A Halo Series Retrospective

halo was a series many have grown up with i was one of those people too but not in the traditional sense i didn't have those days of joining my friends during lunch at school and talking about the newest release i mean in a more literal sense halo ce released when i was 1 years old fast forward to today and now i'm in my early 20s awaiting the newest release halo has always had a special place in my heart as it was the very first game i ever played i was 6 when i explored the vast world of halo's rings i never made it past this point as i was terrified of the covenant back then but over the years i would come back and get engulfed in its universe and play its future releases while that is just my story i'm not the only one who's had this experience halo is a gaming phenomenon the master chief is not only the face of xbox but a face of the gaming industry the same time the original xbox would hit shelves was the same day that halo ce would join it xbox and halo have been inseparable for 20 years and they'll probably continue to be for a very long time so today in preparation for halo infinite and my eventual video reviewing halo infinite i'll be going over the main installments of the halo franchise in hopes of taking trips down memory lane and seeing how the games held up were they the iconic classics that still deserve the praise they received or were they only good until the nostalgia wore off whatever they may be you'll just have to wait and see welcome to the halo series retrospective let's get started [Music] [Music] [Music] halo's beginnings started with bungie but bungie's beginnings weren't always with halo bungie was founded in 1991 and was originally in the process of making a game called marathon after some moderate success the company's members would meet to discuss further entries in the marathon series until co-founder jason jones would propose a new idea that was a first-person shooter one that could be seen as the natural extension to marathon but while designing the game the team enjoyed the concept of vehicular combat so much that they dropped the fps style of their game and turned it into a real-time strategy game in hopes of attracting more of an audience to their game bungie would reach out to steve jobs and ask to see what they've been making having been impressed by the product he would premiere it at the 1999 mac world expo still missing a name for the project their first choice was the name covenant until the company finally decided on halo during the expo was announced that halo would release on mac and windows computers but microsoft had some better ideas up their sleeves less than a year later in march of 2000 microsoft would announce its newest creation the xbox microsoft would shortly after begin buying small studios to add to their gaming division one of these studios was bungie the xbox while announced at the time wouldn't be officially revealed to the public until january 3rd of 2001. microsoft would also announce that halo would be releasing alongside the console on november 15th bungie at the time was still just a small company of 15 developers and in terms of progress they only had a few rough ideas for what they wanted halo to be but now they had to make a full game in less than a year decisions needed to be made fast so jason jones would change the game back to a first person shooter as he believed it would feel better when played on a controller the rest of the team was also beginning to work overtime on the project level designers and artists were collaborating with each other in order to get things finished on time and they also hired music composer martin o'donnell to create the soundtrack for the game and while its development was rushed what they created was nothing short of perfection or at least that's what they had hoped reception of the game at e3 2001 was mixed as many critics were upset over the decision to move halo to a new console and many consumers who tested the game reported poor frame rates and massive technical issues despite the initial criticism halo would eventually release in a much more stable state which not only captured the hearts of fans but its critics it is credited as modernizing the fps genre and the reason for xbox's success it was also praised across numerous magazines for its balance of weaponry and intelligent ai but that was back in 2001. what about today despite halo ce being 20 years old it still feels great to play to this day and that's what makes the game so iconic it was revolutionary in its day standing atop many who came before it but even today it still has room to stand amongst gaming's greatest most of this was thanks to its brilliant attention to combat as many critics said halo 1 had a fantastic sense of balance in its weaponry and its ai was unbelievable each species of the covenant was handcrafted and made to stand out from one another and not just in design but in its gameplay halo 1 introduced four species of covenant through its 10 missions the grunts elites jackals and hunters you can tell in its design alone that each of them serve different purposes on the battlefield the grunts have always been considered a laughing stock amongst fans as they will run away from combat at the slightest inconvenience but in a group they are much more deadly jackals while just as weak as a standard grunt come equipped with a shield that blocks enemy fire allowing them to create their own cover this plasma shield is also extremely weak against other plasma weapons but very resistant to traditional firearms which is perfect for dealing with the unsc elites are on a more leveled playing field to the player they are the only enemies with a shield around their armor and can deal a considerable amount of damage the shield of an elite functions very similar to a jackal's plasma shield meaning bullets won't do much good against them the elites also have various ranks within their own species some elites come equipped with a standard loadout but as you move higher up in the chain these elites come equipped with much deadlier weapons and abilities the hunters though are by far the strongest enemy in the game able to knock a player down with considerable force any round put into the shield can be ricocheted back to you and to top it all off their most exposed area is their back despite how strong the covenant can be especially when they're grouped together they do have their weaknesses any plasma weapon can easily rip through the shields of an elite or jackal completely halting their defensive capabilities hunters are quite simple as long as you're willing to tango and the grunts are quite easy regardless of the situation but halo combat evolved with its intelligent ai will make any fire fight engaging but more importantly rewarding grunts being the smallest and weakest among the group will run when their numbers start to dwindle but other tougher enemies like elites will not enemies grouped into a corner is just asking for a grenade but the covenant will react and dodge out of the way of incoming explosives if any covenant is grouped with other members they'll more than likely rush your position especially if you're hurt on the other side of the coin elites will back away from engagements when injured so they can recharge those shields behind cover halo 1's ai at least on normal difficulties is able to make any engagement tough but rewarding not something easy to breeze through without thinking about you're constantly managing your health your shield your ammo capacity and enemy positions in numbers no firefight ever felt cheapened you succeeded and lived because you were better not because the game let you win this is further reinforced by halo's extensive armory of weapons both the covenant and unsc weaponry are not only effective but fun to use quite rarely will you gravitate towards only two weapons as each serves a purpose in combat the pistol is by far one of the deadliest weapons in the game and can pack a punch at any range while the assault rifle is less focused on damage and more on fire rate for other options rather than just mowing down crowds of ground troops the sniper can be used to pick off tougher enemies from afar or disable a turret and the rocket launcher does exactly what you think it does as for the covenant their weaponry is incredibly unique the plaza pistol may be seen as a terrible last resort weapon but when fully charged can easily wipe in elite shields with ease plasma rifles are far greater in damage and stability compared to its pistol counterpart but lacks a quick way to remove shielding other than firing the weapon both however never need to be reloaded but do have the potential to overheat and the needler shoots pink crystals that hone in on anything within its crosshairs causing an explosive finish the beauty of halo's weapons is that while some weapons will be greater than others each of them feels wonderful to use there has never been a situation where i was upset because i was given a plasma pistol in fact there were numerous times i was struggling to decide on what weapons to use when all this comes together it creates engaging fights that feel like you won an award rather than a participation trophy a great example is in mission 5 where the chief is tasked with assaulting halo's control room the covenant have already beaten us here so we need to push through their forces one place you'll find yourself is the bridge in front of you are a few sleeping grunts and numerous other enemies ahead being spotted causes all the grunts to wake up and start combat but what is not shown to the player right away is the army of grunts on the other side of the bridge who were also sleeping and now becomes a very stressful encounter as you're tasked with watching both sides the grunts were put here is a way of making combat challenging but never impossible 90 of the time the grunts will never do enough damage to severely injure you they're not there to be a constant force of damage against the player though there more is an annoyance furthermore the edges of the bridge are just low enough that enemy fire from the other bridge will hit you thankfully there is much larger cover that protects you but also exposes you to the bridge you're currently on it's a constant back and forth of hiding and shooting and watching both sides to make sure no one is flanking you after a few other engagements deep into the structure you'll come out on the other side of the bridge this time more enemies have moved in but you're already accustomed to this sort of engagement so they keep the enemies the same but add hunters to the other side of the bridge you could opt to take things slow and kill the hunters first but now you're putting yourself at another disadvantage as hunters excel in close quarters and the enemies on the opposite side of the bridge aren't grunts but elites and jackals your best course of action is just to stay on the bridge and deal with the problems as they come since the hunters won't be killed as easily thanks to their shields the game continually tries to challenge you during combat by throwing different combinations of enemies and putting you in different environments that more than likely puts you at a disadvantage this exact style of gameplay continues with the flood sort of the flood is a complicated subject they have new attack strategies and patterns compared to the covenant but due to the library being an almost hour-long mission filled with linear paths and waves of flood it's hard to thoroughly enjoy your time with them the introduction to the flood was done exceptionally well liquid pus would drop from the ceiling and hinting at something happening and just about every engagement with the covenant wasn't a full frontal assault you were always behind the enemy's line of defense which makes things all the more confusing on what exactly they're trying to defend themselves from we first see them from a helmet cam of a soldier before being ambushed by another swarm of them seconds after this introduction in the following 20 minutes was captivating as the game had introduced a third party in the ongoing war between the humans and the covenant this entire faction was the spark of numerous questions and theories about a possible alliance something that would be explored in the later entries it's such a shame though that the next mission that they're in was a railroaded sequence of similar corridors and awful pacing that being said while the library's gameplay was lacking in any sort of engagement that doesn't mean its story significance had suffered the twist at the end of this mission that the halo rings were not meant to destroy the flood but instead everything else was something i was completely blindsided with it's still a wonderful twist that was never told to the player until the moment it needed to combat evolves other story elements can best be described as bare bones and simple but in a good way it's the start of a brand new series so deep lore concepts don't need to be fully tapped into just yet halo's plot is very similar to other military science fiction media but throughout its missions it will continue to deepen relationships with the game's characters and constantly try to push itself away from the others master chief from the very beginning is supposed to be a super soldier he's the only person in the game that's wearing this spartan armor we're meant to see him as a one of a kind soldier and extremely powerful the master chief doesn't talk too much throughout this game so it's really hard to understand him however cortana is completely different due to her talking quite a bit throughout the game we deepen our relationship with her just as the chief is doing the same the chief in a way is meant to symbolize us chief wakes up in this covenant conflict the same way as we do he learns everything about the halo rings and the flood when we do the chief learning about cortana and getting to know her is exactly what we're doing and whether it was intentional or not i think was a really good way of getting the player to care about its characters as for its characters the game has a small cast of important characters that are all fit with different personalities captain keys is a very confident and by-the-book man but also willing to do what he can to save others while the guilty spark is a robotic ball that talks to himself non-stop about anything that comes to his mind it's these small details and personalities that make them stand out from each other and make them recognizable amongst the crowd despite its very simple story concept it's still a fairly good narrative on its own the game will give you objectives to do that seem pointless but in the grand scheme of things make sense mission 2 from start to finish is all about rescuing other marines stuck on the halo rink we aren't furthering the plot we're not making new discoveries we're just rescuing soldiers given the context of the previous mission where we see the pillar of autumn crash land on an alien planet it makes sense that the first thing we do is regroup this string of missions continues to lead us to other places of importance like truth and reconciliation and halo's control room playing these missions really reinforced the idea i talked about earlier hilo 1 gives the player bits of information that would then be later revisited and explored in later entries some could see this as an optimist to look towards the future of the series but some could see this as an origin story with a lack of substance personally i'm not really sure what party i agree with knowing that there's tons of sequels ahead of this game i would agree with the former but at the time it was never confirmed that halo would get a sequel so you could agree with the latter however what really helped drive the narrative was its presentation halo was filled with gorgeous sky boxes as early as mission 2 and would introduce cutscenes with a more cinematic approach opting for both wide and close-up angles that could tell the story all on its own whether it's denoting the size of a structure or the emotions of a character it was wonderfully crafted and was able to produce a feeling of engagement through the camera work alone something many games at the time couldn't do the cinematic moment continues all the way to its final missions where the chief is taken back to the same locations that we had already visited in the early missions this decision to go back to older areas definitely caused some discrepancy amongst fans as it seems like lazy game design but given the game's short development cycle i'm not sure how i feel about it regardless the new missions do try to make combat and navigation of the level fun despite it being the same map and bungie just barely managed to pull it off but being able to explore other areas would have been great like the finale where we run through the halls of the pillar of autumn again but most of the environment is new to us making it not seem like the same place we revisited in the intro this all culminates in the ending scene where we set the pillar of autumn to blow and have to race down numerous hallways and large open rooms to get to safety i would say this was exhilarating but it was quite the opposite while the timer constantly ticking down does set in a feeling of worry and nervousness not knowing if you'll be able to make it out in time the constant obstacles combined with the awful driving mechanics of ce makes it infuriating more than anything it feels like the game is actively working against you rather than with you halo ce was undoubtedly revolutionary in its time and even till today from its intelligent ai that react accordingly to the given situation to its balanced and expansive weaponry it is and was great and while there might be some disagreement on whether or not the game is actually good due to it being very old and clearly outdated in terms of mechanics one thing we can agree on is that it was setting the groundwork for something far greater [Music] following the success of halo combat evolved bungie would be hard at work on its sequel halo 2. from the gecko they planned on making the game in a new engine which features improved visuals physics implementation and more importantly xbox live halo 2 would be the first halo game to feature online multiplayer a feature that would be a staple within the franchise due to an overwhelming amount of players within the multiplayer and land scene of combat evolved bungie decided to double down on multiplayer and make it possible for xbox live besides the visual and multiplayer upgrades its gameplay and story was massively overhauled and very ambitious in fact it was too ambitious thanks to halo's success bungie became extremely optimistic about the future of the series now that they had a solid amount of support from both fans and microsoft they wanted to continue making the best halo games they could because of this its level design gameplay and story all had a colossal amount of content but most of it had to be cut due to hardware limitations at e3 2003 there was a gameplay demo that showcased the metropolis level early in the game and while it looked great the graphical enhancements were too much for the xbox to handle and would have to be cut that's also why you may have noticed that halo 2's ending felt rushed or unfinished as the team had planned on adding more missions but was later cut and repurposed for the sequel even content within the missions was cut as the level quarantined zone was only 20 of what the devs had built this led to bungie scaling back their content it's easy to add new content when there isn't enough but it's harder to take content away especially if it affects the foundation of the game so the team had a useless engine that was too powerful for the current generation of consoles levels that were too big to be put into the game a storyline that was two games worth of content mechanics and ideas that weren't even implemented yet and to top it all off bungie had 10 months the studio was in chaos any project that was in halo 2 was immediately cancelled and the team was working overtime 14-hour days 7 days a week until its release to make things even easier people would just sleep at the office so they could get right back to work this 10 months caused mental and physical pain for every employee involved core director jason jones involvement in the games diminished and would eventually lead him to creating an entirely new ip to prevent this from happening companies nowadays would delay an upcoming project in favor of the employees while being in the game's reception but for bungie that wasn't an option halo 2 was set to launch in november 2004 and microsoft had already planned to release the xbox 360 in 2005 meaning the upcoming christmas would be the last christmas for the original xbox which also meant that it was bungie's last chance if they couldn't get the game out in time there wouldn't be another halo despite all these hurdles however they made it not only did bungie ship the game on time they discovered something they never thought was possible 2.4 million copies of halo 2 were purchased the day of its release it this not only outpaced the original making it the fastest selling halo game but the fastest selling entertainment product ever made to say halo 2 sold well is an understatement it's to this day the best-selling game on the original xbox it was the most played game of xbox live back then the fifth most sold game in the united states and with double halo 1 sales reaching over 8 million the game was an overnight success but even though bungie would celebrate it wasn't over yet the community reception and critics still needed to be pleased with the product and if those numbers are any indication the game was great it never managed to surpass its predecessor's 97 metacritic score but it's 95 is nothing to laugh at fans of all kinds were pleased for the most part for the first time ever you could witness and experience the world of the covenant through the eyes of the arbiter head writer joseph staton wanted to explore another side of halo we haven't seen yet which led to the creation of the arbiter despite massive positivity over the decision some were not happy as they felt it took away from the master chief but this led to another criticism which was the ending the ending to some players felt rushed and not complete because it was as we said these cup missions would be used in halo 3 but that still didn't take away the fact that at the time players weren't left but much by the end of the game halo 2 had introduced three new species of covenant new storylines the reveal of the gravemind and the entire reason the covenant went to war for it all to be left at a cliffhanger halo 2 starts with a cinematic of the covenant council where they discuss the aftermath of what occurred in combat evolved the cinematic opening is conveying to the player that the covenant is going to be playing a much larger role in this game than ever before whereas the covenant before just seemed like an army of aliens hell-bent on destroying the human race this change allowed the player to see them from a different side we also got to see new species being added like the prophets and the brutes the prophets talked about something called the great journey and are discussing the failures of a specific elite afterwards the focus is back on master chief and his new upgraded armor but as we continue into the next mission the cutscenes start to coil together from the master chief to this elite and then back to him this is the game slowly implying that this elite is going to be very important for the game going forward everything eventually goes normal throughout the game as we play as chief until mission 6 when we revisit this elite that we now know as the arbiter the game receives some minor criticism over the arbiter but it wasn't just because he took the spotlight away from master chief some just didn't like him which i find to be utterly bizarre because of the arbiter we've been able to see the world of the covenant through his eyes it feels much more tacked on if every few missions we would just peer back to the console and its other members expressing their disdain for the master chief so by adding the arbiter we not only get an origin story of a specific soldier within the ranks but can naturally see the state of the covenant as we continue through the game that's why the story of the great journey was put into halo 2 as it's displaying the inevitable downfall of the covenant through the eyes of one of its own we learn way more about the great journey in the sequel but the game is slowly dropping hints as to what's truly going on as arbiter's first mission is to eliminate an elite that claims that the great journey is a lie the idea of questioning the prophet's true intention is made much clearer when the brutes overtake the elites as the main guards the elites are seen to be the most trusted and respected units in the covenant and for them to lose their place in the high council is a tremendous blow to the species thanks to these drastic decisions by the prophets it leads more elites to further question their loyalty to the great journey and the covenant this type of storytelling can only be achieved through the eyes of one of its soldiers it wouldn't have the same emotional impact if we had just seen it in a random cutscene bungie wasn't just done at the covenant as they still wanted the sequel to visit new places levels outskirts and metropolis take place on earth which is the first time that the games have shown the covenant attacking the unsc on their own turf after weakening the covenant cruiser during these missions the master chief chases them through a slipspace portal and arrives at a new halo ring installation 0-5 each of these areas have their own infrastructure and design that set them apart from the other level so it's easy to tell each other apart halo 2's second half is a wonderful part of the game as the arbiter and company are busy doing work for the prophets while also teetering the lines of loyalty and betrayal meanwhile the unsc are busy looking for the profit of regret in hopes of figuring out their fascination with these halo rings all of this comes to a halt just like in halo 1 when the flood is reintroduced while the flood functions the same as before just killing whatever is in them what's more important is when the arbiter and chief meet with the grave mind this giant omniscient creature is capable of controlling all the flood the gravemind is not only all-knowing but is very manipulative while the master chief is forced under high charity and takes the opportunity to kill the prophets the arbiter after being recently betrayed by the brutes and the prophets set out to stop tartarus and his brutes from activating the halo ring arbiter meets up with tartarus where we see our favorite monitor again an attempt to convince tartarus by using guilty spark to prove that the prophets lied about the halo rings you can tell that tartarus definitely considers the possibility but ultimately refuses which show that his loyalty to the prophets overpowers his common sense tartarus is eventually stopped and after this incredibly bad running animation arbiter and company stopped the ring from blowing up life in the galaxy once again during all of this chief is still on high charity with cortana who is also on board taking control of their network chief barely manages to make it to the forerunner ship that the prophet was on and is teleported near earth this is what people meant by when they were saying that the cliffhanger was not well received as the game leaves the player hanging at such a weird point in the story and this even happens in the very last cutscene as the great mind is seen talking with cortana who is still on the ship nothing here feels resolved there's nothing wrong with a cliffhanger ending but when the story seems to wrap up nothing it feels like a waste of time cortana is being questioned by the grave mind the master chief is on a forerunner ship with the prophet of truth many of the covenant have decided to disband from the covenant as they feel they've been betrayed by the prophets and then there's this entire unclear story with the brutes nothing feels complete the only thing that was completed was stopping the halo ring from firing but that added nothing halo 1 had the same plot at the end of the game but the ring was destroyed this one is still here just like with halo 1 given the context of the games it's fine as there's a sequel that will tie everything together but at the time no one knew if halo was going to continue so it feels like a slap in the face to them i said earlier that the game had introduced massive changes to its story but what also changed was its gameplay halo 2's combat is almost night and day compared to its original the sequel added quality of life features to make combat feel fresh and exciting combined with the new enemy types and weapons this combat is enjoyable almost up until the very end there were remakes of previous weapons like the brute plasma pistol or completely new weapons like the beam shot sniper or coveted carbine halo always had great combat thanks to its responsive ai and balance of weapons halo 2 is no exception all weapons regardless of ammo count or damage were exceptional and new additions were a welcome sight within its gameplay the team over a bungie would add numerous quality of life changes like being able to use energy swords but more importantly the ability to do wheeled weapons of the roughly 16 weapons and halo 2's arsenal 6 can be dual-wielded with any combination allowing you to fully prepare for a situation or just wanting to do extra damage on top of this covenant vehicles now had speed boost to make them faster and vehicles could be hijacked if nearby while the covenant vehicles were great the unsc warthog and scorpion felt slower but heavier making you feel the weight of the vehicles you're driving due to this the warthog handles incredibly well and way better than the ce counterpart and the scorpion is much more accurate and does not require that tedious long reload in between shots this combat change overall made the game accessible to a much larger market especially with the removal of health pickups hilo's health system of having a separate health and shield bar with med kits was removed and replaced with just a shield bar in the bottom left your health when the shields went out was uncertain giving a bit of tension in fights but it seemed to make the master chief weaker making the combat tougher this was made much more apparent with the flood and the brutes the flood continues to be very annoying creatures but thankfully there isn't an hour-long mission filled with them like the library the flood was much better utilized in this game as opposed to ce as now dead corpses could be revived by the smaller flood forms and they weren't ambushing you in waves 95 of the time due to your low shield and overall health though a swing from a flood without a shield is a death sentence and the brutes are by far the worst defender of this if a brood is low on health they will rage and charge at the player either knocking them into a corner or juggling them until they die the brutes do not comply with halo's weapon balance it's not about choosing the weapons you want but the weapons you need i wouldn't have been able to make it through many of these levels without the energy sword and even then i was still very close to my death despite having less health when in rage mode their damage resistance is astronomical as for their weapons the brute shot when put in the hands of a brute is somehow the deadliest and most accurate weapon in the whole game the roots also don't have any sort of hit registration so there's no way to tell how much damage you're doing or if you're doing any damage at all grunts will knock their head back when damage is taken and elites will scream when their shields are broken but the brutes do absolutely nothing just get on all fours and charge you halo 2 also introduced three boss fights and they're all laughably bad i was going to count the scarab fight but seeing as that's 95 scripted and you really don't even destroy it i didn't bother adding it to the list the first one i can forgive though as the elite heretic is really just a re-skinned elite with slightly higher health and seeing as we've killed hundreds of them before this really didn't feel any different but the prophet and tartarus are just awful upon entering this 4runner structure as the chief we come face to face with the prophet of regret he used a laser beam that produces incredible damage meaning you need to shoot from cover so i did round after round was put into him only being separated by the numerous energy sword wielding honor guards that were easily defeated due to the dual-wield mechanics the prophet is like the brutes where he has no hit registration so it's hard to tell if you're actually doing damage until you walk up to him and realize you have to kill him by punching him i would have rather just had a cutscene instead of this interaction and it was actually hilarious how bad this looked all that trouble just to be finished off by a couple punches and tartarus was just as bad he's the only brute with a shield but bungie couldn't even get that right as his shield never changes color gets bigger or literally does anything to imply the damage is being done i actually thought i needed to activate a button or use a specific weapon but no he's taking damage you just can't see it and if you thought the hunters were fun to tango with try fighting tartarus as long as you move in a circle he's never gonna hit you i can't tell if bungie added these allies to help you fight him so that they could give tartarus other things to swing at or they discovered this awful behavior in development and couldn't figure out a way to fix it regardless tartarus is an awful boss and an even worse final boss while bungie is owen 3 on boss fights that's not to say the rest of the game was bad in fact it's far from it halo 2 was a wonderful game that was made to do its job improve the sequel and be used as a conduit for combat evolves cut content and it did exactly that it added numerous gameplay changes that would make things more accessible to a wider audience but keep the integrity of halo's difficulty it also continued to reinforce those exact qualities that made halo's combat fun in the first place balanced weaponry and intelligent ai at least for the most part with the overwhelming amount of sales and the enormous amount of cut content bungie knew that a sequel was inevitable [Music] halo 3 was a new creation with a new console due to the past game's awful development conditions the team refused to let something like this happen again and made sure to negotiate and plan ahead bungie and even many fans figured a sequel was in order the team had constantly expressed their distaste with halo 2's final decisions and attempted to write their wrongs with halo 3. just as halo 2 was filled with cut halo 1 content halo 3 was the leftover ambitious decisions that bungie wouldn't have time to implement one of these decisions was its graphical enhancements with a new engine and also a new xbox boundaries could be pushed further than ever before allowing for what they truly wanted halo to look like bungie would also add numerous quality of life changes and improvements to its ai but more on that later minus the occasional update on bungie's website this game's development is quite unknown as we don't really know what steps they took to make it however we do know the outcome and that outcome was incredible i talked about halo 2's successful launch but it's nothing compared to halo 3. halo 3 would be the second time a sequel would outsell the previous title when halo 3 released in 2007 within 12 days it had reached 3 million copies and in 2 months it would sell 5 million but it didn't stop there due to an overwhelming amount of players that played multiplayer and the teases of its forge mode halo 3 would sell over 15 million copies in 5 years making it the most sold halo game and the best-selling game of 2007. this was the peak of halo and it's fitting as the game would be the last halo made by bungie ending the trilogy and the series on high note bungie wanted to distance themselves from microsoft and halo so they would terminate their contract together after they finished halo 3. however that part isn't entirely true for obvious reasons but i will get to that soon after its initial launch community reception was overwhelmingly positive multiplayer was considered perfect with the best lineup of maps in the entire series and forge mode was a game changer but its campaign had suffered a bit many complaints over its short length were echoed across the forums and some were very critical of specific levels like its eighth mission which of course featured the flood another major complaint was its ai functionality as while the enemy ai was better than ever before your allies were not i have the same exact feeling about this that i did with the arbiter i am completely dumbfounded by this the allies have never been great they they're sometimes incredibly accurate when shooting in a warthog but progressing the story is done by you not your teammates as for the covenant i'd argue halo 3's ai seems less intelligent than the others and i think it's due to more accessibility everything in halo seemed to be added for the sake of helping the player rather than hindering them punching a mounted vehicle is much faster making it an easy crutch especially when using a plasma pistol which can now stun vehicles if charged numerous weapons like the assault rifle and shotgun traded magazine size and reload speed for more damage making the former ultimately not matter weapons would be placed in convenient spots making certain levels not engaging in the slightest and enemies would outright ignore me and do absolutely nothing there was also new equipment like bubble shields regenerators and flares that could be used by both the brute and the master chief but felt strong in your hands and weak in theirs like this energy drain that would completely eliminate any form of tension that i had against this brute chieftain and of course this was conveniently placed right before the elevator but by far the worst defender once again is the brutes i'm going to sound insatiable given what i said about them in halo 2 but let me explain the roots are the main focus of this game thanks to halo 2's story and the brutes were massively nerfed in halo 3. roots seem to fill the same role as the elites throughout the series in halo 2 the brutes were a step above elites they were meant to be tough and powerful but due to their enormous health and damage resistance coupled with a lack of hit registration they're more annoying rather than challenging halo 3 would change this by adding armor to the brutes that would act as a shield and would slowly strip away the more help they lost but seeing as they were replacing the elites within halo's combat they became the elites they're incredibly easy to take on in this game with their infamous charge being sometimes useless and bruce don't dodge from grenades the same as elites do but rather just sit still and cover their face hoping the grenade literally in front of them won't kill them they did eventually add jetpacks to the brutes allowing them to surround you if you aren't careful but they don't fire when jetpacking making them just another brute with no cover to hide behind and more of a hitbox to aim at furthermore the brute weapons are downright powerful unsc firearms helped when taking away health while the covenant weapons excelled against shields the brute weapons excel against both no amount of armor shields or health would matter as the spiker mauler broodshot and gravity hammer ignored any resistances they may have had to add even more to this the broodshot now had six rounds instead of four and is more common thanks to the abundance of brutes within the game and the spiker and mauler can be dual-wielded allowing for double the firepower it makes the brute weapons easily the best in the game for almost any situation despite the large amount of criticism that i've just given though i love halo 3's combat in fact i think it's my favorite in the entire trilogy i've always come back to this game if i want to have a fun time and ultimately that's what's most important you could add dozens of changes to your game but if it's not fun then you've already failed and halo 3 is far from that simultaneously adding new changes to the game but also managing to keep it fun halo 3's possible additions were astronomical and due to bungie having more time and more opportunities with the xbox 360 they were going to add it all bungie wanted to expand on the brew culture now they've had a full game about them so they took the opportunity to add numerous additions to their arsenal the brutes come equipped with all different sorts of covenant and brute weapons making the firefights different as while two brutes may look the same their weapons may not be the same the brutes also have a sort of pack mentality as it's quite rare to find only a few of them together and even if that's the case they're either extremely strong or surrounded by other covenant members whereas halo 1 was less combat per area but had a lot of familiar areas and halo 2 was less areas but more combat within them halo 3 is the perfect mix of both bungie seemed to nail the balance of map layout and enemy quantity making it long enough to be enjoyable but not overstay its welcome you will rarely ever find yourself defending an objective for a long period of time and while there are some places notably towards the end where you're fighting brutes within the same area its variety in enemy placement and layout make it seem like a new experience bungie really wanted to hone in on its combat from all forms as this game has the most vehicles and weapons in the series so far all the weapons from halo 2 have returned along with the assault rifle which was not present in the previous game the magnum is now a combination of halo 1 and 2s reverting the original look but keeping its inability to aim down sight the needler also got its dual-wield capability removed possibly due to its imbalance in multiplayer but it's more accurate and damaging than its previous iterations halo 3 would also continue the trend of adding new ways to fight in combat the spartan laser was introduced later towards mission 7 and the biggest change was its addition of heavy weapons throughout the game there are turrets with unlimited ammo and are great for defending a position by ripping them off you can take these weapons to the enemy at the loss of its unlimited ammo it made these powerful weapons still seem like wants rather than needs you didn't need to use these weapon to survive but you could if you wanted to halo 3 also surprised me by improving on the flood and boss fights which were lacking in the previous games the flood is much easier to take on in this game and doesn't overstay its welcome within certain missions the game introduces the flood in mission 6 with a covenant carrier being flown in by the flood this leads to the arbiter-in-chief pushing their way through the base so they can be evacuated later instead of a covenant cruiser high charity arrives the same flood-infested city from halo 2 and seeing as we've been chasing cortana this whole game this is the perfect time to take her back the beginning of the mission is great as you're slowly making your way through the area but then it just keeps going and going for quite a long time the flood also bugged out a lot here as half the enemies in some sections barely acknowledge my presence and it's also the best example of weapon convenience throughout this level you'll find dozens of energy swords you fought the flood in this exact same spot in halo 2 and there was nowhere near this many last time there was never a time i didn't have one the energy sword can also kill any flood in one to maybe two swings making this ridiculously boring also and i'll get to the story significance of this later but this is where both the cortana and gravemind will talk to you whenever they talk this is when you're forced to walk at an extremely slow speed and while the missions in the beginning aren't too bad it becomes a big deal way later when it's just after every single engagement as for its boss fights halo 3 doesn't have the most in terms of variety but it does still have some worthy boss fights there are four within this game three of them being scarab sequences and the last being the guilty spark i'll never forget the first time i fought the scarab it was exhilarating and tough but i didn't really feel that anymore it probably was down to the fact that i already knew its weakness and thus finished the fight in less than two minutes but i do remember the fun i had the first time around the scarab has two main sources of damage which is its head and its body but you could also count the legs assuming you aren't paying attention both of these sources of damage are busy attacking the other enemies so it's rare that the scarab will actually attack you making the first fight easy but this is a very tough enemy so if the game can help in any way at least for the first time around i think that will improve the overall enjoyability of the game the second scarified attempts to add more enemies and bump up the difficulty a bit which it does but only for so long as the game gives you numerous allies to act as cannon fodder and a tank to tank out the legs i feel like the intention was to slowly raise the difficulty by changing the environment and enemies within the area but i never felt that with this fight it just seemed that the difficulty got easier since i knew how to defeat the scarabs and they gave me a tank to stop it the very last scarified is much tougher as it adds two scarabs a severe lack of cover other additional enemies that attack you and you aren't given some massive tank just a mongoose so to effectively defeat them you need to grab one of the other vehicles the covenant drops and do it yourself having both of their beams cross and kill you is extremely annoying and the game does refuse to provide a checkpoint after one is dead making this tougher and while it was frustrating it felt like an actual boss fight the enemies on the scarabs are either equal to the fuel rod cannon or using the plasma turrets so you not only have to worry about the scarabs from both far and close range you also have to worry about the enemies shooting you on top of it to make it even worse you have way less allies this time around than even if you actually did it never felt as if they were being targeted however this game's bosses end on such a sour note despite the praise it seems to get guilty sparks fight is bad just like the other fights you don't know this is coming and it just sort of happens so there's no way to prepare ahead of time given that the entire level so far has been flood obviously i'm gonna run the shotgun an energy sword however this loadout is worthless the guilty spark will push you away if you get too close making this loadout incapable of damaging him but sergeant johnson with his last breath will shoot him it seems like the game is allowing you to push forward and go on the attack but it's actually so the player can grab the spartan laser as a few shots is all that's needed to kill him he also never moved from the same position so it's impossible to miss him this is arguably the worst example of weapon convenience as the one weapon that can greatly damage the guilty spark happens to be the one weapon johnson brought with him to defeat the flood i don't ever recall a spartan laser being effective against waves of flood it's also 100 intended for you to grab this weapon because of this i just wish that you could use the loadout you came in with or at the very least if they want to use the spartan laser have the chief get shot falling off the ledge with enough time to save himself but not the weapons he came in with then give johnson his last shot as he instructs the chief to take his weapon and we defeat the guilty spark that way it makes the weapon convenience not matter as it's literally the only weapon available rather than being the only one that can damage him it's a sad excuse for a boss fight and once again another awful way to end the game and the entire series thankfully this time the boss fight wasn't the absolute last thing we do in the game as there is another race sequence reminiscent of halo 1's last level but we should probably discuss how everything got to this point first halo 3's campaign sort of leaves off where halo 2s left off except we go from the chief inside of a forerunner ship with the prophet of truth to flying down through space into earth how we got to this point is not explained to the player and only mentioned in a comic called halo uprising this will be one of the many times in the series where lore and plot points aren't filled in for the sake of the comics or books to cover regardless in this instance it's not of a huge deal so i tend to look past it after a short bit of conversation the master chief wakes up like nothing had happened and is ready to fight the covenant halo 3 does a great job at remembering its past lore as while sergeant johnson sees the arbiter as a friend the master chief sees him as an enemy since he's unaware of the alliance that occurred throughout the end of the game they don't get off on the right foot but as the game goes on they will solidify their friendship as the arbiter refers to master chief as the demon then simply as spartan and master chief after the ending jump sequence will look back at him to make sure he survived at the beginning of the game they were simply enemies in an unstable alliance but they would eventually become actual friends as the story continued the master chief also has no clue what happened to the halo ring and seeing as miranda was there she was able to bring him up to speed she also mentions that it's weird how all the covenant are in east africa instead of all over the planet which is then revealed in a later mission that the covenant found a portal that supposedly leads right to the ark which can fire all the halo rings it's also shown earlier on that cortana is leaking into master chief's mind they never explain this but i can only assume that it's the gravemind's doing but he also does the same thing and that's never explained either around mission 4 is where you'll notice that the game is really pushing the boundaries of its cinematography halo 1 and 2 had some incredible camera angles that were a lot better than a simple back and forth of dialogue that other games would do it's like watching a movie but also being able to play it as well and halo 3 is no exception in fact it seemed bungie leaned heavily into this style as the showcase of the covenant and unsc troops going to the portal is incredibly gorgeous this is also where the flood is introduced and the chief ends up finding a message of cortana everyone evacuates the city and the covenant glass the entire area this is a really important part of the game as it clearly shows the covenant will do anything necessary even if it means killing their allies to stop the flood lord hood even brings this up to us as him and the shipmaster have a heated argument about this exact decision after the dispute they view the message from cortana where she tells everyone that there's a way for the flood to die without actually activating the halo rings but we need to get to the ark upon making it to the arc we find the cartographer and are able to determine truth's exact location but he's activated a barrier around the ark's core so we have to split into three teams to take him down during this assault johnson's team is overrun by the brutes and ends up getting captured by the prophet as a human can only activate the ark since it has to do with the mantle of responsibility which at the time we don't even know what that is yet seeing as we've had numerous covenant forces defending the citadel we're running out of time as truth is about to activate the halo rings but miranda breaks through the glass and halts him it seemed that the plan was to get sergeant johnson out of there which then turned into her killing herself and sergeant johnson since no human would be able to activate the ring so she single-handedly with no other soldiers thought it was a smart idea to attack the leader of the covenant who no doubt had guards with him but she's not just a random human she's a literal commander of the unsc i understand that with the circumstances at play drastic things need to be done i just feel like there wasn't a whole lot of thought put into her plan and her death just feels completely wasted right after this comes the most bizarre twist the series has offered with a grave mind wants to forge an alliance to stop truth the two reluctantly agree and manage to stop the ark from firing and defeat the prophet however i said in halo 2 that the grave mind is a master manipulator and i feel like a lot of people saw this coming as now the flood is attacking the arbiter-in-chief since they're now saved from extinction the two of them run away from the control room and end up discovering that the ark ended up making a new halo ring and replacement for the one destroyed back in halo 1. this starts a new plan where it's to activate this halo's current ring which will destroy the flood within the vicinity and since the ark is light years away from earth the humans and covenant should be spared from this explosion even guilty spark is in agreement with this plan so while he prepares the ring master chief needs to find cortana not only to save her but also because she still has the index from halo one a small detail that was honestly my favorite part about the game even after six years of development and adding and removing new things for two whole games bungie never forgot about the small details and that's extremely commendable this index can light the ring which was the plan except when we take it to the control room guilty spark says it will be fired in a few days but johnson refuses to accept that and launches it anyway if we fire the ring too early it will destroy the ark and the new installation which causes guilty spark to get aggravated and attack us despite his cheery tone throughout the game he's always had a grudge for us countless times we've ruined his plan he was made to do so it was inevitable that he'd get pushed over the edge at some point johnson's death wasn't as bad as miranda seeing as no one really saw it coming and wasn't a complete suicide mission the master chief has to put down the monitor and then race to a nearby ship so they can leave before they get consumed in the blast this ending chase is by far the coolest way to end a game and a series this was definitely an homage to halo 1's last level which had a similar way of ending the game except this mission has no timer and the control of the warthog feels much better even though there isn't any urgency since there's no timer the tiles will start to crumble and eventually force you to die and reset if you're too slow the area is also much more open than before so it's not constant twisting and turning to get around every small obstacle this whole sequence is accompanied by the wonderful soundtrack and is always a wonderful mission to play from my very first time a decade ago to today i still love this mission after you make it to the end you go down the ramp as fast as possible and launch into the back of the ship and take off with hopefully enough time to survive the blast the ring blows up and the ark installation and the flood are presumably destroyed afterwards we see a memorial to the fallen soldiers and a truce made by both the covenant and the unsc we see a 117 engraved on the ship implying that master chief died in the explosion but as we discovered that's untrue both the arbiter and chief are unaware that the others survive but go on with their lies regardless arbiter returns to his homeworld as the new shipmaster and the face of the elite and the master chief stays in cryo with cortana waiting for someone to find them thus ending halo 3 the covenant human war and the trilogy i would say that this is a fitting end to the series some things are left unexplained but it wraps up fairly well halo 3 is probably the best game in the entire trilogy as it achieved an almost perfect balance in combat and was able to tell a story bungie originally wanted to make and they did so effectively as for the entire trilogy the first three halo games will always be remembered for years as one of the best series in gaming history halo 1 set the groundwork halo 2 added numerous quality of life changes that would then be carried into halo 3 which then finished the story and created a perfect synergy between its combat and map layout these three games are responsible for many fans happiest memories and moments but also responsible for putting microsoft and its xbox on the map in the gaming marketplace whether it was its gripping campaign or its competitive multiplayer everyone loved halo it would push new boundaries as one of the best fps games on consoles and one of the most anticipated games of the sixth and seventh generation of consoles it was because of that popularity though that microsoft would refuse to let halo die this early after halo 3 was developed bungie created two internal teams and after some discussion and some cancelled projects the team ultimately created two new games that i have to call the halo spin-offs odst in reach are seen as departures from the original series odst was the first game to not feature any spartans and reach would be the first game where you play as a spartan that isn't the master chief these two games are still to the state of the only games than the fps genre to not feature the master chief and not take a place immediately after the next game both of these games fit in different spots and the timeline and bungie did this so they could tell more stories so far in the series we've seen things from the master chief in the arbiter's perspective but both these games allow us to delve into the other sides of the war whether it's the aftermath of places we've already visited or completely new place entirely and since we're playing as someone else that means the story will change anything involving the master chief is followed by some large stunt or action scene like delivering the bomb to the covenant or crashing into the ground at insane speeds but these people aren't spartan 117 the master chief is supposed to be an anomaly the finest super soldier ever made which means that these people are both not as strong and much more fragile this current section is about these two games the games that would be bungie's last creations and the games that were bridges between both sagas of halo and the ones many remember the most [Music] odst was a return to form for halo it brought back that difficulty and rewarding gameplay seen in combat evolved but it wasn't because the ai was changed our character had changed seeing as the official name is halo 3 odst it's not far off to assume that it was made using the same engine assets and software these decisions make it hard to talk about its combat as its most basic form because it's something we've already discussed in the halo 3 chapter you can immediately tell from playing that something is off numerous weapons in the game could tear through a brute's armor and health in no time but in odst this isn't the case it's hard to tell whether it's the enemies that have gotten stronger or we as the player have gotten weaker due to us not being a super soldier but it's very obvious in the very first moments of the game this is nothing like halo 3. one of these changes is something you'll discover by the end and it's that odst is really short this campaign on normal clocked in at around three to four hours there are many variables that can change this number like difficulty in the searching of audio logs but assuming you're playing through on a normal run of the campaign you're not going to be playing this game very long but this wasn't something the team never expected in fact it was decided during its early stages of development that odst was going to be a short campaign some players at the time really didn't care as many were just going to play halo 3's multiplayer again or maybe take a crack at odst's multiplayer since it'd be the first game without spartans but odst never had a multiplayer it added something different odst in reach would be the only two games for the foreseeable future to add firefight a horde based mode that was you and some friends against waves of covenant it was honestly some great fun for a time and especially when adding friends to your team or when you could change to different maps but that only holds people for so long odst's biggest criticism was its length but not the fact that it was short but it was short with a 60 dollar price tag multiplayer is the one game mode people will play the most in any game if you give the game mode numerous rewards and options players could put hundreds of hours into it which is why halo's multiplayer has always been so fun there were tons of different game modes to play in customization that the player could work towards but in odst they didn't have that firefight's main rewards were its character options and that you could pick to play as anyone from the squad but those were unlocked by completing campaign missions so assuming you were like most players and played the campaign first you would have already had everyone unlocked even though i wouldn't be playing odst for a long time during that time i did play i was enthralled by it odst can be summarized by the phrase here for a good time not a long time while you may not be physically playing the game long during the time you do play it you'll be having a great time with it odst takes place during halo 2. in fact it's during one of the missions in halo 2. in the mission metropolis where the prophet of regret withdrew from new mumbasa he decided to teleport using a slipspace portal but used it inside the city causing a massive explosion the odsts were tasked with landing on a ship and then taking it over but their plans were thwarted thanks to this event this caused their paws to lose communication and power and also push them off course splitting the entire team up our goal at the moment is to regroup with our squad then find a way out of the city odst wanted to paint a more noir-like image to the game this is where the game is always at night and is rather unsettling to walk through the city just hours ago was filled with people then became the site of a war and then nothing it's completely silent but the only sounds being heard are police sirens malfunctioning technology and its soundtrack to make things worse we don't even know if our squad had survived so we could be the only person left in a city filled with covenant it's truly an unsettling experience and one that the series hasn't done yet what really helped set this up was its world this is the first time halo has given an open world style to its levels in the halo games prior and even the ones released after all the levels were fairly linear and a completion of these levels would take you to the next one immediately odst doesn't do that because its missions are flashbacks after getting out of your pod you're tasked with finding your squad by finding their beacons on the newly made map of new mombasa you'll then go to these areas find the object of importance do a flashback mission then shoot back to the rookie and continue searching for more clues to get there you'll have to walk using your compass and your eyes to guide you to the next sector of the city it's crazy how just the simple adjustment in tone and time can change your entire outlook on something during the flashback missions they felt like normal halo combat going from one place to another completing some objective and killing it's on a covenant in your way like normal but when i played as the rookie i felt like new mombasa's only hope that i truly was the very last person alive so i tried my hardest to avoid combat as i felt that i couldn't take on larger squads due to being severely outnumbered this was all pretty much untrue as the rookie is just as powerful as everyone else on the team but that change in tone gave off that vibe and it's always stuck with me whenever i play it odst's also come equipped with the visor mode which is to assist the player in identifying enemies and seeing into dark rooms i've never known how to explain this properly but because of visor mode the game's overall color scheme changes to help the player see but there's something beautiful about remembering that this is on and then turning it off to see what the world truly looked like in darkness what i think really ties this together has always been its soundtrack martin o'donnell and michael salvatore the ones responsible for all the music in halo thus far also returned for odst but decided to completely change things around adding more jazz to the soundtrack rather than a large chorus odst's music has always stuck out to many players but i think a big reason for that was its change in tone but also due to the game's silence during missions and the other halo games while the music is present it's low enough to be considered background music but not loud enough to really tell that it's there since you're more focused on the combat in front of you but because new mombasa is so quiet the music takes center stage allowing its gorgeous soundtrack to be heard all the time odst's decision to change its tone was not only reflected in its music and atmosphere but also its story it's a grim story filled with uncertainty as we go from one place to the next finding the remnants of our team hoping that by the end of the flashback they aren't dead realizing that it's night time is a weird feeling knowing this entire time you've been asleep people have been dying and your whole team has been stranded seeing as the rookie missed the majority of the fighting and can't really help anyone he takes it upon himself to find the missing squad and reconvene and figure out what to do the squad members he's trying to find are buck dutch romeo mickey and veronica all of them are unique and create incredible moments with each other showing the relationship each of them have already established some of the members notably romeo and buck are always smart asses ready to crack a joke in any moment i've always felt that dutch and veronica are more by the book soldiers but in the sense that dutch is always combat ready and willing to do the heavy lifting if it means fighting the good fight and when veronica's given objective she'll do it no matter the cost between them however it seems that veronica and buck had a previous relationship and that ties into buck's character who was upset at how cold she was to him in the beginning but is still willing to go back into the covenant-infested city just to find her the main story of odst is about human beings not super soldiers this isn't some action-packed adventure with explosives and superhuman feats it's about a story of human beings in a tide of war unsure what to do mistakes will be made and decisions don't make sense as they're all human with no real objective in mind as that vanished as quickly as it arrived this decision makes the story more grounded more realistic and in some ways more enjoyable as halo has never seen a story like this before when the master chief says he'll do something he does it but these characters aren't him so at least room for faults mistakes and constant vulnerability going back to the story at hand the rookie needs to find his squad and we can piece together a fairly good timeline of events thanks to the timeframes mentioned in the beginning of the missions upon landing buck went to go and rescue veronica who was deep behind covenant lions after battling through waves of enemies he made it but was too late that she was already gone buck was about to be attacked by a new covenant enemy called an engineer until romeo arrives and saves him for the next three hours buck and romeo would search for the remainder of the squad in hopes of getting everyone out safe eventually they would come in contact with mickey and dutch who were told to meet at the new mombasa police headquarters except when they arrive dutch and mickey are shot down by a group of banshees and need to be rescued going back in time both mickey and dutch were initially split dutch landing near the nature reserve and mickey near kazingle boulevard before eventually meeting up and working with the police to blow up the oni alpha site building they then get on a pelican which is how they made it to the headquarters buck and romeo join the team and help defend them until a brew chieftain arrives and almost kills romeo before being tackled by the rest of the team and then make it to kikowani station in hopes of finding some way to leave the city and decide to take a phantom as the train is decommissioned the four work together to escape new mombasa before buck orders them to turn around so they can rescue veronica all of this happens in five hours and given the fact that the rookie didn't wake up for six after the initial drop he was asleep for all of this throughout this you'll notice that the game is taking a different approach to its cutscenes but still presenting an expert level of cinematography the reason for halo success in this department is the game's ability to tell a story without using words the camera angles are able to show emotions without ever telling us and seeing as we now have a completely silent protagonist that is sort of a detective throughout the game the camera angles and presentation have changed since everything in the flashbacks has already happened we see the aftermath of everything that's occurred the only building we see being blown up is still on fire when we arrive it tells a story of loss and beauty that you can't find in other halo games the loss of the lives that died there and the intelligence that was stored within its walls but there's also beauty in its destruction as the embers and flames engulfing the building coincide with the destruction around it painting the sky with this orange smoke-filled color it's a genuine work of art and this continues to be utilized even in its final moments as we finish the flashback we hear veronica and now can track her location we find her and work with her to finish her real mission which is to collect the superintendent's data virgil is the superintendent who runs dumbass and his data is very critical according to her except the engineer consumed his data which may be a problem except these engineers are actually hive minds of covenant data the data on this engineer could help win the war so it's critical that we escort this thing to safety which we do with the help of buck who comes to assist us we drive down this long highway in new mombasa in hopes of making it to the rest of the gang most of the highway is filled with enemies so it's hard to pay attention to the surrounding area when you're being distracted which is specifically why the game will put the carrier within your field of view and when no combat has started so you have no choice but to stare at it the carrier creates this looming presence you've seen what they're capable of doing and you know what's coming next you're just hoping that it doesn't happen this time will your suspicions come true as the covenant continues to glass yet another city on earth plans need to be changed and fast as the covenant are not going to wait for us to leave so the rest of the squad meets with the others and they hold out against waves of covenant that feel like an eternity our phantom arrives and the crew manages to get to both the engineer and everyone out of the city making for a happy ending if you call the destruction of an entire city happy halo odst is a somber story not one of heroic achievement but one of darkness and destruction many people see video games as a form of art but odst takes that to the next level by presenting a world and atmosphere not explored yet and is truly managed to create a bleak world filled with silence and abandoned architecture i just wish more people were able to appreciate it as opposed to odst which was meant to be a short but enjoyable experience halo reach was not it was all about going big or going home halo reach is also responsible for changing how we play halo as this was the very first time we see spartans on screen that weren't the master chief in fact we got six different spartans who are all completely unique to one another reach was also the first game to allow player customization to our main character seeing as most of mobile 6 is a mystery bungie took it upon themselves to add customization to our protagonist any armor you wear for multiplayer is immediately transferred to the character in the campaign mobile 6 was truly a character you could put yourself in the shoes of while playing because he was you buried wasn't stopping there we were given a new planet to explore new covenant species new weapons spartan abilities assassinations space combat night visions marine fire teams and numerous other changes reach was so different from the other entries that you would think it'd be negatively viewed amongst fans but you'd be wrong reach received critical acclaim upon release and was an overnight success generating 200 million dollars in total revenue within 24 hours minus the return of firefight and an incredible multiplayer that kept people playing for years what also captivated players was its campaign after starting at single-player reach wastes no time introducing its lovable cast each one of them is unique in looks personality and expertise we also get to see what almost everyone looks like under their helmets making the player feel more personally connected to them noble team is the perfect example of what a team should be like each of them have their own set of skills and when one is missing you can see how difficult things can get carter is the team leader he has the combat knowledge and skill to stay alive in any firefight but is common collected enough to relay new orders on the fly when needed during an early mission a group of zealot elites ambush the group and while three large zealots with energy swords will scare just about anyone carter stays calm and gives orders on how to proceed and everyone listens they trust carter's decisions and only rarely did anyone question his orders even when that did happen he was able to create and execute a thorough plan to complete that objective as for the rest cat fits the role of a hacker constantly jamming and hacking into covenant systems throughout the game june is a sniper emilia's close quarters george is a heavy gunner and noble 6 is the all-around expert each of them are different and have different skill sets none of them can carry weapons like george does and no one is even close to being as good of a leader as carter what really brings these characters to life is their personalities george seems like an angry guy on the outside but cares deeply for others as he tries to calm a civilian down that they just rescued an emile shows that he doesn't fear the thought of death he honors those who want to go out on their own terms and is not the type of person to argue about it like i said halo reaches the blueprint for how a team should function even if it makes sense to have everyone on the team be the same to maximize the success of a mission when you give the characters faults it makes them feel more human and ultimately makes for a better story and that story is one of grief and irony halo reach's story is unfair it's not about happy endings this is apparent before even starting the game halo reaches a prequel to the original trilogy and according to buck in odst the entire planet of reach was glass just like new mombasa so somehow this planet went from being full of life to being completely abandoned meaning something had happened and it all unfolds throughout the game the first mission does an excellent job of keeping things consistent with the lore while also dropping hints on reach's inevitable downfall as stated earlier we get introduced to our cast of characters while also learning about our own character noble 6 is not only just the all-around expert in terms of combat he's also a lone wolf most of his file is classified but carter went through the trouble of reading it and while he doesn't exactly tell us what happened it seems that noble 6 would go out on his own and complete missions without the team's help making him the lone wolf during this it's also where we see a wide shot of a mountain range on reach and our cracked helmet on the ground there isn't enough evidence to make a solid conclusion on why her helmet is there but that doesn't look like a good sign as we start the first mission carter briefs the team on the objective and that's to investigate a downed relay outpost to hopefully find the people responsible and to get it back online george asks why the rebels would want to cut communications with the planet this is extremely important as the usual go-to answer for this question is that the covenant are attacking but reach hasn't seen any covenant activity yet so they just believe that it's some rebels who did it this was a welcome change to halo as it's always been the covenant but since this is a prequel this is a nice way to introduce them as this looming threat that you know will arrive on reach but you just don't know when as noble team approaches a nearby structure they open the door and find farmers who inform them that they're hiding as they heard shooting last night and that something in the fields killed the farmer's son we push further into the settlement and find the missing troopers we were searching for but also discovered that what attacked them was the covenant reach tried to set the scene of the game by not immediately having fire fights with the covenant as currently in the lore they have an attack to reach yet and while it didn't take very long to get into a fight with them the fact that bungie made it seem like the covenant wouldn't show up yet was a really good attempt at storytelling as we continue through the mission you'll notice reach takes a different approach to its levels there isn't some end goal of destroying the halo ring or stopping the flood it's just about defending reach and while the player may be put into different environments or different circumstances it's always about defending reach it isn't until the final few missions of the game where this will change mobile team is a team of spartans under the command of colonel holland and then eventually oni and pretty much anyone else that is above them so they just do as they're told after discovering covenant presence on reach they report back to colonel holland who sends them to ony sword base to defend it after this mission we just appear on a cliffside with june with most of halo's games especially the original trilogy you're going from one place to another but it's a natural flow from one mission to the next that means the missions are connected through each mission's actions like in halo 2 where you go from the metropolis level unearthed then another halo ring right after it doesn't make sense initially but the cutscene shows that we hopped into the portal and arrived on the other side reach has this too but sometimes noble team just appears in a completely new area it did admittedly dampen the story for me a bit at times but seeing as the overall objective is to defend reach it can be assumed that they don't stay in one place as certain areas are more valuable than others a good example is the mission with june the whole point is to go behind enemy lines and evaluate the covenant's forces which we do by finding the space at the end of the level so we are doing what we set out to do in the mission but nothing in the previous mission from in-game events to the cutscene afterwards implies that our next stop is this random location on reach and our next objective is to infiltrate behind enemy lines it's only until starting the mission and talking with june that we understand our objective despite how small this issue may be to people can make the story seem a bit disjointed thankfully it only occurs in a small handful of levels after discovering the covenant's main base of operations we set out as an army and attempt to defeat the covenant in this battle noble team manages to destroy the anti-air guns and larger towers surrounding the covenant so that a large frigate can come in and wipe it out until it's interrupted by a larger covenant carrier this ship possesses a grave threat to noble team reach and the unsc so it needs to be taken down the unsc have the capabilities of destroying it but it would cost thousands of lives to even get a few shots at it kat uses her knowledge of blacklisted intel from oni to come up with a plan that involves dropping a giant bomb onto the cruiser so that it can go to the carrier and blow it up that way this involves going to an unmarked launch site from the saber program and attacking the cruiser from space this then leads into a string of missions that are more or less about helping people within those areas until we reach the final mission starting with the package noble team is instructed to go back to oni and blow the building up so the covenant can occupy the data everyone on the team is on the same page as they're confused why such a routine demolition job is being tasked on spartans as they approach the coordinates they're taken to a secret area in oni that leads to an underground facility where dr halsey conducts her research her research is an ai that is the custodian of an ancient civilization that a.i is cortana dr halsey wants us to escort cortana to a ship-breaking yard nearby and that ship which will be going on is the pillar of autumn dr halsey claims that the failure to deliver cortana to the pillar of autumn will be the loss of humanity this leads to noble team defending the pillar of autumn from an onslaught of covenant forces and there's also an easter egg in the cutscene as the right thumbstick is enabled allowing you to peer over at the master chief who's in the same pod as the one from halo 1. so it was thanks to noble 6 and the rest of noble team that the master chief and cortana were safely aboard the pillar of autumn which laid to the events of the original trilogy and the unsc defeating the flood the prophet and starting a truce at the elites all of this can be attributed to the help of noble team on reach this then seems like the end of the game until the lone wolf mission starts and ends up becoming a noble six's last stand this is probably a good time to bring up the main thing i've been avoiding this whole time now it's no secret that reach has a depressing ending in which everyone on noble team minus june dies every single one of them is gut-wrenching even if it starts to become old but besides their deaths in general there is a lot of community theories regarding them claiming that an organization was hunting them from the very beginning and that the way they died in game is very ironic to their skill set george's death is very common in all types of media where a valiant hero sacrificed themselves to complete an objective or to save others this was during the time that noble team was trying to destroy that covenant carrier this idea worked flawlessly except the bomb timer is fried meaning it has to be set off manually which causes george to sacrifice himself and blow himself up along with the covenant carrier george's death was unexpected but nothing out of nowhere as most deaths like this are it's usually a slow build-up with some final words and a last goodbye george dying wasn't a tremendous loss compared to others like cat or carter but having one less gun on the team is still a problem speaking of cat her death was done exceptionally well prior to her death the entire team was held up inside a room where colonel holland wanted to speak to carter on an open channel usually you would avoid situations like this as the enemy can tap into the communications but given the circumstances there wasn't any options available right after this the team is almost hit by a covenant glassing beam and needs to evacuate the building once they exit the elevators they run down the hallway until cat walks in view of an opening in the ceiling and is shot through the head given how she died there's no way this phantom just strolled by and happened to see them since the hole is so small even if that was possible there's no way the zealot would have had enough time to react on how fast they were running this leads many to believe that this was planned and it was because of that call with holland that the covenant were able to find where they were some also believe that noble six was followed and the phantom was waiting for them to leave so that they could be ambushed either way cat's death was completely unexpected seeing as only george at this point had died the idea of everyone in the team dying eventually didn't really settle in yet and it was still quite the shock to see something like this happen cat is arguably the only one to not go out in some heroic way just a shot to the head i feel the same about carter's death that i did with george when starting the mission we can see that he's clearly wounded and bleeding things aren't going too great but considering he's a spartan it's possible he could survive this but as we're cornered by a scarab carter says his final goodbyes around this time it was quite obvious that the team was dying one by one so it seems like it was carter's time to go and while it was definitely more expected than the others as we had more time to digest the situation at hand it doesn't take away its emotional impact as though the team is without its leader seeing as june had disappeared in the previous mission it's just emil and noble six two soldiers without a leader but a clear objective in mind emil will soon follow as while defending the pillar of autumn a covenant phantom drops a couple zealot class elites on top of him but in this case emile seemed alright no one has ever survived to stab through the body like that but seeing as he was able to swing his body around and throw the elite off the cannon with him it gives the player some hope that he could still be alive except when we arrive we can see him dead on the railing emil was always my favorite on the team so this was upsetting seeing him die in the final moments of the game but noble 6's death is by far the most emotional as we get to see the character we've been playing as this whole time die in front of us as we mentioned before the pillar of autumn was the last ship off reach and seeing as he had to man the mack cannon he wasn't going to make it to the ship the amount of phantom seen during this sequence is astronomical the game is trying to portray how many of them are by throwing so many at you that it's hard to keep up mobile 6 barely gave the pillar of autumn enough time to launch on its own so if he was to run and catch a pelican the pillar of autumn would have been destroyed a common criticism i've seen about this last mission though is why did noble 6 not run away why make a last stand and a follow-up question i have would be where reach is gone if that ship was the last ship in the continent off planet then reach is totally screwed there is no saving this planet or the lives on it anymore seeing as noble 6 is now the last member of his squad and is now stuck on a dying planet filled with covenant that could be glassed at any moment he decides to take as many covenant down with him as he could if you sustain enough damage your visor will actually crack during this fight which is an abrupt mechanic that actually had me worried on my first playthrough i figured this would be a story of how everyone on noble team died except noble 6 as we are the protagonist but my heart dropped when those cracks started appearing as it was telling me that noble 6 isn't going to make it while the fight will probably last you minutes according to some within the community it seemed that the fight actually lasted for hours which would explain how exhausted he looks in the cutscene as he had been fighting non-stop i can't find an actual source to confirm this information but assume this is true the master chief isn't the only demon the unsc has in its ranks mobile 6's death was a last stand as the lone wolf the lone wolf of noble team and the lone wolf of the unsc on reach this leads into the massive theory within the community that noble team was being hunted by zealot elites in mission 2 as we continue to find the relay station and we see the team get ambushed by those zealots i talked about earlier two of them go deeper into the structure but you'll notice one escapes the other way and is never seen again carter brings this up to dr halsey back at oni sword base and she explains how her and some people at oni believe that the covenant dispatch a small team of advanced elite units so they can retrieve artifacts of value to their religion dr halsey believes that they came to that station for the intelligence that oni had stored there this theory continues to explain certain events that occur within the game seeing as there's possibly dozens of these zealot units it's safe to assume that someone is commanding them it's a theory that this elite who seems to be the shipmaster of the covenant carrier is the religious leader of the group and seeing as we not only killed the leader but blew up the ship it's possible that they had marked us for death the entire campaign the only evidence that supports this theory is the zealot elites of the same design are the ones who kill cat emile and noble vi according to the lore there are many different types of zealots within the covenant and the armor they wear as representative of their fleet meaning anyone wearing this purple and blue tint on their armor belongs to the same group it's not outlandish to think that this elite who ran away told the others about what happened and when the rest both heard of the elite's reports and news of their leaders deaths they immediately hunted them down we see these elites everywhere in the game and it's not that hard to assume that they'd most likely be communicating with one another and gathering intel on our current location it's an astounding theory with a decent amount of evidence behind it many people also believe that the elite who got away in mission 2 is either the same one that kills us or the one that we kill before using the mack cannon which is an interesting way of thinking about it this leads me to another discovery within the game and that's how ironic a noble team's deaths are george was an expert on big guns and explosives but died from an explosion cat is smart and incredibly intelligent with technology but the one time she relaxes and allows carter to talk on an open channel she dies for it she is so self-aware of the consequences that come from her actions which is why she constantly attempts to keep intel and communication secret but the one time that they weren't she paid the price for it carter is the leader of the group and just like any other leader of a ship goes down with the ship literally emil was extremely proficient in close quarters combat and was also fascinated with knives the irony being that he dies by an energy sword and noble six from the very beginning of the game was always alone he was described as a lone wolf in his file and was either the last surviving member of his last squad or preferred to do missions alone due to his expertise in combat it's ironic that he died the way he lived alone even june's disappearance is quite ironic as he's the sniper of the group he's meant to not be seen and june is never seen again after the mission with dr halsey he just disappeared and left without anyone knowing he was there just like a sniper should due to how this encompassed all of noble team i can't see this being a coincidence and the way bungie pulled this off without outright saying it to the player is brilliant storytelling halo reach was made with the intention of creating more spin-off content within halo but the team went above and beyond with its gameplay and story changes to make this one of the best halo games of all time it had a fantastic multiplayer and a brilliantly written story with a plot to connect all the games in the series and with enough underlying themes in theories that it's almost poetic video game spin-offs have always been hard to pull off they're going against what the main series has spent years establishing this either involves a complete change of the game's core genre or made with different ideas in mind regarding its story this usually leads to negative reception amongst the community as not many games have good spin-offs and even less games have spin-offs that are great enough to rival the main series but halo's spin-offs are perfect they were created to be great halo games with the intention of adding more story and world building to the game's universe by telling stories of others during the human and covenant war both games showcased the horror of the covenant a city or planet's first encounter with them or how its surviving members took specific actions in an attempt to stop them odst showed this by having us play as a more human-like soldier within the war truly is showing us through gameplay how tough the covenant were to fight and reach shows its story through the eyes of one spartan one who gets to see the covenant's destruction firsthand as he and the rest of the squad are attempting to fight back against an army on a dying planet that is inevitably going to fall the story and the presentation of these games is the reason i love them both so much they were able to change the formula of halo in both gameplay and storytelling and still manage to captivate the eyes of the community however both games felt bittersweet as they were able to end halo on a high note but these were halo's last games at least that's what we thought when bungie announced in 2007 that they were going to split away from halo microsoft needed to find another team to produce the games and in that same year they created 343 industries 343 was thankfully not starting from scratch they were creating map packs for halo reach and were also responsible for the anniversary editions of halo 1 and 2. however after bungie was finished with reach all the rights went to 343 and they began working on halo 4. seeing as halo was now being developed by a totally new company that means new people were being added to the team all directors producers writers programmers artists and composers were changed making it very clear that this would be a very different halo halo 3's story ended with the conclusion of the human covenant war they joined together against a common enemy and were able to settle their differences the problem is where do you go from here the original trilogy wrapped things up rather nicely but left out tons of info on the forerunners which is where halo 4 started off we were now finally able to see who the forerunners are why they built the rings and what happened to them the four runners from a story perspective was a fantastic choice and also just felt like the next step in the timeline there wasn't much to go off of so why not go back to the civilization that has been talked about since combat evolved thanks to this in the years of established lore 343 had tons of knowledge to use when creating their story seeing as this game was focusing on the forerunners that meant the design team was starting from scratch the 4runners have only been talked about so far within the games which is why the design process for them took such a long time to get right d43 took the style of 4runner architecture and used that to develop the prometheans many forerunner structures are large and able to defy gravity which is why the prometheans are of a similar build visually these enemies are wonderful mechanically they're a chore to fight their fighting style is very collaborative the knights can spawn watchers from their back and the watchers can protect the knights while also throwing grenades back if they're within range of one if given the opportunity they can even revive the dead knight if possible the crawlers are best suited alone but are very similar to grunts as while one is no big deal a group of them is very deadly this dynamic forces you to find the weapon with the most firepower rather than the one they're weakest to the covenants since halo ce have always been strong but have their weaknesses plasma weapons make an elite or jackal shield useless and the firearms of the unsc are great at taking down enemies without shields it was this back and forth of combining bold styles of weapons or using different tactics to eliminate your enemy's strengths the prometheans don't have any weaknesses any possible weaknesses are completely situational crawlers will die to one shot in the head but that's if you can aim well enough to hit them while they're charging you at full speed watchers are vulnerable when reviving dead knights but that's not a weakness more of a beneficial feature of a rare situation there is no counterplay to these enemies it's just about putting as many bullets into them as fast as possible and the weapons they wield are just as one-dimensional as they are every gun in halo was designed around shooting and doing damage but the covenant's weapons were able to add that extra flair to the weapons by trading ammo capacity for cooldowns or having an additional effect tied to the weapon like how the plasma pistol can shoot down a vehicle or eliminate an enemy shields none of these weapons though promoted strategy they just focused on damage and if they have an additional effect it's all based around damage it removes a core principle of halo which was having a balanced and engaging arsenal of weapons that wasn't based on what you needed to use but what you wanted to use i also can't help but feel that 343 desperately wanted to lower what was viable in halo 4 in regards to its weapons and equipment a good percentage of the game is centered around fighting promethean so it's natural that there are weapon lockers with promethean firearms near their bases which means the player will be using forerunner weapons for the majority of their playtime i don't really have too much of an issue with this what i do have an issue with is their changes to the other faction's weapons the covenant is a laughing stock compared to its previous iterations elites are wiped out so fast that i've never seen them as a threat anymore even when i wasn't using a plasma pistol an assault rifle had enough rounds in one clip to take its health from 100 to zero probably the hardest enemy to fight was the jackal snipers as the new beam rifle was actually a really nice change focusing more on ammo capacity rather than cooldowns however the other weapons are a joke now they function exactly like normal against the covenant but against the prometheans most aren't even worth using and seeing as you're fighting prometheans for most of the game there isn't many opportunities to even use these weapons against them there was only a handful of times where both the covenants and the prometheans were present which would allow you to use their weapons against them but seeing as the prometheans have no counterplay it's all about doing damage as fast as possible making half these weapons useless anyway the unsc weapons didn't get much of a change from its previous installments but due to the lack of unsc weapon lockers in the game you'll end up running out of ammo really quickly and being forced to use the promethium weapons all this obviously leads to the player having to rely on the promethean weapons during most of the combat throughout the game and since the weapons do nothing but just do damage and the prometheans have no weaknesses it's just picking the highest damaging weapon and shooting the enemy closest to you this imbalance even continues in the game's abilities halo 4 took some of reach's armor abilities and even added a few original ones i'll be completely honest with you half the time i forgot these even existed the hologram was fantastic and it made clearing areas extremely easy but the rest were pretty forgettable active camo replaced the red enemies on the hud with blue markers and when an enemy would get close to you their marker would disappear that was a key drawback on the active camo as it would give you the invisibility but would mess with your map so you weren't at a complete advantage this completely ruins the concept of active camo is even if the enemy's marker disappears when they get closer to you you still know the direction they're in auto sentry and hard light shield were extremely situational and completely outclassed by the hologram and the jetpack was also pretty situational but in this case it didn't really bother me because i've always felt it to be pretty situational anyway taking all this into account that means you're left with very little equipment to use and a small range of weapons to use during combat that have no way of outplaying the prometheans other than shooting more bullets into them halo force combat is leagues behind its predecessors and shows a lack of acknowledgement towards halo's core foundations but at least its story is better sort of 343 took the liberty of making a story about the prometheans and it was a great idea as we discussed earlier the lead director josh holmes wanted to make more human elements to the story this was accomplished by having a secondary plot involving cortana and the master chief the team thought this would be a hard idea to sell especially when introducing newer players into the story but they decided to keep it anyway i genuinely love this story between cortana and the master chief the two are an unstoppable force throughout the series but now one of them is causing both of them to fail within the first mission cortana has a sort of weird outburst something that's never happened before after the two talk we discovered that cortana has been in service for eight years and after seven they start to die and enter a stage of rampancy 343 did an excellent job conveying a sense of progression throughout the story as cortana every so often will have weird glitches then move to the occasional outburst to her not even listening by the end of the game she starts to realize the effects of her rampancy it's not just affecting her but affecting everyone around her this leads her down a depressive state towards the end of the game where she comes to terms with her condition and reflects on her own life telling the chief that it's inevitable she'll be replaced but it's possible with enough convincing she could get dr halsey to make another cortana but it wouldn't be the same this was such a fantastic plot there was progression and urgency as cortana was slowly getting worse and worse which showed the player how severe her condition was but due to how great it was it overshadowed the original story you wouldn't be wrong if you thought that halo 4 seemed like it was more about cortana than the prometheans it's a rare case of the side story being more involved in the main plot i think a big reason was the main plot about the prometheans and the died act the civilization who finally got screen time in the latest entry compared to cortana and the master chief who've been inseparable since 2001. cortana's plot is the overarching plot of the entire saga but it still needs to tell a story within each game within the original trilogy cortana's plot is like the flood something that exists from the beginning but will be referenced in the later entries until the very end of the saga where it gets wrapped up the plot of the died didact is just halo 1's story once we discover the flood we try to leave installation 0-4 as fast as possible and end up blowing it up in the process the story of the flood is still very much in the works but installation 0-4 story is finished this is the same for the didact and cortana except with halo 4 343 tried to do the same thing but make the plot of the entire saga about two of the most well-known characters in the game so it's no wonder why people cared more about them than the died act as we start the game master chief wakes up four years later from his cryogenic slumber in halo 3. cortana senses something wrong with the ship and wakes up the chief because of it as we explore the depths of the ship we come face to face with our first enemy which is an elite i like probably many of you were confused as at the end of halo 3 the covenant had a truce with the unsc that cortana and master chief even mention this too this whole plot never gets brought up again in the entire game master chief never asks cortana later in the game if she's discovered more info and he never bothered to ask anybody on the unsc infiniti about this either the unsc infiniti is a giant super carrier that's been conducting missions to explore the other halo rings for research and decommission so they've been all over the galaxy looking for these things if you remember from the original trilogy the covenant wanted to complete their great journey which was to ascend to a heavenly paradise and exist as divine beings to do this they needed to activate all the halo rings so if the unsc is trying to study and put the rings into decommission you would think that the covenant would be extremely pissed about this so how was the infinity not run into any covenant at all and even if they did why did master chief and cortana not mention it why is no one being brought up to speed at all during this story the reason we aren't told this is because technically we were already told this in a book apparently sometime after halo 3 and after the peace treaty between the two species some splinter groups of the covenant did not appreciate the treaty and thus went rogue forming their own faction this is another instance of halo using the books to explain a story this happened before in halo 3 when the master chief ends halo 2 on the forerunner ship then just propels himself down to earth in halo 3. back then it didn't bother me as it wasn't that big of a deal this plot however is literally a defining moment in halo's universe and was the sole reason for the trilogy to end something like this cannot be simply resolved in a book and even if it has to be it needs to be explained to the players who only play the games the books are there to add more lore to the universe by showing new short stories or adding just a small amount of flavor to existing characters it shouldn't be a requirement to read the books to understand the story that's what causes new people to care less and less about the story since they need to put in more effort to understand it at a basic level the only thing left to discuss is the didact like i said before it felt like the plot with cortana was overshadowing the died act towards the end of the first mission the master chief and cortana along with the unsc forward unto dawn get sucked into this giant structure and end up on a forerunner planet called requiem after exploring they hear a distress call from the unsc infinity and eventually realize that the infinity is trying to land on the planet which is a terrible idea considering the fact they don't know about the prometheans yet this leads to the master chief touching these pillars in hopes of establishing contact with them but it turns out that it was the died act manipulating the signal to get chief to open up the kryptom he was stored inside he immediately overpowers the master chief and mentions how the humans will not be allowed to obtain the mantle and that the forerunners have returned this is a great introduction to the died act and his motives and it was presented really well he believes that the forerunner should have kept the mantle of responsibility and that the humans did not deserve it this like the covenant splinter group is something mentioned in the books it's never explained in halo 3 or halo 4 what the mantle is why only a human can activate the ark in halo 3 and why the humans are the inheritors to the mantle once again another part of halo's lore that shouldn't be put into a book but regardless we do understand his intentions and it's our job to stop him sometime later in the game we meet a ghostly apparition of the librarian who tells us about humanity the forerunners and the died act essentially the died act is trying to find the composer so he can defeat the forerunner's strongest enemy who is humanity long ago mankind was traveling all over the galaxy and was claiming land for itself until the died act and his forces ended up stopping them it was discovered way later that after defeating mankind that they weren't trying to expand and take over people's land but they were running away from another enemy that we know is the flood we also discovered that the composer would have been used to combine the two realms of organic and digital life but it failed causing those who were affected by it to die the forerunners then made their plans for the final great journey but the didact refused to give up the mantle of responsibility which is why he was imprisoned although it can definitely be seen as a long cutscene full of exposition i wasn't particularly annoyed by it given the lore that we learned from it a little later is when master chief meets up with the members of the infinity like palmer del rio and lasky though rio was definitely written to be an [ __ ] and they exceeded in doing so despite the imminent threat that idax poses del rio refuses to listen to the chief which causes him to go on his own this goes into a very long set of missions of trying to destroy the dieback's defenses and attempting to hide the composer he ends up stealing it and we get to see the true power he can possess as he turns the crew of the nearby station into ash we then get into the last mission and discover that his plan was to destroy earth with the composer i said before that halo doesn't have a great track record when it comes to boss fights and this is by far the worst in the series say what you will about the weapon convenience of guilty spark and the exploitative ai of tartarus but at least you got to fight them this entire campaign has led up to this very moment with the didach seconds away from destroying earth where we had to battle through hundreds of prometheans for him to only die by a grenade and also die during a quick time event i don't think i need to go into detail how pathetic this is this whole process of cortana splitting and using her fragments of her mind to attack the died act then dying from the chief after a large boss fight would have been great but the boss fight starts during the cutscene and ends in two button presses good riddance to the died act and good riddance to his dull plot thankfully we continue to further the plot of cortana and we see that she used the last of her fragments to save the qi from the explosion but it pretty much killed her this was such a touching moment as this is the first time that cortana gets to physically touch the chief and she also calls him jon it seemed that the master chief would be without cortana forever and that was heartbreaking for both the player and the master chief this seemed like the first time ever that we would never be able to see cortana again and that was extremely touching halo 4 was 343's attempt at making a full game and while it was a solid effort it's clear that it didn't live up to the expectations of many of its fans it had boring and tedious firefights that lacked the fundamentals of halo's core combat and introduced a new enemy and plot that was overshadowed by a side story making the original story they envisioned feel incompetent in comparison with the studio being completely focused on only making halo games a sequel would easily be able to iron out any issues the studio had with its first attempt halo 5 to this day remains the most controversial halo game on this list the amount of discourse and arguments that have sprouted from this game is incomprehensible due to the subpar story of halo 4 many believe that 343 would take in community feedback to find out what they got wrong and fix the sequel it's really hard to be thrown into a series midway through its release especially one as significant as halo and expect to put out a quality game the first time around it also didn't help that they weren't able to build off much of the original trilogy due to how much that story wrapped itself up but this is now their second attempt at making a halo game they understand the workflow the technology the lore and are now more prepared than they were ever before to make halo 5 but it still wasn't enough in fact halo 5 seems to be going backwards in terms of story progression by rewriting things that occurred in the previous game and then trying to spice things up by adding more new ideas but never developing them it seemed like 343 was trying to make the game accessible to new players but at the same time make it feel like it was only for the veteran fanbase the gameplay and the flow of combat is easily the highlight of halo 5 and was changed to be more accessible to newer players 343 changed everything wrong with halo 4 and made it way better in halo 5. for a quick refresher from the halo 4 section the main issues with the combat was the forerunner weapons were always based around damage with very little gimmicks to set them apart from one another the prometheans were also really boring and it felt like 343 just added random types of enemies anywhere they could due to the collaborative nature of the prometheans but more specifically the watchers they made combat extremely tedious by reviving dead knights and blocking bullets from ever hitting them this was made even worse when the health of the watchers was higher than it needed to be causing you to run out of ammo quickly with no weapons to defend yourself however 343 changed all of this not once did i feel bored from its gameplay in fact it was a breath of fresh air after just playing through halo 4. the bolt shot is now a three round burst and carries more ammo the light rifle regardless of whether you're aiming or not is always single fire and the suppressor is slower but it gets faster the longer you hold the trigger down and also seems to do more damage to the prometheans as well both the bolt shot and suppressor also track enemies when your cursor is on them which is way different from the piece shooter damage of the bolt shot and the abysmal accuracy of the suppressor by far the best change was its enemy variety halo 4 suffered from making the prometheans boring to fight then also making them 90 percent of the enemies you face ultimately making all of its gameplay awful but halo 5 introduced newer prometheans and reintroduced the covenant again and gave them more screen time so it became a healthy balance of both covenant and promethean combat the knights were drastically changed in halo 5 as only a few show up throughout the game but were made stronger as a result the knights were replaced by much easier and less damaging prometheans who are called soldiers they have no gimmicks like spawning enemies or being revived they're just like the elites of the covenant the standard soldier within the army's ranks the knights sort of became the brutes from halo 2 who only showed up on occasion but eventually got worked into the game's combat where you could face three or four at a time the knights can still spawn watchers and be revived but they have weak points on their bodies that will lower their health greatly after both of these are destroyed their only weak point left is their face which is covered by a metal mask but seeing as they're having a much stronger role in this game i don't mind a bit of difficulty to add to this the watchers are much more doable this time around being killed in a few shots by just about any weapon and also use their shielding and revive abilities very sparingly it makes them just as important as any other enemy in the faction but doesn't make them too much of an annoyance allowing combat to flow from one area to the next without taking 10 minutes to clear a room as for the covenant 343 reverted to the changes of the plasma weapons as now they sound like the originals and don't waste as much ammo this makes covenant weapons fun to use again and gives you an opportunity to actually pick the weapons you want and not start a scavenger hunt trying to find a weapon what 343 really nailed was the blending of combat between these factions some missions will just have covenant some will just have prometheans but there are other instances where both show up in the same mission or even at the same time due to the numerous changes 343 made in halo 4 it was tough to use covenant weapons against promethean since ammo ran out so fast and the promethium weapon seemed to do no damage against the covenant if they even showed up during a mission but 343 blended both the weapons and enemies perfectly re-establishing that balance of halo's weapons and for the first time in 343 saga you could use the weapons you wanted without sacrificing damage and it was a great step in the right direction another first for the series was that each weapon had universal aim even weapons such as the plasma pistol that have never been given an aim button were finally given one this is added to most likely keep up with current trends in the industry as many fps games at the time have an aimed down sight mechanic it was a great implementation and a great addition to its combat as things felt smoother it's wonderful to be able to control your aim with all the weapons and not have to use the thumb stick to aim down sight anymore further the player was also given thrusters to either dash out of combat or thrust themselves into an enemy the hud also displayed the player's health on top of their shield so you know exactly how close you are to death and just in case things did go wrong 343 allowed players to be revived by their squad mates everything added made its combat more accessible and easier to use allowing for a much more enjoyable experience if there was ever a halo game that was able to update its mechanics but also retain halo's core values giving that rewarding experience when playing it's halo 5. 343 finally nailed its combat and it's clear that a lot of people loved it too as the feel of its weapons is almost identical in multiplayer which was nominated numerous times in various award shows its combat made the campaign a genuinely fun experience assuming you tuned out the story halo 5's story is where the bulk of its criticism lies as i said 343 added tons of ideas and potential plots to this game but never developed them the end of halo 4 showed cortana seemingly dying and never coming back 343 wanted to expand on this by quote making a story that explores how the master chief copes with the loss and past memories this is a great idea and what a lot of people expected to happen given how the last game ended until this idea was seemingly thrown out the window by bringing her back in the first act of the game how are you going to tell the story about the master chief's loss and the death of his friend if she's not dead in the first place after the rescue of dr halsey in mission 1 thanks to fire team osiris who i will get to shortly the team and her arrive back at the unsc infiniti she's taken away from lasky by spartan palmer and before she disappears halsey asks what she has done and how far she has gone the reason dr halsey needed to be rescued was because she had information on the recent attacks on human colonies that were led by the forerunners taking into account the whole game's narrative it's clear that the she she's talking about is cortana which means she knows cortana's alive and knows what she's capable of later at the end of mission 2 halsey's conveying tolaski the severity of the situation and how she has access to the forerunner domain and instead of listening to her he and palmer ignore her fireteam osiris has no idea what's going on in their hunt or what cortana is even doing they were just told by lasky to bring the chief in thinking he's gone rogue in search of her this game is withholding so much information from its cast of characters why hasn't halsey shared what the domain is what the guardians are and even more importantly this line in the beginning means she knows that cortana is alive and refused to tell anyone especially jon furthermore why is lasky of all people not hearing what she has to say if this whole plot is revolved around cortana why would lasky refuse to listen to the one woman who knows cortana the most like i said before the idea of making a game about the master chief and the loss of his best companion but then completely ruining that by bringing her back makes no sense the master chief isn't grieving anymore or impacted by the loss in fact this discovery motivates him to go find her because who wouldn't in his situation what doesn't make this any better is that at the end of mission 2 the master chief reports to infinity that he has possible info and a location on cortana but his orders are denied claiming that another team is already handling it this sets off numerous red flags for both the player and even blue team they are practically forcing the master chief to go rogue from this blue team can assume that the infinity knew about cortana and had already planned to send a team to find her instead of letting the literal one person that she will always talk to to handle the mission instead can you see how confusing this must be for blue team so of course they went to go find her first master chief and the rest of blue team are a family to cortana so they have her best interest at heart and are still willing to constantly talk to her about what's going on no one else in the unsc has that bond with her so blue team is worried that they'll try to shut her down without being able to see her again how lasky and the others on the infinity can force master chief to go rogue and then literally complain when he does exactly that is completely bizarre to me as we continue into mission 3 it's very clear that fire team osiris is tasked with bringing in blue team and here is where other numerous criticisms start firstly 343 tried to do what halo 2 did by introducing a new protagonist in the form of spartan lock but ultimately failed due to the next problem a lack of development and diversity the only character with any sort of development on both teams besides the master chief is buck we already know who buck is thanks to halo odst and we can now see that he's a spartan he still uses the odst helmet and occasionally references his time in the odst saying that it was much easier back then however what bothers me is the lack of diversity these teams have throughout the game i was genuinely trying to find differences between any of them and i still can't each of them carry different weapons but all act the same as we discussed in the halo reach section despite all of noble team being great at combat carter was an excellent leader and kat was very smart with technology none of these people exhibit any defining qualities with the slight exception of vale from fire team osiris who was fluent in sangheili it's hard to see them as a team when they can do the same things having cat die showed a weakness in noble team as their master hacker was gone and when carter died their leader was gone they lost a critical part of the team but with osiris and blue team if one of them were to die it would just be one less gun in a fight you could argue it's just the same as emil or george as they were just proficient in specific areas of combat but from what little we see of them we discovered that george had a friendly relationship with dr halsey and he was a part of the spartan 2 program and that emil had a fixation with knives and comes to accept death even in his final moments even if they didn't have a unique job on the team we still learn a lot about them and it felt like 343 was going somewhere when they touched on val and her knowledge of elite language but it just ends there this never really gets developed or utilized and none of the other members get large sections of their stories uncovered it's not until the final mission where cortana drops a sentence of info about them minor tangent aside if we return to where we left off both buck and locke are discussing the upcoming mission and how lots of people will hate them for this lock doesn't seem to care but it's clear that it's very much affecting buck lock plans to use this new armor locking technology to sort circuit the armor systems making it easier to retrieve them the team then ends up heading to meridian to find blue team as this is the place cortana mentioned in chief's vision as we go further into the colony we discover a quarry that holds a large forerunner structure which introduces us to the warden eternal who claims to stand in service to cortana this is another huge drop of story for the player as it seems that she is most definitely working with the prometheans and that the warden led blue team enter the structure once again more story potential and it was very well presented eventually both teams come face to face with each other and we get the infamous chief and lock fistfight the choreography in the fight itself was pretty great it's quite rare to see two spartans go head to head with their fists so i was all for it my only problem is the rest of osiris i've tried to see this platform from all angles in this cutscene and it does seem like this jump is doable considering the other things they've jumped from so why isn't anyone on the team doing anything they literally watched their leader lose and then watch their mission objective escape even if we were to play devil's advocate and claim that the jump was impossible they could have easily shot him for resisting or fired warning shots to distract him momentarily on top of that shouldn't the other team members have these armor locks even if they didn't know the master chief was alone who carries only one of these and never has a backup it just seemed like locke was so overconfident in his mission that he brought only one and thought he could 1v1 the literal savior of humanity locke was even gonna pull his gun on him too which is more than enough reason for the other members to do it too it just feels like 343 wanted the player to focus on the cool fight scenes and not the questionable decisions surrounding it it's after this part in the story where i will completely admit i'm a bit confused as we discover right after the fight the guardian they've been searching for wakes up and starts attacking the colony while this is happening blue team goes to the teleporter and arrives at genesis another 4runner planet everyone on blue team is still unsure what cortana wants with them and what she's doing which is why they're continuing to pursue her in hope of answers when they finally managed to talk to her through the communication she goes on to explain that she found a cure for her rampancy and that the cure can make ais immortal it's because of their immortality that the ais can now be the owners of the mantle of responsibility while this does sound great the master chief explains that the mantle of responsibility is an imperial piece meaning you either have to do as they say or you suffer chief doesn't like the idea of this and conveys that to cortana who tells them to come meet in person so she can explain more this is another instance of the game delaying information the game keeps forcing the player to continue so they can finally understand the story it's not until mission 14 the second last mission in the game where we find out that cortana's plan was to use the guardians to reinforce peace across the galaxy like the forerunners did it took 14 missions to get that answer and ironically enough cortana wanted to tell blue team this in person but she still did it over the comms anyway making this whole weight pointless blue team will eventually come face to face with her and the master chief and cortana talk out their differences cortana explains that what she's doing is giving people a gift and a way to be more than what they currently are master chief can help but relate to how halsey did this exact same to him and the other spartan twos it's clear neither side is in budging on their stances so she locks him in a kryptom and plans to release them once peace has been brought to the galaxy fire team osiris attempts to free them which they succeed in doing but more importantly during this sequence we hear cortana call out to all the ai in the galaxy to join her side and hundreds of voices can be heard she even calls out to all the other species in the galaxy to join her this is an excellent continuation of the saga because if the ai are revolting then all the ships and the colonies they belong to will most likely shut down causing mass panic this is exactly what we see in the final moments of the game as roland is reporting numerous distressed calls from earth and the other colonies about this exact problem then cortana shows up and attempts to destroy them with her guardian infinity escapes but they assume cortana could track them easily so they do random jumps across the galaxy which is probably how we ended up at zeta halo for halo infinite if things in this section seemed somewhat rushed you're not wrong most of it is due in part to the story itself being quite rushed but the other reason is because this is the first time in this series i am genuinely confused on what's going on i've understood every halo game story and plots but i cannot wrap my brain around this the game threw so many different things at the player in such a short amount of time that it was incredibly hard to keep up things like the domain the guardians the word and eternal and numerous other things were mentioned earlier in the game but were never explained until the very end it's just an overload of information because now the player has to learn new lore on top of the new concepts they just heard about while also trying to remember what the other concepts they learned early in the game were and try to piece all of this together i literally didn't understand until the last cutscene that the created was something cortana came up with i just figured this was something the warden taught her or something she found in the domain i didn't realize that was the name of their new faction hopefully though halo infinite continues to run with this rogue ai plan for its story as this is starting to go in a really good direction but the rest of the story like lock and chief's conflict and all this running around they do in the different colonies is just as boring as the died act halo 5 suffered from a rushed and overwhelming campaign and attempted to introduce new ideas and plots but either didn't develop them enough or withheld information from the player until the very end overwhelming them with all of it despite this its gameplay was greatly improved and made combat in between its story bits wonderful culminating in a very interesting experience despite its ups and downs halo will live on as one of the most recognizable franchises of all time it's still to this day a revolutionary game that tries to push its boundaries with every release the original trilogy is incredibly iconic and filled with some of the franchise's best moments its spin-off games were able to do what not many could and be just as great as the originals and even 343 is showing incredible potential as they're slowly but surely nailing the halo formula while some games may be viewed better than others it's without a doubt one of the best games of all time with that though we've come to the end of all the halo games and subsequently the end of the video thank you all for making it this far this did take quite a bit of time to make so if you enjoyed then please make sure to leave a like if you did and subscribe if you're new be on the lookout in the coming weeks for the halo infinite review but to tide you over i have some wonderful videos like my analysis on fallout new vegas and prey and you can even check out my reviews on ubisoft's newest titles riders republic and far cry 6. thank you once again for watching the video and to my returning viewers i thank you for coming back take care everyone and goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Gingy

Views: 277,997

Keywords: halo retrospective, halo series, halo review, halo infinite, halo 1, halo ce, halo combat evolved, halo 2, halo 3, halo 4, halo 5, halo odst, halo reach, halo anniversary, halo mcc, halo master chief collection, A Halo Series Retrospective, gingy, video essay, halo video essay, halo campaign, halo mulitplayer, halo infinite campaign

Id: 8j--6gjS5KY

Length: 108min 54sec (6534 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021