Halo 4 review

[Family Fry]

Cheers bash you made my night.

[EvilBoris]

Fell for it!

[bcass]

I imagine that people who actually write like that would be perfectly at home with the kind of vacuous attempt at a story witnessed in Halo 4.

[MisterBubbles]

I think the story works, and Master Chief and Cortana realise, they look after each other.

[EvilBoris]

I think the story works, and Master Chief and Cortana realise, they look after each other.

relation
There are aspects of the story that didn't seem clear to me, I'm hoping that on the examination of the additional materials that come included with the game, I may see this in a different light. As you say that's all I saw about about Chief and Cortana.

At the end of the game

->Open Spoiler<-

Master Chief seems distraught that for the first time in any of the Halo games, he can't actually save the day. He might of saved earth, but his best friend is gone.

and not only is Cortana his best friend, but I'd assume she's his only friend.


There were bits that were really well done, I loved the section with in subordinate Chief, that was really cool.

[MisterBubbles]

Well one of the themes that the story is trying to convey is about both their humanity, as Cortana says are you more human or am i ?. About Master Chief being kinda robot like or a machine.

[bcass]

It's pretty hilarious that anyone is trying to find any meaning to it. It's as shallow as a puddle. Have you guys never read any decent books or something?

[GluedOnBeard]

I think everybody knows Halo is badly written drivel in comparison to a real book but for a game it makes a pretty decent attempt at making you care. How many other games in the FPS genre manage it? I think although most of the campaign didn't make for a story they did pull it together right at the end and tied it up nicely. Hopefully they can continue it into Halo 4 and flesh it out a bit. It was not really helped by the terrible campaign that precedes this one.

[JohnMcL7]

I think everybody knows Halo is badly written drivel in comparison to a real book but for a game it makes a pretty decent attempt at making you care. How many other games in the FPS genre manage it? I think although most of the campaign didn't make for a story they did pull it together right at the end and tied it up nicely. Hopefully they can continue it into Halo 4 and flesh it out a bit. It was not really helped by the terrible campaign that precedes this one.

You say that like it isn't possible for it to be written any better but the reason I find the writing particularly bad is that some of the Halo books, particularly the Fall of Reach has a good story and does a superb job fleshing out the Halo universe. In particular the starship mechanics are reasonably convincing and some of the ship to ship battles are as engaging the Spartan combat scenes. I can't see why they can't bring some of that writing talent into the games (I know it's claimed they do but they clearly do not), wth Halo4 it's not just mostly drivel but it's not even new drivel.

->Open Spoiler<-

Yet again we have a massively powerful device that the fuse/timer/remote has broken on, large battleships designed for use in space magically lifting off from a large gravitational body, MACs looking and behaving pretty much nothing like MACs exactly as we saw in Reach (Nylund's version of the fall of Reach was rather more convincing than the one in the game). Halo4 then adds dubious retcons and a new enemy which is just very dull plus the first ship designed for peace and exploration not war but it's the most heavily ship the UNSC have ever produced, is carrying the new generation of power armour wearing Spartans and it is loaded up with all manner of military hardware.

To be fair I did enjoy the intro cutscene, the one in the middle and the one immediately after the last mission as they showed a lot of promise but just too much rubbish in between.

[EvilBoris]

Those MACs have really upset you

[JohnMcL7]

Pretty much all of it. The affection angle they've gone for is totally over-played and comes across as some silly teenage school play. I think the first Halo game has one of the best stories in any game ever. It's told in a very minimal style, with little dialogue and few extraneous characters. There's a constant air of mystery because everything isn't spelt out for you, unlike every Halo game since.

I can't really see how you can compliment a game with no story as a great story, it doesn't spell anything out because there is nothing to spell out. You can pretty much see the point when they were out of time and just copy/pasted the rest of the game and banged it out, you get the actual story in The Flood which isn't bad but even though it was commissioned by Microsoft the game remains canon and the book does not, even though the latter makes more sense.

John

[JohnMcL7]

Those MACs have really upset you

Indeed, they're a much more original weapon than a lot of mainstream sci-fi yet they're just depicted as bog standard starship style weapons in the games.

John

[bcass]

I can't really see how you can compliment a game with no story as a great story, it doesn't spell anything out because there is nothing to spell out.

I disagree. I think there is a story there, albeit a very simple one. That's probably why it works so well. The lack of convolution. It's probably one of the best examples of how you do it in the context of a game. Anything that tries to make a game tell a story like a film or a book always fails IMO. Games require a different approach to story telling.

[nonny]

I enjoyed the story between Cortana and MC. I think those simple scenes and the ending help break up the action and whilst its still very much popcorn entertainment and shallow enough to digest in between the big fire fights it still managed its purpose.

What I didn't understand in the game was all of the back story that was conveyed through the terminals. I sat back and watched all 16mins of that and I have to wonder why they didn't at least put some of that into the game? Not sure I see the reason why you have to duck out to Halo Waypoint to have the motives and history of the main enemy explained.

[rmoxon]

I disagree. I think there is a story there, albeit a very simple one. That's probably why it works so well. The lack of convolution. It's probably one of the best examples of how you do it in the context of a game. Anything that tries to make a game tell a story like a film or a book always fails IMO. Games require a different approach to story telling.

I agree with this. The story here is great becuase its simple, focused and you are allowed to care what happens. Its better than the story in stuff like metal gear solid 4, where it just tries too hard and becomes convoluted in its cinematic ambitions.