Brutes in Halo 4?

Games Other Halo
1

I wonder, will there be Brutes in Halo 4?

If yes, will they be the mindless, suicidal, team-killing cave trolls from Halo: Reach or will they be the ferocious, yet tactically intelligent aliens from Halo 3?

Will they have an uneasy alliance with the renegade Elites, or will they have gathered their own Grunts, Jackals, Drones and Hunters to form a more brutal (no pun intended) Covenant splinter group.

Assuming they’re there, I hope they got Brute Shots and similar tech. I do miss the fleshy stab sound of a Spike Grenade as it stuck someone, back in Halo 3.

2

They could be, but honestly I don’t really think they need to be, Glasslands made it out that they were around but I think it would be odd for the Elites to allow them in their army after what they did.

They could stick with Elites, Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, and Hunters, and I’d be happy.

3

[deleted]

4

i honestly didn’t like fighting brutes. I felt that the elites were more challenging because i had to think tactically to fight them where the brutes were a bullet sponge

5

It certainly possible, but like the BR/DMR Halo has had a problem balancing brutes and elites. Both are usually bullet sponges with semi-bad AI, only difference is brutes prefer CQC more then elites and are more aggressive.
I wouldn’t mind brutes in Halo 4, but they should be unique and have their own AI and behaviour, make them different in a good way…

6

It would be cool to see the hairy flea bags again. Like they just would randomly just beat the YOINK! out of Grunts. But The Fued with the elites would make that odd.

7

Unless they’re the chummy (mourn for fallen comrades, berserk over them) hairy Brutes possessing a semi-Armory skull effect (H3 Brutes noticing their recently deceased comrades), a CE esque melee (long range, no reverse melee), and don’t use grenades, I don’t want to see them again.

Making them easily assassinated = bad
Making them impossible to assassinate = bad

The answer to their poor cqc:

-speed: make them fast like CE Hunters, Zealots, H2 berserking Brutes so they can catch up to you but not as fast like Reach Elites
-range and power: give them a bigger melee range (from CE) and a melee that pushes players back (from ODST), but don’t let them do that slow turning melee or a short ranged melee like Reach Elites

<mark>There is a correlation between melee range and melee power. CE Elites didn’t have an instant kill melee but they were a -Yoink- to assassinate. I’ve assassinated many Elites but when they’re onto me, that’s when things get tough. Zealots are no problem to me but Elite Majors are bosses in cqc if you try to fight them with only your fists.</mark>

-distinction: make them use their guns a lot more and have different firing patterns (i.e. CE Elite majors fired in short bursts, CE Zealots fired in long bursts) instead of tossing grenades and becoming easy grenade stick targets/assassination/plasma pistol overcharge targets. Brutes should be known for their suppressive/aggressive firing. Why do you think Truth gave them Brute plasma rifles?!

In essence, they can become CE Elites ‘in spirit’. I’d rather not have another ‘Elite clone’. H4 Elites should be different, radically different from Reach Elites.

Though I wouldn’t mind the distinction mentioned above being returned to the Elites because when you have every Elite tossing grenades (Reach Elites) and every Elite being super lethal to you (Reach, H2 Elites), that kills the point of having different ranks. CE Elites were the best because they were each unique. H2, H3, and Reach have killed that uniqueness.

8

I’m hoping if they do return, that they are nothing like the push cores from halo 3. The brutes in Reach were so much more badass.

9

I hope Brutes are back along with their vehicles, the Chopper and the Prowler, plus maybe a few new Brute vehicles. Like a Brute Aircraft or a Brute Tank or something!

And Reach Brutes should never appear again, they looked completely awful in Reach, bring back Halo 3 Brutes, only make them more brutal and give them some of their fur back perhaps.

10

I don’t know when, i don’t know how, but i think th brutes should definitely return in a smiler way to how they were in ODST; they had power armor so they weren’t just bullet sponges, they noticed their fallen comrades, they were fairly aggressive, and they played a leading role which i liked.

11

I wouldn´t mind if the Brutes didn´t return. I´ve never been very fond of them, I just preferred to fight Elites and Hunters.

12

I think that they’re going to show up on Spartan Ops, not the actual campaign.

But, hey, anything could happen.

13

> It certainly possible, but like the BR/DMR Halo has had a problem balancing brutes and elites. Both are usually bullet sponges with semi-bad AI, only difference is brutes prefer CQC more then elites and are more aggressive.
> I wouldn’t mind brutes in Halo 4, but they should be unique and have their own AI and behaviour, make them different in a good way…

Elites had semi bad AI?

lol wut?

14

> > It certainly possible, but like the BR/DMR Halo has had a problem balancing brutes and elites. Both are usually bullet sponges with semi-bad AI, only difference is brutes prefer CQC more then elites and are more aggressive.
> > I wouldn’t mind brutes in Halo 4, but they should be unique and have their own AI and behaviour, make them different in a good way…
>
> Elites had semi bad AI?
>
>
> lol wut?

List of their faults:

-op damage
-bottomless clip, even when they’re taking cover. In previous Halo games, when they took cover, they would reload their guns. And they could overheat their rifles (especially noticeable with CE Zealots)
-damage sponges
-berserking even when their shields are not down
-berserking happens too often
-rarely diving from grenades
-don’t always take cover
-poor cqc masked by high damage
-speed is much too fast. That was given to only Zealots in CE. Now every Elite can catch up to you. The only way to escape is to jetpack, get to higher ground, or go into the water. In places with no such ways to escape, you’re pretty much dead unless you can shoot down the Elite, which is unlikely due to their bullet sponge shields
-when they board your tank, it’s nearly impossible and very impractical to try to blast them off thanks to vehicle health
-turning melee animations from H3 makes killing Elites in cqc unsatisfactory
-inept aiming accounted for by difficulty projectile speed increase
-now swarm like Grunts and Jackals
-sword Elites can’t leap
-sword Elites are easily tricked into falling to their deaths on TotS and Installation 04
-can’t shoot underwater, can’t shoot at enemies underwater
-<mark>sluggish, lack responsiveness</mark>. I’ve had moments where I’m right behind the Elite, meleeing him, he’s noticed me but he takes a while to turn
-lack of distinction other than their weapons and shield strength. Only a few are unique but they’re scripted (Field Marshal, certain Zealots) and random (Bobs)
-semi-omniscience via player positioning from H2 is overused. This works on Cairo since there’s plenty of cover. But on LNoS, at the main beach, if you run to the Covie drop point sometime after the Covies have been dropped off and have made their way up the beach, the Covies will come your way, leaving the useless troopers who can’t even manage to distract a Covie behind, and will inevitably notice you
-<mark>nearly impossible to stealth them</mark>. And this opinion is coming from someone who has assassinated entire waves of Covies in the very same game, undetected. I can get a video up if you’d like. It would mean going through hell to get the perfect beach setup but I’m willing to show to the unwary how LNoS is inferior to any Halo campaign mission…

Only improvements from CE Elites:

-faster, shorter melee
-faster, shorter grenade throw
-shooting while doing evasive maneuver
-all Elites can throw grenades
-crouch when in line of fire

Of course, 90% of that can already be implemented in CE, but they weren’t, because CE was about balance, not difficulty.

15

I have no problem with Brutes, but they really need an upgrade to their intelligence and behavior. In Halo 2 they were basically damage sponges. In Halo 3 they were weaker, weirder copies of Elites. In Halo Reach they were annoying monkeys who didn’t really have a function in gameplay other than to use armor lock and wear stupid helmets which prevented headshots.

Sadly, I think Halo 2’s damage sponge Brutes were actually the most interesting to fight - at least they offered variety in enemy behavior, and provided a nice contrast to the Elites.

In the Halo 3 vidoc, Et Tu Brute, some animations for Brutes were depicted that in the end were never used. Brutes did some more in-character, brutal, interesting stuff like ripping a marine’s arms out, tackling a marine into a vehicle, and their pack mentality gameplay was highlighted. In Halo 3, they did no such thing, and their pack mentality was a disappointment.

To work in Halo 4, Brutes should display a more interesting pack mentality - protecting Chieftains, coordinating fire, different roles being subservient to each other, etc. Their berserk mode, which was absent in Halo Reach, should return. I think they should display more brutal combat moves - like taking human shields, throwing dead bodies at you, and of course, CQC. I think Brutes should not have shields, and instead their helmets from Reach should return. Their CQC should work like this - instead of powerful single blows like Elites, Brutes should charge in and use faster attacks - comparable to melee combos, they just keep spamming melee attacks which individually do less damage than Elite melees, but overall do more damage due to their faster, unrelentless melees.

During berserk mode, their melee attacks should knock you back a considerable degree. I hope that their vehicles and weapons in Halo 4 will provide contrast to Elite equipment - it would be nice if every single Brute weapon had a blade/bayonet on it and had its own unique assassination animation.

That way, Brutes should fit into their own individual niches rather than being weaker versions of Elites. All other enemies already have their own niche - the fast, agile Elites who are the only enemies who dual-wield and use jetpacks, the “tank” Hunters with their shields, the Drones who fly in swarms and land on walls, the Grunts who are cannon fodder, the Jackals with shields and fragile but accurate snipers and the Skirmishers who are ninjas/glass cannons with their agility and speed but lack of health.