Wasn't the Master Chief Collection a buggy mess?Xprimentyl said:Believe you me, when 343 took over the franchise, I was pretty hesitant, but they showed me with Halo 4 and the Master Chief Collection that they had the due respect for and understanding of the legacy of the franchise
After the drek that was Halo 4, that was when they regained it for me.Xprimentyl said:and could do it justice; my leeriness was assuaged. But with Halo 5, they betrayed that confidence.
As of Halo Wars 2, not including remakes, there's been 11 Halo games. John's been playable in 5 of them, and in two of them, has to share with a co-protagonist.Xprimentyl said:Most else could be forgiven had they not literally back-seated the Master Chief for the majority of the game; that?s honestly 90% of my ire with Halo 5.
Aren't you chewing out Halo 5 for what Halo 2 did? I'll grant you that Halo 2 had a 50/50 split between John and Thel, whereas Halo 5 is more 60/40 in favor of Locke, but the franchise is called "Halo," not "Master Chief." The universe doesn't revolve around him.
We do know better. Locke doesn't, and even in that context Buck points out that even if they bring John to 'justice,' people are going to hate them for it.Xprimentyl said:Halo 4 humanized both the Chief and Cortana in a way the previous games hadn?t, so I was looking forward to seeing that develop. But nope, Halo 5 drops us in the seat of some new schmuck, a glorified cop, to track down the HERO we?ve been playing for over a decade who?s apparently gone? rogue? Excuse us? As if we don?t fucking know better?!
The audience knowing something the protagonist doesn't isn't inherently bad writing.
No idea how you came to this conclusion.Xprimentyl said:For all intents and purposes, Halo 5?s story is little more than an indictment of everything we?ve done throughout the course of the franchise, so 343 wanted us to prosecute ourselves?
Even if I agreed with that assessment, we've been expected to do the same for numerous protagonists in the series. John's got the most appearances in the series, but he's not the only protagonist.Xprimentyl said:We?re just expected to warm up to some new, clueless fuck-wit asshole
How many times has Halo ended?Xprimentyl said:in the lead for the majority of the 6th major installment of a flagship, console-selling franchise like it?s the next natural progression of the story we?ve lived since day 1? Thoughtless at least; unforgiveable, to be sure.
Could have ended at Halo 3. Could have ended with Reach. It could have even ended at Halo 4 as some kind of awkward book-ending to the original trilogy. "Natural progression" ended a long time ago. Halo 5 at least shook up the setting. Locke is part of that, but again, John may have been the 'face' of Halo, but he's by no means the only important character in the universe.
You do realize that John was relying on Blue Team for 27 years (more if you include training) before Halo 1, right? Even discounting the support he's had in the games (marines, Thel, etc.), in John's service history, operating alone is the exception rather than the rule. Frankly, it's a refreshing change of pace to acknowledge that yes, John does work as part of a team most of the time, and the game doesn't need to contrive another reason for him to go lone wolf. And since Halo 5 does extend his story from H4, it shows from the outset that John's reaching his limits in the game. I don't think it was the intent, but I can appreciate the idea that John needs to rely on his team (again) because he's reaching his expiry date.Xprimentyl said:This gripe is admittedly a fanboy-ish one; I could have done without the focus on squad-based game play. I?m sorry, the Master Chief fell from fucking SPACE, hit the goddamn ground, dusted off his britches and was back to killing Brutes within minutes; how do they rationalize that now, he?s essentially a turtle on its back when he takes too much damage? He never needed another Spartan to kiss his boo-boos and give him a pep talk to rejoin the fight every time his shields went down; believe me; I was THERE. If they wanted to give ?Spartan? Locke help, fine, but the Chief doesn?t need brain damaged AI to babysit while he goes about the general badass-ery of which he?s a tried- and-true veteran.
The microtransactions are hardly intrusive, and are only in one game mode. It helps that after the clusterfuck that was Halo 4's multiplayer with its loadout nonsense, H5 felt like a return to form.Xprimentyl said:After those gross missteps, they shoved their heads even further up their asses, took the beloved multiplayer and laced it with pathetic, sleazy, money-grubbing microtransactions hiding character customization behind a paywall and random chance.
Halo 4 is a far more awkward sequel than Halo 5. Halo 5 pushes the setting forward, with new enemies (Prometheans), new themes (Mantle), and new characters. Halo 4's story is an awkward transitory period between the Bungie and 343 eras. It does one thing very well (John and Cortana), but struggles in every other area. Halo 5 does build on what Halo 4 introduced, sure, but again, Halo 5 feels like far more its own thing, in both gameplay and story. Halo 4 comes short in both these areas.Xprimentyl said:Agreed, ODST was lackluster, but it didn?t purport (much less try) to be ?Halo 4?; it took its place as a tangential diversion within the larger Halo universe which is what Halo 5 deserves at BEST if it deserves anything at ALL.
Their long term goal is to establish a trade route. I think the idea of the Milky Way running low on resources may have been mentioned somewhere, but I forget. Even then, a journey for the sake of discovery alone for long-term benefit is something I can buy. We're doing it in our own solar system right now.Phoenixmgs said:I haven't played the game either as I didn't like the story premise nor the change in the game structure. The Initiative's real catalyst doesn't make that much sense either, how are they running low on resources in an entire galaxy?
That doesn't prove anything. The Reapers' mandate is that organic life and synthetic life will inevitably collide in conflict. A synthetic race arising in another galaxy actively has to go seeking for trouble.Phoenixmgs said:The Reaper AI has to be smart enough to put 2-and-2 together that synthetics will overtake organics eventually if they only deal with the problem in 1 galaxy. And the fact that a supreme synthetic hasn't come to cleanse the Milky Way then proves the Reaper logic wrong if all the other galaxies are left alone.
I don't know, but remember, Andromeda (the game) takes place in only a tiny portion of the Andromeda galaxy, and there's evidence of a precursor race as well. We have little idea as to the state of Andromeda as a whole.Phoenixmgs said:Or why is the Andromeda galaxy not super advanced beyond the Milky Way if their races aren't being destroyed every few millennia?
I think it is. The Reapers' mandate has never been extended beyond the Milky Way. They'd have to travel to another galaxy, burning fuel, and gambling that there isn't an advanced civilization there that can stop them. If they lose, then they've 'failed' their own galaxy. And Andromeda is merely our closest galaxy. I can't hammer home enough that space is really, REALLY, big.Phoenixmgs said:Yeah, I fully realize space is so massive is mind-boggling, I love watching documentary-type shows about space, black holes, etc. The reapers are doing nothing for thousands of years, it isn't that out of reach for them to be taking care of the other galaxies at least in a fictional story where you can hand-wave lots of stuff.
No, that would ruin it. The Reapers' modus operandi makes perfect sense in the context of the Milky Way. Throwing in other galaxies pretty much sends them into 'god territory.'Phoenixmgs said:Even playing through the original ME trilogy, the only way the whole storyline works with any logical bearing is if the reapers are in fact doing that for every galaxy.
It would, if it was an easy trip. Which it isn't, by any means.Phoenixmgs said:And Andromeda sorta ruins that aspect of the story if escaping to another galaxy is the solution.
No, not really. Once they're out of the galaxy, they're not the Reapers' problem. Even if hundreds of thousands escape the Milky Way, that's small fry to the billions, if not trillions of individuals they'll cull.Phoenixmgs said:And the fact that the reapers even let the galaxy get that advanced to be able to jump galaxies is pretty much dropping the ball for such an advanced AI; it's basically "you had ONE job!!!"