Bring back halo's gritty/dark atmosphere

Games Halo Infinite
1

In halo infinite I want to see the return to a more gritty, serious, militaristic, and more realistic style the old games possessed. The halo games 1 through reach had a serious tone, and the art style was realistic and gritty. In the newer games especially halo 5, the tone of the games lack seriousness. The spartan armors look unrealistic, plastic, and the bright almost neon color scheme make them look childish. The enemies are not as intimidating as before, an example being the grunt goblin. Can you realistically see the grunt goblin being a serious enemy in any of the previous installments? The factor of risk, danger, and something worth fighting for are all lost; neither the covenant remnant or the promethians pose a serious threat to the human race. A huge issue I face in playing the new installments is the lack of seriousness, and the new almost “childish” look of the new games.

Tell me what you think or if you agree or not.

2

I think you touched on a lot of the issues most people have with the direction Halo has been going for the last several years. I tend to disagree with you that the Prometheans aren’t a serious threat to the human race, but the Covenant remnant does seem to be more of a thorn in the UNSC’s side than a real enemy. The childish look is an apt way to describe it, but with the engine demo last year, it appears that we are returning to a more traditional Halo look, complete with marines and humanity on the back foot again. Here’s hoping!

Unrelated question… were “fartwhisperer1-16” taken?? lol

3

> 2533274888477235;1:
> The halo games 1 through reach had a serious tone

You mean this serious tone?

> 2533274888477235;1:
> and the art style was realistic and gritty

These things are in the eye of the beholder, but not the description I would use. Realistic? Sure. But the description of at least Halo 3 I remember from back in the day was “cartoony”. Not that I subscribe to that extrement point of view, but “gritty” is not a decription I would use of Bungie’s art style in general.

> 2533274888477235;1:
> In the newer games especially halo 5, the tone of the games lack seriousness

I’m not really sure whether we’ve been playing the same games. If anything, I’d describe 343i’s games as overly serious.

> 2533274888477235;1:
> The spartan armors look unrealistic, plastic, and the bright almost neon color scheme make them look childish.

Apart from the neon colors, this is exactly how I’ve heard many people describe the armor in Halo 3.

> 2533274888477235;1:
> The enemies are not as intimidating as before, an example being the grunt goblin

As opposed to the very intimidating Grunts from the original trilogy?

> 2533274888477235;1:
> Can you realistically see the grunt goblin being a serious enemy in any of the previous installments?

I mean, I have trouble seeing Grunts as serious enemies in any of the previous installments, so… no? But that’s like asking whether I’d find a poodle piloting a big fluffy mech poodle intimidating.

> 2533274888477235;1:
> Tell me what you think or if you agree or not.

No. I not only disagree with the idea that Halo should be serious and gritty, but I disagree with the premise that Halo has somehow become less serious or less gritty. If anything, I’d say Halo 4 and 5 try to take themselves too seriously and try to be too gritty, forgoing all the lightheartedness that to me is a very important part of the tone of Halo. In the same vein, I dslike 343i’s attempts at trying to make Covenant enemies look more menacing, when all they managed to do was make them more repulsive. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re trying to make Grunts and Jackals seem more menacing, you’re missing the point.

I’d appreciate if 343i didn’t try to make Halo so serious, and were able to deliver a world that is aesthetically something I’d want to visit, and a story that’s emotional but also fun, like Halo 2. I’d appreciate if 343i didn’t try to make enemies scary, whose anatomy was clearly never intended to appear scary. In other words, I want Halo to be less serious and less gritty than what it has become. I want back the beauty, the fun, and the lightheartedness of the original trilogy.

4

Besides Buck’s humour in H5,I can’t remember any other instance where the newer games weren’t serious.

The classic games had much more lighthearted moments.

5

I’d like that grit back in the visuals but judging by the engine trailer we probably won’t get that, it was very colourful. Still looked great but yeah, I’d prefer it leaned more toward H3/Reach.

6

> 2533275031939856;5:
> I’d like that grit back in the visuals but judging by the engine trailer we probably won’t get that, it was very colourful. Still looked great but yeah, I’d prefer it leaned more toward H3/Reach.

Halo 3 wasn’t colorful?

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> 2533274825830455;6:
> > 2533275031939856;5:
> > I’d like that grit back in the visuals but judging by the engine trailer we probably won’t get that, it was very colourful. Still looked great but yeah, I’d prefer it leaned more toward H3/Reach.
>
> Halo 3 wasn’t colorful?

It was, but Infinite seems to have a much cleaner, vibrant look so far.

8

> 2533275031939856;7:
> > 2533274825830455;6:
> > > 2533275031939856;5:
> > > I’d like that grit back in the visuals but judging by the engine trailer we probably won’t get that, it was very colourful. Still looked great but yeah, I’d prefer it leaned more toward H3/Reach.
> >
> > Halo 3 wasn’t colorful?
>
> It was, but Infinite seems to have a much cleaner, vibrant look so far.

Cleaner? Sure, maybe. Although realistically what we’ve seen this far is Master Chief, some marines, a Warthog at distance, and some Forerunner beacons. But as far as vibrancy is concerned, it doesn’t really come off to me as more vibrant than Halo 3.

9

I mean, Grunt Goblins are giant Grunt Mechs. They’re every bit as threatening as Grunts themselves, which is to say, not very much appearance wise. As far as it goes, if you’re using ‘gritty’ to define what the graphics show, then yes, everything is much smoother, a lot cleaner, and looks like what a futuristic militia would use on Super Soldiers.

But if your use of gritty is in lack of trait or personality, the Master Chief has always been gritty and determined to do what he sets his mind to. That honestly hasn’t changed, he went AWOL to find someone he thought was dead; literally risked being shot, hung, or whatever death sentence could be brought upon him to venture out into the unknown on a WHIM to reunite himself with someone he cared about.

I always love the way the armor looks, even when it doesn’t look as amazing as everyone wants it to be. I mean, in Halo 2 Anniversary, Chief looks like he’s wearing plastic for armor. But I mean, metal that comes from planets not Earthen in nature very well might look like other materials we wouldn’t think very protective or durable. I like to keep an open mind and it still didn’t look BAD, it just didn’t look like it would be heavily protective armor a 290 pound Space Marine would be wearing to battle.

10

i think the “gritty” atmosphere (if you can really call it that way) came from the covenant being the alien force far supirior to human forces and driving them back and wining almost every battle. and the ones they were losing came at a high cost for humanitys resources.
then the emergence of the flood, which could overtake the covenant and is threatening the entire universe which can’t really be stoped upped the stackes again.
with their defeat in halo 3 (although i think halo 3 didn’t tell that story very good) the thread was eliminated (more or less)

the way i see it, the prometheans were introduced to take over this thread, but to be honest: i don’t even know much about them. to me they are just some ancient machines awoken again and could be very easily replaced by anything else. also i got the feeling, 343 is still searching how to replace the old threads (for example with the banished… which i don’t like, bc the original covenant was supposed to have problems with them… what were they doing while the first trillogy then?)

also I don’t really get a big feeling of thread by the “new” covenant (or prometheans), bc apearently it takes only 4 spartans to take down a whole covenant army while running down a mountain. wonder why humans got any problems with aliens in the first place (sarcasm bc of stupid intro cinematic from halo 5)

11

Halo 1 and 3 don’t seem to fit the grit aesthetic of Reach and Halo 2, at least to me. If CE ever did fit a gritty aesthetic, I think that mostly went out the window with Anniversary. None of which is to say that I don’t like the aesthetic of Halo prior to Halo 4, just that it wasn’t uniform across the board. The only gritty looking things in Halo 1 and 3 to me were Flood related, appropriately enough (and it did provide some awesome contrast).

I’d say I slightly lean towards the gritty or grounded look of Reach especially, but Halo 3 was vibrant and brilliant in its own way, and I actually think the brighter look has aged better.

I think Infinite is trying to catch that triumphant shine of Halo 3, based on what little we’ve seen so far. I think it’s probably the right move. Even though I prefer slightly the grittier Reach-like look, I honestly think I’m more nostalgic about Halo 3’s look and feel. And I seriously think people who aren’t populating Halo forums are a lot more nostalgic about Halo 3’s general vibe than of Halo Reach’s.

The best compromise is one I’ve seen a number of users recommend in customization threads: if you want your Spartan to have grittier looking/battle damaged armor, that should be an option on an individual level. The game overall seems to be leaning towards the more vibrant tone visually, and that’s cool with me.

12

I think I’d like more instances where the game feels “dark” in the sense that you almost feel hopeless again as the enemy is seemingly invulnerable and many fellow soldiers around you are dying and you’re fighting to preserve not only your life, but the universe’s. I’m fond of the way Reach, Halo Wars 2, and H2A appear all-around artistically, and I would like a little more realism when it comes to damaging the enemy. By all I means I know the games don’t need over the top gore but if you were to hit a jackel from a few hundred yards with a Series 99 rifle, he should look like gumbo. (I’m thinking some visual cues used in novel narrative and Dark Horse comic art) I think a darker tone would appeal to me. When it comes to the story it should be as it has been when relating to dialogue and what not. Even though humanity was getting their -Yoink- kicked Johnson still said some funny lines. There has always been a good polarity between serious and lighthearted.

13

The game needs to remember this is a war game about survival, not a cartoon. I wholly agree. Blood is the easiest example I can think of where it can instantly improve the “darker” feel of the game.

14

Given that they focused on “hope” in the engine teaser I doubt that this is going to happen. Not to say there cannot be hope in dark moments but I think they are trying to keep the general vibe optimistic, especially when the goal is to power hype for the years to come.

15

> 2533274879757912;9:
> I always love the way the armor looks, even when it doesn’t look as amazing as everyone wants it to be. I mean, in Halo 2 Anniversary, Chief looks like he’s wearing plastic for armor. But I mean, metal that comes from planets not Earthen in nature very well might look like other materials we wouldn’t think very protective or durable. I like to keep an open mind and it still didn’t look BAD, it just didn’t look like it would be heavily protective armor a 290 pound Space Marine would be wearing to battle.

I mean, painted metal can be visually indistinguishable from painted plastic. You don’t need any exotic materials to have that. All you need is paint. And that’s exactly what you have on the Halo 2A Master Chief: metal painted with exactly the kind of matte paint that a lot of military equipment tends to be painted with, and I’d say the game does reasonably good job portraying that considering the technical limitations, and how hard the look of rendered materials is to get exactly right. Getting things to look like metal in games isn’t about just making them to look like metal actually would in those circumstances. It’s more about making the thing correspond to what people’s expectations of metal are.

16

> 2533274825830455;15:
> > 2533274879757912;9:
> > I always love the way the armor looks, even when it doesn’t look as amazing as everyone wants it to be. I mean, in Halo 2 Anniversary, Chief looks like he’s wearing plastic for armor. But I mean, metal that comes from planets not Earthen in nature very well might look like other materials we wouldn’t think very protective or durable. I like to keep an open mind and it still didn’t look BAD, it just didn’t look like it would be heavily protective armor a 290 pound Space Marine would be wearing to battle.
>
> I mean, painted metal can be visually indistinguishable from painted plastic. You don’t need any exotic materials to have that. All you need is paint. And that’s exactly what you have on the Halo 2A Master Chief: metal painted with exactly the kind of matte paint that a lot of military equipment tends to be painted with, and I’d say the game does reasonably good job portraying that considering the technical limitations, and how hard the look of rendered materials is to get exactly right. Getting things to look like metal in games isn’t about just making them to look like metal actually would in those circumstances. It’s more about making the thing correspond to what people’s expectations of metal are.

That is an excellent point, and I honestly didn’t HATE the way it looked, it just looked a bit funny. I won’t argue though that Chief himself looks amazing in the remastered graphics. The entire game looked stunning in my opinion.

17

> 2533274825830455;8:
> > 2533275031939856;7:
> > > 2533274825830455;6:
> > > > 2533275031939856;5:
> > > > I’d like that grit back in the visuals but judging by the engine trailer we probably won’t get that, it was very colourful. Still looked great but yeah, I’d prefer it leaned more toward H3/Reach.
> > >
> > > Halo 3 wasn’t colorful?
> >
> > It was, but Infinite seems to have a much cleaner, vibrant look so far.
>
> Cleaner? Sure, maybe. Although realistically what we’ve seen this far is Master Chief, some marines, a Warthog at distance, and some Forerunner beacons. But as far as vibrancy is concerned, it doesn’t really come off to me as more vibrant than Halo 3.

Yep we’ll just have to see when the game comes out if it still has that cleaner look or they get a little dirtier. H3 had colour but it looked a lot more subtle to me whereas the engine trailer really jumped out at me in terms of colour. I’m really fine either way, I just like a little more subtlety myself.

18

> 2533274825830455;3:
> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > The halo games 1 through reach had a serious tone
>
> You mean this serious tone?
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> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > and the art style was realistic and gritty
>
> These things are in the eye of the beholder, but not the description I would use. Realistic? Sure. But the description of at least Halo 3 I remember from back in the day was “cartoony”. Not that I subscribe to that extrement point of view, but “gritty” is not a decription I would use of Bungie’s art style in general.
>
>
>
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> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > In the newer games especially halo 5, the tone of the games lack seriousness
>
> I’m not really sure whether we’ve been playing the same games. If anything, I’d describe 343i’s games as overly serious.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > The spartan armors look unrealistic, plastic, and the bright almost neon color scheme make them look childish.
>
> Apart from the neon colors, this is exactly how I’ve heard many people describe the armor in Halo 3.
>
>
>
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> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > The enemies are not as intimidating as before, an example being the grunt goblin
>
> As opposed to the very intimidating Grunts from the original trilogy?
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > Can you realistically see the grunt goblin being a serious enemy in any of the previous installments?
>
> I mean, I have trouble seeing Grunts as serious enemies in any of the previous installments, so… no? But that’s like asking whether I’d find a poodle piloting a big fluffy mech poodle intimidating.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274888477235;1:
> > Tell me what you think or if you agree or not.
>
> No. I not only disagree with the idea that Halo should be serious and gritty, but I disagree with the premise that Halo has somehow become less serious or less gritty. If anything, I’d say Halo 4 and 5 try to take themselves too seriously and try to be too gritty, forgoing all the lightheartedness that to me is a very important part of the tone of Halo. In the same vein, I dslike 343i’s attempts at trying to make Covenant enemies look more menacing, when all they managed to do was make them more repulsive. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re trying to make Grunts and Jackals seem more menacing, you’re missing the point.
>
> I’d appreciate if 343i didn’t try to make Halo so serious, and were able to deliver a world that is aesthetically something I’d want to visit, and a story that’s emotional but also fun, like Halo 2. I’d appreciate if 343i didn’t try to make enemies scary, whose anatomy was clearly never intended to appear scary. In other words, I want Halo to be less serious and less gritty than what it has become. I want back the beauty, the fun, and the lightheartedness of the original trilogy.

Jesus thanks you.

19

I very much hope the opposite. I like the highly stylized look and feel that early Halo, specifically Halo CE had. Everything was bright and vibrant, which I found more pleasing to the eye, but also made gameplay better. I could quickly scan a room and see what I’m fighting and where weapons were. Now, all the elites look more or less the same, and weapons can be hidden in grass and I never see them.

I mean, look at these three elites, it’s extremely obvious, even out of the corner of your eye who’s who.

Then compare that to Halo 4: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/db/11/c4/db11c470ee5c2e6e1785114271c5f2a6.jpg I’m supposed to quickly scan a room and determine that’s a red elite in the dark? No way. In later games, I tend to fight elites the same way simply because I can’t tell them apart until you’re right up next to them, where in CE, I can easily pick out and get rid of the blue ones first.

Also, the biggest problem with very realistic games is that for real-time rendering we are not out of the uncanny valley yet, not even close. So you have two options when it comes to people: highly stylize them, or deal with the fact that in a few years it’ll just look creepy.

You can have grit without realism though. Stylized aesthetics can be gritty looking too. Take a look at this screenshot:

960×541 55.3 KB

That’s the new DOOM. It looks gritty as hell, but the human characters are sytlized to look almost like cartoons. My assumption is that id designers knew they couldn’t break out of the uncanny valley yet, so they made this decision.

20

> 2533274888477235;1:
> In halo infinite I want to see the return to a more gritty, serious, militaristic, and more realistic style the old games possessed. The halo games 1 through reach had a serious tone, and the art style was realistic and gritty. In the newer games especially halo 5, the tone of the games lack seriousness. The spartan armors look unrealistic, plastic, and the bright almost neon color scheme make them look childish. The enemies are not as intimidating as before, an example being the grunt goblin. Can you realistically see the grunt goblin being a serious enemy in any of the previous installments? The factor of risk, danger, and something worth fighting for are all lost; neither the covenant remnant or the promethians pose a serious threat to the human race. A huge issue I face in playing the new installments is the lack of seriousness, and the new almost “childish” look of the new games.
>
> Tell me what you think or if you agree or not.

Personally, as somebody that started about the Halo 4/Reach times, I’ve always loved the quirks in the writing when it wasn’t the time to get down and do the job.