Best freaking comment I’ve ever read.
Excellent analysis
As someone who has played over 25,000 multiplayer matches accross all Halo title I have to say this is 343i’s WORST Halo game.
Halo 4 was amazing. Decent campaign. Multiplayer was FUN. It wasn’t perfect, but it felt smooth and had decent maps, and AMAZING graphics for being on the 360.
Halo 5 had a lousy story execution, but good cutscenes, solid multiplayer, Warzone was awesome and it had Forge available and cool weapon and vehicle variants.
THE Warzone maps were AWESOME.
Halo Infinite is horrible. Absolutely horrible. Unplayable multiplayer. Weapon balance issues. Vehicle physics except for the ghost are horrible. Barely any maps. Mediocre story. Didn’t resolve plot points set up in Halo 5 which could have been AWESOME to fight the Created, Guardians etc. AND after 6 years of Dev time, still no Firefight, Warzone, Co-op or Forge yet AND no roadmap.
Halo 4 and 5 are far better OVERALL, if not as well “polished” in terms of art style, customization depth and details and Options.
Halo Infinite has good options and customization, but the monetization, map variety, lacking of game modes and maps is atrocious…
And the campaign was mediocre ASF.
Your point?
There have only been two games since Halo Wars 2 -
- Halo Fireteam Raven
- Halo Infinite
Halo Wars served as the introduction to the faction.
Halo Infinite is our major conflict with the bulk of the faction.
That is a fallacy.
Star Wars Episode IV never mentioned the Sith.
Darth Vader was only just some guy who was knowledgeable in the Force and used it for evil purposes and promoted the Empire.
It wasn’t until Episode V where we see Emperor Palpatine and not until Episode 6 we get to see him use actual force powers.
Episode 1 came afterwards and THEN we get mention of the Sith.
Literally what I have said in previous replies to this thread - Stories are often built up upon as you go along. They aren’t all planned out from start to finish before the first work is published.
Originally Darth Vader was just a bad force user. And then then George Lucas decided to expand on the universe he created; especially since his movie was surprisingly successful.
The Banished follow Atriox.
Atriox witnessed Cortana destroy Doisac.
Atriox hates Cortana and her creators.
Atriox seeks to punish Cortana and her creators while fulfilling his goals that will be revealed in Part 2 of Halo Infinite.
The Banished are fulfilling his orders and continue to capture Humans that had survived the fall of the UNSC Infinity and punish them.
The irony is that they say they do not worship a god. Escharum says that the Banished follow no higher power. And yet as you explore Halo Infinite and play the game, it is clear that the Banished look to Atriox as a martyr. There are spires with just Atriox’s recordings being broadcasted and in the first mission you see holograms of Atriox on display with words praising his ideology being said from recordings.
Irony.
The logs exist to help build the world and make it feel a bit more lived in. You have been absent for six months. People don’t just sit around and do nothing. They answer questions and provide subtle hints here and there.
For example, the line the Harbinger says in one of the logs “I shall ask and you shall listen” has people wondering if the Xalalyn are descendants of the Precursors in some regard.
You hear Escharum recall a dream he had where he was back on Doisac in a location he knew well from his youth and he wakes up from this dream to a world where all he knew has been shattered.
You get answers to who the dead Spartans were and what they were doing before your arrival on Zeta Halo.
The logs are extra story bits that provide context to the world you explore.
The Main Covenant doesn’t exist. But there is still the Storm Covenant that exists as a shadow of the original faction that they came from.
Just because you kill the leaders of a faction doesn’t mean that you defeated said faction, as members that are abroad and on other planets will continue to believe and fight the religious war and declare the killers of their leaders to be heathens and heretics.
Which is what Jul 'Mdama found when he escaped from the UNSC and found himself on a backwater Covenant world that hadn’t been informed of the Prophet’s deaths and their defeat. He was able to rally them for a new cause as he would fight Humanity and use the notion of religion as a tool to motivate his armies.
Again, he hates Humans for building the thing that took over the galaxy and destroyed his home. Are you saying that if Aliens had a superweapon and destroyed Earth and we had Humans that survived the event, those humans wouldn’t show hatred and distain towards the Aliens?
And all questions will be answered in Halo Infinite when the story is complete.
Again, we are only able to play PART ONE currently.
Part Two will be releasing likely sometime in the next 2 years.
5 years is a long time. Bungie covered a lot more ground. You’re saying they’ve only just introduced the faction when they haven’t. Because they haven’t done anything interesting with them. You feel like they’ve just been introduced because they’ve done so little.
It’s supposition and you filling in blanks to say that they want to destroy humanity as some weird irrational revenge for creating Cortana. Atriox and Eshcarum never specifically blame humanity for this. Eshcarum simply uses it as an example of how the Banished are stronger. He doesn’t try to blame Chief. Atriox only attacks Chief in order to get back at Cortana as some weird petty revenge. Despite all the propaganda towers and speeches this is not mentioned at all. What we get is mostly look how awesome and powerful we are. Cortana feels responsible for in some way causing the Banished threat. However, we don’t know the context or chronology of these events. Some people say Doisac is destroyed after Halo Wars 2 and even Shadows of Reach. Plus the Dossiers tell us the Banished campaign and needless barbarism began long before Cortana was a thing. It’s just as likely she destroyed Doisac because they were already that evil. Again, you’re filling in blanks because 343 have not provided an explanation for the Banished attacking humanity.
Also, just as an aside. If that is 343 intent and I am sure I suggested something like that years back on a topic. Like they might want to kill humans to stop them making Smart AI. It’s poor story telling that the heroes don’t call them out on how dumb and hypocritical that position is. If Atriox went back in time and destroyed Cortana for example he and everything else in the Galaxy would be dead from either the Covenant firing Halo or the Flood. I don’t see him lining up to thank humanity for saving them from his pathetic species mistakes. But ohh, I want revenge on humanity for putting the galaxy at risk…
To make a comparison. Look at the Helghast from Killzone. You are told in the first cutscene why they hate the ISA and what their grievances are. How that’s twisted by their tyrannical leader towards evil. You do not have the same with why the Banished hate humanity. Its mentioned a few times and mostly it’s related to our perception of Cortana. It’s not like 343 is being more subtle. They had the big cutscene to tell you who the Banished were in Halo Wars 2. They just left out why that has anything to do with them killing humans and declaring an unprovoked war on the UNSC.
If humanity was a fascist military junta led by a Warlord that was massacring innocent alien species because they want power; plus cannibalism for good measure? No, Cortana would be well in her rights to attack such a state and it would be hypocritical for humanity to claim to be the victim in those circumstances. Such a state is not legitimate and should be attacked. Especially since the Banished hold any morality and law in contempt. You’re downplaying how evil the Banished are. It’s even more absurd to blame the people who created something that powerful. Like you’re too weak to deal with the problem yourself so you lash out at the nearest thing in rage. It’s pathetic. Something which the heroes should be sarcastically remarking on rather than lending dignity to it. But yeah they would have no right to blame an alien species that created your hypothetical dangerous weapon.
Two years? So a full development cycle? I thought you were the glass half full guy here. Halo Infinite is obviously intended to be like Destiny 2. Yes, you don’t beat the Darkness in the intitial campaign. But you are given a complete narrative in which you free the Last City and kill Ghaul the leader of Red Legion. That is a complete narrative and it’s one that is resolved. What Halo Infinite did was spin the wheel, kill two intro villains and leave out introducing both the main villain Atriox and this threat not entering the stage. It’s not even a complete chapter 1.
You want to compare Bungie’s time with Halo to 343’s time?
HA !
Of course it is no contest that Bungie wins that argument!
Bungie packed EVERYTHING you needed in the games. If you wanted to learn more about key-words or the origins of someone, you read a couple books. In Bungies time with the Halo universe, they released 6 novels, Halo Evolutions, a Graphic Novel anthology, and 4 stand-alone comic books.
343 Industries has a storytelling model that is terrible for your average gamer, since most of the actual story contexts are hidden away in novels and comics.
26 NOVELIZATIONS
1 Anthology Book
7 Comic Book Lineups
1 Graphic Novel
Add on top of that actual movies, and you have 4 movies provided by 343 Industries and a TV Show
- Halo Legends
- Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
- Halo: Nightfall
- Halo: The Fall of Reach
- Paramount+ Halo
(I would also like to count Halo: Hunt The Truth but I cannot, since that audio series failed because the marketing writers for that series were working off of the original script and NOT Brian Reed’s rewrite, so it might as well be considered non-canon.)
Meanwhile all Bungie pushed out movies wise was detailed trailers with the most notable being the Museum themed trailers to promote Halo 3.
If you read the books, you gain full context of the story. However, with 343’s model it leads to most players not having an understanding of what happens between games simply for the fact that most gamers are voluntarily illerterate because they want to play videogames and not read books. As a result, I would estimate that only 10% of all players know what is actually going on while the majority of fans are clueless.
343 jumps the games around by years. Halo CE led pretty much directly into Halo 2, and Halo 2 did led directly into Halo 3.
But Halo 4 has a time-gap of 4 years-7 months-10 days. And Halo 5 nearly a year and a half after Halo 4. Then Halo Infinite takes place in 2060.
We started this franchise in 2552 and ended it in 2553. Halo Wars let us see 2530 and that was as far deviant the story got in terms of time. That one dip into the past. But 343’s time period covers a 7 year time-span from 2553 to 2560 in the terms of the games.
343’s model is worse than Bungie’s because gamers want to have all the information available with the option of reading the books to understand a little more context. For players of Halo CE and Halo 2, we know that Reach was at least something important. Reading the book of The Fall of Reach gives us an overview of Master Chief’s history and shows how important Reach truly was while leading directly into Halo CE.
Meanwhile playing Halo 5 required the following to understand what happened between Halo 4 and Halo 5 -
- Play Halo 4: Spartan-Ops
- Play Halo 2 Anniversary to get those small cutscenes with Locke and Arbiter. Maybe even a few terminals.
- Watch Halo Nightfall
- Watch Halo Fall of Reach
- Read Halo New Blood
- Read Halo Last Light
- Read Halo Hunters in the Dark
- Read EVERY ISSUE of Halo Escalation
- Supposedly watch the trailers of the Hunter/Hunted marketing campaign
- Supposedly listen to a SIX HOUR LONG AUDIO SERIES called Halo Hunt the Truth
What context do I need between Halo CE and Halo 2? If I want to know the details of how Johnson survived the Flood and how that Longsword managed to get to Earth, I just had to read one book:
Halo: First Strike
And even if I didn’t read the book, I still have full context of what is going on. In the last game, we escaped the destruction of Halo and said we were heading home and just getting started.
Halo 2 picks up with us getting home, be rewarded medals and Chief getting a new suit.
NO
CONTEST.
Read the books.
Listen to the audiologs of Halo Infinite.
You will get the answers you seek.
ALSO
“Irrational Revenge”? That is entirely subjective because EVERY VILLAIN’S motives ever written can be described as irrational simply because your method of thinking doesn’t lead to the same conclusion as theirs.
Sauron from the Lord of the Rings wants power and to spread darkness. Why? BECAUSE HE IS THE VILLAIN AND EVIL ! Either way he is going to destroy the world you know, so you have to put a stop to his actions; thus we get an adventure!
She literally in a cutscene destroyed Doisac because Atriox wouldn’t bend a knee to her and comply with her demands.
Which was overkill because Atriox isn’t an authority of Doisac. He is a leader of a faction that is unaffiliated with any organization such as a government or religion. His refusal resulted in the death of millions that weren’t “evil”.
Are Jiralhanae more prone to violence than Humans? Yes. But can they be reasoned with? It depends on which ones you are talking to.
I am pretty sure that knowing Atriox, he would want to go back in time to undo the destruction of Doisac. If time-travel is even a focus of his motives.
The Banished aren’t a state. They are a rogue faction. Even the authorities of Doisac don’t want them running about in space.
Yes two years.
Another Open World map for us to explore, writing to edit and finalize, new voice actors to bring in and voice dialogue, cutscenes to produce and polish.
PLUS
There is a chance that we might be receiving mini-campaing DLCs to describe other stories and not overload Master Chief’s story. For example -
- The Guardian to the south in the Vista of Halo Infinite might be of importance.
- Where did the UNSC Infinity go? Is it somewhat salvageable for repairs or do we need to wrest it from The Banished? Was Roland a rogue AI sleeper-agent or was he actually loyal to the UNSC?
- Blue Team was sent out on their mission 6 months ago. Are they searching for the Halo Ring?
- What happened to Captain Lasky, Roland, and Commander Palmer?
These will either be questions answered in Novels, Comics, a mini-DLC story mode where we have classic linear levels 100% of the time, or we will see them answered in the Seasonal Cinematics.
Escharum was a cartoonish villain that was meant to be a target as a de-facto leader of The Banished in Atriox’s absence.
The Harbinger sent a signal out during your fight with her and located The Endless. So we can assume that Atriox received her signal because of the epilogue cutscene.
The epilogue revealed that Atriox is alive, pissed, and is about to unleash The Endless.
That is called “Setting up the next act in the story”.
Escharum and The Harbinger are dead.
But Atriox is still very much alive and about to unleash the Xalalyn.
The threat still looms over us and we have only just begun.
How are you upset about a story that is still unfolding?
The status of Doisac, the political situation of the Banished and the extent of Atrioxs control over the planet is not explained. We are given no context behind those events. He could be anything from the Emperor of the Brutes to Cortana doing it to spite a random Brute Chieftain.The Banished in the comic rise of Atriox where he has a single ship is not the same organisation as what we are fighting now. They’re implied to be Covenant 2.0. So they must have some of the features of a state. Perhaps the Encyclopedia will explain this. However the recent canon fodder article mentioning this does say that after Doisac goes boom the Banished main base becomes the Ark and Zeta. So we don’t know the complicity of the Brutes and their government in the Banished actions. For all we know they were harbouring them and providing them with military support and soldiers; so basically the same organisation.
I ve listened to all the audiologs. They describe various short stories. Stuff happens but they don’t explain why the Banished have this weird kill all humans deal and act like somebody pissed in their beer. It’s not events that’s lacking. Like Rubicon Protocal is a pointless book because the physical events have been laid out. It’s motives that aren’t explained.
It’s not just irrational. It’s pathetic and hypocritical coming from a warlord who wants the conquer the Galaxy for his own power. The heroes should point that out to the villains. The Brutes have tried to commit genocide on the Elites and humanity. They have shown zero remorse for that. There are no good brutes far as ai can see. Atriox is another random warlord who wants to carve out an empire because his species are animals and can only understand the world in such terms. Cortana destroyed one planet, nothing of value was lost. The Brutes have destroyed hundreds of worlds filled with actual innocent people and tried to wipe out the Galaxy. Per Divine Wind, they are fully aware the Halo will kill people; they just think the non believers will be purged. Atriox is just trying to make that genocidal plan work for him. So yeah, if Atriox tries to claim he’s a victim, that is laughable and the Chief shouldn’t take that seriously. He’s scum.
If Atriox just wanted revenge on Cortana, she’s dead, mission accomplished; it’s done. But he’s still there. Why stay on the Halo and want to control it? So that’s obviously an empty excuse and pretext. He’s out for himself and his own power. It’s self serving arrogance. Not some noble or higher calling.
If the Brutes are so innocent and want peace they know where the door is. But I don’t think the Brutes understand the concept. I think if the UNSC had ten thousand nukes pointed at that planet they’d rather die than accept peace or a ceasefire. That’s my take from Atriox getting Doisac destroyed.
Where is it stated that the Brute “authorities” or tribes hate the Banished? How current is that lore? Obviously they didn’t like the Banished when they were part of the Covenant and something like Glasslanda predates their introduction into canon. 343 has not explained what the deal is with Doisac. I suspect they probably will in the Encyclopedia. Again, I don’t know why they want moral condemnation of Cortana destroying their planet when the Brutes have glassed hundreds of human worlds; but hey we have to sympathise and relate with unrepentant monsters.
I hope you’re wrong on the two years. Destiny 2 has done a great job keeping its campaign going with regular content updates and larger expansions. That’s the expectation I think most people have.
Books and comics dude.
The answers are within external media that most don’t want to spend money on and delve in.
Yes.
It is called “The Rise of Atriox” for that reason. The comic details how Atriox grew a following in his early days and how he had managed to not be snuffed out like all other rogue factions that defied The Covenant.
Lets see.
Humanity has been on the end of extermination by The Covenant.
We narrowly avoided extermination.
The UNSC, and ONI especially, is wary of such a thing happening again.
So the UNSC investigate and keep an eye on factions that could pose a threat to them.
The Banished do have Humans among their ranks, though not many and they aren’t respected.
And after Cortana destroys Doisac and holds the galaxy hostage, you don’t think that those within The Banished would look at Humanity and think “Perhaps we should have exterminated you. Then your Cotana wouldn’t have destroyed Doisac and ravaged our homes?”
Two rival factions that already had a strained relationship, hardly any sort of kind relationship whatsoever, are now coming to blows.
That is how Wars tend to start. Both sides have scars that leave them hesitant to trust. And then something acts as a catalyst to make it so everything breaks out in another War.
For World War I it was the death of Franz Ferdinand and Austria-Hungary took too long to perform their plans and thus allies were able to be contacted among every nation and things got primed for war.
For Halo Wars 2 and Halo Infinite, Cortana’s destruction of Doisac was the catalyst for Atriox to adjust his plans. His target was Cortana and the UNSC that created her.
That’s prude to judge a book that hasn’t been released yet. We only know the basic summary of events that have occurred. And the book is likely to have more details revealed that will become relevant to Halo Infinite Part 2.
A random warlord who just so happens to have destroyed the UNSC Infinity and thrown out the greatest warrior in the UNSC into Space.
Also, EVERY SPECIES WANTS TO CARVE OUT THEIR OWN EMPIRE !
That is pretty much the goal of every intelligent species capable of creating a society will do!
The Jiralhanae are brutish, but they also have intelligence. Keep in mind, they did develop Nuclear Weapons on their own without intervention. Their animalistic nature did drive them to nuke themselves and then they were brought into The Covenant during their second Industrial Age.
And just like how Humanity has a large population of morons, there are those who are more intelligent than brutish, those that are willing to open discussions rather than just bring the hammer down on all those that oppose them.
But the current events are beyond negotiations. Atriox doesn’t want to talk, he wants to fulfill his checklist and finish what he has started.
The Xalalyn showed the ability to jump through time and evade the blast of the Halo array 100,000 years ago.
With knowledge that they can do this and that they are on Zeta Halo, it is obvious that Atriox seeks to free them and make a deal.
“I freed you. All I want in return is for Doisac to be jumped fowards in time to evade Cortana’s destruction of it.”
Brutes don’t exactly go for peace. The smart ones try to broker peace between those they view as equals. But Atirox doesn’t view Humans as equals. Peace is not one of his options.
… … … … … … … The Banished didn’t do any glassing. The Covenant did. And only 76 colonies were glassed. Not even one hundred.
I say 2 years because this game is supposed to be alive for 10 years with constant updates.
I say 2 years because I don’t think 343 can realistically hammer out an open-world setting, edit it to final draft, do the same for the script, and then ship it out without it being a broken mess like the multiplayer.
Again, you’re guessing that Cortana destroying Doisac is the cause and filling in blanks 343 has done nothing to fill. We don’t even know when Doisac was destroyed much less the impact this had on the wider galaxy. If that is their motivation they don’t make a very big deal out of it and it’s hardly mentioned by the Banished soldiers. For one, they don’t show any shock on seeing the Weapon or particular aggression towards her. They’re not exactly screaming remember Doisac or anything like that either. Stuff you would expect if the loss of their home world was important. Escharum remarks on it but it’s not a centrepiece. If anything our heroes care more about Doisacs destruction than any of these creatures.
No it’s not the goal of every state. A normal state would operate by accepted standards of international law and within a diplomatic system. Aggressive wars of conquest are not good or natural. What Atriox is doing is a caricature. The UNSC by contrast is minding its own business trying to rebuild after some Xenos tried to exterminate them for no good reason. I think you’re downplaying the sort of reaction Atriox is likely to get from humanity and the Elites by doing what he’s doing. Again, it’s not normal and is why I am scratching my head regarding his motives. It’s that evil and obscene.
We don’t know there is time travel. If the central motivation is revenge on Cortana, which you implied earlier, then mission accomplished. Doisac avenged. To continue the war on a third party is either pointless or a front at that point. Leaving us still without that one sentence blurb summing up the faction.
Good. I don’t want any sort of Banished alliance.
So what they get a new coat of paint and suddenly the blood of billions is off their hands? The Banished are made up of former Covenant including Atriox. Species that literally wanted to burn the galaxy of unbelievers a few years ago. With the Brutes being the literal worst of them. The target dossiers do paint a pretty clear picture of massacre and genocide. Escharum gloats about human cities he destroyed. They are just as bad as the Covenant and they are exonerated of nothing.
BTW don’t they move planets in Destiny? Is that where you’re getting this idea of moving the planet through time?
That is because Master Chief explained that he blames himself for all that is happening right now.
Had he stopped Cortana, Doisac wouldn’t have been targeted and The Banished wouldn’t have become his primary target.
Wars are not good of course.
But they are a natural part of life.
And every country out there has a military in some form for the reason of defense from war or offense to wage war.
Then why does everyone bring it up and why is Atriox obsessed with finding a species that was trapped because they have avoided Halo destruction with a supposed time-leap?
It is most likely that Atriox seeks to restore his home world and take revenge those he blames for its destruction. Given that The Endless have been teased with knowledge of how to manipulate time; it is reasonable that a planet could be brought forward in time just before its destruction in order to save it and its people.
That is my prediction of what Atriox wants with The Endless.
He clearly wants to kill those he blames for its destruction, and he blames both Cortana and Humanity.
It’s proof that humans are better than Brutes. They care more about Doisac than they ever did themselves.
Teased but not known. We don’t yet know time travel is in and 343 has a habit of changing things. They could well get cold feet in those two years.
I don’t think Atriox actions can be viewed as normal. I hope 343 acknowledge that in the story rather than treating that as normal and something to be accepted.
That is entirely the point of setting up a story for the next major chapter to be made.
You tease the audience with info to get them interested in the next part.
I am curious about the Time Travel, since yeah, I think it would turn into saving Skynet very quickly.
But, there have been complaints about it. HiddenExperia has made a few topics insisting they aren’t teasing time travel and it’s all metaphorical. It isn’t. Chekovs gun. But that crowd has influence and 343 has a history of knee jerking.