The Hunter - A New Take

Community Halo Universe
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In case you haven’t seen the new renders (and our first look) of the Halo 4 Hunter, here is a link.

I’m making this thread to discuss a few aspects of the hunter, both past and future. All of the topics I am bringing up are my own opinions and are meant to see what the rest of the community thinks of these enemy assets.

I personally believe that of all of the reimaginations of the covenant races that 343I has done, the Hunter is the best looking and arguably the closest to its predecessors. The individual Lekgolo are more visible and make it more believable that the hulk is composed of a colony of eel-like creatures. Its armor is fresh and appears practical and the fuel rod cannon and shield it wields are as intimidating as ever!

Traditionally, Hunters have been large, powerful mobile tanks that packed a lot of armor and a lot of damage. They were also very predictable. While only significant amounts of damage or precision attacks to their exposed neck, waist, and back, they have had simple AI that you could easily “convince” to do what you wanted it to do. They are also easy to dodge in close quarters. With only a few different swings that left specific blind spots open, you have always been able to dance around a Mgalekgolo’s pommels with relative ease. So easy, in fact, that you can melee a Hunter to death by delivering blow after blow in every Halo game to date (with the exclusion of Halo Wars) without being touched. Having played Halo (a lot) themselves, I’m sure they have noticed this trend and this brings me to my question on this topic: Did they improve upon the Hunter AI and allow it to not only coordinate with its bond brother and other forces more effectively, but also to mix up its behavior and do something unexpected… or did they leave it relatively unchanged?

My first topic was fully positive and my second was neutral in essence… but now I present you with my only negative remark on the Hunter. There is, within Halo canon, a small discrepancy in regards to the Hunter’s anatomy. In The Flood, John gets wounded from an attack from a Hunter. It wasn’t from its fuel rod cannon mounted on its arm… it wasn’t from its massive shield that it wields so effectively like a titanium axe… and it wasn’t from an impact from its massive body. “Well what was it then?” you may ask? Hunters poses one additional weapon that hasn’t been given credit in any of the games: along every Hunter’s back (those in the standard configuration, of course) there exist four quill-like spines that protrude in two rows of two. In every game, those spines have been smooth and pointy and resemble those of a hedgehog or porcupine in appearance. In The Flood, however, John receives a nasty gash on his shoulder from a Hunter whom he barely managed to avoid a charge from. In the book, those smooth, rounded quills are depicted as razor-sharp hazards capable of slicing clean through a person. My proposed fix? A simple adjustment in the Mgalekgolo’s character model. No retexturing or any other complicated processes are needed and the change from a rounded, albeit narrow, appendage to something more angular and defined wouldn’t be too hard. I know the game goes gold in a few days, but I just wanted to throw this little canonical flaw up in the air for the team at 343I to consider. It is a small error and of little importance, and I realize that changing something so insignificant this late in the process would take those needed on polishing bigger items away and serve as a distraction. If not for Halo 4, then for Halo 5 or any other game released before then.

Now, this is where the community comes in: discuss, ask your own questions, and mingle!!

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Sometime things that are sharp don’t necessarily look sharp. It’s not a big deal.

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I like it how you can see more of the lekgolo like in the legs because most people I know don’t realize they’re made up from worms until I point it out to them. Hopefully doing this will also help new players, which 343i are aiming for, to recognize this small part of the character/species.

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Games>books

Plus lekgolo can technically form any shape, so it doesn’t matter if the one in the book was more dangerous

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I just think it would be another danger spot to mix up Mgalekgolo engagements. Just imagine a grunt getting sliced in half from a turning Hunter xD

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I like the Reach hunter most, but I do like how you can really tell they are made out of worms now. Thats one thing past halo games really struggeled to achieve.

Hopefully they are fun to fight, their manouvres and AI have been questionable at times.

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How long until we can rip the cannon off of the corpse? That’d be awesome to run around with a Fuel Rod Canon, turret-style.

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I suppose that if that were a game mechanic it would back trying to melee them from behind harder.

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Actually, I disagree that all the other Hunters have been easy to avoid. The Hunters in Reach were actually pretty difficult to avoid at times.

Also, the Hunters in Halo 2 didn’t take damage when you meleed them.

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the Hunters in Halo 2 , zomg if it weren’t for the Brute plasma rifles , I would’ve never completed the mission with all the soldiers intact!!

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I actually found Reach to be the easiest in the series to counter enemy AI. Especially the hunters. By slowly sidestepping while standing directly next to a hunter, you can have a nice little waltz with them with a clear shot at their back the entire time :wink:

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> Games>books
>
> Plus lekgolo can technically form any shape, so it <mark>doesn’t matter</mark> if the one in the book was more dangerous

But it could, and in some cases <mark>should</mark>, matter.

Like OP rightfully says: Hunters have become quite predictable. So why not add their quills as weapons? That would at least make the classic “hunter dance” to pistol shoot them in the back harder.

Another example: Everybody is complaining about the Brutes being lame.
Brutes in the books aren’t lame. Brutes in the books are huge, bigger than Elites and far more bulky in appearance. Brutes in the books are truely brutal. Throwing around enemies, even their own allies if they stand in their way. They come at you in packs, are far more primal and ferocious in combat than the games show them to be. They tear off limbs, growl, snarl, are menacing and impressive.

Sounds like everything the Brutes in the games should be right?

Yes, games > books, but only when canon overlaps on the same subjects. If the books pose something that would benefit the games, the games should include it. In the case of the Brutes that would have made a far more epic enemy. In the case of the Hunters: it would give them a trick up their sleeves so we can’t go all Rambo “oh I’ve been playing for 10 years so I know exactly how to deal with them” predictably through the encounters with them.

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Another thing that should be mention is that all of the Hunters’ appearances in the games have given the advantage to the player. For example most Hunter encounters are initiated with intense warning music, and a relatively large distance is given between the player and the Hunters. I find that this takes away from the danger because it gives the player time to prepare, because they know that at least something dangerous is coming. It would definitely help with the feeling of danger if the Hunters came out of nowhere and surprised the player. For example you might have to turn the corner somewhere, and then without any warning, there would be two Hunters waiting for you around that corner.

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New Covenant Melee weapon: Dismembered Hunter spike.

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All I ask, is that I can grab onto the spike and board it like the back of wraith, and then shove a grenade up its back or punch the lekgolo like fighting a tank or killing the prophet in Halo 2.

OT: Well, its too late now for Halo 4 but I do think it would be cool to see the spikes as dangerous in Halo 5.

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Insanely excited that the game went gold!!

From all that we’ve seen, we know that 343I has a knack for altering existing elements to make them far more interesting. I’m sure they have noticed the pattern for Mgalekgolo and am really curious to see what they may/may not have done. CAN’T WAIT!!

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Dude you don’t even know, I made this account just now so that I could express the fact that I’m very very glad you made this thread. I’ve always loved hunters, they are easily my favorite covenant forces to fight. I remember the genuine fear that I felt the first time I fought hunters something like 10 years ago, how I was completely overwhelmed by them and essentially ran away. I also remember how, as I got better at the game, I actually viewed them as challenging yet fun encounters, even after I’d forgotten the fear. Of course, with time and over the successive games, fighting hunters became far too predictable a task. I loved the graphical overhaul of hunters in halo reach; it was wonderful finally seeing them at their true size , but sadly I felt they were still too easy to kill. At times, I’d rather fight two hunters than one elite, which I think should never EVER be the case, based on what I know about hunters. I definitely think their weaknesses are their excessive slowness and predictability, so it would be nice to see them be more agile and coordinate better so that their weak spots are much harder to target. One should be running AWAY from them, not toward them. Enough of this dodging business. Not that they should be invincible, but I’d like to actually recapture some sense of fear and/or challenge while fighting them. I hope 343i fulfills this wish. :slight_smile:

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Hunters still scare the -Yoink!- out of me sometimes. The sound of the fuel rod cannon charging still makes me cringe a bit, and there isn’t a feeling quite as satisfying as hearing that final groan and watching it fall.
I’d like to see a disintegration of the lekgolo as the hunter falls, leaving behind the armored shell and some dead critters. That would be pretty epic.

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> Dude you don’t even know, I made this account just now so that I could express the fact that I’m very very glad you made this thread. I’ve always loved hunters, they are easily my favorite covenant forces to fight. I remember the genuine fear that I felt the first time I fought hunters something like 10 years ago, how I was completely overwhelmed by them and essentially ran away. I also remember how, as I got better at the game, I actually viewed them as challenging yet fun encounters, even after I’d forgotten the fear. Of course, with time and over the successive games, fighting hunters became far too predictable a task. I loved the graphical overhaul of hunters in halo reach; it was wonderful finally seeing them at their true size , but sadly I felt they were still too easy to kill. At times, I’d rather fight two hunters than one elite, which I think should never EVER be the case, based on what I know about hunters. I definitely think their weaknesses are their excessive slowness and predictability, so it would be nice to see them be more agile and coordinate better so that their weak spots are much harder to target. One should be running AWAY from them, not toward them. Enough of this dodging business. Not that they should be invincible, but I’d like to actually recapture some sense of fear and/or challenge while fighting them. I hope 343i fulfills this wish. :slight_smile:

Thanks for saying what I was trying to say :slight_smile: I also want the fear of a Hunter encounter to return in Halo 4!!