Campaign storyline

Games Other Halo
1

Ok, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed halo 4’s single player. Loved it even. But throughout the game I felt something was missing form the story line. Comparing it to previous halos, I have drawn a bit of a comparison.

In the original trilogy, and in reach to some extent, the chief was fighting for humanity. It was a full scale war against the covenant, with the whole of the humanity fighting with him. We had epic, large scale(usually in cutscenes, I doubt the x360 could actually render a large war) battles, with the humans slowly being pushed back. I felt that chief was the last line of defence for earth. There was no infighting between john and anyone else(cortina, Hood, ect) because they couldn’t afford to, they were all fighting together for a common cause.

Now in halo 4, 343i have done away with nearly every character from the original trilogy, and set it in a new location. That’s fine, but it seems like the original trilogy takes place in a completely different universe to h4.
For the first section, of the game your fighting for yourself, and cortana, trying to establish a link with humanity. Ok fair enough. For the next third, your fighting to save one ship from becoming marooned on a planet. ONE ship, I mean come on, in the scheme of things, it not a huge deal.

Finally, we find out that this didact, is trying to kill all of humanity. That’s a real enough threat. But he’s not going to do it by waging war with us, and pushing us back to our homeland through a series’s of battles, that would make for a great game, no, he’s just going to fly to earth and laser it.(ok, he wasn’t lasers go it, but you get the point).

So instead of fighting an enemy that we know is evil and have seen their brutality towards humans, we fight an enemy who we’ve met for about 10 seconds, and know next to nothing about, apart from the fact he wants to 'kill" us.

I could go on for ages but I think you get the message. Instead of fighting with comrades against an enemy who has fought us for years and is about to finally finish us off, we -Yoink- around( see Halsey and Palmer, chief and del rio) then finally send ONE man to defeat an enemy who isn’t going to wage war on us, but fire a f****** red light at our planet. (Do we got to see the effects of the red light, so that we may hate him? No.)

And you know the worst part about it ? The final deciding factor of all humanity was a grenade being put in someone, not a decisive battle. No epic war, just one guy shooting a ton of Aliens with no air support, and then killing one evil alien.

sorry for the lengthy scripture.

2

So do you guys have any issues with the feel of the campaign or is it just me? Also I feel that the setpeices on h4 were really small, hardly and air and ground battles, no scarabs etc

3

We did see the effect of the laser, it disintegrates people, and then (this part is only shown in spops) uploads them and turns them into Prometheans.

As for the transition from army vs army to two guys duking it out, it feels kind of underwhelming. It does however set the stage for a bigger battle.

4

I never really thought if it like that.

343i acknowledged that they didn’t do the best with some aspects of the Campaign (including fleshing out the Didact), so hopefully Halo 5 will be better.

5

No, I don’t feel the same way. How stupid would it have been if the Didact took his time Composing every human population he could find EXCEPT the largest? Makes no sense. Of course he jumped straight to Earth- anything else would basically be 343 saying, “So this guy’s a Forerunner, but don’t worry, he’s not any more dangerous than the Covenant was. In fact, he behaves exactly like the Covenant did. Have fun with your déjà-vu!”

6

> No, I don’t feel the same way. How stupid would it have been if the Didact took his time Composing every human population he could find EXCEPT the largest? Makes no sense.

A good story needs to both make sense and be engaging. Halo 4’s bad guy story may have been logical, but it wasn’t as engaging as it could have been.

7

> > No, I don’t feel the same way. How stupid would it have been if the Didact took his time Composing every human population he could find EXCEPT the largest? Makes no sense.
>
> A good story needs to both make sense and be engaging. Halo 4’s bad guy story may have been logical, but it wasn’t as engaging as it could have been.

I just don’t think another slow, hopeless war of retreat would have been the way to go. We’ve already had that.

8

I enjoyed the story, but the gameplay and events could’ve been a lot better.
I think more bigger vehicle battles would be great. The one with the Lich is not good. The thing just goes park for you o board…
As for the Didact going down. I would have prefered a boss fight instead of a QTE (IMO, QTEs ruin gameplay).
As for Chief saving Infinity, why wouldn’t he try to? Number one, it was his best ticket off Requiem, and seconds, it is the most advanced UNSC ship out there.

9

>

It’s a new Halo Saga, a new chapter and style in the story.

One ship? That one ship is the biggest and most powerful ship the UNSC has ever built. The ship that nearly bankrupted the UNSC and took 2 decades to built. Not to mention, it’s their ticket off Requiem and the path to finding a way to save Cortana.

The fact that the Didact dismissed Chief and Humanity as a whole, and shrugged through Earth’s defenses shows how powerful he really is. Besides, we’ve already seen the “beaten back to the homeworld” story quite a few times. The Didact knows where Earth is and knows that Humanity is a force you need to cut off quickly.

The Librarian cutscene explained that Humanity went to war with the Forerunners in ancient times, and it cost the Didact a lot. Many of his warriors fell, and all of his children perished in conflict with Humanity. Later, his wife favors Humans over him, and ends up shooting him.
That’s more motivation than the original games ever showed us. We never got a motive for the Covenant’s campaign against Humanity. Just “kill them all”.

You don’t need to go to war to kill billions of people.

And the UNSC didn’t send one man, one man was all who stepped up.

And, that laser? Take a look at the epilogue cutscene. See those piles of ash everywhere? Those were people. Take a look at how big the city was. That is potentially millions of people.
Look at the ending cutscenes of Composer, the level prior. Watch Tillson get composed, layer by layer. That’s what just happened to millions more.

The Didact isn’t dead.
Plus, that was really the only way we could have Chief “battle” the Didact. Other ways have Chief getting utterly decimated.

10

Ok, I know this sounds kind of ridiculous, but put it this way: what do you think would have made the better campaign for halo reach? Either the one they used, or one where the covenant have a super weapon, and the only way to stop them is to stop them pushing the button. One on one, fighting for a single button. Not for territory, or land, or planets, but for a button. It wouldn’t quite be so ‘epic’ would it?

11

I guess you could argue that the original trilogy was all about ‘pushing a button’ but there seems to be a difference. In ahlo 3 , for instance, we followed truth(I think ?) through a portal with a combined fleet of ships, then pushed his forces back using tanks and hornets and such until we had a final confrontation with him, where a character, that we had fought with and come to like, dies. In halo 4 one soldier battles his way through a few prometheans(which are essentially robots) , until we kill him with a grenade. Granted, we loose cortana , but why? I still can’t recall the reason why cortana had to die.

And why do we hate prometheans? If a robot was attacking you, you wouldn’t hate the robot, after all they don’t really have minds. They don’t speak, or show any form of emotion. Where as brutes for example, are shown as ruthless, and enjoy killing, and after playing new Alexandria on reach, I actually hated them, and wanted to kill them in halo 3.

12

Cortana had to die because there was a Havoc Grade Nuke going off in front of Chief and she used the last of her rapidly deteriorating condition to save Chief.

Halo: Reach was telling a different story than Halo 4. Halo 4’s was much more personal, between Chief and Cortana. Not the global destruction or galactic destruction scale of the originals. But Halo 4’s true enemies were bent on human destruction too.

Halo 4’s enemies bring up a much more conflicted plot. Instead of aliens hating you for no apparent reason in the original games, the Didact has an actual, deep past. He’s the tragic figure of Halo. If you read some EU as well, you’ll learn that the Didact was also tortured by a Gravemind, completely changing his sanity. There is also the fact that the mutation he forced upon himself didn’t work, and failed mutations are known to cause unstability.
The Prometheans are robots, yes, hardwired to kill you. Then you learn that they were made from the minds of ancient humans.

It sets up a deep and conflicting plot, a different approach compared to the original stuff. There’s also the Covenant part of things. On the surface, it looks like they’re just religious fanatics again. But their leader has a deep motive he’s keeping secret.
His wife was killed by Infinity when it helped the Arbiter stop an uprising. Jul was kidnapped by ONI, and the director of where he was being held openly told him about their plans to starve the Sangheili out, and even tested some things on Jul.

13

> Cortana had to die because there was a Havoc Grade Nuke going off in front of Chief and she used the last of her rapidly deteriorating condition to save Chief.
>
> Halo: Reach was telling a different story than Halo 4. Halo 4’s was much more personal, between Chief and Cortana. Not the global destruction or galactic destruction scale of the originals. But Halo 4’s true enemies were bent on human destruction too.
>
> Halo 4’s enemies bring up a much more conflicted plot. Instead of aliens hating you for no apparent reason in the original games, the Didact has an actual, deep past. He’s the tragic figure of Halo. If you read some EU as well, you’ll learn that the Didact was also tortured by a Gravemind, completely changing his sanity. There is also the fact that the mutation he forced upon himself didn’t work, and failed mutations are known to cause unstability.
> The Prometheans are robots, yes, hardwired to kill you. Then you learn that they were made from the minds of ancient humans.
>
> It sets up a deep and conflicting plot, a different approach compared to the original stuff. There’s also the Covenant part of things. On the surface, it looks like they’re just religious fanatics again. But their leader has a deep motive he’s keeping secret.
> His wife was killed by Infinity when it helped the Arbiter stop an uprising. Jul was kidnapped by ONI, and the director of where he was being held openly told him about their plans to starve the Sangheili out, and even tested some things on Jul.

First off, you missed the entire point of the first trilogy. The aliens didn’t hate humans at all. They saw humans as a barrier between them and the ignition of the forerunner Halo rings, aka the way that the covenant were to get to the supposed “Holy Land.” And like you said yourself, the leaders had separate motives. So there clearly was more than just “we hate humans for no reason.” Some of the best parts of the story involved the elites’ discovery of the prophets’ plans and their disobedience in the face of the covenant religion.
As for the Didact, if you didn’t read the books, you have NO FREAKING IDEA why he hates humans at all. I had to go to freaking Wikipedia to find out what the mantle was or who the Didact even was. I totally agree with the OP in that

  1. The Didact is a totally unexplained and therefore unrelatable villain
  2. The majority of the story seemed to have no significance other than saving Cortana, which was stupid because she just got more annoying as the game progressed
  3. Even after I learned what the mantle was, it was too basic to think that the Didact just wanted to kill all humans so he by himself could nurture all life and live as a lonely forerunner
  4. The linear progression of Chief vs. Didact was simply boring without a third party (what ever happened to the Storm Covenant? That was literally never explained. The flood should have come back or something at least to make a third party)
  5. Most importantly, the Chief talked WAY too much. The whole point of not having him talk was to dehumanize him into a tragic human being at the end of Halo 3. Like I think every player got the fact that he was a loser in love with an AI with no forseeable life in a cryo-chamber after saving all of mankind. Making him talk to the human guy in the epilogue is just saying to fans: “Hey guys! We know you’re all stupid and so here’s a scene where we shoot you in the face 10 times about how distraught the Chief is over Cortana and how he’s not a human!” Like come on. They took 5 minutes to ruin a character that Bungie built for seven years.
14

It’s like they tried to tell a sappy love story that you could easily get from the movie “Her” and just added in human destruction to make it a Halo game

15

So, I’m guessing you skipped the Librarian cutscene… the one that explained that the Didact fought Humanity in a war, and went madness when he turned to the Composer to put an end to Humanity and stop the Flood without using the Halos?

And no, the Covenant’s motives are never explained in-game. Not in CE. In Halo 2 we see their religion, but still no comment on where Humanity fits in. Halo 3 really starts to show how Truth needed Humanity… but that doesn’t explain the war.
And, the motivation for the Covenant was explained in a book. Interesting.
The High Prophets ordered Humanity’s destruction because Mendicant Bias identified them as Reclaimers, living heirs to the Forerunner legacy. This would shatter the Covenant belief, so the Prophets covered it up and branded Humanity as heretics so that they could keep their power.
None of that is explained in the original trilogy.

Because the Prophets were relatable? And I find the Didact much more relatable than the Prophets. Humanity killed his children in war, caused his wife to shoot him, and he spent an eternity sitting on his hatred of Humanity.

Because the seven million people that died in New Phoenix weren’t important? The Ancient Humans locked into mechanical warriors weren’t important? Because the biggest and most powerful ship in the UNSC wasn’t important? If you think Cortana and Chief were the only focus… you really should replay the game.

He’s doing it because Humanity proved to him in ancient times that they were unfit to weild the Mantle. Plus unstability from mutation and torture from a Gravemind… the Didact overall isn’t in a great state of mental health. The galaxy did prosper under the Forerunners for the most part. As of now Humanity can barely keep itself alive, let alone protect others.

The Storm Covenant? The foes that were seen for the majority of the game? Not a third party? What?
I admit that I wish Jul, their leader, received campaign spotlight, but the Covenant was meant to take a backseat to the Prometheans. And it’s kind of clear the Didact didn’t think highly of the Covenant. He threw them at Ivanoff Station. It was sort of implied that much of the Covenant’s forces were taken out when Ianoff’s MAC network came online. And even if this is a plothole, it’s not like the original trilogy wasn’t packed full of them, Halo 3 in particular.

But… that’s not Chief’s character. His “character” in the original trilogy was to be a one-lining badass. The problem with that is that it isn’t a character at all. Chief isn’t supposed to be the player or anything. He is human, and the books showed that. Now Halo 4 showed it. That was a major plot for Halo 4, humanization.

No, they took a game to create the real character Bungie had written in books but neglected to show in game.

If you thought Halo 4 was a love story than you missed the point.

16

I’m with you OP, but my reasons are somewhat different. To be brief, I found it too melodramatic, too convenient at points with the way the story went (John suddenly having a knife to stab into the hull of a ship for example) and, much like you said, not well explained at parts. Like…how did John get a new suit of armor again? Software updates 343? Is that really all you’re gonna give us as explanation to how John, who’s been sittin’ out in deep space for about five years suddenly got a totally different suit? What, did some magical suit guys poof into existence and put the suit on him while he was napping but didn’t think to themselves: “Wait, shouldn’t we take this guy with us instead?”
Other magic suit guy: “Nah dude, he’ll be fine. He’s totally ready for all this convoluted crap again. It’s not like he’s over fifty and deserving of a vacation…”