The [ REDACTED ] Character should have been terrifying like the Witch Queen from Destiny and her minions instead of a like a throwaway "WIsh" version of the Khan Maykyr from Doom

Games Halo Infinite
1

[[[[ STORY SPOILERS ]]]

Regarding the Character, "The Harbinger"

A — The name “Harbinger” is cliche, already used by Mass Effect and MANY other Sci Fi books and media, and seems like a low-effort name, especially compared to some of the well crafted, unique and top tier names from the books which sound mysterious or interesting

B — Having the character introduced midway through the game and then defeated ( A FEW hours later in real time ) by the end without even knowing their full intentions ( besides being allied with the Brutes out of convenience ) feels cheap and nonsensical, and given the likelyhood that the Harbinger and/or endless are supposed to be a top tier threat, even by the forerunners, makes that not seem believable, given that the in-game presence of her character and support units didn’t feel formidable etc OR at least explained WHY the Harbinger and Endless are deemed such a threat

C — The visual design and armor of the Harbinger was too safe and standard looking, and felt too similar too the Khan Makyr from Doom, yet even less distinct and less unique and not terrifying like Destiny’s witch Queen which has a presence and show of power by controlling an entire region and army

D —The floating Octopus Monkeys look awesome but feel like pushovers in-game, a lot of the time just floating in place, which makes it even less believable that they overtook a MONITOR of a Halo ring who has legions of Sentinels at their disposal and their own powerful energy beam defense.

E — Other concepts of the Harbinger ( even other variations from the same artist that made her final look ) looked more interesting and memorable and “less safe” and more exciting than the final design choice

F — Having only those flying minions with lightning rifles made the Harbinger feel like a weak character/faction compared to other villains in the game who had legions of forces and I know it’s because the rest of the Endless aren’t unleashed yet, but they should have been, so at least it would have made the player feel like the Harbinger was an actual threat by experiencing the effects of encountering her Endless forces or the effects of her successfully starting to repair the ring and the consequences of that process beginning and effecting the map or stability of the island and environment

— SHOW us That the Harbinger is powerful and formidable, not just an “i wiLl uNleAsh tHe eNdleSs diAtRibE” cliche Villain speech followed by a boss battle and no payoff of encountering the Endless except as a tease for future DLC OR you could add tension by have her starting to successfully repair the Ring to create the suspense that she COULD succeed at gaining control of Halo and giving the Banished an operational superweapon instead of her already being defeated in half a game.

G— Teasing the Endless as her species of big bads even more dangerous than the flood fell flat by not having them unleashed in the game. It ruined the plot twist. Imagine if the flood was only teased or talked about in Combat Evolved instead of having the player fight for their lives against the new parasite threat

H---- Why would I think the Endless are dangerous if the Harbinger, even with help from the Banished, gets defeated easily by Chief and a Rookie AI within a few hours ???

I ---- Having Harbinger and her minions destroy the monitor of the installation right as chief arrived felt contrived and silly. A BETTER idea would have been for the monitor to be helping chief and guiding Master-chief through the facilities against the Banished before they are ambushed by the Harbinger and a huge contingent of her forces who followed them to try and lure them into a trap/ambush etc…

J — Having the Harbinger unleashed and grab control of systems, RIGHT as Chief just happens to be found by the pilot after MONTHS in space isn’t believable or plausible timing, it seems like a plot hole due to the unlikelyhood of Chief arriving just in time to save the day, —> unless they have some viable explanation for such luck that I happened to have missed in the story that makes the timing plausible

Conclusion:

It would have been more interesting to let the Harbinger get control of the spires, start repairing the ring, the Terrain starts to crumble and change as it is transformed, have Chief “lose” in battle against her but he lives and escapes in a Razorback or Warthog run as her terraforming starts to mess up the landscape and crumble it, and then have the ending with Chief linking up with Arbiter or other Spartans elsewhere to regroup and formulate a plan to stop the Harbinger before the spires complete the Ring repair as the Cliffhangar/Finale

The problem isn’t that Halo had the Harbinger as a character, just how the character was presented and handled. The Didact, 343 Guilty Spark and the flood felt like real threats because they either partially succeeded, had immense power in the game or did damage etc, wheras the Harbinger felt Nerfed compared to having had more potential in the game or displaying an ability to succeed and was defeated too quickly etc

2 Likes
2

I love how my post gets labelled as “bait”, yet I gave over a dozen reasons explaining my logic and reasoning why the Harbinger didn’t feel like a formidable or believable Villain and how that could have been improved or corrected so that her character felt more plausible or interesting and less like a predictable, generic, cliche sci-fi Villain trope

The Harbinger didn’t feel like anything special compared to the “generic floating Sci Fi Queen Matriarch who has a legion of baddies” type of Villains that we’ve seen in a million other sci fi games and stories like Gears of War or Doom Eternal, BOTH of which handled that Trope in a more interesting and skillful way, I mean come on, they even used the same Voice actress from Gears of War’s Locust Queen, so they could have at least make the Harbinger feel more Unique and compelling in SOME way that better demonstrates the Harbinger as a super powerful and formidable foe

For example, Gears of War’s Locust Queen was the Final Boss of the trilogy, not some pushover that you beat after a few hours and at least Destiny’s Witch Queen looks terrifying and has control over an entire realm and fortress and Legion of different troops, not just one new enemy type and the potential to unleash “The Endless” which we don’t even know what they are, yet, thus making the Harbinger seem less formidable even if they actually are “powerful” due to how her character is presented

4

LMAO, if anything your comment is bait, given a claim with no supporting argument or explanation

—Outdoor Environments were like 70% Hexagons, pine trees, grassand rocks that looked all the same shade of gray like Quarry rocks and the other foliage, although well done, was only mostly visible up close due too poor draw distance

— The Indoor Forerunner levels were great, but couldn’t offset the lack of variety and large foliage in the islands

— Escharum’s main hook was wanting a WWE fight with Chief when he coulda just nuked chief from one of his many ships above the Islands

— Pilot was OK, good voice actor, but annoying af with his doom and gloom scaredy cat “I’m only a Civie” BS

— Cortana destroying a whole planet with a few Guardians is implausible, and ruins chances to take the fight to the Banished Homeworld, and makes her Character just seem silly and just randomly nuking this or that to avoid having actual story of the created controlling the galaxy. Having her just crack the crust of the Brute Home-world as a warning to Atriox would be more logical, and allow for future missions to take place there, esp given the Guardians likely wouldn’t be powerful enough to destroy an entire planet but could def mess up the upper surface of a world

— Game coulda had a Warthog run finale to at least make it feel somewhat epic for the last level

— OH, and SOMEHOW, after Chief was gone for days and teleported to a floating rock THOUSANDS of miles away from the edge of the Halo Ring, the Pilot was MAGICALLY able to fly his Pelican to Chief’s location in the desert Biome in a MERE FEW SECONDS. Not even possible unless the pilot also teleported with/near Chief which still wouldn’t make sense

1 Like
5

The harbinger is a perfect all new original character that doesn’t need no man. With that out of the way here’s why the weapon should be the new protagonist of Halo

6

Don’t mind them, that’s the usual troll. Their name refers to me, lol.

Personally I’m neutral on The Harbinger but… Eh, I think she served her purpose. Probably could have been done better.

2 Likes
7

The Harbinger was not horrible, just cliche and boring.

1 Like
8

Yeah this isn’t the first time we have coincidence, like in Halo 3, the flood ship arrive on earth just after the covenant open the portal, or High Charity who arrive on the arch just when we take down the shield around the Citadel

And yes, the Harbinger and the skrimmer were terribly weak compare to the banished, it’s hard to see them as a big threat

1 Like
9

it doesn’t help that she fills a similar role to previous “new big bass” by 343, doesn’t help as soon as she was introduced she died.

1 Like
10

Honestly, I don’t think they should keep leaning too hard into this ancient aliens stuff. I didn’t like the Didact being alive, he was a pretty pathetic villain and I thought the mystery of the forerunner was way more interesting than the reality. The prometheans are ok by me because they’re robots, they just need cleaner/simpler visual designs and less aggravating gameplay mechanics.

On the subject of squid lady and the endless, I really have no opinion because there is nothing there. She is basically just a hype woman for whatever new ancient aliens 343 wants to introduce, with a boss fight that feels like a remix of Tartarus with a less interesting arena and more annoying adds.

If they need new enemy factions, they can always just invent new “modern” aliens, or even add variety to the individual covenant races/factions. The prophets are a literal goldmine here; they have the perfect setup for a racial vendetta against Chief and humanity as a whole for preventing the Great Journey, as well as against the elites for breaking the Covenant. How cool would it be to see covenant goon squads lead directly by enraged prophet shock troops howling curses and threats at you.

Or how about a rebel faction of grunts who stole a bunch of gear and went mad max on it, with cobbled together power suits outfitted with machine guns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers and the like to show these guys are seeking safety in extreme firepower? Or renegade hunters with variable sizes, maybe splitting up pairs into larger groups of mini hunters or combining them into super hunters, all decked out in forerunner metal armor and hard light weapons? Or maybe even have human factions as enemies, like they teased with the marketing for H5.

The sky is the limit, and it just cheapens the entire concept of the Halo Rings every time they introduce a new ancient alien menace that was locked away and somehow survived the galactic reset button, rather than doing something actually interesting.

11

On the subject of Infinite vs Witch Queen, the Legendary campaign in Destiny is much more difficult imo, and the bosses are far more threatening, even if I whooped the Hive guardians. LASO in Infinite was a speedrun.

Destiny also always introduces a new faction or big bad, but it never felt like they forced it into the story. It always felt natural and made sense to the lore. In 343’s Halo, really nothing makes sense to the lore or continuity, even with a massive info dump like in Halo 4.

The art direction in Destiny is also gorgeous, and I just had to stop and admire the details and scenery constantly throughout the campaign, which happens every DLC, since Destiny is always gorgeous. Meanwhile, I didn’t stop really at all in Infinite, since almost nothing caught my attention, and all just looked… realistically dull and uninteresting. Not sure who decided to make Canada on Hexagons the theme of the Zeta Halo. Feels very lacking in the sci-fi element.

My last comparison would be how Destiny 1 came out in 2014 and Destiny 2 came out in 2017, with multiple expansions, and Halo 5 came out in 2015, while Halo Infinite came out “early” at the end of 2021, with no content. For the sake of context, Infinite is a rebuild of the 5 engine in a similar way that Destiny 2 was a rebuild of the Destiny 1 engine, to better suit the live service model they had in mind. Destiny succeeded with an engine easy to update, bugfix, and roll back if necessary, while Infinite seems to be a mule for 343 to fix anything. Furthermore, in the 5 years of Destiny 2, we have gotten an enormous amount of content, in the form of DLC, seasons, and events. In Infinite, with the same amount of years of production, and a larger budget, we have a skeleton of a game, barely able to function, and no new content in 1/3 of a year.

I don’t even have to compare Destiny 2 and Infinite, I can compare Halo 5 to Infinite, and still see a far larger spring and summer launch content roadmap.

Really makes you think.

Also the Warzone bosses in Halo 5 were far more difficult and interesting than all the bosses in Infinite.

1 Like
12

this is the baity-est bait i have ever read on this forum