Hi Guys,
Let me start by saying that I am a huge Halo fan, starting from when "Combat Evolved" was first issued. I can't tell you the nastaligic feelings I get from playing Halo/ or watching the game being played by others. I never loved comic books as a kid, I never got into Superman, Batman, the X-Men, etc, therefore, the Master Chief always played a critical super-hero role for me. Even though I don't play video games like I did as a kid, the game means a lot to me and I still stay active with story plot.
Now before you guys start calling me a Noob, a loser, etc, I really want to express to you how much the Halo franchise means to me. It means so much to me that I stopped everything I was doing, made an account on this fine forum, and spent time writing this message in hopes I reach out to someone else on the planet who can assent and verify that I am not losing my mind, because from what I am reading on online forums, it seems I am a minority on this view.
The story in Halo 4, in my view, made by a new game designer 343 (not bungie!), is the biggest pile of cow dong I have even seen in my life for a game. Note, I am not judging the multiplayer, I am judging the story/campaign, which 343 clearly destroyed. This game shouldn't have been made, pure and simple. I would have been happy if they just ended it with Halo3 or Reach (as the story doesn't progress, instead it regresses in time before Halo1 and enriches the prior told story).
Reach in my eyes was a master piece. Great graphics. The scenery was just spectacular, I loved how they introduced the flying chopper plane, it made the game like a military operations the Spartans were on. I loved how they characters ran - COD style very realistic. I also loved how they killed off the characters one-by-one, making the player feel emotionally attached to the Spartans who fought valiantly in a struggle they clearly weren't going to win. It was a Promethean story (literally) of fallen heroes desperately trying and failing. The story was a tragedy and made the game really shine. But most importantly, the story was consistent with the other Halo games.
343 had to try really hard to make the story link to the past halo game. If I recall in the books I read as a kid, Cortana was different from the other AI's in regards to processing power and intelligence, allowing her to live longer than the standard 7 years commissions for most AI's. They had to wake the chief up from his cryosleep to another "recently" discovered planet they bumped on while flying in space (how convenient), only to be discovered at the same moment a human ship finds them as they encounter this new planet (really how convenient!), which has a race of Prometheans who want end humanity just a few years after humanity just ended a war with the Covenant. The covenants now side with the Prometheans and become enemies again -- sorry this just doesn't flow with how Halo 3 ended.
Not to mention the side characters in the game were real jerks. Captain Del Rio is a total a-hole to the Chief, the man who saved Earth in Halo 3, and treats him like crap as if he wasn't there. I would have expected they greet him with open arms and bow down to him. Instead the Chief is treated like a garbage can and has to gain their respect throughout the whole game as they try to hinder his progress. Is this how you treat Master Chief, who undoubtedly saved earth 4 years ago?? WTF!!!
Not to mention the whole story with the didact was abysmal. A Promethean that flies in a magic orb and can move things like a Jedi moves objects with the force? Flying female librarians and magic augmentation? Cortanna popping out of laser bridges? -- what a crappy ending. This is WAYYY too sci-fi for me, well above what Halo initially was.
Halo was a simple story -- War with the Covenants, stumble on a mysterious ring, an infection outbreak. This is something I can comprehend in my realm of of sci-fi stories, but the story in H4 is simply above my tastes for fictional game. What a shame. 343 destroyed my childhood game. I want to go back in a time machine and imagine I never heard this story. If someone out there knows how I feel, please step up. Am I going crazy?
Let me start by saying that I am a huge Halo fan, starting from when "Combat Evolved" was first issued. I can't tell you the nastaligic feelings I get from playing Halo/ or watching the game being played by others. I never loved comic books as a kid, I never got into Superman, Batman, the X-Men, etc, therefore, the Master Chief always played a critical super-hero role for me. Even though I don't play video games like I did as a kid, the game means a lot to me and I still stay active with story plot.
Now before you guys start calling me a Noob, a loser, etc, I really want to express to you how much the Halo franchise means to me. It means so much to me that I stopped everything I was doing, made an account on this fine forum, and spent time writing this message in hopes I reach out to someone else on the planet who can assent and verify that I am not losing my mind, because from what I am reading on online forums, it seems I am a minority on this view.
The story in Halo 4, in my view, made by a new game designer 343 (not bungie!), is the biggest pile of cow dong I have even seen in my life for a game. Note, I am not judging the multiplayer, I am judging the story/campaign, which 343 clearly destroyed. This game shouldn't have been made, pure and simple. I would have been happy if they just ended it with Halo3 or Reach (as the story doesn't progress, instead it regresses in time before Halo1 and enriches the prior told story).
Reach in my eyes was a master piece. Great graphics. The scenery was just spectacular, I loved how they introduced the flying chopper plane, it made the game like a military operations the Spartans were on. I loved how they characters ran - COD style very realistic. I also loved how they killed off the characters one-by-one, making the player feel emotionally attached to the Spartans who fought valiantly in a struggle they clearly weren't going to win. It was a Promethean story (literally) of fallen heroes desperately trying and failing. The story was a tragedy and made the game really shine. But most importantly, the story was consistent with the other Halo games.
343 had to try really hard to make the story link to the past halo game. If I recall in the books I read as a kid, Cortana was different from the other AI's in regards to processing power and intelligence, allowing her to live longer than the standard 7 years commissions for most AI's. They had to wake the chief up from his cryosleep to another "recently" discovered planet they bumped on while flying in space (how convenient), only to be discovered at the same moment a human ship finds them as they encounter this new planet (really how convenient!), which has a race of Prometheans who want end humanity just a few years after humanity just ended a war with the Covenant. The covenants now side with the Prometheans and become enemies again -- sorry this just doesn't flow with how Halo 3 ended.
Not to mention the side characters in the game were real jerks. Captain Del Rio is a total a-hole to the Chief, the man who saved Earth in Halo 3, and treats him like crap as if he wasn't there. I would have expected they greet him with open arms and bow down to him. Instead the Chief is treated like a garbage can and has to gain their respect throughout the whole game as they try to hinder his progress. Is this how you treat Master Chief, who undoubtedly saved earth 4 years ago?? WTF!!!
Not to mention the whole story with the didact was abysmal. A Promethean that flies in a magic orb and can move things like a Jedi moves objects with the force? Flying female librarians and magic augmentation? Cortanna popping out of laser bridges? -- what a crappy ending. This is WAYYY too sci-fi for me, well above what Halo initially was.
Halo was a simple story -- War with the Covenants, stumble on a mysterious ring, an infection outbreak. This is something I can comprehend in my realm of of sci-fi stories, but the story in H4 is simply above my tastes for fictional game. What a shame. 343 destroyed my childhood game. I want to go back in a time machine and imagine I never heard this story. If someone out there knows how I feel, please step up. Am I going crazy?
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