I'm not liking the fact we'll probably have human vs human violence soon, and I think bringing back Forerunners was a big mistake. There is some mystery and wonder that should have remained. I'm excited for the Arbiter and how he's dealing with the separate Factions and also the remaining Covenant fanatics. I think it's sort of like Mass Effect 3. Explaining the Reapers, bringing Javik and explaining who the Protheans really were ruined it a bit for me. Here's hoping the rest of the Forerunners stay dead, no more Promeatheans.
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Halo |OT 23| Thruster is Love, Thruster is Life
- Thread starter VisceralBowl
- Start date
I'm not liking the fact we'll probably have human vs human violence soon, and I think bringing back Forerunners was a big mistake. There is some mystery and wonder that should have remained. I'm excited for the Arbiter and how he's dealing with the separate Factions and also the remaining Covenant fanatics. I think it's sort of like Mass Effect 3. Explaining the Reapers, bringing Javik and explaining who the Protheans really were ruined it a bit for me. Here's hoping the rest of the Forerunners stay dead, no more Promeatheans.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Well, I'm definitely excited the most for dealing with the Covenant splinter factions, but a lot of that has to do with the Arbiter. Human vs. Human is baked into the setting, in a lot of ways, so I'm open to seeing that make a comeback.
And I'd agree with you about the Forerunners, but my god the Greg Bear books were well done. They're almost folklore-esque, in a way; they explain, but it's cloaked in this sense of wonder, somehow.
wesleyshark
Banned
It's been in the cards for a long while that human vs human was going to creep back in, to some extent. The Insurrectionist uprising was shoved to the back burner when the Covenant showed up. Those old angers and squabbles and disagreements never went away- they were merely suspended for a time. Now that the Human-Covenant war is more or less over, aside from what ONI is attempting to do between Sanghelli factions, the Insurrectionist movement is bound to spring back into action.
What I am beginning to wonder is... Will we see Chief possibly defect? As we delve deeper into his life through Hunt the Truth, and as we look at the levels of destruction to whatever human city is in the new trailers- makes you wonder what roads Chief may travel to achieve whatever goals he has set out for himself.
A defector to ONI, which is more or less a corrupt and shadowy organization, would certainly be cause for the word "traitor" to be tossed around...
The sense of scale in the Forerunner books is so wonderfully done, especially in Primordium and Silentium.
Poodlestrike
Banned
The GOAT is, was, and will forever be Fall of Reach. Maybe someday they'll top it.
But I doubt it. Sogood.gif
wesleyshark
Banned
Silentium is GOAT for me. Easily.
But Ghosts of Onyx and Mortal Dictata are definitely worthy runner ups
You've never gotten the people who didn't understand it? Before the Librarian cutscene, where was it said that humans existed as a space fairing race hundred's of thousands of yeara ago? It wasnt. So when that cutscene took place, I figured it was a war happening in current time somewhere. After all, the Didact had just told us the Forerunners had returned. I think if space humans had existed before they'd have thought to mention it. It kind of redifines pretty much everything.
And what's that about the mantle, that sounds important, would you mind maybe explaini- no? Ok.. The information was so confusing by the time she started talking about a genesong I was completely lost.
I had completed every Halo before then, owned legendary editions of 3 and Reach, which I mention only to get across how big a fan I am, and that cutscene and game confused the fuck out of me.
And its not fun being so confused I feel like I need to connect the dots on my own in expanded lore. Do I put the game down and go to a book store or Halo wiki before I carry on? Or do I carry on confused about what Im doing as Chief and just shoot the evil guy because he's evil and thats about it.
Come December if I come out of Star Wars VII not understanding the story because I haven't read the newest Star Wars novels, I will be pissed, not on my way to a book store ready to sink more money into it. I'm still mad because it's one of my favourite series and 4s plot will forever leave me feeling left out. And because this new character who I don't understand is claiming she's responsible for everything we know about in the Halo games, Cortana, Spartans, Chief. Yeah, can't imagine why some would resist that.
5 will be better though. Salty on 4, hyped on 5.
The Henery
Member
The entire commercial pitch of the MCC was a misrepresentation almost Machiavellian, a cynical exploitation of a trusting consumer base built on the back of a hitherto superlatively developed franchise. There exists a narrative, accepted now, that mcc's blizzard of booleans and gross dysfunction was the result of 6 odd companies working on seperate limbs of a disjointed Frankenstein's monster of a game. If we are to agree with this then the E3 reveal and subsequent press events are easy to view as disingenuous and misleading PR routines in retrospect.
Whatever qualms one may have about the relative design merits of Halo CE Anniversary or Halo 4, these titles shipped with working online functionality, working audio channels, working party systems. They did not freeze the console or require a software reset after ten minutes of play. 343 had established a precedent of releasing working games, as had Bungie under the same publisher previously. When the game was unveiled last summer, it wasn't Ruffian games, or Saber or Certain Affinity or United Front up on the stage; it was Bonnie Ross and Dan Ayoub, leading figureheads of a company that the consumer could have confidence in to release a working product. That was the con. I check this thread near daily and was not aware of the extent of the outsourcing that apparently took place, and you can be sure that the average Halo fan knew nothing of it either. The 'real' 343 team was hard at work on Halo 5 while the MCC was cobbled together by disparate teams of unrelated devs. It's like expecting a Lamborghini while 6 different mechanics cut and shut a Honda and a Skoda together then stick a Lambo badge on the bonnet.
I can say this much: had I known that a load of devs I'd never heard of were piecing The MCC together I'd have been in no rush to hand over £350 for the day one purchase. MS leveraged established confidence in their in-house developer to sell a non-functioning product.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
While I don't wholesale disagree with some of your sentiments I think there's something to be said about game development in general and multiple companies working together on one title. I'd go as far as to say that one studio doing everything in house would be the minority by a wide margin and more akin to Indie devs. It's also common to have 2 or 3 teams in one large studio working on different titles or sequels at any one time.
I do agree MCC is a Frankenstein and I expected higher quality, especially with regard to dedicated servers, matchmaking and parties/chat. It's disappointing but I don't begrudge a studio for it, nor do I judge their next project by the fuck ups of decades old games/tech being mashed up. At the end of the day they shot for too much and missed, it happens. I don't for one second believe there was some studio heads outright lying on stage, more aiming for a development/marketing bar at that time.
As for the companies involved we've seen tech and companies time and time again over the years with Halo e.g. Havok physics, Certain Affinity, Saber etc. It's not out of place and I think for the MCC project those outsources were in fact the experts and the right fit/decisions to be made.
I do assign responsibility to 343i management and quality control for not having a realistic MCC development target and working game at launch. I'm still buying and reading the Halo books. I'm still loving HuntTheTruth and I thoroughly enjoyed the H5 beta. Fingers crossed this next game launch is the one to deliver dedis and exceed expectations at the time of release.
VisceralBowl
Member
Check your emails. New survey.
wesleyshark
Banned
Halo 4's story is a convoluted mess that failed to provide even the most basic exposition within the narrative of the game.
Worst story ever? No. However it is very poorly written.
Don't excuse bad writing as a good mystery plz
Worst story ever? No. However it is very poorly written.
Don't excuse bad writing as a good mystery plz
Will probably write more in detail when my phone isn't almost dead
SaganIsGOAT
Junior Member
LANAYUPPPPPP.GIF
I have wanted to see the Sentinels from GoO return ever since I read that book. Seriously, why haven't they explored that more? I want sentinels that group together forming larger baddies. gimmie
NobleGundam
Banned
http://www.newsarama.com/23772-halo-escalation-with-duffy-boudreau.html
I haven't seen this posted here before but the interview talks about how chief won't make a return in the escalation comics. He went off the grid. And will only make his appearance in guardians. Plus Halsey and Palmer will set the ground for how they'll effect chief in a way within future comics. Also, has the new escalation covers up to Escalation #20.
I haven't seen this posted here before but the interview talks about how chief won't make a return in the escalation comics. He went off the grid. And will only make his appearance in guardians. Plus Halsey and Palmer will set the ground for how they'll effect chief in a way within future comics. Also, has the new escalation covers up to Escalation #20.
Slightly Live
Dirty tag dodger
Last update for a while.
Pit map is now called Brobdingnagian.
Skybox updated again. Thought I'd show the scale.
Short preview webm.
Pit map is now called Brobdingnagian.
Skybox updated again. Thought I'd show the scale.
Short preview webm.
Hopefully school slows down soon so I can continue on the base for GAFlo. Which btw needs an actual name lolLast update for a while.
Pit map is now called Brobdingnagian.
Skybox updated again. Thought I'd show the scale.
Short preview webm.
Halo: Gauntlet of Gravity
Regret Upon Approval
Member
Another survey so soon.
Seems like they want to build up a bunch of data as soon as possible.
These surveys seem like they'll definitely affect more than H5.
Seems like they want to build up a bunch of data as soon as possible.
These surveys seem like they'll definitely affect more than H5.
VisceralBowl
Member
Last update for a while.
Pit map is now called Brobdingnagian.
Skybox updated again. Thought I'd show the scale.
Short preview webm.
Increase the tile size of the sun a lil more.
This reminds a lot of my main project's setting.
Yeah I think only after the game launched, and the problems surfaced and people could see credits and whatnot, did we actually find out Ruffian did the H3 and H4 ports, United Front Games in Vancouver did the UI, etc. In hindsight, I feel bad I kind of pushed a lot of people to get Xbox One's, thinking MCC would be one of the greatest games collections ever. Instead it turned out to be the worst launched game I've ever seen in the online era.
jailbird20022
Banned
This right here is whats keeping me at the edge of my seat, so many ways for the situation to go south. But what keeps me wondering is at some point John is going to find out about Halsey being a high value target for ONI. Knowing the Chief that probably won't exactly go over well with him.
Putting bets Locke is going to accidentally open his mouth about Halsey being shot and nearly assassinated by Palmer.
Hypertrooper
Member
Poorly written? I would say it is poorly paced. The awakening of the Didact is one of the greatest cut scenes of the franchise. I love his line. Afterwards it drops pretty off with dumping information on the player. Okay. It is a problem caused by both, the narrative designers and the writers.
wesleyshark
Banned
The whole level itself is fantastic. The design, the structure, the tiers of enemies as you get closer. And then it all pays off when you waken Ur-Didact. The reveal of him was something I had been looking forward to greatly, as Cryptum and Primordium had basically laid a path of breadcrumbs pointing to that moment.
They did a great job mixing both surprise and anger into his expression as well- he was not expecting to be met by a human, in combat skin no less.
Good stuff.
Last update for a while.
Pit map is now called Brobdingnagian.
Skybox updated again. Thought I'd show the scale.
Short preview webm.
Bro - that gun isn't even hitscan. I can tell cause I counted the pixels.
Welfare
Member
Damn they just did one too.
The Real Napsta
Member
It gets old really fast when you hit max level and you've played the raids a few times.
I can't get enough of the Hunter trailer. "All hail the conquering hero".
I've only ever played Halo CE Anniversary and I didn't like that game very much, but the recent trailer has gotten me very excited to learn about Halo lore again. So at some point I will get MCC, and hopefully I'll have beaten those four campaigns (Halo 1-4) before Halo 5 comes out. It really helps that MCC is essentially fixed now (right?).
Do I need to read extra literature to get a full grasp on all the lore, i.e. to know all the intimate details about the following: Flood, Covenant, Halo, Didact, Forerunner, 343 Guilty Spark.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but after only having played Halo CE, off the top of my head:
1) Halos are space installations, giant artificial rings that contain ecosystems / wildlife. These rings are gigantic weapons that can be used to completely eradicate all life forms within one part of a galaxy. They were created to fight the Flood? I'm not sure about the last detail.
2) The Flood are the popcorn squishy enemies that spawn endlessly. They appear suddenly in an underground facility on the Halo from the first game, and they attack both humans and Covenant.
3) The Covenant are the aliens that attack Chief and the humans at the beginning of the game - a space skirmish forces Chief and other human soldiers to make an emergency landing on a Halo.
4) 343 Guilty Spark is an AI that was tasked with maintaining one specific Halo ring (the one in Halo CE).
I've only ever played Halo CE Anniversary and I didn't like that game very much, but the recent trailer has gotten me very excited to learn about Halo lore again. So at some point I will get MCC, and hopefully I'll have beaten those four campaigns (Halo 1-4) before Halo 5 comes out. It really helps that MCC is essentially fixed now (right?).
Do I need to read extra literature to get a full grasp on all the lore, i.e. to know all the intimate details about the following: Flood, Covenant, Halo, Didact, Forerunner, 343 Guilty Spark.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but after only having played Halo CE, off the top of my head:
1) Halos are space installations, giant artificial rings that contain ecosystems / wildlife. These rings are gigantic weapons that can be used to completely eradicate all life forms within one part of a galaxy. They were created to fight the Flood? I'm not sure about the last detail.
2) The Flood are the popcorn squishy enemies that spawn endlessly. They appear suddenly in an underground facility on the Halo from the first game, and they attack both humans and Covenant.
3) The Covenant are the aliens that attack Chief and the humans at the beginning of the game - a space skirmish forces Chief and other human soldiers to make an emergency landing on a Halo.
4) 343 Guilty Spark is an AI that was tasked with maintaining one specific Halo ring (the one in Halo CE).
Yeah, haven't touched my copy in a long time. I moved on to ESO
Halo 4's plot was the worst part of the campaign, by far. The campaign itseld was actually pretty decent and held up during the second playthrough a lot better than I expected.
But the storytelling and plot were an absolute mess:
Surprisingly decent campaign, awful storytelling.
But the storytelling and plot were an absolute mess:
- Critical details and cutscenes hidden in terminals. Without them the plot is difficiult to follow and poorly explained at best.
- Even with over half of the story hidden in terminals, detailed knowledge of the extended universe is needed as well. Even if you've played all the previous Halo games multiple times, you'll be lost.
- Various instances of terrible dialogue.
- Heavy-handed and unsubtle approach to man/machine takes away from its impact. The "maybe we'll find out which one of us is the machine" line destroys any sense of subtlety or nuance. Which is a shame, because rampancy is one of the more interesting topics in sci-fi, with it being digital Alzheimer's and all. Lots of interesting philosophical and ethical implications.
- Forerunners reduced to incredibly generic Didact (evil bad guy destroy world with psychic brain power!). Feels even more out of place in the Halo universe for people who get their background from the games.
- The entire character of Del Rio and all of the acting and dialogue that went with it. Yikes.
- Cortana love story was totally unnecessary.
- Loads of other things I can't remember.
Surprisingly decent campaign, awful storytelling.
MrGreencastle
Member
minor spoilers ahead:
1)
Yes. Giant space installations is correct. There are 7 of them. All together, the 7 rings should be able to reach at least every corner of the Milky Way, and then some. They were mainly created to study and contain the Flood, and if they couldn't find a cure, they would be activated to destroy life in the galaxy as a sort of galactic "reset" button.
2)
Pretty much. They're space zombies that will consume anything that has sufficient biomass and sentient capability. They are governed by a collective hive-mind called Gravemind. Halo's effect kills sentient life, and so kills their "food".
3)
Yep. Religious aliens that were once bent on the destruction of the human race. By the time Halo 4 rolls around, things are a bit more complex.
4)
343 is the monitor of Installation 04, the one in Halo CE. We assume each installation has its own monitor, compartmentalized from the others. At the very least, we've also seen 2401 Penitent Tangent for Installation 05.
As for literature, at the very least I'd recommend The Fall of Reach, which is a prequel book to Halo CE by Eric Nylund, and tells most of what you need to know about Master Chief's history. A lot of that book is being referenced now in marketing for Halo 5. It's the very first Halo book, and if you like that, check out the Lore thread to see where you should go from there.
In my opinion, the games CE, 2, 3, ODST, and Reach, require no extra reading other than watching the cutscenes. Halo 4, however, requires at least a viewing of the terminals (hidden videos in the campaign), and an understanding of the Forerunners which is laid out in a "super" prequel trilogy of books by Greg Bear. Otherwise it is very confusing, but that's just my opinion.
MrGreencastle
Member
The Terminals really are "required reading" for Halo 4, no doubt. Watch those before, not during, a playthrough like they're placed/hidden.
We have seen each of the monitors in a Halo CE terminal video. Briefly, but we have "seen" them.
Agree about the Didact reveal in Halo 4. Great scene. My favourite level in the game. Just too bad the aim-bot Banshees at the start make it infuriating to play on higher difficulties.
Yuup. I like that I can get on every week and do raids for gear and stuff (it's like what Spartan Ops should have been!), but beyond that there's not much to do
I do think something like a raid would be AWESOME in Halo. After playing them in Destiny I now want every game to have a sort of difficult "hardcore" teamwork oriented mode with awesome rewards. Something like raids is how you take SpOps to the next level. Imagine if ever week or every other week you had an actual, difficult, SpOps mission with raid mechanics. Forerunner environments are perfect for this you could straight up copy Vault of Glass and put a forerunner skin over it.
Poodlestrike
Banned
For sure just as Homeboyd.
I do think something like a raid would be AWESOME in Halo. After playing them in Destiny I now want every game to have a sort of difficult "hardcore" teamwork oriented mode with awesome rewards. Something like raids is how you take SpOps to the next level. Imagine if ever week or every other week you had an actual, difficult, SpOps mission with raid mechanics. Forerunner environments are perfect for this you could straight up copy Vault of Glass and put a forerunner skin over it.
Could be an ancillary feature in Firefight; either a dedicated "mode" or a special wave that only shows up when your team's combined score is above a certain threshold at the end of the match.
Would be tricky to get the long-form stuff in that, though.
MrGreencastle
Member
Of course, but I mean actually in the games proper. We've seen a lot of "monitors" in other positions in the extended fiction, too. 049 Abject Testament, monitor of Installation 03 would be the one in the CE terminal that actually speaks I think. We didn't see him in Halo 4, oddly, though, so who knows what happened to him. I'm guessing ONI has control of it and isn't telling anyone - kind of like how the Hierarchs "stole" 343GS and used him as their "Oracle" in Halo 2. They've always been relatively forthcoming with their knowledge - eager to share all that they are privy to, almost boastful.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Locke's stuff will be Spartan Ops "2.0", except this time much more intertwined with Chief's campaign. There seems to be this trend of duality being demonstrated by 343i so far with Halo 5. Just look at MP - you have 2 versions of each map (at least the "arena"-style maps). Perhaps they're going for the same thing with "campaign". Chief's stuff is one version, running on the campaign "maps", and Locke's is the "other side", squad based Spartan Ops-style, running on the same maps, but slightly different - kind of like the trailers being two sides, each slightly different.
For sure just as Homeboyd.
I do think something like a raid would be AWESOME in Halo. After playing them in Destiny I now want every game to have a sort of difficult "hardcore" teamwork oriented mode with awesome rewards. Something like raids is how you take SpOps to the next level. Imagine if ever week or every other week you had an actual, difficult, SpOps mission with raid mechanics. Forerunner environments are perfect for this you could straight up copy Vault of Glass and put a forerunner skin over it.
10/10 would play weekly for chance at exotic DMR or Light Rifle drops.
But seriously, I definitely think a SpOps Raid-like mission could work. The Forerunners are basically space magicians after all. I think that'd be a blast to play, even if it's only rudimentary objective based stuff, as long as there's the possibility of failure, that'd be great.
the phome gafbox stuggle.
But connecting the dots is way more fun then lazily being given every single plot beat on a silver platter. That's what Call of Duty is for.
Kilo-Five trilogy sets all of that up in great detail. Basically, ONI was attempting to stage a civil war amongst the elite factions and it backfired.
They had to fall from grace, somehow. Such a massive, powerful race of beings just up and vanish- eventually, all mysteries must come to light. It was a cool kind of left turn, as it was widely expected that the Forerunners were benevolent and just. Ended up being something far deeper, loaded with intrigue and galactic struggle.
Hasn't been explained... Yet.
No one presumed he was dead. He was presumed missing in action.
The threads for why this is the case have been in place since before Halo 2.Mendicant Bias has been pulling strings in order to get humanity to the Ark, and it involved both manipulating the Covenant to go to war with humanity, and also in changing the slipspace portal in order to send Master Chief on a Collison course with Requiem. What he did not anticipate, however, was Jul M'dama's faction of Covenant forces finding Requiem as well. MB's plan was to have Master Chief awaken the Ur-Didact, so that he could help propel humanity forward towards obtaining the Mantle, but what Mendicant Bias was not privy to was that the Domain had even severed when the Halos were fired by the IsoDidact, thus leaving the Ur-Didact to stew in utter isolation with his own hate and anger inside the Cryptum that the Librarian had locked him inside, who also was unaware of the Domain's severance until it was too late. It was a last laugh of the current Gravemind in their time.
His surprise and astonishment is what stayed his hand. He did not expect to find another highly advanced evolution of humanity waiting for him when he woke from his Cryptum.
I still don't see what is wrong with her character, currently. And as we just found out in the latest Hunt the Truth audio file, there may be a lot that we don't know about her, given that her voice actress was brought in to voice another female character that works within ONI.
Halsey isn't being assassinated. That's from ONI's perspective anyway, and hey, Halsey was never a saint. Even from the beginning, she committed a lot of atrocities, in the name of fighting human insurrectionists. It just so happened that the Spartans ended up being pivotal in fighting the Covenant, which was an unexpected first contact and ultimately, war.
To go more in depth...
1. Connecting the dots is fine. It makes for an interesting story for sure. But the problem is when those dots are spread across different books, comics, hidden terminals etc. If you require external sources to explain the story and connect those dots your story telling is failing. Why should a good story be reserved only for the <1% of Halo players who are lore nerds?
2. Once again, it's a bad decision to require reading Kilo 5 to understand rogue covenant. They didn't even TRY to explain why they are attacking. Cortana says something a long the lines of "these covenant look more raggy than before" or something like that. Then in SpOps it just continues on with "covenant think forerunners are gods" It's like NOTHING has changed in the universe. I'm sure with Arbiter and friendly elites incoming in Halo 5 it will be explained but wtf at not explaining it in Halo 4 and leaving thousands of people confused why we are fighting Elites again.
3. I guess I just prefered the inferred forerunner stories from Bungie. I think the Ancient Humanity angle was kinda dumb. The entire forerunner human conflict seemed stupid too. Could they not communicate with each other? It reads like a bad simplistic folk tale
"yeah we were at war for decades and only found out after the fact that humanity was just running from the Flood oops maybe we shoulda asked" I liked Cryptum. Primordium was a slog.
4. I'm interested in what the Librarian did to Chief also (besides immunity from Composer) but the whole "I planted shit in humanities DNA so that you and the spartan program and Halsey and Cortana would be made and brought here" That was a bit much for me. Way too magic shit. I think the whole "controlled destiny" aspect was better handled with the AI Assembly. Secret assembly of AI's steering Humanity is a lot better of a story and I'd like to see it explored further
5. Lol. Don't give me that Spartans never die bullshit. Even if someone is listed as MIA people assume they are gone. Jorge is MIA also. Could very well be alive, but I expect some surprise that he is found alive. This is the savior of Humanity and his introduction was very much brushed aside by the Infinity. One of my biggest peeves with the games story. Especially after that Halo 3 ending and the marketing hype of people talking about what a hero he was.
6. Where was all this explained? See that sounds cool. I wanted Mendicant Bias to be in the actual games. Not hidden away in terminals and books and shit.
7. His first meeting. ok fine. His other meetings with him? Choking MC, toying with him. Explaining to him shit in cryptic speak instead of using this opportunity to at least give story context that's hidden in the terminals....
8. Palmer is rash. Arrogant. Stubborn. Annoying. Cheesy. She's very uninteresting from what we were exposed to in the game. Her voice actress playing an ONI person could just be them reusing her voice. Happens all the time in voice overs. Throughout the campaign and SpOps if 343's intentions were to make her an unlikeable character they succeeded (eggheads, disrespecting chief, hating halsey with a passion, etc)
343 can still save Halsey's character. She's always been brilliant but definitely morally gray, doing what is needed. She shows signs that 343 is planning on making her a key component of saving the day again. I hope they follow through with it. Not make her into a mad scientist.
wesleyshark
Banned
FTFY
It excelled, but only if you had read the Forerunner novels, and were privy to some other extended lore bits. The plot was less contained to the game itself than it was more a culmination of these other mediums.
If you went in blind, oh yeah, you had a good chance at having no idea what was happening or why you should care.
If you went in informed, it was one of the most satisfying Halo campaigns yet.
I'm hoping that for Halo 5, they incorporate more of the extended stuff into the game proper, for those who don't have the time or the desire to read the novels or the comics or dig into the ARG stuff. I think that if Halo 4 had done thus, there'd be far less of head scratching and the dissatisfaction.
JumPeRJumPzZ
Banned
on Dan Ayoubs PC.
link1201
Member
MrGreencastle
Member
Agree 100%.
The extended should enhance the games, and vice versa. But the games should be stand alone, same as the rest of the fiction. The Halo universe has become too big to isolate the important stuff to just the games, in my opinion, but that doesn't mean you should have to be familiar with any of it to understand basic things in the campaigns. At this point you could have a great time with the fiction even if you've never played any of the games, and that's an important thing to remember when we're talking about Halo now.
The only thing that should be required reading to understand Halo 5, is playing Halo CE, 2, 3, and 4. And that's it. But even then, the story in 5 should be self-contained enough that if you haven't played the previous games, you should still more or less understand what's going on on a surface level. The rest is just icing for those that really want to discover all the layers below.
The little "terminal" below the walkway right at the start of Halo 4 that brings people up to speed is a step in the right direction, but it should have been played as an intro or something. Same with the terminals. They're so well done in Halo 4 that I don't see why they couldn't have integrated them into the main story in some way. It's like a half hour of really good deep fiction that's necessary to understand the whole conflict in the game.
wesleyshark
Banned
I agree completely.
I think they greatly overestimated the amount of players who would either:
1) have read the novels beforehand.
2) have spent the time to search out all of the terminals and actually watch them, as opposed to just finding them and skipping the video just for the easy achievements.
The terminals should be extra content, with solid connections to extended lore, but they should not contain vital information that is central to the game itself. The terminals in Halo 4 were bloody brilliant, but they should have been in-game cutscenes instead. Put that stuff front and center. Don't hide it away, especially if the main plot of Halo 4 relies on understanding it.
The terminals in Halo CEA and H2A are great examples of what kind of information should be in said terminals. It ties in, but is not central to, the plot of the game itself. They only serve to enrich the experience, as opposed to cutting it off at the knees if missed.
MrGreencastle
Member
Yeah. And I won't forget this. 343 has to earn back trust by doing, not by saying. There's nothing to be said. Fix it. And keep fixing it until it's right, not until you can no longer justify spending money on it. Until every single developer at that studio knows it's right. Until they themselves can be proud to call it theirs, and to sit in a room and look both Bungie and fans alike in the eyes and say: exactly as you remembered it. WE spent money on it. Fix it.
Many of my friends who buy Xbox solely for Halo were absolutely insulted by MCC. Because it is an insult and frankly a shit stain on the franchise as a whole. Free ODST (albeit only the campaign which is bs) and Relic should have been the smallest thing they could do from an apology perspective. I'm happy they are fixing it, but there's still such a long way to go before I can "forgive" that.
What should have happened is clear: Delay the damn game. If MCC had had a year extra in the oven, and come out alongside Halo 5, it would have been a whole different story. But it wasn't, it was rushed, broken, and still broken 6 months later.
I will buy Halo 5, because I have confidence 343 can deliver a fun campaign. But I have zero confidence they will deliver a fun or even functional multiplayer suite - they've never done it before, and there's no reason to believe they will now, in my opinion. Halo 5's beta was interesting, but it's just a slice, and not necessarily where I personally want to see the multiplayer go. A step up from 4's for sure, but still I'm hesitant.
I'm still pissed they will no doubt be selling map packs like it's still 2005 - without following a sane model for ensuring the survival of their games in the long term. They demonstrate consistently that they just don't care. They need to stop with this practice and look elsewhere to how devs are monetizing their games post-release. Yes it costs money to develop maps. But look at GTA V's monetization and DLC scheme. It's working. And it doesn't segregate anyone. Steam Workshop. Evolve. Etc. Etc. Etc. Fucking ANYTHING.
Halo should be Microsoft's platform for experimentation in this regard. Halo Online Russia Edition is not it, and I'd put money on that.