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Now that you have done Halo 4, there was a whole separate story called Spartan Ops complete with its own cutscenes that takes place after the campaign.
If you plan on covering halo 5 and infinite I highly recommend the books cause 343 has made the novels 10/10 with lore and pieces that make the next games make sense
The part where Cheif doesn't give Del Rio Cortana's chip hits harder when you learn that it's the first time in his entire life he disobeys a direct order.
@@kaizammit From the games and the books ive read and played...yeah i think this is the first time he "Puts his foot down". Gotta remember indoctrinated since a child to be a good soldier and good soldiers follow orders.
@@andylastname566 the best part is its a heavy god damn foot, both literally and also metaphorically with his his reputation where theres probably no one on that ship that would want to actually agree to an order to arrest him let alone actually attempt it.
@@kaizammit The other thing that makes it interesting, isn't that del rio actually outranks him, it's because by technicality, "While aboard naval vessels, Spartans report directly to the ship's captain in all matters relating to the safety and security on-board the ship - superseding all other responsibilities and orders. In all other cases, the Spartan Commander has operational control of Spartan personnel, and Spartans cannot give or be given orders to/from Navy or ONI personnel. Spartans are, however, encouraged to accommodate reasonable requests when they do not violate existing orders or the Spartan Code" -Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, page 140-141 So, Del Rio couldn't actually give the Master Chief orders in any capacity, and the master chief couldn't give orders to anyone outside of spartan forces, hence why spartan teams existed, like red and blue team and they were fully comprised of Spartans. So, even if Del Rio outranks Master Chief, John-117, he still cannot give him orders because of how Spartans are regulated. Most of the time it's just in the Spartans best interest to follow orders and comply with requests. (It's also why the lieutenant doesn't do anything either.)
I can honestly understand why, these two became fast friends when they finally got to meet (not hard to believe, Steve's a sweetheart and Jen's got that 'you're gonna be my friend even if you don't think you will' personality). So the fact that their characters got to really bleed the emotion to one another is their favorite of the games, isn't surprising. If what was said was true about Steve and Jen having to reaudition for their roles, then man, 4 could have been a disaster.
Makes sense. They get to go back and forth a bit more in this one during the gameplay, versus only in the cutscenes. You can interpret it as an attempt by Chief to be a bit more social. It also gives more life and weight to their relationship. Focus, with a bit of levity mixed in at just the right time.
@@agentmaryland1239 I'm surprised I just found out about this. The fact they had to reaudition for their roles is one of many nails in the coffin that display how arrogant 343i are/were about destroying the Halo franchise in the name of making it their own
little tidbit, when chief stabs into the hull of the lich with his knife, theres actually a lore explanation for that. spartans carry specially made combat knives that are too heavy for regular soldiers, and absolutely massive at 14 inches, made of the same titanium composite material as their armor.
So many people forget about that fact or just don't realize it. Spartans are so much bigger than normal militia, the fact they can even share weaponry is really just down to gameplay mechanics, because I feel like they would either have to make all weapons comically big to the point they're near unwieldy to the average Marine, Spartans would have to be super careful and adapt to using smaller tech, or Spartans would only be able to use weaponry specifically made for them (with the exception of weapons used by Elites and Brutes because they are bigger than Spartans). The standard is a 7.9 inch blade, so the M11 is damn near twice the length of a normal combat knife. That's incredibly intimidating. That's longer than a typical machete.
Also, it's a shame the gameplay had the HUD turned off, i want to think he did that for cinematic effect, but the HUD actually shows signs of Cortana's rampancy in form of static and color distortion throughout the campaign.
For the del rio part, he was stripped off his status as captain of infinity after lasky reported him for mistreating chief and also leaving him alone behind enemy lines. Since Chief is THE hero, UNSC and Fleetcom unanimously decided to remove del rio.
1:11:17 interesting tidbit, HALO 4's creative director was taking care of his elderly mother during the development process. her dementia diagnosis and the struggles he faced dealing with that inspired Cortana's Rampancy subplot.
There's something that flies under the radar with the final Chief & Cortana scene. After Cortana says "Welcome home, John", we see the background behind Chief crumble. We know that the Didact's ship is blowing up in that moment, but there's also symbolism/hidden meaning in it as well. Chief is losing Cortana; his world is crumbling and falling apart around him. It makes this scene hit even harder knowing this.
It's also worth remembering a lore detail here: MUOLNIR uses its neural link with the Spartan wearing it to increase their reaction speed by letting the armor itself know what their brain is trying to make their body do. When one is on board, an AI residing in the armor's system can make use of this same connection to feed information directly to them. Cortana and Chief had worked together for so long and he'd gotten so used to having that connection that after she's gone, he really is lost. For all intents and purposes, she was both a companion and a part of him that's suddenly gone.
I just realized that when Cortana is talking about hearing the scientists, she means the data that they were turned to. Pretty crazy now that I’m thinking about it.
yea some romantic tones between chief & cortana, some mortality nuance connected to Cortana even tho she is ai and that sort of life/ stability slipping though your fingers. So many feels
IMO while halo 1, 2 & 3 are great games all around, 343 games are really great but just at one thing, and is weirdly something different every time. Halo 4 - Story Halo 5 - Multiplayer Halo Infinite - Gameplay mechanics If only they could nail all those things in a single game.
@BernardoPC117 Halo 4 had a great campaign, but terrible multiplayer. So, for Halo 5, they gave us imo the best multiplayer in the franchise. But in return, the worst campaign (i personally still liked it tho). Because of their performances with Halo 4 and 5, 343 were backed into a corner by the community. As a result they played it safe with Infinite. Instead of putting 100% into campaign or multiplayer, they chose to give one final effort and put 50% into both. Unfortunately, seeing as Halo's 20th anniversary was coming up quickly, Microsoft thought it'd be a good idea to release it early. Only problem tho, was the game wasn't quite finished... did they care tho? of course not. And the rest, is history...
I actually love Halo 4 and what they did with it, campaign wise. Didn't get into the multiplayer with this one, which is weird for me for Halo, but it just didn't feel like the previous games. But the emotions they brought out in Halo 4 were great. It's the first time the voice actors for Cortana and Master Chief were in the same room together recording their lines. Also, I think it's the first time they may have met possibly LOL. But I think that's one of the reasons why their chemistry felt so good.
@@Crazyguy_123MC yeah I agree. I think most people have come around and appreciate it for the story it told, which was really overall very good and emotional
Always preferred it this way, made way more sense to me But I’ve also been reading the books since I was as kid, and that was the lore originally (FoR shows all Spartans in the same armour on its cover)
@@michaelhuie5878 it also made way more sense for a military You’ve already got to have unique logistics for these ~35 badass super soldiers, why in gods green earth would you complicate it by GIVING THEM ALL THEIR OWN ARMOUR You’ve upped your need for spares exponentially, even if core components are interchangeable
The issue people have with that scene is that they were all wearing Chiefs modern nanobot modified MK VI armor, which I assume was budget issues. But they should be wearing pre Halo CE MK V or whatever the Halo Wars armor was.
@@bigdoubleu117 timeline wise it probably should've been MKIV, but then they couldn't have the shields flare when they got hit, because the only spartans that had shields in the early war was Halo Wars' Red and Omega teams who were field testing them on MKIV. Other than them, no one else got shields until the MKV was produced near the end of the war.
Halo 4's story is so perfectly personal for Chief and Cortana and really was a wonderful experience both cinematically and narratively. It always makes me happy to see people explore the depths of Halo's best story beats and appreciate them the way you do!
To this day we still have no clue what the Librarian did to him. She said that she encrypted an immunity to the Composer into the evolutionary journey of humanity, but she accelerated his path to that immunity. So it could have done any number of things. The only ability we're certain of him gaining from the evolution is in Shadows of Reach the book. Also, rewatching this with your reaction shows me just how deeply they've dove into Chief's character in this game. Chief's apology to Dr. Tillson sounds so genuine and you just never expect a Spartan of all people to say 'I'm sorry' with such sincerity. Like, he's just doing his job, and he's never sorry about that, but the fact that he's basically about to destroy their life's work, undoing all of it and he sees how upset it's made her, and he feels sorry about it, despite there is no other choice. The Didact isn't evil for the sake of being evil...but 343 made the terrible mistake of abandoning the Didact way too soon. His backstory is all in the novels, even the conclusion to his story.
Yea the fact the Didacts' origin and ending are both outside this game was a poor choice; Halo 4 has a lot of emotion to its story but in that regard it feels pretty cheap
I think it can be inferred that Chief is the reincarnation of the Iso-Didact (not the Ur-Didact encountered in the game). In Halo CE Spark quotes the Iso-Didact when speaking to Chief: "The last time, you asked me, If it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice, we must activate the ring." Spark immediately recognizes Chief as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting. Probably out of confusion due to rampancy, but Chief' Geas could very well have played a part in that.
I love the scene after Cortana says goodbye. You see debris falling all around Chief. That to me is meant to symbolize his world crashing down around him. Cortana was his responsibility and he feels like he failed to protect her. He feels like he failed Cortana and he feels like he failed Johnson. He made a promise to Johnson to never let Cortana go and he promised Cortana he would bring her home.
Imma try to provide brief context to the lore dump the librarian dropped halfway through the game, but it's alot. so here we go. 100k years ago, Humanity was a high tech galaxy spanning empire which was competing with the Forerunners for the title "The mantle of responsiblity" (Going forwards, just going to call it the mantle) aka, the guardian of all living things within the universe. This title was created and maintained by the Precursors, a super advanced race of pacifists, they pick humanity to hold the Mantle, forerunners get pissed and murder almost all the precursors, the Precursors that go into hiding eventually deform and corrupt themselves into the flood unintentionally. Eventually, the flood emerged within human space and starting consuming their empire inside out. So humanity fled through forerunner space, burning any forerunner worlds they found infected with the flood. The forerunners were unaware of the flood so saw these actions as an act of war. So begins the human/forerunner war. Humans lost the war, getting devolved back to the stone age on some planet called Earth by the forerunners. But the flood still remains and the forerunners are no match for them. The didact creates the composer, a weapon that turns people into AI, the victims losing their sanity and personalities. So he used it on humanity to make an army against the flood, as he really didn't want to fire the halo rings and he hated humans for their apparent immunity to the flood among other things. After the halos were fired and the sentinels reseeded life ontop the now dead planets, the librarian left in some cheat codes in the human dna which culminates in Halsey creating spartans, Ai, Master chief, in which she also imbues him with super powers which you'll never hear of again. Just a big plot contrivance to turn master chief into a Chosen One character. The whole Forerunner/Flood war lore gets told in a trilogy of books and goes over alot, that one cutscene is all you hear of it in the games, which leaves most casual fans confused.
That breakdown is 100% correct. However yeah Chief being the unique outlier when the librarian coded it into all humans DNA is odd. 343 certainly puts an emphasis on Chief when he really was a small part in a much larger war. I can forgive them though concerning how much they have blown up the extended universe
Jen Taylor Seriously came through with making Cortana more than just a static, lifeless AI character. You actually feel the urgency of getting her to Halsey almost as if you were trying to rush your best friend to the emergency room.
Worth mentioning, pretty much all the scenes where you mentioned the camera or motions didn't feel very cinematic, those were either playable cutscenes, or actual gameplay during which important visuals and dialogue occur. They feel clunky here due to the nature of the compilation, but during gameplay you don't really notice the seams because you're still in the gameplay state, and being in control of the camera yourself makes up for the less-flashy visuals with a sense of agency and active participation in a big story moment.
From a narrative perspective, it makes sense that the new villains were the Forerunners. The Human Covenant war is over at this point and all that's left are factions of Covenant loyal to the cause, and those allying with the Forerunners. And after so many Bungie games fighting the Covenant, I think the change makes sense, even though they were annoying to fight on Legendary difficulty. The Halo 4 story is actually very good. Getting to Chief's personality feels earned after so many games.
it's completely obnoxious, just as 343's sound design always is. Bungie's games usually always had a certain subtlety that was lossed in subsequent titles
It was indeed a 360 game. It came out my first year of college as well, maybe second, and it just boggles my mind that the game looked as good as it did, being on the same console that produced Halo 3.
I still love to hate Del Rio, they did such a great job of showing a military head that cares for his people but is strictly "by the books" and must have his orders followed which does not fly with John's uh... let's say adaptability to situations. Also, that scene of poor Dr. Tillson being hit by The Composer might be one of the most unintentionally horrific things they've shown in the Halo series and is the scene I always recall to mind when thinking of H4
Halo 4 has a pretty good campaign. The only problems with it are the art direction and the fact that the Didact storyline gets resolved later in comics and novels... rather than in-game... in a video game franchise... The Halo 4 Spartan Ops cutscenes are worth reacting to as well.
@@kaizammit Spartan Ops is basically a 2nd campaign that is taking place in the background during Halo 4 main story. It follows a squad of new generation Spartans known as Fireteam Crimson.
@@bloodwolfgaming9269 Not during the main campaign...Spartan Ops takes place about half a year after. It's also what introduces Jul 'Mdama as the leader of the Covenant faction in 4. Though doing a lore dump comment on him can wait for the Spartan Ops or 5 reaction...whichever comes first. Also sorry for the 'well actually'...
Those same novels and comics that.. (SPOILER ALERT) ..kill off Spartan Black Team off screen for no fucking reason other than to show off the power of the Didact.. who was still alive for.. reasons? There is a reason I stopped reading the books after 343 had fully taken over in every way. Getting Karen Traviss (an incompetent writer who is hated by fans of basically every series she has ever written for) to write one of the mainline books and take over Nylund's plot was the last nail in the fucking coffin on that front. And of course she spent that entire book vilifiying Halsey to an absolutely hysterical degree and twisting as many plot points and changing personalities of whoever she needed to to make it happen.
For the scene where the captain wants to arrest the Chief, a Halo RUclipsr made a super funny animation called "Master Chief vs Captain Del Rio But Its Lore Accurate". I think you'd love it, it's one minute long. You don't need to react to it but enjoy it on your own time.
Honestly the Diadact is my favorite Halo villain he’s such a tragedy. None of what he did was of his own right mind and his own experiments and hatred for humanity during the Forerunner Human War corrupted him. P.S the reason he got blasted and fell was cuz right before he grabbed Chief, Chief stuck a grenade to him. You could see him holding it.
I think when he said the Didact falling off the bridge was anticlimactic, is because he goes from trying to force crush Chief to just spilling off the bridge. Chief is the one who's wounded, the Didact is fully recovered from his time in meditation in the Cryptum. The Didact should have put up so much more of a fight than what we ended up with. I know that he had a wound on his chest from the Terminals, but still, he fell so easily in his armor. If we had knocked off his chestplate, I'd be more forgiving.
@@TheKrazyguy75 Have you read his recent books? They may not be the games but they for sure make him a compelling villain in modern day cuz it’s after he dies and his consciousness is one with the Matrix.
@@agentmaryland1239 I don’t disagree but from the video it seemed like he just missed the attack. However, I do agree I love Halo 4 for its story but the gameplay wasn’t the best.
Throughout the game, there were terminals and if I recall was dialogue that would somewhat explain the stories. As far as the Forerunners go, they basically were the beginning of the entire Halo story. You can hate the Forerunners all you want, I hated them too, but they are important. This is the story as follows and their role: Before the Forerunners existed, the precursors who are basically gods, was a civilization that had reached the theoretical ceiling of technological advancements. They created all of life and one of them included the Forerunners. They wanted them to be the protectors of the galaxy, hence gave them the title "The Mantle of Responsibility," but they wanted just more than that. They wanted to be as advanced as the precursors and launched a war with them, nearing extinction of those precursors. The dust that the precursors turned into, eventually transformed into the Flood and then ensued a war with the Forerunners. They didn't know how to combat them, so the Forerunners made rings to eliminate all life, getting rid of the Flood. The covenant eventually forms and the story of Halo: Reach, Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4 take place respectively. Come Halo 4, Master Chief was in cryosleep drifting in space and randomly comes across a Forerunner planet. In return, this would eventually bring the Forerunners back to life. Then the events of Halo 5 and Halo: Infinite take place. So yeah they are pretty important in that aspect and they are "too science fiction" because of the technological advancements they received. That's more-or-less why I wanted to comment because while they do seem like it, it's the way they are. I love them and hate them at the same time. You should react to Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: Infinite, all cutscenes. Would catch you up!
So happy to see you finally do Halo 4. It has to be hands down my favourite Halo game, mainly due to the story, music, and thw Chief/Cortana interactions. There's a lot they did well in 4, but there's just as much they did wrong with the game. I must be in a minority that I really enjoyed the new art style, and the Promethean/Didacts stories, though this is probably because I also read the Forerunner trilogy books. The Prometheans and story weren't overly well received with a lot of it due to gameplay stuff and the fact the overall story relied more on external game lore. 343 did eventually course correct a lot of stuff with Infinite, as it's a soft reboot, but I'm sad that they kinda abandoned a lot of the new story threads they started, as I would've loved to see how the story would've developed from 4 after if they hadn't course correct so hard, but at least we got an end to the Didacts story in an amazing book!
4:00 The young boy with orange hair and blue eyes was indeed John-117. His physical appearance as a child and pre-augmentation is well known. Pale white skin, orange hair, freckles, buck teeth, and blue eyes. 5:05 Yes, very much so. While Halsey considers all the SPARTAN-IIs to be her "children," John-117 is the *only* one she probably thinks of as though he were her legit son. 6:00 The last events of Halo 3 (the Battle of Installation 00) took place on December 11, 2552. Halo 4 begins on July 21, 2557, roughly five and a half years later. 6:55 Cortana actually first displayed symptoms of rampancy in Halo 3 when John retrieved her from High Charity. Cortana was "born" November 7, 2549, and met John-117 on September 19, 1552, making her nearly three-years-old (of a Smart AI's seven-year lifespan). However, the immense strain of absorbing the Index from Installation 04 accelerated her deterioration, reducing her lifespan by around half (which is why she began going rampant while John was in cryo). 7:50 As you see, Cortana explains that she upgraded the armor. In Halo 2 and 3, John had MJOLNIR [GEN1] Mark VI armor. In Halo 4, it is now MJOLNIR [GEN1] Mark VI/MOD. 8:55 In the X-BOX 360 version of the game, you can actually see Halo 4: Limited Edition boxes scattered around the starting area. 9:45 Well... MJOLNIR armor does weigh around 450kgs/1000lbs. 11:35 No. The end of Halo 3 did not show this dyson sphere-covered planet (Requiem). It only showed the back half of the Forward Unto Dawn floating in space with John and Cortana still alive. 30:20 Those are SPARTAN-IVs (summary of the SPARTAN projects below) 47:10 In the books that connect directly to Halo 4, it explains that Captain Del Rio's actions here DESTROYED his career. In short, after Halo 4, Captain Andrew Del Rio was summoned back to FLEETCOM at the UNSC HQ on Earth in Sydney, Australia. There, he stood before the entire UNSC High Command Security Council and got his ass handed to him on a silver platter while basically being laughed by everyone into oblivion for being so stupid as to not only get in Master Chief's way, but try and arrest him while he was actively saving humanity from extinction (for at least the fourth time in the last 10 years). Ultimately, Del Rio was officially parked behind a desk on Earth and placed on a nice, long "vacation" (and seemingly forced to "resign"). And naturally, as disgraced military officers do, he became a senator. 58:20 In these rare, human moments, John is always of few words and straight to the point. That "Next time" said so much with so little. 1:03:15 "That's not going to happen" (literally happens two games later). 1:21:30 Lasky is a UNSC Navy Commander (O-5), and John is a UNSC Marine Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9). 1:24:00 So... 343 Industries (aka. 343i) was created by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 amid concerns that Halo was a waning franchise and needed a new developer to keep it going, so they created 343i (named for the character, 343 Guilty Spark), which is comprised of many former Bungie Studios developers from the original Halo games. However, most of the original developers were gone by the time Halo 5 was in development. *SPARTAN-I's (aka. Project ORION)* Adult Marines experimented on in an attempt to create super-soldiers. Project was a near complete failure, save for no more than a few partial successes (such as Sgt. Johnson). *SPARTAN-IIs (aka. Project ORION-II)* Children, aged six to seven-years-old, targeted for desirable genetic compatibility with augmentation, abducted, indoctrinated, trained, and augmented into super-soldiers. Later enhanced with MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor. *SPARTAN-III's* The first generation of SPARTANS that Halsey wasn't involved with. Children, typically vengeful war orphans, conscripted into service, given inferior (but equally more successful) augmentations and inferior armor. Intended to be "mass-produced" SPARTANS to be sent on suicide missions. Where SPARTAN-IIs were basically the UNSC and Halsey's "children," the SPARTAN-III's belonged to ONI. *SPARTAN-IVs* Adult, already experienced and decorated Marines recruited (not forced/conscripted, as before) into a "more ethical" SPARTAN program. Resulting SPARTANS were FAR less efficient and obedient (due to lack of indoctrination and training from childhood), were given far less effective augmentation (even less so than the SPARTAN-III's received), and much more high-tech (but less durable) armor. Halsey thinks of these SPARTANs as a mockery of her work.
4:04 they're all in the same armor because this is the first armor that they've worn in the spartan project. It wasn't a thing to make spartan armor unique to every spartan yet. In the books its even poked fun at because the Spartans couldn't tell each other apart, but Halsey could just by how they walked.
@@HiIeric117 Nah, Number Company changed the entire artstyle. Nano machines excuse doesn't make sense. Chief should have worn the og armor and in H5 he should have worn the MP Mark VI GEN2. I hate this "Mod" trashcan so much. This is the main reason why I can't touch this Campaign.
The ending with Cortana touching Chief was really clever but not made clear how she did it. Cortana was in the system and when she and Chief fought the Didact, they were on a hard light bridge. When she created the construct to protect Chief from the nuke explosion she made it from hard light. When she touched him, she formed herself using hard light so she had a physical presence, just enough to touch him for the first time. She spent years with Chief but she was never able to physically touch him until that moment before she died
If you are curious as to why everything looks a little different, it's due to 343 Industries wanting to use a more generic modern sci-fi art style compared to the Bungie games. After the game was revealed and came out, people asked why Chief looked different, since it's not explained in-game or in any external media as far as I know. They answered in an interview that Cortana changed his armor with nanomachines. (Even though the opening cinematic shows a flashback with every Spartan wearing the "new" armor)
I don't like the framing that it looks more generic. 343 and Bungie have differing creative visions for the franchise, for better or worse. Although I like the overall aesthetics of Bungie over 343, I enjoy 343's armor design much more, emphasising the Spartan's stillsuits with modular armor pieces strapped above it, rather than the overall, Iron Man-esque look of Bungie's. I believe this reinforces 343's idea of wanting to humanize Chief by making his body, vulnerability and thus his humanity, more apparent.
I don't mind the look but the nanomachines thing is awful lore. They could've just gave it to him when he got on the Infinity or at least something better than Cortana saying she did some firmware updates but also nanomachines which are never mentioned or used ever again.
Something to note, Chief's weightlessness and him being thrown around like a plastic toy by the didact was a deliberate move, it was made to show the didact is the real deal and that even Chief could take on. They wanted to show that Didact could just throw a 1 ton superhuman like a 'plastic toy' and the lack of camera shake was meant to show that weightlessness in comparison to Didacts, like the camera angle previously kept didacts full size out of frame
When I first played Halo 4 when it came out, hearing Cortana say "I've waited so long to do that" during her final scene hit me hard because I grew up on Halo 1-3, and Halo 4, imo, was shit compared to the originals, but THAT scene made playing through it worth it for me. After reading the Fall of Reach book, and learning about the Spartan 2 and what made John this emotionless, robotic character, and then seeing the actual human emotions of the character with Cortana was just *chefs kiss cinema. The way it lingers on him as she disappears, while the world is literally crumbling around him.
The track that plays during Chief and Lasky's "talk" on the deck while they overlook Earth is, in my opinion, a beautiful tribute and homage to the iconic Never Forget track from Halo 3. This one, "Never Forget - Midnight Version," is done by Kazuma Jinnouchi, and it's very, very good. As far as the game itself goes, this came out when I was a kid, and I was excited to see another Halo game out and about since I had started my Halo journey probably the year before. I didn't get to finish it until the MCC came out and I decided to play through all four games with the Chief. Gods, I sobbed when Cortana bid Chief farewell for the last time. I enjoyed the story, the visuals in the cutscenes, and bringing out/expanding on the human side of Chief. You can see his emotions through his mask (contrary to what the actor for Master Cheeks says) when he loses Cortana for what seems like the final time. At 1:19:46, the debris falling around him is practically symbolizing Chief's world crumbling to pieces, and you can hear the pain in his voice when he speaks in these final cutscenes. Imo, 343 came in swinging and hit it out of the ballpark, but then struck out numerous times since then. It probably doesn't help that they deliberately spat in Bungie's face and even hired people who hated Halo :/
I really enjoyed your breakdown of the cinematics. The writer of Halo 4 later explained that Cortana's descent into rampancy was party based on a family member's struggles with Alzheimer's. I was lucky enough to work on the marketing campaign for Halo 4, but my grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's shortly before Halo 4 released, so the game holds a very special place in my heart. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Spartan Ops cut scenes, because they were great too!
halo 4('s campaign) was actually a fairly solid first go all things considered... yeah the art style wasn't the same but honestly some people focus on the video part too much and ignore the gameplay... and the game for the most part was pretty fun. i personally have several several nitpicks but they're just that nitpicks not dealbreakers and hey not everyone enjoys this game and that's fine i enjoy it a lot not as much as 3 or reach but it was definitely up there, thanks for taking the time to read this, have a nice day 👍
Halo 4 is a great story, sometimes, the only gripe I had was the antagonist but all in all. This reaction right here just makes me want you to watch infinite’s cutscenes even more! Great job Kai!!! 👍🏻
Not sure of it was mentioned by someone else in the comments, but in a graphic novel it shows the Didact ends up surviving, somehow ending up on some other planet where Spartan Team Black encountered him, got massacred before John and Blue Team was ordered to investigate what happened to Black Team. They than encountered the didsct and this time finally defeated him by using multiple composers on him
Before you move on, there's an other hour's worth of cinematics inside Halo 4 attached to the Spartan Ops game mode - which tells an important story that bridges between this game and Halo 5 - all done by the same team, so you'll be pleased (though, stored as effin' Bink - which is an absolute trash fire video container in the here and now)
I just finished watching and I loved your reactions XD To answer your questions, if you didnt look them up on Halopedia, thats the best one, theirs like three different Halo themed wikis. 1 Master Chief was hyper evolved to what Ancient humans were like. The video you watched didnt show the terminals in the game. After humans got beaten by the Forerunners, they were forcefully "de-evolved" into "Neanderthals" or something close. After the War started with the Flood, to make it worse, lots of those then de-evloved humans were digitized into Prometheans. She also said Chief would have lots of other abilities besides not being able to be digitized, none of us yet know what those are. 2 I think its believable that Chief put a Knife into the Litch craft. The Blade is made from the same materials his suit is, and in Halo 4 he actually did fall from space and hit the planet, unlike in 3 where he jumped form a ship from lower orbit. The other thing is, in his Mark 6/7 Armor he has had in Halo 2 all the way to 4 it is canon that his suit can easily toss around, one handed, 66 Ton tanks. I mean I can still understand if you say "it would still take you out of the story knowing those things I pointed out" but Spartans are very strong. Chief in his Mark 6/7 Gen 3 armor he has during the time of Infinite, he can left 100 Ton Granite boulders, every Mark and Gen they make has lifting capabilities increased by multiple factors. 3 You asked about the Didact, I might have spelled his name wrong, the last remaining Forerunner we know about. He dies in a story between Halo 4 and 5. Master Chief eventually fights him and puts the same Knife he stabbed into the Litch ship right through the Didacts Face Plate and head. This is the problem I mentioned before with Microsoft. They want all the stories to be SAFE. When they saw more people complain about the Forerunner trilogy coming up than people who liked it, and their hate for Promethean enemies, they had 343 resolve that story arc in different media. Halo 4 had a side game, like ODST, called "Spartan Ops" it was a firefight mode but with a story, a good one in my opinion. The Storm Cov is even more zealous now, and their leader is "The Hand of the Didact." Because of Microsoft, not only did the Forerunner trilogy get resolved in different media, they had that villain, "The Hand of the Didact" killed in the very first level of Halo 5. Microsoft is to cautious with all their properties and to hard on them. They have canceled lots of series that do well but not "Halo 3 well" which is an insane metric to base if a series should exist in game form. Every time Microsoft saw backlash to a new Halo Trilogy, "Forerunner Trilogy" started in Halo 4, "Created Trilogy" that was started in Halo 5, because of Microsoft, and now Chief vs the Banished, those trilogies are resolved in different media. I am happy they at least get an ending, but its not right to freak out so bad they force 343 to stop what they are doing and do something else, WHILE still being held back to make "SAFE" story arcs.
One of the many reasons why a lot of people didn't care for Halo 4 was because they tried to humanize the Chief. In previous titles, they didn't make the Chief so, for a lack of better words, talkative because they wanted the player to feel like they were the Chief. When 343 took over, not only did they change up the art direction and made a lot of things look and sound different, they also started to give the Chief more of a vocal lead in the game, giving him more and more dialog then any of the other games. And people essentially felt like they were no longer in the shoes of the Chief themselves when playing but just simply controlling another character. A lot of people also didn't seem to like the sort of "love story" that they built up between Chief and Cortana in this game either. I've personally enjoyed all the Halo titles but could see why die-hard fans would not like this one. I will say, while they look cool, fighting the Prometheans in Halo 4 kinda sucks ass. They were a new enemy and 343 still didn't have all their mechanics worked out. With the Covenant, you could sorta focus on whatever enemy you wanted when clearing an area. You could focus on the smaller enemies like the Grunts and Jackals first, making it easier to take on the Elites without them swarming you. Or, you could focus on the Elites and make the Grunts scatter without leadership. But with the Prometheans...you couldn't do that. If there were Watchers in an encounter (little flying robots) you ALWAYS focused on them first. They could shield enemies, catch your grenades and throw them back, spawn in Crawlers (little dog-like enemies) or even revive Knights you may have killed already. So, you'd always want to focus on them. Then you'd take out the Knights, which...weren't all that fun to fight. Some could see through walls so they always knew where you were, some could spawn in Watchers to protect them, some could spawn in little personally sentry turrets to defend themselves, they could warp away into cover if you started shooting them, and if you damaged them too much, some of them would do this rapid, zig-zag warp attack where they would rush directly in front of you to hit you...which on harder difficulties, was almost always an instant kill on the player. As a concept, the Prometheans are an awesome enemy. But when it came down to the gameplay, they were very lacking, and were a nightmare on harder difficulties. They thankfully figured out how to work them better when it came to Halo 5: Guardians. To explain the final "fight" here with the Didact, it's rather lackluster...the whole fight is literally just a Quick-Time-Event button push. As you climb back up onto the bridge, you rush him with a Promethean Pulse Grenade. If you hit the button at the right time, you slam it into his chest and right before he can throw you off, the grenade goes off and makes him fall to his death. If you miss this button prompt, you fail and he just throws you off the bridge and you die and have to retry.
You were curious about the Didact's voice actor, that'd be Keith Szarabajka (pronounced "sarah-biker", IIRC). Also known for roles like Herschel Biggs (L.A. Noire), Harbinger (Mass Effect 2), Rudiger/'Greaseface' (Tales From the Borderlands) & the Order of St. Dumas (Batman: Arkham Knight).
When I played this for the first time, being a huge fan of the series, definitely cried at the end. Not at first, but seeing him on that observation deck by himself ended up doing it. As far as the overall look, that was actually my first thought about it, the graphics on this were fantastic... and this was on Xbox 360
The armor is explained by Cortana using nanomachines to rework it while John was in cryo for a few years (don't ask me how she did that tho, since the on-board nanomachines of MJOLNIR are generally only rly useful for repairing simple stuff like armor plating etc)
Another fascinating commentary of a game I love! I admit that it wasn't until now that I realised that Cortana saved chief by wrapping up the hard light bridge (also how she could touch him). Nail on the head about the difference in feel between the Covenant and the Didact/Prometheans. I found though that they nailed the feel of playing as a heavy spartan with heavy weapons and things in this one (though I haven't played the later games). I do recommend playing it even if the feel of the promethean enemies isn't quite what you want as it is such a gorgeous game, and there's quire a few ambient details left out by the gameplay seen here (which I won't spoil ;) ).
44:10 Highly recommend you check out the Halo 4 terminal cutscenes which answer a lot of questions. Also just wanted to say how much I enjoy these reactions/film breakdowns. I know it takes a good chunk of your time to do this but I hope you know it doesn't go unappreciated. Can't wait for the next one.
I love to watch Halo cut scenes quite often but after finding your channel I enjoy them more with you commentating. Can't wait for you to watch Infinite, cinematography wise it's a heavy hitter with the no-cuts camera technique.
Idk if anyones mentioned this in the comments but the reason all the spartans look the same at the beginning is because those were the prototypes of the actual Mjolnir armor which chief receives from doctor Hallsy right before the fall of reach and death of the majority of the spartans he was raised with to the convenant invasion.
This is the first halo to do full facial and motion capture in its cut scenes. That why even though its on the same console that as halo 3 (the 360) it looks so much more realistic.
Something to keep in mind if you plan on continuing on with Halo 5. Halo 4 had an extra multiplayer mode called Spartan Ops that takes place after the campaign. You play as your multiplayer spartan but there is a real story being told there. It includes about another hour or so of cinematics and story telling that was animated by a different studio than 343 (Axis Animation). Definitely worth a watch before moving on to Halo 5.
As a person who the first game I ever played was Halo 2 multiplayer at 5 years old and the first story mode I completed was Halo: CE, I will never understand the hate Halo 4 got. Was it perfect? No. It was however the last truly great Halo story in my opinion. I remember beating it on legendary at 13 years old and getting the briefest glance at Chief's face. This was the culmination of my childhood, beating Ce through 4 on legendary and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Also I love 343's take on the Mark VI armor.
@@kaizammit if you could react to the terminals, of the anniversary versión and the cutscenes of the og version (a lots of ambient and details are missing in the remastered and the terminals are pure gold, especially the "keyes" terminal
Lot of folks saying that they don't explain his armor changing, but that's simply not true. I distinctly remember 343 explaining that Cortana was using nanobots to alter chief's armor and "upgrade" it while he was in cryo. This was likely just an excuse or a hastily put together explanation for a retcon, but it works imo. Regardless, I vastly prefer the armor in halo infinite. Also the composer digitized organic lifeforms into Ai constructs pretty much, but then trying to convert them back to organic bodies failed, but the didact used this to digitize humans and then imprisoned them into the Promethean knight bodies, to follow him and to serve as a perfect counter to the flood, which couldn't consume them and convert them. Also they started recording lines in this game with the actors in the same room, specifically Chief and Cortana recorded their lines in the same room at times so that they could play off each other better and make it feel like real conversations. Additionally, This game was too harshly lynched by the fans, I honestly think that the writing, cinematography and music were all fantastic considering there were a lot of new folks working on this and Bungie was gone. You just have to remember that the tone is very different and that this is no longer a space opera, it's more of a low key interpersonal experience between Cortana and Chief. I wish they'd continued this trend with 5, instead of the shenanigans that they pulled with Cortana.....The only thing I can't really defend is the gameplay, there are parts that are really good (The weight is really good feeling) but on higher difficulties it was just plain frustrating when you start fighting the Prometheans knights; Also the ending with the didact was just bad, but I think they wrote his powers in such a way that they couldn't come up with a good gameplay experience. I'm also one of the people that really liked infinite and am really sad that we didn't get the story dlc that was promised. I hope you do Halo 5 as well, despite how bad it was overall, it still has some fun bits, and some of the new characters are good imo and the gameplay was fun, but the narrative was bad; ultimately I still wish it never happened. I can't wait until infinite :D One last thing, I get the sense that one or multiple writers on this might have had a parent or loved one that had dementia or a deteriorating mental condition, considering they handled Cortana pretty well from that perspective.
I was actually still in secondary school when Halo 4 came out and I won a copy of the game through a mountain dew competition XD Only time I ever won anything from a bottle competition.
50:40 Suspension of disbelief only goes so far Suspension of disbelief is the avoidance of logic in works of fiction; or the “unreal” filter through which connoisseurs of art choose to accept as part of the diegesis. The tenets behind “suspension of disbelief” was commented on by Greek writers such as Aristotle - and was formally presented by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817.
36:13, we've seen this behavior before in Colonel Silva in the first 2 Halo novels. Baseline humans with chips on their shoulders due to the Spartans or Chief in particular
every loves to hate the inexplicable armor change, but man, i'm cool with ignoring the transition in my head lore, cus this revision is bad ass, still my favorite
the didact becomes a better villain through more context. For example he has been corrupted by the logic plague and thats why hes just straight up bad.
yeah chief has different armour because when he was sleeping cortana used nano machines to change it. it’s also why we can’t use it in multiplayer cuz it was never produced by the unsc
There's a few books and et cetra that explain the forerunner's place in the universe and why they do what they do. Once you read up on all that and etc they become a lot more of an understandable faction, because there was books released in tandem with halo 4. It does suck they aren't more explained in the game though, but at least they are explained. For me personally I feel like the issue, with every enemy really.. the AI. The AI behaved very.. unlike other enemies in other halos. Like in halo reach and halo 2 and 3, the enemies felt amazing to play against because they was designed well, they had good animations and they actually played smart for AI, the AI in halo 4.. they felt more like bullet sponges than anything. But great review and reaction Kai! Keep it up
The one thing I'm a little sad they didn't add into the video you watched, during the portion of that campaign mission where the chief is trying to regroup with the forces from the UNSC Infinity, One of the Marines gets stabbed by a Promethean. The man goes out like a badass cooking off a frag grenade shoving it into the face of the Promethean and killing both of them.
Jist a heads up: the final cutscene by Axis Studios, where chief walks by Palmer and he's massive, he's about 9 feet tall in that scene. Its a mistake by the animators from the studio, and 343 has explained arounf 2014 that that particular scene is inaccurate and thusly no longer canon. The same studio made similar scaling mistakes in spartan Ops in Halo 4 with ship scale and such.
Master Chief is a Spartan II, trained since he was a child and augmented as a teenager. The other's are Spartan IV, new generation created as adults, so Chief and his lot are taller than the more recent ones
I love the aging Spartan thing cause I'm fairly sure 117 is chronologically younger than Del Rio. He is definitely physically younger, late 30s max at this point.
Ive got to admit mr zammit that it was this type of video that got me hooke on your channel Specifically your halo reach reaction Cant wait to see what you do in the future
You are so right, the thing about the promitions is that its like they felt like they hade to find s NEW enemy, just give te covys a reason to start fighting tje humans agains and this game would be complete
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO INFINITE (2021) | [ALL CUTSCENES!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CBYFwQUsH5Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO INFINITE (2021) | [ALL CUTSCENES!!]](/img/tr.png)
![FILMMAKER REACTS: HALO 5 (2015) | [ALL CUTSCENES!] | IS IT ANY GOOD!?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/u_RQV4XC7qQ/mqdefault.jpg)
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Now that you have done Halo 4, there was a whole separate story called Spartan Ops complete with its own cutscenes that takes place after the campaign.
Destiny the game has lot of good cinematics/ingame story that I'd want it to be actual movie/series
If you plan on covering halo 5 and infinite I highly recommend the books cause 343 has made the novels 10/10 with lore and pieces that make the next games make sense
Starcraft 1 and brood war, to finish out sc series. Halo 5 as well.
The part where Cheif doesn't give Del Rio Cortana's chip hits harder when you learn that it's the first time in his entire life he disobeys a direct order.
No way! Really?
@@kaizammit From the games and the books ive read and played...yeah i think this is the first time he "Puts his foot down". Gotta remember indoctrinated since a child to be a good soldier and good soldiers follow orders.
@@andylastname566 the best part is its a heavy god damn foot, both literally and also metaphorically with his his reputation where theres probably no one on that ship that would want to actually agree to an order to arrest him let alone actually attempt it.
@@Orapac4142"Arrest the Chief you crazy? " thats what theyd say
@@kaizammit The other thing that makes it interesting, isn't that del rio actually outranks him, it's because by technicality,
"While aboard naval vessels, Spartans report directly to the ship's captain in all matters relating to the safety and security on-board the ship - superseding all other responsibilities and orders. In all other cases, the Spartan Commander has operational control of Spartan personnel, and Spartans cannot give or be given orders to/from Navy or ONI personnel. Spartans are, however, encouraged to accommodate reasonable requests when they do not violate existing orders or the Spartan Code" -Halo: Official Spartan Field Manual, page 140-141
So, Del Rio couldn't actually give the Master Chief orders in any capacity, and the master chief couldn't give orders to anyone outside of spartan forces, hence why spartan teams existed, like red and blue team and they were fully comprised of Spartans.
So, even if Del Rio outranks Master Chief, John-117, he still cannot give him orders because of how Spartans are regulated. Most of the time it's just in the Spartans best interest to follow orders and comply with requests.
(It's also why the lieutenant doesn't do anything either.)
The voice actors for Chief and Cortana when asked what their favorite lines are from the entire series, they both said from Halo 4.
I can honestly understand why, these two became fast friends when they finally got to meet (not hard to believe, Steve's a sweetheart and Jen's got that 'you're gonna be my friend even if you don't think you will' personality). So the fact that their characters got to really bleed the emotion to one another is their favorite of the games, isn't surprising. If what was said was true about Steve and Jen having to reaudition for their roles, then man, 4 could have been a disaster.
@@agentmaryland1239 never heard they had to reaudition, sounds like bullshit to me and I followed the Franchise since I jumped in at 3.
Makes sense. They get to go back and forth a bit more in this one during the gameplay, versus only in the cutscenes.
You can interpret it as an attempt by Chief to be a bit more social. It also gives more life and weight to their relationship.
Focus, with a bit of levity mixed in at just the right time.
@@ViDeOMaStErPaUl its true, 343i took steps to cast others at the early days of H4 development. They said it during one of their panels.
@@agentmaryland1239 I'm surprised I just found out about this. The fact they had to reaudition for their roles is one of many nails in the coffin that display how arrogant 343i are/were about destroying the Halo franchise in the name of making it their own
little tidbit, when chief stabs into the hull of the lich with his knife, theres actually a lore explanation for that. spartans carry specially made combat knives that are too heavy for regular soldiers, and absolutely massive at 14 inches, made of the same titanium composite material as their armor.
So many people forget about that fact or just don't realize it. Spartans are so much bigger than normal militia, the fact they can even share weaponry is really just down to gameplay mechanics, because I feel like they would either have to make all weapons comically big to the point they're near unwieldy to the average Marine, Spartans would have to be super careful and adapt to using smaller tech, or Spartans would only be able to use weaponry specifically made for them (with the exception of weapons used by Elites and Brutes because they are bigger than Spartans).
The standard is a 7.9 inch blade, so the M11 is damn near twice the length of a normal combat knife. That's incredibly intimidating. That's longer than a typical machete.
That and 4% of his true power
@@agentmaryland1239 Well the Magnum was designed specifically for S IIs
Interesting, thanks for that lore tidbit. Is that obvious to a player who hasn't read or remembered that specific detail from the literature?
@@daepappy Not really, not unless you're actively remembering that Chief is bigger than the average person.
Also, it's a shame the gameplay had the HUD turned off, i want to think he did that for cinematic effect, but the HUD actually shows signs of Cortana's rampancy in form of static and color distortion throughout the campaign.
plus the fact that you can see parts of the insde of the helmet in game with the head bop effect makes it more immersive
For the del rio part, he was stripped off his status as captain of infinity after lasky reported him for mistreating chief and also leaving him alone behind enemy lines. Since Chief is THE hero, UNSC and Fleetcom unanimously decided to remove del rio.
And then he became a senator and tried to frame Chief for a terrorist attack
@@TheGamingAce231 Yeah was about to say, mf'er got demoted from Captain of the Infinity to promoted to a Senator. The injustice!
GIVE
ME
THAT
CHIIP
@@agentmaryland1239Hell a slimeball like Del Rio, he probably saw it as a promotion
@@I-Dcompany *crunches Dorito*
1:11:17 interesting tidbit, HALO 4's creative director was taking care of his elderly mother during the development process. her dementia diagnosis and the struggles he faced dealing with that inspired Cortana's Rampancy subplot.
There's something that flies under the radar with the final Chief & Cortana scene. After Cortana says "Welcome home, John", we see the background behind Chief crumble. We know that the Didact's ship is blowing up in that moment, but there's also symbolism/hidden meaning in it as well. Chief is losing Cortana; his world is crumbling and falling apart around him. It makes this scene hit even harder knowing this.
It's also worth remembering a lore detail here: MUOLNIR uses its neural link with the Spartan wearing it to increase their reaction speed by letting the armor itself know what their brain is trying to make their body do. When one is on board, an AI residing in the armor's system can make use of this same connection to feed information directly to them. Cortana and Chief had worked together for so long and he'd gotten so used to having that connection that after she's gone, he really is lost. For all intents and purposes, she was both a companion and a part of him that's suddenly gone.
I just realized that when Cortana is talking about hearing the scientists, she means the data that they were turned to. Pretty crazy now that I’m thinking about it.
Also the plane looks so weird is because the guy didn’t touch his left stick
I loved the heart breaking story of Chief and Cortana, still my favorite campaign of entire halo series.
yea some romantic tones between chief & cortana, some mortality nuance connected to Cortana even tho she is ai and that sort of life/ stability slipping though your fingers. So many feels
IMO while halo 1, 2 & 3 are great games all around, 343 games are really great but just at one thing, and is weirdly something different every time.
Halo 4 - Story
Halo 5 - Multiplayer
Halo Infinite - Gameplay mechanics
If only they could nail all those things in a single game.
@@anthipoe2816It was designed to articulate how dementia feels
@@BernardoPC117Mix of a lacking shared vision and a very very irate fanbase
@BernardoPC117 Halo 4 had a great campaign, but terrible multiplayer. So, for Halo 5, they gave us imo the best multiplayer in the franchise. But in return, the worst campaign (i personally still liked it tho). Because of their performances with Halo 4 and 5, 343 were backed into a corner by the community. As a result they played it safe with Infinite. Instead of putting 100% into campaign or multiplayer, they chose to give one final effort and put 50% into both. Unfortunately, seeing as Halo's 20th anniversary was coming up quickly, Microsoft thought it'd be a good idea to release it early. Only problem tho, was the game wasn't quite finished... did they care tho? of course not. And the rest, is history...
I actually love Halo 4 and what they did with it, campaign wise. Didn't get into the multiplayer with this one, which is weird for me for Halo, but it just didn't feel like the previous games. But the emotions they brought out in Halo 4 were great. It's the first time the voice actors for Cortana and Master Chief were in the same room together recording their lines. Also, I think it's the first time they may have met possibly LOL. But I think that's one of the reasons why their chemistry felt so good.
That's interesting to hear but normal for VO (voice over) artists when in production. I hope you enjoyed the video!
Same. It doesn’t deserve the hate it gets. Maybe a little fast paced but still it has a good story and great characters.
@@Crazyguy_123MC yeah I agree. I think most people have come around and appreciate it for the story it told, which was really overall very good and emotional
Halo 4 was a good story with amazing gameplay and pretty fun missions. But halo 5 was a dumpster fire
@@cutiebearbootie1820 because for 5, they focused on multiplayer
In the early years of the war ALL Spartan 2s wore the same armor. You couldnt even tell the difference between a male or female Spartan 2 in armor.
Always preferred it this way, made way more sense to me
But I’ve also been reading the books since I was as kid, and that was the lore originally (FoR shows all Spartans in the same armour on its cover)
@@jordanclark4635 Yeah same, it made them a cohesive unit. Noone stood out appearance wise. Yeah been reading the books n comics since middle school.
@@michaelhuie5878 it also made way more sense for a military
You’ve already got to have unique logistics for these ~35 badass super soldiers, why in gods green earth would you complicate it by GIVING THEM ALL THEIR OWN ARMOUR
You’ve upped your need for spares exponentially, even if core components are interchangeable
The issue people have with that scene is that they were all wearing Chiefs modern nanobot modified MK VI armor, which I assume was budget issues.
But they should be wearing pre Halo CE MK V or whatever the Halo Wars armor was.
@@bigdoubleu117 timeline wise it probably should've been MKIV, but then they couldn't have the shields flare when they got hit, because the only spartans that had shields in the early war was Halo Wars' Red and Omega teams who were field testing them on MKIV. Other than them, no one else got shields until the MKV was produced near the end of the war.
It actually did release initially on the xbox 360. Mindblowing graphics for that machine.
That's unbelievable! Amazing what lighting and style can do, I dig it!
Another good game from the 360 is Diablo 3. That game genuinly looks like a next gen game even on the 360 @@kaizammit
45:25 aw no, the video you’re watching has the broken lighting. It took them forever to fix it in the MCC.
Halo 4's story is so perfectly personal for Chief and Cortana and really was a wonderful experience both cinematically and narratively. It always makes me happy to see people explore the depths of Halo's best story beats and appreciate them the way you do!
To this day we still have no clue what the Librarian did to him. She said that she encrypted an immunity to the Composer into the evolutionary journey of humanity, but she accelerated his path to that immunity. So it could have done any number of things. The only ability we're certain of him gaining from the evolution is in Shadows of Reach the book.
Also, rewatching this with your reaction shows me just how deeply they've dove into Chief's character in this game. Chief's apology to Dr. Tillson sounds so genuine and you just never expect a Spartan of all people to say 'I'm sorry' with such sincerity. Like, he's just doing his job, and he's never sorry about that, but the fact that he's basically about to destroy their life's work, undoing all of it and he sees how upset it's made her, and he feels sorry about it, despite there is no other choice.
The Didact isn't evil for the sake of being evil...but 343 made the terrible mistake of abandoning the Didact way too soon. His backstory is all in the novels, even the conclusion to his story.
Yea the fact the Didacts' origin and ending are both outside this game was a poor choice; Halo 4 has a lot of emotion to its story but in that regard it feels pretty cheap
"Somehow, the Didact returned"
I think it can be inferred that Chief is the reincarnation of the Iso-Didact (not the Ur-Didact encountered in the game). In Halo CE Spark quotes the Iso-Didact when speaking to Chief: "The last time, you asked me, If it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice, we must activate the ring."
Spark immediately recognizes Chief as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting. Probably out of confusion due to rampancy, but Chief' Geas could very well have played a part in that.
I love the scene after Cortana says goodbye. You see debris falling all around Chief. That to me is meant to symbolize his world crashing down around him. Cortana was his responsibility and he feels like he failed to protect her. He feels like he failed Cortana and he feels like he failed Johnson. He made a promise to Johnson to never let Cortana go and he promised Cortana he would bring her home.
Imma try to provide brief context to the lore dump the librarian dropped halfway through the game, but it's alot. so here we go.
100k years ago, Humanity was a high tech galaxy spanning empire which was competing with the Forerunners for the title "The mantle of responsiblity" (Going forwards, just going to call it the mantle) aka, the guardian of all living things within the universe. This title was created and maintained by the Precursors, a super advanced race of pacifists, they pick humanity to hold the Mantle, forerunners get pissed and murder almost all the precursors, the Precursors that go into hiding eventually deform and corrupt themselves into the flood unintentionally.
Eventually, the flood emerged within human space and starting consuming their empire inside out. So humanity fled through forerunner space, burning any forerunner worlds they found infected with the flood. The forerunners were unaware of the flood so saw these actions as an act of war. So begins the human/forerunner war. Humans lost the war, getting devolved back to the stone age on some planet called Earth by the forerunners. But the flood still remains and the forerunners are no match for them.
The didact creates the composer, a weapon that turns people into AI, the victims losing their sanity and personalities. So he used it on humanity to make an army against the flood, as he really didn't want to fire the halo rings and he hated humans for their apparent immunity to the flood among other things.
After the halos were fired and the sentinels reseeded life ontop the now dead planets, the librarian left in some cheat codes in the human dna which culminates in Halsey creating spartans, Ai, Master chief, in which she also imbues him with super powers which you'll never hear of again. Just a big plot contrivance to turn master chief into a Chosen One character.
The whole Forerunner/Flood war lore gets told in a trilogy of books and goes over alot, that one cutscene is all you hear of it in the games, which leaves most casual fans confused.
That breakdown is 100% correct. However yeah Chief being the unique outlier when the librarian coded it into all humans DNA is odd. 343 certainly puts an emphasis on Chief when he really was a small part in a much larger war. I can forgive them though concerning how much they have blown up the extended universe
I really wish they kept the didact as the main antagonist through their trilogy. It would've been so much better
Also, you have to watch the Halo 4 Terminals. They give you background to the Forerunner Human conflict. It's animated really well.
it's not so much "force powers" The Didact is using a gravity manipulation gauntlet. It's similar technology to what makes gravity hammers work
Gotta do the Spartan Ops cutscenes as well.
Totally
Jen Taylor Seriously came through with making Cortana more than just a static, lifeless AI character. You actually feel the urgency of getting her to Halsey almost as if you were trying to rush your best friend to the emergency room.
Worth mentioning, pretty much all the scenes where you mentioned the camera or motions didn't feel very cinematic, those were either playable cutscenes, or actual gameplay during which important visuals and dialogue occur. They feel clunky here due to the nature of the compilation, but during gameplay you don't really notice the seams because you're still in the gameplay state, and being in control of the camera yourself makes up for the less-flashy visuals with a sense of agency and active participation in a big story moment.
From a narrative perspective, it makes sense that the new villains were the Forerunners. The Human Covenant war is over at this point and all that's left are factions of Covenant loyal to the cause, and those allying with the Forerunners. And after so many Bungie games fighting the Covenant, I think the change makes sense, even though they were annoying to fight on Legendary difficulty. The Halo 4 story is actually very good. Getting to Chief's personality feels earned after so many games.
Crunchy is really the best way to describe Halo 4 armor and movement when compared to the previous games
Yeah the over the top audio.
I kinda love it though, the Warthog engine made me feel things
it's completely obnoxious, just as 343's sound design always is. Bungie's games usually always had a certain subtlety that was lossed in subsequent titles
It was indeed a 360 game. It came out my first year of college as well, maybe second, and it just boggles my mind that the game looked as good as it did, being on the same console that produced Halo 3.
At 46:00 the color is off because of a glitch when it got ported to the MCC.
I still love to hate Del Rio, they did such a great job of showing a military head that cares for his people but is strictly "by the books" and must have his orders followed which does not fly with John's uh... let's say adaptability to situations. Also, that scene of poor Dr. Tillson being hit by The Composer might be one of the most unintentionally horrific things they've shown in the Halo series and is the scene I always recall to mind when thinking of H4
Halo 4 has a pretty good campaign. The only problems with it are the art direction and the fact that the Didact storyline gets resolved later in comics and novels... rather than in-game... in a video game franchise...
The Halo 4 Spartan Ops cutscenes are worth reacting to as well.
I've heard about the Spartan Ops, on my list!
@@kaizammit nice, it's basically Halo 4.5.
@@kaizammit Spartan Ops is basically a 2nd campaign that is taking place in the background during Halo 4 main story. It follows a squad of new generation Spartans known as Fireteam Crimson.
@@bloodwolfgaming9269 Not during the main campaign...Spartan Ops takes place about half a year after. It's also what introduces Jul 'Mdama as the leader of the Covenant faction in 4. Though doing a lore dump comment on him can wait for the Spartan Ops or 5 reaction...whichever comes first.
Also sorry for the 'well actually'...
Those same novels and comics that..
(SPOILER ALERT)
..kill off Spartan Black Team off screen for no fucking reason other than to show off the power of the Didact.. who was still alive for.. reasons? There is a reason I stopped reading the books after 343 had fully taken over in every way.
Getting Karen Traviss (an incompetent writer who is hated by fans of basically every series she has ever written for) to write one of the mainline books and take over Nylund's plot was the last nail in the fucking coffin on that front. And of course she spent that entire book vilifiying Halsey to an absolutely hysterical degree and twisting as many plot points and changing personalities of whoever she needed to to make it happen.
For the scene where the captain wants to arrest the Chief, a Halo RUclipsr made a super funny animation called "Master Chief vs Captain Del Rio But Its Lore Accurate". I think you'd love it, it's one minute long. You don't need to react to it but enjoy it on your own time.
Halofollower i think itwas
Those videos are hilarious.
“Chief vs Osiris But it’s Lore Accurate” is gold as well
It’s just slapstick comedy, not worth watching tbh. I respect Halo follower a lot but his animations never felt inspired. Very lackluster.
Honestly the Diadact is my favorite Halo villain he’s such a tragedy. None of what he did was of his own right mind and his own experiments and hatred for humanity during the Forerunner Human War corrupted him.
P.S the reason he got blasted and fell was cuz right before he grabbed Chief, Chief stuck a grenade to him. You could see him holding it.
He is a compelling villain in backstory, and a completely boring bland one in the current day. You need both to make a great villain.
I think when he said the Didact falling off the bridge was anticlimactic, is because he goes from trying to force crush Chief to just spilling off the bridge. Chief is the one who's wounded, the Didact is fully recovered from his time in meditation in the Cryptum. The Didact should have put up so much more of a fight than what we ended up with. I know that he had a wound on his chest from the Terminals, but still, he fell so easily in his armor. If we had knocked off his chestplate, I'd be more forgiving.
@@TheKrazyguy75 Have you read his recent books? They may not be the games but they for sure make him a compelling villain in modern day cuz it’s after he dies and his consciousness is one with the Matrix.
@@agentmaryland1239 I don’t disagree but from the video it seemed like he just missed the attack. However, I do agree I love Halo 4 for its story but the gameplay wasn’t the best.
@hagank1111 I'm just disappointed with how fast they abandoned the Didact, I love Halo 4, but some things just didn't meet completion and it shows.
Throughout the game, there were terminals and if I recall was dialogue that would somewhat explain the stories. As far as the Forerunners go, they basically were the beginning of the entire Halo story. You can hate the Forerunners all you want, I hated them too, but they are important. This is the story as follows and their role:
Before the Forerunners existed, the precursors who are basically gods, was a civilization that had reached the theoretical ceiling of technological advancements. They created all of life and one of them included the Forerunners. They wanted them to be the protectors of the galaxy, hence gave them the title "The Mantle of Responsibility," but they wanted just more than that. They wanted to be as advanced as the precursors and launched a war with them, nearing extinction of those precursors. The dust that the precursors turned into, eventually transformed into the Flood and then ensued a war with the Forerunners. They didn't know how to combat them, so the Forerunners made rings to eliminate all life, getting rid of the Flood. The covenant eventually forms and the story of Halo: Reach, Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4 take place respectively.
Come Halo 4, Master Chief was in cryosleep drifting in space and randomly comes across a Forerunner planet. In return, this would eventually bring the Forerunners back to life. Then the events of Halo 5 and Halo: Infinite take place. So yeah they are pretty important in that aspect and they are "too science fiction" because of the technological advancements they received. That's more-or-less why I wanted to comment because while they do seem like it, it's the way they are. I love them and hate them at the same time. You should react to Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: Infinite, all cutscenes. Would catch you up!
So happy to see you finally do Halo 4. It has to be hands down my favourite Halo game, mainly due to the story, music, and thw Chief/Cortana interactions. There's a lot they did well in 4, but there's just as much they did wrong with the game.
I must be in a minority that I really enjoyed the new art style, and the Promethean/Didacts stories, though this is probably because I also read the Forerunner trilogy books. The Prometheans and story weren't overly well received with a lot of it due to gameplay stuff and the fact the overall story relied more on external game lore. 343 did eventually course correct a lot of stuff with Infinite, as it's a soft reboot, but I'm sad that they kinda abandoned a lot of the new story threads they started, as I would've loved to see how the story would've developed from 4 after if they hadn't course correct so hard, but at least we got an end to the Didacts story in an amazing book!
4:00 The young boy with orange hair and blue eyes was indeed John-117. His physical appearance as a child and pre-augmentation is well known. Pale white skin, orange hair, freckles, buck teeth, and blue eyes.
5:05 Yes, very much so. While Halsey considers all the SPARTAN-IIs to be her "children," John-117 is the *only* one she probably thinks of as though he were her legit son.
6:00 The last events of Halo 3 (the Battle of Installation 00) took place on December 11, 2552. Halo 4 begins on July 21, 2557, roughly five and a half years later.
6:55 Cortana actually first displayed symptoms of rampancy in Halo 3 when John retrieved her from High Charity. Cortana was "born" November 7, 2549, and met John-117 on September 19, 1552, making her nearly three-years-old (of a Smart AI's seven-year lifespan). However, the immense strain of absorbing the Index from Installation 04 accelerated her deterioration, reducing her lifespan by around half (which is why she began going rampant while John was in cryo).
7:50 As you see, Cortana explains that she upgraded the armor. In Halo 2 and 3, John had MJOLNIR [GEN1] Mark VI armor. In Halo 4, it is now MJOLNIR [GEN1] Mark VI/MOD.
8:55 In the X-BOX 360 version of the game, you can actually see Halo 4: Limited Edition boxes scattered around the starting area.
9:45 Well... MJOLNIR armor does weigh around 450kgs/1000lbs.
11:35 No. The end of Halo 3 did not show this dyson sphere-covered planet (Requiem). It only showed the back half of the Forward Unto Dawn floating in space with John and Cortana still alive.
30:20 Those are SPARTAN-IVs (summary of the SPARTAN projects below)
47:10 In the books that connect directly to Halo 4, it explains that Captain Del Rio's actions here DESTROYED his career. In short, after Halo 4, Captain Andrew Del Rio was summoned back to FLEETCOM at the UNSC HQ on Earth in Sydney, Australia. There, he stood before the entire UNSC High Command Security Council and got his ass handed to him on a silver platter while basically being laughed by everyone into oblivion for being so stupid as to not only get in Master Chief's way, but try and arrest him while he was actively saving humanity from extinction (for at least the fourth time in the last 10 years). Ultimately, Del Rio was officially parked behind a desk on Earth and placed on a nice, long "vacation" (and seemingly forced to "resign"). And naturally, as disgraced military officers do, he became a senator.
58:20 In these rare, human moments, John is always of few words and straight to the point. That "Next time" said so much with so little.
1:03:15 "That's not going to happen" (literally happens two games later).
1:21:30 Lasky is a UNSC Navy Commander (O-5), and John is a UNSC Marine Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9).
1:24:00 So... 343 Industries (aka. 343i) was created by Microsoft Game Studios in 2007 amid concerns that Halo was a waning franchise and needed a new developer to keep it going, so they created 343i (named for the character, 343 Guilty Spark), which is comprised of many former Bungie Studios developers from the original Halo games. However, most of the original developers were gone by the time Halo 5 was in development.
*SPARTAN-I's (aka. Project ORION)*
Adult Marines experimented on in an attempt to create super-soldiers. Project was a near complete failure, save for no more than a few partial successes (such as Sgt. Johnson).
*SPARTAN-IIs (aka. Project ORION-II)*
Children, aged six to seven-years-old, targeted for desirable genetic compatibility with augmentation, abducted, indoctrinated, trained, and augmented into super-soldiers. Later enhanced with MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor.
*SPARTAN-III's*
The first generation of SPARTANS that Halsey wasn't involved with.
Children, typically vengeful war orphans, conscripted into service, given inferior (but equally more successful) augmentations and inferior armor. Intended to be "mass-produced" SPARTANS to be sent on suicide missions.
Where SPARTAN-IIs were basically the UNSC and Halsey's "children," the SPARTAN-III's belonged to ONI.
*SPARTAN-IVs*
Adult, already experienced and decorated Marines recruited (not forced/conscripted, as before) into a "more ethical" SPARTAN program.
Resulting SPARTANS were FAR less efficient and obedient (due to lack of indoctrination and training from childhood), were given far less effective augmentation (even less so than the SPARTAN-III's received), and much more high-tech (but less durable) armor.
Halsey thinks of these SPARTANs as a mockery of her work.
4:04 they're all in the same armor because this is the first armor that they've worn in the spartan project. It wasn't a thing to make spartan armor unique to every spartan yet. In the books its even poked fun at because the Spartans couldn't tell each other apart, but Halsey could just by how they walked.
343 retconned Chief's armour, the same way they changed how the Forward Unto Dawn looks.
I didn't even check the ship... That's interesting, thanks!
Technically not a retcon but the explanation is silly. I think it was literally Cortana going “Nanomachines son” while Chief was napping.
this is the correct answer🙌@@HiIeric117
@@HiIeric117 Nah, Number Company changed the entire artstyle. Nano machines excuse doesn't make sense. Chief should have worn the og armor and in H5 he should have worn the MP Mark VI GEN2.
I hate this "Mod" trashcan so much. This is the main reason why I can't touch this Campaign.
the WEIGHT they gave cheif in this game definitely stood out, it was fun to see you go nuts over the sound design in the game
“ARREST THAT MAN”
Palmer: “Yeah ok let me just throw the cuffs on THE spartan”
The ending with Cortana touching Chief was really clever but not made clear how she did it. Cortana was in the system and when she and Chief fought the Didact, they were on a hard light bridge. When she created the construct to protect Chief from the nuke explosion she made it from hard light. When she touched him, she formed herself using hard light so she had a physical presence, just enough to touch him for the first time. She spent years with Chief but she was never able to physically touch him until that moment before she died
If you are curious as to why everything looks a little different, it's due to 343 Industries wanting to use a more generic modern sci-fi art style compared to the Bungie games. After the game was revealed and came out, people asked why Chief looked different, since it's not explained in-game or in any external media as far as I know. They answered in an interview that Cortana changed his armor with nanomachines. (Even though the opening cinematic shows a flashback with every Spartan wearing the "new" armor)
I'm not going to lie, I love this look! I love the older version too but this one felt good in this cinematic setting so to speak.
Understandable! I totally get what you mean. Even though I, personally, couldn't get into the new look, it still looks amazing in the cinematics.
I don't like the framing that it looks more generic. 343 and Bungie have differing creative visions for the franchise, for better or worse. Although I like the overall aesthetics of Bungie over 343, I enjoy 343's armor design much more, emphasising the Spartan's stillsuits with modular armor pieces strapped above it, rather than the overall, Iron Man-esque look of Bungie's. I believe this reinforces 343's idea of wanting to humanize Chief by making his body, vulnerability and thus his humanity, more apparent.
I don't mind the look but the nanomachines thing is awful lore. They could've just gave it to him when he got on the Infinity or at least something better than Cortana saying she did some firmware updates but also nanomachines which are never mentioned or used ever again.
@@kaizammit 343's generic style tries too hard to look complex. Its just visually.. noisy. Reach was the perfect mix of new and old.
Something to note, Chief's weightlessness and him being thrown around like a plastic toy by the didact was a deliberate move, it was made to show the didact is the real deal and that even Chief could take on. They wanted to show that Didact could just throw a 1 ton superhuman like a 'plastic toy' and the lack of camera shake was meant to show that weightlessness in comparison to Didacts, like the camera angle previously kept didacts full size out of frame
Lasky is a G I love that man! Such a great Captain.
Halo 4 has been the gem of the entire franchise so far, maybe ever with the way things are going. My all time favorite Halo experience.
When I first played Halo 4 when it came out, hearing Cortana say "I've waited so long to do that" during her final scene hit me hard because I grew up on Halo 1-3, and Halo 4, imo, was shit compared to the originals, but THAT scene made playing through it worth it for me.
After reading the Fall of Reach book, and learning about the Spartan 2 and what made John this emotionless, robotic character, and then seeing the actual human emotions of the character with Cortana was just *chefs kiss cinema.
The way it lingers on him as she disappears, while the world is literally crumbling around him.
The track that plays during Chief and Lasky's "talk" on the deck while they overlook Earth is, in my opinion, a beautiful tribute and homage to the iconic Never Forget track from Halo 3. This one, "Never Forget - Midnight Version," is done by Kazuma Jinnouchi, and it's very, very good.
As far as the game itself goes, this came out when I was a kid, and I was excited to see another Halo game out and about since I had started my Halo journey probably the year before. I didn't get to finish it until the MCC came out and I decided to play through all four games with the Chief. Gods, I sobbed when Cortana bid Chief farewell for the last time. I enjoyed the story, the visuals in the cutscenes, and bringing out/expanding on the human side of Chief. You can see his emotions through his mask (contrary to what the actor for Master Cheeks says) when he loses Cortana for what seems like the final time. At 1:19:46, the debris falling around him is practically symbolizing Chief's world crumbling to pieces, and you can hear the pain in his voice when he speaks in these final cutscenes.
Imo, 343 came in swinging and hit it out of the ballpark, but then struck out numerous times since then. It probably doesn't help that they deliberately spat in Bungie's face and even hired people who hated Halo :/
I really enjoyed your breakdown of the cinematics. The writer of Halo 4 later explained that Cortana's descent into rampancy was party based on a family member's struggles with Alzheimer's. I was lucky enough to work on the marketing campaign for Halo 4, but my grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's shortly before Halo 4 released, so the game holds a very special place in my heart.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Spartan Ops cut scenes, because they were great too!
It's funny you said you'd prefer a book on the enemies, because they're a lot more interesting in their lore.
halo 4('s campaign) was actually a fairly solid first go all things considered...
yeah the art style wasn't the same but honestly some people focus on the video part too much and ignore the gameplay... and the game for the most part was pretty fun. i personally have several several nitpicks but they're just that nitpicks not dealbreakers and hey not everyone enjoys this game and that's fine i enjoy it a lot not as much as 3 or reach but it was definitely up there, thanks for taking the time to read this, have a nice day 👍
Credit where credit is due. This was released on the Xbox 360 & Xbox one. For the 360 to cope with cutscenes like this is incredible!
Huge Metapod was the perfect metaphor
Halo 4 is a great story, sometimes, the only gripe I had was the antagonist but all in all. This reaction right here just makes me want you to watch infinite’s cutscenes even more! Great job Kai!!! 👍🏻
Grew up playing it with my dad and we loved it and love all of it as you see why
Not sure of it was mentioned by someone else in the comments, but in a graphic novel it shows the Didact ends up surviving, somehow ending up on some other planet where Spartan Team Black encountered him, got massacred before John and Blue Team was ordered to investigate what happened to Black Team. They than encountered the didsct and this time finally defeated him by using multiple composers on him
Oh wow, that actually sounds good but it was a graphic novel!?
Before you move on, there's an other hour's worth of cinematics inside Halo 4 attached to the Spartan Ops game mode - which tells an important story that bridges between this game and Halo 5 - all done by the same team, so you'll be pleased (though, stored as effin' Bink - which is an absolute trash fire video container in the here and now)
I just finished watching and I loved your reactions XD
To answer your questions, if you didnt look them up on Halopedia, thats the best one, theirs like three different Halo themed wikis.
1 Master Chief was hyper evolved to what Ancient humans were like. The video you watched didnt show the terminals in the game. After humans got beaten by the Forerunners, they were forcefully "de-evolved" into "Neanderthals" or something close. After the War started with the Flood, to make it worse, lots of those then de-evloved humans were digitized into Prometheans.
She also said Chief would have lots of other abilities besides not being able to be digitized, none of us yet know what those are.
2 I think its believable that Chief put a Knife into the Litch craft. The Blade is made from the same materials his suit is, and in Halo 4 he actually did fall from space and hit the planet, unlike in 3 where he jumped form a ship from lower orbit. The other thing is, in his Mark 6/7 Armor he has had in Halo 2 all the way to 4 it is canon that his suit can easily toss around, one handed, 66 Ton tanks.
I mean I can still understand if you say "it would still take you out of the story knowing those things I pointed out" but Spartans are very strong. Chief in his Mark 6/7 Gen 3 armor he has during the time of Infinite, he can left 100 Ton Granite boulders, every Mark and Gen they make has lifting capabilities increased by multiple factors.
3 You asked about the Didact, I might have spelled his name wrong, the last remaining Forerunner we know about. He dies in a story between Halo 4 and 5. Master Chief eventually fights him and puts the same Knife he stabbed into the Litch ship right through the Didacts Face Plate and head.
This is the problem I mentioned before with Microsoft. They want all the stories to be SAFE. When they saw more people complain about the Forerunner trilogy coming up than people who liked it, and their hate for Promethean enemies, they had 343 resolve that story arc in different media.
Halo 4 had a side game, like ODST, called "Spartan Ops" it was a firefight mode but with a story, a good one in my opinion. The Storm Cov is even more zealous now, and their leader is "The Hand of the Didact." Because of Microsoft, not only did the Forerunner trilogy get resolved in different media, they had that villain, "The Hand of the Didact" killed in the very first level of Halo 5.
Microsoft is to cautious with all their properties and to hard on them. They have canceled lots of series that do well but not "Halo 3 well" which is an insane metric to base if a series should exist in game form.
Every time Microsoft saw backlash to a new Halo Trilogy, "Forerunner Trilogy" started in Halo 4, "Created Trilogy" that was started in Halo 5, because of Microsoft, and now Chief vs the Banished, those trilogies are resolved in different media.
I am happy they at least get an ending, but its not right to freak out so bad they force 343 to stop what they are doing and do something else, WHILE still being held back to make "SAFE" story arcs.
One of the many reasons why a lot of people didn't care for Halo 4 was because they tried to humanize the Chief. In previous titles, they didn't make the Chief so, for a lack of better words, talkative because they wanted the player to feel like they were the Chief. When 343 took over, not only did they change up the art direction and made a lot of things look and sound different, they also started to give the Chief more of a vocal lead in the game, giving him more and more dialog then any of the other games. And people essentially felt like they were no longer in the shoes of the Chief themselves when playing but just simply controlling another character. A lot of people also didn't seem to like the sort of "love story" that they built up between Chief and Cortana in this game either.
I've personally enjoyed all the Halo titles but could see why die-hard fans would not like this one. I will say, while they look cool, fighting the Prometheans in Halo 4 kinda sucks ass. They were a new enemy and 343 still didn't have all their mechanics worked out. With the Covenant, you could sorta focus on whatever enemy you wanted when clearing an area. You could focus on the smaller enemies like the Grunts and Jackals first, making it easier to take on the Elites without them swarming you. Or, you could focus on the Elites and make the Grunts scatter without leadership.
But with the Prometheans...you couldn't do that. If there were Watchers in an encounter (little flying robots) you ALWAYS focused on them first. They could shield enemies, catch your grenades and throw them back, spawn in Crawlers (little dog-like enemies) or even revive Knights you may have killed already. So, you'd always want to focus on them. Then you'd take out the Knights, which...weren't all that fun to fight. Some could see through walls so they always knew where you were, some could spawn in Watchers to protect them, some could spawn in little personally sentry turrets to defend themselves, they could warp away into cover if you started shooting them, and if you damaged them too much, some of them would do this rapid, zig-zag warp attack where they would rush directly in front of you to hit you...which on harder difficulties, was almost always an instant kill on the player.
As a concept, the Prometheans are an awesome enemy. But when it came down to the gameplay, they were very lacking, and were a nightmare on harder difficulties. They thankfully figured out how to work them better when it came to Halo 5: Guardians. To explain the final "fight" here with the Didact, it's rather lackluster...the whole fight is literally just a Quick-Time-Event button push. As you climb back up onto the bridge, you rush him with a Promethean Pulse Grenade. If you hit the button at the right time, you slam it into his chest and right before he can throw you off, the grenade goes off and makes him fall to his death. If you miss this button prompt, you fail and he just throws you off the bridge and you die and have to retry.
You were curious about the Didact's voice actor, that'd be Keith Szarabajka (pronounced "sarah-biker", IIRC).
Also known for roles like Herschel Biggs (L.A. Noire), Harbinger (Mass Effect 2), Rudiger/'Greaseface' (Tales From the Borderlands) & the Order of St. Dumas (Batman: Arkham Knight).
Impossible for me to not cry at the Cortana goodbye part.... 😢 Gets me every time.
45:20 Just a heads up the lighting is broken in that scene. It’s been fixed now but it was a bug in MCC for a while
I'd LOVE to see a video on battlefield.
Stuff like the Battlefield 1 intro cinematic, Battlefield 5 The last Tiger, Etc.
I can't believe you guessed the last line! It's SO good
It's because his head moved and that's exactly what I wanted to hear, him reference it. Beautiful!
When I played this for the first time, being a huge fan of the series, definitely cried at the end. Not at first, but seeing him on that observation deck by himself ended up doing it.
As far as the overall look, that was actually my first thought about it, the graphics on this were fantastic... and this was on Xbox 360
Halo 4 has a SUPER UNDERRATED soundtrack. Definitely worth a listen or ten.
I honestly enjoyed halo 4 alot, even if it didn't meet all the expectations and also liked the different art style and armour set, glad you covered it
The cut scenes have always been good
I've been waiting for this reaction!!!!
I hope you enjoy it
I've waited so long to see you continue this series of halo, can't wait to see you finish it! Love what you do! Keep it up!
I'm glad you liked it fella and enjoying the journey with me! Halo CE next
@@kaizammit absolutely can't wait!
As much as I did not like halo 4, the more I play it and watch videos like this, makes me appreciate and love the story telling
1:10:29 the incoming call says dr Katherine halsey, i never knew this after 12 years of playing this game wow
The armor is explained by Cortana using nanomachines to rework it while John was in cryo for a few years (don't ask me how she did that tho, since the on-board nanomachines of MJOLNIR are generally only rly useful for repairing simple stuff like armor plating etc)
Another fascinating commentary of a game I love! I admit that it wasn't until now that I realised that Cortana saved chief by wrapping up the hard light bridge (also how she could touch him). Nail on the head about the difference in feel between the Covenant and the Didact/Prometheans. I found though that they nailed the feel of playing as a heavy spartan with heavy weapons and things in this one (though I haven't played the later games). I do recommend playing it even if the feel of the promethean enemies isn't quite what you want as it is such a gorgeous game, and there's quire a few ambient details left out by the gameplay seen here (which I won't spoil ;) ).
44:10 Highly recommend you check out the Halo 4 terminal cutscenes which answer a lot of questions. Also just wanted to say how much I enjoy these reactions/film breakdowns. I know it takes a good chunk of your time to do this but I hope you know it doesn't go unappreciated. Can't wait for the next one.
I love to watch Halo cut scenes quite often but after finding your channel I enjoy them more with you commentating. Can't wait for you to watch Infinite, cinematography wise it's a heavy hitter with the no-cuts camera technique.
Idk if anyones mentioned this in the comments but the reason all the spartans look the same at the beginning is because those were the prototypes of the actual Mjolnir armor which chief receives from doctor Hallsy right before the fall of reach and death of the majority of the spartans he was raised with to the convenant invasion.
This game out during your first year of Uni, and for me first year of high school, love that
This is the first halo to do full facial and motion capture in its cut scenes. That why even though its on the same console that as halo 3 (the 360) it looks so much more realistic.
Something to keep in mind if you plan on continuing on with Halo 5. Halo 4 had an extra multiplayer mode called Spartan Ops that takes place after the campaign. You play as your multiplayer spartan but there is a real story being told there. It includes about another hour or so of cinematics and story telling that was animated by a different studio than 343 (Axis Animation). Definitely worth a watch before moving on to Halo 5.
As a person who the first game I ever played was Halo 2 multiplayer at 5 years old and the first story mode I completed was Halo: CE, I will never understand the hate Halo 4 got. Was it perfect? No. It was however the last truly great Halo story in my opinion. I remember beating it on legendary at 13 years old and getting the briefest glance at Chief's face. This was the culmination of my childhood, beating Ce through 4 on legendary and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Also I love 343's take on the Mark VI armor.
1:00:00 My jaw hasn't dropped that low in a while till that scene boiled up
I really was expecting this since the reaction of h3 odst, with reach and 4 are the best in cutscenes
I love your work
Thank you so much! Halo CE next
@@kaizammit if you could react to the terminals, of the anniversary versión and the cutscenes of the og version (a lots of ambient and details are missing in the remastered and the terminals are pure gold, especially the "keyes" terminal
Lot of folks saying that they don't explain his armor changing, but that's simply not true. I distinctly remember 343 explaining that Cortana was using nanobots to alter chief's armor and "upgrade" it while he was in cryo. This was likely just an excuse or a hastily put together explanation for a retcon, but it works imo. Regardless, I vastly prefer the armor in halo infinite. Also the composer digitized organic lifeforms into Ai constructs pretty much, but then trying to convert them back to organic bodies failed, but the didact used this to digitize humans and then imprisoned them into the Promethean knight bodies, to follow him and to serve as a perfect counter to the flood, which couldn't consume them and convert them.
Also they started recording lines in this game with the actors in the same room, specifically Chief and Cortana recorded their lines in the same room at times so that they could play off each other better and make it feel like real conversations.
Additionally, This game was too harshly lynched by the fans, I honestly think that the writing, cinematography and music were all fantastic considering there were a lot of new folks working on this and Bungie was gone. You just have to remember that the tone is very different and that this is no longer a space opera, it's more of a low key interpersonal experience between Cortana and Chief. I wish they'd continued this trend with 5, instead of the shenanigans that they pulled with Cortana.....The only thing I can't really defend is the gameplay, there are parts that are really good (The weight is really good feeling) but on higher difficulties it was just plain frustrating when you start fighting the Prometheans knights; Also the ending with the didact was just bad, but I think they wrote his powers in such a way that they couldn't come up with a good gameplay experience.
I'm also one of the people that really liked infinite and am really sad that we didn't get the story dlc that was promised. I hope you do Halo 5 as well, despite how bad it was overall, it still has some fun bits, and some of the new characters are good imo and the gameplay was fun, but the narrative was bad; ultimately I still wish it never happened. I can't wait until infinite :D
One last thing, I get the sense that one or multiple writers on this might have had a parent or loved one that had dementia or a deteriorating mental condition, considering they handled Cortana pretty well from that perspective.
Ahhhh if only they continued that story.....
We need halo 5 and infinite reactions asap! Love these so much, brings me back to when I played the games for the first time. Great video
Thank you fella. They are on the way but Halo CE is next up. It was second on the Halo poll over on Patreon.
I was actually still in secondary school when Halo 4 came out and I won a copy of the game through a mountain dew competition XD Only time I ever won anything from a bottle competition.
That's awesome! I've never won anything like that.
That intro cinematic is lowkey fire
50:40 Suspension of disbelief only goes so far
Suspension of disbelief is the avoidance of logic in works of fiction; or the “unreal” filter through which connoisseurs of art choose to accept as part of the diegesis. The tenets behind “suspension of disbelief” was commented on by Greek writers such as Aristotle - and was formally presented by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817.
36:13, we've seen this behavior before in Colonel Silva in the first 2 Halo novels. Baseline humans with chips on their shoulders due to the Spartans or Chief in particular
every loves to hate the inexplicable armor change, but man, i'm cool with ignoring the transition in my head lore, cus this revision is bad ass, still my favorite
The reason his armor looks different is the armor has nano bot technically in the suite and Cortana used it to reconfigure his armor
Man if only the show looked like some of these cutscenes, damn shame
the didact becomes a better villain through more context. For example he has been corrupted by the logic plague and thats why hes just straight up bad.
this is only explained in extended lore such as terminals
yeah chief has different armour because when he was sleeping cortana used nano machines to change it. it’s also why we can’t use it in multiplayer cuz it was never produced by the unsc
There's a few books and et cetra that explain the forerunner's place in the universe and why they do what they do. Once you read up on all that and etc they become a lot more of an understandable faction, because there was books released in tandem with halo 4. It does suck they aren't more explained in the game though, but at least they are explained. For me personally I feel like the issue, with every enemy really.. the AI. The AI behaved very.. unlike other enemies in other halos. Like in halo reach and halo 2 and 3, the enemies felt amazing to play against because they was designed well, they had good animations and they actually played smart for AI, the AI in halo 4.. they felt more like bullet sponges than anything. But great review and reaction Kai! Keep it up
The one thing I'm a little sad they didn't add into the video you watched, during the portion of that campaign mission where the chief is trying to regroup with the forces from the UNSC Infinity, One of the Marines gets stabbed by a Promethean. The man goes out like a badass cooking off a frag grenade shoving it into the face of the Promethean and killing both of them.
Jist a heads up: the final cutscene by Axis Studios, where chief walks by Palmer and he's massive, he's about 9 feet tall in that scene. Its a mistake by the animators from the studio, and 343 has explained arounf 2014 that that particular scene is inaccurate and thusly no longer canon. The same studio made similar scaling mistakes in spartan Ops in Halo 4 with ship scale and such.
@4:03 early on there weren't alot of modification in milijorn thats why they look the same
Master Chief is a Spartan II, trained since he was a child and augmented as a teenager. The other's are Spartan IV, new generation created as adults, so Chief and his lot are taller than the more recent ones
Keep the content coming brother love it man! ur so enjoyable to watch!
Thank you fella, means a lot!
I love the aging Spartan thing cause I'm fairly sure 117 is chronologically younger than Del Rio. He is definitely physically younger, late 30s max at this point.
Ive got to admit mr zammit that it was this type of video that got me hooke on your channel
Specifically your halo reach reaction
Cant wait to see what you do in the future
You are so right, the thing about the promitions is that its like they felt like they hade to find s NEW enemy, just give te covys a reason to start fighting tje humans agains and this game would be complete
Gotta be one my favorite Halo campaigns 👌