Well first of all *sniff sniff* my Xbox got stolen early last year and with it all my data from Halo 3 and Halo reach. Then when I got my new Xbox I still haven't been able to get a Live connection back up and combined with the fact that I no longer live at home but on my college campus and study takes up too much time I rarely game anyway.
In addition, Halo 4 in my humble opinion doesn't seem all that good. I admit I haven't played much, only some campaign levels and I've watched gameplay footage and read reviews but really so much has changed and so little for the better. It really is trying to be call of duty with these load outs, ordinance drops replacing weapons on map, permenant sprint, fucking kill cams and so much else including a system that values individual progression based on kills over completing objectives as a team and frankly it TOOK away more of the stuff I liked in the process. No firefight, no 'classic' multiplayer instead only 'infinity', hell half the content REQUIRES an online connection (From what I hear Spartan Ops gameplay wise is incredibly lackluster too) and NO FUCKING ELITES. Seriously for NINE YEARS that was STAPLE and something that gave Halo some much needed VARIETY.
Hang on, I need time to grieve.
Yeah still haven't forgiven 343 for that MASSIVE MIDDLE FINGER they gave me and all others who think like me, still never going to.
And as for the campaign, well I've bitterly ranted about the fact that the Elites were made enemies again so many times I shouldn't need to repeat myself. Just search 'Vrex360 Halo 4 elites' and your set. Honestly I just never saw a point in continuing the story, I thought it concluded fine and a sequel could only diminish the impact of the original trilogy and I was right.
The Arbiter's character arc and the seeming journey of redemption the Sangheili race seemed to be moving towards? Nothing, they are all enemies now and from Halo Reach, Halo 4 Forward unto Dawn, the Glasslands Trilogy, Halo initiation, Halo 4, Spartan Ops, Spartan Assault all combined have done an incredible job of ruining that to the point where it feels like someone at 343 was looking at the ending of Halo 3 and shouted:
"SHIT the elites could be portrayed as sympathetic or humanized and even heroic, this could result in complex stories, new ideas and a creative angle to take our series. This is an actual creative spark.... STAMP IT OUT, STAMP IT RIGHT THE FUCK OUT. KILL IT! KILL IT! WE ONLY WANT BLAND MARKETABILITY GOD DAMN IT, GENERIC EVIL ALIENS TO BE KILLED IN THE THOUSANDS THAT'S IT!''
The impact of the Ark and the Halos? Diminished somewhat by this new Didact guy who played no part in the previous trilogy and his newfound seemingly limitless power just makes the huge epic battle of the ark feel rather small and anti-climactic. Plus the mystery of the forerunners is ruined when we reveal them to just be this omnipotent vampire god race who love to spew out long monologues and get killed by a quick time event.
Humanity just barely escaping extinction, apparently in just four years you can become a galaxy spanning empire in charge of the entire galaxy. Hell at least that means we don't need any themes of diplomacy with those stupid aliens right guys?
Point is I loved Halo for a very specific set of reasons, it had a funny and somewhat charming script with not particularly deep but likeable characters, a deep universe, fun shooty gameplay, nice colorful visuals, kickass music and actually challenged notions of the genre (read: All aliens NOT evil *gasp*) and since then Halo 4 feels like a determined attempt to destroy ALL of that. The mood is now grim and super serious, all the characters I like are either dead or have been pushed out of existence and the new ones are either too damn depressed or serious or fucking obnoxious (Jul Mdama being the only real exception), the music from what I've heard isn't as good and of course, the elites....
Thing is originally Halo was made by a talented team of men and women who above all else seemed like they had FUN. You see the vid-docs and the little jokes and easter eggs and how they engaged with their fanbase and you realize that while Bungie may have been under Microsoft's thumb the whole time they still had at least SOME say in their work. I still remember a quote one of them made about the Arbiter's involvement in Halo 2:
"I'd much rather experiment and do something surprising, and not have everybody appreciate it, than just turn the crank and do another alien war movie with a space marine,''
There WAS a genuine creative spark in this franchise once and it came from people wanting to try new things and above all makes fun games. 343 by contrast are a studio that SOLELY exist to create more Halo games for Microsoft. Like that is their SOLE purpose, to make Halo games as regularly as Call of Duty (there was an article about that once). Halo is now a cash cow for Microsoft more than it has ever been because that is literally all it is, the sole reason Halo as a franchise is getting a 'saga' now is because they want to pump the franchise dry and won't stop until there is absolutely no profit left to be made about it. It's trying to be call of duty, crysis and gears of war with its aesthetics because that's what's popular and it's become so commercialized with its ties to mountain dew and doritos it is actually sad.
I guess what I'm saying is Halo 4 to me looks like an early indication of what is about to become for this franchise, being the flagship for a console that originally tried to herald a new era of anti consumerist b.s and being mass produced with a new game every two years or so with spin offs on hand helds or worse. Constantly trying to change its style to emulate the other competitors and being even more shameless with its marketing campaigns and never trying anything nearly as risky or bold as the Arbiter ever again (case in point there's a new comic ostensibly ABOUT him coming out and he isn't even on the cover of it) because it's all about being marketable.
In essence I may watch this franchise deteroiate into committee approved mass produced marketable sludge way more than any of the other games could ever claim to be and the fact that this is the series I LOVED makes it hurt so much more.
Perhaps I'm jumping the gun here but with everything I've seen, I'm not convinced I'm being too pessimistic. In addition look up a recent 343 panel where they talk about the game's successes and failings and in addition to admitting they didn't do a good job explaining who the villain is they will go on to mention plans to 'appeal to a wider audience' (there's THAT damn catchphrase) and they do this by comparing an AK to a needler and pointing out that to many people the needler doesn't look like a weapon the way the AK is. The vibe I got from that panel really was 'WE WANT TO BE CALL OF DUTY'.
