So, I was reading an interview with 343 on IGN and they revealed some of their plans for the next Halo game. According to the interview, 343 has responded to a 10,000 word essay written by Patricia Hernandez from Kotaku calling Halo sexist.
Her thesis states that the death of Cortana in Halo 4 shows that 343 considers women to be lesser than men, because if both genders were equal then both Cortana and Master Chief would have had the same fate.
To address this 343 plans to have Sarah Palmer be the protagonist of the next Halo where her mission is to hunt down Master Chief for being a chauvinistic pig. That’s why we see Chief with a robe on in the reveal trailer. He is hiding from Palmer. The chip that he is holding in the trailer is confirmed to be Cortana’s data chip. Master Chief is keeping it as a trophy to celebrate how he manipulated Cortana to sacrifice herself for him.
The forerunner being in the trailer is a vessel for the Didact. Master Chief is approaching it to make an alliance. This is supposed to represent how men (Master Chief)will shift loyalties whenever it suits them, whereas women (Palmer) will always be loyal.
Another concern that 343 has addressed is how people thought that Halo 4 wasn’t like Call of Duty enough. This is why they have decided for the game to take place on an outer colony world known as New-Tehran. Most of the game will be spent fighting human enemies of Middle Eastern descent.
The game will feature iron sights and regenerating health more akin to Call of Duty instead of the traditional Halo energy shields. The game will also be heavily cinematic, featuring sections where time slows down and long corridors that you move slowly through while people talk.
The art style is supposed to change as well with heavy use of gray and brown making Halo on Xbox One literally darker than previous Halo games.
So I hope you guys are as excited for the new Halo as I am!
P.S. several publications have already revealed their review scores in missent e-mails to Microsoft’s PR department.
IGN-9.5
Kotaku-10
Destructiod-9
Gamespot-9.5
Polygon-10
Giant Bomb-9
Gamefront-8.9 (they didn’t want it to be obvious that they were bought hence the low score.)