A Halo Marine Game Would be Fantastic

Halo has always been one of my favorite games. Halo 3 was released when I was five years old and I began playing it with my older brother. We both grew to love the game and I still play it sometimes. But the Halo game I actually think works best that isn't the first trilogy is Halo 3: ODST. The reason for this is because of the different atmosphere and how weak you are compared to the Spartans you play as in any other game. I want this for yet another spin-off without Spartans. This being a UNSC Marine game. 

The game would begin before the Human-Covenant War. The main character is a trainee and the first mission would be a mix of the first missions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The main character, who I will call "you" throughout this, completes his training and joins his squad. 

The first couple of missions will be much like the first Modern Warfare. It is a more grounded FPS compared to the other installments of the Halo franchise or the later Call of Dutys. You fight the Insurrectionists. For those who haven't read the books, they are basically terrorists in the Halo universe. Through these missions, you get to know your squad and how everyone operates. Every squad member has their own character and you'll get to know them all.

There should be some sort of hub area. This would be where you get to know more about your squad. Where you choose your load-outs for the missions and so on. It would work a lot like the ship in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It could even be a ship as well. Having the hub area on a UNSC starship. 

The game's gameplay should be a mix of Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield. This makes the gameplay feel fresh and more realistic while still working in the Halo franchise. Maybe go with the time to kill from Call of Duty and Battlefield for both yourself and the Insurrectionists. But when you go up against a Covenant, they work just like in the other Halo games. 

The same goes for the weapons. They should all work like they do in the other games. Of course, it will be a little different as it is with the weapons through the franchise already but if you get your hands on a Battle Rifle, it should feel like a Battle Rifle. The difference would be how you aim. It would be more like the aim system shown in Halo 5: Guardians or the Halo mods to Arma 3. You aim down your sight with most of the weapons but when doing so with a Sniper Rifle or a Battle Rifle, it looks like it does while doing so in Halo CE - Halo 3. 

Because this new sandbox is more of the Call of Duty style sandbox, there will be more weapons than in other Halo games. We will get all weapons from this era. The different types of Assault Rifles. Weapons from books. And all will be somewhat customizable when creating your load-outs. 

The game will later go from this standard military game feel to the more depressing feeling of Call of Duty: World at War. This happens when the Covenants gets involved. Throughout the game, the Covenants would barely be mentioned. It isn't until halfway through they are thrown in. And when they are, you're not prepared. Your squad is not prepared. The UNSC is not prepared. Half of your squad are killed during the first mission against the Covenant. The UNSC is severely weakened. Now you have to find a way to stop all of this and save your squad.

For the last few missions, you will become the squad leader. The previous squad leader will die and now it is up to you to make sure your squad gets to go home and meet their families. In the hub area, you will always be able to talk to your squad members. Meaning if you've talked to all of them between every mission, you will have deep attachments to them all in different ways. And as you go towards your last mission, you know not everyone is getting back home. 

I don't know for how long the game will take place but I am thinking a few years. It will be too much if it is the whole Human-Covenant War but it could go from the beginning to one of the UNSC's big victories. The game should end kind of like World at War. You have defeated the enemy. You've won the battle. Saved people. But you've lost so much on the way. Too much. 

What I want from a game like this is to know how it feels to be a marine in the Halo universe. We've run around as Master Chief alongside these soldiers. We've seen them die over and over again. But we've never been in their shoes. This is what a game like this would be about. How is it to be a marine? How is it to be a normal soldier while someone else saves the universe?