Correct me if I’m wrong - but it seems to me that Halo this past decade has really lost it’s identity.
Now, I’m not talking merely about the changes in aesthetics, art style, character dynamics and so on and so forth that have been talked about to death in regard to 343’s Halo. But the simple abandonment of, in my opinion, what these games were kinda always about.
And that to me is simply, what the YOINK happened to saving the world to rock n’ roll? And why is this franchise so keen and utterly focused on building Halo as a set mythology or franchise built on the basis of “High drama” and “Melo drama”?
Here me out on this, but what made Halo so damn fun wasn’t just the fantastic gameplay, redefining controller schemes or the wonderful and social multiplayer experience. It was really ultimately, that feeling, that catharsis and high you got that these games exist to elicit.
What really made Halo work was that sense of “Ooh rah, let’s go get 'em!”. It was that, in a sense, “Early 2000’s gamer bro” culture that said “I want to be a badass super soldier in space who gets to save mankind from a horde of alien, religious zealots, all while listening to sick rock n’ roll riffs as I shove my rifle barrel down this monster’s throat.”
“I want to ride my space humvee off of an exploding Forrunner structure as the timer counts down, all while Marty serenades me to a perfectly hype, optimistic, and rock infused orchestra of heroism!”
This is often forgotten, despite it being the bread and butter of what made Halo work so well. Halo was never the deepest story, or the most intricate multiplayer experience. But what a video game is suited to do well for an audience is infact illicit very specific emotions from it’s players that say, something like a comic book or a novel or a film simply wouldn’t be able to do as easily.
Halo did something that I think a lot of really good stories or franchises such as the matrix or star wars tend to do. They give you EVERYTHING you want, and it clicks this emotional button in your head that simply says “YES!”. “I’ll take another, thank you”.
In the case of Halo there was much less a focus on character and story, or mythology, but really there was more of a focus on the emotional center that all of us gamers have when we’re in the middle of that “30 seconds of fun”.
Halo was never (Prior to 343) so bogged down by “How can we really push forward master chief and Cortana’s relationship” or “We need to create some kind of new threat and relay it to being ancient human beings” “we need to really build this franchise up as a deep story that can rival the best games out there.”
But the problem with this over abundance of character meta and deep lore investment is that it misses the mark on why these games are so fun in the first place.
Master Chief was barely a character or person that you invested in or learned about within the games. He was a suit of armor that YOU embodied, who barely talked, and when he did speak he spoke like a cowboy in monotone who just kicked the doors open to the local tavern. Like a take no crap, strong silent type. A John wick of the gaming world if you will. It doesn’t matter all the grimy details of his past. It doesn’t matter all of these excessive things trying to flesh out the forunners and humans to such a precise detail. So much so that the further mythology begins to suffocate the games as a whole and forgets that most of the things that exist within the structure of those old games exist merely to give the player a reason to unleash themselves over the endless hordes of the covenant.
Because what really matters is what’s exactly there as you see it and how it justifies your bloody, rock n’ roll infused crusade. John wick did “an impossible task” to get out of being an assassin for hire. And that’s all you need to know for him to work in those movies. You don’t need to literally see the task, and given the ability, that’s the exact type of thing 343 would absolutely focus on, ignoring the overall reason that exists in the first place. Not to see it because it will build better character, but merely as justification FOR the character. The dog dying (like the Halo ring firing) is merely an excuse to get the main character (You) into the bread and butter of what we’re here for. It’s there to justify hours of mayhem on a mass scale.
The Melo drama of the series as of late has really taken a front seat in regard to the games and I think that’s actually a big mistake on their part. I think that’s why even despite their best attempts, master chief just hardly ever feels like master chief any more.
And this world that we love has become so drowned by its own story that in the midst of trying to sell halo as some kind of deep, mythological, lore with all of these gears and pieces in play, it’s also simply forgotten to just be a fun game.
A fun game where a guy or gal can just be lost in the environment and music. Where narrative doesn’t necessarily drive the story, but the music, setting and emotion that all those things do.
I personally couldn’t care less about yet another “Ancient evil” story line in infinite. I personally can’t get on board with the endless exposition and drama-latent, homework required backstory.
I like master chief because I am master chief. Just like you are master chief. And I believe contrary to popular belief, master chief and all Spartans for that matter shouldn’t be representative of the modern day superhero. Flying around in mismatched color schemes and barring personal dilemmas and moral dichotomy with them everywhere they go.
Chief shouldn’t exist as a person, persay, or as a deep character. but as an archetype. Because a Spartan in halo is the culmination of generations of humanities greatest warriors. Being chief isn’t meant to be a deep dive into the makings and emotions of a man. He’s not Tony Soprano and it shouldn’t be character study. He is the ultimate warrior and we embody him and he helps us realize the warrior and hero inside of us. That’s what makes the character such a great icon of gaming.
And Halo as a whole is an adrenaline rush. It can ofcourse have it’s share of new characters and fantastical story telling. But if it doesn’t hit that little button in the gamers head. If it’s so held down by needless lore and explanation, if it doesn’t remember that I want to shout and jump and be elated, that I want to BE that hero of the story, then it’s forgetting why we’re here in the first place.
I don’t want to hear all the grimy details. I don’t care about anymore ancient evils and I don’t want to be force fed an emotion. I just want to feel like I’m the character. Like all that matters is exactly why we’re here. I want the optimistic charge of that music and most importantly…
I just want to save the world to rock n’ roll again.
