Just to be clear, i’m not saying that Halo is not intellectual in any way; it far surpasses the majority of mindless games out there. That being said, I wonder how the game would be like if it engaged in more ‘fundamental’ discussions or concepts, or had more intellectual discussion between characters. With the imminent release of Halo MCC, I’m revisiting Halo 2 and I notice that out of all the Halo games so far, Halo 2 seems to be the most intellectually engaging. There are constant themes of rebellion, religious references, gravemind’s amazing speech, whereas the others tend to more ‘story for the sake of story’. Once again, i’m not saying the stories are bad in any way, I’m just curious as to how it would change if we put a larger emphasis on more thought-provoking concepts.
I do enjoy when characters engage in deep conversation.
I think they may be doing that with the transition of H2A to Halo 5. I would love to see more in-depth story for this new Halo as well. The whole reason Iwas sold on Halo was because of H2 anyway
I’d certainly be impressed if they can pull off those types of conversations.
I just hope locke’s character is deep.
I believe this is why there is a huge back log of EU to read and look through, to fill in those gaps.
This is one of the things I love about Halo. The first time I played through Gears of War, it felt soooooo dumbed down.
I won’t mind it H5G was more intellectual but I fear that 343 could try to out think themselves and do something really stupid as a result, kind of like what happened with Bioware’s handling of Mass Effect 3’s ending.
I think it should be both… deep intellectual story buried underneath a fun, easy to get game; much like Halo 2
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> I won’t mind it H5G was more intellectual but I fear that 343 could try to out think themselves and do something really stupid as a result, kind of like what happened with Bioware’s handling of Mass Effect 3’s ending.
ME3’s ending was actually dumbed down. Apparently the Reapers were meant to keep ezo and biotics from causing the collapse of the universe or something like that. Its been a while since I heard about it. Its why there’s that random dieing star Tali is investigating in ME2.
Honestly, ME3’s ending as presented had nothing to do with being intellectual and everything to do with cutting corners on a multiple choice ending. The Geth more or less disprove the Reaper’s premise, considering all their aggression has been caused by stupid Quarians and the Reapers themselves.
I think Halo 5 is certainly capable of intelligent storylines, Halo 4 set the foundation for it. It will just really depend on where the writers want to go. If they want to talk spiritual matters, they’ve got plenty of subject matter to work with to make bold statements. if they want to talk about self-discovery, Chief’s struggle with his own humanity has that covered. The one thing I think they should avoid is morality, 343 just can’t do it. I say just present the story and let the fans figure out what they think on that one.
Nah, please no. Video game writes rarely are very good. Trying to write something intelligent often comes out as awkward and poor. Halo was never really intelligent nor should it try to. Why Halo is good (or was depending on one’s opinion), is because they took all the cool tricks from past sci-fi works and blended them all in one cool action sci-fi package. Going outside that box is risky, and frankly that would be a bit out of character.
Seriously, just look at Mass Effect for example, the moment they tried being so ‘‘intelligent’’, they just became cheesy and threw laughable stuff at us. Leave that to real writers, it’s very hard to write good, intelligent stuff.
If anything, Halo, Mass Effect or The Elder Scrolls are more intelligent games in the sense that every other game is braindead, or almost.
And no, Halo 4’s story wasn’t intelligent at all. The main story was pretty cliché and the story between Chief and Cortana was a failure. The concept was interesting but the execution was so poor, probably because the writers suck. Seriously, I bet anyone who says this is good, well-done or intelligent stuff, thinks Nolan is a genius or something. And that he/she didn’t read many good books in their lives or seen truly well-done films. Sometimes someone can be easily impressed when the standard bar isn’t set high. Okay, I may be a bit harsh and generalize, but I terribly fail to see what’s not cringe-worthy about that part of the story…
The way Joseph Staten attempted to introduce themes of politics and religion into Halo 2 laid what I think was a decent foundation for future Halo games to follow.
We haven’t really seen anything “intellectual” since then, really, but I hope Halo 5: Guardians has a compelling narrative.
If I had to argue on ONE “intelligent” game, it’d be Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
If the writers at 343 could do something “intelligent” like that (as what the OP seems to want), then that would be stellar. Truly something to talk about.
Well the flood got an philosophical overhaul in the books, so if if they returned along with some more forerunners in the games, they could make things very interesting.
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> Halo was never really intelligent nor should it try to. Why Halo is good (or was depending on one’s opinion), is because they took all the cool tricks from past sci-fi works and blended them all in one cool action sci-fi package.
Agree. I see Halo as nothing more than your average “summer blockbuster” action romp. The biblical themes especially are far too heavy-handed and pretentious.
Not saying that I don’t like the story of the Halo Universe, I still consider it to be fun.
That seems to be in 343i’s long term plan.
They are muddying up ONI and the UNSC (no more humanity r gud guys), they are preventing concepts of what humanity really is (with Cortana’s human/machine talk) and John finally starting to be more than a mindless killing machine. Also, they are making the Flood much more thought provoking (to the point we can even understand them, weirdly) and the Insurrection is on the rise.
I think the John/Locke dynamic will take that even further. Otherwise they wouldn’t name the pair after a 17th century philosopher, lol
Yes, in the sense that highly trained SPARTAN supersoldiers shouldn’t act like a high school football team.
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> Yes, in the sense that highly trained SPARTAN supersoldiers shouldn’t act like a high school football team.
Less trained, more recruited, if you’re talking about IVs. But yeah, I agree, they were kind of immature and scrawny
I completely agree with the idea of removing the high school esque Spartans. I don’t care if they are recruited at 25 years old. They should act like the recruitment process was as demanding as say the SAS (I know anti terrorism is nothing like what Spartans fight but it needs to be as demanding as it. No stroppy supersoldiers such as Thorne when you find out someone lied to you, your trained for this -Yoink- man up) Because for some reason the marines you encounter seem vastly more professional.
Now call me stupid, but I think Halo 4’s story felt slightly more intellectual than Halo 2.
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> I completely agree with the idea of removing the high school esque Spartans. I don’t care if they are recruited at 25 years old. They should act like the recruitment process was as demanding as say the SAS (I know anti terrorism is nothing like what Spartans fight but it needs to be as demanding as it. No stroppy supersoldiers such as Thorne when you find out someone lied to you, your trained for this -Yoink- man up) Because for some reason the marines you encounter seem vastly more professional.
I agree, I’m still angry when in Reach they took their helmet’s off. You don’t take your helmet off when your in enemy territory / just out of battle. Especially Spartans…