Hi there,
I am a huge Halo-fan since the first game. As PC-Gamer, I had wait a long time, until I could play the games and I loved it. But there is one (two, to be honest) topic which always bothered me: Terminals, logs or how you call it.
I do not know who at first had the idead to put collectibles into a game to stretch the time of playing. But it was a bad one in my eyes. They totally kill any immersion, if you search for them. Sure, you can play the game through and than search for them in the second run. But I want to know all elements of the story while playing and not learn it, when the storyline is over. My strategy in Halo is the same like in every game which has collectibles: Searching via google for a guide to find them and than collect them via playing. But as I said, it mostly kills the immersion, when you have a dramatic urgency and first of all you had to search the era for some info terminal, while you get a com-call to hurry.
The terminals in Halo 3 were a joke. Honestly, in Halo 2 you had at least a short movie and in Halo 3: ODST you had an audio log, which was easy to find because of the hints. But in Halo 3, you had to read boring stuff and break your game with it. I have not played Halo 4 und Halo Infinite yet, but I read, that they also head terminals.
Maybe some people love to search war zones for collectibles. But I do not. But I want to know the story in its deepth. To ask for removing the terminals from future games maybe would be presumptuous. But please, could you at least integrate them in a way, which does not break the immersion? Like unlocking them automatically after a mission so you can view them in the menu. Or just integrate them into the regulary path of the game like when you need to use a console to activate something, so that the data-terminal next to it. Our just integrate them into a regular cutscene, so that there is an option to learn more or keep playing. Something like that, which prevents me from searching empty levels, while they story is waiting for me.
Collectibles are no fun, they are boring and annoying. Like open worlds. There was a time, where games do not had these unnecessary decorations. Halo CE was a good game and does not needed it. I played it serval times. If you want to stretch the time of playing, give as possibilities to solve things, achievements to unlock, smarter enemies... such things. But no scavanger hunt during dramatic storylines, where I as soldier had to desert and leave the mission to search for something. Tell a good story.
Best regards.
