Surprised you thought the end of infinity had fun combat. It was a giant empty platform with no friendly AI and some phantoms slowly approaching in waves. Even in high school I recognized how badly that ending hid the “game-iness” of the sequence. Bungie games were pretty good usually at hiding game-y moments (minus halo 2, that game was pretty bad at hiding its wave defense sequences)
I think that's a great observation. The action-packed background music also helped to hide the actual contents of the gameplay. I will add that I was really trying to be charitable to Halo 4 so as to not make it seem like I was shredding *everything* about it just for the sake of shredding it lol You're 100% right that it would've been much more immersive with AI defenders, perhaps a greater variety of Covie vehicles attacking in quicker waves, etc. It's also possible my opinion of that sequence is elevated by how much I loathe everything before it in the game! Thank you so much for the watch and I truly appreciate any and all feedback you can give!
Just a random fact to share, But if you tally up the entire covenant force that we see, Light Cruisers and Liches and all, Across the whole game its like... enough room for 658 People... Meaning the covenant faction meant to be a threat in this game, Not only carries less people than the hecking in amber clad from Halo 2, But is facing off against UNSC Infinity with 500 Spartan IVs and 17,000 UNSC Personnel..... OUR MAIN COVENANT ENEMY As far as logical based on their fleet size says, Only has 158 more guys, Than we have SPARTANS Goofy 343 Shenanigans.
And even then, IIRC, we don't get much of an explanation for the civil war. We basically just learn that there *is* a civil war, without learning what drives each side. It can be inferred that both sides are fighting for power and legitimacy as a governing body, and presumably the Covenant forces are still holding to the religion and traditions of the Covenant, but I don't think we are told any of that explicitly. What a wasted opportunity for interesting and relevant worldbuilding! For as much as 343 seemed to be obsessed with the expanded lore, the civil war is as barebones and straightforward as possible, with no interesting ideological or galactic implications. Even if the Arbiter lost, the game doesn't make the case that this would be a serious problem for humanity. They could have instead built it so that the civil war prevents the Arbiter from sending aid against . . . I guess it would be prometheans and guardians? Nevermind; 343's worldbuilding is just lame and disinteresting. The Didact seemed to be dead after Halo 4, and I don't like fighting against robots controlled by Cortana. But assuming the entire thing were reworked, the Elite civil war could be much more compelling - rather than being an irrelevant, disconnected side quest, it could have factored into the main plot in a vital way.
@Nethseaar yeah it had a chance to be like Halo 2 and build something more (like the Covenant and their internals) and set up something bigger (Medicant Bias in Dreadnought)
Actually, I find that line about the stupidity of the scouting run to be relatively reasonable. Reason being, detecting a gravity well generator is something you can do from orbit (you don't need a scouting run), there's likely more than one gravity well generator (see end of Halo Wars for the barrier preventing the Spirit of Fire from leaving versus putting a homing beacon on the Falcon on the Death Star, and exiting from a hangar bay) and also the number of Covenant and Prometheans (enough to fill a planet) severely outnumber the Infinity...and also you find Lasky and Palmer fighting Prometheans in a jungle, which is a military nightmare. Now, if you'd found them underground trying to find Requiem's Control Room on the previous mission...
I continue to be impressed by your attention to detail and high-quality presentation! The visual and auditory comparisons at 5:13 quickly and effectively showcase your point. Your choices of Frank O'Connor clips have been revealing and highly relevant. Fun use of Cortana lines & so forth (such as 'Oh, I don't think so' at 4:25). All these additions do a great job making your well-argued script easy to follow and appreciate. I eagerly await part 5!
Actually funily enough "Storm Covenant" is not actually their name. It was a misinterpretation by the official Xbox Magazine cause of the Storm Rifle and the elite minor now being called the "Storm Elite". They have the even more boring name of "Jul M'dama's covenant remnant"
Halo 4 is genuinely one of the worst shooters I've ever had the displeasure of playing it baffles me how some people can say this game had a "great story"
Oh, and let me save you the trouble with what happened in the books: nothing. Absolutely nothing relevant or interesting happened. It was like reading the manual to the printer that made them. They're as poorly planned out as the games, so when on the off chance there's a decent writer, they're basically told "And make sure everything is destroyed by the end." Back in the day, I was one of those people who asked 343i to stop killing off interesting characters, because they can't make a long-term story if they kill everyone off. I forgot to mention that they also need to stop destroyed every LOCATION that's introduced as well. But if someone tells you that it's all explained in the books/comics/tie-ins, they're mistaken. It's like the Hunt the Truth campaign for Halo 5--that had a great story in Season One, with a lot of promise and potential, but it has NOTHING to do with the Halo 5 campaign. There's a particular image for the Halo 2 box art that they try to say was altered and in reality there were more Banshees, and dead marines, and the image was cropped, and so on, when in reality that particular image was added to for the Hunt the Truth campaign. That's basically 343 Industries in a nutshell--they keep on adding stuff, saying that was the way it was intended all along, when the stuff they add doesn't make any sense, or is completely unnecessary, and they're actually altering history.
Truly, Covenant warship designs are among the best in science fiction. But of course 343 doesn't seem to think so, based on how much they ignored and/or misused those designs.
How many problems does Halo 4 have? ALL OF THEM.
Surprised you thought the end of infinity had fun combat. It was a giant empty platform with no friendly AI and some phantoms slowly approaching in waves. Even in high school I recognized how badly that ending hid the “game-iness” of the sequence. Bungie games were pretty good usually at hiding game-y moments (minus halo 2, that game was pretty bad at hiding its wave defense sequences)
I think that's a great observation. The action-packed background music also helped to hide the actual contents of the gameplay. I will add that I was really trying to be charitable to Halo 4 so as to not make it seem like I was shredding *everything* about it just for the sake of shredding it lol
You're 100% right that it would've been much more immersive with AI defenders, perhaps a greater variety of Covie vehicles attacking in quicker waves, etc. It's also possible my opinion of that sequence is elevated by how much I loathe everything before it in the game!
Thank you so much for the watch and I truly appreciate any and all feedback you can give!
F I didn't know that whole CRS cruisers stuff....Damn it that makes sense now, that's also why it goes down with a single missile in the first level
Just a random fact to share, But if you tally up the entire covenant force that we see, Light Cruisers and Liches and all, Across the whole game its like... enough room for 658 People... Meaning the covenant faction meant to be a threat in this game, Not only carries less people than the hecking in amber clad from Halo 2, But is facing off against UNSC Infinity with 500 Spartan IVs and 17,000 UNSC Personnel.....
OUR MAIN COVENANT ENEMY As far as logical based on their fleet size says, Only has 158 more guys, Than we have SPARTANS
Goofy 343 Shenanigans.
As far as the games are concerned, it took them until Halo 5 to explain the civil war happening with the Elites after Halo 3.
And even then, IIRC, we don't get much of an explanation for the civil war. We basically just learn that there *is* a civil war, without learning what drives each side.
It can be inferred that both sides are fighting for power and legitimacy as a governing body, and presumably the Covenant forces are still holding to the religion and traditions of the Covenant, but I don't think we are told any of that explicitly.
What a wasted opportunity for interesting and relevant worldbuilding! For as much as 343 seemed to be obsessed with the expanded lore, the civil war is as barebones and straightforward as possible, with no interesting ideological or galactic implications. Even if the Arbiter lost, the game doesn't make the case that this would be a serious problem for humanity.
They could have instead built it so that the civil war prevents the Arbiter from sending aid against . . . I guess it would be prometheans and guardians? Nevermind; 343's worldbuilding is just lame and disinteresting. The Didact seemed to be dead after Halo 4, and I don't like fighting against robots controlled by Cortana. But assuming the entire thing were reworked, the Elite civil war could be much more compelling - rather than being an irrelevant, disconnected side quest, it could have factored into the main plot in a vital way.
@Nethseaar yeah it had a chance to be like Halo 2 and build something more (like the Covenant and their internals) and set up something bigger (Medicant Bias in Dreadnought)
Actually, I find that line about the stupidity of the scouting run to be relatively reasonable. Reason being, detecting a gravity well generator is something you can do from orbit (you don't need a scouting run), there's likely more than one gravity well generator (see end of Halo Wars for the barrier preventing the Spirit of Fire from leaving versus putting a homing beacon on the Falcon on the Death Star, and exiting from a hangar bay) and also the number of Covenant and Prometheans (enough to fill a planet) severely outnumber the Infinity...and also you find Lasky and Palmer fighting Prometheans in a jungle, which is a military nightmare. Now, if you'd found them underground trying to find Requiem's Control Room on the previous mission...
I continue to be impressed by your attention to detail and high-quality presentation! The visual and auditory comparisons at 5:13 quickly and effectively showcase your point. Your choices of Frank O'Connor clips have been revealing and highly relevant. Fun use of Cortana lines & so forth (such as 'Oh, I don't think so' at 4:25). All these additions do a great job making your well-argued script easy to follow and appreciate.
I eagerly await part 5!
Q Forward onto dawn soundtrack as we jump to awaken the Master chief after a year of no uploads
We’re so back
Actually funily enough "Storm Covenant" is not actually their name. It was a misinterpretation by the official Xbox Magazine cause of the Storm Rifle and the elite minor now being called the "Storm Elite". They have the even more boring name of "Jul M'dama's covenant remnant"
Halo 4 is genuinely one of the worst shooters I've ever had the displeasure of playing it baffles me how some people can say this game had a "great story"
Oh, and let me save you the trouble with what happened in the books: nothing. Absolutely nothing relevant or interesting happened. It was like reading the manual to the printer that made them. They're as poorly planned out as the games, so when on the off chance there's a decent writer, they're basically told "And make sure everything is destroyed by the end." Back in the day, I was one of those people who asked 343i to stop killing off interesting characters, because they can't make a long-term story if they kill everyone off. I forgot to mention that they also need to stop destroyed every LOCATION that's introduced as well. But if someone tells you that it's all explained in the books/comics/tie-ins, they're mistaken. It's like the Hunt the Truth campaign for Halo 5--that had a great story in Season One, with a lot of promise and potential, but it has NOTHING to do with the Halo 5 campaign. There's a particular image for the Halo 2 box art that they try to say was altered and in reality there were more Banshees, and dead marines, and the image was cropped, and so on, when in reality that particular image was added to for the Hunt the Truth campaign. That's basically 343 Industries in a nutshell--they keep on adding stuff, saying that was the way it was intended all along, when the stuff they add doesn't make any sense, or is completely unnecessary, and they're actually altering history.
Holy shit he's back
I really enjoy this indepth critique of halo 4's story, keep it going man
9:53 obligated dog timestamp
9:24 it's such a sad waste of cool ship designs
Truly, Covenant warship designs are among the best in science fiction. But of course 343 doesn't seem to think so, based on how much they ignored and/or misused those designs.
Please do more my man.
I uh
Never touched a Halo book and 4 is one of my favorites.
Another incredible video!
These are so good. Please make more.
It’s the only 343 one I enjoyed totally even the multiplayer
Halo 4 killed the franchise the moment that realesed.
Unintelligent hive mind of people here
“Somehow the covenant returned”