Halo 4 and the evolution of story telling

[jeffro235]

Okay lets get the good out the way so people wont say Im biased, I like Halo 4's character focus, I dont think we've actually had characters expanded like this since the Prophet of Truth and the Arbitor in Halo 2 and I think 343i did a good job on that .But what I wanna talk about isnt the character themselves its about the story and how gameplay elements add to that story.

 

Bofore we go on Im gonna ask you a couple questions and I want you to answer them as honestly as possible.

 

Who were the forerunners?

What were they?

What was their society like?

How have the covenent evolved?

How have the humans evolved?

And most importantly ,How has Halo 4's level design and gameplay shown me this?

 

I know this is gonna sound a bit unfair but for me the most disappointing thing is that I cant answer any of these questions without pointing to cutscenes or books.That in a nutshell is the main reason why Halo 4 's campaign disappointed me because apart from the cutscenes there was literally nothing else that further the story.

 

Architecture and Level Design

Im gonna go off tangent and talk about archeology. Do you know what I find intersting about this,this or even this?

Its because there is purpose and culture in the design. These civilisations didnt just design their building on the basis that they were pretty to look at , they designed them in such a manner that gave them meaning and relavence to how they lived.

 

Halo 4 while beautiful is at its core "tastelss"for me . There isnt really any level which stood out to me as particularly imaginative or story driven which is a shame. Requiem was once a planet that was inhabited by an ancient civilisation which prided itself as being protectors of all life, it should carry with it the marks ancient society full of both adults, children, criminals,love and hate (In this case an Authoritarian government with Heiraches) but instead I find it hard to believe the forerunners had anything to do with that planet. It feels more like an assortment of maps than anything else.

 

343i the trick to bringing your world to life isnt in the graphics, its in the detail. Whether it bestatues,ruins,cathedrals or even non-interactable AI's if you put enough datail in your game world it will come alive.

 

Gameplay and How it helps the story

You ever get the impression that Halo's combat has stagnated in respect to its story. No dont overreact, I'll explain.

 

I mean here you have Far cry 3 a game which has improved its gameplay by adding elements such as hunting mechanics which further immerse you in the story . Another example is how dead space 2 and 3 have now fully evolved their zero G mechanic.Non of these games needed these additional mechanics and yet their presence still adds more to their respective stories and games.

 

This is pretty much why Im perplexed by Halo 4 and Halo as a franchise. Halo is a game in space were you encounter new aliens and technology. If thats the case then why;

• Why is it that nobody thinks expanding the AA's in campaign to become more powerfull and perhaps more relevent to the story is a good idea?
  
• why is it that all the new alien weapons still feel human?
  
• Why has 343i never really considerd taking advantage of the setting and make a zero G level which requires you to jet pack?
  
• Why is that 6 games onwards were still clinging to the old "shoot, cutscene, shoot, vehicle, shoot" formula?
  

Halo 4 has the potential to give us something genuiinly new and exciting without having to resort to QTE'S and cutscenes.

(Oh and just for the record I actually liked the little climbing mechanic that was in dawn and hope its expanded upon for Halo 5.)

 

Halo has the chance to evolve here into something different 343i dont waste it.

 

Anyway I think I've said all I wanted to at the moment.Im pretty sure a lot of people dont agree with my viewpoints but you know what Im cool with it. I like both Halo and I respect 343i and while I dont like most of Halo 4 and have been harsh towards them it doesnt mean that I wouldnt like to see them improve.

 

Thanks for reading

[Azeraph]

They should have taken the game across the formats, if they don't they risk the franchise dying on them.

 

You're right, The average person who is not a fan that follows the line wouldn't know what they were looking at when they were playing it the first time through.

[jeffro235]

 

You're right, The average person who is not a fan that follows the line wouldn't know what they were looking at when they were playing it the first time through.

Sometimes thats not a bad thing. If done right a games story can inspire people to play the previous game. (Mass effect 2 inspired me to buy Mass effect 1)

 

But Halo 4 was so bare so dry. There were no hidden Easter eggs, No hidden universe secrets and no hidden hints to Halo 5.

Just a story straight forward unoriginal story with a forgettable villain , no exploration and no exposition when it needed it.

 

But hey atleast the graphics were nice.

[SatanicBagels]

First thing that I'd like to say before making any comments is that you have obviously put an incredible amount of time and thought into this thread and it really shows. These types of quality posts are what makes these forums so fun and interesting for members like me. So thank you for taking the time to get all of you thoughts out so clearly and logically

 

Now when I read your thread several things really popped out at me. In one part you mention the Dead Space series. As a huge Dead Space fan I think that perhaps I can give a little more perspective on how the franchise used it's environments to expand the story. Throughout that game there was an obvious immense consideration to detail. Littered throughout both of the games were numerous references to corporations and companies present in the universe, posters to strip clubs and local stores, as well as apartments and other genuinely necessary locations to daily life on the ship. These all gave an incredible feeling of immersion and really benefited storytelling.

 

Also another thing they did that was really neat was the Audio Log system that they implemented. They were very fun to collect and listening to them really added to the sense of time in the environment. You get a feeling of what life was like before the infection, at the start of the infection, and shortly after the infection. In Halo 4 there are vast and detailed forerunner structures present but I'm not left wondering what they were used for or what happened in them.

 

Perhaps if 343i took a lesson from the Dead Space series (as well as games like Dishonored and Assassins Creed) they could greatly improve the storytelling of their next game. Provide a sense of mystery with the environments but give brief glimpses of the past. If they did this then it would really work to breath some life into their game. I mean we are left with amazing vistas and architecture like that posted below but it takes the use of Google to find out more about them.

 

 

Great thought provoking thread OP

[WonderWombat]

Sometimes thats not a bad thing. If done right a games story can inspire people to play the previous game. (Mass effect 2 inspired me to buy Mass effect 1)

 

But Halo 4 was so bare so dry. There were no hidden Easter eggs, No hidden universe secrets and no hidden hints to Halo 5.

Just a story straight forward unoriginal story with a forgettable villain , no exploration and no exposition when it needed it.

 

But hey atleast the graphics were nice.

No Easter eggs? What do you mean by this, because there were Easter Eggs in the game.

 

And Universe secrets? You can go find the terminals then watch the videos on waypoint. It details somethings about the Universe. And hints to Halo 5 could be subjective as we wouldn't know if a hint was real or not until Halo 5 came out, for example the epilogue seemed to be a big hint.

 

Plus they haven't be given time to even flesh out the villain. Take Star Wars for instance, Darth Vader is just there and he is bad because he is bad. Or even Halo CE, the Covenant is bad because they are. But due to a great deal of hindsight we don't see it this way, so wait until Halo 5 and 6 to have the characters be memorable or what not.

 

Also, what 343 did was cater to the fans who have really devoted themselves to the Universe. I guess that they would rather have done that then try to just make an alright game that a lot could enjoy. So that is possibly a big answer to your questions.

[SatanicBagels]

No Easter eggs? What do you mean by this, because there were Easter Eggs in the game.

 

And Universe secrets? You can go find the terminals then watch the videos on waypoint. It details somethings about the Universe. And hints to Halo 5 could be subjective as we wouldn't know if a hint was real or not until Halo 5 came out, for example the epilogue seemed to be a big hint.

 

Plus they haven't be given time to even flesh out the villain. Take Star Wars for instance, Darth Vader is just there and he is bad because he is bad. Or even Halo CE, the Covenant is bad because they are. But due to a great deal of hindsight we don't see it this way, so wait until Halo 5 and 6 to have the characters be memorable or what not.

 

Also, what 343 did was cater to the fans who have really devoted themselves to the Universe. I guess that they would rather have done that then try to just make an alright game that a lot could enjoy. So that is possibly a big answer to your questions.

 

I think that part of what he is saying is that a lot of the universe secrets require you to leave the game and thus loose immersion. There are many examples of games out there that are just riddled with cool clues, references, and foreshadowing for an observant player to catch onto. Halo 5 could be drastically improved by doing that.

[jeffro235]

Sorry I didnt reply, work and exams have kept me busy anyway lets start off with

No Easter eggs? What do you mean by this, because there were Easter Eggs in the game.

 

And Universe secrets? You can go find the terminals then watch the videos on waypoint. It details somethings about the Universe. And hints to Halo 5 could be subjective as we wouldn't know if a hint was real or not until Halo 5 came out, for example the epilogue seemed to be a big hint.

 

I meant that there were no in game easter eggs and if there are (I've just discovered that there are a couple on the level composer) they are so few and are neglected for the terminals which just straight up tell you the secrets. Part of the appeal of ingame easter eggs is piecing together what it means from the detail found within the game. Again this goes back into my paragraph about putting detail into your games.

 

Plus they haven't be given time to even flesh out the villain. Take Star Wars for instance, Darth Vader is just there and he is bad because he is bad. Or even Halo CE, the Covenant is bad because they are. But due to a great deal of hindsight we don't see it this way, so wait until Halo 5 and 6 to have the characters be memorable or what not.

Which is why you probably wont see people saying Darth Vader was the best vilain of all time or even a good one depending on how you feel about him.

You dont really need two games to make a villain memorable. 343 guilty spark had an incredible amount of exposition in Halo ce and he was still in both sequals. The prophet of truth was as a charismatic ,softs spoken leader who hid a darker more manipulative side. We didn't need Halo 3 to know this because we spent a lot of time with him in Halo 2.

 

True the argument that what we learnt about the didact was enough to push the story could be made but it was still none the less lacking especially compared to previous game antagonist and even other game antagonists.

 

Having or not having the same villain in the sequal is still no excuse for under characterising the antagonist ingame.

Also, what 343 did was cater to the fans who have really devoted themselves to the Universe. I guess that they would rather have done that then try to just make an alright game that a lot could enjoy. So that is possibly a big answer to your questions.

Not really, after all franky did say that they specifically made the terminals not as an expansion for the story but rather they were made so "people can enjoy the story in a nice quiet corner". So assuming that the level of detail in the campaign was made specifically for the fans is a bit wrong

 

And even then the terminals require you to go online so either way it was badly implimented.

 

...

Thanks man

 

I never knew I would find a fellow Dead space lover on a Halo website.You're right about the detail in the Dead space games though.

What I like most about visceral games is that they are aware that their games are mostly linear, so they take as much time as possible putting in a lot of detail.The same could e said about the Bioshock franchise(even the second one). They never skip out on the detail.

 

Its why Im looking forward to Bioshock infinite and Dead space 3(But Im not keen on the coop function they seem to be crowbarring in but hey who knows, it might surprise me).

[vStealthYx]

i liked the way that in the cinematic start and end it told us abit of the story aswell that was quite good