Kotaku: The Problem With ... *SP* (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Wednesday, November 25, 2015, 23:58 (3289 days ago) @ INSANEdrive
edited by Kermit, Thursday, November 26, 2015, 00:03

I'm posting this because I feel this is the best reasoning I have yet to see when it comes to how 343 has handled Halo. I'm posting this here because this place is where alot of the old guard HBOers (even myself - though I was more a lurker at the time) are now.

It might not be saying much, but It's the best post I have ever seen out of Kotaku. I feel It is well written, and worth a read.

So without further adue.

I don't think I could summarize it better my self.

Let's just get gameplay out of the way. I really like Halo 5 gameplay. It reminds me a lot of the best Halos--the battlespaces are huge (bigger than ever), and there are so many ways to skin a cat. I often feel like I'm figuring out a puzzle, like I have in older Halos. Weapons don't despawn as regularly as they did in H4. The sounddesgin beats Halo 4's like a drum, and the soundtrack is better, and better aligned with events.

Agree with this writer's thesis in regard to being the hero of the story. I think 343i has stumbled often in its efforts the make Halo less space opera and more hard scifi, sometimes adding dollops of ambiguity willy-nilly, because that's what makes it a complex, adult story, right? I don't think it's as bad as he makes it out to be, though. He's exactly right about the Didact, but the Chief/Cortana angle of Halo 4 was extremely compelling. He's exactly right about Locke in Halo 5, but the humanity shown by other fireteam members often during gameplay makes the game (and the story to a lesser degree) live. I enjoy playing Halo 5, even as Locke. And it's because so much of my interest in the story is personal, unlike a big chunk of Halo 4. I agree with him about Halsey in Halo 4 and Spartan Ops, but I see in Halo 5 the beginnings of a course correction.

Regarding the "massive character shift" of Cortana, I'm not so sure. In a way, I feel like Halo 5 is getting back to truly old school Halo. Perhaps I was steeped in the rampancy-centered storylines of Marathon, but I never completely trusted her after her eyes turned red way back in the Control Room, and the after-credits ending of Halo 2 always seemed a little too conspiratorial to me.

Finally, I kind of like this peace-through-fascism theme that's cropping up. Reminds me of good 60s and 70s sci fi.