Wait a minute, when was there a Halo in 4? I can't remember it.
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SPOILER ALERT: Halo 5 (Spoiler) Spoiler Thread of Spoilers Spoiler
- Thread starter Shadow_Lord
- Start date
Wait a minute, when was there a Halo in 4? I can't remember it.
The Cortana character model was yuck bro!
Ivanoff Research Station (where the Composer was being studied) was around Gamma Halo.
I get it, I really do, but Chief has worked as the star for 4 mainline Halo games and no one was complaining about how they wanted less Chief in the new games. They keep trying to make these new characters and stick them into Master Chief's story and it just doesn't work.
Halo always had Master Chief as little more than a window into the universe, with supporting characters to bring the personality. It's pretty obvious that this isn't the kind of Halo they want to make. They don't want blank-slate Chief, they want character-driven stories.
The problem is, they can't write characters (see Halo 5). Bungie's Halo was never praised for having great character stories, but yet the Arbiter in Halo 2 is better written and more interesting than most of 343's new characters combined.
If they wanted to make Halo: Brosiris, about the grim and dour adventures of Jameson Locke, grumpy Nathan Fillion, Sangheili lover Vale, and that other lady, I'd be all for it. Give them their own adventure and their own purpose. As it is, they're pointlessly shoehorned into a story that isn't really about them, and they clearly serve no purpose other than trying to "sell" the idea of this new team as the heroes.
lol, so true.
The fact that she's just really nice and friendly and helpful with no hidden agenda to kill everyone or something like that. And all her dialog is super cute and endearing!
LordOfChaos
Member
Ehh. The franchise has evolved from a fight on a ring world to an entire universe of shit going on. Halo is the recognizable name. Not every Halo game has to feature a Halo imo. Especially not at the rate we keep breaking them
I didn't say it was the only way.
Beside, villain is a simplistic term. Antagonist works better for her. Right motivation, wrong methodology.
Yup. Cortana isn't a villain but she is the Antagonist. Since as horrible as it is, some might say... "This really is the only way to get Galactic Peace."
And in some ways, it is true.
You got it. Also people keep saying this is a story about Chief, and while it tries to be, it fails miserably. It really is about Cortana and Chief should have been our vessel into her downfall.
victreeb3l
Member
FIRETEAM BROSIRIS: THE JELLO SHOTS ARE GREEN
I just want Arbiter/MC adventures again. They looked so cool together in Halo 3.
I think that it works with the split. Having to make up reasons for the Chief to go to all those unique locations, including Sanghelios, would have had to be pretty contrived.
ClosingADoor
Member
He would have just had to go on a search for Cortana past different Forerunner ruins to find the way to whatever the place is Cortana went to. Would have made more sense then the whole chase thing we got with Osiris.
Damn straight. It's seems like a huge oversight, especially considering what Halo 4 was about in terms of their relationship with one another.
Man, he told Locke to send him his greetings and we didn't even get to see them nod at each other.
Having the Chief chase around for Cortana from place to place to place to place to place? Not exactly original. And as I said before, unbelievably contrived.
Garrett 2U
Member
Is that not the popular opinion?! I loved her too
ClosingADoor
Member
Same as Osiris chasing the Chief from place to place like now, so I don't see much difference. Except you get to play as him like most people want.
It can even be done with most missions like it is now I think. Go to the space station, get the message from Cortana. Go to the colony to investigate Forerunner system where the message came through. See Guardian leave. Find new Guardian on other planet. Follow it to the Forerunner planet. Travel across to Cortana. The end.
No less than what was already done in the game, though. We could've cut out a mission or two from Sanghelios and Meridian itself. I like Osiris, but I was hoping there would be more Chief time.
Maybe 6 will pull a Halo 3 and make things go back to him again.
It would be far less contrived than Fireteam Osiris's role in the current story.
Especially towards the end, the story is just making up reasons to keep you playing as Locke and crew (oh, I know, let's just make Blue Team walk around and do nothing for hours so there's a reason to play as Locke). Besides, half the time both teams end up going to the same places, there's no reason to split viewpoints in that situation.
It could have easily gone this way: Chief and Blue team assault Jul's forces, rescue Halsey -> Chief has vision of Cortana calling him to Meridian -> Chief plays through Meridian levels instead of Locke -> for some reason Chief misses the Guardian, maybe due to Sloan's interference, or perhaps UNSC/ONI's -> Chief learns of another Guardian on Sanghelios, heads there and helps Arbiter because they're bros -> Genesis and Cortana.
The only thing you'd really be adding is the Sanghelios missions, it's like all of two planets that Chief would be searching until he got to Cortana.
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, as it stands the "hunt" and split perspectives added very little to the story. Anyone who thinks that having Blue Team go to Sanghelios (split perspective or not) would have to be massively contrived must have very little faith in 343i's writers and designers, especially since a lot of the teaser art showed them there.
Double Donut
Member
So I'm a little confused on one thing. Was the Chief actually declared dead by ONI?
I mean, I didn't listen to those glorious hours of Hunt the Truth for nothing did I? I thought they were totally canon within the universe... or was the whole thing in the category of uncanon advertising?
I just don't see why ONI would push Chief as dead... he was missing for like two days lol. And they knew why he was missing (unlike what was shown in the ads) - he was searching for Cortana. Only reason I can see ONI parading that the king is dead is if they panicked and immediately jumped to the conclusion of "oh shit he's gonna help Cortana slaughter us", which I'd think ONI is smarter than that.
I mean, I didn't listen to those glorious hours of Hunt the Truth for nothing did I? I thought they were totally canon within the universe... or was the whole thing in the category of uncanon advertising?
I just don't see why ONI would push Chief as dead... he was missing for like two days lol. And they knew why he was missing (unlike what was shown in the ads) - he was searching for Cortana. Only reason I can see ONI parading that the king is dead is if they panicked and immediately jumped to the conclusion of "oh shit he's gonna help Cortana slaughter us", which I'd think ONI is smarter than that.
The Strokes
Banned
You gotta see in the context the ads and HTT are. Their source of info is this super secretive organization that feeds them very crippled information. It's only natural things like Chief dying and going AWOL are a major events during the marketing campaign since these characters don't have the full picture as we, the players, do.
That assumes that they believe their own propaganda. It's more likely that they consider him obsolete and too influential. His newfound autonomy could one day cause them one heck of a headache even without trying to help a hologram with a big butt control the universe. If you're an all-controlling shady-ass organization, a living legend to your entire species (and then some) possessing free is an absolute nightmare scenario, he'd be a ticking time bomb to their propaganda efforts. Killing him now would make him a permanent PR asset for the UNSC.
A bit contradictory, no?
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
No. My opinions on the overall quality of the storytelling in the game have no bearing on my assessment of the complexity of a particular plot point. For example, I don't consider establishing that a group of newly introduced characters have long-standing relationships a particularly complex concept, considering how common it is in fiction. Based on the Blue Team intro cutscene, I was confident that 343i would achieve this in-game. Of course once I played the game it became apparent that that cutscene constituted around half of their characterisation. If, based on this example, I decided that 343i were incapable of establishing this sort of relationship without it being contrived (all quibbles aside, I have not) then it would only support my contention that thinking these simple points would have to be contrived requires one to have little faith in the developers' storytelling abilities.
What about you? Do you think there are no minor modifications to the story that could be made to accommodate Blue Team on Sanghelios, or do you think it's feasible but doubt 343i's ability to pull it off?
ONI isn't the type of organization that would rule out that possibility...
Flintty
Member
Oh absolutely Blue Team could have ended up on Sanghelios, or Earth, or anywhere else, for that matter. But playing as the Chief and blindly jumping through hoops for Cortana for most of the series has made me realise that at this point each level that I do that feels like an excuse to be in each locale, rather than a tightly-woven story that happens to have a varied array of environments.
It's also fatigue - this story is about the Chief and Cortana again. I knew she'd be back after 4, but I feel like that story was played out after she "died". Having to play as the Chief for half of 5 or more where he's trying to find Cortana (again) or doing what she tells him to do (again) just sounds tiresome.
While Cortana was still the reason things were going on, it was great to have a break and play as someone who's looking for something else (the Chief) and doing missions on behalf of someone else (Halsey) whilst still jumping back into the Chief's story periodically.
I think that's why I have such fond memories of Reach. It was a great Halo game, but it was really interesting to play as other characters who have different motivations other than "the blue chick told me to".
Well, they mostly do random things because a chick who looks like a glowing grid told them to, before being told what to do by the chick with the brain on which that blue chick was based. And transporting the blue chick in a tube ends up being their only worthwhile contribution (a task chosen for you by the same chick).
Spartans receive orders - who knew? Despite that pretty flippant summary of why they did what they did, Noble, Osiris and Alpha Nine had a completely different relationships with the persons directing their operations than the Chief and Cortana.
Short answer: yea, pretty much.
Barely anything in the ad campaign ended up actually happening, or having a meaningful impact on the story at least. I guess you could say that it might have happened and we the player just didn't see it, but it all comes down to the same thing in the end. Locke's hunt for Chief begins and ends in one mission, and ONI plays no part in the entire story.
Well, honestly, I doubt their ability at this point. Reason being that it's not just the major plot points that could have used some minor modifications, but the smaller details aren't good either. There was a bunch of potentially great elements here, and somehow they managed to turn it into a mess.
That sounds like more of a problem with where the larger story is heading in general, though. I agree on it being played out, I was hoping that we wouldn't see Cortana again for a little while at least, but that's where 343 wants to take the story I guess.
What you said here:
This basically describes Halo 5 to me, more than any other game in the series. Half of the game felt like an excuse to play as Locke and go to these planets, while the actual important story was happening elsewhere.
Like I said before, I would have enjoyed Halo: Brosiris. It sounds like you would have to. But if 343's not gonna do that, and they're keeping the spotlight on Chief and Cortana, then don't waste my time with characters that don't matter.
Disagree. The story was interesting, though the execution could have been a bit better. Osiris does not really know until the very end if John and the other members of Blue Team have turned. I would have loved to see a bit more friction between the members of Blue Team after they went along with the Guardian on Meridian instead of stopping it and perhaps preventing a lot of deaths in the process.
There are some scenes where they really nail the distrust between the various characters like at the end of "Blue Team" where John reports back to infinity. And than the scene after that where Halsey is genuinely scared that John might turn because he's not emotionally equipped to handle Cortana, which in turn gets back to the intro of Halo 4 where Halsey is questioned about the lack of basic humanity among Spartans.
No, anyone in coop can reach it. Dialogue changes based on it.
Vincent Alexander
Member
The story was interesting if what we got was an Act I. Instead, they stretched what should've been a setup into a whole damn game. It slightly offended me how strung along we were. The story never evolved in any way into something more than "let's find Cortana" or "Let's find MC who is finding Cortana."
And I must've missed these scenes where they nailed the...well...anything. This game had 0 character moments that stood out in any meaningful way.
SaganIsGOAT
Junior Member
The best character moment is when Buck and Locke are talking about the mission. Buck is questioning Locke about what tactic they'll use to capture blue team and Locke throws the Armor Restraint at Buck. Buck makes a face after Locke removes it that imo shows a little bit of fear knowing that weapons like that exist. He then goes on to say how everyone is going to hate them because they're going to capture Chief. Locke replies, "You're not the only one here because of him." Locke knows how important Chief is to humanity. He knows he's a hero. But Locke also has orders to obey, and he's simply doing what he's been told.
Ennosuke
Member
Finished the campaign 10 minutes ago and I feel the need to share a few thoughts.
At the end of the campaign, I thought, damn I love that Halo lore. But also damn, why is the game already over?
The gameplay was fantastic, the sound was amazing and to me it even looked stunning, so beautiful. But what did they do with the story content?
Why did I have to play as Locke? This dude is boring and not really likeable. When 343i felt the need to let us play a second character, why not the Arbiter? I mean this was the perfect opportunity. Or why not give us an exciting story around chief and cortana? Instead they ended it, when it became interesting. Most of the stuff before, was pointless.
I mean and what was this for an ending? Wow Chief and Locke standing next to each other. Not even seeing Arbiter and Chief have a few words?
On the one hand I like the idea of what became of Cortana, but on the other hand it is kind of sad.
343i was definitely focusing on the wrong things and trying to force us to adapt things, which nobody asked for.
Edit:
Oh and I read something here, which was the same for me. I was not motivated playing as Team Osiris, I kind of wanted to lose. At least they could save the Chief, but give them their own spin-off and leave me alone. (Buck is awesome)
At the end of the campaign, I thought, damn I love that Halo lore. But also damn, why is the game already over?
The gameplay was fantastic, the sound was amazing and to me it even looked stunning, so beautiful. But what did they do with the story content?
Why did I have to play as Locke? This dude is boring and not really likeable. When 343i felt the need to let us play a second character, why not the Arbiter? I mean this was the perfect opportunity. Or why not give us an exciting story around chief and cortana? Instead they ended it, when it became interesting. Most of the stuff before, was pointless.
I mean and what was this for an ending? Wow Chief and Locke standing next to each other. Not even seeing Arbiter and Chief have a few words?
On the one hand I like the idea of what became of Cortana, but on the other hand it is kind of sad.
343i was definitely focusing on the wrong things and trying to force us to adapt things, which nobody asked for.
Edit:
Oh and I read something here, which was the same for me. I was not motivated playing as Team Osiris, I kind of wanted to lose. At least they could save the Chief, but give them their own spin-off and leave me alone. (Buck is awesome)
Muffdraul
Member
I finally finished it last night. I played the first level on the night of release, but I was still in the middle of Syndicate so I didn't come back until I finished that, which was last Monday. So my sense of how long the game was is I guess you would say "fragmented." It did feel kinda short. The story wasn't the most enthralling. I think splitting it between two fire teams would have worked better if it wasn't so lopsided towards one of them. I dunno, just like Halo 4 I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the campaign, but there was simply no denying that it just wasn't up to Bungie Halo standards in all kinds of ways. Nothing I would point out as a major flaw per se, just a lot of little things. Scattered useless intel to find, it doesn't get more "generic FPS design 101" than that. No where near as interesting as the terminals in Halo 3. The little chapter names that popped up were bone dry with absolutely no wit, no tongue in cheek. Those are the biggest complaints I can come up with. Overall, the running around and shooting guys was as fun as ever and it looked beautiful from top to bottom, so I can't really complain that much.
OK now here is my one big complaint speaking as a fanboy nerd- There was that moment towards the end of the game when Exuberant spawns a tank for you. It was the perfect opportunity to finally give us the tragically too-beautiful-for-this-world Forerunner Tank that got cut from Halo 2, Jason Jones and Joe Staten talked about it in the behind the scenes commentary that came with Halo 3 Legendary Edition. But no, she just spawns a regular ol' human Scorpion tank, which makes way less sense. Stinkles!!!! How could you let this happen...
OK now here is my one big complaint speaking as a fanboy nerd- There was that moment towards the end of the game when Exuberant spawns a tank for you. It was the perfect opportunity to finally give us the tragically too-beautiful-for-this-world Forerunner Tank that got cut from Halo 2, Jason Jones and Joe Staten talked about it in the behind the scenes commentary that came with Halo 3 Legendary Edition. But no, she just spawns a regular ol' human Scorpion tank, which makes way less sense. Stinkles!!!! How could you let this happen...
Captain Zyrain
Member
I did like that the audio logs played in game.. no more Halo Channel shenanigans.. but I did like the video aspect of the ones in 4.
She spawns the tank at the end because she found it among the wreckage from one of the Guardians bringing crap with it. Makes sense.. but would have been cool to see the Forerunner tank.. but at that point in the game she would clearly not have access to advanced weaponry as she could only open doors!
Muffdraul
Member
Bup-bup-bup-bup-bup!!! I don't wanna hear any excuses! She's a forerunner monitor on a forerunner facility, she should have been able to spawn a forerunner tank! End of discussion! Not like they couldn't change the script to make it work! =P
I don't get the part about people thinking Cortana isn't somewhat rampant/damaged.
She even calls Chief and other Spartan IIs "her" Spartans when taunting Osiris showing that Halsey's cloned brain might be taking a larger part in Cortana's actions than the AI we knew from previous games.
She even calls Chief and other Spartan IIs "her" Spartans when taunting Osiris showing that Halsey's cloned brain might be taking a larger part in Cortana's actions than the AI we knew from previous games.
User 73706
Banned
I think the reason the Domain was able to recover was because of how many Forerunner installations had backups of the information in it, and while the Domain was actually the immaterial conscious network of a Precursor, there's no reason to assume it was limited to the Milky Way. After enough time, it was probably just a matter of reconnecting to everything and restoring information - hell, the Gravemind(s?) active in the past hundred thousand years could have tried getting it back online, as well.
victreeb3l
Member
Man, he told Locke to send him his greetings and we didn't even get to see them nod at each other.
Yeah seriously. Osiris also made a big deal about how they never saw a Sangheili have this kind of a relationship with a human before.
Deflating.
Can the title of God Emperor be considered gender-neutral? Because God Emperor Cortana the Second has a nice ring to it.
User 73706
Banned
I'm for it, if only to hear Kelly go "GOHD-EMPRUH CURTANNER"
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
I thought it would have been REALLY cool if Halo 5 had ended with Cortana successful. Osiris is defeated, Blue Team is locked away, and humanity is presumably doomed to AI rule. Halo 6 begins 10,000 years later, when Blue Team is released by Cortana to show them the error of their thought.
Granted, most of the core cast would be dead in Halo 6, but I imagine there would be ways to have Halsey, Arbiter, and others still alive via Halsey's ingenuity.
Granted, most of the core cast would be dead in Halo 6, but I imagine there would be ways to have Halsey, Arbiter, and others still alive via Halsey's ingenuity.
Gnome Scat
Member
That cutscene, along with many others, should have lasted longer. I don't get why they didn't give us some Arby/Chief time, the opportunity was there.
SaganIsGOAT
Junior Member
So now is the time for a Halo Spinoff game where you play as one of Cortana's Elite Promethean Squads. You are tasked with taking down key (human/covenant races etc.) opposition to her cause.
Captain Zyrain
Member
A game with that setting in a "Spartan Assault"-style game could be a lot of fun.
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