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> I feel like people here are underestimating Chief’s character from the old trilogy. He was so much more than a lifeless cyborg. However he was a “show don’t tell” kind of character. He’s emotions were shown by the way he moved, how he looked around. It was subtle, but it was there in every cut-scene and made him a likable character in first place imho.
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> The only moment I felt like watching Chief during H4 in a cut-scene was after he awoke the Didact and the Infinity landed on Requiem. Cortana warns him about an enemy behind him, the Spartan turns around with steady AR pointing to the danger just to get surprised by a giant Sphere floating in mid air. Without words he slowly puts the gun down, his head turns up to get a better view and his helmet tilts slightly to the left. Brilliant! This scene had way more emotion in its subtle animation than anything that Chief delivered vocally during the campaign. After this (and art aside) I thought 343i got Chief right, but I got disappointed fairly quickly. What we got was a completely different character molded for the sake of this specific story, but at the same time without regards for what came before. The same could be said about Cortana btw.
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> Story wise as a stand alone title H4 was good. Not perfect, but good. The interaction between that Cortana and that version of John was really well made and a pleasure to see. However it could have been done with the originals as well, and it would have been more impactful and emotional imho. Seeing how it would have been build up for so many years! Instead they rewrote the two and molded into new personas.
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> My hope for Hi’s Chief is not the “bad–Yoink-”, I think the studio can pull that of. No, my concern is if 343i can nail the subtle but filled with narrative animations from the Bungie era! Silent doesn’t equal to emotionless, another thing the recent Doom did amazingly imho!
I feel a lot of this is somewhat…off, to put it lightly.
You are correct that the original trilogy did have some good character moments with Chief articulated with his body language. Combat Evolved in particular stands out with his reassuring pat on a Marine’s shoulder whose freaking out, the way he conveys a “Wait, what?” attitude when Cortana tells him to hurry and save Keyes after she learns of the Flood, the way he playfully plays with a grenade towards the end when Cortana tells him about blowing the Autumn, all good stuff. Halo 2 doesn’t do much for me though Halo 3 has that calm moment when he reunites with Cortana, drops to her level, and talks with her.
I think you are way off in how you are saying that Chief, and Cortana, are essentially different characters from what they were before. If anything, Halo 4 brought Chief and Cortana closer to how they have been in the games and expanded universe. Chief is ultimately still a man of few words, but he talks plenty to people in the books and having him be closed-mouthed in Halo 4 while Cortana goes through her experiences with rampancy would be a terrible narrative choice. What we do get, however, is a man out of his league. Early on when Chief tries to reassure Cortana things are going to be okay, I can hear the uncertainty in his voice. And Cortana calls him on that, he doesn’t really know how or what rampancy is experienced by AIs, but he’s trying his best. To say they had little regard to what came before seems short-sighted when you aren’t playing with a full deck so to speak. Same applies for Cortana, I mean, I have to question you on how you think rampancy would be experienced. You saw glimpses of it in Halo 3 when the Gravemind pushed her to the brink of rampancy (and the short story Human Weakness shows just how invasive and cruel that process was). Is it a surprise that the real thing is like it? Even so, she troopers on when she can like the old games, but does get discouraged when she is made very aware of her shortcomings in performance. She KNOWS she is dying, probably moreso than any of us could ever feel. Yet her last act is to restrain the Didact and save Chief. What’s more Cortana than that?
343 nailed precisely what you were looking for. He was silent when he needed to be, but was an actual character when he needed to be.