The point is, your argument that cosmetics have no gameplay weight is silly and asinine. Cosmetics shouldn’t need to have an effect in gameplay, or else what? Next time we get something like a super powered Mjolnir, these players have 1.5x overshields by default?
Cosmetics are cosmetics, Gameplay narrative is gameplay narrative. Stop trying to use one to explain the other, and they didn’t just cook one up to sell cosmetics because:
Rakshasa Armor Core is FREE.
Event provides additional customization for the Core.
So your “selling” argument is automatically moot. It’s just a new season, they decided to provide a story narrative when they could have easily just not done one, and they provided a new free armor core and cosmetic options to earn. What more do you want?
If you just can’t sit down with the fact that this is how Halo is going to be for the MP experience, maybe you should go back to MCC where you have Spartan Ops. Oh but no, next thing, you’re gonna demand people using SPI Armor in Halo 3 have no Shields.
IMO, the serial narratives will take time to build narrative volume. This type of content, in my experience, relies on momentum built via consistent releases much like a weekly TV show. The first episode of any weekly TV show is always hanging questions, very few answers, and enough loose threads to knit a sweater.
And to be frank, I don’t think the intent of the cutscene was to sell anything - the event pass associated is free after all. I think the cutscene is merely because 343 wants to have, and I’m sure some Halo fans enjoy, canonical context for multiplayer. This narrative event allows them to add the canonical context around why we’re playing this new game mode on Breaker. At the same time, it allows 343 to encourage people to try the game mode, and hopefully get/keep players playing the game since it’s now got an experience it didn’t have before. It also allows for exploring events in the Halo universe outside of a mainline campaign (though it will take time to build up to any significant happenings, IMO).
Don’t get it twisted, the ‘narrative events’ are just standard cutscenes for season intros and outros, nothing more and nothing less.
The fancy name has just confused people whether intentional or not. My expectations were on the floor and I wasn’t disappointed with the ‘narrative event’.
I was actually surprised my Spartan was in the cutscene which did make me happy as at least shows you 343 put a pinch of effort in.
I never expected a story with Season 2’s Lone Wolves. Especially after playing the campaign. I knew the cutscene was purely just an intro to the new game mode and map like most other F2P/Season-based games do.
My only issue about the cutscene was the Banished AI. It was so annoying and reminded me of a Ghost from Destiny, which doesn’t surprise me since the lead creative for 343 has a hard on for Destiny. Now, we’re gonna have to hear this stupid AI spout random nonsense that will only kind of tell a story… I think the Propaganda Grunt would have been a better choice.
The Weapon spent the entire campaign mocking the Banished’s inferior technology and brutish coding. She flawlessly hacked and decrypted anything related to the Banished. Doors, super lasers, cooling cores, etc. Now all of the sudden the Banished can create AI that might be a threat? lmao but the Covenant somehow hasn’t made one yet? The Banished went from disenfranchised space pirates with salvaged equipment, fighting the Covenant for equality among aliens, to somehow becoming a tyrannical galaxy dominating super power that conquers or defeats everyone that isn’t dressed like a Banished stooge. The writing in Infinite is just too odd, the writing constantly reminds me of something Destiny would do.
Just FYI, the Intel section on Waypoint’s Infinite page sheds more light on the creation of the AI (https://www.halowaypoint.com/halo-infinite) - basically, Lux Voluspa compiled neural matrix from a Jiralhanae and the Banished stole it. So, it’s not entirely Banished (made by humans), but stolen by the Banished and modified. The Covenant also had a ban on sophisticated AI due to interpreted warnings of the Logic Plague left from the Forerunner - so while the Covenant did have low-sophistication “AI”, their issue wasn’t a lack of a capability but rather a moratorium on exercising that capability. And I’m not sure I’d classify the Banished as fighting for equality - more like they view themselves as fighting for freedom, but really just want to be the guy at the top of the food chain. They are more egalitarian than the Covenant, but that’s a pretty low bar.
Exactly, why waste time on multiplayer narrative just to sell cosmetics?
Your argument about the armor core being free is automatically moot, since everything in the game will still be designed to sell the battle pass regardless of how much is in the free track.
I’m clinging to the hope that this is the first step to having story-based content in multiplayer modes like Firefight. Played some MCC recently and jumping back into Firefight after not playing it for years was glorious.
Firefight is my preferred way to play MP content in Halo, so I also hope they can work some story-driven FF (or even a reimagining of Spartan Ops, with less button pushing). Infinite’s PvE sandbox is so fun it’d be a shame to not get a mode like that.
The concept of the event seems cool enough. What would happen if a malicious AI interfaced with the a Spartan’s neural link. The execution seems pretty underwhelming. Agryna doesn’t seem all concerned about the situation and our solution to the problem is just to play more multiplayer matches which is overly cheesy. If their were strikes or raids of some kind similar to Destiny, then the event would feel a lot more impactful.
I think it would have been awesome to be able to play the raid that led to the Spartan being attacked by the AI. If you haven’t read Halo: Last Light, it’s got some similar concepts it explores with malicious AI and Spartans. Decent read.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that they stole the AI. That makes more sense now, because I doubt anyone in the Banished has the intelligence to make an AI as sophisticated as the UNSC’s or the Forerunners. They are space pirates, they don’t care about anything except taking from others. Atriox started his entire “revolt” based on freeing the Jiralhanae from Covenant control and coincidently anyone lucky enough to be fighting next to him at the time. He was fighting for equality, and then once he realized he won, he decided to push it even further and become a tyrant exactly like the Covenant was minus the Great Journey BS. I understand the Covenant had a ban, but the splinter factions or any Covenant scientist weren’t thinking outside the box like the Humans and the Banished did? The Covenant is in complete peril at the moment, they need any possible advantage they can get… I think someone would sneak off and do something shady like work on an AI or some other plan in secret to rise back up.
The ban was viewed as a directive from their Gods (the Forerunners). I think it makes more sense when viewed in that context - someone is more likely to subvert a purely politically motivated law than a divinely motivated law. Couple that with the consequences of being found guilty of “heresy” within the Covenant and you’ve got a pretty good recipe for discouragement of tinkering with AI.
I guess that’s why the Covenant is next to nothing right now. They let religion cripple them into submission while the rest of the galaxy broke any law possible to advance to the head of the race, even the Forerunners. Oh well, the Covenant isn’t even whole anymore. They are splintered into random factions that believe whatever their leader at the moment believes. The Covenant’s Great Journey is pretty much done for unless the writers retcon or change some more stuff.
If you like Halo books, Halo: Divine Wind has some good details around the current state of the Covenant’s leadership. Halo: Last Light and Halo: Retribution precede this book though, and it’s best experienced in trilogy, IMO.
But yes, the fact that the Banished don’t adhere as strictly to the reverence of the Forerunners offers up opportunities like Iratus - where could we go with enemy AIs? And what other differentiations can we expect to arise between the Covenant and the Banished? Hopefully these narrative events will do something to further grow/flesh out the Banished, and hopefully we’ll actually get to play some of it in PvE.
This is what I was hoping for. I thought they were gonna introduce a PVE event and start setting it up with Season 2 but that seems unlikely at the moment. I mean, PVE modes will come eventually, but we have nothing on the Roadmap for anything related to PVE besides Campaign Co-Op. So we’re looking at maybe a year wait time for Multiplayer PVE content.
Sadly, this is my assessment as well. I think S2 we’ll see some QoL drops (what frequency remains to be seen), and hopefully campaign coop hits its late August target, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it slips some - anything that far out, and whenever the word “target” is used, in regards to software dev (in games or elsewhere), it’s pretty much for CYA because there’s enough work left to be done that you have no idea what can of worms you might open. And then S3 will come and probably be the first season they’ll be in rhythm - if all goes according to plan. Personally, I’m setting my sights on summer '23 for any chance of new PvE experiences/modes to realistically be released. Definitely open to being pleasantly surprised though!