I've had my complaints with the Blur CGI cutscenes so far, aside from them looking gorgeous, mostly due to changes in cinematography or sound editing proving to be less dramatically appealing than the originals, but getting to Sacred Icon last night, they captured and rearranged quite possibly my favorite cutscene, featuring my favorite character dynamics, in absolute perfection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg2doq0dz38#wshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZpsRJt9cBg#noexternalembed-wsTruth, in Halo 2 (he was absolutely ruined in Halo 3, in my opinion) was one of my favorite Halo characters, if not number one while battling Cortana, R'tas, and The Arbiter, and seeing how Blur captured him and did absolute justice to Michael Wincott's impeccable voice work makes me want to stand up and clap. He's such a malicious, clever, and practical character, and this cutscene displays it perfectly. I also applaud them for how they rendered the Elites, moving away from the movie-monsters of Halo Reach and Halo 4, which I will never stop being appauled with. Hopefully in Halo 5 they move back to the intelligent, cunning, understandable (as in language), and expressive characters they were in Halo 2 and 3, and that they learned their lesson from doing H2A that there's been something sorely missing in Halo ever since Reach.
Not just the cunning, honorable, and fierce side to the Covenant, but levity in general. While I greatly appreciate efforts on Halo Reach and Halo 4, both games were so dry and devoid of any sort of humor (aside from the lighter stuff between Chief and Cortana in Halo 4, which was masterful in general), that it began to not feel like Halo at all. This is also a problem in the live action material; I liked Forward Unto Dawn initially for being ambitious and having some cool use of practical effects, but it wore thin, lacking any charm or levity that Halo is so well known for... this seems to be a forgotten trait of the series. Playing Halo 2 again, with a (mostly) beautiful remaster, this brings all of this to the forefront, and reminds me why it was the best game in the series, spinning easily the most compelling yarn, and being emotionally resonant and complex in more than one way. Joe Staten took a risk with it, and from some outlets was wrongly criticized, but from reviewers I'm seeing nothing but people commenting on how they're being reminded or even realizing for the first time... Halo 2 tells a
really good story. It almost feels disjointed from Halo CE and Halo 3, because it lacks the same simplicity that they did, with the ambitious story of The Arbiter and Truth taking almost the most prominent and memorable place in the spotlight. It's where the meat of the story comes from, making the Chief and the humans feel more like supporting characters in the overall scheme of things.
Halo 2 was pretty brilliant.
Let's hope 343 Industries understands why.
