Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jan 19, 2015, 11:08:59 AM
The Forerunner trilogy has a completely unique feel to it and is nothing like the others. But if you realize that, you can get on with it. It's a very different kind of scifi, compared to the militaristic Halo of the other ones.
Yeah, I loved the style of Cryptum a lot. Just haven't had the chance to read the other two just yet. Did you listen to the audio epilogue to Silentium, by any chance? I know it was hosted on Waypoint on the 360, but it's up on YouTube now.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Jan 19, 2015, 11:08:59 AM
I've not really seen the complaints to do with the Kilo-5 trilogy.
From what I've heard, it's not so much that they're bad (they're not) as it is the way characters are forcibly painted in certain ways by Travis. But I think I'm gonna read them, form my own opinion and see what's up. If nothing else, I'm curious about post-Onyx and really want to catch up with the Arbiter.
I also ordered Broken Circle yesterday, though it's going to be a long time before I get around to reading it.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
The story telling method is bad in Halo.
Eh, that's a matter of opinion and one that I do't happen to agree with. Halo's world and story (and the way those things are portrayed) are incredibly immersive to me.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
Important information is shared over loud gunfire with low voice acting barely audible. Should be more cutscenes or down time moments like in Half Life. If you haven't read the books or researched the back story little is explained to you to inform what's going on. This could work in a more open game like Mass Effect which is an RPG but Halo is a high speed fps.
Again, that's not something I've ever felt. I found the amount of cutscenes to be just right, and the information that they (and in-game story events) portray to be enough for someone who's paying attention to grasp what's going on. My first Halo game was Halo 3, and while a lot of the story was lost on me due to having never played the first two, I was able to understand the general gist of it. When I went back and played the first two I realized just how complex and well executed the games' story is. Maybe there's not as much dialogue as you would like to progress the story, but the game is so visually complex and the narrative is often conveyed through what you're looking at in tandem with whatever exposition has been given to you via dialogue. Halo is clearly a video game, but it has a sort of filmic quality to it in the way that it builds up its world and events.
I never had a problem understanding the games without reading the books. The books don't make the story, they expand on it or focus on events on the side. They help to inform about plot details from the games in advance, but they are in no way required reading for one to appreciate the tapestry woven by the games.
If you are ever looking for any additional detail or information, stop for a second. Slow down. Let the world and the events around you soak in. Halo doesn't have to be (and really isn't) a "high-speed FPS." It's frantic when it needs to be, but it is also heavy on complex mystery and engaging action, and that's what really defines the series.
And if you're looking for more in-game story that provides background on the game you're currently playing, take more time to slow down, let the world soak in, and seek out the audio/video (depending on the game) terminals, data pads, etc.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
It's funny though because the original Halo was supposed to be more of a RPG game on MAC. It all changed of course but the story remains, a story more suited for RPGs.
I don't think there was ever any intention for Halo to be an RPG. It was originally developed as an RTS, but Bungie realized that they wanted to get closer to the action and changed it to a third-person shooter. Eventually it made the transition from that to an FPS.
Ensemble was developing an RPG at one point, but they closed after the release of Halo Wars and it never came to be.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
The main character Master Chief is the most boring hero character I've ever played as. His one liners are stiff and forced. He brings no emotion to the story whatsoever. The only character that you really care about is Cortana but she's not even a real person.
Well I mean, the Chief isn't exactly the most sociable guy in the universe, and he shouldn't be. I got a god sense of his character from the first three games
because of his limited dialogue and stoic persona. He's a man, but he's a biologically altered killing machine. He's clunky sometimes in his words, but he's incredibly fluid without a second thought in his actions. But if there's one thing that grounds him emotionally, narratively, whatever, it's Cortana. The fact that she's not even human is the point. She's the one that draws humanity out of him, and that is expressed in their (clever and heartwarming, in my opinion) banter, and his desire to break all protocol and challenge his superiors (something that the stoic action hero persona of the Chief would seemingly never to) in order to go rescue her. This all becomes the central focus in Halo 4, where their relationship, now dwindling by a thread, becomes the full blown focus. Yes, Chief has to save the world again, but he also has to save her and nobody, not the Didact, not his superiors, not the Covenant, is going to stop him. And yet they do, and it falls on Cortana in her (again, seemingly) final moments to be the one that has to save him. This is all feeding very nicely into a very different sort of story in Halo 5: Guardians. Chief is alone, he seems to be on the run and acting without the approval of the UNSC. At first glance that seems out of character for him, but given everything that has transpired since the first game it's really the only thing that feels natural now. Halo has, once again, evolved.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
In the early halo games levels are re-used and very repetitive. All games in the series are very linear and very repetitive.
Sure, the last few levels of the first game are technically the first few in reverse as Chief races back to where he started, but I never found them to be repetitive. The circumstances are some completely different, thanks in whole to the addition of the Flood. The world and the gameplay feels different enough that I don't actually feel like I'm replaying levels, but rather continuing forward in a way that happens to take me opposite of the direction that I originally came from. Revisiting early locations and seeing just how much has changed in so short a time is like an emotional punch to the gut, and again something that tells the story visually rather than with loads of expository dialogue.
Quote from: Predatorium on Jan 19, 2015, 01:30:00 PM
The best part of Halo games are the vehicle segments because they tend to be in more open environments and they are fun to control.
I can agree with that. I always found the vehicle segments and combat to be incredibly fun.
