Halo does a good job on making their enemies feel really threatening and actually sometimes give a chill down your spine when you learn the extended lore. The covenant was an enemy that would do anything to complete the Great Journey and they had the blood lust to murder you on the spot no matter how innocent you were. The flood was a terrifying viral infection that had the power to destroy whole species. I mean heck even the prometheans, the created, and the Didact felt threatening. But in Infinite I am not really threatened by the Banished at all. They just feel like another enemy I have to gun down. I think there is 2 main reasons.
1.We have done this for a total of 8 Halo games and we are still faced with another bigger and stronger force.
The Banished seem to have no incentive. They just want to dominate. That feels kinda bland to me and it makes them seem more like filler content.
Since Doisac has been destroyed, they also fight to get a new home, something difficult to destroy like a Halo
Also, the fact theyâre just trying to dominate other make them more evil. Most of the covenants was blind and changed their mind when their learned the truth about the forerunners. The Banished know what theyâre doing, they wonât changed their mind
Iâm agree they canât be the principal ennemi, the story need a better ennemi with biggest motivation, but they are perfet to be the second threat. Infinite would have be perfect if the Harbinger and the Skrimmer had a better story
Probably because in the first 3 games weâre the underdogs trying to play catch up against an alien cult or a hive mind zombie spore. The Banished are more or less equal to the us in firepower and numbers. Personally the Promethean are being underutilized they could be a neutral 3rd faction that could tip the power balance and maybe make us feel like the underdogs again
It all comes down to the overall design, itâs hard to feel threatened by âangry monkeâ like people call them. Same goes for Grunts, theyâre so silly itâs hard to take them seriously, let alone feel threatened by them. While on the other side of spectrum you have something like the Elites or the Flood, now thatâs an enemy you know well itâs gonna hurt you just by looking at them.
No you can have another threat than the Banished. As I say earlier in this topic, they are perfet to be the second threat. Infinite would have be perfect if the Harbinger and the Skrimmer had a better story
I mean but in infinite I still donât feel threatened by the elites. I think it is like what @Revaci said. We have defeated the covenant so many times now that it feels the same. Almost routine. I donât want to feel like the main enemies are like pests that keep coming back. I want to feel threatened.
In Halo wars they are actually scary but in Infinite they look like glorified covenant soldiers.
It also doesnât help the brute is almost dead anyway so by the time you do get to him he will probably die from an asthma attack.
In Halo CE, the covenant were actively hunting down every last human on the ring, and the flood threatened the entire galaxy.
In Infinite, the Banished barely seem to be actively attacking humans. Sure they attack marine squads you rescue, but the whole campaign feels like the opposite of CE. Weâre the powerful one trying to hunt down every last Banished with little stake in the game since everything is already lost (Infinity is gone, human presence on the ring is minimal, no way home, the ring isnât functional enough to destroy anything, etc).
That is the problem I think. The banished feel just as helpless as us. They also try so hard to put eshraum in a good light by saying âhe was fighting for what he believed was rightâ so it makes us seem like the bad guys just murdering a pretty innocent species.
They look like a bunch of pirates, they shoudnt be stronger than the keepers IMO. The story fails to tell who is baking them to be so strong.
And they lack a clear motive, UNSC doesnt plan to conquer the universe so why fight them?