Minus the Legendary ending, yeah.
Even Halo 4's Halo was only there in passing. Literally.
Hopefully 6 brings things full circle.
Wait a minute, when was there a Halo in 4? I can't remember it.
Minus the Legendary ending, yeah.
Even Halo 4's Halo was only there in passing. Literally.
Hopefully 6 brings things full circle.
I finished on HC last night. Main points...
Negatives:
Not enough Masterchief missions, too much Locke
Cortana turning into the worst ex-wife ever
Team mate A.I was really REALLY bad - especially when reviving.
I still don't really understand what is going on!
Not enough of a 'big world' (I want that Halo CE feeling!)
Positives:
Masterchief is still the awesome
Exuberent
Some of the set pieces were pretty stunning
The worlds looked gorgeous
Cortana looked gorgeous
Wait a minute, when was there a Halo in 4? I can't remember it.
This is exactly why 343 tried to branch off of Chief.
In this huge and wonderful universe known as Halo, you can't keep relying on one character to do literally everything and drive the story. There are plenty of other cool people in this universe, and I am glad that we got to see some.
I'm personally overjoyed that we got a mainline Halo game where Chief wasn't the star, really mixed things up.
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 they 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.
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!What change? She's written the exact same way as Guilty Spark, except she doesn't add anything to the story.
Minus the Legendary ending, yeah.
Even Halo 4's Halo was only there in passing. Literally.
Hopefully 6 brings things full circle.
I didn't say it was the only way.So the only way to make a good villain is to manufacture one out of an established buddy? No way.
I didn't say it was the only way.
Beside, villain is a simplistic term. Antagonist works better for her. Right motivation, wrong methodology.
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.
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.
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.
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.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.
Damn straight. It's seems like a huge oversight, especially considering what Halo 4 was about in terms of their relationship with one another.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.
Man, he told Locke to send him his greetings and we didn't even get to see them nod at each other.I just want Arbiter/MC adventures again. They looked so cool together in Halo 3.
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.
I might be the only one but I really liked Exuberant Witness, even more so than Guilty Spark. One of the few things I enjoyed of the story.
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.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.
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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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.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.
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.
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.A bit contradictory, no?
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.
The Cortana character model was yuck bro!
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?
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).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).
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.
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?
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.
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 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.
How does the end scene work in co-op? Is it always Locke that gets to the conduit thingy?
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."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.
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.
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...
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!
Man, he told Locke to send him his greetings and we didn't even get to see them nod at each other.
Can the title of God Emperor be considered gender-neutral? Because God Emperor Cortana the Second has a nice ring to it.I just wanna know guys:
is it going to be Empress Cortana or Queen Cortana, considering it used to be a Forerunner Empire after all..
Can the title of God Emperor be considered gender-neutral? Because God Emperor Cortana the Second has a nice ring to it.
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.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.
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.