A Fair Review of Halo 4

Games Other Halo
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So before I start this, I’ll give you guys a little background on my Halo experience. I’ve played every Halo game that has been released from Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo 4, or the latest Halo Spartan Assault. And the reason I am doing this review is because first, I want to voice my opinions to 343i since I think they really do listen to their fan base, second to see what other halo players have to say about what I think, and last to put a stop a stop to all the biased Bungie fans on Halo Forums, I understand Bungie is a great developer, hell I love them too and to me it really sucked when they decided to part ways from the Halo Franchise but don’t put 343i down just because they aren’t Bungie, be fair not biased. (Just want to say, as a Bungie supporter, Destiny sucks so much. Like wow, I’ve never thought Bungie would make a game so cheesy and corny) Anyway here it is
The Campaign
So I played the campaign and it still retained the aspects I loved about Halo campaigns. Skulls, Co-op, and of course the Legendary. So that was good.
The plot kicked off and it was pretty cool, resuming from Halo 3. But as I continued to watch cutscene after cutscene it took a turn for the dramatic side. What I loved about Cortana’s witty, smart, and always helpful personality was gone. Instead she became a whiny, annoying character that couldn’t shut up about herself and her rampancy, she sounded like a woman on her period all the time. Cortana is a cool character, but she’s not supposed to be like what she was in Halo 4. She’s supposed to help the Chief out on his missions because she was the brains of the operation, not the emotions. And that’s another thing that really bugged me, we got t explore Master Chief’s feelings, and humanity. Are you serious!? He is a bad -Yoink- Spartan, that’s all I really care about. I liked it better when he barely said a word and all he did was nod and you knew somehow what he meant. Don’t get me wrong he still had a lot of bad -Yoink- scenes in Halo 4, and his voice is cool, but don’t conduct the story around the way he feels, come on, is this a soap opera, or Halo? There should have been more attention on this rogue fleet of covenant that appeared, and on the didact.
The gameplay was great, some levels were a little dull and boring like when you had to contact the infinity and clear up the signal by deactivating those 2 towers using the portals. They was just lack of creativity. But that’s just a small part, most of the campaign was really fun to play through. I also found it really cool that Marines actually helped in this game. They really kicked -Yoink- and not just against grunts or jackals but against elites. I could actually rely on them to cover me if I was about to die. Also SPARTANS! I found it awesome that I had SPARTANS helping me out with shields of glory, they kicked major -Yoink-! It was a good balance too, they didn’t steal my kills, or make it too boring. They helped and they stood alive, that’s all I really want out of an ally AI unit (oh and good driving skills lol) As for covenant, or whatever you want to call these guys, there should have been a little more of explaining on how they came to be so hostile with humans since in Halo 3 Elites were friendly. Also they look so stupid, I’ve never seen elites look so terrible. They are no longer as challenging or intimidating as they were in Reach. In Reach they were smart, fast, and deadly. You would know who’s trouble because you could recognize each class by distinct armor or color. In Halo 4 they were just another ugly easy kill. Plus the grunts look stupid as well, and they no longer say anything funny. The Prometheans were a formidable foe, although they should’ve been a little bit more smarter for what they were, they were just as much of a challenge as the Elites when they weren’t teleporting of charging you, so I would say tweak the AI and add something more to them to make even more fierce. I really liked piloting the broadsword, riding the mammoth, and piloting the pelican. That really made me love the campaign making things so much more interesting as we are given these new vehicles we use. Now for the music, I think everyone misses Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori. There’s nothing like you riding the warthog across an exploding environment and having Rock Anthem to Save World play in the background, that gave me Goosebumps the first time I experienced that. It was part of the Halo experience and to me it was vital to theme that the campaign was playing off. I didn’t feel that with Halo 4. Not saying the music was bad, some was alright, nothing I would listen twice though. But it didn’t add that awesome feeling I would get when I played Halo Combat Evolved. That really disappointed me I also went as far as trying to play the Original soundtrack to Halo CE through my own speakers. In conclusion the campaign was fun to play through that was it’s strongest point, but it didn’t have the other elements of a satisfying campaign. The plot was too vague and dramatic. The foes I was killing were consistent, they never surprised me, never did anything out of the ordinary to try to kill me, they need to be more then just an AI shooting, dodging, and occasionally charging me. They need to be smart and tactical like in Halo Reach.
Safe from 1-10 the campaign gets a 7
War Games/Multiplayer
The way the Halo online multiplayer works is great. It still maintains a competitive feel. I found it extremely helpful that the loadouts were implemented in this game, and that I could pick the rifle of my choosing to kick some ads. It has always irritated me that in past Halo games that if the game type wasn’t Team BR’s or Team DMR’s I had to scavenge for one for a great deal of match. The new system Halo 4 has allows to loadout with the rifle I do best with. It’s a fair fight now, instead of me searching for a sufficient rifle to kill my enemy, awaiting death with an assault rifle in my hands, I can now loadout with it. But there are some flaws with this system like the secondary weapons. The plasma pistol, as useless as people may think it is, is a power weapon to me. The charge blast can do a lot of damage to Spartan on foot or on a vehicle. You shouldn’t be able to loadout with it, I can’t tell you how tired I am of every time I get in a scorpion or warthog I just get stopped by a charge blast then killed, it discourages me to even step foot in a vehicle. The plasma pistol should just be placed on the map for players to pick up not loadout with when they need to get rid of wraith, or scorpion easily, that takes away from the vehicles. How do you expect anyone to use the warthog with there friend if don’t even have a chance since they just keep getting killed all the time. And I think everyone is sick of the Bolshot. It’s like having a shotgun in your pocket, and plus tune it down, it shouldn’t be as powerful as a shotgun. Besides this, the perks, the armor abilities (except the jetpack, and Promethean vision) and the weapons system works great and I think it should be continued, very good job 343i.

2

Oh my!

I hope you feel better after getting all of that out. I haven’t played Destiny, but I’m planning on getting it to see for myself. I’ve heard good and bad things, but that’s to be expected.

I enjoyed the story of Halo 4. It was the first time that the Master Chief from the books and expanded universe really shows himself in the games. I know not everybody wants that but I like story and character, so seeing as how Chief has very little in the first three games, it was very refreshing to see that side of him I’ve know only from the books.

I also love the soundtrack. Yes, it is different, but you can hear nods to Marty’s music tucked in there very smartly. I write a lot music (not orchestral) and I gotta say the composition is wonderful. I think it feels right, especially with it being the first title/Chief Halo game of this decade and it being in the hands of a new developer.

I think they put their own unique flavor into Halo 4, but still maintained what Halo is at its core (campaign, I mean … multiplayer is a different story).

And how can you call Halo 4 a soap opera when ODST exists? lol

Anyway, that’s I far as I read because, well, paragraphs, man. I need paragraphs.

3

ill show you how i look at halo 4
campaign
1st halo 2
2nd halo 4
3rd halo ce
4th halo 3
5th halo reach
although halo reach was proboly the best with replay value it didn’t really have anything other than that

multiplayer
1st halo 2
2nd halo 3
3rd halo ce
4th halo 4
5th halo reach

the prometheans ai sucked to be honest. this was my stratigy playing on legendary: kill every one except the knights then just run toward them and they will melee you simply dodge it and backstab woila! soundtrack was good but i still want marty. i also feel halo 4 expects you too have read the books (which i haven’t hate books). mp was fun but i only played it so little compared to the others. needs more of an Esports feel instead of a random -Yoink-

4

Holy paragraphs!

The contrast between the Chief and Cortana was the whole point. A defining moment in their characters and the relationship (and by this I’m not referring to romantic, the bond of close friendship and partnership. Cortana was literally in his head in the most critical recent moments of Chief’s life) between them.
Where in the past, Cortana always had the answer. Calm and confident, a great tactical support unit and companion.

In Halo 3, we watch her begin to deteriorate as she is tortured by the Gravemind. When we find her in Halo 3, she’s not confident. She’s exhausted, scared. Rampancy is beginning to set in, induced by the Gravemind, the end of an AI life.

Fast forward nearly 5 years, all of which were spent alone for Cortana. A year into rampancy, she struggles to keep it together, even trying to hide it at first. As the game progresses, we see a serious shift in her character. She is losing her ability to stay calm and confident. Rampancy outbursts put those around her in danger, and she fails to act on decisions. This puts the Chief into an interesting light, which helps push his character too. Now he must stand up when Cortana can’t. Make the decisions, act on his own. That’s an interesting contrast that was executed very well in Halo 4. The roles are reversed at points. Cortana is weak and dying. Halo 4 showed exactly what her deterioration was supposed to be like. Rampancy.

Yes, we are serious. Chief is human. He has emotions, he has humanity. Something Bungie neglected to show in the games before as the books continued to flesh him out and expand him as a character. 343i finally brought his actual character in, which was helped with Cortana’s decent into rampancy. When he has to start acting on his own, when he gets faced with failure, you really start to see his shell breaking. Characterization. Chief is finally getting it in game.

5

I stopped when you complained about Cortana sounding like a woman on her period all the time.

How am I supposed to care enough to read through a long winded opinion when you resort to such crassness?

6

Cortana couldn’t be as helpful as she was because she was going rampant, you can’t expect her to be like oh my AI life is ending, i’m overwhelmed by everything I’ve learnt, but let’s forget about that and relive the old days.
Chief’s humanity was a key aspect of the plot, he’s had cortana for a long time and has relied on her a lot, losing her is one of the worst things to happen to him, no matter how tough he is, dealing with something like that won’t be easy.

7

I understand that, I’m not ignorant I could see that. But what I am saying is that it was a really stupid plot to implement. It was too melodramatic.

8

While I agree with some of what you said, I think that Cortana didnt sound like a whiny -Yoink- the whole time, and Master Chief didnt show too much emotion. He still appealed to me as being a complete badass during the game and after the game. Just emotionally scarred after the ending.spoilers incoming Everything and everyone hes had an emotional connection to has died, including his fellow spartan II squad, Cortana, and both the Keyes. The ending had an impact because Chief has put up with all of these in the past but after Cortana he’s tired of it. Its clear he is starting to think about things in a different way, and thats why it’s so good. Now you did forget to mention something i think no one notices in this game. And thats how bleeping terrible the prometheans are as enemies. Now the covenant has always had a particular strategy to killing them. With the elites, you need to take down their shields in one of many ways, and then aim for the head or just mow them down. Jackals require an accurate headshot, or two accurate shots past the shield and to the head. The grunts require a single headshot which is O.K. since they are…grunts. But the prometheans are freaking stupid, while the grunt dog things are good, the watchers and knights are terribly designed enemies. Their only purpose is draining your ammo because you just have to shoot. Over and over and over again. I like the idea of the watchers being spawned and reviving the knights, but its extremely stupid to hit them a MILLION times in order to kill them, maybe you should have to shoot each of their wings or something, but thats not how it works! Not to mention, it gets really boring to sit 60 feet away from the knight and shoot 10 shots into him, reload, and keep shooting. Its not very annoying on normal, but on heroic and legendary it gets really annoying how much healthy they have. Does anyone agree with me, or is it just something i noticed that I absolutely hate? I did read in an interview that 343 didnt have time to implement a unique structure to the prometheans, so hopefully I wont have these same complaints in Halo 5

9

> I understand that, I’m not ignorant I could see that. But what I am saying is that it was a really stupid plot to implement. It was too melodramatic.

It was an incredible plot that furthered the characters in a way Bungie never did.

10

I didn’t mind Cortana breaking down because of her rampancy, but I think it’s how it was handled and how the whole ‘‘emotional’’ side was handled. Let’s face it people, video games writers aren’t very good. Most of the time. They should stick with what they are good/not so bad at, they just resort to cheap hollywood tricks and it just stinks, some times I felt like hiding under the coach because it was that cringe-worthy. Cortana is an AI, I can understand they wanted to show her more human side as she’s becoming self-aware, but it just went too far into adolescent fan fiction. Her sexier look, her relationship with Chief, it felt like they wanted to do fan service for their minor player base, it was just so bad. At least it was pretty much only one sentence in Halo 3.

They tried to make an ‘‘intelligent’’ Halo, but let’s face it, Halo was never intelligent in the first place. Sure there was just enough mystery, a good storytelling with well-placed twists, sci-fi tribute, looks, enemies and others, but it’s just that. Halo is a sci-fi shooter paying homage to classic sci-fi material in a number of ways about shooting aliens and saving the galaxy, there’s nothing deep about this. Every time they tried to make something deep out of it or tried to get emotional, it failed, hard. It’s like trying to do a super serious and gritty super-hero film, it doesn’t work, it can’t work, it’s inherent to the concept. Every time they reminded Chief in Halo 3 how you were saving every man, woman and child and that all life was dependent on you, etc, it just felt like a huge and needless -Yoink- as a daydreaming kid. How the last bit after Noble 6 dies in Halo Reach, come on. You’re trying to make me proud of saving a fictious world? As a video game player who plays a respawning fictious war machine? Sorry, but don’t ever try to cross certain emotional lines in video game storytelling, there are things that just don’t work.

11

> While I agree with some of what you said, I think that Cortana didnt sound like a whiny -Yoink!- the whole time, and Master Chief didnt show too much emotion. He still appealed to me as being a complete badass during the game and after the game. Just emotionally scarred after the ending.spoilers incoming Everything and everyone hes had an emotional connection to has died, including his fellow spartan II squad, Cortana, and both the Keyes. The ending had an impact because Chief has put up with all of these in the past but after Cortana he’s tired of it. Its clear he is starting to think about things in a different way, and thats why it’s so good. Now you did forget to mention something i think no one notices in this game. And thats how bleeping terrible the prometheans are as enemies. Now the covenant has always had a particular strategy to killing them. With the elites, you need to take down their shields in one of many ways, and then aim for the head or just mow them down. Jackals require an accurate headshot, or two accurate shots past the shield and to the head. The grunts require a single headshot which is O.K. since they are…grunts. But the prometheans are freaking stupid, while the grunt dog things are good, the watchers and knights are terribly designed enemies. Their only purpose is draining your ammo because you just have to shoot. Over and over and over again. I like the idea of the watchers being spawned and reviving the knights, but its extremely stupid to hit them a MILLION times in order to kill them, maybe you should have to shoot each of their wings or something, but thats not how it works! Not to mention, it gets really boring to sit 60 feet away from the knight and shoot 10 shots into him, reload, and keep shooting. Its not very annoying on normal, but on heroic and legendary it gets really annoying how much healthy they have. Does anyone agree with me, or is it just something i noticed that I absolutely hate? I did read in an interview that 343 didnt have time to implement a unique structure to the prometheans, so hopefully I wont have these same complaints in Halo 5

Honestly as i’m going through my legendary play-through now I don’t agree. The promethian knights are just hard. They have many different ways of attacking you and a get out clause when you’ve got them on the ropes (teleport) and that makes it interesting. Playing through the “forerunner” level the juxtaposition between covenant and forerunner enemies, and the tactics required to beat them is just superb IMO.

Standing 60 meters away with a light rifle/dmr/BR is not effective against knights on the higher difficulty levels so I don’t know where you got that one from. At their crux they are just like sanghelli-they have a regenerating shield which you have to get past then you can do the damage. So I don’t understand why people have a problem with them.

Watchers are awesome too IMO because they change the dynamic of battle grenades get hoovered up, and shots get blocked. They just modify how you approach the battlefield in the same way grunts do when you are facing elites. The interplay between enemies is a key tennent in halo campaigns and the halo 4 is no different. Also they only require 5 shots from a LR/DMR at legendary so they aren’t bullet sponges either.

watchers are cool-the hulk smash achievement is so fun.

Basically gamers these days hate difficulty, and hate new challenges: that’s why poorly made games like dark souls are heralded far far far above their station. Its also why halo will never be popular online when there are noob games like COD and Titanfall (though i love that game sooo much lol) are available.

TL:DR if you hate promethians Git Gud

12

> > I understand that, I’m not ignorant I could see that. But what I am saying is that it was a really stupid plot to implement. It was too melodramatic.
>
> It was an incredible plot that furthered the characters in a way Bungie never did.

the story relied too much on that you had read the books and stuff which i hadn’t but still a good plot

13

> Honestly as i’m going through my legendary play-through now I don’t agree. The promethian knights are just hard. They have many different ways of attacking you and a get out clause when you’ve got them on the ropes (teleport) and that makes it interesting. Playing through the “forerunner” level the juxtaposition between covenant and forerunner enemies, and the tactics required to beat them is just superb IMO.
>
> Standing 60 meters away with a light rifle/dmr/BR is not effective against knights on the higher difficulty levels so I don’t know where you got that one from. At their crux they are just like sanghelli-they have a regenerating shield which you have to get past then you can do the damage. So I don’t understand why people have a problem with them.
>
> Watchers are awesome too IMO because they change the dynamic of battle grenades get hoovered up, and shots get blocked. They just modify how you approach the battlefield in the same way grunts do when you are facing elites. The interplay between enemies is a key tennent in halo campaigns and the halo 4 is no different. Also they only require 5 shots from a LR/DMR at legendary so they aren’t bullet sponges either.
>
> watchers are cool-the hulk smash achievement is so fun.
>
> Basically gamers these days hate difficulty, and hate new challenges: that’s why poorly made games like dark souls are heralded far far far above their station. Its also why halo will never be popular online when there are noob games like COD and Titanfall (though i love that game sooo much lol) are available.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> TL:DR if you hate promethians Git Gud

i have played the campaign on legendary too, i didn’t think it was that hard. Don’t you ever say that the knights are hard, run up to them and they will try to melee you and go for backstab. woila!

and give respect too titan fall cuz you clearly haven’t played it.
Dark souls isn’t hard, its about using you’re brain to learn what defenses they don’t have high and simply knowing their move set, I’ve done every achievement in the first one and in dark souls 2 i only need magic faith and pyromancy.
The reason why dark souls one at least had so much respect was because story( a dark story but only found through dialog) bosses where interesting could tell more but don’t want too.
So when you say games like dark souls are poorly made you are clearly out of your mind

14

Not out of my mind just observing gaming trends. Games now are too easy-so when dark souls came out people were astounded by a game as you said that challenged us to learn an oponents defences and move set.

Play any zelda game thats 5+ years old, megaman, mario, any clasic game and thats what was expected of you. The medium has been dumbed down to an extent where people call dark souls a hard game. That’s the point I was making but maybe it wasn’t worded well enough.

You say promethians aren’t hard, so do I. The reason that the majority of people dont like them is becasue THEY find them hard. The comment i replied to said to beat them he ad to stand 60 yards (meters ftw lol) away to kill them. In my eyes that’s: 1. not effective and 2. because he was scared of the melee. But as you’ve said for a gamer who’s skilled and willing to LEARN how to play the game that tactic just isn’t necessary.

BTW i said i love TF ive played 60 hours over 360 and x1 but the skill level there is nowhere near as high as it is on halo. It just isnt. thats why people (including myself who played the beta mastered it in like 36 hours. wheras after 6 days of matchmaking on halo 4 I still suck.

Dark souls has a great story? meh I’ll have to take your word for it. I got to sens palace and gave up presicely for that reason there was no story. I dont think searching online for lore constitutes great story. I just believe dark souls was well recieved because it was different. It was a shoddy game, not that difficult and lacked a lot of polish. Hipsters heralded it as a return to the good ol’ days but I didn’t see it. It was a good game, not great IMHO.

Please don’t take what i’ve written as derogatory or anything just spelling out my viewpoint lol peace and love to all my halo homies out there

God Bless :slight_smile:

15

> I didn’t mind Cortana breaking down because of her rampancy, but I think it’s how it was handled and how the whole ‘‘emotional’’ side was handled. Let’s face it people, video games writers aren’t very good. Most of the time. They should stick with what they are good/not so bad at, they just resort to cheap hollywood tricks and it just stinks, some times I felt like hiding under the coach because it was that cringe-worthy. Cortana is an AI, I can understand they wanted to show her more human side as she’s becoming self-aware, but it just went too far into adolescent fan fiction. Her sexier look, her relationship with Chief, it felt like they wanted to do fan service for their minor player base, it was just so bad. At least it was pretty much only one sentence in Halo 3.
>
> They tried to make an ‘‘intelligent’’ Halo, but let’s face it, Halo was never intelligent in the first place. Sure there was just enough mystery, a good storytelling with well-placed twists, sci-fi tribute, looks, enemies and others, but it’s just that. Halo is a sci-fi shooter paying homage to classic sci-fi material in a number of ways about shooting aliens and saving the galaxy, there’s nothing deep about this. Every time they tried to make something deep out of it or tried to get emotional, it failed, hard. It’s like trying to do a super serious and gritty super-hero film, it doesn’t work, it can’t work, it’s inherent to the concept. Every time they reminded Chief in Halo 3 how you were saving every man, woman and child and that all life was dependent on you, etc, it just felt like a huge and needless Yoink! as a daydreaming kid. How the last bit after Noble 6 dies in Halo Reach, come on. You’re trying to make me proud of saving a fictious world? As a video game player who plays a respawning fictious war machine? Sorry, but don’t ever try to cross certain emotional lines in video game storytelling, there are things that just don’t work.

Cortana’s decent into rampancy was influenced by Josh Holmes’ mother suffering from dementia during development of the game…

It wasn’t bad at all. It was great character and plot progression, something Bungie just refused to do with the main characters.

Have you read the Forerunner Trilogy? Those incredible books make Halo one of the deepest, most expansive, and most “intelligent” stories in video games. It is incredible. Halo is an intelligent game story. Just because you may prefer to skip the cutscenes and shoot aliens doesn’t mean the expansive story isn’t there and in the books. 343i is finally bringing everything together and letting Halo rise to its potential.

16

> It wasn’t bad at all. It was great character and plot progression, something Bungie just refused to do with the main characters.
>
>
> Have you read the Forerunner Trilogy? Those incredible books make Halo one of the deepest, most expansive, and most “intelligent” stories in video games. It is incredible. Halo is an intelligent game story. Just because you may prefer to skip the cutscenes and shoot aliens doesn’t mean the expansive story isn’t there and in the books. 343i is finally bringing everything together and letting Halo rise to its potential.

Agree so, so so much. Halo could be the next start trek (or stargate as its much more similar to that in terms of themes) but the audience who it actually serves doesn’t really seem to want that. That’s probably why the franchise is at the crossroads its at:

Halo 2/3 rebranded for the next 15 years vs New storytelling techniques and gameplay mechanics that help flesh that out.

Neither approach is wrong-but imo 343i have done an astounding job in just driving us to this juncture, and I hope they keep on going.

17

> Not out of my mind just observing gaming trends. Games now are too easy-so when dark souls came out people were astounded by a game as you said that challenged us to learn an oponents defences and move set.
>
> Play any zelda game thats 5+ years old, megaman, mario, any clasic game and thats what was expected of you. The medium has been dumbed down to an extent where people call dark souls a hard game. That’s the point I was making but maybe it wasn’t worded well enough.
>
> You say promethians aren’t hard, so do I. The reason that the majority of people dont like them is becasue THEY find them hard. The comment i replied to said to beat them he ad to stand 60 yards (meters ftw lol) away to kill them. In my eyes that’s: 1. not effective and 2. because he was scared of the melee. But as you’ve said for a gamer who’s skilled and willing to LEARN how to play the game that tactic just isn’t necessary.
>
> BTW i said i love TF ive played 60 hours over 360 and x1 but the skill level there is nowhere near as high as it is on halo. It just isnt. thats why people (including myself who played the beta mastered it in like 36 hours. wheras after 6 days of matchmaking on halo 4 I still suck.
>
> Dark souls has a great story? meh I’ll have to take your word for it. I got to sens palace and gave up presicely for that reason there was no story. I dont think searching online for lore constitutes great story. I just believe dark souls was well recieved because it was different. It was a shoddy game, not that difficult and lacked a lot of polish. Hipsters heralded it as a return to the good ol’ days but I didn’t see it. It was a good game, not great IMHO.
>
> Please don’t take what i’ve written as derogatory or anything just spelling out my viewpoint lol peace and love to all my halo homies out there
>
> God Bless :slight_smile:

TF? team fortress? I’ve never played zelda…

haha halo 4 is a ludacris game in mp, left after reaching 107 couldn’t take it anymore.

well darks souls story relies on npc and items you find and reading their item description.

I do agree people expect the campaign to be a walk in the park these days, but halo is actually meant to be played on heroic so that sort of makes the game harder i guess

18

> They tried to make an ‘‘intelligent’’ Halo, but let’s face it, Halo was never intelligent in the first place.

I don’t think you know what halo is about. Halo has this deeper universe with rich stories, morally grey. It isn’t a simple mindless universe that’s a tribute or homage to other stuff. It stands on itself. You might want to explore more.

The Cortana/John relationship is really well done and the character development too. Cortana was eventually going to reach Rampancy. After all she’s been through, it’s amazing she performs what she does. In halo 4, she breaks down but holds up. She manages to battle the Didact and lock him out of the system despite her internal struggles. I really like how she’s the on who saves John, she overpowers the Didact after he overpowers John.
“I can give you over forty thousand reasons why that sun isn’t real. I know it because the emitter’s Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I’ll never actually know if it looks real… if it feels real.”
“Before this is all over, promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.”
It’s timer for John to question everything. Time for him to find his own purpose. Time for him to find himself.

Prometheans aren’t challenging enough. The thing is, I find their weapons don’t always deal enough damage and mêlée is easier to dodge than a sangheili. They don’t use their abilities and tend to miss a lot. The watchers don’t perform their abilities enough. They have to up them a bit. The game is too forgiving about killing the watchers that revive knights I find. So easy to kill. Crawlers don’t deal enough damage I find. I wish they would deal damage as they exploded. I just did Spartan ops heroic solo episode 1 chapter 4. Dealt with the promethean easily enough. I think the crawlers don’t do enough damage. The elites seems way more agile and deadly with their melee. You can’t really play too much with the elite mêlée as you can with the covenant and the storm rifle seems to do more damage overall than the suppressor. And it’s not right, the promethean should be the stronger ones. So I feel like covenant deal too much damage, are too agile and quick with mêlée compared to promethean. The jackals snipers seem to be so accurate but promethean snipers not much… fuel rod seems so much deadlier than incineration cannon. Storm rifle enemies seem to do more damage than suppressor enemies. Sangheili mêlée is too strong/hard to dodge compared to promethean. Jackals and grunts overcharging plasma pistol is way more effective than the watchers trying to overcharge Boltshot you. Human weapons are way too effective on promethean. If I had a capture card, I’d really like to show people.

Also dark souls story is interesting due to the archeological aspect of it. You have to think, you have to look around the environment, get clues from NPCs, like a historian/archeologist. It’s not so much given to you. And hey, during anniversary I was trying to get that sort of story with the environments. Explore and learn, something I feel lacks in halo a bit. Telling rich stories with the environment.

19

> The Cortana/John relationship is really well done and the character development too. Cortana was eventually going to reach Rampancy. After all she’s been through, it’s amazing she performs what she does. In halo 4, she breaks down but holds up. She manages to battle the Didact and lock him out of the system despite her internal struggles. I really like how she’s the on who saves John, she overpowers the Didact after he overpowers John.
> “I can give you over forty thousand reasons why that sun isn’t real. I know it because the emitter’s Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I’ll never actually know if it looks real… if it feels real.”
> “Before this is all over, promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.”
> It’s timer for John to question everything. Time for him to find his own purpose. Time for him to find himself.

plus she’s been in contact with a lot of forerunner artifacts reasons why she didn’t go rampant so easily

> Prometheans aren’t challenging enough. The thing is, I find their weapons don’t always deal enough damage and mêlée is easier to dodge than a sangheili. They don’t use their abilities and tend to miss a lot. The watchers don’t perform their abilities enough. They have to up them a bit. The game is too forgiving about killing the watchers that revive knights I find. So easy to kill. Crawlers don’t deal enough damage I find. I wish they would deal damage as they exploded. I just did Spartan ops heroic solo episode 1 chapter 4. Dealt with the promethean easily enough. I think the crawlers don’t do enough damage. The elites seems way more agile and deadly with their melee. You can’t really play too much with the elite mêlée as you can with the covenant and the storm rifle seems to do more damage overall than the suppressor. And it’s not right, the promethean should be the stronger ones. So I feel like covenant deal too much damage, are too agile and quick with mêlée compared to promethean. The jackals snipers seem to be so accurate but promethean snipers not much… fuel rod seems so much deadlier than incineration cannon. Storm rifle enemies seem to do more damage than suppressor enemies. Sangheili mêlée is too strong/hard to dodge compared to promethean. Jackals and grunts overcharging plasma pistol is way more effective than the watchers trying to overcharge Boltshot you. Human weapons are way too effective on promethean. If I had a capture card, I’d really like to show people.

no need to show us, i think we all can agree on that

> Also dark souls story is interesting due to the archeological aspect of it. You have to think, you have to look around the environment, get clues from NPCs, like a historian/archeologist. It’s not so much given to you. And hey, during anniversary I was trying to get that sort of story with the environments. Explore and learn, something I feel lacks in halo a bit. Telling rich stories with the environment.

i think 4 did a decent job of this, showing the immense power forerunners had, and then you encounter the promeathen knights… haha

20

> > The Cortana/John relationship is really well done and the character development too. Cortana was eventually going to reach Rampancy. After all she’s been through, it’s amazing she performs what she does. In halo 4, she breaks down but holds up. She manages to battle the Didact and lock him out of the system despite her internal struggles. I really like how she’s the on who saves John, she overpowers the Didact after he overpowers John.
> > “I can give you over forty thousand reasons why that sun isn’t real. I know it because the emitter’s Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I’ll never actually know if it looks real… if it feels real.”
> > “Before this is all over, promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.”
> > It’s timer for John to question everything. Time for him to find his own purpose. Time for him to find himself.
>
> plus she’s been in contact with a lot of forerunner artifacts reasons why she didn’t go rampant so easily
>
>
>
> > Prometheans aren’t challenging enough. The thing is, I find their weapons don’t always deal enough damage and mêlée is easier to dodge than a sangheili. They don’t use their abilities and tend to miss a lot. The watchers don’t perform their abilities enough. They have to up them a bit. The game is too forgiving about killing the watchers that revive knights I find. So easy to kill. Crawlers don’t deal enough damage I find. I wish they would deal damage as they exploded. I just did Spartan ops heroic solo episode 1 chapter 4. Dealt with the promethean easily enough. I think the crawlers don’t do enough damage. The elites seems way more agile and deadly with their melee. You can’t really play too much with the elite mêlée as you can with the covenant and the storm rifle seems to do more damage overall than the suppressor. And it’s not right, the promethean should be the stronger ones. So I feel like covenant deal too much damage, are too agile and quick with mêlée compared to promethean. The jackals snipers seem to be so accurate but promethean snipers not much… fuel rod seems so much deadlier than incineration cannon. Storm rifle enemies seem to do more damage than suppressor enemies. Sangheili mêlée is too strong/hard to dodge compared to promethean. Jackals and grunts overcharging plasma pistol is way more effective than the watchers trying to overcharge Boltshot you. Human weapons are way too effective on promethean. If I had a capture card, I’d really like to show people.
>
> no need to show us, i think we all can agree on that
>
>
> > Also dark souls story is interesting due to the archeological aspect of it. You have to think, you have to look around the environment, get clues from NPCs, like a historian/archeologist. It’s not so much given to you. And hey, during anniversary I was trying to get that sort of story with the environments. Explore and learn, something I feel lacks in halo a bit. Telling rich stories with the environment.
>
> i think 4 did a decent job of this, showing the immense power forerunners had, and then you encounter the promeathen knights… haha

Heh. You want cheap? I was playing Spartan ops, I find the covenant cheap, mot promethean. For instance, I was doing core. The elites did so much damage, one with storm rifle. Then the gate opens, I throw a pulse grenade, enemies start dying. I deploy Autosentry and I think I dodged a plasma grenade, I can’t see the enemies due to my pulse grenade. Then? I get fuel roded and I die.

As for environments, well I find some stuff lacking. If I take Spartan ops again, well Gagarin is a nice enough one but it would be good to have a few chairs, coffee tables, some life around. Imagine Gagarin, but with some table examining this artifact, or some cables that were clearly examining s forerunner machine. Maybe a data pad on the ground. Imagine seeing this little resting room with a coffee machine and seeing it spilled and the table upturned. I suppose it’d a nit unfair to say that they didn’t do it, they did to some extent but I’d like more.
Imagine on, hunting trip, seeing some food nipple stations, imagine seeing some covenant chairs. Imagine finding an audiolog near a grunt encampment and food nipple that you could activate and it would play an opera, human music, files, some recording. Didn’t grunts trade human files? So it’d be cool to see some. Imagine the area underneath the top floor where you kill part vol have shield doors. Then you see methane recyclers and stuff. Imagine being able to fire up the room, which turns off the shields. I suppose it’s done to some extent but I’d like to see it pushed further. And I would have liked to see Spartan ops extended and pushed further too. Imagine a mission where you eliminate hostiles on warrens, and it’s full of covenant weapons and vehicles, then pelicans arrive to load up the vehicles and you have to defend the pelicans getting the covenant cargo on the next mission. A secure area mission and a defend area mission. Then enemies come in from various places, firefight style. In the cauldron base, imagine more props that make it seem like it was really turned into a base. Maybe some pelican landing lights. It would have been nicer to go a bit above I guess.

Still I’d like to have a capture card to do an analysis play through of the game too, environments included.