Halo More Dead Than It Was Already
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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.