My concession is how you claim to understand the practice of writing yet fail to follow your own advice, and rather, act like you’re some benevolent figurehead in literature, like you’re all that and a bag of chips.
Regardless, you, again, failed to consider that Brian Reed may not be the sole perpetrator in Halo 5’s weak narrative. Is it possible for you to contemplate that he may not have been an influential narrative director, and conceded on a number of fronts with the rest of the writing committee and the suits above him? Even though he champions the story itself based on the source-material, the head above him can still make him change it for any reason they deem fit. I highly doubt that he set out to write a bad story, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt, not crucifixion. I remember the speculation floating around that Halo 5 was heavily rewritten very late into its development, and if true, then he had to work under a major crunch. I’m sure the major storybeats of Halo 5 were already in place before Reed got his hands on it.
The meat of all of this is that your complaints about Halo 5 are pretty surface-level and aren’t expanded upon:
This is opinionated, not an objective criticism. It’s not something you can argue for or against because it’s literally a matter of taste.
As though your suspension of disbelief for Halo’s universe draws a line to something like this, almost arbitrarily because there are numerous ridiculous instances in every Halo game that stretches Newtonian mechanics. It’s as though this complaint is founded in bias and hypocrisy when the other games are just as culpable.
Which would be the scrawlings of someone I’d consider to not have the sufficient punditry in the art of music. Music is literally defined as repetition, melody, and rhythm, something you’ve somehow found to be an issue when (again) literally every game with music does. It’s also weird to complain about the abundance of “strings” . . . Do we not play the same franchise??
Which, in spite of everything else, is a valid complaint about the campaign experience. But it isn’t conducive to narrative quality because it’s merely different perspectives. However they are weighted really doesn’t matter provided those perspectives ask questions, build tension, release catharsis, experience change. And in the context of a video game, what you’re really complaining about is the colour of your hands holding your weapon. There’s no rule stating that there cannot be more than one protagonist, nor that a protagonist cannot be replaced.
Overlooking everything else, I’ll address a few things.
Could this have motivated ‘Mdama’s being killed-off? Or did they misinterpret Spartan Ops’ receptoion?
What about the numerous plot-holes you’ve left out? The implication that you didn’t properly review the source material, upending your story as a concept? What about the clichés you’ve implemented yet chastised the original script for the doing the same? What about your spotty narrative structure? What about the sudden change in certain characters? What about the overly large cast you’ve included? What about the length itself (it’s so ridiculously long, I checked out like I checked out of the Snyder Cut)? Among everything else?
The issue is how proud you are of this deeply flawed CONCEPT, which you’re touting as the long-awaited revision to Halo 5! Where do you find such pride?
Don’t call your work “proper”. Let critics do that.
As observed, you haven’t considered the source material.
https://youtu. be/uh6flvefc5M?t=770
Remove the space.
The cutscene that plays in the middle of the mission Blue Team, I’ve provided a timestamp with that link.
“The Domain is open, Meridian is next!” -Cortana
Maybe they didn’t question it like no one questioned Chief’s hallucinations in Halo 3.
“Nintendo announces that Mario and Luigi are now no longer going to be dressed in their iconic attire. Now they will be dressed as modern plumbers and be rendered photo-realistically.”
“Dr. Gordon Freeman of Half-Life has shaved his goatee and is now dressed in tron-style armor.”
“The newest Doom Game will now have cel-shaded graphics and Doomguy is fighting cyborgs instead of demons.”
“The new Legend of Zelda will now feature Link wielding a mace instead of a sword, and he will be voiced by Nolan North.”
Unnecessary changes that are made with complete disregard to a franchise’s identity is thankfully a rare problem. You already have something that is both recognizable, has been rooted in the culture you are selling high profits towards, and it works well.
Redesigning it from the ground up for little to no reason whatsoever wastes production time, your budget, and ends up angering all those who are already dedicated to the franchise.
That is not an opinion. That is factual truth.
Suspension of disbelief is something that is important to keep in mind.
The more realistic your game looks, the closer to reality people wish to see it be.
Take cartoons for example.
Plenty of characters work great within a cartoon setting. But not all of them can come to live-action and be made believable. It took YEARS of trial-and-error for Marvel and DC to get comic book movies down to a stable formula.
There are literally a few songs of Halo 5 that have entirely seperate structure, but because they reuse the same exact setup; they blend into one another too easily.
Yes, Halo CE, 2, and 3 reused soundtracks; but that is because they had a few edits to them that made them fit in certain areas for a vista reveal or a cinematic. But Halo 5 has a few combat soundtracks that don’t leave me feeling inspired or badass or just vibing as I fight enemies. It just feels like generic filler so the speakers aren’t just spewing gunshots.
I doubt that.
He was the main focus of the Escalation comics and a few novels, being clearly set up as a major antagonist… only to die off almost instantly.
So it was pretty much a middle-finger to those of us who read the extra material and actually saw a decently set up antagonist just die like a common NPC.
I call it “proper” because instead of just cutting out plot threads that were set up in Halo 4 (Didact returning and the Janus Key) I found ways to implement them.
I call it proper because instead of Fireteam Osiris being a hodge podge of two sensible characters and two characters that don’t fit; I managed to introduce a means of making them actually fit in.
I call it proper because instead of playing as the main series protagonist 1/5 of the time, I make it closer to 50/50 for a dual-narrative AND I provide more than one encounter between Blue Team and Osiris during the story of two teams with conflicting goals.
Ah… I will admit that slipped by me.
BUT STILL
Blue Team doesn’t question it.
They know Cortana was gone.
They know that Chief has been working non-stop for six months or more.
They just fell and bonked thier heads.
Vision transmission or just a hallucination of the mind? Which is more likely?
They basically have done this in each of your examples.
Mario and Luigi were largely revised from their original NES designs specifically, even their colour palettes changed.
Doom underwent many changes especially with the reboot, they’re not complaining last I checked.
Link underwent design changes in literally every Zelda game, and he can even wield a mace in BOTW. Also, remember the days of WIND WAKER??
Everything in Halo remained just as recognizable, and just like any other franchise that manages to last more than a decade, they change. Look at Mortal Kombat, changing its style with every release. God of War, completely revamping everything about itself and winning GOTY in 2018. It’s not a fAcTuAlLy bad thing if they’re well-received. Halo just doesn’t have the luxury of a mature audience that can parse reality and experience growth. “Enjoy your mediocre Halo Infinite! We did literally nothing special with anything this time around!”
Halo retained its identity even with such a drastic change, that’s the nature of a spiritual reboot. Master Chief remained the poster-boy of the Xbox brand and no one confused him for something else. Do you hate change so much you’re willing to see it fail? Or do you hate failure so much you’re willing to change?
It’s an opinion, and many opinions are influenced by one’s experience. People amplify good memories and bad memories, often to extremes that are completely far and away what they actually remember. To the point their nostalgia disallows them to consider anything else, and treat change with unfettered adversity. I like creativity, you like uniformity. That’s an opinion.
Yet just previously, you complained about the art style not looking like it used to, which anyone with eyes would consider to be less realistic. Grav lifts are okay. Grapplehooks are okay. Galaxy-ending super-weapons are okay. But thrusters moving something half a ton? Nooooooo.
Despite this complaint, 343i’s art designers are renown for their attention to detail and making cool designs that also make sense. Explain to me how a diaper is protective AND ergonomic, there’s a reason there is no diaper-like armor in history (mobility!).
Wow like literally every Halo game! And most games! And most albums!
Which is, also, opinionated. Perhaps you prefer O’Donnell’s four-chord progressive basic melodies, perhaps I prefer Jinnouchi’s orchestral emsembles, or Davidge’s variety.
Huh, reminds me of Truth. Of Miranda. Of the Arbiter (being underutilized in Halo 3). Or even the fact that O’Donnell just decided that it was Johnson’s time to die. Oh wait, they killed off Rookie in a book too, huh? What if, the powers that be, 'Mdama was never as big as he seemed?
And you did it poorly, so it ain’t proper. You made the Didact good for no reason, and you made the Janus key an even bigger MacGuffin than in Spartan Ops. Just cause you did something with them doesn’t mean you did something good.
Immeidately after the cutscene, Fred exclaims “That’s impossible” and even Chief is in denial.
It’s only by the time that they requested permission to be relocated to Meridian that Lasky, over comms, states “Negative 117. Another team is already being prepped to deal with her.”
Thus confirming their suspicion. Please, review the source material.
Mario and Luigi weren’t as massive of cultural icons as they are now. When videogames were just starting, people were viewing it as a fad and even to some a waste of money. Now that just about everyone in the world knows about Mario, changing the design would be ruinous.
Doom 2016 did indeed change the art design. But then they doubled back on it in Doom Eternal, making sure that the art style of the game was reminiscent of the spritework of classic Doom, so much so that now Doomguy’s arms are exposed again and the enemies are tailored to look more like thier sprites; but now in HD 3D quality.
Ah yes Link. From 1986 to 2017 - the iconic Green Tunic was the main outfit; with occasional other outfits here and there depending on the game. It wasn’t until Tri-Force Heroes that clothing changes became such a central gameplay point. And even though Breath of the Wild features heavily the cyan-blue Champion’s Tunic, it is still a reward to be given his own set of green garbs to wear.
And yes, I am aware that playing New Game Plus on Wind-Waker lets you adventure in the Outset Island Casuals.
False.
Halo 4 ported over the Mounted Machine Gun Turret, Scorpion, Ghost, Wraith, and Mongoose designs from Halo Reach.
Everything else was redesigned to be almost entirely different or just different enough to fit the unnecessary art style change.
On the lower end of the redesign spectrum, you have the DMR, Assault Rifle, and Magnum; which are practically the way they are supposed to be designed.
Then we have things like the rest of the arsenal and the multiplayer armors. Every single other gun in the game, even the Plasma Pistol, were redesigned to be extremely different in visual design.
You have indeed some helmets that are designed to be obviously based on their Gen-I counterparts. The Mark VI, the Mark V, EOD, EVA, Recon, Scout, Gungnir, Air Assault, and ODST. But then you have other helmets that were entirely altered from their designs in previous games. HAZOP, Operator, Commando, and Rogue.
Bear in mind, this isn’t counting the armor design, just helmets.
Literally if we covered Master Chief’s head in all promotional materials and removed the name of “Halo 4” from posters, it looks like generic Sci-Fi armor as NONE of the geometry or visual cues looks like Halo.
And then we look to the rest of the armor roster alone and nothing looks right.
Halo 3, which was a bit cartoonish at times with its cosmetics, still had an air to reality with the designs of the armor and helmets. Why does a visor that goes vertical from your chin to your hairline exist in the Wetwork helmet? How does a human head fit into the Stalker helmet?
You mention the “suspension of disbelief” in a previous post.
Why was it disregarded entirely when it came to armor design in Halo 4 and Halo 5?
I dunno. The visual design of the characters still remain pretty intact. And better yet, they always provide our classic outfits with an HD touchup.
Mortal Kombat 1 Ninja Outfits
A reboot happens if a sequel hasn’t come out in a decade and you want to revitalize the IP, the core audience is gone or at least heavily diminished and a new audience is needed.
Dark Void
Dead Space
Doom
Deus Ex
Halo Reach came out in 2010 and Halo 4 came out in 2012. A two year gap between one major installment and the next.
Halo didn’t “retain it’s identity” with Halo 4. It literally became something else.
Ammo supply is heavily diminished, even for energy weapons. The Plasma Pistol used to take 10 shots to go from 100% to 99%, but now it takes ONE SHOT to go from 100% to 98% !! Literally consuming 20x as much ammo-per-shot!
Enemy shields recharge at a fixed rate no matter the difficulty.
Melee attacks from enemies are undodgeable and are insta-kills
Enemies received reworks so the plasma pistol was a nightmare tool on Heroic and Legendary.
Prometheans were unfun to fight as Watchers and Knights were the most aggredious offenders.
Halo’s Sandbox was all about a mix of weapons that all filled a role, but all were capable at doing the task at hand. Fighting Hunters? You could use the Magnum, Rockets, or Sniper to insta-kill them; or you could have a descent fight with regular guns and burn through ammo to take them down with skills of evasion. But lets look at Halo 4.
Most levels, you pick up the LightRifle and almost exclusively use it at a distance to pick off enemies instead of having the full option of actually fighting up close; because the melee strikes are turned up in both damage and animation speed to be undodgeable. It is COMICAL that the campaign gives you Thruster Packs and says “use these to fight the Hunters”… only to make it so you move so slowly and such a low distance that their shield swipe will kill you anyway most of the time. It goes to show that the A.I. programmers and the Armor Ability programmers weren’t really coordinating.
And then the multiplayer.
LOADOUTS
IN
MULTIPLAYER.
Halo fans want to play HALO
If they want to play Call of Duty, they will buy CALL OF DUTY.
If they want to play Halo, they will buy HALO.
If they want to play both, NO ONE WANTS TO HAVE THE TWO MERGE TOGETHER AS AN ABOMINATION ! They will literally just buy both games and play one or the other depending on their mood or what their squad friends want to do that day.
Halo 4 was a failure.
The daily player statistics are evidence enough of that, not to mention the fact that they cancelled 2/3 of the DLC planned for years 2 and 3 of the game AND Seasons 2 & 3 of Spartan-Ops.
For context, Halo 3 at over a year later had a peak population of 1,808,888 players online in a single day.
Halo 4 however never reached past 420,000 players online. Literally they peaked on DAY TWO after launch. And a year later, they were just shy of 20,000 players online.
Let’s say we go to a diner.
Lets assume this diner is also strange in that you have to pay first before you are served, a policy to prevent dine-&-dashers.
It is the breakfast special so we order pancakes with syrup, a side of bacon, and eggs.
Simple yet satisfying.
You then see your plate arrive and… … your waiter gives you a plate of Waffles, butter with powdered sugar, a cut of ham, and a slice of chicken.
And then when you complain about the service you have received, the kitchen staff responds with: “You got your fried dough, something sweet on top of it, a cut of pig, and something from a chicken. Why are you complaining?”
The Kitchen staff purposely screwed up your order and acts like it is entirely acceptable, gaslighting you even by saying that they worked hard on the meal and you already paid, that this is technically what you wanted.
THAT is what happened to all the Halo fans.
We asked for Halo.
343 Industries gave us instead a generic sci-fi shooter and slapped the Halo label on it.
And they act surprised when their player population and sales are low, that the voices on social media and youtube bash them for their work.
I find it funny how Halo 4 technically sold 9-million world-wide… but it never even passed half-a-million in daily player population. I wonder… would they publish the number of refunds that were requested from angry customers?
I like creativity as well, but there are certain restraints one must apply when creating within a certain established narrative and fictional world.
Why do you think the least-liked Call of Dutys are the mobilty shooter CoDs that attempted to copy Titanfall?
Sudden unannounced and unprovoked change is a terrible business tactic and it amazes me that dozens of franchises did it in the 2010s. I call it the Jealousy Gambit. A gamble of attracting more players by redesigning your work. But all you do is reel in about 1/3 the standard customers and now you are wasting your money.
You haven’t seen the Codpiece craze of the Medieval Era have you? It was literally a fashion trend to have custom designed codpieces to protect your groin as a Knight of the realm.
As for attention to detail?
If you look at the finalized concept art of the Foehammer helmet, the forehead isn’t nearly as massive as the 3D render.
If you look at the Breaker helmet, how come the visor stretches over your head like a headband? Isn’t a helmet supposed to provide protection to the wearer? Also why does that helmet also have a visor on the BACK OF YOUR HEAD?? Is the helm called “Breaker” because it is designed to just break upon first impact?
Had they truly paid attention to detail, the Noble Armor would actually resemble Carter’s Armor.
And how does it make sense to have no chest armor for the Goblin body in Halo 5 Guardians? Your Spartan isn’t wearing armor, they are wearing a metal bikini. And what of the FOTUS helmet? How does a unicorn horn make sense on an armored super-soldier?
Fun fact for you here.
Halo 3 is just Halo 2’s cut final act, slightly tweaked, and extended.
Truth was a compelling antagonist and an egotist who died after having plenty of spotlight.
Miranda sadly suffered death like her father. And quite frankly, it is a LOT better than what Bungie originally wanted with her character (be spiteful to Chief and strap a bomb to his back in an earlier draft of Halo 2, sending him into the flood infested area to confront the Gravemind with an ultimatum.)
Arbiter wasn’t underutilized if you played co-op.
O’Donnell was a sound designer and musician, not a writer.
Rookie dying off was the blunder of both Matt Forbeck and Brian Reed. Brian filled out the guidelines for the book, Matt did the writing work.
They spent so much time with the character, building him up to be an antagonist worthy of at least dying off by Act-II of Halo 5… instead he dies like a pansy because Brian Reed decided he was growing bored and wanted to swap antagonists again with no foreshadowing. Hence why Jul 'Mdama died like all antagonists that Brian writes : at the start of the next story arc and not at the middle or end of one like they should.
Didact wasn’t good, you clearly didn’t read my document.
He feigned being good to manipulate Chief into thinking he was now an ally so Chief would continue on his path and then make his betrayal known.
The Janus Key is used to find forerunner artifacts. I used it as intended, allowing someone to find something specific that they would be wanting to look for. Brian Reed literally created the thing and instead of utilizing it to its potential, he had it destroyed in the comics before any use could be properly made of it. So basically there is no reason to play Halo 4 Spartan-Ops other than to introduce a single relevant character : Jul 'Mdama.
Cute.
It was “UNSC Comms” that informed Blue Team of that fact, not Lasky. Thomas was busy at the time with discussing things with Dr. Halsey. The Comms Officer did a blunder that confirmed their suspicions. Play with subtitles to know who is talking next time.
a spin off and a prequel, Halo 5 was a continuation of Chief’s story from 4, it is reasonable enough to have the expectation that we’d still be following him as advertised, as for ODST and Reach, those set different expectations due to what they are.