A quick poll here to gauge everyone’s interest in Serial Narrative pieces, i.e. the smaller episodic Narrative bits we’ve had like the Season cutscenes and the “The Last of the Sky Marshal”
Please note that these polls have nothing to do with aesthetics or cosmetics, and purely relate to narrative content, cutscenes and short stories thus far.
Are you generally interested in seasonal narrative cutscenes?
Yes, I am interested in watching seasonal narrative cutscenes
No, I am not interested in watching seasonal narrative cutscenes
0voters
Have you liked the cutscenes provided so far in season 1/2?
Yes, I liked the cutscenes
Eh, I was indifferent about the cutscenes
No, I have not liked the cutscenes so far
0voters
Are you interested in Fractures narrative content?
Yes, I’m interested in non-canon Halo stories
No, I have no interested in non-canon Halo stories
0voters
Have you liked the Fractures narrative content thus far? (The Last Sky Marshal)
I would LOVE to play canon multiplayer, but only if it were more of a battlefield style game and included covenant and humans, such that it could both be entertaining to play and be immersion in the Halo Universe.
Very sad to see Halo’s story relegated to Serial Narrative content to sell cosmetics…
I would like to see more narrative events that advance the plot and story of Halo, but for those events to be related to PVE game modes or integrated into the Infinite campaign (occurring after the main story is over).
The content we’ve had so far has been poor and the plot hasn’t progressed at all, as well as forcing people to play PVP game modes that just aren’t everyone’s cup of tea just to be informed of what’s going on in the history.
I think that would be beyond the scope of a narrative event. As far as I can tell narrative events are temporary and cheap. Cutscene work is minimal and lack luster as well as disappears after the event.
Unless Halo 7 is on the way then the campaign must have expansions to continue chiefs battle against the banished, which would require a significantly higher budget for level design, VO work, etc.
Taking a page from Destiny, it would be awesome if they added difficult raids to progress the story with our multiplayer Spartan. Probably less budget than a full blown expansion, but definitely more engaging than what we’ve seen so far.
Agreed! With how much is missing from the campaign and how bare bones it feels, I don’t understand why they are adding serial narrative to multiplayer instead of investing those assets in updating the campaign.
True, if the cutscenes we got in the seasons was good than it would have been worth it. Since they are not, I’d rather they use the resources towards fixing the game instead.
I liked the cutscenes, but like others (elsewhere) have said, I would rather a playable version of them. Perhaps playing as Hugh Dinh, instead of just watching him squirm on a table.
The biggest problem with the narrative of Halo Infinite, is that we’re often playing catch-up or never actively involved in the events that are happening. The campaign takes place 6 months after all the cool stuff that actually matters happens, and most of the character development of other characters happens in the old, reliable audio logs. This is because 343 never learned that Chief was part of the events in this universe, not the center of it.
Anyway, my disdain for the campaign (and the Weapon distorting her face in every way imaginable) aside, this is where the issue with the Narrative Events come in. The first part ended with Agryna going off and doing cool stuff off-screen. The second part had us standing around a comatose guy as a extremely poor lead-in as to why we have to kill each other in the Matrix. The third part has someone talking at us, and then we go in the matrix for contrived raisins and then we get offered to hunt with them… Even though history indicates that most certainly will not happen.
The main character, us, does nothing in these cutscenes and narrative. We dont fight the Banished, we dont speak (ever) and we dont do anything. Replace us with a mop bucket, and the cutscenes would progress regardless. These narrative events need to leverage the story with the game - Lone Wolves could have been perfect, in its current narrative style, to have us go on a mission to fight Banished for data concerning Iratus, and then a further mode in Eklund’s section to do a simulation score attack/time attack mode, with more score getting you rewards faster. The first is a wolf pack mode, the second is the lone wolf element.
At least then, the story element is then leveraged against gameplay. As it stands, there’s no connection to the gameplay, and what is there is extremely contrived and stupid, to say the least. The story itself is juet lame - theres too little exposure to these characters to gain an appreciation for who they are.
343 needs to try significantly harder, or scrap it entirely. Or just do the Fractures, their lore sounds interesting.
I’m in a similar boat. I would like to see them tied to PVE, since clearly connecting them to the PVP is just weird and uninteresting canon. Nobody is really that interested in an explanation of why they are playing a simulation in MP.
Maybe if there was a game type like Invasion it would make more sense for the seasonal content?
Although I suppose one problem I see is that with seasonal content tied to themes, the story becomes disjointed. Rather than any linear progression of story, seasons simply jump from place to place and vaguely fill in the gaps because they are written to sell cosmetics in a certain theme rather than progress the plot.
The extensions to the story would be better if it worked like Spartan ops. Why are we just running simulations?
Give us a campaign based open world that they can slowly change as players play that week.
Oh we messed up that ai and it’s ours now. Looks like we can start running raids on the outer structures.
Oh week 2 is over and we messed up the banished good, time to raid the fort with a boss fight at the end? Bet.
The leave the mode open in a Private/MM PVE lobby called Spartan Records. Replay old narratives.
This allows newer players to catch up on the story thus far and KINDA play the content. While old players can enjoy it as well.
Fracture universes are cool, but there needs to be an in-game way to read and vote. Most players are still unaware of how to read or access it; let alone it’s existence
Agreed on the campaign based on world. Spartan Ops was a great format, it just needed to be better written, sad that they dropped it and haven’t tried again.
Similar to Spartan Ops, I like the concept of having story be intertwined in multiplayer game modes but the execution for the seasonal cutscenes is mediocre at best.
Most of the complaints I’ve seen about the seasonal cutscenes is they lack meaning, too expository, uninvolved, and the characters are uninteresting. The recent Alpha Pack Cutscene is the epitome of these complaints where Spartan Eklundally blatantly tells us to play more multiplayer during the cutscene “I’d like to see what you can do when the only that have your back is you.” The narrative just feels there to be there.
Good characters could help a mediocre narrative but unfortunately this isn’t the case. The halo franchise has shown they could create interesting characters. From Buck’s sarcastic humor, Sergeant Johnson energetic outlandish dialogue, Cortona smart remarks and even the Pilot humanity are all far more intriguing than the current characters we have now. Many of the lone wolves feel empty and Spartan Agryna interesting at first feels a bit awkward sometimes.
Currently HI’s current narrative cutscenes aren’t working out too well and maybe 343’s attention should focus elsewhere. As @Imon_Spartan mentioned, more narrative events that advance the plot and story for halo in PVE related game modes sounds promising. Maybe this will give 343 more freedom and flexibility when developing their narratives instead of simulations.
Agreed on all points. I’ve been very disappointed to find that the “ten year future of halo” is literally just multiplayer cosmetics thus far.
You really hit the nail on the head about them blatantly telling you to play multiplayer. It is so transparent and annoying. I don’t understand why they even include this stuff. I had the same issue going back to Modern Warfare in 2019, decent campaign then it ended with them being like “go play multiplayer” which made the campaign characters become unreal to me. Elkund and Agryna and them are already now all jokes to me, 2 dimensional characters to get you to play MP.
