Once I first got into Halo CE, one of the things that intrigued me about the protagonist was that Chief never showed his face. Over time, they teased it a lot and now there’s been a few visual renditions of him in graphic novels and whatnot. His mystery has been diminished for quite a while now, all that’s left is to see what he looks like at the moment and to be honest, I don’t really care as much.
But then, Halo 5 gets announced, and later they tease this guy named Locke in the MCC trailer. He’s silent and faceless, and the sense of “mystery” from CE is recaptured and multiplied tenfold by the fact that he was this shadowy ONI black ops agent studying the Chief. However, 343 (more than likely to reinforce the squad dynamic in Osiris) decided to reveal his face and persona over time, and it kind of disappointed me when I thought of the potential.
Imagine Locke being this dark, morally ambiguous figure throughout the game, building intrigue as not only his intent is unclear, but also his identity. Then imagine the hype when he confronts Chief after a long, difficult journey. Both are battered and bruised, and in anger Locke removes his helmet and reveals his face to stare down the Chief, explaining his mission. Kind of a missed opportunity IMO.
I’m sure it will still be interesting, but I just think it would have been better if we had no idea who Locke is supposed to be. Thoughts?
He’s going to be the 2cnd major character besides mc … keeping him mysterious would rather feel like bad writing to me.
Unless he would’ve been a known character, lest say Buck, what would be the point of an unmasking?
OH NO! It’s… some random black dude?
Silent and faceless? Because Halo: Nightfall didn’t happen or anything…
EDIT: Either there was an edit or I read that wrong.
> 2533274820441404;2:
> He’s going to be the 2cnd major character besides mc … keeping him mysterious would rather feel like bad writing to me.
1th strikes again
> 2533274799135257;4:
> Silent and faceless? Because Halo: Nightfall didn’t happen or anything…
Shhhhh don’t ruin it for him
“They don’t give us enough information!”
“They’re giving us too much information!”
Okay, Waypoint.
> 2533274799135257;4:
> Silent and faceless? Because Halo: Nightfall didn’t happen or anything…
>
> EDIT: Either there was an edit or I read that wrong.
You read it wrong. Note that I mentioned the MCC trailer, and we also received vague details about Locke prior to that as well.
> 2533274810150284;7:
> “They don’t give us enough information!”
> “They’re giving us too much information!”
>
> Okay, Waypoint.
So you gonna give your opinion or are you just going to complain about mine?
> 2533274915926813;3:
> Unless he would’ve been a known character, lest say Buck, what would be the point of an unmasking?
> OH NO! It’s… some random black dude?
Just the intrigue of a faceless character suddenly given a face. Darth Vader comes to mind.
> 2533274820441404;2:
> He’s going to be the 2cnd major character besides mc … keeping him mysterious would rather feel like bad writing to me.
Just because we can’t see Chief’s face doesn’t make him poorly-written. I’m sure the same can apply to Locke. We don’t need to know what he looks like for him to be written well.
> 2533274832335336;1:
> Once I first got into Halo CE, one of the things that intrigued me about the protagonist was that Chief never showed his face. Over time, they teased it a lot and now there’s been a few visual renditions of him in graphic novels and whatnot. His mystery has been diminished for quite a while now, all that’s left is to see what he looks like at the moment and to be honest, I don’t really care as much.
>
> But then, Halo 5 gets announced, and later they tease this guy named Locke in the MCC trailer. He’s silent and faceless, and the sense of “mystery” from CE is recaptured and multiplied tenfold by the fact that he was this shadowy ONI black ops agent studying the Chief. However, 343 (more than likely to reinforce the squad dynamic in Osiris) decided to reveal his face and persona over time, and it kind of disappointed me when I thought of the potential.
>
> Imagine Locke being this dark, morally ambiguous figure throughout the game, building intrigue as not only his intent is unclear, but also his identity. Then imagine the hype when he confronts Chief after a long, difficult journey. Both are battered and bruised, and in anger Locke removes his helmet and reveals his face to stare down the Chief, explaining his mission. Kind of a missed opportunity IMO.
>
> I’m sure it will still be interesting, but I just think it would have been better if we had no idea who Locke is supposed to be. Thoughts?
It would’ve dissappointed. Just like that goddamned Arkham Knight. In fact, Im convinced that knowing that he was
jason toddwould’ve only helped the game more.
> 2533274832335336;9:
> > 2533274810150284;7:
> > “They don’t give us enough information!”
> > “They’re giving us too much information!”
> >
> > Okay, Waypoint.
>
>
> So you gonna give your opinion or are you just going to complain about mine?
Actually I think he’s more complaining about Waypoint in general as opposed to any one user.
343i holds off on information, there’s angry threads about it.
343i reveals information / story / lore, and there’s angry threads about it.
> 2533274832335336;11:
> > 2533274820441404;2:
> > He’s going to be the 2cnd major character besides mc … keeping him mysterious would rather feel like bad writing to me.
>
>
> Just because we can’t see Chief’s face doesn’t make him poorly-written. I’m sure the same can apply to Locke. We don’t need to know what he looks like for him to be written well.
No it makes him poorly written, in the first 3 games, because he WAS poorly written. Cardboard cutout, copy paste space marine.
Why?..
I don’t understand the need for pointless “intrigue”. If it makes sense within the scope of the narrative they’re trying to tell, then it works really well. Master Chief wasn’t arbitrarily ambiguous in Halo: Combat Evolved - the mystery existed because he’s not a character who readily expresses himself in most situations. Cortana usually did that for him.
343 Industries built Spartan Locke not only as an opposing protagonist, but also as a different perspective on the story - an alternate major lens through which to view a character who already doesn’t say much. They wanted him to be different. They want players to know exactly who he is and what he is after, because that’s the cipher through which they’re analyzing the Master Chief. Making another mysterious, faceless, silent protagonist defeats that purpose entirely.
And, frankly, I appreciate the honesty from the story tellers. Far too much science fiction material trades this honesty for a false sense of mystery. You don’t build a good story by lying to your audience up until the very end. Having a mysterious antagonist Spartan pursuing John through the Campaign would feel contrived if we didn’t know anything about him along his journey. Having us play as him is an even more interesting spin.
It will be a refreshing take on the Halo space opera and I frankly couldn’t be happier that they’re not keeping Spartan Locke shrouded in mystery.
> 2533274848599184;12:
> > 2533274832335336;1:
> > Once I first got into Halo CE, one of the things that intrigued me about the protagonist was that Chief never showed his face. Over time, they teased it a lot and now there’s been a few visual renditions of him in graphic novels and whatnot. His mystery has been diminished for quite a while now, all that’s left is to see what he looks like at the moment and to be honest, I don’t really care as much.
> >
> > But then, Halo 5 gets announced, and later they tease this guy named Locke in the MCC trailer. He’s silent and faceless, and the sense of “mystery” from CE is recaptured and multiplied tenfold by the fact that he was this shadowy ONI black ops agent studying the Chief. However, 343 (more than likely to reinforce the squad dynamic in Osiris) decided to reveal his face and persona over time, and it kind of disappointed me when I thought of the potential.
> >
> > Imagine Locke being this dark, morally ambiguous figure throughout the game, building intrigue as not only his intent is unclear, but also his identity. Then imagine the hype when he confronts Chief after a long, difficult journey. Both are battered and bruised, and in anger Locke removes his helmet and reveals his face to stare down the Chief, explaining his mission. Kind of a missed opportunity IMO.
> >
> > I’m sure it will still be interesting, but I just think it would have been better if we had no idea who Locke is supposed to be. Thoughts?
>
>
> It would’ve dissappointed. Just like that goddamned Arkham Knight. In fact, Im convinced that knowing that he was
> jason todd
> would’ve only helped the game more.
Not even close to the same situation. That failed because they made him out to be this new unknown villain and it just turned out to be a VERY poorly-hidden Red Hood reskin.
Locke isn’t based on anyone we’ve seen before, so that wouldn’t happen in the slightest.
> 2533274850869596;13:
> > 2533274832335336;9:
> > > 2533274810150284;7:
> > > “They don’t give us enough information!”
> > > “They’re giving us too much information!”
> > >
> > > Okay, Waypoint.
> >
> >
> > So you gonna give your opinion or are you just going to complain about mine?
>
>
> Actually I think he’s more complaining about Waypoint in general as opposed to any one user.
>
> 343i holds off on information, there’s angry threads about it.
> 343i reveals information / story / lore, and there’s angry threads about it.
As with anything ever. Not worth bringing up in a forum, where stuff like that happens regardless.
> 2533274806352868;15:
> Why?..
>
> I don’t understand the need for pointless “intrigue”. If it makes sense within the scope of the narrative they’re trying to tell, then it works really well. Master Chief wasn’t arbitrarily ambiguous in Halo: Combat Evolved - the mystery existed because he’s not a character who readily expresses himself in most situations. Cortana usually did that for him.
>
> 343 Industries built Spartan Locke not only as an opposing protagonist, but also as a different perspective on the story - an alternate major lens through which to view a character who already doesn’t say much. They wanted him to be different. They want players to know exactly who he is and what he is after, because that’s the cipher through which they’re analyzing the Master Chief. Making another mysterious, faceless, silent protagonist defeats that purpose entirely.
>
> And, frankly, I appreciate the honesty from the story tellers. Far too much science fiction material trades this honesty for a false sense of mystery. You don’t build a good story by lying to your audience up until the very end. Having a mysterious antagonist Spartan pursuing John through the Campaign would feel contrived if we didn’t know anything about him along his journey. Having us play as him is an even more interesting spin.
>
> It will be a refreshing take on the Halo space opera and I frankly couldn’t be happier that they’re not keeping Spartan Locke shrouded in mystery.
He can still be the same relatable analytical character without giving out all the details. You can’t deny his shady connection to ONI would keep you even more on the edge if you were wondering what he looked like all the while.
> 2533274888579326;14:
> > 2533274832335336;11:
> > > 2533274820441404;2:
> > > He’s going to be the 2cnd major character besides mc … keeping him mysterious would rather feel like bad writing to me.
> >
> >
> > Just because we can’t see Chief’s face doesn’t make him poorly-written. I’m sure the same can apply to Locke. We don’t need to know what he looks like for him to be written well.
>
>
> No it makes him poorly written, in the first 3 games, because he WAS poorly written. Cardboard cutout, copy paste space marine.
My point still stands. We don’t need to see his mouth if it’s saying cool sh*t.
I completely agree. When the MCC trailer was announced and the early cover of the game revealed (Chief and Locke reflection), it gave an almost instant bad-assedness to the character that they couldn’t achieve otherwise, mostly because nothing was known about him other than he was the man trusted to hunt the Chief.
My mind turns to Chris Nolan’s take on Batman. He once commented in an interview that they were very careful not to show Christian Bale as Batman without a mask on because it would take away from the symbol and character in the viewers’ minds (something they deviated from in the Dark Knight Rises, most likely to show a more human element to Bruce Wayne). Locke was an imposing symbol shrouded in mystery with only one distinguishable trait - an ONI logo. Now, he’s just a man.