Making of Halo 4: Return of the Forerunners (Vidoc)

[Korten12]

It just keeps getting better and better.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters."

Not a minute and a half after a Promethian's face mask splits open to reveal a screaming blue skull like something out of Dead Space.

I'm sorry 343, but you just aren't selling me on this. Everything I see is just making me dislike more and more. Promethians, probably not the best name to use considering how people are going to draw parallels between this and Ridley Scott's prometheus. Even if it is a reference to giving mankind intelligence, they could have used something else.

The planet looks like they watched Avatar a few too many times. And then there is the damn "escalation" that I always hate in sequels. Its like the first game, except this time there's more at stake. Why does it always have to go like this? First, it was only one Halo's destruction radius they had to worry about. Now, it's the universe! Dammit, can't we have a low key sequel for a change?

Captcha: Giant Bunny Rabbit.
Okay, now if 343 put this into their game, I would get behind it.

 

[Korten12]

"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters."

Not a minute and a half after a Promethian's face mask splits open to reveal a screaming blue skull like something out of Dead Space.

I'm sorry 343, but you just aren't selling me on this.

I think it's refering to how they aren't robots but still organic but not monsters. Essentially they're Forerunners in combat suits. Most likely the corpse of one though, and still alive through the Composer.

So not monster in the sense of the flood they probably mean.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Pause the video at 9:58, what happened to Cortanas face? I know its new developers but damn that could be a completely different person.. er A.I. whatever

 

[Vrex360]

These enemies look really cool. They could be potentially very threatening and intimidating and a real new threat for the Haloverse.

So here's my question:
[HEADING=1]WHY THE HELL ARE THE COVENANT EVEN IN THE GAME?![/HEADING]

If these new Prometheans are the real threat of Halo 4 and of the new trilogy, why even bother having the Covenant in the story at all? Or the 'Storm' whatever they call themselves. These 'Covenant loyalists' don't look like they have any major presence in the plot and frankly it just annoys me that despite everything that happened in relation to the Elites in the original trilogy, The Heretics, The Arbiter, the Great Schism, the Covenant Seperatists, the Human/Sangheili alliance, both races fighting alongside each other, Masterchief and the Arbiter displaying mutual respect, the Arbiter and Lord Hood shaking hands at the memorial and a promise of a lasting peace between the two races... then this is the only role the Elites get in Halo 4.

I know I'm sounding like a broken record here but it really is a consistent problem for me. That after all of that stuff the writer of Glasslands leapt at the earliest chance to draw a rift between the Elites and humans to make them all enemies again, rather than actually explore the idea of a lasting alliance between Elites and Humans, in the process turning the Elites into one note generic evil hideous aliens and ignoring all the effort that Bungie took to humanize them in the first place... all for the sake of them being made into a minor secondary bad guy that instantly gets overshadowed. That is shitty!

Now I'm ready to be fair and accept the possiblity that these 'Storm' Elites are only part of a small splinter faction as a result of the events of Halo: Glasslands and that the real noble Elites lead by Thel Vadam are still around and will play an important part in this 'new trilogy'. However going by what I've seen so far, I would be wise not to be too optimistic. The Elites have been redesigned to be hideous, they don't appear to speak english anymore and so far there is very little acknowledgement, if any, that the Elites and the Humans have been known to work together.

I get that there will still be racial tensions between the humans and the Sangheili, I get that there could be factions within the Elites that want to go to war with humans and I get that shady human ONI members (who need their asses kicked right the hell off their bodies) might try to take advantage of that for their own means. However I can equally see valid reasons why both sides might not want to fight anymore, might decide to work together for a better future and might eventually become part of a united force. (It would take time, granted, but Lord Hood and Thel Vadam seemed determined to try and make it happen.)

I'm just annoyed that when presented with the oppurtunity to really flesh out the now complex relationship with the two former enemies, 343 just opted to throw the whole thing down the toilet and go right back to 'they iz now enemies and evul alienzx again, bang bang shoot!' Like I said I am open to the possibilty that this might not be true, we might see Thel Vadam and his followers return as allies (and god willing the Elites in multiplayer), the questionable actions of ONI actually challenged by the characters instead of ignored or even celebrated and ultimatley the two bad factions of humanity and the elites respectively get crushed (Maybe these Storm guys are actually mutated 'evil' variants of the Elites and other races, at least that's the best explanation for their appearances) and a new society proper can be forged.

But until I see that happen, I can't be happy with the direction Halo is going. I just can't. The Elites and by extention the humanization of the Covenant was one of the few things that made Halo genuienly unique, not a lot of other sci fi shooters actually make you play through the perspective of their alien race, nor ally with them. That's why I'm so annoyed to see the only representation the Elites have gotten so far to just be generic evil aliens, especially not when the reason all this seems to be being ignored is just for the sake of something so petty as a secondary bad guy when we already have the real bad guy waiting in the wing.

I will reserve judgement, I admit the new enemies look cool and there is still a lot of potential and story elements we haven't seen yet. I will however still express my concerns nonetheless. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe 5 and 6 will bring Thel Vadam and the noble Sangheili back with righteous fury and I'll be playing as an Elite in multiplayer with pride or maybe the Arbiter will be covertly killed off in a novel and the story will make it so that ALL elites are evil and therefore ALL elites must die at the hands of our SUPER AWEOMSE SPARTANS!!!111!11!11!1

If the former, I'll take it all back and love this series (which apart from that big bloated complaint of mine is looking very interesting, I admit) if the latter I will throw my Xbox, my controllers and my game collection out the window and never look back.

 

[Vrex360]

Pause the video at 9:58, what happened to Cortanas face? I know its new developers but damn that could be a completely different person.. er A.I. whatever

You think that's wierd.

Dude have you seen what the Covenant races look like now?

Aesthetic changes are one thing but the changes these 'Storm Covenant' have undergone is nuts. I just think 343's art team could use a little restraint.

 

[Korten12]

Pause the video at 9:58, what happened to Cortanas face? I know its new developers but damn that could be a completely different person.. er A.I. whatever

You think that's wierd.

Dude have you seen what the Covenant races look like now?

Aesthetic changes are one thing but the changes these 'Storm Covenant' have undergone is nuts. I just think 343's art team could use a little restraint.

They probably didn't want them to look exactly the same. Each game the covenant has changed bit by bit. This jump is just larger because the engine is a lot more powerful.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Snip

To be fair to Karen Traviss, the writer of Glasslands, when you are writing Franchise Fiction, you don't often get to choose everything you want to write. She got her Star Wars novel career fucked over by Del Ray because they told her that unless she made radical changes to her stories, they would be incompatible with new canon regarding the mandalorians.

The way Halo's Expanded Universe is set up, I think she didn't really have much of a choice. Look at Glasslands and look at Halo 4. My bet is she was given a checklist of "stuff that needs to happen" in order to make sure people who actually buy the book beforehand aren't suddenly confused why the Covvies are evil again.

I bet that she was told that the Covenant had to become bad guys again in order to justify their presence in Halo 4. She was told what needed to happen and then was given control of how it came about.

Sometimes writing for other people sucks.

 

[Korten12]

Snip

To be fair to Karen Traviss, the writer of Glasslands, when you are writing Franchise Fiction, you don't often get to choose everything you want to write. She got her Star Wars novel career fucked over by Del Ray because they told her that unless she made radical changes to her stories, they would be incompatible with new canon regarding the mandalorians.

The way Halo's Expanded Universe is set up, I think she didn't really have much of a choice. Look at Glasslands and look at Halo 4. My bet is she was given a checklist of "stuff that needs to happen" in order to make sure people who actually buy the book beforehand aren't suddenly confused why the Covvies are evil again.

I bet that she was told that the Covenant had to become bad guys again in order to justify their presence in Halo 4. She was told what needed to happen and then was given control of how it came about.

Sometimes writing for other people sucks.

Exactly, they don't have unlimited freedom of choice. Also, it's interesting that in the book the 'evil' so to speak Elites are called "The Servants of Abiding Truth" but these ones in Halo 4 are called: "The Storm."

I wonder if there is any relation, probably find out next month in: The Thursday War which from my understanding leads directly into Halo 4. Which makes me wonder when the third novel will take place.

 

[skywolfblue]

I hope there's more then just the 3 enemy types they showed in that video...

The prometheans look... spindly... to me. Like birds feet. It's not overtly bad, just not particularly "imposing".

 

[Araqiel]

I hope there's more then just the 3 enemy types they showed in that video...

The prometheans look... spindly... to me. Like birds feet. It's not overtly bad, just not particularly "imposing".

From what I can remember from Cryptum the Promethean was like a monster with telekinetic abilities and was the last of his kind. These look nothing like that. Plus indeed for a race that came before the ones that came before ( forerunners) they seem awfully fragile...

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Epic snip

Legit complaints, though I'm more concerned about the deal with the Forerunners.

I mean, the whole point of these guys, like just about every alien precursor race in fiction, is that they themselves aren't around anymore, they themselves are kept all mysterious and ambiguous and stuff. Once you actually show them, hell, make them the primary antagonists in this thing, all of that intrigue pretty much immediately falls apart. From a lore/story perspective, these guys kinda feel like a kick in the balls.
After I end up finishing this thing, having mowed down hundreds of these 'great and noble' Forerunner Promethean Whatevers, I don't think I'll be able to go through the spooky, lifeless and utterly alien Forerunner structures and locales of the main trilogy with any of the same awe I had when I first went through them the previous times.


They and their guns do look damn cool though, if a little...out there.
Meh, maybe that's what matters most in this series anyway. Bring out the MP.

 

[Vrex360]

Snip

To be fair to Karen Traviss, the writer of Glasslands, when you are writing Franchise Fiction, you don't often get to choose everything you want to write. She got her Star Wars novel career fucked over by Del Ray because they told her that unless she made radical changes to her stories, they would be incompatible with new canon regarding the mandalorians.

The way Halo's Expanded Universe is set up, I think she didn't really have much of a choice. Look at Glasslands and look at Halo 4. My bet is she was given a checklist of "stuff that needs to happen" in order to make sure people who actually buy the book beforehand aren't suddenly confused why the Covvies are evil again.

That's true, fair enough. I guess I can't blame her for what was written in Glasslands but I do feel compelled to complain to the people who made her write it like that. I'll accept that Miss (Mrs?) Traviss was just doing her job and following instructions from the higher ups, but the 'higher ups' who gave her those instructions I will criticize until the cows come home for all the previously mentioned reasons.

I bet that she was told that the Covenant had to become bad guys again in order to justify their presence in Halo 4. She was told what needed to happen and then was given control of how it came about.

And to be fair to her I did actually like some elements of it.

Spoiler

I liked that it was still clear that Thel Vadam had a huge amount of supporters and that Lord Hood was genuine in his interests of peace and that it was just small factions within each groups who were in the wrong.
I especially liked the idea that the 'evil' Elites from the Servants of the Abiding Truth were actually being manipulated by the bastards at ONI. I'd really like to see that get recognition at some point in this proffessed 'new trilogy'.

Hell it's actually kind of topical too, it reminds me a bit of the illegal weapon trades and of course the Iran/Contra affair headed by Oliver North, in which the American government discreetly gave huge profits to a dangerous and antagonistic revolutionary group for their own benefits. If nothing else it is certainly a shift from the usual 'OMG HUMANS SO AWESOME' that a lot of other sci fi shooters do.

I mean if done right and acknowledged properly, all of these plot threads could lead to very interesting places and there is still potential for the Elites and humans to still be allies and I especially like that it's not an unambiguous one sided thing like in the past.
I just worry that all the depth, political corruption and civil war will take a backseat to 'OMG SPARTANS ARE SO AWESOME!!'

Sometimes writing for other people sucks.

Most certainly.

They probably didn't want them to look exactly the same. Each game the covenant has changed bit by bit. This jump is just larger because the engine is a lot more powerful.

I understand that, I accept the idea that some aesthetic changes will happen but this is too much. At the very least the basic shape of the Covenant races should be clear, this doesn't look anything like the Covenant.
The first time I ever saw one of these 'Storm' Grunts was in a game store where I saw all the action figures for all these different game characters and as I was looking I saw something and thought:
"Oh hey, what's that thing? I guess it might be a new kind of Locust from that new Gears of War game or maybe something from Starcraft..."
*reads box*
"Covenant Grunt?!! Fuck off!"

That's the one thing I accept from Halo, they vary in shape and size and armor types but at the very least I can always recognize the Covenant races just by sight alone. I also don't like the way the Covenant seem to be leaning into the same 'Locust/Ceph/Zerg/a billion other evil aliens' model of hideous and monstrous aliens. The Covenant were defined by being based on a variety of different animal species and being quite colourful and vibrant and stylish. These Covenant just don't 'feel' very Covenanty to me and I get that they are a Splinter group of core fanatics and don't have the resources of the Covenant Empire's former greatness but they sure have evolved in a wierd way.

I admit however the Sangheili Zealot armor looks awesome. Man I'd love to deck my multiplayer elite out with tha-

- Oh yeah... that's right.

snip

That's another thing too. Part of what made the Forerunner's so intriguing was that they were totally unknown and mysterious. I wonder if exploring the how's and whats of the Forerunners by making them the primary antagonist might ruin that effect in the original trilogy.

 

[Korten12]

I hope there's more then just the 3 enemy types they showed in that video...

The prometheans look... spindly... to me. Like birds feet. It's not overtly bad, just not particularly "imposing".

From what I can remember from Cryptum the Promethean was like a monster with telekinetic abilities and was the last of his kind. These look nothing like that. Plus indeed for a race that came before the ones that came before ( forerunners) they seem awfully fragile...

Prometheans were a warrior-servant class of Forerunners, for which the Didact was the commander of. It's highly hinted that the Prometheans we see in Halo 4 are composed dead or dying Prometheans. Since the Prometheans that fought up to the activation of the rings were living breathing Forerunners.

No idea about the telkensis part though.

Also I think you're thinking of the Precursors which came before the Forerunners, which the look of them hasn't been revealed yet.

Epic snip

Legit complaints, though I'm more concerned about the deal with the Forerunners.

I mean, the whole point of these guys, like just about every alien precursor race in fiction, is that they themselves aren't around anymore, they themselves are kept all mysterious and ambiguous and stuff. Once you actually show them, hell, make them the primary antagonists in this thing, all of that intrigue pretty much immediately falls apart. From a lore/story perspective, these guys kinda feel like a kick in the balls.
After I end up finishing this thing, having mowed down hundreds of these 'great and noble' Forerunner Promethean Whatevers, I don't think I'll be able to go through the spooky, lifeless and utterly alien Forerunner structures and locales of the main trilogy with any of the same awe I had when I first went through them the previous times.


They and their guns do look damn cool though, if a little...out there.
Meh, maybe that's what matters most in this series anyway. Bring out the MP.

That's another thing too. Part of what made the Forerunner's so intriguing was that they were totally unknown and mysterious. I wonder if exploring the how's and whats of the Forerunners by making them the primary antagonist might ruin that effect in the original trilogy.

Well we have had two books that take place around the time of the Forerunners, so we know a lot about them already.

The reason why the last book: Silentium of the Forerunner saga is coming out after Halo 4 is because it will spoil half of the stuff in Halo 4.

And on the mystery part... It's all about the Precursors now.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I just realized something. Prometheans, Prometheus, Protheans. We've had a lot of Ancient Alien progenitors this year haven't we? And the Prometheans have the same caste system as the Protheans, with the last of their Warrior Caste awakening in modern day.

 

[Korten12]

I just realized something. Prometheans, Prometheus, Protheans. We've had a lot of Ancient Alien progenitors this year haven't we? And the Prometheans have the same caste system as the Protheans, with the last of their Warrior Caste awakening in modern day.

Maybe it's a new trend?

 

[Erttheking]

I just realized something. Prometheans, Prometheus, Protheans. We've had a lot of Ancient Alien progenitors this year haven't we? And the Prometheans have the same caste system as the Protheans, with the last of their Warrior Caste awakening in modern day.

Well the Prometheans were more servants to the Forerunners than the real precursors, so it's not quite the same. It'd be more like the Prometheans had the same position as the Prothean's servants.

Edit: I think it looks just fine. Nice to see Forerunner enemies besides the freaking Sentinels.

 

[Erttheking]

Epic snip

Legit complaints, though I'm more concerned about the deal with the Forerunners.

I mean, the whole point of these guys, like just about every alien precursor race in fiction, is that they themselves aren't around anymore, they themselves are kept all mysterious and ambiguous and stuff. Once you actually show them, hell, make them the primary antagonists in this thing, all of that intrigue pretty much immediately falls apart. From a lore/story perspective, these guys kinda feel like a kick in the balls.
After I end up finishing this thing, having mowed down hundreds of these 'great and noble' Forerunner Promethean Whatevers, I don't think I'll be able to go through the spooky, lifeless and utterly alien Forerunner structures and locales of the main trilogy with any of the same awe I had when I first went through them the previous times.


They and their guns do look damn cool though, if a little...out there.
Meh, maybe that's what matters most in this series anyway. Bring out the MP.

The Promtethans aren't actually Forerunners, they're more servants. They're a lot like sentinels and Guilty Spark, just more deadly in combat. So yeah, no Forerunners, just more of their toys. Diadect though, he IS a Forerunner...I think. YMMV

 

[Bvenged]

"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters."

Not a minute and a half after a Promethian's face mask splits open to reveal a screaming blue skull like something out of Dead Space.

I'm sorry 343, but you just aren't selling me on this. Everything I see is just making me dislike more and more. Promethians, probably not the best name to use considering how people are going to draw parallels between this and Ridley Scott's prometheus. Even if it is a reference to giving mankind intelligence, they could have used something else.

The planet looks like they watched Avatar a few too many times. And then there is the damn "escalation" that I always hate in sequels. Its like the first game, except this time there's more at stake. Why does it always have to go like this? First, it was only one Halo's destruction radius they had to worry about. Now, it's the universe! Dammit, can't we have a low key sequel for a change?

I don't want to be a defending fanboy, but the "promethean" name has been going since Halo 1, over a decade ago, the planet is inside a shell, with similar ecosystems to the rings which look nothing like the avatar planet, and while they are doing the classic clichéd sequel up-scaling, the storytelling looks to be a lot more detailed and complex and engaging than the previous trilogy.

I can't wait to play it, they've done all they need to for setting up a new trilogy of sequels. any more change and it's not a Halo game, any less and there's not enough change to call it a new trilogy. I have been burned by hype in the past but I am intrigued with teh direction they're taking this franchise.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters."

Not a minute and a half after a Promethian's face mask splits open to reveal a screaming blue skull like something out of Dead Space.

I'm sorry 343, but you just aren't selling me on this. Everything I see is just making me dislike more and more. Promethians, probably not the best name to use considering how people are going to draw parallels between this and Ridley Scott's prometheus. Even if it is a reference to giving mankind intelligence, they could have used something else.

The planet looks like they watched Avatar a few too many times. And then there is the damn "escalation" that I always hate in sequels. Its like the first game, except this time there's more at stake. Why does it always have to go like this? First, it was only one Halo's destruction radius they had to worry about. Now, it's the universe! Dammit, can't we have a low key sequel for a change?

I don't want to be a defending fanboy, but the "promethean" name has been going since Halo 1, over a decade ago, the planet is inside a shell, with similar ecosystems to the rings which look nothing like the avatar planet, and while they are doing the classic clichéd sequel up-scaling, the storytelling looks to be a lot more detailed and complex and engaging than the previous trilogy.

I can't wait to play it, they've done all they need to for setting up a new trilogy of sequels. any more change and it's not a Halo game, any less and there's not enough change to call it a new trilogy. I have been burned by hype in the past but I am intrigued with teh direction they're taking this franchise.

I'm sorry, all I got out of that was "I can wait to play this game and since you badmouthed it I felt compelled to quote you to tell you how much I disagree and how you are wrong about this."