The long-rumored Halo: Campaign Evolved will mark both the series' return and its debut on PlayStation, but its Unreal Engine 5-powered visual overhaul, according to former Bungie lead mission designer Niles Sankey, could gut one of the elements that made the first few entries in the series some of the best first-person shooters ever: tactical readability.
"I do question the readability of some of the battlefield," Sankey said in an interview with Mint Blitz. "I think one thing that Halo, especially the first one, did a great job of is that you can read the battlefield; you can clearly see the enemies, you can clearly see your lanes," the Bungie veteran continued, emphasizing how maps cluttered with dense foliage or advanced terrain effects effectively damage what one of the core elements of the experience is. This also seems to highlight another issue in the wider gaming industry: designers forgetting that games are games, first and foremost.
"It's a game first and foremost. You need to see where your enemies are; you need to see where your lanes and routes are, and that's what's most fun, so you need to make sure that the game is readable in that regard. I don't have insight into this process, but I get the sense that sometimes companies overlook that in and instead are just trying to make the best graphics possible without considering the ramifications of what those fancy graphics might mean," Sankey explained.
As we haven't seen a whole lot of Halo Campaign Evolved (though we are sure to see more during this year's Xbox Games Showcase), it may be too early to say if Niles Sankey's opinion will reflect the quality of the game. However, hearing his thoughts immediately brought to mind a few instances in which I found the visuals too cluttered to achieve the required screen visibility.
While Crimson Desert is only the most recent example (though thankfully the distracting visual elements can be toned down or even removed on PC via mods), I also found myself thinking the same with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, especially in the open-world segments with enemies whose color palettes and sizes meshed too much with the environment, making it often hard to see them properly and use the parry mechanics properly.
Seeing the state of the game industry, Halo Campaign Evolved's potential readability issue is part of a larger trend that doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon, as studios continue to aim for the most detailed visuals. Hopefully, more will bring this issue to light, reminding developers and designers that games, as Sankey put it, are games, first and foremost.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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