SAN FRANCISCO – 343 Industries, the Microsoft group that took over the Halo series from Bungie, said it is exploring a "darker" new direction with Halo 4's storyline during a media briefing Thursday.
Halo 4 creative director Josh Holmes said that while it is important to keep the essence of Halo's identity intact, 343 also wants to deliver a story that is much darker and more grounded in realism.
"We really want to give ourselves the freedom to take risks and drive things forward in a way that goes beyond anything that people have experienced before with the Halo franchise," said Halo 4 creative director Josh Holmes.
"We don't want to just imitate what's been done before. We need to find our own voice as a team," he said.
Based on the small amount that 343 Industries actually showed from Halo 4, it's impossible to know just how dramatic its shift in tone will really be. But the developer argued passionately about its desire to shift the tone of the Xbox 360 game's storyline and universe.
Halo 4 is the first title in the popular Xbox shooter series to be developed without the input of original creator Bungie. 343 Industries is an internal Microsoft team tasked with keeping the series that built the Xbox business alive and kicking. It will release the game later this year.
The developer presented a short gameplay video of Halo 4 featuring various scenes, including Master Chief entering hyper-sleep and Spartan soldiers engaged in combat. The developer also gave a tour of two multiplayer maps named "war house" and "wrap-around," which it noted were built to take advantage of Halo 4's faster-paced multiplayer.
But the most interesting detail that 343 shared about Halo 4's multiplayer is that it will actually tie into the events of the single-player campaign. This is the first time the Halo series has attempted to link the two modes together, it says.
Frank O'Connor, franchise development director on Halo, explained that Halo 4's darker vibe will primarily come through the way the developer is exploring the humanity of the series' Spartan protagonist Master Chief. The character will make his return in Halo 4 after his absence from Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST.
The personal life of the man behind the Spartan helmet isn't something that the games have ever really explored. It should be interesting to see just how much we'll actually learn about Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.
O'Connor said that another way that 343 will seek to establish a more somber tone in the new game is by introducing Master Chief to a mysterious new threat, a conflict that will figure heavily into Halo 4's story.
"It's a fairly compelling threat and not just a physical one," said O'Connor. "It's going to challenge Master Chief in ways that he's never been challenged before as a videogame character."
