Halo 4's campaign is not great

Games Other Halo
1

Halo 4’s campaign is not great.

People are only saying Halo 4’s campaign is good or great because the multiplayer is so bad, that it makes something okay or decent look amazing. The only great thing about Halo 4’s campaign are the graphics and art style. That’s it.

I’ll break it down by some different things:

Characters:

Master Chief:

He is portrayed as having sociopathic tendencies, broken at his core, a machine, old, thin/ skinny, and there are probably other qualities portrayed onto him that don’t really fit.

Halo 2 portrayed the Master Chief as mentally healthy/ confident/ joking with people in a friendly normal way, tenacious and tough at his core, a real feeling human being with emotion, age was not portrayed so it was left open to interpretation (most people probably assumed his age to be about 30-35 since that would be the logical age for his character’s abilities/story), he was not skinny but not overly muscular either, and was all around just pure bad a**.

Halo 4’s Master Chief is like a broken down old dude about to kill himself because Microsoft used Cortana for money so hard they killed her. He’s depressing in Halo 4.

Cortana:

She is as central to Halo as the Master Chief, yet now she’s dead.

Palmer: Everyone finds Palmer’s character extremely obnoxious. She’s like a little kid playing tough. She is really insecure, and the fact she is supposed to be a spartan is a joke.

Captain Del Rio:

He’s an a**! The Master Chief just saved the human race, and instead of us seeing the biggest awards ceremony EVER for the Master Chief with Captain Del Rio thanking him like he’s god for saving humanity, we see Captain Del Rio actually having the nerve to SCREAM at the Master Chief???

Not to mention the other ridiculous things about his character, like him ordering the Infinity to stand down once the Didact retreats from attacking it despite us seeing at least TWO covenant cruisers still right there fighting with the Infinity.

Didact:

Possibly one of the least developed characters ever in Halo. He is accidently awakened, and randomly decides to attack humanity. He doesn’t even bother figuring out what’s going on in the world around him, even what time it is. He just assumes everything is the same?

He also rambles on about things that are not really explained to us, like the mantle. What exactly is the mantle he is afraid of humanity gaining?

Why is the Didact the only forerunner around? Where are the other ones? What is his plan? Does he intend to contact other forerunners? Why didn’t they help him if they’re around? Why are the sentinels helping the memory of the librarian but the prometheans helping Didact?

Also, him dying in 1 halo game made him a pointless villain. With Didact’s appearance and technological power, he could have been developed into a villain even better than the prophets if 343 had merely given him a chance by keeping him alive.

Didact dying also makes Halo 4’s campaign kind of pointless. Nothing really happened as far as Didact. Master Chief woke up, accidently wakes up Didact, Didact attacks humanity, so the Master Chief kills him, and goes on home.

As far as the Chief and Didact, Halo 4’s story might as well have been the Master Chief woke up with Didact sleeping beside his cryo chamber in his ship, Master Chief wakes up Didact asking who he is, Didact is furious for the Chief waking him up and tries to kill the Chief, so the Chief kills him, then hitches a ride home to Earth on the Infinity 20 minutes later.

Seriously, it IS the same story as far as the Chief and Didact.

Requiem:

We barely explored any of it. There are no animals for some inexplicable reason, despite it being a shield world safe from Halos firing. There are no forerunners alive in it, despite it being a shield world safe from Halos firing.

Oh, and it turns out to be completely pointless since it randomly crashes into a sun at the end of Spartan Ops.

Were the forerunners such bad artifical planet drivers they meant to take a right turn but took a left turn into a STAR instead? OOPS! MY BAD GUYS I PUT OUR PLANET ON COURSE TO CRASH INTO A STAR!

Halo:

Halo? Isn’t that the name of the Master Chief or something?

The Covenant:

Destroyed by a Halo firing at the end of Halo 3, mysteriously live through it apparently. Also, the Elites rejoined apparently.

The Master Chief DID call them the Covenant in the game.

If they’re supposed to be a very small group of surviving Elites called the Storm that were off elsewhere for some reason while the other 95% of them were blasted by Halo in Halo 3, then 343 MADE A MASSIVE MISTAKE WHEN THE CHIEF CALLED THEM THE COVENANT.

The Prometheans:

The skull made it pretty obvious they’re related to humans. That was the worst plot twist I have seen since the Village.

They also do not look like forerunners. Look at the Sentinels. Now the Prometheans. Now back to the Sentinels. And back to the Prometheans. Sentinels look like the Forerunners made them; Prometheans do not.

Earth/ UNSC/ Misc.:

HOW DID HUMANITY REBUILD AND REPOPULATE FROM THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION IN ONLY 4 YEARS?!?!!?

We have this HUGE starship the Infinity that would take 15 years to build in normal economic conditions easily, entire cities like New Phoenix rebuilt, new spartans trained, an entirely new UNSC war machine created, and so on…

IN 4 YEARS.

In Halo 3, the Covenant, the Flood, and even the Elites pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. Reach and any other worlds we had were entirely wiped out since Lord Hood says “Earth, is all we have left.” He also says that the shipmaster of the Elites who is allied with us, wiped out HALF OF AFRICA GLASSING IT TO KILL THE FLOOD.

And that is what our ALLY did!

The Covenant did even worse!

Even at the end of Halo 2 we see Earth’s ENTIRE orbital defenses are wiped out. Everything is being destroyed because the Covenant were attacking Earth in full force at the end of Halo 2. By the end of Halo 3 humanity’s military was entirely destroyed, presumably along with all of our major cities. The only things specifically said/shown to be destroyed are half of Africa, Earth’s orbital defenses, and all but a few of the UNSC’s ships. At least, that’s all I remember seeing/hearing being destroyed in 2 and 3.

How the hell did everything just magically go back to normal in only 4 years?

This is a MASSIVE story mistake. Halo 4’s campaign should have either worked with a post-apocalyptic world it would be set in only 4 years later,

OR

been set further into the future than just 4 years afterwards. Cortana would have been fine still since she wouldn’t age while she was essentially shut down floating around in space with the Chief.

I’ll repeat it one last time:

Humanity magically being back to normal in only 4 years after being pushed to the very brink of extinction by the Covenant IS A MASSIVE STORY MISTAKE.

And there is a LOT more stuff in 4’s campaign that can be criticized as well. It is so inconsistent it has destroyed any canon consistency in Halo’s story.

2

It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.

Simple awnser:

Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.

3

Canon consistency was broken a long time ago with Reach. Bungie put no thought into it and screwed up many things in the campaign, although the story alone wouldn’t have been bad at all. I like Halo 4’s story and many of the things you stated has been explained in the books if you took the time to read them. I guess that can be a bad thing as well since many people do not like literature and it can get quite confusing if you haven’t read any of the lore.

4

I personally loved the campaign. I read most of your post, I think in some cases, especially on chief your looking to hard at it, hes getting older, and struggling with what is going on, hes not weak/thin, ONI just wants SIIs out of sight I believe.

5

> Halo 4’s campaign is not great.

Tell me about it.

> Master Chief:

Well…Chief is broken down. Considering all of the stuff he has been though, watching his fellow Spartans and humans die, nearly seeing his people brought to extinction, witnessing the horror of the Flood and nearly getting infected and now watching Cortana break down. Everyone has a breaking point, he finally reached his.

> Cortana:

I don’t see a problem with her death since it conveyed a new message and lesson for Chief. He needs to learn to be less of a machine and more of a human. For most of his life he has been a killing machine, he needs to be human.

> Palmer:

Yup, hate her.

> Captain Del Rio:

I think Del Rio is a bit reasonably iffy about working with a Spartan long thought dead who miraculously appears on a Forerunner planet and whose AI is going rampant.

> Didact:

Yeah, the Didact sucks. The Forerunner Saga fleshes him out…but books shouldn’t be required reading, 343i even said so.

> Requiem:

The crash into the sun makes some sense, but it was implemented because it was the best thing they could think of and started out as a joke.

> Halo:

Yup.

> The Covenant:
>
> <mark>Destroyed by a Halo firing at the end of Halo 3,</mark> mysteriously live through it apparently. Also, the Elites rejoined apparently.

Wrong.

> The Master Chief DID call them the Covenant in the game.
>
> If they’re supposed to be a very small group of surviving Elites called the Storm that were off elsewhere for some reason while the other 95% of them were blasted by Halo in Halo 3, then 343 MADE A MASSIVE MISTAKE WHEN THE CHIEF CALLED THEM THE COVENANT.

They were never called the Storm. The new Covies are explained in the Kilo-5 series, but again shouldn’t be required reading.

> The Prometheans:

Well they are modeled after Forerunner skulls, notice the slit nose that is characteristic of Forerunners? Sure most of them have the Composed essences of humans, but it wasn’t that bad of a twist. Obvious, but not bad. My gripe is that they barely explain it.

> Earth/ UNSC/ Misc

I don’t buy it all that much either.

6

Halo 4’s campaign is lack luster to say the least.

7

> It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.
>
>
> Simple awnser:
>
> Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.

It destroyed the entire Halo canon. -_-

Even if it did not, if players need to BUY A BOOK to get the story in the campaign then 343 FAILED TO TELL THE STORY, making the campaign broken since it couldn’t even tell its own story. Saying you need a book for the campaign story is the same as saying you need a book for a movie or even another book.

It is not the best one emotionally, because it is depressing and not believable. The Chief would have killed himself at the end of 4.

Halo 2 is the best emotionally because it portrays the Master Chief as a conqueror, conquering even other conquerors in the Covenant.

I will not read the Forerunner saga. That is junk made up to expand the Halo universe to make more money for Microsoft off of fanboys who will eat up anything with the Halo name on it.

I will not read the Kilo 5 Saga, nor will I read the Gallon 7 Saga.

I will not read the Fall of Reach, as there is Halo Reach which trumps some odd obscure made-only-for-money book as far as story goes.

I really get tired of you guys who read those books telling everyone else to go read the books when there are inconsistencies in the Halo canon.

They just make those books to make more money off of fanboys once fans notice contradictions and problems in the story. Its almost like the more problems and mistakes they write into Halo’s story the more money they make off of fanboys buying books coming up with dumb stories to cover up mistakes and problems.

8

I disagree about Del Rio. I’m sorry, but he had EVERY REASON to get angry at Chief and Cortana. She was kinda going nuts, right in front of him, and he was following protocal. A soldier under his command disobeyed his orders (and for everyone who likes to attack Reach by saying it contradicts the book, this character trait in 4 contradicts the book even more since they had a chapter about Chief only being able to understand following orders) and he tried to keep the situation under control. They were also in unfamiliar territory and dealing with an enemy nobody has dealt with before. So of course he would want to retreat his soldiers and ship.

9

> Canon consistency was broken a long time ago with Reach. Bungie put no thought into it and screwed up many things in the campaign, although the story alone wouldn’t have been bad at all. I like Halo 4’s story and many of the things you stated has been explained in the books if you took the time to read them. I guess that can be a bad thing as well since many people do not like literature and it can get quite confusing if you haven’t read any of the lore.

The only canon changed in Reach was that the Pillar of Autumn did not make a “blind jump” fleeing Reach like Keyes says in the beginning of CE. Reach changed the story to Cortana being made from Forerunner technology somehow in someway, and having knowledge of the location of the Halo in CE, which is where the Pillar of Autumn went to.

I like that tiny canon change because it never made sense how the PoA randomly bumped into Halo by pure luck fleeing Reach.

If you’re saying Bungie broke canon according to books, the books are not canon. They’re just mess sold purely for money and to try to patch up problems or mistakes in the Halo universe lots of people notice.

I will not read books to understand a Halo campaign. That is plain stupid.

10

> > It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.
> >
> >
> > Simple awnser:
> >
> > Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.
>
> It destroyed the entire Halo canon. -_-
>
> Even if it did not, if players need to BUY A BOOK to get the story in the campaign then 343 FAILED TO TELL THE STORY, making the campaign broken since it couldn’t even tell its own story. Saying you need a book for the campaign story is the same as saying you need a book for a movie or even another book.
>
> It is not the best one emotionally, because it is depressing and not believable. The Chief would have killed himself at the end of 4.
>
> Halo 2 is the best emotionally because it portrays the Master Chief as a conqueror, conquering even other conquerors in the Covenant.
>
> I will not read the Forerunner saga. That is junk made up to expand the Halo universe to make more money for Microsoft off of fanboys who will eat up anything with the Halo name on it.
>
> I will not read the Kilo 5 Saga, nor will I read the Gallon 7 Saga.
>
> <mark>I will not read the Fall of Reach, as there is Halo Reach which trumps some odd obscure made-only-for-money book as far as story goes.</mark>
>
>
>
> I really get tired of you guys who read those books telling everyone else to go read the books when there are inconsistencies in the Halo canon.
>
> They just make those books to make more money off of fanboys once fans notice contradictions and problems in the story. Its almost like the more problems and mistakes they write into Halo’s story the more money they make off of fanboys buying books coming up with dumb stories to cover up mistakes and problems.

You’re kidding right? The books were made a few years BEFORE Halo: Reach. Why do the games take precedence over the games? Bungie THEMSELVES issued the publication of these books and said that they were canon. Why would they mess it up years later to basically troll their fans and say, “All that stuff you took time reading? Yeah, forget about it, that’s not important.” Very sloppy job from one of my favorite companies. They did re-release the Fall of Reach to resolve some of the contradictions but there are still many plot-holes that need to be addressed.

11

> I personally loved the campaign. I read most of your post, I think in some cases, especially on chief your looking to hard at it, hes getting older, and struggling with what is going on, hes not weak/thin, ONI just wants SIIs out of sight I believe.

Look at the Chief in CE, 2, and 3, and then compare to Halo 4. He IS thin in 4, and never has been before. Look at his arms. They’re thin. He is not very muscular in 4. Its obvious. 343 made Spartans look thinner in 4 over all, and they did it to the Chief as well, although his armor around his neck actually looks a bit bigger maybe. But I’m talking about actually him, not his armor.

12

> > It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.
> >
> >
> > Simple awnser:
> >
> > Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.
>
> It destroyed the entire Halo canon. -_-
>
> Even if it did not, if players need to BUY A BOOK to get the story in the campaign then 343 FAILED TO TELL THE STORY, making the campaign broken since it couldn’t even tell its own story. Saying you need a book for the campaign story is the same as saying you need a book for a movie or even another book.
>
> It is not the best one emotionally, because it is depressing and not believable. The Chief would have killed himself at the end of 4.
>
> Halo 2 is the best emotionally because it portrays the Master Chief as a conqueror, conquering even other conquerors in the Covenant.
>
> I will not read the Forerunner saga. That is junk made up to expand the Halo universe to make more money for Microsoft off of fanboys who will eat up anything with the Halo name on it.
>
> I will not read the Kilo 5 Saga, nor will I read the Gallon 7 Saga.
>
> I will not read the Fall of Reach, as there is Halo Reach which trumps some odd obscure made-only-for-money book as far as story goes.
>
>
>
> I really get tired of you guys who read those books telling everyone else to go read the books when there are inconsistencies in the Halo canon.
>
> They just make those books to make more money off of fanboys once fans notice contradictions and problems in the story. Its almost like the more problems and mistakes they write into Halo’s story the more money they make off of fanboys buying books coming up with dumb stories to cover up mistakes and problems.

I’m sorry but you have no idea what you’re talking about. You NEED to read the books if you’re going to talk about canon, Halo 4 didn’t destroy Canon, Reach did and the fall of reach came out maybe a few months before the original CE and is nothing like the book.

13

> > I personally loved the campaign. I read most of your post, I think in some cases, especially on chief your looking to hard at it, hes getting older, and struggling with what is going on, hes not weak/thin, ONI just wants SIIs out of sight I believe.
>
> Look at the Chief in CE, 2, and 3, and then compare to Halo 4. He IS thin in 4, and never has been before. Look at his arms. They’re thin. He is not very muscular in 4. Its obvious. 343 made Spartans look thinner in 4 over all, and they did it to the Chief as well, although his armor around his neck actually looks a bit bigger maybe. But I’m talking about actually him, not his armor.

Chief comparison.

Chief in CE and 2 is pretty different, he looks thinner there. I can sort of see what you mean, but to me it all just comes down to graphics and maybe the armor simply being bigger looking.

14

> > Halo 4’s campaign is not great.
>
> Tell me about it.
>
>
>
> > Master Chief:
>
> Well…Chief is broken down. Considering all of the stuff he has been though, watching his fellow Spartans and humans die, nearly seeing his people brought to extinction, witnessing the horror of the Flood and nearly getting infected and now watching Cortana break down. Everyone has a breaking point, he finally reached his.
>
>
>
> > Cortana:
>
> I don’t see a problem with her death since it conveyed a new message and lesson for Chief. He needs to learn to be less of a machine and more of a human. For most of his life he has been a killing machine, he needs to be human.
>
>
>
> > Palmer:
>
> Yup, hate her.
>
>
>
> > Captain Del Rio:
>
> I think Del Rio is a bit reasonably iffy about working with a Spartan long thought dead who miraculously appears on a Forerunner planet and whose AI is going rampant.
>
>
>
> > Didact:
>
> Yeah, the Didact sucks. The Forerunner Saga fleshes him out…but books shouldn’t be required reading, 343i even said so.
>
>
>
> > Requiem:
>
> The crash into the sun makes some sense, but it was implemented because it was the best thing they could think of and started out as a joke.
>
>
>
> > Halo:
>
> Yup.
>
>
>
> > The Covenant:
> >
> > <mark>Destroyed by a Halo firing at the end of Halo 3,</mark> mysteriously live through it apparently. Also, the Elites rejoined apparently.
>
> Wrong.
>
>
>
> > The Master Chief DID call them the Covenant in the game.
> >
> > If they’re supposed to be a very small group of surviving Elites called the Storm that were off elsewhere for some reason while the other 95% of them were blasted by Halo in Halo 3, then 343 MADE A MASSIVE MISTAKE WHEN THE CHIEF CALLED THEM THE COVENANT.
>
> They were never called the Storm. The new Covies are explained in the Kilo-5 series, but again shouldn’t be required reading.
>
>
>
> > The Prometheans:
>
> Well they are modeled after Forerunner skulls, notice the slit nose that is characteristic of Forerunners? Sure most of them have the Composed essences of humans, but it wasn’t that bad of a twist. Obvious, but not bad. My gripe is that they barely explain it.
>
>
>
> > Earth/ UNSC/ Misc
>
> I don’t buy it all that much either.

The Chief is tired, and that was portrayed at the end of Halo 3. For example when Cortana says she doesn’t know what will happen when they fire Halo, the Chief says they’ll head for the portal, and they’ll all go home. He seems drained from all the death he has seen, and just wants to have some peace.

So I agree the Chief is broken at this point, but 343 went way too far with it, when it should have just been about the same as Halo 3, until after Cortana died, which shouldn’t have happened.

Halo 3 made it clear we went through the portal to go to the Ark because Cortana knew Halo could safely be fired there to destroy all of the Covenant and the Flood without destroying humanity. That was her “solution” we were told about, and we did it.

Yet somehow there is at least a small sizable Covenant fleet around still. I guess it is possible, but not likely in my opinion they would bother actually messing with humanity any more since they would be hopelessly out numbered.

I agree the twist of the Prometheans being human isn’t a bad twist, my complaint is that they made it far too obvious, and the skull did that more than anything. It looks incredibly human.

I think I mostly agree with your points, although I think you’re buying into the excuses in the books for the odd contradictions/problems too much.

15

> > > It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.
> > >
> > >
> > > Simple awnser:
> > >
> > > Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.
> >
> > It destroyed the entire Halo canon. -_-
> >
> > Even if it did not, if players need to BUY A BOOK to get the story in the campaign then 343 FAILED TO TELL THE STORY, making the campaign broken since it couldn’t even tell its own story. Saying you need a book for the campaign story is the same as saying you need a book for a movie or even another book.
> >
> > It is not the best one emotionally, because it is depressing and not believable. The Chief would have killed himself at the end of 4.
> >
> > Halo 2 is the best emotionally because it portrays the Master Chief as a conqueror, conquering even other conquerors in the Covenant.
> >
> > I will not read the Forerunner saga. That is junk made up to expand the Halo universe to make more money for Microsoft off of fanboys who will eat up anything with the Halo name on it.
> >
> > I will not read the Kilo 5 Saga, nor will I read the Gallon 7 Saga.
> >
> > I will not read the Fall of Reach, as there is Halo Reach which trumps some odd obscure made-only-for-money book as far as story goes.
> >
> >
> >
> > I really get tired of you guys who read those books telling everyone else to go read the books when there are inconsistencies in the Halo canon.
> >
> > They just make those books to make more money off of fanboys once fans notice contradictions and problems in the story. Its almost like the more problems and mistakes they write into Halo’s story the more money they make off of fanboys buying books coming up with dumb stories to cover up mistakes and problems.
>
> I’m sorry but you have no idea what you’re talking about. You NEED to read the books if you’re going to talk about canon, Halo 4 didn’t destroy Canon, Reach did and the fall of reach came out maybe a few months before the original CE and is nothing like the book.

Why would they make a book about a video game before it even releases?

Also I never heard anyone talk about that book until at least near Halo 2’s launch time that I remember.

Last the books are expansions of the Halo universe. They are not the core canon story line… the Halo video game campaigns are, and so that IS all I need to see to talk about canon.

16

> I disagree about Del Rio. I’m sorry, but he had EVERY REASON to get angry at Chief and Cortana. She was kinda going nuts, right in front of him, and he was following protocal. A soldier under his command disobeyed his orders (and for everyone who likes to attack Reach by saying it contradicts the book, this character trait in 4 contradicts the book even more since they had a chapter about Chief only being able to understand following orders) and he tried to keep the situation under control. They were also in unfamiliar territory and dealing with an enemy nobody has dealt with before. So of course he would want to retreat his soldiers and ship.

Del Rio was being an a** from before we even got to see him. When the Chief is first found by Palmer and Lasky, Del Rio is ordering something stupid that scares Palmer. She realizes his order is going to cause people to get injured and possibly die, so Lasky asks the Chief to do whatever to prevent that from happening.

Del Rio is clearly and consistently portrayed to be a belligerent, senile, idiotic old man through out the campaign.

His decision not to trust the Chief was also disagreed with by his superiors on Earth. Lasky says they didn’t take kindly to him abandoning the Chief on Requiem.

17

> > > I personally loved the campaign. I read most of your post, I think in some cases, especially on chief your looking to hard at it, hes getting older, and struggling with what is going on, hes not weak/thin, ONI just wants SIIs out of sight I believe.
> >
> > Look at the Chief in CE, 2, and 3, and then compare to Halo 4. He IS thin in 4, and never has been before. Look at his arms. They’re thin. He is not very muscular in 4. Its obvious. 343 made Spartans look thinner in 4 over all, and they did it to the Chief as well, although his armor around his neck actually looks a bit bigger maybe. But I’m talking about actually him, not his armor.
>
> Chief comparison.
>
> Chief in CE and 2 is pretty different, he looks thinner there. I can sort of see what you mean, but to me it all just comes down to graphics and maybe the armor simply being bigger looking.

Well he had different armor in CE, and 2 and 3. His CE armor is bulkier, but I think he looks about the same size. He is definitely thinner in 4 though.

18

> The Chief is tired, and that was portrayed at the end of Halo 3. For example when Cortana says she doesn’t know what will happen when they fire Halo, the Chief says they’ll head for the portal, and they’ll all go home. He seems drained from all the death he has seen, and just wants to have some peace.
>
> So I agree the Chief is broken at this point, but 343 went way too far with it, when it should have just been about the same as Halo 3, until after Cortana died, which shouldn’t have happened.

Here are my thoughts on Chief and Cortana in Halo 4. That’s about all I can say on the matter.

> Halo 3 made it clear we went through the portal to go to the Ark because Cortana knew Halo could safely be fired there to destroy all of the Covenant and the Flood without destroying humanity. That was her “solution” we were told about, and we did it.
>
> Yet somehow there is at least a small sizable Covenant fleet around still. I guess it is possible, but not likely in my opinion they would bother actually messing with humanity any more since they would be hopelessly out numbered.

Not ALL of the Covenant was at Earth when they invaded, the Covenant Empire was vast in its prime and even when it fragmented. Just like there were Imperial Japanese soldiers hunkered down on islands continuing to fight even after Japan surrendered, the Covenant did the same. They may not be as strong as they were, but they are certainly a credible threat as separate cells, especially when we see some groups using terror tactics to make up for their weaknesses.

> I agree the twist of the Prometheans being human isn’t a bad twist, my complaint is that they made it far too obvious, and the skull did that more than anything. It looks incredibly human.

Well, humans and Forerunners are very similar genetically and both came from the same creator, Precursors. Makes sense to me.

> I think I mostly agree with your points, although I think you’re buying into the excuses in the books for the odd contradictions/problems too much.

I wouldn’t call them excuses. No doubt some are contrived examples of storytelling, ie Karen Traviss’ books, but some are really well done, ie Greg Bear’s books. The issue is that 343i poorly bridged the games and books.

19

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

Guys, calm down. OP is like, 15. Either that, or this thread is really sad.

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> > > > It didn’t destroy anything, you just didn’t take the time to look into the extended fiction, everything has been explained time and time again, there’s nothing wrong with Halo 4’s campaign, its the best one emotionally it just falls short in mystery and wonder. Cortana isn’t dead, she just isn’t with chief.
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> > > >
> > > > Simple awnser:
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> > > > Go read the forerunner saga, The Kilo 5 trilogy and the fall of reach, litteraly all your complaints are explained with great detail aside from Palmer and Cortana.
> > >
> > > It destroyed the entire Halo canon. -_-
> > >
> > > Even if it did not, if players need to BUY A BOOK to get the story in the campaign then 343 FAILED TO TELL THE STORY, making the campaign broken since it couldn’t even tell its own story. Saying you need a book for the campaign story is the same as saying you need a book for a movie or even another book.
> > >
> > > It is not the best one emotionally, because it is depressing and not believable. The Chief would have killed himself at the end of 4.
> > >
> > > Halo 2 is the best emotionally because it portrays the Master Chief as a conqueror, conquering even other conquerors in the Covenant.
> > >
> > > I will not read the Forerunner saga. That is junk made up to expand the Halo universe to make more money for Microsoft off of fanboys who will eat up anything with the Halo name on it.
> > >
> > > I will not read the Kilo 5 Saga, nor will I read the Gallon 7 Saga.
> > >
> > > I will not read the Fall of Reach, as there is Halo Reach which trumps some odd obscure made-only-for-money book as far as story goes.
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> > >
> > >
> > > I really get tired of you guys who read those books telling everyone else to go read the books when there are inconsistencies in the Halo canon.
> > >
> > > They just make those books to make more money off of fanboys once fans notice contradictions and problems in the story. Its almost like the more problems and mistakes they write into Halo’s story the more money they make off of fanboys buying books coming up with dumb stories to cover up mistakes and problems.
> >
> > I’m sorry but you have no idea what you’re talking about. You NEED to read the books if you’re going to talk about canon, Halo 4 didn’t destroy Canon, Reach did and the fall of reach came out maybe a few months before the original CE and is nothing like the book.
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> Why would they make a book about a video game before it even releases?
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> Also I never heard anyone talk about that book until at least near Halo 2’s launch time that I remember.
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> Last the books are expansions of the Halo universe. They are not the core canon story line… the Halo video game campaigns are, and so that IS all I need to see to talk about canon.

The Fall of Reach was published on October in the year 2001 which was issued and approved of by Bungie. 9 years later, they decided to expand the story and focus on core characters by developing a video game based indirectly on the book (many gaming developers make prequels, it’s no big surprise). Fall of Reach was the main canon and storyline until Halo: Reach came out. In that case, Bungie decided to ignore the book’s canon and make one up as they went.