The first of a new trilogy of Halo games, Halo 4 finally has some concrete details revealed at this weeks PAX conference.
Halo (Credit: 343 Industries)
The reveal of Halo 4 at E3 during Microsoft press conference earlier this year had fans of the franchise itching for more details. This past week at PAX the game’s developers, 343 Industries, finally revealed some more details about the anticipated sequel.
Senior art director Kenneth Scott revealed that the planet Forerunner is going to play a key role for the sequels.
Stating that it has “invested heavily” into the look and feel of the planet, Scott says that the team wants to re-capture the “mystery” that made the original Halo games so brilliant. “We want the player to feel that initial experience of discovery,” he said.
Spanning over 4 games, the planet has the potential to become to familiar, said Frank O’Conner, the franchise developer, mentioning he believes that players will be interested by the “different aspects of Forerunner engineering and Forerunner architecture…” that is now found on the planet.
Sadly no concrete details were revealed about the story, other than the fact that it will further explore Master Chief’s character.
“It is a direct continuation in a way of the events of Halo 3…But it will deal with the fate of John and Cortana,” O’Conner said. He believes that the players will connect with the “…relationship between those two characters” — character relationships are something 343 is focusing on this time.
Creative director Josh Holmes is reassuring fans that “it plays like Halo” — he is adament that this be made perfectly clear to fans. “As a team we were brought together by this love for this universe and this play experience, and we wanted to maintain the core of that magical Halo feel,” Holmes said.
Soon after though, he made it clear that they are still are ‘taking risks’ and ‘evolving the gameplay’ so it remains fresh for hardcore fans, and makes new comers enjoy it instantly as well. Liking adding new weapons and abilities, they are still “…making sure it feels like Halo…”
343 Industries is comprised of over 200 or so people, all of whom come with varying degrees of experience. The whole group of developers have come from over 25 different game studios, showing that the developer has immense talent inside the Microsoft-owned company.
Halo 4 is expected to be released in the holiday 2012 season in Australia.
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