Harry Bizzle wrote:That subtitle just gives off a weird "scraping the barrel" vibe to me. They're trying to turn it into this space odyssey that Halo has never really been about, with Masterchief as a superhero, which again, he's not.
I have real trouble mustering any excitement at all about a 343i Halo game. They just seem to be turning it into something weird that just isn't Halo. Halo 4 is the first one I haven't even bothered playing because every time I try to get excited about it I watch some videos and the Prometheans just look terrible.
I agree with all of this, especially with regards to the plot.
Halo was originally just sci-fi pulp. It had a typical-shooter plot that was reminiscent of Doom in its simplicity and depth. It was a generic tale of a tooled up marine, caught up in a disaster and having to blast his way out.
And you know what? They work in FPS games. Especially ones that work solely on shooting things (sure, Hall has objectives, but you dont need to actually do anything to accomplish these, like you did in GoldenEye, for example). It was always secondary to the game's USPs - big open environments, satisying weaponry and vehicular combat.
Look at the plot now. It's a horrific mess, and what's worse, is that the people behind it thinks it is important. It has lore and backstory coming out if its ears. They've made it into something that is not.
I never once played the original Halo and wonder what the aliens' motivations were, what Master Chief's history was, or any pointless political guff on both Human and Convenant side. What did matter was that the aliens were in my way, and I had a gun.
In a way, that has summed up Halo's problems - the constant need to expand and add more, with regards to the Single Player. This change hasn't always been for the best - replacing the Brutes with Elites, adding the Prometheans or playing as the Arbiter. And you know what? All those changes were made to serve the story. This sci-fi epic that people wanted to make.
It's not Halo.
Halo 2's single player was a confusing, badly-written mess. What should have it been? It's simple - in the first game you were one marine against the entire Covenant. All that had to do was make it similar to Aliens, and have a group of marines taking on the aliens on their home planet. Job done.
None of the rubbish we actually got.