I can tell people I know in the real are divided on the character development in the story. How did you think the character development was?
I feel like Halo Reach needed more character building.
Emile was the tough quiet guy at the start of the game. Emile was the tough quiet guy at the end of the game. Carter was probably the only character who really developed as the game progressed. That being said, he didn’t progress very much.
He was more stoic and seemed less optimistic about his own role in the story as time went on. This can be seen mostly in the Package following the death of Kat and his snark comments towards Emile when they are investigating Sword Base’s remnants.
ODST was very much the same, with the exception of Buck and Dare. The majority of the Squad was the same at the end of the game. I like that 343 Industries has gone the extra mile with Halo 4 to flesh out some of their characters in Forward Unto Dawn.
Canon being smashed repeatedly aside, 343 Industries creates wonderful stories with compelling characters. Halo Legends and Forward Unto Dawn prove this time and time again and I really look forward to the characters and their development in Halo 4. 
While back, I read this assessment that a guy posted about Emile. It was extremely detailed, revealing facets of the character that I never noticed before.
And that’s the problem. The story didn’t even give us enough time to learn the characters’ nuances, let alone enough time for them to actually develop.
They would have had the chance to develop Noble Team as proper characters if the writers hadn’t gone on a killing spree halfway through the narrative.
Wait there was development?
I must have missed something but I didn’t see any backstory at all.
One line about Kat being able to access classified information due to her history
Jorge calling that one woman Mom or Mum, unclear as to which
The previous Noble 6 died somehow but was never explained
Development??? You’re immediately thrown in with the entire team, introductions are made, and that’s about it.
As a huge Halo fan myself I’ll be the first one to admit the Halo game stories flat out suck. Maybe they’re better with prior knowledge of the books, but a lot of players won’t have that. Strictly going off of what the game gives you, the story telling is extremelly lacking.
I play Halo for the MULTIPLAYER. Campaigns just aren’t that great. Halo 3 had a few good missions, but Reach really doesn’t have any missions I find enjoyable, really just ones I run because they’re easy for the challenges.
Don’t get me wrong, I would be estatic if they’d actually hire a good story team and have amazing multiplayer AND an amazing campaign. Maybe we’ll get that for H4, but I’m not giving my hopes up. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised and we’ll finally get a good story in the campaign, we’ll see in about 2 weeks.
There wasn’t any character development that was siginfigant. Carter showed signs after Kats death but Bungie didn’t take that anywhere.
Ironically enough, our Noble Six was the best character of the story. Not because of what very few words he/she said or the important drop off of a certain package but because we were Six. It went beyond the armor sort to speak. Perhaps it is because we played as the character which made a world of difference and thus, grew attached (it’s what happened when i first played and beat the Campaign). Even then however, this is pushing it especially if you didn’t care for Six to begin with as he/she is almost a silent protagonist. Wish the dialogue that was said had more weight, seemed like it didn’t much impact towards the other characters.
However, one actor cannot make a play and the others just simply meant to be thrown away for the sake of advancing the plot and giving the story more of a tragic feel. While i played a -Yoink- ton of Campaign and enjoyed it, it also felt more like a “let’s get this job over with” kind of deal. Polished, look and plays nice but not as inspired as it could have been. Lone Wolf and Space section are nice surprises that i didn’t expect Bungie to do or pull off correctly, bonus points for that.
Halo CE: very little if any, your just throuwn into action while getting aquainted with others along the way. (then again it was just the first game)
Halo 2: This one actually showed the most character development of the first five even though most of it was for an elite.
Halo 3: Things get dicey in this one but if you didn’t play H2 you’d get lost in what’s going on from the start, I’d just rather not go into how dissapointing the ending seemed. (to me anyway)
Halo 3 ODST: I played this one to death before I got an online account. This one did have MORE character development and I thought is was a cool way to unfold the story of just how bad a day in the life of a Helljumper can be.
Halo Reach: No REAL development to speak of. I guess the feeling of loss for your fellow spartans was supposed to be moving, Kat and Carter were the only dramatic losses. (Kat killed me too many times for me to really care anyway, good riddance)
Jorges’ exit was just plain AWSOME!, and Emile reminded me of the old poster with the frog choking the pelican eating it “never give up”.
Those are my two cents 
I didn’t find the development of the characters in Reach to be all that good. From the campaign I got:
Carter- Hardcore leader type person who puts the mission before anything else but doesn’t really have a “personal” side per say as in not very sociable. Clearly was attracted to Kat as you could tell from the campaign and was affected by her death.
Kat- She was good at electronics, bad at driving. It was obvious that Carter and Kat were interested in each other but their relationship never had time to develop beyond what I said above.
Jun- Was given the aspect of being a marksman but had no background story at all.
Emile- Barely talked, could tell he was probably the most physically capable member of the group.
Jorge- Had compassion, didn’t view himself as just a Spartan but also as a human being. You could tell he was happy about seeing Dr. Halsey again. Also the compassionate side came into play as he tried to comfort her when she was looking down after Carter suggested she renew herself with military rules.
> Kat- She was good at electronics, bad at driving.
That made me lol, but it isn’t exactly canon to the story that she sucks at driving.
> Wait there was development?
>
> I must have missed something but I didn’t see any backstory at all.
>
> One line about Kat being able to access classified information due to her history
> Jorge calling that one woman Mom or Mum, unclear as to which
> The previous Noble 6 died somehow but was never explained
>
> Development??? You’re immediately thrown in with the entire team, introductions are made, and that’s about it.
Character development is not backstory. It is the change in characterization of a character over the course of the narrative.
Furthermore:
Kat was able to access classified information because of her decrypting skills, there’s no mention of her past having anything to do with it.
Jorge called Halsey “ma’am”, as per the great respect all Spartan-IIs have for Halsey (at least at the time of Reach). Also there’s no semantic difference between “mom” and “mum”.
Thom-293’s death was explained in pre-release teaser material, which the game only gives a subtle nod to. Narratively he only exists to justify Spartan-312 being recruited into Noble.
My take on the actual topic:
All the characters were characterized fairly well (except for 6, but that’s to be expected). Character development is pretty much non-existent. That’s fine though, Halo is an event-driven narrative not a character-driven one.
> > Kat- She was good at electronics, bad at driving.
>
> That made me lol, but it isn’t exactly canon to the story that she sucks at driving.
No, but still, I mean…at least drive in a straight line. Not, diagonal, stop. Diagonal, stop. Spin a circle. Same thing in the opposite direction.