Let me preface this by saying that I am very pleased with the armor that I am wearing currently and look forward to unlocking a few other pieces and visors for later use (EOD, Gungir, Enforcer) and that this is, of course, just my opinion.
Mostly, however, I find the armor strange. It is all sharp angles and overly sci-fi (for lack of a better term). It is a very interesting art style and definitely a new direction.
I found the Reach armor and H3 appealing because it was definitively human. It was gritty, battle-worn and imposing. Yet, I feel I could easily be looking at some Forerunner variation of armor when viewing most of the H4 armor; the Venator armor mod being the best example. If there are more armor mods released in the future, I hope they take a small step or two back toward a more “human” art style.
Good post. I am also confused as to why they chose such a strange new style. Compared to Reach in particular, this was a huge step backwards in terms of how the Spartans look in multiplayer and the definition of the character models (and yes, I am very aware of how bad Reach was for the most part).
The armor there though seemed so much more detailed and rendered in a way that suited the graphical style of the game. In H4 it almost seems like they conceived a highly detailed campaign with Chief looking more awesome than ever then decided that using the H2 player models would be fine for multiplayer… and on top of that, decided the target audience for the majority of the armor customisations would be 10 year olds.
My first impression was thinking they turned this into a futuristic cyborg war… then remembered that’s pretty much what the Spartans are referred as… cyborgs. The older armors did seem a bit more human, but after getting used to the new armors, it’s pretty sweet. Just gotta remember that the armors from halo 3 were 4 years or whatever before these new spartans, which aren’t the same type of spartan as Chief.
I’ve been approaching the armor situation with the same mentality; I’ve been telling myself that this is four years in the future and things have changed.
And, logically speaking, angled armor is more effective at redirecting projectiles (note the effectiveness of the Panzer tank in WWII). It’s just a big change is all.
Unlocking the Mark VI by completing campaign on legendary and having the Optimus Prime helmet (Warrior) has sustained me through the initial armor mods.