Halo 4's Campaign Addition to the Universe...Disappointed

[Francis Barreras]

This game has been greatly anticipated by many around the world, being called the greatest game in the series thus far. While I did count down the days till the election was over and Halo 4 was on the shelves, I kept wondering the same thing, "What will Chief and Cortana get into this time?" Overall the game deserves an A. It is a beautifly crafted peice of art that is well balanced, from multiplayer gaming to AI enemies to weapons. However, nothing is ever perfect and falls short of glory. Going years back, to Halo: Combat Evolved, the character of Master Chief was established early on: he was this super soldier of a human being with the latest in combat technology. Paired with the one-of-a-kind AI, Cortana, the duo was an unstoppable team. But what made Master Chief so good?

 

In the Halo universe, there were several spartans created along with Spartan 117, with a spartan program before and after him. Several hundred spartans have ever existed. Chief was on Reach when the Covenant invaded and had Cortana with him. He was dispatched ground side to defend a power plant that provided energy to the orbital defense cannons. In the end they had to nuke the plant and escape on the Pillar of Autumn. Before the invasion of Reach, Chief and Cortana were on a mission with other spartans to go and capture a Covenant Prophet. It was Cortana who was chosen to be the AI leading this assault. Why did she choose Spartan 117 over the others? According to Cortana in the book Halo: Fall of Reach, she chose him because he was exceptionally lucky.

 

Luck is Master Chief's main attribute. In Halo: Combat Evolved, Master Chief overloads the engines of the Pillar of Autumn, races down the spine of it, and escapes in a Longsword. In the first mission of Halo 2 Master Chief disarms a Covenant bomb aboard the orbital defense cannon in the nick of time, jumps ship with said bomb and plants it in a Covenant cruiser, and lands on a UNSC ship flying low orbit. Master Chief lands on Earth after jumping the Prophet's forerunner ship the beginning of Halo 3. All of these are examples of how Bungie develpoed Master Chief's character. Master Chief could have had a bad attribute about his character, but as long as the games and books held to that attribute, then it became a part of his character.

 

343 messed up the campaigns story tromendously when they blaitently disreguarded Master Chief's luck as part of him. After Cortana gets kidnapped by the Librarian and Master Chief runs into her, she explains how he was some kind of prophecy/well planned out scheme. It was at that moment that killed the whole story telling experience for me. Yes, the story was more about Cortana, but you can't have Cortana without Master Chief. They are the dynamic duo of the Halo univere. Their bond can be interpereted in many ways: MC is the human, Cortana the machine; MC is the machine, Cortana the human; MC the body, Cortana the soul; MC the brawn, Cortana the brains. They offer this deeper philosophical level of understanding that most players and fans can relate to or understand. This basis for Master Chief and Cortana needs to be present for thier relationship to work, but when you take away the one thing that makes Master Chief Master Chief, then you lose the relationship and lose Cortana.

 

Besides the hickup where the librarian tried to sum up everything about Master Chief in 2 minutes, everything else played out well. My suggestion for the future games (343, you should pay attention to this), keep Cortana. If you can somehow incorporate her "spirit" into the Master Chief/Cortana duo, now MAster Chief solo, without bringing her back physically, then that would work. She still needs to be there guiding Master Chief along the way. Second, make no more mention to the Librarian or how Master Chief is this prodigy. He needs to have that mysterious shroud of luck that keeps him alive.

 

Again, overall Halo 4 is an excellent game. 343 will have to do some overhauling in the storyline department if they hope to keep the Halo universe alive.

[Sierra1117]

This game has been greatly anticipated by many around the world, being called the greatest game in the series thus far. While I did count down the days till the election was over and Halo 4 was on the shelves, I kept wondering the same thing, "What will Chief and Cortana get into this time?" Overall the game deserves an A. It is a beautifly crafted peice of art that is well balanced, from multiplayer gaming to AI enemies to weapons. However, nothing is ever perfect and falls short of glory. Going years back, to Halo: Combat Evolved, the character of Master Chief was established early on: he was this super soldier of a human being with the latest in combat technology. Paired with the one-of-a-kind AI, Cortana, the duo was an unstoppable team. But what made Master Chief so good?

 

In the Halo universe, there were several spartans created along with Spartan 117, with a spartan program before and after him. Several hundred spartans have ever existed. Chief was on Reach when the Covenant invaded and had Cortana with him. He was dispatched ground side to defend a power plant that provided energy to the orbital defense cannons. In the end they had to nuke the plant and escape on the Pillar of Autumn. Before the invasion of Reach, Chief and Cortana were on a mission with other spartans to go and capture a Covenant Prophet. It was Cortana who was chosen to be the AI leading this assault. Why did she choose Spartan 117 over the others? According to Cortana in the book Halo: Fall of Reach, she chose him because he was exceptionally lucky.

 

Luck is Master Chief's main attribute. In Halo: Combat Evolved, Master Chief overloads the engines of the Pillar of Autumn, races down the spine of it, and escapes in a Longsword. In the first mission of Halo 2 Master Chief disarms a Covenant bomb aboard the orbital defense cannon in the nick of time, jumps ship with said bomb and plants it in a Covenant cruiser, and lands on a UNSC ship flying low orbit. Master Chief lands on Earth after jumping the Prophet's forerunner ship the beginning of Halo 3. All of these are examples of how Bungie develpoed Master Chief's character. Master Chief could have had a bad attribute about his character, but as long as the games and books held to that attribute, then it became a part of his character.

 

343 messed up the campaigns story tromendously when they blaitently disreguarded Master Chief's luck as part of him. After Cortana gets kidnapped by the Librarian and Master Chief runs into her, she explains how he was some kind of prophecy/well planned out scheme. It was at that moment that killed the whole story telling experience for me. Yes, the story was more about Cortana, but you can't have Cortana without Master Chief. They are the dynamic duo of the Halo univere. Their bond can be interpereted in many ways: MC is the human, Cortana the machine; MC is the machine, Cortana the human; MC the body, Cortana the soul; MC the brawn, Cortana the brains. They offer this deeper philosophical level of understanding that most players and fans can relate to or understand. This basis for Master Chief and Cortana needs to be present for thier relationship to work, but when you take away the one thing that makes Master Chief Master Chief, then you lose the relationship and lose Cortana.

 

Besides the hickup where the librarian tried to sum up everything about Master Chief in 2 minutes, everything else played out well. My suggestion for the future games (343, you should pay attention to this), keep Cortana. If you can somehow incorporate her "spirit" into the Master Chief/Cortana duo, now MAster Chief solo, without bringing her back physically, then that would work. She still needs to be there guiding Master Chief along the way. Second, make no more mention to the Librarian or how Master Chief is this prodigy. He needs to have that mysterious shroud of luck that keeps him alive.

 

Again, overall Halo 4 is an excellent game. 343 will have to do some overhauling in the storyline department if they hope to keep the Halo universe alive.

Thus wasn't a "hiccup" because in the books, Bungie has been hinting that Johns luck is somewhat supernatural. And the while prophecy things are actually called Gaeas, and thats basically the DNA of a forerunner in someone, in Johns case, the Didact. This also isn't a new story arc, it has been in the works for about 2 years now, so it's pretty if to the series. John was never as mysterious as you think. I'm gonna tell you right now that Halo 5 will focus more on his Gaeas, so if you expect it to change, you might be disappointed.

[RisingPho3nix]

About the Chief/Cortana thing? Check out a thread I started: http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/17116-opinion-why-cortana-was-a-good-thing/ That'll give you my thoughts on that particular aspect of the story.

 

Also, I would point out that the Chief was actually not on Reach when the Covenant invaded. He was not part of the ground team that was sent to guard the reactors. Fred-104 was the Spartan in charge of that op.

 

As far as John-117's luck is concerned, that ties in with the main point in my Cortana thread, which was that the time has come for change. John-117 has been the lucky/unstoppable badass for 3 amazing games, but it's time for his character to evolve into something more. To do that, he has to be thrust into a situation where not even his luck can save him. Hence, Cortana.

[Francis Barreras]

I do agree that Cortana needed to disappear in this one. I was expecting something along the lines of MC battling with the choices of saving the many versus the few, then at the end it would be either pull Cortana from the Didact's ship to save her or let her do her thing and kill the Didact. And I'm just getting tired of everything being summed up with "prophecy." It's getting a little cliche for me. I liked MC better when I never quite knew why he was so damn lucky.

 

Thus wasn't a "hiccup" because in the books, Bungie has been hinting that Johns luck is somewhat supernatural.

 

What made Master Chief so interesting to me was the fact that his luck was unexplained. Yes the books can hint at what might be the source of his luck, but they need to leave it at that. They could have saved the Librarian for Halo 6 when they sum up these next three games. Halo 4 needed to be about the struggle between MC's luck and Cortana's life. I think they did excellent showing the degredation of Cortana as she slipped into rampancy, but lacked in the area of MC. I couldn't imagine, as the writters or the CGI designers, trying to convey MC's emotions with his monotone voice and no face thing lol

 

 

Also, I would point out that the Chief was actually not on Reach when the Covenant invaded. He was not part of the ground team that was sent to guard the reactors. Fred-104 was the Spartan in charge of that op.

 

It's been a couple years since I've read the books. Will have to touch up on them again.

[ThebigC]

Can I just say I could give a rats *** about the books. I get some fans like them, and that''s cool but lets get a couple of things riight. Halo was not based off the books, the books were based off the game and the story developed for the game. Loosly based I might add. Second most fans have not read the books, and I don't want to have to read a book so I know what thee plot of the game is. If you have to do that then the story was not writen very well was it?

 

Now I don't doubt that people have had their own reasons for enjoying the books or that they contain some good ideas or stories. But that does not mean they incorperate into the games well. Heck not everything inn the books, animated series or comics is even considered cannon. Well at least not by the original authors. Bungie always had a plan, story, and idea of what they wanted for the original series. It is that which the books are based off of and not the other way around. 343 did the opposite, they used other peoples stuff, the books and what Bungie had done to create their story. To me that makes it more a work of fan fiction than anything else. I expected some original thought. I won't say the entire game is bad, because it isn't. But I did not expect so much borrowed material. Heck even multi is more like COD than Halo multi. COD used to borrow from Halo, every FPS multi did. Now it's the other way around.

 

As to the author of this thread, I give you a fun fact about the Chief and Halo. The Chief is based off the "Man with no name" archetype made famous in the Dollars Trilogy and portrayed by Clint Eastwood. He doesn't say much and you get a lot of first person type screen shots to allow the viewer to put himself in the protagonists place. If your a fan of those movies you will notice many themes for the Chiefs character inspired by the Man with no name, and other characters tied to his creation such as the legendary Yojimbo, and of course the Continental Op from Red Harvest. My own personal belief is that Bungie's original score for Halo was inspired by that Dollars trilogy. Not that the music is the same but both were used to compliment the era and settings perfectly, and both were distinct. I also feel Lee Van Cleef was one of the inspirations for the Arbiter. He seemed to have a nice mix of both the Colonel and Angel Eyes.

[Francis Barreras]

 

As to the author of this thread, I give you a fun fact about the Chief and Halo. The Chief is based off the "Man with no name" archetype made famous in the Dollars Trilogy and portrayed by Clint Eastwood.

 

I am familiar with "Man with no name" archetype. What makes those characters interesting is the fact that you don't know what makes them great or know nothing about their past. I think revealing MC's "secret" this early, since 343 plans on doing more games, ruins the fun.

[Brandon Valenza]

TheBigC - are you going to post that you "don't give at rats Ass about the books" in every thread on this forum? I understand that you wanted more of the story built into the game and not the extended fiction, and I agree there should have been a bit more in the game. But everything that comes out for Halo is considered cannon now. That is 343s job now and they have people who's sole purpose at the studio is to make sure anything that gets produced falls into line with the established universe. The more recent books like the Forerunner Saga and Kilo-five trilogy were specifically written to help establish the Reclaimer saga. I own all of the books but have never read them. But I do tend to glance over at the Halo wiki so I can get the basics to help further my enjoyment of the universe.

 

Again I do agree that there should have been more dialogue in the game explaining the storm covenant and how they are the rebel religious fanatics seeking to release the didact. That's why they whole fleet was at requiem when the forward unto dawn arrives. The covenant had been trying to get into the planet for 3 years. If you search the rubble when you first crash on the planet you can find two covy ships with hidden audio messages explaining a bit more about it.

 

There should have been alot more in the game about the didact and why he hated humanity so much. Why after being imprisoned for 100,000 years he still wanted to enslave the entire human race. The hidden terminals tell you more about this but not the whole story.

 

I get it if you don't want to read the books but you should dig around the halowiki and expand your knowledge about the universe. It is all intertwined now and you will enjoy the new games better.

 

I hope some of this helps

[Sierra1117]

What made Master Chief so interesting to me was the fact that his luck was unexplained. Yes the books can hint at what might be the source of his luck, but they need to leave it at that. They could have saved the Librarian for Halo 6 when they sum up these next three games. Halo 4 needed to be about the struggle between MC's luck and Cortana's life. I think they did excellent showing the degredation of Cortana as she slipped into rampancy, but lacked in the area of MC. I couldn't imagine, as the writters or the CGI designers, trying to convey MC's emotions with his monotone voice and no face thing lol

What they did in Halo 4 is simply explain why he was lucky these past three games, and people were assuming what caused his luck anyways

[Francis Barreras]

What they did in Halo 4 is simply explain why he was lucky these past three games, and people were assuming what caused his luck anyways

 

Rumor has it that 343 will be making more Halo games. In my opinion, they should have kept the explanation for the final game. They should have summed and explained everything in a future game, not at the first one. Granted, I will still be playing these future games.

[Sierra1117]

Rumor has it that 343 will be making more Halo games. In my opinion, they should have kept the explanation for the final game. They should have summed and explained everything in a future game, not at the first one. Granted, I will still be playing these future games.

Rumor? They announced Halo 5 and 6 last year