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| Re: Hawaiian Pig's Fantabulous Story Review *SP* | |
| Posted By: Hawaiian Pig | Date: 9/19/10 5:01 p.m. |
In Response To: Re: Hawaiian Pig's Fantabulous Story Review *SP* (DenimDan312) : The fact is, not everyone wants to spend the bulk of their gaming time : watching a cutscene. Bungie realized this, and therefore left most of the : character development in the actual gameplay itself. Next time you are : playing through Tip of the Spear, LISTEN to what Kat is saying. That is : where you get the sense that she's a tech geek (with an awesome robot : arm) What kind of character is this? How is that compelling or any different from what was conveyed in the cutscene? I used the cutscene as an example because cutscenes are explicitly made for telling story. I could have just as easily used random boring lines of dialogue throughout the game. This was exactly my problem. She's flat and boring. : And again, you say these characters are two-dimentional, that they "fall
And yet movies and books and what-have-you about war all are able to tell compelling stories of characters who change and face conflict; conflict that's more than just an objective. Give me some emotional and psychological development. The Arbiter sure got that. : And, I know I'm treading on hallowed ground, but by your same logic, what
Yes, the Chief is a flat and boring character. This is largely due to the fact that he is a blank-slate hero for the player to assume. But he's supported by other characters who are all working toward a common goal: saving the universe. There are meaningful events that shape these characters. Hell, even some of the most cliched characters got a chance to show depth. Miranda and Johnson were about to kill themselves to stop Truth in Halo 3. That was some heavy shit. Noble Six is a different brand of the same blank-slate hero trope; but what is he supported by? A bunch of puppet Spartans who are running around at the beck and call of people who are actually doing something (Holland: saving the planet; Halsey: turning the tide of the war). They don't experience change or any significant kind of internal, or even interpersonal, conflicts. What is it that you're seeing between cutscenes? All I'm seeing is a reiteration of their boring and flat personas. Yes. Kat is techy. What else? : Same as Noble 6. Generic Badass. That is, if we were to guage his character
Explained above. : It isn't the objectives you are sent to complete that
And what happens in between? What can you honestly say develops, or changes, or occurs to these characters? Some snippets of dialogue that scream their characterization at you doesn't constitute character development. It constitutes being told who they are: boring cliches. The best these guys get are some MacGuffin-style deaths. : It wasn't the fact that Master Chief had to use his own armor shields to
Right, it was the fact that by doing so, you were stopping this ring from firing and annihilating every sentient being in the galaxy. The same can't be said for whatever it is we did on Nightfall... I still don't know what we did... blew up some cloaking thing or generator? I don't even know, who cares. We were just running around doing things without any sense of purpose. I've been saying it time and again: if the characters actually believed they could save the planet, if their actions evidently demonstrated that they were doing so, and if these actions logically flowed into one another, it would have held so much more weight when they failed. : In that same vein, it wasn't the fact that you had to reactivate the AA gun
I got in my car. I went to the store. I bought some milk. I went home. Activating the AA gun was as "important to the story" as me getting into the car. The story lacks any overarching purpose and flow. Actually, scratch that, at least the entire story about milk has an overall flow. I was on an epic quest to buy some milk. Reach just has a bunch of disjointed stuff that happens under the guise of "saving the planet." But truthfully, we're a bunch of grunt soldiers running around doing small ops here and there. You don't see any war stories that follow around a few boring grunt soldiers... unless those soldiers experience some significant emotional/psychological change. : I urge you, play through the campaign one more time, and this time, instead
Like I said, Reach develops an atmosphere worthy of acclaim. I do feel like this planet is under siege and will fall. And while my actions are apparently part of a concerted effort to stave off this fall... the way they're presented is disjointed and the characters I'm surrounded by are flat. It's simply a bad story.
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