Halo 4 Story: 5 Months Later

Games Other Halo
1

Ever since I finished Halo 4, the one glaring problem I have had with it was the story. While I enjoyed the deeper look into Cortana and Chief’s relationship and how each character contributed to that through their personal histories, facial cues and dialogue, I felt everything else was lacking. However, I decided to look into the Halo 4 story again, 5 months later, and with the newest Halo novel, Silentium, under my belt. Perhaps I rushed to judge the game too quickly without allowing the story sink into my mind completely. Perhaps after reading Silentium the story will suddenly make far more sense and improve. Perhaps I will still dislike the story and think it was a step in the wrong direction for Halo storytelling. One of those is true, take a wild guess.

Covenant

I suppose starting with the Covenant and how they fit into everything should be tackled first. I still believe they could’ve been better brought into the story than the way they were. An off-hand mention of things changing in the 4 years since Halo 3 ended, a notion that they are more fanatical without demonstrating such a claim and a prologue Terminal that wasn’t in the game were not the ways to go about such a task. Personally, I believe that Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Covenant in Halo 4, should’ve had a bigger role and act as the main antagonist for at least half of the campaign. After all, he IS the reason this new Covenant was formed in the first place. There is evidence to suggest he would’ve had a bigger role, a now made private video on YouTube showing early casting for the Didact had dialogue that implied Jul directly talked to the Didact upon his awakening and apparently Jul is the Elite who shouts “Didact” during the Didact awakening cutscene.

Jul could’ve been the face of the Covenant and he is more than qualified to carry that title. He could’ve offered a glimpse into what happened in those 5 years Cortana waved off, he could’ve told of the civil unrest caused by the Arbiter and how he believed humanity could be a threat to his people by pointing at their involvement in their domestic issues and through ONI arming a rebel faction. Jul could’ve been the sympathetic face the Covenant should’ve had, a face of desperation and fear in a new age for a species that is unfamiliar with either of those emotions. Jul’s a family man after all.

Instead, we are treated to a Covenant full of blustering idiots and religious zealots who are too stupid to arm the shields of their ships and themselves (in cutscenes at least). Jul, surprise surprise, is the only one to show any cunning amongst them, orchestrating the invasion of the Infinity, the capture of Dr. Halsey, the near destruction of the Infinity and simply being a terrible threat to the UNSC. And yet this genius is only shown in Spartan Ops and not the main Campaign, a thoroughly disappointing fact 5 months later.

Didact

In a way, Halo: Silentium did make the Ur-Didact an easier to swallow antagonist. It is revealed he was driven insane by the Gravemind and his paranoia and fears of Forerunner dominance heightened to the point of being his one true desire. And yet I am saddened that we get none of this in Halo 4. Granted, it would spoil some of the book, but having to wait 5 months for the main bad guy to make sense is unacceptable. Sadly, I still feel the same about the Ur-Didact as I did 5 months ago as a result. He is no better than an 80s cartoon villain plotting to dominate the world because they can.

As my good friend Ajw34307 said (WITH SPOILERS SORRY):

“Having read Silentium, I absolutely agree with you that Halo 4’s main issue in terms of story is how none of what’s in Silentium is actually addressed by the narrative. While I personally really like Halo 4’s storyline, having the most sophisticated presentation of thematic resonance and characters in all the games, I felt myself growing increasingly more frustrated by how much detail was lost. Had there been some kind of Terminal or mission where you uncover more about the Ur-Didact and find out how he was driven into insanity by the Gravemind and the destruction of the Domain, Halo 4’s storytelling would have jumped from good to amazing. Bear illustrated this transformation of character with such exquisite detail, if only they’d got him and Kevin Grace together to transfer these scenes from the book to the game - like Grace did with Captain Keyes in CEA’s penultimate Terminal.”

Supporting Characters

The supporting cast could’ve been one of Halo 4’s biggest strengths as the characters are deep enough for the task. But when you get down to it, they solely exist to make Chief stand out. Thomas Lasky is your average Halo fan in disguise, praising Chief and acting giddy when he comes on screen. Captain Del Rio is an -Yoink-, plain and simple. However, why should he have been? Well, 343i obviously needed someone unreasonable for Chief to disobey and thus seem like a true stoic hero in tune with his morals. After all, it is easy to say “No” to a -Yoink-. But can you imagine in Del Rio was calm, collected and rational over his disagreements with Chief? Yeah, not so easy to be “against the man” when the man actually has a good point. That and they couldn’t make Lasky the captain of Infinity, so Del Rio gets to go bye-bye.

Palmer was pretty much useless in her time on screen. She’s arrogant, pushy and overly emotional. There is a word for people like her…but in fairness to common decency I’ll refrain from saying it. I still struggle to understand the stupidity in her shooting of Dr. Halsey and not Jul in Episode 9 of Spartan Ops. Shoot the old lady, not the giant alien cultist leader, smart. In fairness, Knights were in the way but that didn’t stop her one-shoting skills previously now did it? 5 months later, this image embodies my dislike of Sarah (Face)Palmer.

Miscellaneous

Those are my main issues. I suppose, however, that I can say the missions themselves weren’t all that good. Perhaps more missions with only Chief and Cortana alone on a hostile alien world would’ve been cool without the Infinity miraculously coming along and breaking any tension whatsoever. The Broadsword was a cool, if too short and overly linear, level. The Lich is a cool vehicle, but does very little besides be floating scenery. I suppose the lesson here is that the intended high-action moments just fell flat.

Conclusion

I decided to look at Halo 4 with fresh eyes, but unfortunately it still hasn’t improved. Missed opportunities plague this game and if they had been covered, Halo 4 would’ve been amazing. It just isn’t for me.

2

> Covenant

There’s other things I disagree with but I’ll just say somethings about the covenant.

Making mistakes is part of their new role in the Halo universe. The covenant is no longer the most dangerous enemy humanity has to face, they no longer have the best technology even compared to humanity. You could explicitly state this in very awkward exposition or let gameplay show the same odd inferiority the covies have always had compared to player characters and hope the player catches on that it actually means something this time. Or you can show them screwing up from time to time or otherwise failing to get the job done and have their new role as second banana to the Didact’s forerunner emerge organically. It was actually one of the new aspects to the writing in the Halo universe that I was impressed by (broad changes to the long-standing character and ability to intimidate of the once stars of the Halo campaign.)

Furthermore, (being second bananas) giving Jul a major role in the first half of the campaign would not have ended well. He would have been dramatically upstaged by the Didact and that would have certainly put 343 in the awkward position of either killing him off right there or leaving his plot thread to dangle over the rest of the game.

Granted Wh40k: Space Marine had just about the same campaign complete with the release of a second faction, a long lost evil plus their cyborg commander when you had spent the first half of the game fighting a classic alien race with their own villain. However big ork chieftans take a lot less time to develop than calculating alien super-commanders with issues. Plus, orks being orks, there was a much less complicated relationship between him and the Chaos demon (ie. smash with power claw!) than would have needed explaining between the Didact and Jul if Jul was recognized as a personality in the Halo 4 campaign. Relic could get away with it while Halo 4 nicely stayed off the subject of covenant commanders until SOPS, where 343 could develop Jul’s role in the main series without complicating the Didact’s reveal and subsequent plot.

3

>

The way I see it, Jul came to Requiem to find the Didact and have him help fight against humanity. The Ur-Didact hates humanity. I suppose the argument can be made that the Ur-Didact’s reveal would’ve been hurt by having Jul with a central role, but they share the same goals and prejudices. I think it could’ve worked. Would’ve been easier to swallow then booting up Spartan Ops with Jul going, “Yup, I’m in charge guys, Didact says so.” despite the two never seeming to interact.

4

> >
>
> The way I see it, Jul came to Requiem to find the Didact and have him help fight against humanity. The Ur-Didact hates humanity. I suppose the argument can be made that the Ur-Didact’s reveal would’ve been hurt by having Jul with a central role, but they share the same goals and prejudices. I think it could’ve worked. Would’ve been easier to swallow then booting up Spartan Ops with Jul going, “Yup, I’m in charge guys, Didact says so.” despite the two never seeming to interact.

Well that’s pretty much the core mystery behind SOPS until they get to the primary forerunner McGuffin at the end of the season. What the Didact is doing and how the covenant are operating given a flesh and blood god is a really interesting area and I do feel that it would have been degraded if 343 tried to fit it into an already busy campaign. Remember, for those unfamiliar with the extended universe it introduce a lot that needs adjusting to (ex. ancient humans, the forerunner as real entities). Explaining a new partnership between radical new faction A and changed favorite B may have promised to add too much to the already great burden of strict Halo gamers in catching up. For you or I it may have worked but lets just say that it may not have worked well for most Halo fans.

That said 343 could have still gone further with the covie-forerunner bromance in the 10 episodes of SOPS but having a conversation between The Didact and Jul just to confirm something that’s very apparent from seeing Knights backing Jackals and Grunts wouldn’t have contributed much. I really do feel that it’s a point best communicated organically, through gameplay, than through heavy handed exposition which should be spared for those moments (such as the librarian’s speeches) when it is absolutely necessary. And worse still, explaining how the Didact is taking or giving orders takes away what little imagination we get to exercise in this medium. Is the Didact communicating with him directly? Is Jul merely the new Space pope? Is Jul really in command anymore or is he just the figurehead for a now self-propelled religious sect that merely fills the beurocratic function of leadership without actually guiding his people? It’s stuff to ponder for the next game and I’d hate to have that little fun taken away just to be explicit about character relationships.

In story telling some stuff is best left unsaid. Certainly moving forward Jul and the Didact should have a closer working relationship but for now keeping the two apart serves a purpose. :slight_smile:

5

> Well that’s pretty much the core mystery behind SOPS until they get to the primary forerunner McGuffin at the end of the season. What the Didact is doing and how the covenant are operating given a flesh and blood god is a really interesting area and I do feel that it would have been degraded if 343 tried to fit it into an already busy campaign. Remember, for those unfamiliar with the extended universe it introduce a lot that needs adjusting to <mark>(ex. ancient humans, the forerunner as real entities)</mark>. Explaining a new partnership between radical new faction A and changed favorite B may have promised to add too much to the already great burden of strict Halo gamers in catching up.

Unlike those, however, a Covenant/Promethean team up wouldn’t be that hard to handle given the Covenant’s nature of all things Forerunner. Having the Didact simply acknowledge Jul directly when he awakens probably isn’t too much to stomach.

> That said 343 could have still gone further with the covie-forerunner bromance in the 10 episodes of SOPS but having a conversation between The Didact and Jul just to confirm something that’s very apparent from seeing Knights backing Jackals and Grunts wouldn’t have contributed much. I really do feel that it’s a point best communicated organically, through gameplay, than through heavy handed exposition which should be spared for those moments (such as the librarian’s speeches) when it is absolutely necessary. And worse still, explaining how the Didact is taking or giving orders takes away what little imagination we get to exercise in this medium. Is the Didact communicating with him directly? Is Jul merely the new Space pope? Is Jul really in command anyomre or is he just the figurehead for a now self-propelled religious sect that merely fills the beurocratic function of leadership without actually guiding his people? It’s stuff to ponder for the next game and I’d hate to have that little fun taken away just to be explicit about character relationships.

In terms of organic storytelling, I think having holographic pedestals with Jul
giving sermons would’ve been nice, like Truth did in Halo 2 and Halo 3. Course that would require the Covies to speak English, a choice I think was poorly implemented.

6

> Unlike those, however, a Covenant/Promethean team up wouldn’t be that hard to handle given the Covenant’s nature of all things Forerunner. Having the Didact simply acknowledge Jul directly when he awakens probably isn’t too much to stomach.

In gameplay, not at all, but how do you explain that? How do you structure a scene that has Jul (preceded by enough scenes to fully develop his character) swearing allegiance to the new guy without taking minutes away from the Didacts own stated agenda? Why not just have gameplay lift a bit of the story and save some power for what Halo 4 is really about? Again, it could have worked but I don’t think it would have worked well (compared to what we were actually given. It has a very nice simplicity that puts emphasis on just the right points in the story) though I don’t think that theres much more to say on this point. :slight_smile:

> In terms of organic storytelling, I think having holographic pedestals with Jul
> giving sermons would’ve been nice, like Truth did in Halo 2 and Halo 3. Course that would require the Covies to speak English, a choice I think was poorly implemented.

Great idea. Forced subtitles (for those lines) might be the way to do it without resorting to english, either on screen or running along the base of the holo (that your AI is conveniently giving a super-imposed translation for.) What it might also allow you to do is to introduce the Didact as a key figure in the new covenant religion via his own proclamations or sermons (or to diversity into other elites as lesser functionaries.) Better yet, let’s also have some species specific services and throw on a grunt deacon to bring a little comedy/character back into the lesser covie ranks.

7

Coming from a guy who thinks the H4 campaign is one of the best to date, I agree with you.

Playing it for the first time I was awestruck, but I was noticing areas completely lacking.

It felt as if they had to cut too much to make it fit on disc or something because it could have done well with an extra chapter to fill in all the gaps.

Though it seemed 343i wished to transition from an old enemy to a new (and boring IMO) enemy.

It would have been nice of the Knights seemed more sentient, perhaps have hidden dialog and actually communicate.

It just felt as if 343i wanted to distance themselves from what Bungie did in their games and it took away from the game in a way. The space trench-Star Wars battle was OK but it wasn’t as nice as it should have been, just felt forced and when you died in coop group… Have fun spawning into pillars and dying again.

8

Good read, rarely go through a long post like this.

For me, I LOVED the time before infinity arrived where it was just MC & Cortana, they are always the best moments. I felt that Halo 3’s campaign was a little crap not having Cortana there as the banter, yet informative, character. For 5 to be good, she has to come back.

Cool little bit of info you had about the Didact, I didn’t care much for the forerunner books, always thought the FRs should be a mystery like the force in Star Wars or the Mass Relays in Mass Effect. The less I know about them the more excited I get.

My biggest issue was the lack of threat in the game, the Didact was there, but you never really got the sense that he was all powerful, sure he could…force grip (?) the chief and throw him around, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to survive a rocket to the face or something like that. The lack of screen time was also a little down, he is a key character with a great voice actor, yet he is on screen for about 7 minutes.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot, it’s the most amount of fun I’ve had in a Halo campaign since Halo 2. It made me start reading the books again, just about to finish Glasslands and it’s really insightful the amount of crap Halsey has done, it was never really explained in the other books at all.

It was far too short as well, just as things were starting to pick up it ended, I’m still not too sure what the composer does (does it take the souls of humans and turn them to prometheans?)

It’s interesting to see where they will be taking the story, I really hope that Cortana is bought back early on in Halo 5, don’t want to have another boring slow campaign like 3 to be honest.

9

> My biggest issue was the lack of threat in the game, the Didact was there, but you never really got the sense that he was all powerful, sure he could…force grip (?) the chief and throw him around, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to survive a rocket to the face or something like that. The lack of screen time was also a little down, he is a key character with a great voice actor, yet he is on screen for about 7 minutes.

Yeah, the Didact really didn’t have much of a presence despite all the hyping up of him being an “Ancient Evil”. I hope something is done with his character later on because as it stands, yeah he was pretty weak.

> It would have been nice of the Knights seemed more sentient, perhaps have hidden dialog and actually communicate.

Yeah, as it stands they were pretty much just bullet sponges.

10

> Thomas Lasky is your average Halo fan in disguise, praising Chief and acting giddy when he comes on screen.
>
> Palmer was pretty much useless in her time on screen. She’s arrogant, pushy and overly emotional. There is a word for people like her…but in fairness to common decency I’ll refrain from saying it. I still struggle to understand the stupidity in her shooting of Dr. Halsey and not Jul in Episode 9 of Spartan Ops. Shoot the old lady, not the giant alien cultist leader, smart. In fairness, Knights were in the way but that didn’t stop her one-shoting skills previously now did it? 5 months later, this image embodies my dislike of Sarah (Face)Palmer.

Two things I’d like to say:

-I wouldn’t exactly say Lasky praises Chief. Granted in a way it may seem like he does, but we have to remember, Chief did save his life at Corbulo after all.

-I disagree with Palmer being useless. I think 343 did a great job with Palmer’s character to an extent. If they wanted to portray her as a character you love to hate, they did a great job there in my book. She reminds me of Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series, I absolutely hated him. Palmer is the same way to me. Now I agree with you Cobra that she is overly emotional, but the pushiness and arrogance should stem from the fact that she is the Commander of the Spartans on Infinity, making her the best of all of them. Granted that doesn’t mean she can’t tone it down any, which she should.

As for shooting Dr. Halsey:
-Wouldn’t it make more sense to shoot/kill the alien cult leader, and then recapture Halsey and bring her to ONI so they can deal with her? I know Palmer was following orders, but still?

Aside from all of that, I agree with everything else you said Cobra. I know what’s gone on in the 4-5 years between the games, but a little more backstory in-game wouldn’t have hurt it any. Otherwise, I think it was a good campaign overall.

11

It is not that there is a lack of threat in Halo 4. The threat is there. However, the personal journey of John and Cortana take primacy in the narrative.

The Forerunner saga succeeds in fleshing out the Ur-Didact and his madness.

The is both a sympathetic and despicable character.

The Librarian comes off looking a tad manipulative in the grand scheme of things.

12

> Two things I’d like to say:
>
> -I wouldn’t exactly say Lasky praises Chief. Granted in a way it may seem like he does, but we have to remember, Chief did save his life at Corbulo after all.

True, but I still cringe when Midnight begins and he says how Fleetcom is mad at Del Rio for leaving Chief on Requiem AFTER Lasky himself gave him a Pelican to leave the Infinity.

> -I disagree with Palmer being useless. I think 343 did a great job with Palmer’s character to an extent. If they wanted to portray her as a character you love to hate, they did a great job there in my book. She reminds me of Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series, I absolutely hated him. Palmer is the same way to me. Now I agree with you Cobra that she is overly emotional, but the pushiness and arrogance should stem from the fact that she is the Commander of the Spartans on Infinity, making her the best of all of them. Granted that doesn’t mean she can’t tone it down any, which she should.

I don’t think that was the point of her character, but it’s a valid way to look at her.

> As for shooting Dr. Halsey:
> -Wouldn’t it make more sense to shoot/kill the alien cult leader, and then recapture Halsey and bring her to ONI so they can deal with her? I know Palmer was following orders, but still?

Well yes it would make sense…if the writers didn’t have it out for Halsey and to cause her pain at every chance they get.

13

> The Forerunner saga succeeds in fleshing out the Ur-Didact and his madness.
>
> The is both a sympathetic and despicable character.

Yet the game should’ve carried over this development instead of just having him be a -Yoink- who monologues, Force chokes people and turns innocent people into kill droids for no reason.

14

> True, but I still cringe when Midnight begins and he says how Fleetcom is mad at Del Rio for leaving Chief on Requiem AFTER Lasky himself gave him a Pelican to leave the Infinity.
>
> I don’t think that was the point of her character, but it’s a valid way to look at her.
>
> Well yes it would make sense…if the writers didn’t have it out for Halsey and to cause her pain at every chance they get.

-The Pelican was supposed to be used to stop Chief initially wasn’t it? I may have interpreted that part of the scene wrong.

-I’d like to think that’s the point of Palmer. For me it’s easier to understand some of what she does. To each their own I suppose.

-And the whole Halsey thing…I don’t know what to think of it. I like Halsey as a character, but this whole “lets make her evil” vibe doesn’t sit well with me.

15

> -The Pelican was supposed to be used to stop Chief initially wasn’t it? I may have interpreted that part of the scene wrong.

Yeah, Lasky gave it to Chief so he could stop the Didact.

> -I’d like to think that’s the point of Palmer. For me it’s easier to understand some of what she does. To each their own I suppose.

Fair enough.

> -And the whole Halsey thing…I don’t know what to think of it. I like Halsey as a character, but this whole “lets make her evil” vibe doesn’t sit well with me.

Me neither, but they did have one of the franchise writers and Spartan Ops author in one of the Bulletins point blank say she is a monster and that they cut her arm off to add ambiguity to her whole “Revenge” line.

16

> Me neither, but they did have one of the franchise writers and Spartan Ops author in one of the Bulletins point blank say she is a monster and that they cut her arm off to add ambiguity to her whole “Revenge” line.

Yeah, this has annoyed me a bit too. While I completely agree Halsey had done some monstrous things, I don’t think this means she herself is a monster. It opens up the whole argument of ‘do the ends justify the means?’, and I always felt that Halsey herself had been struggling with these questions previously. She didn’t seem to be a completely ruthless ‘let’s kidnap children’ type, but instead was doing what she had to for humanity (admittedly originally to protect people from human terrorits, not the Covenant). The mother-like role she played to her Spartans may have partly been due to guilt on her part for the childhood she stole from them, or at least that’s how I came to view things.

I do not like how 343i have been trying to make it out that she’s overall evil… to be honest I’ve always quite liked her character and found her really intriguing - but 343 seem to be taking her down a path that I’m not too sure about, where everyone seems to be out to hunt her down, which in the end could drive her against humanity as a whole… Of course, there’s no way to know where her character’s going for sure, but her cliffhanger “revenge” line does beg even more questions.