I know, I KNOW, people don’t like Bonnie Ross or Brian Reed or Frank O’Connor or Chris Lee or most of what 343 has done over the past few years. And for good reason!
And I know that this will likely turn ugly and off topic immediately.
But let’s look on the past and talk about the good things 343 has do- LEMME FINISH.
Let’s give credit where it’s due, good things 343 did. That way if the next 10 years sucks too we can at least compare and contrast and see if losing those people truly made the difference we expected it to.
Firstly, in my opinion the idea of Chief being a different person post Human Covenant War is cool (emphasis on “post”, not “during” like the TV show keeps trying.)
After all, war changes you and even when you know it’s justified the cost in lives and the awful things that you have to do or have done to you will catch up to you sooner or later. Hell even just regular military service changes you, at least going by my dad’s old days in the marines, and he didn’t even start at 6 years old like Chief did.
So I like that after the war is over and the glow of victory has faded that they allow Chief to kinda learn to cope with things, and finding strength to make a new beginning at the end of Infinite’s campaign.
Secondly- the music will never be as good as when Marty did it, but the new music is still pretty good. I especially love this recurring, heroic but somber motif that gets repeated in Halo 4 a lot.
Thirdly- even with the 4 and 5 era being an artistic mess, we got some cool designs from it.
Like re-imagining the Scout helmet to look kinda similar to an old British Space Suit concept. I doubt it was intentional but I like that, since as far as I know the reason Chief’s visor is gold is because that’s what space suits were using at the time to block solar radiation, and the EVA helmet is literally just an astronaut helmet but cool.
Also the redesign for the Mongoose is lovely, I never liked the old Mongoose because it looked too similar to the Warthog.
Fourth, even tho you could argue this is more Creative Assembly than 343, Brutes getting more spotlight is always awesome since I felt they were underutilized after Halo 2- and even if Creative Assembly was behind Halo Wars 2, 343 at least saw enough good in the idea to bring them into Infinite.
I adore Escharum as a villain simply because I’m a sucker for a villain who calls you out and can’t wait to throw hands. Plus Bassus alone made me grin from ear too ear.
Fifth, which again is arguable but relevant- MCC. Every Bungie Halo in one place, and even if launch was atrocious the revival of MCC in 2019 on PC was exciting and awesome and got more people into Halo. Like actual OG Halo.
And finally, credit MUST BE GIVEN. ahem.
Infinite has the best boss fights in the series by a clear mile, it’s not even a contest for me personally.
Are said boss fights anything groundbreaking or unique or ultra challenging?
Nope.
But if Tartarus and Guilty Spark count as boss fights, then Infinite has way better boss fights- even if it was preceded by two games with easily the worst boss fights in any Halo ever.
No matter what you think of what I’m saying, remember this one thing- Bad as 343 was, we got some diamonds in the rough along the way.
Please (AND I MUST REPEAT, please) share any good things about 343’s tenure on Halo that you may have thought of, even if it’s literally the smallest most insignificant thing. Because credit should always be given where it’s due. Everyone and their momma knows all the bad things about Halo now, it’s a boring frustrating topic. So share whatever good, whatever it may be, you experienced.