Halo's Story Derivative?

[Thaius]

I know Halo threads are generally frowned upon on The Escapist, but it is for that reason that I have to post this particular question here.

I have read and heard many comments saying that Halo's story sucks, and is derivative. However, looking back on it, I cannot see where it could be considered derivative, and I have never actually heard what is so uninspired about it. Maybe in a few small parts of it, but parts so small it would be like saying Star Wars is unoriginal because something before it had laser guns: absolutely ridiculous.

So tell me, those of you who don't like Halo's story: in what ways is the story derivative? Can you point out any specific examples?

EDIT: And no, "It's about space marines" doesn't count as a valid reason. For that matter, anyone who actually looks into the story will see depth of character in Master Chief, so you can say he's a boring, 2-dimensional character if you want, but I won't be accepting that as a real reason anytime soon.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

I'm not disagreeing with you, but 95% of Sci-fi is derivative. Every story has been told, there is nothing new under the sun, the only changes that can be made are setting and characters. Look at it this way, Shakesperes plays are retellings of other stories (and themselves but that's another topic) and Hollywood is made of nothing but retelling the same story over and over again. So yeah, it's derivative the same way every other story in any media is derivative.

 

[ultrachicken]

I've felt the same confusion as you do, especially the hatred towards the master chief as a protagonist, when so many people who hate him wet their pants in glee at the mention of Gordon Freeman.

However, I will say that the story of halo 3 sucked immensely because it did such a horrible job of explaining what was going on to the player. I actually thought that the Ark was earth during my first three playthroughs. Once you either look up what the story is or magically discover it for yourself, it's really interesting stuff.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I would only comment on the first game since the messed things up somewhat with the sequels in my opinion. Certain parts of it are so embarrassingly close to Aliens that it is hard to call it a homage with a straight face. The idea of a ring world itself it a science fiction staple and not entirely original. Despite that there isn't much wrong with it, it works despite all of the haters who mostly probably don't care much about the genre anyway. You can't really point at anything and say that it is a total copy of something else, at least not to the same level as something like The Matrix or Star Wars.

 

[4fromK]

yeah, if you spend enough time on TV tropes you begin to realise that every story ever told has been derivative in concept. what matters is the execution.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

While I generally like Halo, I would have to say that yes, the game is in fact derivative. Just a quick listing off the top of my head:

1) The main character is a power armor wearing space marine. While the powered armor and branch of service vary immensely, this idea has been common for ages. WH40K, Doom, Star Craft, Crysis and dozens of others have explored this concept. Generally this is done so that the obstacles the player is required to overcome seem reasonable because:

2) The player character is the only one who can save the city/country/planet/species. This is such a common narrative concept that you'll find it in games ranging from Galaga to Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

3) Aliens hate humanity. Maybe it's because of the fact we have five fingers and our skeletons on the inside. Maybe it's because we littered on the wrong planet. For whatever reason, in most video games Aliens seek to exterminate humanity for little discernable reason. In Halo, religious fanatacism drives the extermination attempt.

4) The group the player belongs to is on the ropes and is about to lose the conflict. Doom, Command and Conquer, Killzone, Quake, Duke Nukem, Warcraft, Dragon Age: Origins - countless games leverage this concept.

5) The only thing worse than one alien is another alien that seeks to consume all life. The Flood represent the true threat in the Halo universe, but the basic concept for the creatures can be found in things like Alien, Starship Troopers, Starcraft, WH40K and so forth.

6) Humanity is always outclassed and outgunned. No matter how advanced human equipment, the aliens always have something fancier. Starcraft, WH40K, Duke Nukem, every space shooter ever made and still others leverage this concept regularly.

Not only have these things been done many, many times before, they've often been assembeld in roughly the same way (Quake for example).

Also, as a counter-point to the "Master Chief is a quality character", I would assert that you must have been playing a completely different game than I did. In the game, he is nothing more than a suit of armor with a gun who stoically guns down the enemies of man for no reason save that he's the only human lucky enough to have power armor. While I'm sure there might be better characterization in other media, none of this was present in the games themselves.

 

[Liberaliter]

I liked it. I don't play things and then try to find all the flaws I can or compare it to anything. I played through Halo 1,2 and 3 and enjoyed it, then people started pointing out all the things it supposedly 'did wrong' and it just made me think, what's the point - just enjoy it for what it is. Not because it's cool to hate it.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

Just to let people know(thougn most of you won't care), Master Chief is NAVY. Master Chief Petty Officer. So he technically isn't a space marine.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

While I generally like Halo, I would have to say that yes, the game is in fact derivative. Just a quick listing off the top of my head:

snip

And all of those reasons are why Mass Effect is terrible and the number one most hated game by the people who love video game stories on this forum. Oh, wait.

 

[JEBWrench]

And all of those reasons are why Mass Effect is terrible and the number one most hated game by the people who love video game stories on this forum. Oh, wait.

See, the difference between Halo and Mass Effect is this:

1) Bungie makes games that have gameplay which appeals to their target demographic.
2) BioWare can't do gameplay, so they make it up with sixty billion hours of dialog.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

While I generally like Halo, I would have to say that yes, the game is in fact derivative. Just a quick listing off the top of my head:

snip

And all of those reasons are why Mass Effect is terrible and the number one most hated game by the people who love video game stories on this forum. Oh, wait.

Sarcasm on the internet? Check.

No commentary on the content of the post. Check.

Inflamatory closing remark? Check.

Yep. This looks like a troll.

Keep in mind that simply being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing. It turns out, any story you can possibly think of has probably already been told in one form or another. The key it turns out is taking these most basic story ideas and using them to create something that is compelling in some form or fashion. Halo's story is servicable enough for an FPS, which is all I'd ever think to ask from the genre.

 

[Vrex360]

I do like the story in Halo. There are certainly a lot of things going on in the books and expanded universe such as the Spartan project, the Human/Covenant civil war, the 100,000 year war between the Forerunner and Flood which lead to the original activation of Halo, the Covenant civil war and just the general themes of the universe therein.

There is certainly a lot going on in Halo and while it certainly isn't the most original story ever at a base level it still rises to the point of decent somewhat intelligent sci fi action movie material and that's just when it is at the worst. At the best I rank it among the best sci fi settings of all time.

So while I'm not going to deny that there are better stories out there, Halo is still a lot better plotwise than people give it credit for. Certainly for a linear action packed FPS anyway. There are a few interesting twists, a unique atmosphere and some likeable if a little archetypical characters thrown in. So I like it.
Not perfect, but still pretty damn good.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

Just to let people know(thougn most of you won't care), Master Chief is NAVY. Master Chief Petty Officer. So he technically isn't a space marine.

Well, Marines are the infantry of the Navy......so he would be a Master Chief of the Space Navy?

It really isn't called space navy seeing as the all the ships they pilot are space faring vehicles, so he is just Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.

 

[BreakingEZRA]

Regardless of story, gameplay should be what makes a game different, So quit yo Jibba Jabber!!!!

 

[More Fun To Compute]

While I generally like Halo, I would have to say that yes, the game is in fact derivative. Just a quick listing off the top of my head:

snip

And all of those reasons are why Mass Effect is terrible and the number one most hated game by the people who love video game stories on this forum. Oh, wait.

Sarcasm on the internet? Check.

No commentary on the content of the post. Check.

Inflamatory closing remark? Check.

Yep. This looks like a troll.

Keep in mind that simply being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing. It turns out, any story you can possibly think of has probably already been told in one form or another. The key it turns out is taking these most basic story ideas and using them to create something that is compelling in some form or fashion. Halo's story is servicable enough for an FPS, which is all I'd ever think to ask from the genre.

I prefer provocative commenter to troll.

A point by point breakdown of your post comparing it to other games that are well loved around here for the story would have been nit picky and tedious to the extreme. The point is that the OP asked not only what it was about Halo's story that was derivative but that which makes it "suck" compared to games that get praised a lot.

If you are arguing that being derivative doesn't matter and that all that matters is that it is lacking some sort of element that makes it compelling then your list of points where it is derivative is somewhat redundant.

 

[Megalodon]

Just to let people know(thougn most of you won't care), Master Chief is NAVY. Master Chief Petty Officer. So he technically isn't a space marine.

Well, Marines are the infantry of the Navy......so he would be a Master Chief of the Space Navy?

It really isn't called space navy seeing as the all the ships they pilot are space faring vehicles, so he is just Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.

Random question about this, why is Master Chief Navy instead of Marines?
I'd think that your highly expensive deadly infantrymen would be better served in the branch of your military that is intended to see ground combat/boarding actions. While the men in the Navy have the job of running the ships and shooting big guns at enemy ships/planets.
This isn't meant as any real criticism as it doesn't matter as far as the games go, but it doesn't seem to make much sense from a background perspective.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

While I generally like Halo, I would have to say that yes, the game is in fact derivative. Just a quick listing off the top of my head:

snip

And all of those reasons are why Mass Effect is terrible and the number one most hated game by the people who love video game stories on this forum. Oh, wait.

Sarcasm on the internet? Check.

No commentary on the content of the post. Check.

Inflamatory closing remark? Check.

Yep. This looks like a troll.

Keep in mind that simply being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing. It turns out, any story you can possibly think of has probably already been told in one form or another. The key it turns out is taking these most basic story ideas and using them to create something that is compelling in some form or fashion. Halo's story is servicable enough for an FPS, which is all I'd ever think to ask from the genre.

I prefer provocative commenter to troll.

A point by point breakdown of your post comparing it to other games that are well loved around here for the story would have been nit picky and tedious to the extreme. The point is that the OP asked not only what it was about Halo's story that was derivative but that which makes it "suck" compared to games that get praised a lot.

If you are arguing that being derivative doesn't matter and that all that matters is that it is lacking some sort of element that makes it compelling then your list of points where it is derivative is somewhat redundant.

Not at all! The question posed at the start of the thread (which was devoid of comment when I started my post) was simply: "So tell me, those of you who don't like Halo's story: in what ways is the story derivative? Can you point out any specific examples?". I responded with a few points that seemed terribly obvious off the top of my head. Because this precise subject (Halo's place in the pantheon of gaming) is a ripe target for the flames, I also laid my cards on the table regarding by overall opinion of the game. In this case I was leveraging the rhetorical concept of ethos by establishing at the outset my opinion on the product.

And, you are indeed correct. I could have added mass effect to each and every one of those entries but the lists of examples were not at all exhaustive. I simply did not do so because Mass Effect is another hot button issue and why throw gas onto something that's almost certain to catch fire?

 

[chstens]

I've felt the same confusion as you do, especially the hatred towards the master chief as a protagonist, when so many people who hate him wet their pants in glee at the mention of Gordon Freeman.

However, I will say that the story of halo 3 sucked immensely because it did such a horrible job of explaining what was going on to the player. I actually thought that the Ark was earth during my first three playthroughs. Once you either look up what the story is or magically discover it for yourself, it's really interesting stuff.

I'm starting to feel like my brain is some kind of incredible machine that's capable of understanding almost everything instantly. I've heard alot of people complaining about movies or games being confusing as to what's going on, and I just don't understand why, to me, everything popped into place more or less instantly.

 

[Revolutionary]

the whole thing where aliens invade and its up to the invincible hero(es) to save the day.....again.