It has been stated many, many times in the past that Master Chief is NOT the strongest or the fastest Spartan. He was special because he had luck or whatever. Point is, other Spartans are not push-overs… until Infinity that is. Everyone in this game is extremely weak I mean Spartan-IVs are by no means as strong as Spartan-IIs but they get killed off easier than marines in this game. One of the bounties is a brute and not Cortana actually says this guy single handedly took down 2 squads of 4 Spartan-IVs in one engagement. Assuming for a second that there is some super brute that can 1v8 against Spartans and come out on top, no way is Chief coming right behind them and taking him out with ease that’s ridiculous. I guess I just get a little tired of the game constantly patting you on the back and making it seem like Chief is Superman or something, he’s not. Chief’s just one of many Spartan-IIs, thanks to his feats he’s certainly more famous than the rest but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly at god tier power compared to everyone else. A good comparison would be Geralt, he’s certainly than most famous and has more feats but when you meet the other Witchers they’re just as skilled as he is.
Just for future reference 343 writers, you don’t make a strong character compelling by making everyone around them incompetent.
For sure… don’t me wrong, I love Chief he’s a badass but the other Spartans are too. They are all legendary in the eyes of the marines and 343 seems to forget that.
Chief isn’t just “Lucky”, he’s also the most tenacious.
Based on books like Fall of Reach, you can tell by John’s nature that he’s highly defiant in the face of opposition and he may not be the fastest or strongest but he is the toughest.
Chief is a survivalist through and through, and it’s really a wonder how he’s still in fighting shape after all that has happened.
I think 343’s intention was not to cheapen Spartans at all, but to show how deadly the Spartan Killers were.
Spartan Killers aren’t pushovers, and they are sort of tough indeed. The S-IVs in the campaign were systematically hunted by these Spartan Killers and executed or captured.
Chief however, may prove to be a tougher mark to kill or capture due to his survivalist nature.
It’s also worth a mention that the S-IVs were approaching their mission as a do or die situation, citing the Rubicon Protocol over and over. They knew the risks and did it anyway.
Eh, being a Spartan was starting to feel as commonplace as marines in the universe and it removed a lot of the prestige from the title, in my opinion. I’m glad to see them thinned out a bit.
I’m glad that there is less Spartans too. I just don’t like how they did it. Like I said in the OP they had one brute kill 8 spartans at once. And then Chief comes along and does what 8 spartan put together couldn’t! Thats some Rey type ****
I mean, there’s always been lip service to Chief not having been the best Spartan in any particular aspect (or at least since Halo 3’s opening Cortana monologue- Fall of Reach definitely paints him as wuite special if I recall correctly). That said, the original trilogy absolutely paints Chief as the ultimate badass- on par with or maybe even surpassing what we see in Infinite (the “Giving the Covenant back their bomb” sequence in H2 is nothing short of all-time top action hero status).
Plus, the Spartans who aren’t Chief in Infinite are mostly (all?) S-IV’s, and the context for the statement that John wasn’t the strongest/swiftest/etc was- I believe- pertaining to other S-II’s, which exist in a higher category of discipline and training than S-IV’s at the bare minimum- and also a higher level of augmented status if I’m not mistaken. So Chief outclassing the S-IV’s doesn’t strike me as odd at all.
Even with all of this said, going on the H3 thesis that what makes John special is his luck, that is basically a blank check which can explain every feat of his in the original games and everything we see in Infinite. Not that it would be great storytelling to lean too hard on such an intangible and convenient pillar, but still. I just don’t see what he does in Infinite that seems so overpowered in comparison to his original trilogy feats.
Oh, I don’t think he’s overpowered especially not compared to his old feats. I just think that they made everyone else so unbelievably incompetent in this game that his power is overexaggerated compared to everyone else. He’s a legend for the things that he’s done. But he’s not Superman.
I’d agree that it’s bizarre that we don’t see any not dead S-IV’s over the course of the campaign, and that does feel like a missed opportunity to make the S-IV’s cooler than they were in H4-5.
I just didn’t personally get the impression that Chief was being overhyped at least during my first playthrough. You’re right to point out that some of the HVT descriptions are head-scratchers. At the minimum, It feels to me like almost all of the HVTs were way overhyped in their dossiers and via the Weapon’s description of then vs how difficult they actually were to kill. I definitely can see how that could be interpreted in either way (Chief too strong or HVT’s too weak).
I guess to be more clear because there seems to be confusion. I don’t think chief should be weaker. But, in term of writing and story he should be viewed more like a Captain American than a Superman. The traits that make him stand out aren’t insane power its his character and like Sodium_Bath said above his tenacity and the fact he always outs everyone else first.
Well, if it helps, I don’t think she says the two Spartan IV squads were at the same time.
Also that Brute had a tracking rocket launcher. It’s definitely feasible that an unprepared squad of spartans was taken out by that menace. Chief has the advantage of the element of surprise, or at least being the hunter and not the hunted.
I’m agree that it’s too much for a brute, even a spartan killer, to kill 8 spartan. If it was Escharum, ok, he is the big boss, but not for a little boss in the game you won’t remember
However, Halo Infinite show us the Master Chief defeated by Atriox, so it don’t feel like we play superman
Agreed. It just makes it seem ridiculous and super-hero-ish. That and the lack of any returning humans made the whole thing just feel super low stakes.
I mean, generally speaking, when the third game comes out in a series that was once called a trilogy, and they say that they’ll be adding to it for a decade, it’s hard to feel like there is anything at stake at all, knowing that they’ll never stop making more of it.