Halo More Dead Than It Was Already
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I actually enjoyed Halo 4. Granted, I played all the games back to back in 2023 so I didn’t have the anticipation built up, but it was still quite fun.
One of the biggest problems with 4 is that the game almost literally starts, and does literally end, with a quick time event.
When you're moving around the derelict Forward Unto Dawn and climbing the lift shaft you get to a closed door that opens suddenly something tries to attack you. You resolve this with a QTE that grabs whatever it is and pulls it into the lift shaft, throwing it down the drop below you.
You defeat the big bad who was introduced, built up, and beaten in a single installment in typical shit fashion by slapping a blue plasma grenade onto him in another QTE.
It borders on how boring the end to ME3 was compared to the previous installments.
ME1: showdown with Saren
ME2: proto Reaper fight
ME3: "Marauder Shields" meme then either talking TIM into shooting himself or using a Renegade interrupt/QTE to do it yourself.
Halo managed to put off such a bad move until at least the trilogy and Reach were out.
Halo 1: warthog run.
Halo 2: primate leader with the hammer.
Halo 3: warthog run.
Reach: last stand.
All action packed, even self referential with 3 ending on another warthog run like the first did, but still all involving the player actually doing something other than pressing a single button to get to the next block of text.
Mate, that Halo 3 ending -- while the entire structure was collapsing while the music is blaring and you're trying to race to the end -- was one of the most epic moments in all of gaming. That trilogy is probably the best all-around greatest trilogy in gaming history when it comes to mechanical excellence and overall technically achieved gameplay. I could replay all three games easily and have as much fun now as I did when I first played them.
It's ironic because the ending to Mass Effect 3 was made boring on purpose. There was a planned and prototyped final boss fight with the Illusive Man but Casey Hudson was so far up his ass because he vetoed it so players would get to his "watercooler Lost ending" more quickly.
He even vetoed and locked out all the writers while scripting it because he thought it was so incredible it didn't need any other outside input. And we all saw how that turned out.
If you play Halo 4 directly after playing Halo 3 (something I did after getting the Master Chief Collection on PC) makes it so apparent how much of a huge step backward it is in terms of continuity, storytelling, and overall balance.
Mechanically, Halo 4 plays perfectly fine. However, the weapons are a huge step backward, as all of the Forerunner weapons are just human weapons with a metallic skin and orange lasers. They even reload like human weapons, which was a huge step back from all of the unique weapons they introduced in the original Halo trilogy.
The only actual new thing they introduced that was cool was the mech, which you didn't even use much in the campaign. If Halo 4 came out after Halo 1, I think it would have been an awesome game. But it had way too many step backwards compared to Halo 1 - 3 + Reach, especially when they did the story pivot instead of having it humans vs Covenant vs Forerunners, they turned it into another humans vs Covenant + Forerunners again, and that just made it really lame, as the best moments were when it was a free for all and felt like all out war.
I didn’t notice the “feel” of the weapons being too similar, but I’m not the most in depth halo fan and I really wouldn’t notice anything being too similar.