It’s minor, very minor, a brief few minutes many have likely forgotten about. But for me, who started playing a few months ago and who freshly remembers the abomination of a tutorial…
If you want a narrative, do it right, or don’t do it at all.
Iratus? Cool. Banished AI. Exciting. Give me a Grunt next. But Iratus is plugged into a spartan’s helmet and threatens to kill him unless we go on a special mission to… This is contrived. The year is 25XX and there aren’t safety protocols in -CostAsMuchAsASpaceFrigate- armour? People are just throwing AIs into the back of their helms? It’s not like this is an unforseeable problem. The UNSC has history with Rampant AIs, AIs getting hostile isn’t new.
Leading on from that, Spartans aren’t superheroes. They’re soldiers. Spartan 4’s moreso. Show me a military briefing with a proper command structure and experts in different fields, not a gathering of superfriends who discuss how they’re going to beat the monster of the week. This spartan lady who’s supposedly our commander is clearly in the latter category, as she feels neither feels like a professional nor a soldier. The Vibes she’s giving me are getting are pretty bad. Though that might just be the uncanny faces.
I don’t care what race or -Yoink!- the leader is. It’s 25XX. Presumably in the 26th century there’s no race or gender gap she needs to overcome. Why is she so pleased with herself? all we’re given about her is that she was a small child in a warzone and now she’s a big tough spartan and… I like Palmer a lot more. I like Sgt Johnson a thousand times more.
Also it pains me that they’re championing diversity here but in 343 Halo we’ve got 99% North American accents and the odd British woman. United nations, right?
There’s a bunch of other little details in there (you really think london’s going to look like that in five hundred+ years or is this meant to be some kind of new-london on a distant planet?) But those are my main concerns.
Give the writing team a military advisor. Please stop the soap opera writing.
On the otherhand
Just don’t do these little cutscenes at all. It’s not a great use of resources and they’re obtrusive.
But yeah the multiplayer narrative is very strange to me. 343 proper love it though. The simulation! Best be simulating some Elites and Brutes on Live Fire leggo.
I’m a fan of the multiplayer story so far, the plot, setting, and involvement feel more personal than what Spartan Ops achieved in H4.
I think the biggest bottleneck is actually Agryna. She just isn’t sharp enough to leave a lasting impression. People hate Palmer because of her general demeanor, but at least they remember her lol. Agryna is just too soft and subtle, sometimes the voice acting comes across as forced too. We’ve only seen a sliver from the new Wolves, so I don’t have a complete opinion on them yet, but so far it’s along the same lines as Agryna.
The writing is crazy bad. It really makes no sense to me that they are putting the effort into these cutscenes and production, why not put that into campaign expansions instead?
“Serial narrative” is a terrible plague and it’s a shame to see Halo lowered to that kind of content.
I like agryna because she’s a time traveler, somehow aged 50 years in the span of 10, and is somehow the commander of the Spartan branch even though Spartans like the Master Chief, Blue Team, Jun, and the rest of Alpha Nine exist and are far more experienced, useful, and cool unlike her.
I’ve only had about half the (mainline) Halo games and to be honest, I can’t really remember what happens in each game or the over arcing plots across the series.
I’d argue Carter had a big headstart, being recruited and started training at the age of 11. Not only that but I doubt there were as many Spartans back then as now, so some ranks there to fill out.
Agryna would have to get into age to enlist, train, and then apply / get invited / be accepted into the Spartan program. ( Assuming not just about anyone can walk into the Spartan program centre and leave as a Spartan ). A whole different process than that of Carter, in addition to other more seasoned Spartans likely running around. Jun would for instance have been fun to see again, as recruiter and trainer.
I made a “head-canon” of the first MP video, where it’s another planet at the start of the Covenant-Human war being attacked, and the city is “New London” ( Big Ben being seen ), allowing Agryna to have a longer, and more logical, frame of time to get where she is.
The intro cutscene was cool but the following two were like a cringey kids show. First cutscene would have been even cooler if our Spartan was the one to walk out there & greet them instead of a silent background character.
Agryna is a failed experiment and a terrible character on all accounts. Her backstory and timeline doesn’t make sense. The player has no history with her in the games. Her aestetic is one of the least interesting in the game. Her voice acting / writing is cheesy and unbefitting of a Spartan let alone a commander. If they wanted to do the diversity thing should just have brought back Tanaka.
I hope they replace her with literally any other Spartan or commander in the franchise. They have soooo much to choose from how she even made it into the game is beyond me.
343 has had some problems with this since guardians, but that was mainly exposition dumps. As far as i recall 4 wasn’t too bad in this respect.
The halo TV show also does this.
Would have made a lot more sense and i think the audience would enjoy it if we had varied accents and actual briefs but then again it’s a multiplayer cutscene.
Also yeah London looked weird having the houses of parliament being surrounded by sky rises like that, would definitely make taking photos of it harder for tourists
Simple answer, 343i are chasing trends (see Apex, Fortnite etc) instead of letting Halo stand on its own two feet and reclaim it’s crown as an innovative game that sets the standard.
To be fair, the reason many like Johnson, and why he can’t be topped is because his character is basically a full ripoff of Sgt Apone from Aliens. Just like all the rest of the marines from the Bungie years. They were taken from a template that was proved to be a fan favorite from pop culture.
Y’know, there’s nothing to stop 343 from doing this. They can easily have Not-Dutch, Not-John Wick, Not-Rorschach, Not-Private Pile and Not-Bruce U form a team. Hell they could go ham and have a team with Clancey brown, Mark Hamil, Tara Strong and Powers booth voice one team while Kevin Conroy, Phil lamar, Susan Eisenberg Tim Daily/George Newbern… those voices just lend themselves to characters.
I’m probably one of the few that actually liked Palmer. I saw potential for her to become a good character. Being a good character doesn’t necessarily mean that she has to be an uber good person like Agryna. She can have some of her ideals changed while retaining some of her attitude.
I’d like to see her and Laskey’s relationship developed further, which could pull her away from the “by the book” attitude that people don’t like about her. I want her to still be tough and snarky otherwise she’ll basically just be a whole other character.
All that and I just like Jen Hale and want to hear her in Halo.
There’s still the problem of the MkVII armor. Big oversights were made to force Agryna into the story.
Agryna’s line, “They’re wolves, back from the hunt.” made me cringe it was so bad.
