I think that is one of the better missions in Halo 4? You don't need to stay on the mammoth at all, and the big vehicle canyons provide you the chance to take down the enemies in numerous ways and different paths.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Halo |OT18| We're Back Baby!
- Thread starter Mix
- Start date
I think that is one of the better missions in Halo 4? You don't need to stay on the mammoth at all, and the big vehicle canyons provide you the chance to take down the enemies in numerous ways and different paths.
ExigentContact
Member
I loved that sense of freedom when the ravine borked my Wraith because 343 couldn't think of a better way to prevent vehicles they didn't want coming into the next battle from passing through. That level was one of the better ones -- and that says a lot about how dreadful the campaign was overall.
Killmanjaro81
Member
if people are discussing a fantasy football league. Would anyone be down for a fantasy hockey league?
Oh gosh.
For me, the mission stands for everything a typical Halo mission isn't. First up, you have an over extended and tedious vehicle segment. You have no control of the thing and if you try to takes things into your own hands (ie: get off the damn Mammoth and have some fun), you're either going to get stuck in the level unable to proceed or be killed by one of the many invisible kill barriers. Then you have the "boss vehicle", called a lyrch or something, which is actually quite perfect in that like most of Halo 4's campaign, is terribly scripted and an utter disappointment in contrast to things we've had before (scarabs in H3).
Throw in the most boring art style ever possibly imagined, terrible character designs, a plot that makes no sense and a damn predator missile, and you have the worst level in the entire series that was probably only ever put into production because the campaign designer/343 decided that Call of Duty was unmatched and Halo needed to implement more of that crap so they could cater towards that demographic instead of the one that they were supposed to.
ExigentContact
Member
To this day I am baffled that they chose the Call of Duty Zombies dude as their campaign lead when they had the level designer of Metroid Prime at their fingertips.
Ah the ravines do blow you up, I really don't understand why other then i guess they really wanted you to be on the Mammoth when it leads you to the end of the canyon.
Inwhich I've died inside the mammoth from the ravines. If you go to the bottom of the Mammoth near where the hogs would be held in, when it passes over a certain ravine, it will kill you, or do damage.
Makes sense actually, 343 is owned and operated by MS, CoD makes more money than Metroid Prime, Microsoft likes money.
Follow the money.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
That would explain why we had so many QTEs and the End of the game Didact(Shepherd) vs Chief (Soap) moment.
They probably had a AAA, Mass Market, Defend the Casual, bullet-point checklist that they referred to while designing the game.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
Yeah and look where that got them. One of the IMO least successful Long term Halo games
I think we're all baffled by most of the decisions 343i have made regarding the Halo franchise at this point. Though I guess on the bright side, didn't that guy leave?
If so, they just need to fire the guy who redesigned everything in Halo 4/ made the campaign levels drab as hell (was it Kenneth Scott?) and then maybe Halo 5 will be decent. Well, campaign anyway. Maybe.
ExigentContact
Member
Well, the thing is that 343 very much indicated that the campaign levels of Halo 4 would be bigger and more open than ever before. The hiring of some Retro alumni sounded very enticing with that bit of news in hand. Then for whatever reason entire game turned into a long corridor. I imagine it has mostly to do with the troubled development of the game -- you can see where there are a lot of ambitions in some of the levels, but they never come close to the concepts they're pushing. Speculation's abound that MS pushed 343 to balloon their development team size to create a new Halo game for 2012 when 343 was more under the impression they had about an extra year to make Halo 4, but who knows for certain. What is known that design-wise 343 suffered a lot because of the rapid talent balloon, and so did Halo 4.
Hypertrooper
Member
I wouldn't call "two" many.
Why does Halo 4's campaign have nothing to do with technical limitation? Every Halo campaign was linear. But Halo CE(except the second level) and Halo 3 had those open playable areas. Tedious gameplay? SP gameplay is ace. You meant tedious enemy encounters. Yeah. I will give you that. But there weren't none of those frustrating encounters Halo 2 had. Fuck the flood in 2, fuck the jackal sniper...
To some extent it did, look at the more open locations. Not really pretty things to look at.
Much of the blame is the forward push design that is in most AAA games.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
You give 343 more credit than they deserve, On a sparkast (343 podcast) Frankie knew that the game was coming out in 2012.
YOu shouldn't treat 343 as some semi paragon of anything when it was THEM that fucked Halo, Not MS.
ExigentContact
Member
Having no ammo on Legendary against the annoying bullet sponge Knights was really the worst Halo experience I've ever had. Multiple times in the Halo 4 campaign I had instances where all the weapons would despawn, I'd plug whatever I had into the Knights, and run out of ammo right before I could end the encounter decisively. In any previous Halo game I would have been able to find something, anything, to bring to the fight. In Halo 4 the weapon despawn system effectively kills the dynamic of the two weapon carry limit. It's frustrating and honestly drives the campaign down a lot for me.
ExigentContact
Member
I'll give credit where credit is due. I'm not saying 343 is particularly deserving of any praise. I saw the writing on the wall back in 2009 when they thought that godawful "Apartment 117" was a good idea to greenlight and put up on Waypoint. I've questioned a lot about their capabilities in the following years and they've almost invariably come up short.
But Microsoft is a terrible publisher, and I've little doubt that their influence hurt whatever efforts 343 put forth in some capacity. This is the same house that killed Anvil, FASA, and Ensemble, and broke whatever good was in Lionhead. I'm glad they never did the same to Bungie, but it's almost like they went out of their way to make sure that 343 was the corporate focus-tested Halo factory monster they could never turn Bungie into. 343 may be incompetent, but I'll never doubt Microsoft's toxic influence.
Because they didnt go into development thinking about making big open worlds to explore. From the get go they were designing a more linear and scripted experience. They even said this themselves at around the same time the wheelchair spartan picture came out. Technical limitations in regards to level design are therefore irrelevant.
But I'd love to be proven wrong.
Agreed. Halo 4 took it more than one step further and look what we got.
I mean what I said, unless I'm not understanding the distinction? Look at the Prometheans and tell me that they're exciting to fight.... Look at every encounter that plays out exactly the same each and every time you play it and tell me that none of it isn't tedious.
Certainly seems like it.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
Ensemble went under of their own accord, Molynuex was the downfall of Lionhead. Anvil Didnt have good selling games so it was dissolved, and FASA well i'll give you that one.
Microsoft isn't the evil corporation everyone says they are, but they are still a Corporation.
And the People at 343 can say they love Halo, but then Make Crysis... No.
Orochinagis
Member
Heh funny thing the infinity just go to the other side and reach the final point before you just to launch a predator missile instead of shooting another missle or a MAC cannon by its own.
Kill adds, hold aggro and Assassinate them.
xxjuicesxx
Member
Hire Juices.
DO IT D:
Syphon Filter
Member
Hire Tyson Green.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Juices has passed me in 343 job pandering.
Just had to give you shit, Juices.
I'd rather fight Halo 2 Brutes and its Jackal snipers a million times before I fight the Prometheans again.
Though, the Covenant took a major step back in AI compared to Reach, which is disheartening. Now combine that with strict and forgettable campaign levels, it's easily on the lowest level for Halo campaigns for me.
Though, the Covenant took a major step back in AI compared to Reach, which is disheartening. Now combine that with strict and forgettable campaign levels, it's easily on the lowest level for Halo campaigns for me.
Territories.
xxjuicesxx
Member
Experience in games? I've played them my entire life and I know as a gamer what a good game is and what a good game is not. I think that qualifies me.
343i seems to hire people that have corporate backgrounds. Which is great for the businees. They seem to lack that heart though thats needed to create a game thats meant to be played and not just bought.*
They might want to but being forced to create the game like this which would suck but yea. I gotta go pickup some Chinese, berbz.
ExigentContact
Member
I might've tried that if the Prometheans were any fun to fight. They are not.
Barrow Roll
Member
Non-linear gameplay in terms of Halo basically boils down to being able to deal with certain situations and scenarios however you want within the the given weapon/vehicle/environment sandbox and how the enemy AI reacts to your choices. It's still linear level to level progression with little to no deviation from the path to your objective. Halo and Winter Contingency are exceptions, but you still end up at the same goal in the end. The Last of Us is very similar in that regard. You have combat scenarios which you can tackle any way you want using the tools in the sandbox. There's also inventory management and weapon upgrades, all of which is completely left up to the player. There are people that played the game as a straight up TPS, and I took a completely different approach. There are a some linear setpiece moments, but the number of times it takes control away from the player is significantly less than in Uncharted.
Once again, linear /= bad. Not every game needs branching paths and multiple objectives.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
I enjoyed Territories, but that was back in the day when I was less critical about Halo in general. I wonder if I'd like it now...
Do people complain about people at 343i not having experience? I remember seeing people complain about 343i having a requirement for developers to have shipped at least one AAA game.
Some of their employees have tons of AAA games behind them but do not 'get' what makes a Halo game.
I got to agree with heckfu, juices seems to know just as much as any of us, and doesnt really show anything that makes me think "Man this guy needs to go create a video game this instant", so I never really understand the "hire juices" comments I see everyday, other then its some kind of inside joke.
ExigentContact
Member
To be fair, Bungie and a slew of other major developers also require that you've worked on a AAA game as part of their desired portfolio for potential hires. That part is actually a relatively normal demand from developers. Doesn't mean they only hire people that hit that requirement, but for the most part it makes a potential hire's chances much greater.
I'd personally love to be part of a design team for Halo. Doesn't mean I'll ever get the chance.
xxjuicesxx
Member
Sign Up Date 06-2012. GSO.
..I dont know what GSO means, but if you're judging me on that I only joined a year ago, then all I can say is k.
Work on a PSP SOCOM game, then we'll talk.
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
fixed
xxjuicesxx
Member
No, it wasnt an elitist membership thing, it was an I'd already given up by the time you got here. Remember I've been warning everyone of this stuff since day 1.
Whats a PSP?
Enter The 36 Chambers
Member
Juices uses Armour lock.
We played Reach. "Armour lock is so useful and a great addition to the series. Really expands tactical options and it just looks cool. I wish it was in Halo 4" - Juices
Real talk
We played Reach. "Armour lock is so useful and a great addition to the series. Really expands tactical options and it just looks cool. I wish it was in Halo 4" - Juices
Real talk
Ragnarok Flames
Banned
Its a high class emulator
xxjuicesxx
Member
Silent Cartographer was non-linear too, you could turn around and go inside the other entrance first. It's actually more fun this way because when you come around to the main entrance where the Cartographer is, you have the Hunters along with all the Jackals, Grunts and Elites, pretty insane on Legendary.
Go try it out if you haven't already.
Go try it out if you haven't already.
I have no remembrance of what I originally thought when I played through CE or what I thought about the Flood, which I think is kind of a shame--I've just got autopilot reactions to a lot of it now. For Silent Cartographer I just take a Hog down the Cartographer installation and ram the door before it closes and skip that 20 minute section (Bonus: the gunner will usually kill the Gold Elite when he spawns.) Likewise I just push a Ghost through the doors on Two Betrayals and run to the final Banshees instead of fighting through the final canyon. It feels kind of odd to play them "legitimately" these days.
MrGreencastle
Member
May be full of clichés, but the last of us put me into tears. Loved that game so much. Definitely a daddening game.
I haven't reply had the chance to review the spartan assault mobile game as I've spent the last week or so taking care of my severely ill grandmother in Québec, but I will when I get the chance, it seems fun save for the dumb credit system, fix that please.
Halo.
Get shit on? Read his bloogs. Lurk harder. <3
I haven't reply had the chance to review the spartan assault mobile game as I've spent the last week or so taking care of my severely ill grandmother in Québec, but I will when I get the chance, it seems fun save for the dumb credit system, fix that please.
Halo.
Get shit on? Read his bloogs. Lurk harder. <3
Similar threads
- Locked