Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts
|
|
|
||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Frequently Asked Forum Questions | |
|||
|
||||
|
|
|||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| Search Older Posts on This Forum: Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| Re: Podtacular story discussion thoughts... | |
| Posted By: Ibeechu | Date: 9/22/11 2:42 a.m. |
In Response To: Podtacular story discussion thoughts... (GrimBrother One) Something that makes Halo stand out to me in terms of story isn't so much the content, but the storytelling itself. It's obvious that Joe and Marty and the other core group of guys have a really good intuition for clearly communicating through visuals and music and means that aren't dialogue. Which is good because my biggest beef with the storytelling overall is the sometimes horrible dialogue. It's very one-liner based and it's usually used to sort of bookend shots rather than provide much development or information during the shots. Which is fine. In something cinematic like Halo, any time you can replace dialogue with something else and have it still work, it's almost indiscriminately the best option. I was stressing in an earlier post that animation doesn't get nearly the respect it deserves in video games and that goes doubly for a game like Halo that thrives on cinematic storytelling. When you strip away dialogue and music, the only thing that can tell a story is what you see. If all you can see is a character reacting to something, you need to BELIEVE that character is real. Halo 3 had some really great animation in some parts, and Valve's Meet The Team videos prove that hand-keyed animation with video game rigs is now technologically possible to bring to film-production-quality. As for story content, Halo is pretty standard sci-fi space opera at its core. But it does present some unique characters and ideas. This has been said a lot before, but making the Covenant sympathetic characters in Halo 2 was really, really bold. And Halo 3 proved to me that a video game can make you cry. I've always felt like the best moments in the story derive from Chief and Cortana's relationship, and the stuff between them in Halo 3 was just incredibly well-done. "It's been an honor working with you, John" gets me every single time. It's impossible for me to not tear up during that shot. I had a whole big thing here written about how I dislike the idea of Cryptum even though I've never read it, and I compared the mysteries in Halo to the mysteries in Lost, saying that they're purely a catalyst for the real core of the stories to be driven by. But it wasn't really making a point, so I cut it out. Suffice it to say that Lost, while dealing with a lot of mystery, is really a show about people who regret choices or events in their lives, and who get a chance to understand those regrets and become better people. I tried making a connection to Halo, by saying that the mysterious stuff in Halo takes a backseat to the human story. But it really doesn't. And, in fact, some of the stuff that impacted me most about Halo was the sense of mystery. Setting foot off the PoA for the first time, and then seeing this huge ringworld arcing up over the horizon. Or watching a Halo-in-progress rise out of the mist in The Ark. But, then again, maybe those just go back to visual storytelling. You know, I typed a lot in this post but I don't know if I actually said anything. Cliffs
| |
|
| Replies: |
| Podtacular story discussion thoughts... | GrimBrother One | 9/22/11 12:13 a.m. |
| Re: Podtacular story discussion thoughts... | Ibeechu | 9/22/11 2:42 a.m. |
| Great thoughts :-) *NM* | GrimBrother One | 9/22/11 10:12 a.m. |
| Re: Podtacular story discussion thoughts... | General Battuta | 9/22/11 10:38 a.m. |
| nicely done | Miguel Chavez | 9/22/11 12:10 p.m. |
| Re: ONI did it | davidfuchs | 9/22/11 2:05 p.m. |
| Instant Plot: Just Add Forerunner. | Quirel | 9/22/11 11:51 a.m. |
| Re: Instant Plot: Just Add Forerunner. | Archilen | 9/22/11 12:13 p.m. |
| Re: Instant Plot: Just Add Forerunner. | davidfuchs | 9/22/11 2:10 p.m. |
| Re: Instant Plot: Just Add Forerunner. | Ibeechu | 9/22/11 2:18 p.m. |
| Re: Instant Plot: Just Add Forerunner. | davidfuchs | 9/22/11 4:03 p.m. |
| An Emerging Trend: Kill It NOW! | Quirel | 9/22/11 8:17 p.m. |
| Re: Podtacular story discussion thoughts... | padraig08 | 9/22/11 5:33 p.m. |
The HBO Forum Archive is maintained with WebBBS 4.33. |