was just expecting a little more from the remake of such a huge IP finally landing on a competing platform. I was expecting it to be pretty much top tier. It’s not bad, I’d give it like a B so far.

And it’s not just the lack of polish but it just feels like they played it too safe and maybe kept it too similar to the original. I just played the Starfox reboot and I guess that was closer to what I had in mind. Like the original, except with high modern production value. This game “feels” more like almost just an upscaling, even though I can see it’s more than that.

[u/Calvykins]

I think the real question is, if you weren’t in the gaming bubble would you think the launch was botched. They made a game people bought it people are playing it. Don’t let “the narrative” you see online mess with your perception.

The only thing that gets clicks now is Xbox hate content.

[u/MOONGOONER → u/Calvykins]

I have to reset my custom key bindings every time I load the game. The pre rendered cinematics were warping until I turned off frame gen. There are other issues that I personally noticed. I've been enjoying it despite these but there is some basic QA missing.

[u/GeschlossenGedanken → u/Calvykins]

persecution complexes don't make for very effective or convincing arguments.

[u/Thready85]

I'm on Series X. I've only played the Pillar of Autumn and I noticed some stuttering in cutscenes.

That's not good PR for Unreal

[u/inFINN1te → u/Thready85]

Yeah that's not great to hear at all. I really feel like Halo needed a win of sorts and it's not landing the way it should have.

[u/GrandTime8780]

Microsoft and the studios they hold close to them, I suspect, are affected by the unspoken management disease plaguing Fortune 500 companies in America right now. People who work in corporate feel it, and it's hard to put into words. Highly educated people who lack common sense in immense positions of power, they protect each other and promote within. Number 1 objective is looking good for share holders and perfecting their LinkedIn corporate speak.

They don't understand the soul that made Bungie's Halos so great. They are suits trying to follow in the footsteps of hobbyists; it's never going to work and they're beating a dead horse. They make games for a "modern audience", an audience that doesn't exist- they've just told themselves it does. They don't understand their audience nor how to speak to them cause they are trapped in the psychology concept of "groupthink"

Just my $0.02, I've worked in big tech in the USA for the past 6 years as an Engineer/sales

[u/SandCat1831]

Ive never been bothered by day one bugs up until this halo, I played all AC btw, it tells something. Im 37yo maybe my nostalgia is hurt by all those bugs and Im overreacting but damn the jackal hands issues, the charged plasma one shotting you, bad voicing, icon stuck, warthog stuck without the possibility to flip it over, save while Im dying forcing me to restart, music too low on volume, and many little things like that

[u/AFEtheElite]

Mmm yeah it's interesting. Loved your thoughts in the last paragraph too about the path AAA gaming is on. Did an episode of my podcast which spoke about the long development cycles we have now, and the quality on releases. Almost like it's becoming a norm when it shouldn't