Nerd Reactor: "When we look back at the task 343 was handed, it was obnoxiously large. What they’ve done is taken a franchise fans hold dearly and made it even more better than most of us could have hoped for. The campaign was a joy to go through and the story was well written. The soundtrack kept you tied to your seat and immersed you even further. The multiplayer leaves you white-knuckled from the insane firefights and tense battles, but has you begging for more. Spartan Ops I don’t really need, but it adds to the story."
In Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, Master Chief became a more nuanced, human character.
In spite of the Halo series’ struggles, 343 deserves praise for adding nuance and characterisation to the ever-beating heart of Halo - The Master Chief. Playing through Infinite, it's abundantly clear that the events of the current and previous trilogies have irrevocably changed the iconic hero. He’s no longer the ‘blank slate’ that was previously presented by Bungie. He’s a fatigued, damaged and fallible protagonist, and one who is meandering through currents of grief, while reveling in his newfound agency. Giving the Chief a compelling and meaningful voice was no small feat, and 343 should be proud of that victory.
This article completely misses part of the appeal of the original iteration of character in the original game trilogy. It was the Chief and Cortana vs an entire alien collective. The blank slate Bungie displayed in their games was genius, he was an mysterious hero a wide audience could identify with because he wasn't as clearly defined as most characters.
The books added a lot of lore and backstory but most Halo players just want a fun game with exposition that doesn't get in the way of gameplay, it's why the Cortana level in Halo 3 was derided.
Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty.
The 343i Master Chief has is based on the books. However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion.
It’s a law of nature that eventually, every long-running game franchise will have a particular entry that gets dinged for straying too far from what made it so fun in the first place. Your Super Mario Sunshine, your Dragon Age II, Assassin’s Creed III, and so on. Whether or not that opinion changes more favorably over time, the initial specter of negativity will forever hover it. Microsoft’s Halo is no exception, except that negative specter hasn’t hovered over one particular game, but one whole studio.
Halo 4 released 10 years ago today, and its disappointing reception was just an omen of things to come with 343 Industries at the helm.
Halo 4 and infinite have a 87 on metacritic and five a 84🤣. 343i need contents and everything else will play it self out.
Halo 4-6 are like the Star Wars sequel trilogy
They all just seem like a brand new games with small connections to the last one but no solid arc connecting them, you’re just told stuff that happened off screen in between the games and nothing makes sense
It’s like they didn’t plan a new trilogy out
I'm getting a good gaming laptop soon and i'm finally going to play through the Halo franchise again plus Infinite but i never played Halo 4 before .. can anyone tell me how's the campaign in comparison to the games before it and compared to Halo 5 ?
I think they surpassed bungie. Bungie really lost me at Halo 3. The storyline just degraded upon reintroducing the flood into the game. And the Cortona Effect killed replayability.
Now what 343 can reintroduce for the next game is some nestalgia from Halo and Halo 2.
What i liked about Halo 2 strictly campaign was the difference in layouts of maps and how each enemy contributed by that.
on Installation 05. When you first land out of your drop pod. you introduced to snipers,elites and grunts gangbanging you from the get go. You dont really get that sensation unless your playing spartan ops and then it just feels like firefight mode and that gets old rather quick.
I totally get what your saying Halo 3 didn't really do it for me the way halo 1 did. But it seems 343i are doing a great job with halo 4. I think the hardest thing for them would be to keep the series going as Halo 4 had almost everything. Besides them improving the graphics and giving a longer campaign i don't see them needing to improve much.