haven't played it yet but... (Destiny)

by Durandal, Sunday, November 01, 2015, 12:05 (3405 days ago) @ Funkmon

I've been down on 343's story arc since halo 4, which seemed to discard all of the tone and intelligent military SF vibe for the usual hollywood stupid commanders and a villain who's motives are moronic at best. The lackluster guns in 4 didn't help, even though I felt the basic mechanics were good. So rather then preordering or anything, I figured I would check out the game after launch. I won't spoil the wikipedia synopsis of the plot, but the face heel turn in halo 5 is just mind bogglingly dumb and out of character. I may still pick it up for the larger battles with my friends, but it no longer holds the special place in my heart that Halo 1- Reach and Marathon did.

Under Bungie's care, the Halo universe had highly competent commanders and human forces that lost due to the technological and numerical superiority of the Covenant. Every success was hard fought and stolen from the jaws of defeat via cunning and heroism. The undercurrent of guilt that humanity had spent years focusing this same cunning against themselves served to highlight how in humanity's darkest hour they could pull together and show greatness.

Halo 4 drops in with grotesquely incompetent commanders, betrayal, and rank unprofessional behavior from the Spartan 4s. Top it off with the Didact who's actions are barely comprehensible, even with the big rewrite of the Halo backstory to make the Forruner jealous of humanity's magical birthright. Now Halo 5 takes one of the series best characters the villain for no reason but shock value. Halo 4's paltry plot couldn't really give the series a new galactic level threat to face, so it feels like the authors have just gone for some cheesy pro wrestling plot in Halo 5.