Highlights
- Halo's multiplayer content has been criticized recently for lacking depth and variety, creating a need for change.
- Firefight mode, which has faded into obscurity, could revitalize Halo's online offerings and reach the same success as Call of Duty Zombies.
- Firefight shares similarities with Call of Duty Zombies but has received little to no support or reworks, unlike Zombies which has adapted to stay prominent in newer releases. A revival of Firefight with regular support and new modes could become a pillar of the Halo franchise.
The Halo franchise is renowned for its large range of multiplayer experiences, with two decades worth of releases creating a huge amount of online modes for players to enjoy. Despite this, recent installments to the franchise have been criticized for the lack of depth and variety in their online content, with there being a clear need for change.
Thankfully, Halo and 343 may not have to look any further than the franchise's well-established Firefight mode to revitalize the IP's online offerings. Firefight was once an iconic part of the Halo multiplayer experience, but has since faded into unfortunate obscurity. The mode shares a lot of similarities with the Zombies mode of the Call of Duty franchise, and Firefight should receive the same care that Zombies has received in order to reach the same level of success as the CoD mode.
Halo's Firefight and Emulating the Success of Call of Duty Zombies
Firefight was first introduced to Halo in 2009's ODST, adding a great new layer to the franchise's multiplayer. Going on to appear to similar success in Halo Reach, Firefight sees teams of up to four players act as Spartans defending a location from waves of AI-controlled Covenant forces. Firefight captures the chaotic gameplay of Halo's co-op campaign experiences very well, with each wave of Covenant forces becoming increasingly difficult as a mission progresses.
Halo Reach's Firefight had a lot in the way of customization, even boasting a Versus mode for Firefight that saw one team take control of Covenant Elites to hinder the Spartan defenders. It is clear that Firefight had a huge ceiling in terms of how it could be developed further for the franchise, but it sadly made little to no appearances following Reach. The mode was partially reimagined for Halo 5: Guardians and even Halo Wars 2 but was never really given the love it needed to thrive in the way it did previously.
At its core, Firefight shares a lot of similarities with Call of Duty Zombies, both traditionally featuring four-player PvE matches against waves of increasingly imposing enemies. The core difference between the two is the consistent attention and reworks that Zombies has received over the years, whereas Firefight has been left in the dust. Zombies has appeared numerous times within CoD, being spearheaded by a number of studios and taking many different forms.
More recently, Call of Duty Zombies has moved over to the Outbreak Zombies formula, applying the mode's framework to larger-scale experiences with objectives that players need to complete to progress. While this has been somewhat divisive, it is proof that Activision is willing to adapt Zombies around the changing identity of the franchise to ensure it still holds prominence in newer releases. This is a complete deviation from the approach 343 has taken with Firefight, with the mode losing any form of support in recent Halo releases.
A revival of Firefight would be a perfect way to take the heat off of Halo Infinite's content criticism, even with the title bolstering its game modes quite significantly in recent months. If Firefight is reintroduced with annual support and a greater variety of modes, it could easily rise to become a pillar of the Halo franchise going forward. This could even tie into Halo Infinite's in-game seasons, with new Firefight maps and modes periodically releasing and getting seasonal variants at times like Halloween. CoD Zombies shows how a similar mode can be successful through passion and attention, and ​​​​Halo's Firefight should adopt a similar mentality going forward.