I watched a video on YouTube were a guy talked about how in the halo ce, reach, odst and others didn’t really have a main bad guy you had to fight like in movies. This makes the game fun were you are not trying to go stop the main bad guy for the majority of the game. In halo 2 and 3 there were main enemies but the games levels didn’t directly focus on them until around the end of the games. I feel like this was a minor but important part of what made the stories fun.
I disagree. The gameplay and setting is what made Halo fun, the story is one area that could really do with improvement, and a full character palette would be a good place to start.
I don’t know, I enjoyed the bad guys in the Halo Canon. Tarturus, Scarabs acting like minibosses almost, Didact wasn’t really a direct fight. But bosses make the game more interesting. Character refinement really makes a game a game.
> I don’t know, I enjoyed the bad guys in the Halo Canon. Tarturus, Scarabs acting like minibosses almost, <mark>Didact wasn’t really a direct fight</mark>. But bosses make the game more interesting. Character refinement really makes a game a game.
Well good thing he’s not dead 
> > I don’t know, I enjoyed the bad guys in the Halo Canon. Tarturus, Scarabs acting like minibosses almost, <mark>Didact wasn’t really a direct fight</mark>. But bosses make the game more interesting. Character refinement really makes a game a game.
>
> Well good thing he’s not dead
Watch, they’ll just make the next fight with him another quick time event.
as I’m sure others have pointed out, the lack of a clear antagonist doesn’t necessarily make a story good, and has no bearing on how “fun” it is.
Halo 4’s antagonist was only hampered by the fact that to get the full narrative weight of who he is you’re required to watch the Terminals, if you watch the appropriate terminal after each Halo 4 level it makes the story the best one in a Halo game, IMO.
Hopefully going forward antagonists are more thoroughly introduced in the main path, but I think that focusing on the actual people behind the armies you fight is a good thing, and something Halo’s been needing for a while.
Yes, it would be best to not make you fight them in a quick time event. Hopefully 343 figures out how to do boss fights better than Halo 2 did. It’s because of Halo 2 that I didn’t care that I didn’t get to fight the Didact, since I assumed it would not be fun.
> This makes the game fun were you are not trying to go stop the main bad guy for the majority of the game.
That seems like quite the jump.
I really feel that Jul 'Mdama could make a good antagonist if 343 Industries bothered to make any use out of him. He has clear, understandable and sympathetic goals. His abuse at the hands of ONI and their murder of his wife due to their interventionist and sabotaging efforts against the Sangheili justify his actions. He seems to have the most stable control of a post-Covenant faction with a sizable fleet and willing followers. Not only that, but he likely has a force of Prometheans he can inflict on UNSC colonial targets AND has Dr. Halsey in his custody. That and he would be more than a match for Chief in terms of physical strength and endurance.
The Antagonist of each game is comparatively different as it coincides with the theme and current situation.
Halo: Reach - Halo 3
Genocide/Extinction,
Human-Covenant War;
Covenant Empire,
Prophet Of Mercy (Hod Rumnt), Prophet Of Regret (Lod Mron), Prophet Of Truth (Ord Casto), Chieftain Of The Jiralhanae (Tartarus);
Flood Legion,
Flood Gravemind (Primordial);
Forerunner Legacy,
343 Guilty Spark (Chakas/Forthencho);
Halo 4 - Halo 6/7
Reclamation,
Post Human-Covenant War;
Covenant Remnant,
Didact’s Hand (Jul 'Mdama), Cult Leader (Merg Vol), The Bishop (Avu Med 'Telcam), Mercenary Leader (Vata 'Gajat), Doctor (Catherine Halsey);
Promethean Ecumene,
Ur-Didact (Shadow-Of-Sundered-Star);
Human Insurrectionist
Admiral (Mattius Drake), Captain (Daniel Clayton)
Flood Legion/Precursor Fount? Forerunner Legacy?
The fact is the Reclaimer Saga is a more personalized journey, not just for the Master Chief (John-117), but also for Humanity and the Mantle Of Responsibility.
In regards to the gameplay nature of antagonists, I find it really sad that nobody wants bossfights to return, I thought they helped really flesh out Bungie’s vision of Halo 2’s grander scale despite people complaining about their difficulty on Legendary. Plus, it’s a video game, why not have bossfights? Their exclusion from the rest of the games is one of the reasons why none of the other campaigns have come even close to 2’s, in my opinion. In 3 we shot Spark with a laser while he took out our shields. Whoop-de-friggin-doo. In 4 I actually got really excited on the last mission when it felt like I was going to fight the Didact man-on-Forerunner, despite not knowing who the -Yoink- he was and why he hated me at the time, only to be monumentally let down with a QTE.
Why don’t video games try to be more video gamey?
I hate to say this, but seeing how mindbogglingly boring fighting both Tartarus and 343GS were, I was relieved to find that the Didact was a QTE instead of a boss fight.
IMO, boss fights and FPS’s don’t mix.
> I hate to say this, but seeing how mindbogglingly boring fighting both Tartarus and 343GS were, I was relieved to find that the Didact was a QTE instead of a boss fight.
>
> IMO, boss fights and FPS’s don’t mix.
Bossfights and FPS games blend quite well if the developers actually design good boss encounters (a.k.a. the Metroid Prime trilogy).
> In regards to the gameplay nature of antagonists, I find it really sad that nobody wants bossfights to return, I thought they helped really flesh out Bungie’s vision of Halo 2’s grander scale despite people complaining about their difficulty on Legendary. Plus, it’s a video game, why not have bossfights? Their exclusion from the rest of the games is one of the reasons why none of the other campaigns have come even close to 2’s, in my opinion. In 3 we shot Spark with a laser while he took out our shields. Whoop-de-friggin-doo. In 4 I actually got really excited on the last mission when it felt like I was going to fight the Didact man-on-Forerunner, despite not knowing who the -Yoink!- he was and why he hated me at the time, only to be monumentally let down with a QTE.
>
> Why don’t video games try to be more video gamey?
You wouldn’t have gotten a man-on-Forerunner fight, you would have had a man-getting-annihilated-by-Forerunner fight.
There was no way they could make a boss fight with the Didact that either makes Chief severely overpowered or make the Didact severely weak, which doesn’t do justice to either of their characters. The Didact could defeat Chief without touching him, literally. Just one slap with the constraint fields will send Chief flying off the edge. The Chief couldn’t penetrate the Didact’s armor with anything he had.
> I hate to say this, but seeing how mindbogglingly boring fighting both Tartarus and 343GS were, I was relieved to find that the Didact was a QTE instead of a boss fight.
>
> IMO, boss fights and FPS’s don’t mix.
Absolutely agree. And let’s not forget the Heretic leader.
For antagonists’ deaths, I think a first-person cutscene is the way to go. And although I don’t mind QTEs, leave those out for the sake of everyone else’s sanity.
> > I hate to say this, but seeing how mindbogglingly boring fighting both Tartarus and 343GS were, I was relieved to find that the Didact was a QTE instead of a boss fight.
> >
> > IMO, boss fights and FPS’s don’t mix.
>
> Bossfights and FPS games blend quite well if the developers actually design good boss encounters (a.k.a. the Metroid Prime trilogy).
Haven’t played Metroid Prime Trilogy for awhile. Would be interesting if they had a “boss fight” that went like Quadraxis’ or The Chykkas.
Edit: bB this I mean the environment “fights” you too. As in the Quadraxis fight, it had a toxic atmosphere that would constantly eat your health. (As did all Dark Aethar). In the Chykkas battle…it was the toxic water, which dead mega damage fast.
Also another way by their fights, was also that they both had multiple stages. Chykkas having 3 and Quadraxis having 3 as well.
If we end up going against a Sphinx or Seeker…the battle could go like Quads…although more updated.