There is a big divide in peoples opinions on 343s Halo. Multiplayer especially. However this post focuses on the campaign and story telling.
I’d love to know What you liked and disliked about it. Also, what you liked and disliked about Bungies halo by comparison
A lot of people are completely turned off by it. The scope of the outside material needed to enjoy it gets in the way for almost the entire fanbase (face it, if you have read the books you are the 1%).
Casual players probably don’t connect at all.
Others cant get enough of the expanded universe. They feel that 343 has done the best thing ever by making t so complicated and vast. They probably just love Halo so much they want more and more.
I personally hate 343s halo. I loved Bungies story telling though. It was very different. I wish Halo could go back to being more straight forward. It’s not that i cant appreciate complex story and vast lore. I just dont think Halo GAMES need it. Hell I am a massive fan of LOTR. I’ve actually read the massive backstory to it.
The reason I disliked 343s Halo is more to do with the fact it feels poorly executed and out of place in the franchise. The Halo 4 narrative was pretty forced and cringey in my view. Chief would not shut the hell up. It really betrayed his character! 5 improved in that aspect A LOT! The forced romance between Cortana and Chief was a little cringe worthy. All over i found any of cortana’s scenes just over the top.
The back lore was not explained at all, and i feel if they bothered to it would have made the campaign a really crapfest of information. The game has no room to organically grow and be created like bungies Halo, because the story starts off so grandiose and vast straight away, and only continues to get more so.
As it has continued it seems to have just been a betrayal of the franchise to me. It’s not really Halo. The story telling is different. It feels like I’m watching a movie. I am so disengaged from the characters emotionally and in presence in 343s Halo. This is partly to do with all the on rail cut scenes where i lose control of my character completely, even his head. It is also down the the fact that the cut scenes and narrative just feel like a movie. Chief doesn’t feel like my eyes and ears anymore. He talked so much i lose my feeling of presence. In Halo 1-3 you feel like you are chief. He is your eyes and ears. You are basically on this long mission that climaxes and it’s great. In 4 and 5 not at all.
5 has definitely improved this. Cheif talks less, and the narrative isn’t so overly dramatic and complicated. however it still feels like a movie. The constant switcheroo between locke and Cheif breaks that feeling of being the character.
We also had the air of mystery in 1-3. It wasn’t too spoon fed to you. you were left to imagine for yourself what the forerunner were and did. you saw all these amazing structures and it let your mind go wild. In 4 and 5 you cant do that at all. This was bungies style. It is also why i found it silly how people said Halo 3’s legendary ending gave a big room for a new game. It was just bungie leaving you to imagine chiefs fate.
Bungies Halo was just straight forward. It was vast if you wanted it to be with the books. If you played with the books being read you got more out of it if that was your thing. It also was more straight forward and felt like a really long epic mission that got more and more elaborate with time. You felt one with cheif. AND IT HAD COMEDIC RELIEF!! Something that is extremely important in good story telling. did you see any in 4? I saw absolutely none. That is why it came across so overly dramatic and taking itself so seriously. 5 suffered the same fate unfortunately. Look at any of the greatest fictions made in the past century. They all employ it.
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to discuss this with other fans for a long time, Would be interested to see if anyone stuck around for the multiplayer but feels the same about campaign. Or i’d just like to see some opinions on what makes 4 and 5 better in your view than 1-3, and what you disliked about 1 to 3 i comparison.
The strong lie was one that caused this much hate. I personally think Halo 5 has solid story plot, but the way is told and progressed was very bad. I see no reason for Blue Team going AWOL with very weak reason. I think it would have been better, if the whole thing was a mission given to Blue Team and Dr. Halsey supporting them by providing her research. In game, this could have been more an emphasis on personal emotion of Chief between Halsey and Blue Team the way 343 did with Halo 4. 343 wasted. Who ever wrote the script, I don’t know what to say.
The another problem is campaign missions being too much linear infantry focused. There are big sequences, but not as much as Halo 3 did. Even with 7 Warden Eternal fights, if there were vehicles to use to fight him, it would have been so much better.
Yes, Blue team should’ve been the focus, and Team Osiris the support. A slow introduction for Osiris, rather than a large POV.
They should have left cortana dead and just moved on.
I’m really disappointed that the series is still harping on Cortana’s “death” with no end in sight.
I would’ve loved to see the series just move on from that and have H5 be more upbeat.
I’m also really disappointed with the whole “AI taking over” plot. Until H5, Halo used AI in really interesting ways without going that route & I always liked that.
Seems 343 really went for the low-hanging fruit in a lot of ways when it comes to the story.
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> They should have left cortana dead and just moved on.
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> H5 should have been more upbeat but it seems everything has to be all grimdark now.
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> I’m really disappointed that the series is still harping on Cortana’s “death”. I would’ve loved to see the series just move on from that and have H5 be more upbeat.
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> I’m also really disappointed with the whole “AI taking over” plot. It would be nice for a Sci Fi franchise that features Al’s to NOT go that route for a change. Seems like 343 really went for the low hanging fruit on that one. I really liked the way Halo used AI in interesting ways until H5.
dark… it was barely dark, it was serious but definitely not dark.
To me these games just feel like they suffer from terrible narrative. That goes for 4 too!
343 dont seem to get this is a Video game. On top of that, a First person experience. You dont tell a story in an FPS game like you do in a movie, or a big nice book…
It doesnt have to have so many characters. It doesnt have to be so very subtle. It doesnt have to have massive backstory. It shouldn’t, even.
all the swapping around of characters, and the weak lose reasons for them just break the gaming/FPS story telling rules at almost every single stop. You don’t feel presence. You dont feel like you are masterchief. Christ, even CALL OF DUTY, of all games manages to know the difference.
If Cheif needs his already established personality from the books showed, you should play entirely as another character who is a blank slate for the duration of the game.
Halo, is an FPS game. Like it or not, Cheif is just basically an Arnold Schwarzenegger badass killing machine who you play AS and project whatever you want into him. You experience the story as him. He says little. The story is around you, in terminals. you discover them organically. The set pieces all let yo move your head or control yourself still (they dont in 4 and 5, which breaks all character presence).
You know, in an FPS video game, or a game in general, if you play it and you dont clearly know what a characters role is, the game has failed in it’s job of story telling. Simple as that. there isnt room for that in the narrative of an FPS video game. the small and subtle doesn’t work like ti does on a movie. 4 and 5? As someone who didnt read the books. MOST of the characters had that for me. Not good.
too many minor characters isnt a good thing. Even the established ones are not established at all in the game. You NEED to read the books to get their roles. They get only tiny introductions in the game. insignificant. Even SGT. Johnson in bungies Halo had a more clearly developed character and role than everyone but chief and a select few others in Halo 4 and 5.
This is ignoring the lore issues. The books have always been there if you wanted the movie/book experience that allows you to have 50 characters… It is just such a sad fail in narrative.
in summary… need to learn that: You design it as a GAME FIRST. You create your story second. You fit your story around the fact that this is a game. Then you make something spectacular.
Imagine a movie did things the other way around? christ it would be bad.