Halo 4 Story (spoilers inside)

How so? I played through all the Spartan Ops chapters and didn't see anything that even hinted at that.

In fact, why are people expecting Spartan Ops to be a primary vehicle for story expansion/clarification? It looks to be nothing more than some additional live fire training exercises. You aren't even the Chief. You're just some random S-IV dude.

 

Per Cortana touching MC and shielding him, I took it as she was taking control of the light bridge. Just as she bended it to restrain the Didact she then folded it up around MC and was using it, as well, to take a physical form.

That is how I thought it was working, could be wrong.

 

The opening video has 2 spartans bantering about who would get to hit on Sarah Palmer first. It is the weekly Spartan Ops video episode.

 

They also talk about entertaining the ladies in Rio de Janeiro or something. All in all, way more lively than any Spartan II we've seen or heard about. Then again they are volunteer marines and had a normal childhood and life before the augmentations.

Also, Spartan Ops will have 9 more episodes and each will have like 5-6 minutes of CG. That's an hour long short movie, basically, so there's every reason to expect a story. I wonder if it'll eventually at least hint about what Chief's been doing for six months...

 

Ok, I do remember that now that you mention it. I guess I don't really consider them "Spartans" because they seem to me to be a bunch of marine yahoos who got drunk and volunteered for a special ops program. They don't seem battle tested, at least not like the Chief. I wonder if they'd be so glib after going through what he's been through?

 

They won't be going through the same thing for many reasons... There's supposed to be about 3-400 SIV's on board on Infinity, and I think the guys in the cinematic are just getting their first assignments at that point, they're fresh out of recovering from the augmentation process.

The LE booklet seems to indicate that augmentation is still stressful and only a small percentage of the human population can go through it, but at least it has a far greater success ratio compared to the ~50% that Chief and the rest had. On the other hand it's also not as effective, partially because the subjects are much older than 14...

 

So, seeing the various reactions here 343 has obviously met a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with this game, as it was pretty much expected
But the first day sales suggest that the game will do well enough to justify a Halo 5, even though we don't know how well it will sell through the next few months (most of the previous Halo games kept selling very well).


So what should change in Halo 5?

- I think 343 should get more bold and make some serious changes. Get rid of more sandbox elements and replace them with some radically new ones. We've seen enough of Wraiths and Carbines and Phantoms. If anyone wants to play such a Halo game, get beck to anything from CE to 4 and let us have new stuff in 5.
For example, get the Storm Covenant fraction equipped with Forerunner armor and weapons. The one thing the Didact has never been short of is tech, they have machines to mine entire planets without help so he could equip all his worshipers with the best things available.
Get the eel-creatures that form into the Hunters into new shapes with Forerunner tech, make Grunts fearsome, and Elites terrifying. Bring in the War Sphinxes from the books that can work with a pilot or on their own and even combine into a more powerful version. Also add at least one more type of Promethean that has good synergies with the existing ones to create more complex encounters.
And of course it's time to face real, living Forerunners too. I still think that the ending monologue takes place in some surviving community, on another shield world or some other yet unknown installation. The Didact should be able to convince some of them to join him in the campaign against humanity.

- Get the Chief into some Mark VII armor to compensate. Bungie's philosophy was that it's OK to have overpowered stuff in the game as long as everything is overpowered. Just think about it, how many games have a pistol that's useful throughout the entire campaign? You can keep scope-headshotting Crawlers until the very end, it's a perfectly valid approach.
Also give him new UNSC weapons. It's overkill to keep all the favorites - BR, DMR, SR, Magnum etc. - and leave no room for some innovative new stuff. Humanity has been adopting Forerunner tech, so there should be some nice new gadgets. It's already been strange to have billions invested in augmenting and armoring Spartans and then having them use the same weapons that regular marines have. Good survivability and efficiency, yes, but where's the firepower?
Okay, there were some new weapons in the campaign but I've found that lack of extra ammo for the SAW made it almost invisible, you always had to replace it with something else after like 2-3 kills; same with the otherwise excellent railgun. You get to kill 3-4 Knights and then goodbye.

- Also, do more things to the Chief. He should slowly become even more than a Spartan II, and he has to in order to defeat any Forerunners, not to mention the Didact himself.

- Although, considering the hints in the novels, these two may have to join forces against the Precursor/Flood threat in the end... Maybe even have the Didact redeem himself? Or would that make him too Darth Vader?

- Keep the current story direction. Yes some people liked the bright colored aliens and all, but there's been enough of this as well. I like the Chief talking more, having some depth, and the game treading into classical sci-fi territory.
And H4 had it's share of humor and even some nice Star Wars references - Cortana in the Ghost escape scene: "It's not like I can get out and push!" reminded me of Leia at the beginning of Empire, offering to do the same with the Falcon. And final level trench run, of course.

- While I like Lasky and Palmer could get more interesting in the future as well, it's still time to bring the Arbiter back. He's the closest thing to a friend that the Chief has.

- Bring the Flood back. But make it fun for everyone, even the haters. It should be possible to get it right.

- Unsure about Cortana, but a Halo game without Jen Taylor?

- Also, a Halo game without a Halo? As far as we know Ifinity has only got to Installations 3 and 5, with 4 destroyed there should still be another three and they can all have something special to them. Not sure what happened to the Ark either.


Can't really comment on multiplayer And I'm sure the graphics will get better. Gunplay and other mechanics are spot on already, although the AI seemed to falter occasionally and encounters were scaled down a little. But more CPU power in the next Xbox will surely help here...

 

The Spartan Ops episode videos are brilliant.


I'd welcome the Flood back in 5. They were fun in CE with the shotgun and plenty of grenades to lob in. AR for the little guys.

 

It might seem like I hate Halo 4, but I really don't. It's just that I've been playing (and loving) Halo for more than a decade. I fully expect the franchise to go in new directions, but I also expect certain things to remain, things that make Halo unique. I feel 343 compromised too many of these things, to the point that I begin to question whether they truly understand what it is that makes some of us stick with the franchise for over 10 years. Anyway, I'm tired of talking about Halo.

 

Just out if curiosity, what makes people stick with Halo? I have Halo 3 and Reach which I have finished, and played Halo 1 at a friends house, and although good games I never understood the Halo hysteria. They didnt leave much in terms of memorable moments in me (except maybe 1), and the campaign didnt wow me as much as other games that have left history.

 

See the other thread. There are many different viewpoints on this matter.

 

If they keep the design for foot soldiers like those in the multi Flood mode im all in for reintroduction of the Flood.
Ooh and reintroduce cortana back at around 40% i want her back goddammit 343I ..... dem hips

 

Get Cortana back dammit!

 

What I bolded from your great post could give 343i the opportunity for the MC to really flex his combat prowess and survival skills by sorta of letting him go "Rambo" in how he approaches a potential engagement.For example, the MC in Halo 5's open world like campaign could set up booby traps, create makeshift weapons when he is scarcely low on ammunition or a weapon is totally destroyed etc.Since most of the time he's going to be on his own without any informational help from Cortana, this could allow for some incredibly cool freeform gameplay....

 

Just finished, I was surprised by the ending; I thought the Composer would be able to fix Cortana OR make her human (since it can convert organic beings to digital ones, maybe it can also do the reverse)

I'm sure they'll bring her back in one form or the other though, maybe Halsey has a twin AI stored somewhere.

Also, I think in sequence where Didact is released by MC, he indicates that the Forerunners are returning

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo_4

So maybe the rest of the Forerunners feature in 5/6 either as enemies or allies. Is there any sizeable number of Forerunners left though? Or did they all perish in the firing of the Halo arrays.

The other thing, I think they'll do in 5 & 6 is introduce the Precursors, who are very interesting.
The intended for the Mantle to be inherited by humans as they came to see the Forerunner as unworthy. To this end, they created the Flood, to wipe out the Forerunner and also as a test for humanity to see whether it was worthy of the Mantle.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ursor+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=safari

 

it seems I'm the only one that not understand the story of halo 4.

I started playing halo on pc and I don't understand. then I skip whole series.

playing halo reach and I get the story. playing halo 4 and I don't understand the story.

what the main villain is doing? who the woman alien? why the survivor in main villain planet don't want to leave the planet?

so many things I don't understand. one thing I understand is that cortana is deteriorating into more human than chief.