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| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | |
| Posted By: kapowaz <halo.bungie.org@kapowaz.net> | Date: 11/16/12 8:28 a.m. |
In Response To: Let's Talk Halo 4 (Cody Miller) : Story wise, 343 did a pretty good job. In terms of presentation and : structure, it beat the pants off Halo 3, ODST, and Reach. I'm not sure I'd agree that it's a better structured or presented story than Halo 3 or ODST, but I certainly do think it beats Reach (which I agree was a mess). However, I still think Halo 4's story itself was poor. The Didact is a confusing and poorly explained antagonist; the ‘twist’ with the origin of the Promethean Knights is badly explained; the justification for bringing several Covenant races back was weak and Cortana's path to rampancy felt like a tremendous wasted opportunity. She, along with other characters like Del Rio, was a one-dimensional caricature, despite the trailer teasing her ‘I will not allow you to leave this planet!’ outburst — which hinted at something far more interesting. We all knew her rampancy was coming; even if you ignore the hints in the various expanded universe, it was alluded to in her behaviour as far back as Two Betrayals in HCE, as well as appearing ‘damaged’ from her exposure to the Gravemind in between H2 and 3. Bungie's rich history of exploring artificial intelligence insanity set up a whole world of possibilities, and 343i threw those away in favour of making her just seem like a tormented soul, then gave her the most clichéd of endings with a ‘noble sacrifice’. What I would have loved to see is Cortana become the principal antagonist of this new trilogy. Imagine: upon arriving on Requiem and interfacing with the Forerunner systems, she finally became thoroughly overwhelmed by the newly-accessible data at her fingertips and tipped over into the despair state of rampancy. As she succumbs to this, the Master Chief is desperately attempting to find a solution, a way to bring her back to Dr Halsey, only for the Anger state to take over, turning Cortana fully into the main villain, with the Promethean Knights as her puppet troops. For all its flaws, The Matrix Reloaded has a fascinating scene where Neo meets The Architect. This scene, despite being brief, instantly enriches the story and gives us far more to think about by revealing The Matrix is much older than we realised. Ultimately, there's nothing that does this for us in Halo 4's story. In the previous games there were alluded-to-but-undetailed mysteries that gave the universe a sense of wonder, but by now they've pretty much all been fully explained, leaving us with little else to ponder on. By the end of the game Earth has been saved, Master Chief has hung up his armour and although the US West Coast appears to have been decimated by the Composer, there is a relative sense of closure. Maybe the humans destroyed in this fashion will return as yet more Promethean Knights (oh god, please no) or in some other way set up the plot for Halo 5, but it feels like there are now just too few seeds from which to grow an interesting story.
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| Replies: |
| Let's Talk Halo 4 | Cody Miller | 11/16/12 1:12 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Flynn J Taggart | 11/16/12 2:06 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | JDQuackers | 11/16/12 6:29 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Architechnid | 11/16/12 7:03 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | thebruce0 | 11/19/12 3:27 p.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Kermit | 11/16/12 8:13 a.m. |
| The graphics are too good. For shame, 343. *NM* | mr_mcmurder | 11/16/12 8:25 a.m. |
| Don't conflate two distinct things | scarab | 11/16/12 8:47 a.m. |
| Re: Don't conflate two distinct things | mr_mcmurder | 11/16/12 6:04 p.m. |
| Re: Don't conflate two distinct things | kapowaz | 11/16/12 8:19 p.m. |
| Re: Don't conflate two distinct things | uberfoop | 11/16/12 8:38 p.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | kapowaz | 11/16/12 8:28 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | scarab | 11/16/12 8:44 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | kapowaz | 11/16/12 8:54 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Nash | 11/16/12 9:45 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Schooly D | 11/16/12 10:22 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | kapowaz | 11/16/12 11:36 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Ibeechu | 11/16/12 2:47 p.m. |
| Agreed. | Bones | 11/16/12 4:16 p.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Azo 'Galvat | 11/16/12 10:44 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | SonGoharotto | 11/16/12 11:44 a.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | kidtsunami | 11/16/12 3:17 p.m. |
| Sorry | kidtsunami | 11/16/12 5:18 p.m. |
| Great post. Two thumbs up. | Gravemind | 11/16/12 3:34 p.m. |
| Re: Let's Talk Halo 4 | Avateur | 11/16/12 11:11 p.m. |
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