I think I may have found the root of my problem with the recent Halo games. I’ve said this over and over, but for security I’ll say it again: I don’t hate 343. Not at all. I think they’re fairly fumbly at times (to say the least) but they manage some great stuff. Halo 4 had a fantastic story (I’d argue not a stellar campaign experience, but a solid story) while Halo 5 did the opposite and had a campaign that I found very fun to play through but with a story that left a very sour taste in my mouth. Halo 5’s multiplayer is also a lot of fun.
However, it’s pretty clear to me that things took a rather dark turn. Halo 4 turns the buddy-romp space-cowboy adventures of CE-3 and replaces them with a potentially sociopathic broken soldier struggling to come to terms with his humanity as his AI companion struggles with digital dementia. Good story idea, but it’s quite jarring. There were pretty much no moments of camaraderie in Halo 4, I never really felt elated. It felt like a downtrodden trudge through misery and shadow. In short, there were never any “Hell yeah!” moments in Halos 4 and 5. While their predecessors were colourful and loud, the recent games were dark and brooding.
Halo Wars 2 took a couple of steps in the right direction. The most notable example of this would be (spoilers) when Jerome and Isabel leap from the carrier ship. Jerome is almost showing off for Isabel, who literally shouts out in excitement as the pair hurtle through the debris. It’s not realistic, but it’s pretty damn exciting.
In short, the essence of Halo is the grand, fantasy atmosphere that goes along with it. Replacing it with civil wars, covert cold-war politics and… whatever Cortana was supposed to be isn’t very Halo. It worked on ODST and Reach on a smaller scale because they are spinoffs. The main Halo titles however need that colour, excitement and massive-scale action that set them apart from the competition.
Can’t just milk more master chief saves the universe titles. that was the original trilogy. Trilogy = 3. Now we have begun the reclaimer saga. Gotta change something. Stories get boring after telling them enough times. People would complain if it’s the same game anyway.
After all, we’re not CoD
We see you like black ops 3. Guess what? We made a infinite warfare. It doesn’t have any different or new features, but you liked the last one and bought the last 3 so we’re sure you’ll buy this one.
The total thematic shift from “save the galaxy” to “save your friend” was pretty well done, but the games themselves seem to be a lot more serious in all the little moments that don’t really require it.
A big thing for me is the sudden lack of character to the marines in Halo 4 and 5. In the first trilogy, they could be a little bit cringey, but in Halo 4 and 5 they are almost completely nonchalant.
I understand that it would be out of place to have marines constantly cracking jokes like in CE, in a game with a much darker overall tone, but they almost completely lack any character or humanity now.
That’s just one example, but it feels profound. I have slowly grown less enthused by 343’s work, but I still have hope that they will eventually get the whole picture and knock up an amazing and memorable experience that can easily measure up to the first trilogy in look and feel.
It’s just a shame that after 3 games, we’re still getting there.
The original idea and trailers for Halo 5 looked awesome. Chief going rogue and other Spartans had to hunt him down. But we didn’t get that. They need to come up with a simpler story that most fans can follow and love. Halo 4 had a great story but the gameplay wasn’t the best.
Halo CE-3 always felt like tunnel vision to me and while both CE’s and 2’s stories are good, they didn’t really expand the universe the way 343i has. I enjoy the more realistic and mostly plot hole-free universe to Bungie’s “we’ll wing it” strategy. Halo is on the cusp of being a really good scifi universe, but both the Community and 343i need to stop being so damn scared of the EU. It’s more Halo, why the hell do you not want to experience more Halo? It makes no damn sense. Time isn’t a valid excuse since I can read a plot summary on Halopedia in the same time it takes someone to complain about the EU on these forums. Inconsistencies and nonsensical plots are the bane of my existence (cough 3, Reach, and 5 cough), and I really hope we return to the Halo 4-style storytelling based on characters, not spectacle.
One example I like to capture is the Halo 5 opening cinematic. We see these new badass Spartans doing badass things with an awesome music in the background. It captures the Halo feeling of the enjoyment I think you’re talking about, but, at the same time, the conflict loses weight and importance.
I’m not against the sense of a more “adventure” kind of storytelling, it could’ve been less painful to see this created non-sense in Halo 5 if the story wasn’t taking itself seriously, but I’d rather see the franchise looking to new horizons, dive in a new great journey with more deep character relationships kind of storytelling than another “enemy constantly trying to kill humanity and you are the only one capable of stopping them”.
The problem is that Halo 4 did it masterfully and Halo 5 destroyed it. At least, in the trailers Halo 5 showed its story was not playing around and it was GOTY caliber. That is what I would like to see, we can have our moments of enjoyment, with funny dialogs, but without forgetting you have a story and characters to carry on.
I feel like the overall storyline is, and should continue to take a more dramatic and mature story. But the games should still have the little bits of humour, like Chipps Dubbo and crazy grunts along side the futile attempts to make Mister Chief relevant through advertising microtransactions.
I can respect 343’s intent with Halo 4 for example, the idea that the world has moved on without chief, that the ‘big bad’ having been dealt with means he’s not needed anymore, and Chief having to find some humanity because he’s losing his purpose, and losing his companion with Cortana going Rampant? All fantastic ideas, but here’s the thing, the thematic pacing in Halo 4 is off from the get go. Introducing the Didact in the third level gives barely any time for buildup or mystery, so the transition from Bungie’s Forerunner’s to 343i is nonexistent, heck the only thing even mildly ‘forerunner’ in terms of style was that one scene in the level ‘Requeim’ where the music builds and you exit the cave to see the shifting panels and cascading buildings in front of you, a fantastic moment, but why does it only last a few seconds? That should be the first 3 or 4 levels at least.
There’s the immediate disregard of Chief by Del Rio, the direct insult by Palmer, and the general sense of a lack of respect from everyone but Lasky, coincidentally the only one of 2 343i characters that I actually like, and yeah, the Marines are all deadpan, serious, and lacking in any personality. The inspiration for them was supposed to be the Colonial Marines from Aliens but I guess 343 missed that memo. Thankfully Creative Assembly seems to have let them in on that secret though as the Marines in Halo Wars 2 at least are pretty great and I hope that continues into Halo 6.
I reckon the best Halo story comes when the personalities of characters that we are used to are put into more serious and dark situations, use the lighthearted moments as a mirror to reflect on the dark moments, don’t do a DC and make everything dark and brooding for the sake of ‘deeper storytelling’. You can tell a dark story with humor and you can tell a lighthearted story with serious moments, but there has to be balance.
Oh and for the record, yeah I think Halo Wars 2 did it right. It was short, but it did what it did well. Halo 6 could learn from it.
Good points and I mostly agree. The way I like at classic Halo vs modern is similar to action movies from the 80s/90s vs 00s/10s. They used to be a lot simpler, just badasses doing badassery. Now everything has to prove how “smart” the plot is and how many mind bending twists there are.