What Really Bugged Me About Halo 4

[evilnancyreagan]

so, if a person is offended it is only because they chose to be.

Pretty much, yeah.

and the projection of your perception of reality is manifest in totality.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I always thought the biggest problem was the writing of Master Chief.

I mean he's a big, clumsy man child who literally knows nothing about anything but killing, killing and killing. Sooner or later someone has to confront that John 117 is not a functioning human being, I was hoping Halo 4 would have him becoming increasingly unhinged along with Cortana, she's always been his brains.

But alas no, stoic hero type it was.

Just once I'd like him to violently beat an elite to death with it's own plasma rifle, then turn to the horrified Marines with him and snicker about how much fun he's having...

 

[Confidingtripod]

I always felt it should have been about the arbiter, he was a much stronger character than the chief and was still actively in the universe, maybe its that I'm more of an RPG fan but I just never got the obsession with the spartans in it, their primary interesting traits have been done to death, I was always interested in the halo setting because of their interpenetration of existing themes and styles, but 4 just goes "d'aliens R bad so U shuut tham", whereas previous installments and expanded universe were more layered, with the aliens infighting and implications that human leadership might be quite evil, for me that was the issue, 4 felt like it didnt expect anyone playing to have a brain cell in their head, it points you in a direction to shoot but its excuse is basically it saying "because reasons"

 

[Batou667]

Yeah, the adversity in Halo 4 felt off, and an aspect the writer didn't mention is the huge, clumsy and incredibly contrived foil in the shape of Captain Del Rio. For much of the game, Chief's struggle isn't against unstoppable hordes, or doomsday weapons, or ancient terrors, but... bureaucracy.

"Look, Captain, it's the hero who saved Earth a few years ago!"
"Throw him in the brig, because reasons"

 

[Hero of Lime]

It wasn't perfect, but I genuinely enjoy Halo 4 a lot. One thing I felt was done right was Master Chief being more vocal and getting more of a personality or rather lack thereof what with being "broken" and socially inept.

Even if the Prometheans weren't the most interesting enemies, the overall gameplay felt great to me. For one I was happy to have an effective Assault Rifle for once, and most of the weapons in general had a good feeling for lack of a better description.

My only real problem was the "final boss fight" if you could call it that. That was an extremely lame way to possibly kill of the Didact. I know many people think he survived, but that still does not make it a good ending.

 

[Gizen]

This indeed. Many of the stories regarding Jesus are indeed fictional, and are acknowledged as such even by religions themselves, with only the most die-hard and fervent believers refusing to accept that. And whether these people are offended or not can't a basis whether to use an example or discuss something, because otherwise we'd be living in the dark ages still. The article is right to call upon those stories as metaphorical examples, since that's all they ever were. It still never implies that Jesus himself was fictional though, only that some (okay, a lot) of the stuff written about him was.

So, you're saying that it's acceptable to invalidate any beliefs so long as they are contrary to the status quo.

This is horrendously off-topic by this point, but in the end you're going to horribly offend somebody no matter what you say and you can't allow that to negatively impact rational discourse by letting it limit what you can and can't say. All the same, there's no need to be unnecessarily mean-spirited and intentionally try to piss people off, but it shouldn't be difficult to determine the difference between an attack on somebody else's beliefs/way of life and a simple point of discussion. This article was clearly the latter, and if that still offends you anyways then you're just going to have to learn to deal with being offended sometimes because it's ultimately unavoidable, especially when discussing a topic where both science and respected religious leaders alike are not going to back you up.

 

[thewanderer41]

I always thought the biggest problem was the writing of Master Chief.

I mean he's a big, clumsy man child who literally knows nothing about anything but killing, killing and killing. Sooner or later someone has to confront that John 117 is not a functioning human being, I was hoping Halo 4 would have him becoming increasingly unhinged along with Cortana, she's always been his brains.

But alas no, stoic hero type it was.

Just once I'd like him to violently beat an elite to death with it's own plasma rifle, then turn to the horrified Marines with him and snicker about how much fun he's having...

Now you see, this is what I got out of Halo 4. Near the end, Cortana points out that John seems more like the machine and she is more like the person. That's why John worked as a character, Cortana was the soul and John was the body. She was his conscience.

What I really wanted to see in Halo 5 is that John slowly takes more and more dangerous missions now that he no longer has his "conscience" to tell him to stop. You could still have MC be a messianic hero, but you then make it hollow. He is doing more and more legendary things, but it's becoming borderline self-destructive. However, I'm not holding out hope for that sort of deep writing, but I can dream. ...Or I guess I could try getting a job as a writer with 343 :S

To bring it back to the topic of the article, another problem with bringing John back or any sort of Messiah figure is that when they come back, everything is solved. There's no more conflict because John is supposed to show up and solve everything.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

...I wouldn't say the lore was set up to have much room for you to make your own backstory.

I mean you can if you /want/, but 4 didn't seem to be any more "solid" in how the lore was than 1-3, it just introduced new elements. Master Chief...has always been quiet and essentially empty as far as a personality goes, 4 is hardly the game to start ragging on him for it. Heck, Chief had more personality in 4 than the others I'd say. As far as I can see, the Forerunners were always going to be hyper advanced aliens, it even felt like that's what everyone thought they were In Universe too. This isn't a universe with Gods and Magic.

I dunno, someone could likely correct me on a few of thse things, I'm limited to the games. But with something like Halo I think basing stuff on just the games is okay, as that is it's primary outlet, and the story presented in them shouldn't rely on stuff thats in the expanded universe without explaining it in the games.

I liked when Master Chief was quiet. I believed it was because he was like me, full of interesting thoughts about life, the universe, and everything, but with the understanding that no one cared. Kinda like Clint Eastwood's characters, they always seem to know what's going on, but have absolutely no intention of bothering anyone with it. In 4, Chief was a stupid child who didn't understand his own limitations.
As for the Forerunners, it's like they said in the article- they were better in my imagination because they never got pinned down to anything real. This trend keeps on happening- the Space Jockeys were explored in Prometheus, the Observers were explained in season 5 of Fringe, the Reapers were justified at the end of Mass Effect 3, and the Force was measured in Phantom Menace. Each time, a strange and slightly terrifying thing beyond our understanding turned out to be incredibly mundane. The Forerunners in Halo 1 were an alien race no one knew about who left behind massive structures that often featured beautiful earthlike landscapes, a parasite capable of toppling civilizations, and a weapon capable of wiping out said parasite along with a big chunk of the galaxy. We didn't know why they did these things, and we didn't know where they went, and we certainly weren't a part of it. In Halo 4, we're shown that the Forerunners almost got beaten by prehistoric humans, who they'd already been living with. Considering how powerful they make out the humans to be in Halo 4, it's like there's nothing left to fight. There's no tension any more, because I already believe that the humans can beat the Forerunners. I went from feeling incredibly small in Halo 1 to feeling like the biggest thing in the universe in Halo 4, and like I said before, I like Master Chief to be as small as possible.

 

[Westaway]

The significance behind "wake me when you need me" lies in the fact that the war was over. Chief was bred for war. It was his singular purpose. He would never be "needed" ever again. He would never wake up. That is the implication.

That said, I don't know why anyone anywhere would go into Halo 4 expecting it to be good. Halo without Bungie is a hilariously awful idea and anyone with the capacity for critical thought should have been able to recognize that.

Bungie desperately needs to stop whoring themselves out to publishers. I'm sure Activision will continue to make soulless sequels to Destiny long after Bungie has left it as well.

 

[obedai]

Halo 4 was an interesting game. However, I have three main problems. First they didn't give enough custom games options. They gave us this incredible new version of the forge editor, but then gave us FEWER custom game options than Halo: Reach did, which in turn gave fewer than Halo 3. Why can't we disable sprint? Why can't we have unlimited grenades anymore? These things sound small, but they really limit what custom game makers can do. Hell, they actually disabled sprint for certain game modes they made, why not let us do it? All they had to do was add a menu option, the ability to remove it was already there.

Second, they failed to bring back a lot of very good content from the old games. This was just stupidity in my opinion. Why is there no assault mode or invasion mode? Why is there no needle rifle, when it was so much more unique and interesting than the covenant carbine? Why did they get rid of the Falcon, which was by far the most interesting vehicle in the game? I understand their removal of certain things that were not great, like the plasma launcher or headhunter mode, but some of the stuff they failed to include was excellent.

Third, a lot of the new content is really brilliant but not well thought out. For example, letting players pick their starting loadout is great. It lets them use weapons like the storm rifle or the covenant carbine that otherwise would never be seen in multiplayer and lets players play the way they want. It made the maps less cluttered by standard weapons like the battle rifle, making powerful weapons stand out more. However, starting with plasma grenades or a plasma pistol is just completely unbalanced. A plasma pistol will almost always be a better starting weapon than a magnum. Then there are the forerunners - they were a really cool way to keep the campaign fresh and new and to inject new guns into the game. So why are all their guns just pallet swaps of existing ones (and the same can be said of most covenant weapons.) For the new guns to really be worth including, they should be as different from their human counterparts as the plasma pistol is from the pistol. Otherwise there is no reason to have them. Also, why did they even include thruster pack? It is clearly supposed to be the new evade ability, but you actually move slower than walking when you use it. Did they even test this?

However, there were a few things that the game did really well. The magnets in forge mode were a stroke of genius (although they need tweaking). The sticky detonator is one of the coolest guns in the whole series. The pulse grenades, while underpowered, are very iconic and unique. And the sound design, ohhh gods the sound design is just so much better! The plasma pistol doesn't make a generic 'pew pew' noise anymore, the assault rifle feels so much more satisfying, the narrator sounds better than ever, and everything else sounds just a bit better. Plus, having actual lighting in forge mode is a godsend.

I think that Halo 4 was not good overall, but that it laid the path for better things to come. If Halo 5 can learn from it, I think it will be a great game.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The annoying thing is that they had to go with the Forerunners in the first place. Why not follow the Elites and their continuing campaigns against the Prophets and the Brutes? Oh right, because then we couldn't come up with a contrived reason to start shooting Humanity's newfound allies again.

 

[evilnancyreagan]

This is horrendously off-topic by this point, but in the end you're going to horribly offend somebody no matter what you say and you can't allow that to negatively impact rational discourse by letting it limit what you can and can't say. All the same, there's no need to be unnecessarily mean-spirited and intentionally try to piss people off, but it shouldn't be difficult to determine the difference between an attack on somebody else's beliefs/way of life and a simple point of discussion. This article was clearly the latter, and if that still offends you anyways then you're just going to have to learn to deal with being offended sometimes because it's ultimately unavoidable, especially when discussing a topic where both science and respected religious leaders alike are not going to back you up.

Yo,

I be straight chill'n, dawg.

But y'all need to recognize that some old school, sunday folks could be gettin straight-up ill in here when you be dissin hard on the J-man like he's just some punk ass, harry potter ***** from a book.

 

[Looming_Shadows]

I don't know about you guys but I'm waiting for Halo 3 to come to PC and refuse to play it until it does; that or when the 360's proce drop below $100.

 

[Thyunda]

Halo 4 could only have worked if it wasn't Master Chief you played as. There was a whole race of new Spartans, and Reach didn't suffer any for the lack of Chief, so...why Chief?

 

[Qizx]

This is horrendously off-topic by this point, but in the end you're going to horribly offend somebody no matter what you say and you can't allow that to negatively impact rational discourse by letting it limit what you can and can't say. All the same, there's no need to be unnecessarily mean-spirited and intentionally try to piss people off, but it shouldn't be difficult to determine the difference between an attack on somebody else's beliefs/way of life and a simple point of discussion. This article was clearly the latter, and if that still offends you anyways then you're just going to have to learn to deal with being offended sometimes because it's ultimately unavoidable, especially when discussing a topic where both science and respected religious leaders alike are not going to back you up.

Yo,

I be straight chill'n, dawg.

But y'all need to recognize that some old school, sunday folks could be gettin straight-up ill in here when you be dissin hard on the J-man like he's just some punk ass, harry potter ***** from a book.

It didn't "Dis the J-Dawg" and I doubt old school sunday folk are on this site anyways.

 

[evilnancyreagan]

I doubt old school sunday folk are on this site anyways.

That be prejudice.

"There be more to dis world then what you see from yo comfort zone, holmes. 'cause you only gravitate towards like-minded peeps isn't proof that peeps who be thinking different than you don't exist."

~ Agnes Sligh Turnbull [http://media.giphy.com/media/DZArMy1q0gNbi/giphy.gif]

 

[Paragon Fury]

The two biggest turn offs for me where how the 343i's version of the Halo universe reads basically like crappy fanfiction (and ruins some of the older games too), and how they went complete CoD-casual for the multiplayer.

 

[deathstrikesquirrel]

My main problem with Halo 4 is Pic Related, but substituting Chief, Forerunners, UNSC, and once again Forerunners for the names in that sequence.

Spoiler

I could understand them keeping the flood in the rings in case someone needed to study them (not in the gas mine places mind you, but what the frick ever). But not keeping the angry genocidal guy alive without some rudimentary program just advanced enough to say "Don't Push this button, the guy in this prison is bad news" whenever someone gets close enough. And then for the UNSC derping about with Captain "Oh, that Didact guy isn't important at all! Now I'm going to pull rank on Master Chief to point out what a colossal waste of oxygen I am!" at the helm. Finally with the Forerunners again, They kept the flood alive who could figure out weapons, and kept a weapon around that was apparently useless against the flood but could kill any human and turn them into a mechanical abomination you know....instead of blowing it up when it became apparent they were all going to die, also couldn't they have killed the Didact then as well? Don't tell the Librarian about her Husbando, just collapse the Shield World in on itself, maybe some nukes right near him while you're at it.

I swear to god if Halo 5 has the Librarian saying something like "Well, there was another super-weapon I nearly forgot about, and a bunch of angry relatives I have that you just released by opening that door....whoops!" I will not be surprised in the least.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

The two biggest turn offs for me where how the 343i's version of the Halo universe reads basically like crappy fanfiction (and ruins some of the older games too), and how they went complete CoD-casual for the multiplayer.

The issue regarding Cortana's mortality was actually well-written (even if the ending ended up shitting itself with such a corny and stupid "moment"). But yeah, the Storm Covenant seemed like a contrived excuse to recycle the Covenant AI from the old games.

 

[DSP_Zulu]

The two biggest turn offs for me where how the 343i's version of the Halo universe reads basically like crappy fanfiction (and ruins some of the older games too).

Yeah.. the Karen Traviss marks were everywhere. That woman is a menace.

I particularly love the MASSIVE continuity problems caused by Halo 4... if by love i meant hate with a burning passion.

Lets just start with this one:

Play Halo 3. Read all the Terminals. Who are they written by ? The Didact.

You know what The Didact did? He Fired the Halo Array from the Ark before ending his own life, thereby wiping out The Flood.. (mostly).

So... how is he the villain of Halo 4? How did he fire the Array if he was actually imprisoned in the Shield World centuries before the Forerunner war with the Flood?

Because Karen Traviss is an idiot, that's why.

And that's just the start of the continuity problems (most of them flow out of that one).