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| Re: Criticism of Bungie storytelling *SP* | |
| Posted By: Narcogen <narcogen@rampancy.net> | Date: 1/26/08 8:40 a.m. |
In Response To: Re: Criticism of Bungie storytelling (reprobate) : It was a bad example and I wrote it in a little bit of a hurry, I'll concede : that, but even the average foot soldier whom you come across might wonder : occasionally, "Hey, there's other Spartans, aren't there? Why is he : alone?" They would especially consider that later on during the : events of Halo 3. Humanity has been utterly decimated by the war and : basically any moment the Covenant want to, they could kill all the humans : left. Maybe every human alive has wondered outside of the scope of the : game why no Spartans are around to save their butts, but given the : standard doctrine of "Spartans never die," I think it'd be : perfectly within reason to sneak up on some marines who didn't know you : were coming who were just wondering amongst themselves, not intending for : the Chief to hear, what happened to the rest. At that point do they all : just assume they're dead or fighting elsewhere? Spartans were supposed to be rare. That was the point. Then, at some point, the idea of whole legions of them were made up for the novels and for Halo Wars. At every point where Marines meet a Spartan within the context of the three shooters, they are always surprised to see one at all-- not surprised there aren't more of them. In this way I think ancillary materials like the novels have really done a detriment to the Chief's position in the story. He's the last damn Spartan. The game says so. The marines say so. The bloody music says so. That's why people don't ask where the others are. Of course, every time on this forum you call the Chief the 'last spartan' there's a novel fan to chime in 'oh but no he isn't'-- which is technically correct but completely misses the point. : You can have the greatest story in the world, but if you don't tell it then
: Now I've seen people criticize even Half-Life 2's story, but it isn't
The scope of Halo's story is much, much broader. Half-Life's is told solely on the Earth, solely from a human perspective. It isn't until the end of HL2 that there's even a hint of why any of this has gone on in terms of the invaders' motivations. And as far as mystery goes... I'd say there's a difference between hiding one's secrets well and being intentionally vague to the point that you don't even know yourself who or what a character is. I've long wondered if even Valve know who or what G-Man is, what he wants, or what he's doing. Seems to me he's just a garden variety deus ex machina. I don't think he'll ever be explained-- not because nobody will ever figure it out, but because there's nothing there TO figure out. Of course, some people say that about Halo, but I think the difference there is that if the games spark your interest there are other places to look for the backstory that doesn't make it into the games. And that backstory does exist. : Valve never even states why the Combine (the Covenant of the Half-Life world)
That's not correct. You get one answer in the games. You get a deeper answer elsewhere. For the Combine situation, there's barely an answer in the game and no other answer anywhere else. The Covenant at that point is as two
Wow. If that's what you got out of the game I'm sorry. Maybe I got a special disc or something? And that's fine and
Ugh... not going there. I'm close to grudgingly accepting that, but to my mind, it does not help me make an argument that Halo's story is a subtly told epic, so I still resist when I can :) : So the fifth Halo novel comes out (post-Halo 3) and we finally get a glimpse
That latter reason is a good one. (I'm labeling this spoilers now because you've given away a lot of CH here). Beyond that I think there is the issue of a long-held grudge. I don't think the Prophets entered into the Covenant with the best of motives. It was a way of keeping a dreaded enemy at bay. With the Journey seemingly within reach at last, I think Truth took the opportunity to betray the Elites as a kind of last stab at them. He fully expected to initiate the Great Journey before any retaliation could be made. : I don't know what the real reason for any of their actions are, but I think
That's a much, much simpler story. Halo also operates on that level: The Covenant are on Earth. They are killing wherever they go. And they are digging under the Earth to find something. Shoot and kill them before they get it. That's pretty simple. What you're really pointing out is that Halo has a much deeper level that operates more subtly. Half-Life 2 doesn't tell its story less subtly. It just doesn't have anything beyond the surface level to say. Which is not a criticism. It just isn't that kind of game. It's a small scale story of an Everyman character caught up in the local consequences of a large situation that is, to be quite honest, quite beyond his grasp. You only ever see it at the end. Actually, let me take that back. The last level of HL2 is ENTIRELY non-subtle, where the good Doctor just explains every single damn thing to you, one right after another. For no damn good reason, either. : Well... all right. I just think it's possible to retain most of the mystery
To understand the deeper layers of the story, you do. To understand the shallow levels, you really don't. Plenty of people enjoy Halo without ever having thought about it. But for those who do, there's not just extra story to consume-- there are things to think about, because that part of the story is told subtly. That's what I like about it. That's why there's no (at least not that I'm aware of) "Half Life Story Page" that's going to be going strong with philosophical arguments ten years after the game first came out. But for Marathon there is. For Halo there just might be-- we have to wait a few years and see yet :)
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