Now before you all tell me that I’m crazy, I want you too think about it for a second.
If people loved 343 Guilty Spark, wouldn’t there be backlash when he attacked Sargent Johnson? I’m not saying that Cortana’s betrayal was similar too 343 Guilty Sparks betrayal, but think about that for a second.
Alright, now let’s break down why I like it, why I didn’t like it, and why I think people may not have liked it.
I like it because it was a turning point for the series, the focus wasn’t on John, it was on the plot in general, and showed how Halo could go on for Chief, however the backlash from how they did this may have drastically changed the plot of infinite, which is an effect we can’t see yet. I also liked it because it stood out and felt unique from the franchise. The graphics were superb, and well done.
I disliked it because of the last two levels, the plot of them was very guessable. “Alright that idiot Chief pressed on now we gotta save him.” Level 14’s final cutscene made Chief look helpless. So it fell apart at the end for me.
I think people would’ve hated it, beyond what I said earlier, because of Arbiter’s role, they wanted to play as Arbiter, which is understandable, but I also don’t hate that they didn’t let us, the game was taking a step back from the franchise’s past, it had too bring some loved characters out of it, and other loved characters closer too the canon, like Buck. This was disliked by a lot of people. I also think that a lot of people were unable too look past what the last two levels were. In my opinion, this would be one of the best Halo games if the last two levels were different, and in a way it is for me, because I can look past the events of the last two levels as the writers trying to innovate, and in effect seeing the player reaction and deciding what to do with the plot next, us disliking the plot leads too whatever infinite writes up, if we liked it, Chiefs story might have ended up coming to an end in Halo 6, and the focus being shifted to other characters. But that’s just my opinion.
It’s …complicated.
Without re-treading on points made years ago by others too much, to summarize the problems as best I can, the game was deceitful with how it was advertised, we were given the impression that Locke would be engaging in this climatic hunt for an AWOL Chief, poncho & all, but what we got was an underwhelming “hunt” which ultimately felt like Chief wasn’t too much of a concern, and instead had multiple plot threads brought up & dropped as they arrived, to this day the Guardians are nothing more than glorified props for the environment to many as they barely posted any threat to those involved in the story.
To add to that we were introduced to a ton of characters that are either brand new or required a third party source to understand who they were & this is troublesome for the average fan of the series who digests the story primarily through the games, on-top of that add in Warden Eternally Bland to the story who serves as a pretty boring engagement which dampens his impact to the story further, and it’s just a mess.
I think that’s the core problem, the story is just …messy.
fighting warden eternal over and over bacame boring
It wasn’t bad, it was just severely lacking.