Halo Lost Its Identity

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below about the new universe Halo finds itself in.
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Soul Nomad
#halo #haloinfinite

[@schmooder3]

Their desire to 'broaden their audience' not only failed, but also lost them a good portion of their core audience. I am shocked, shocked! Well not that shocked.

[@Nikos.]

yeah it ain't surprising anymore

[@stopper0203]

It's funny, at around 11:45 of the battle pass preview, it was as if they realized how good the core audience of the Halo community is, and how close they are to losing every one of them. Hopefully we can turn it around 🤞!

[@MunDaneFatt]

Welp they deserve it, I don’t care what happens to Bungie neither. Ones that were most involved in direction of halo have left.

[@joecool1184]

*releases halo cook book* "That's what the halo fans want"

[@Kaimerah]

its cause halo already appealed to a broad audience

[@MacBamboocha]

HW2 was not developed or written by 343i, it's a Creative Assembly game with 343i approval logo. Hence it was the only good one. Escharum close to death was clear from the get go. In the first non holo cut scene he starts coughing and our beloved edge Lord mecha-Elite is visibly preoccupied. There were moments in between too, that one is one you mate! 😅 I agree with everything else. 343i does not understand or care for what Halo actually is. All they wanted is putting their own stamp on it, but it shouldn't be a Spartan story. The universe has way more to offer! Issue is the damage done is too big now it won't ever get resolved. Especially with everything they have done to Cortana, what character assassination that one was. I really believe redoing the games from H4 onwards in a "what if" kinda game and making that branch the new main line lore moving forward is the only way to go. Unless they want Halo to become modern Star Wars: a joke.

[@majora919]

best way id describe infinite is "its the best 343 halo"

[@RatedShadowXrd]

there's an old saying 343's.....inability to safeguard halo, was a colossal failure

[@John-du4ie]

I love this haha great work shadow

[@Wigga4787]

Nay! It was HERESY!

[@bigdoggo5827]

Remember that 343 betrayed the MC not just once but twice

[@Evacer]

You mean their inability to safeguard it was a success, don't you? They were successful in not safeguarding Halo.

[@cynicalgold9992]

@@Evacer you either don't understand the quote or haven't played halo 2.

[@forbiddenspatula4243]

In Halo 3 when humanity was loosing the war Master Cheif didn't single handedly save the day like he does in Infinite. It was a team effort, you fought along side ODSTs, Johnson died, Miranda died, you became brothers in arms with Arbiter. Sacrifices were made. But no, suddenly in Infinite Cheif is all powerful and THE ONLY person who can stop the Banished.

[@optiTHOMAS]

Indeed! I miss the classic unsc and all the humans. Halo feels so much of a shell of its former self. 😔 yeah, chief was always there, but he was apart of something bigger, the unsc and the survival of humanity! I miss that halo. And God damn I miss the ODSTs!

[@nikoavocado435]

What about Echo 216?

[@forbiddenspatula4243]

@@nikoavocado435 He doesn't actually do much other than fly Cheif around. I like him as a charecter, but he was just another guy Cheif had to save, once when the Brute brothers down him and then again at the tower.

[@forbiddenspatula4243]

@@zanesnep Being able to stack marines on Razorbacks is more of a gameplay gimmick than a narrative element. Not once do we see a cutscene or story beat where the marines are actually involved. As for the books, that feels like a cop out. In CE and 2 why did Cheif have to team up with Jhonson and marines? In 3 why did he have to team up with Arby? In 4 whyd he team up with other Spartan 4's? In 5 whyd he team up with Blue Team? Why didn't he just go at it alone in those games like in Infinite if he's so strong? Because in the context of the in game story it wouldn't make as much sense as an actual novel where he's purposely OP.

[@FallenTerrarian]

Halo CE is basically the same way as Infinite, no? And plus you don’t save it single handedly, Esparza and The Weapon help you out, along with Griffin and the Monitors. And don’t forget the Marines! Yes 2, 3 and reach you have help, but so does 4 and 5, especially 4 with the Infinite and Lasky. How Rio wants to abandon Chief but gets fired and Lasky Helps him out!

[@liamfloyd3415]

Your point on the hyper focus of the Spartans is great. It’s been a huge issue with 343 for me. The Spartans were something of mystical warriors, they didn’t speak much and had mystery around them. 343 basically makes Spartans a dime a dozen and there’s nothing interesting about them. Same goes for Chief. Halo’s original story wasn’t about Chief, it was about his journey. Chief is simply a vessel for the player, and that’s often broken when he refuses to shut up during gameplay.

[@livingglowstick1337]

You forget bungie are the ones who made the spartan 3s and 4s right? And spartans spoke a lot in any media outside the games cheif was act known for being very quite only opening up to people close to him which was a big contrast even with in his team where they where very vocal and even hanged around with marines and odst I mean look at red team there like teenagers having fun most of the time and that's bungie lore

[@devildolphin2102]

343 made Spartan 4s. Bungie Made Spartan 3s who are Really rare, due to being Literal Super Suicide Soldiers.

[@thomasmiller8476]

There's a good reason the main characters hardly talk in the bungie era but 343 needed chief to have a gf.

[@sealco]

Bruh chief is still a vessel and if you wont to tell me halo 4 or 343 broke that trend, then maybe you should replay ce, where he constantly talks and is very expressive in movement

[@getsueinaito]

@@devildolphin2102 I thought spartan 1 failed to take off, 2 were essentially adult super soldiers like captain america but also could be designed with augmentations. 3s were raised from childhood to become super soldiers with a military mindset

[@tacticalpossum7090]

" Youve defeated a galactic empire, a universe destroying parasite, and an actual Forerunnner. Now youll fight... space monkey pirates, I guess.

[@shrumgus5608]

Not even the biggest baddest one

[@Munnwort]

I honestly think the Banished would’ve been an amazing enemy had they been handled correctly

[@shrumgus5608]

@@Munnwort they really do just feel like red covenant, really would’ve liked their brutal survivalist aspects fleshed out

[@nagger8216]

@@Munnwort I mean, anything has the potential to be good if it's handled correctly. That's such a meaningless observation lmfao

[@jebes909090]

Now you'll face......bigots!

[@bradybaker7650]

I thought that since the banished don’t have the “kill all humans” motive of the covenant, and apparently in the books they do recruit human criminals, it would be a cool thing to be able to fight human enemies.

[@jonathanoriley8260]

The entire fashion in which 343 utilized the Banished in Infinite just ruined whatever potential they had.

[@Onxide]

Imagine a banished Spartan

[@MrChickennugget360]

that would have been awesome to have human enemies. This could also set up for future prequel games set before REACH where you play as both Human Spartans and the Covenant. Fight missions against the Covenant then play missions against the UNSC.

[@shcdemolisher]

@@MrChickennugget360 Yeah!! A jumping between both sides, seeing how they react and so on.

[@MikefromBB7]

there will never be fighting enemy marines cuz some in halo are women and the teen rating will never allow players to kill human women. same reason the flood wont be back either.

[@scottsantacruz313]

"343 hasn't EARNED Halo." Always comes to mind, when thinking of the Halo games they produced, Bungie cared about what they produced, and furthermore where passionate about this series, and that always shined through, by comparison however, 343's Halo games come across as "milk a beloved franchise because we can."

[@Voltboy1449]

what's worse is 343 was started by bungie employees who wanted to continue the franchise

[@schnoz2372]

They sure did milk it, milked it to death.

[@m4x927]

passionate? didn't they want to move from halo after like halo 2?

[@graye2799]

@@Voltboy1449 nope, thats a myth that's been debunked over and over. Only a few bungie employees went to 343 and the few that did weren't really responsible for how the original trilogy turned out. Frankie was basically the guy who did miscellaneous stuff at the company and somehow wound up in charge of halos creative direction.

[@nagger8216]

@@m4x927 Yes, and they still put in a massive effort with each Halo game. Which speaks to their character and integrity, if anything. Especially when you compare it to 343's pathetic attempts.

[@kamman1374]

Bonnie Ross was the worst thing to happen to this franchise.

[@ArgentWolf95]

She was Kathleen Kennedy of Halo.

[@Ghostman223]

Wasn't she the manager of the money and stuff? What's she have anything to do with this?

[@kamman1374]

@@Ghostman223 ummm, as the head of the studio she was directly responsible for the direction of the IP. This isn't like a normal, company, since 343 was specifically created for Halo. She didn't replace staff when things failed and went as far as to ripping scripts when it didn't focus on non halo stuff. IE gender, race and other pc woke bs. Go look up the articles and forums.

[@ArgentWolf95]

@@Ghostman223 The whole push for a 'Broader Audience' was her corporate decision, it was also her responsibility for deciding the positions of the dev Halo team under her, but the responsibility does not lie on her alone. If she was just the Central Financial Officer she'd have no influence on the game dev, but Companies in entertainment industries are a little less simple. Her job was more alike to Kathleen A Kennedy's role in Lucasfilm, and she was running things as badly. I don't hate her as a person, but am very displeased with how her management has made a mess of a sci fio that could be as loved and well known as Star Wars. in the 2000's a Halo release was the first game that was like Star Wars releases.

[@graye2799]

@@ArgentWolf95 people don't give enough shit to frank o Connor as well. While Bonnie Ross get alot of deserved shit thrown her way, Frank was basically responsible for all of Halos narrative shortcomings since halo 4. He's the one who retconed the Forerunners.

[@devildolphin2102]

Dude Blur Literally Gave 343 Half a Dozen new Banished Characters to use in the story. So they Kill them all off and use Faceless Grunts and One New character who immediately dies. Halo Wars 2 Semi-Saved halo For a little bit and 343 ignored and Killed it.

[@stevenstodd16]

😞😞😡

[@thesaltmerchant4564]

Yeah halo wars two was pretty mid when all is said and done. What’s weird it might be their best game

[@jackdeviluke3969]

Only because they tried to appeal to toxic nostalgia fanboys like you guys

[@devildolphin2102]

@@jackdeviluke3969 So Your saying halo 4, 5, and cosmetic shop Infinite are “Good” Is that a Hill you really want to Die on. Or are you that much of a shill.

[@jackdeviluke3969]

@@devildolphin2102 I'll die on the hill of 4 being good 5 being meh and Infinite being nostalgia bait garbage

[@pkpong]

It’s so sad to see a franchise I have loved so much die in my arms

[@WonderboxGamerGirl]

I feel this…

[@n1njahawkssecondchannel84]

Me too man & it’s the one that got me wanting to play all my life now halo is dead

[@xxbublebee123]

Jesus loves you. Jesus is returning soon. There will be a rapture soon.

[@allwinissac4924]

Wait till the nezt halo comes out!!!!

[@chubbyanimalenthusiast70]

I love the flood absolutely loved them and was so excited when we went to a new ring and nothing they were nowhere to be seen

[@theorbitalone7283]

Didnt chief stop the flood? Ive never been a fan of fighting them, some of the worst missions involve them. But love their concept, id like to see a new threat similar to them though.

[@chubbyanimalenthusiast70]

@@theorbitalone7283 there is flood on every ring in halo 1 he blew up the ring killing all those flood then in halo 2 they found another ring which had gravemind then in halo 3 they blew them all up

[@KaiNLinda]

So much for the biggest threat of the galaxy.

[@becauseiwantto2467]

And considering the ring infinite takes place on it’s stupid that the flood isn’t in the game

[@TheObscuran]

bUt tHe EnDlEsS iS wOrSe tHaN fLoOd...

[@commanderwyro4204]

when we found that wounded spartan IV in the tower of pain. i was so excited thinking we were gonna get a new side character that would just be an injured spartan protecting the pilot. offering insight and data. then he died lol

[@m4x927]

well he ain't no spartan 2, bro was tortured for days and still didn't tell them anything

[@Spyrzx]

Another thing that’s missing: Scarab Fights. What happened? I friggin loved those. To see a Banished Scarab in Infinite would be cool.

[@hydrophobia936]

Wym it lost its identity? The last Halo game was Reach.

[@stevenstodd16]

😂

[@masterchiefpettyofficerspa3646]

You mean the game that badically said "fuck you" to the expanded universe?

[@hydrophobia936]

@@masterchiefpettyofficerspa3646 If it aint in the games then I dont care lmao

[@jabalzy6982]

This perfectly captures all my frustrations with 343's Halo, I really hope someone at 343 sees this because they need to understand its not just the art style we are tired of its the lack of character diversity and a meaningful plot.

[@TT-uy5el]

yesss. I finished the halo infinite campaign in like january of this year and I honestly don't even remember what infinite was about. Other than fighting Atriox like i don't remember what the point of it was lol

[@jabalzy6982]

@@TT-uy5el I don’t think 343 even knew what the point of it was

[@TT-uy5el]

@@jabalzy6982 😂

[@nigeltheoutlaw]

When will these corporations get that diversity doesn't just mean having the United Nations on screen? It means actual diverse personalities, viewpoints, and beliefs. A palette swap isn't cutting it.

[@aeriumfour6096]

Think of it like this, Microsoft's logo used to have red, green, blue and yellow, it used to be full of color. It's now grey. Halo used to be full of color, under 343 it's grey. The problem isn't just 343, it's the people Microsoft hired, they've lost all semblance of creativity.

[@zedster8200]

It's depressing, dude.

[@dddddddddddddddddddd647]

Such a great statement! Sad to see this is the direction shit ends up going in

[@shcdemolisher]

It's more or less everywhere.

[@erosion01]

WHY WASNT ESHROOM INFECTED WITH SOMEE KIND OF SLOW FORMING FLOOD SPORE AND AT THE END OF THE GAME BECAME A FLOOD HIVEMIND THING WHAT A PLOT TWIST THAT WOULDA BEEN

[@devildolphin2102]

In Bungie halo Halsey and ONI were Gray. They did bad things like Kidnap children or the Flood Infected Mona Lisa. But also did amazing Things like the Spartans, saved engineers, Suicided a captured Covenant flagship to destroy a Covie Fleet to save master chief. In 343 Halsey is literally Hitler and ONI are Gestapo. The Entirety of Hunt the truth Audio series was Disgusting seeing ONI become Mustache twirling Bad guys with all the Nuance thrown away.

[@masterchiefpettyofficerspa3646]

Not true. Unless you read the books (which Bungie considered B tier since it wasn't their creation), then ONI and Halsey are painted as heroes before 343 stepped in.

[@devildolphin2102]

@@masterchiefpettyofficerspa3646 Well. Depends on the Book. All Bungie books didn’t outright say if they were bad guys but didn’t kinda paint humanity as Morally Grey because they would do anything to avoid extinction. Evolutions Painted ONI as more Villainous. With Mona Lisa and the Brute Camp. While First strike and Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx had a more Positive light. Hell Major Ackerson the bad guy of Reach is Kinda nice and good in Onyx. In 343 Everyone of ONI is Generic Disney Bad guy and it’s all watered down to the point it feels like it’s written by 5 year olds.

[@samlund8543]

It’s worth noting that Mona Lisa is technically 343’s idea since they organized/published Evolutions, but yeah otherwise I agree, most nuance got thrown away when Bungie left.

[@Warriorx269]

I get that they were going for the Halo ce style but they should have made certain areas of the ring controlled by the banished look something similar to a world war 2 battleground with lots of environmental devistation. the banished in Halo wars 2 were a lot more threathening looking than they are in Halo infinite.

[@deerecoyote2040]

I agree mostly, but I have one issue. Joseph Staten is doing the writing now. He even confessed on camera that he didn't have time to reshape the story of Infinite in just a year. I think that any future Halo campaigns will have the Bungie trilogy vibes with him in charge.

[@doomguy2020]

I hope and pray

[@EL-ISS]

This is going to be the next halo for ten off years ... I guess there's hope for the DLCs but ain't no way they can change the main story now for the better without retconning a bunch of stuff.

[@goldencrown1680]

@@EL-ISS doesn’t sound like a problem to me

[@97Crazysteve]

He also knew about the terrible monetization in Infinite and said they "we're taking a player-first perspective on their design choices and monetization choices". He knew how bad it would be. HE KNEW. Joseph Staten is compromised, he is one of them. He is not the great person we once knew.

[@doomguy2020]

@@97Crazysteve Either that or he may have also had his hands tied/had no control of that aspect and just couldn't say much besides 343's buzzword jargon. But like every single other fucking thing with Halo, we'll have to wait and see if his influence steers things in a better direction

[@tarabelle7716]

Remember chips dubbo? he had more character than every single 343 written character

[@samlund8543]

Fuck, you know what I just realized? There isn’t a single named marine OC in all of 343’s games. Not one. No new marines to replace Johnson, Dubbo, Stacker, etc - it’s all just bland Spartans now.

[@No_Maidens1]

More character then every single 343 character written combined

[@OrangeJambo]

At 9:28 you really make a valid point. Not only that.. THE SPACES TO TELL THOSE STORIES WERE THERE. Each Skull location had so much potential for a Marine dialogue event. EACH data pad location could've done more than play a voice memo from an iphone.

[@ordinary1069]

I love you point about 343s power trip spartons. However, I cannot agree with you on Esheram, I thought he was one of the best villans in the game. And you say that the game doesn't explain that he wanted a final fight with chief, but I thought they were remarkably clear with that. They did a perfect example of show don't tell with him. We can figure that out in all the cutscenes, I wasn't confused at all.

[@Nikos.]

I picked up on it, but tons of others were confused. I like the subtlty for sure, and I wish they leaned into it a bit more and gave him a more likable character, I did not like him personally

[@ordinary1069]

@@Nikos. that's fair.

[@HarryS77]

That idea of having the Chief come across some marines holed up in a cave, evading patrols, is exactly the kind of thing Infinite needed, small story moments that you can stumble across and that organically open up gameplay opportunities.

[@nagger8216]

Well, we got that with the Pilot.. and it was shit.. so... I just think 343 just needs new writers

[@shcdemolisher]

@@nagger8216 Writers and people who are ACTUAL fans of Halo!

[@crunchybombed2614]

Thank you for saying the ending to infinite was a cliff hanger. Other people disagree with it

[@FallenTerrarian]

Well, 2 was a cliff hanger, so was 5, but Infinite sets it up for DLC especially for the open world!

[@RoyalMudcrab]

@@FallenTerrarian and where the fuck is it?

[@FallenTerrarian]

@@RoyalMudcrab probably being made??

[@SeanJohn127]

@@FallenTerrarian doubtful. They cant even add simple multiplayer modes, let alone firefight.

[@FallenTerrarian]

@@SeanJohn127 idk that new mode was a lot of fun! Firefight will come out eventually so will the dlc.

[@eliaxxz5360]

Halo is lost, Halo died, Halo was dead a long time ago. Wonder was next.

[@DevynBrugge]

Great review of the state of Halo. The lack of character is a big issue with Halo Infinite, that and the lack of features (especially legacy features like campaign coop 💔)

[@Moose_97]

343 have no respect for what Halo was before they got their hands on it. I miss the ODDT's I don't know why 343 moved them to the side and pretty much made them Spartans :(

[@BorderlandsBoy0]

343 is decent at clicking the Copy paste button. But everything else like the passion and soul of Halo left with Reach

[@stenografist4470]

Good points in the video, agree with everything. 343 really obsessed with spartans, in last update to mcc they even renamed season points to spartan points. Why? What's the point? I'm not even talk about ability to play as elites, so this decision doesn't make any sense

[@botpenn4672]

and then 343 comes out saying they're removing playable elites from mcc

[@shcdemolisher]

@@botpenn4672 Oh god no!!

[@thomasmiller8476]

The audio logs fill a lot of the holes in infinite's plot. I agree that having an enemy strike force hunting down the chief would be an amazing feature. I'm looking forward to the dlc that will come out for halo infinite. Hopefully it won't take another 5 years.

[@Nikos.]

I found a big portion of them, but i wish more happened in gane outside of those, I wanna play what happened in those logs

[@ia19753]

The audio logs are medicore at best.

[@nickm5419]

@@ia19753 Halo Infinite is MGS 5

[@UnifiedEntity]

Yes but audio logs are more of world building for the state which Halo infinite takes place. It doesn't fill the gap of using characters like Lasky, Hood, Arbiter etc as well as the character interactions. Hell, we lost an opportunity of seeing chief interacting with the spartans before they died.

[@eskil5306]

Coonsoomer

[@stevenstodd16]

Preach. I personally care less about the story than the multiplayer gameplay and side items like customization and stats, but even those things are lack luster in some ways and even officially scuffed in some. But even as a person who enjoys one aspect of content more than another it still pains me to see halo’s story also be sooo lacking. Even though my main focus is multiplayer and personal customization I still LOVED bungie’s halo stories in the first 4 games growing up! Absolutely golden!! 343 really doesn’t have the skills bungie has. Halo war 1&2 stories were awesome though, but 343 were helped a lot by creative assembly with that.

[@WastedPot]

There is a video titled ‘we were forerunner’ or something like that. It nicely pins the blame of the direction of 343s canon on Frankie O Connor. It’s a good video, has me convinced Frank not only knew next to nothing about the franchise but has irreparably damaged it. Not to say that Bungie didn’t have their issues, I just didn’t expect the worst of the issue to follow the franchise into 343. At the very least Infinite is a narrative reboot in some ways so maybe subsequent games can tell and follow a more compelling story. I just doubt it.

[@Danlight1911]

One thing 343 does not understand about Halo is the story should be almost completely conflict driven. In Bungie's Halo games the story never hinged on the Master Chief as hard as 343's games did.

[@MIGU3L2K]

Halo has had an Identity crisis since 343 took over with Halo 4. Infinite has found it slightly. It’s missing the fundamentals, like what made the Bungie Campaigns great, missing game modes, progression, etc.

[@Jdog47892]

I will say Infinites campaign is the first new Halo game we've had where it feels fun to fight the enemies again. 343 did a perfect job recapturing that 30 seconds of fun.

[@Nikos.]

Big facts, the gameplay loop is solid

[@nickm5419]

@@Nikos. Halo 4 and 5 are Halo, plays fine

[@samlund8543]

They got the 30 seconds of fun down nicely… but did they get the 30 hours of content to make you stick around? No.

[@88heisenberg88]

I finally was able to get an Xbox Series X yesterday, and I will not replay Infinite lmao.

[@princejugali6637]

One thing I'd say infinite did well in my opinion was the cutscenes, I loved the one shot takes and the final interaction with Cortana and the chief was very satisfying

[@Janx14]

Honestly they felt lazy and uninspired to me, they're almost all people talking to holograms in dark rooms. The weapon's face is really bad at times and Cortana looks like a bad cosplayer of her.

[@becauseiwantto2467]

But the one shot cutscenes means we can’t have stuff like massive space battle without it being goofy

[@dmomintz]

The Halo Infinite peak player count for all of October was 5,575 with an average player count of 2,564.... It's obvious they need more cat ears.

[@stickthelanding4785]

Remember that large vehicle assault in halo 3 on that sandy area (I forgot the mission name) it still is my most favorite halo mission of all time

[@GargungulusGrunguloid]

The Ark?

[@stickthelanding4785]

@@GargungulusGrunguloid yeah that one

[@m4x927]

i gotta say 2 had a better story then 3, but by far my favorites r probably odst and reach.

[@bruhgod123]

@@GargungulusGrunguloid wtf is ur pfp

[@ScurvyMcGruff]

I agree. The Ark is still my favorite Halo mission. It aged very well too. The scale of everything is nuts, and it still has plenty of non vehicle combat to mix things up. It doesn't hurt that it's followed by the Covenant, another great mission.

[@frankwren8215]

Great to see people covering this at last. #fire343

[@toxenzz]

I love how 343 removed absolutely every feature that made Halo unique. Assassinations? Gone. Guess who has them with improved animations now though? Call of Duty… 14 year old me would be screaming at the notion

[@nicholascazmay2126]

The universe honestly shrank considerably after Reach. It’s sad

[@optiTHOMAS]

THANK YOU! Amen! I've been saying this! 343 is so damn obsessed with Spartans and the whole Spartan experience that it loses the cool effect Spartans had cause there's tons of em now. That's probably why we won't see any playable elites any time soon, even though lore wise it would make sense and be totally badass for elites to be training with Spartans! 😔 the banished are just kinda neutered and lifeless without much reason unlike the religious covenant and the lies of the prophets. Many good characters just vanished! Like, one of the few good new ones, Lasky, is just gone. Much of New 343 halo revolves to much around chief. He was always a main character, but he was just there apart of something bigger, the unsc and the survival of humanity! There's barely any marines anymore, which is a damn shame. I miss the military fantasy halo was. Hell, even the new show they don't care about past characters and replace them entirely. I wanted Johnson so bad, but now I'm glad he's not in it as they'll probably just wreck his character too. 😅 😔 I miss the classic stuff, man! I miss Arbiter and halos identity. I feel apart of halo's charm and personality really died back then when Johnson left us. Halo lost something then. Regardless, good video as always, my dude! 👍🏻

[@crimsonwolf5397]

Amen to that, the UNSC has been neutered and kicked to the curbside unfavorably to give the "Spartan program" some spotlight which is why I don't play any 343 Halo games like they could have expanded the UNSC with the UNSC Army troopers and Air force which in my opinion are underrated, and deserve some respect after all they fought along side noble six in reach all the way to the piller of autumn.

[@optiTHOMAS]

@@crimsonwolf5397 indeed! Without the marines and other soldiers, it all feels less worth fighting for and takes away so much charm and personality the marines gave to the series! Definitely! I've been reading the Halo Encyclopedia, and it delves more into so many different branches of fhe UNSC like the air force, army, navy, and even ONI. It'd be cool to see more humanity. Amen, comrade! 👍🏻

[@crimsonwolf5397]

@@optiTHOMAS It would be cool to see the UNSC Army Airborne including the Pathfinders that made me team Brown and tan.

[@JGTorres948]

Dang, so this is a "Broader Audience" level of writting This is awful, 343 should stop this massacre

[@nrXic]

The "broader audience" thing affected the gameplay where they were chasing CoD and its stellar success. The story changes were done to compare to Sony's best games, making the story more interpersonal. Which worked out ok with Halo 4 but not at all with Halo 5 (it would have been far more suitable as an ODST style game). Infinite seems like the first act of a story.

[@BattleKid619]

Halo CE did the isolation bit where you were so stranded against an overwhelming force and you fight to try and form some kind of resistence. And it did it flawlessly. Halo Reach did the lost cause bit where you are fighting to stay alive, to hold off the inevitable, where you are losing the war. And it did it flawlessly. This game tries to do both and ends up doing neither well.

[@ZSTE]

Speaking of the Banished, how come the Covenant "never came close to stopping them" but they pop up out of nowhere and a half staffed Spirit of Fire can frequently foil their plans? Also for being mercs and hired guns, why are they trying to activate the ring and kill themselves? I know it's because boohoo Cortana did bad thing to Atriox, but what about LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE.

[@DeeonleeCobb373]

The Spartans were regarded as behemoths whenever they're present on the battlefield, mowing down Covenant w/ relative ease. And while Reach underlined the more human and vulnerable side of the Spartans, in turn reiterating the grave threat of the Covenant, these factors lead to what playing as, and the role of Chief more legendary. Then 343 diluted the importance of the Spartans with their increased numbers in the Spartan 4 program, and have them act like undisciplined marines, (which is probably the point). 343 treated the Spartans as more action heroes than an intimidating presence on the battlefield.

[@BonzerMrT]

Hunt The Truth was the single best piece of Halo content 343 came up with

[@samlund8543]

And it was basically false advertising

[@DoBap_]

The stories in Halo have some intriguing ideas, that are never fully realized. The lack of depth is what makes the new campaigns so forgetful.

[@ItsJznj]

Rip Halo

[@Isaacreeper]

11:04 I think you mean 343 is woefully unequiped to do anything. They cant make a game. They cant make a show. They cant make a story. They cant run a tournament. They cant run a live service. They cant expand the lore. And they cant keep their senior staff from leaving.

[@Iflexis]

I sometimes dream of what halo games there would be today if Bungie were still developing them :(

[@ElGaby323]

Reach was pretty mediocre, so I don't think they would've done any better.

[@deriznohappehquite]

@@ElGaby323 Reach was used to test ideas for Destiny. If Bungie didn’t want to leave Halo, ODST and Reach would have been very different games.

[@DragonKnight90001]

Honestly it would probably be better than 343’s but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

[@ls200076]

Don't think it would be any better tbh.

[@aaahhh4130]

@@ElGaby323 bro how was reach mediocre?

[@justsomehalofan4386]

Halo Infinite's open world could have had so much potential, but turn out to be more bland than a Ubisoft game. The world is static and boring. Here's how Infinite's campaign could have been done better: - Wanted level: As you complete campaign missions and take out high value targets, the more Banished potrals you incounter in the world. You could even have up until the point where the Banished are sending Scarabs to try and stop you. Imagine walking into an open area, just for a Scarab to drop down and you are thrown into a battle. - Night is more Dangerous: when the wanted level is high, at night you have higher chance of being struck down by silent shadow elites, or better yet (remember when Escharum tells Jega to follow Chief from a distance). Imagine you are just standing around at night and Jega appears out of nowhere and fights you, and then when his health bar gets low enough he vanishes into the night. - Call in Marine support: after you save marines at camps or find them in remote locations, you can have Brohammer take them in the pelican. You can take the marines to the FOBs where they can suit up, and then call them in for battle when you are in the open world. You could give them call signs to "follow me" or "stay put." These are just some of the many great ideas that could have made Infinite's campaign better.

[@Nikos.]

I would love all of these ideas

[@stevenstodd16]

That’s genius thinking

[@EmoOra]

Thank u! Reach was just too good to move away from allowing it to end the way it had is bs I needed more! Being your own spartan in the campaign is more incredible than being Master Chief 🥺 to be fair MC had his time from Halo combat evolved to Halo 3, being ourselves should have been the new beginning

[@swagzilla86.55]

I thought the game made it quite clear escharum was sick and that his fight with the chief was meant to be his final stand rather than succumbing to illness tbh. He was wheezing in all the later cutscenes and gasping for breathe

[@Nikos.]

I picked up on it but some of the viewers and others were very confused, regardless his character still bored me, I wish they wrote the villains better

[@Janx14]

@@Nikos. Escharum feels paradoxical. He wants to fight chief, but makes almost no effort to have a proper duel with him. Instead he kind of lazily sends his forces now and then at chief, and makes some weird trap to draw him in to have some silly duel with a pain transference machine. If he wanted to fight chief, he should have just gone out and fought him himself. He seems to be pointlessly sacrificing his forces if he expects chief will reach him.

[@doomguy2020]

@@Janx14 I chalk it up to him trying to save every bit of energy he has left, and his obsession with getting it done right. It's almost like a final ceremonial/spiritual event for him and he doesn't just want to fight him anywhere or risk it going wrong somehow

[@Tomahawk1]

This covered my thoughts exactly I don’t care much about multiplayer so it’s heart breaking to see the story neglected like this for so long

[@kitsunezer0524]

You sir, have hit on points I rarely hear from other reviews and such. So few even mention the topic of the flood or the fact that the writing in general has so many flaws now. Only one other youtuber I can think of mentioned our undead hive, and that's because it literally gave him a path to go down in life biology. I just played Halo 4 for the first time recently, and one thing I noticed immediately was Master Chief was talking a lot. It bugged me because he was always kind of stoic, you know the strong and silent type, now he's having decent conversations. Granted most of them are with Cortana, but it stuck out to me. There's plenty wrong with these games, but I will say your video has earned a sub from me, Good Job!

[@EngorgedBanana]

Call. To. Action. 343, listen to this random comment. Call. To. Action. It was in CE, it was in 2, it was in 3, it was in ODST. Something I've noticed some of the greatest games do is that they throw their players into a situation that is fun to start something real. In Halo, the pillar of Autumn under fire is absolutely perfect. When you see the last of humanity on this epic space ship get attacked and boarded by an alien force, what is your response? What about the assault on Halo? When you see your sergeant push up a beach with a fire in his blood, what is your response? Every time the Chief wakes up in the Halo game, what is happening? A. Call. To. Action. It's so simple, a man working minimum wage shouldn't be the one figuring this out.

[@NEEDMORECOW8ELL]

I agree with most of this except for the part about Escharum. It was easy to tell that he slowly dying and wanted to cement his legacy, and I appreciated that this is the one piece of media followed the "Show, don't tell" philosophy. He's coughing constantly, clearly sick, and simply wants to leave a mark. I'm sick of movies explaining every single thing that happens because people aren't paying attention.

[@BrunoSantos-jp1lv]

THE ONE PIECE IS REEEEAAAALLLLL!!

[@nagger8216]

Beating the audience over the head isn't much better than just telling us, but it is at least an improvement

[@TheAccursedHunter01]

I've been told that 343 has in fact written good Halo stories... in the novels. I couldn't say how novel stuff could be brought into the games in a worthwhile way but 343's priorities seem a tad off. There's some good stuff in the 343 Terminals but that's side content, not something most players will experience. Just saying, 343 made 2 games and had to make a spiritual reboot with Halo Inifinite.

[@blueguy2128]

No they haven't 😂 I can't even finish a few of their piece of shit books cuz it's so ridiculously stupid. Like Bucks story, or the book where Chief and Blue Team head back to reach. God awful books

[@emilkaapola7191]

The only Banished character I thoroughly enjoyed in Infinite was Bassus, and he literally dies after minute of screen time. Bassus is really the only character to evoke that Bungie era character feeling. He is the definition of a Brute, impulsive, loud, ruthless, cunning yet short sighted. The way he just "Spartans not so tough I think, break open easy. Soft inside?" was among my favorite moments in the entire game and one of the few times the game actually felt genuinely nostalgic and "iconic" instead of some forced imitation of the classics. Bassus is the only Brute to actually feel like a Brute

[@SinnedxTV]

At this point your just throwing fire at a burning building my friend.

[@Mandorle21]

I love the spartans too, it's just that in Halo 4 and 5 they were seriously poorly written, especially Chief. Halo 4 was still acceptable in my opinion, but only because I thought it was just the start of something bigger (I was wrong). In Halo Infinite I hoped that the spartans would reappear, but a bit rewritten, showing much more character and being more interesting and not just cool looking (where's my Buck??), they had potential after all. But no, they disappeared into the ether... meh...

[@Danny-mc1zn]

15 seconds in and he’s already 100% right!

[@bakubread9308]

Honestly the one point I disagree on in the lack of the Flood, while I do miss them I also feel that their story ended. I honestly don't really want to see them again, as it would kinda cheapen the climax of their whole arc that WAS Halo 3. Just because classic Halo had them doesn't mean they NEED to come back imo, it'd feel more like forced fanservice than anything close to good writing to me.

[@FallenTerrarian]

Personally I really love the Spartan IVs and the expanded lore, seeing what goes on outside Master Chief and his impact of the people is so cool! It give me goosebumps whenever he is mentioned in a book or another game. Like Halo Wars 2, when Isabella was talking about the destruction on the Ark. I just smiled when she said it was the doing of Master Chief.

[@Nikos.]

Dog the chief is the best character, and the spartans are cool, we really needed better spartan 4 characters though, woulda been sick to fight alongside some good characters

[@FallenTerrarian]

@@Nikos. True, the ones in Infinite seemed cool, but they passed, Osiris has Vale and Buck, but Lock is okay. Palmer is cool so is The Spartan Ops campaign. But I think our character is meant to replace that Spartan IV, so I can see why we lack characters if that’s the case.

[@colin4tor781]

@@Nikos. the spartans in Rubicon protocol are fucking awesome

[@MSB_003]

I've had the same exact thought as of recent. Halo has indeed lost its identity. My friend and I were having this exact discussion a little over a year ago about how 343 completely butchered the art style and story of halo. The thing about Bungie's design choices for halo is that they were all very, very distinct. Every ship, vehicle, enemy, you name it, is uniquely designed and easily recognizable. 343 "boiled" down the covenant and the UNSC by giving them more complex yet generic designs, which alienated them from their own identity. It was the simplicity that Bungie gave their designs that gave halo its unique feeling. They weren't overly complex nor were they too simple. Luckily, 343 has started backtracking on their design choices and tried to give us fans what we have always wanted. That being the original designs that Bungie made which made Halo Halo. I'm afraid it's too late for backtracking though. I'm pretty much done with 343's games, and if I want to have a good time playing Halo, it's going to be in Halo 2, 3, and Reach. It's saddening to say, but your title could not be more true. Halo has indeed lost its identity and from the looks of it, it's not coming back. Side note: Game design is just one aspect of why Halo doesn't feel like Halo anymore. The music, sound design, and story are all off too.

[@user-yo8ab1ys9e]

Halo Reach was the last Halo game to me. What comes after is merely fan-fiction that I simply ignore. I only wish I could get my money back for Halo 4 and 5.

[@ravensailiata]

The most unfortunate part of halo infinites story is that the audio logs were amazing and were a great side story, and felt like a very involving story, but we never experience it.

[@bigdoggo5827]

343i in a nutshell. They get good writers for the lore, but it is only in text, it would be fine if they weren't so lazy. But they prefer to sell the good stories in books

[@ravensailiata]

@@bigdoggo5827 the characters, banished, spartan, and standard unsc all were very well written in the audio logs, and seeing absolutely none of it mentioned in the campaign disappointed me, the spartans in the story were constantly on the backfoot, horvath being completely on his own, a female marine writing a heartfelt goodbye message to her son before car bombing a banished outpost. It felt impactful, it just never was in the main story-

[@graye2799]

@@bigdoggo5827 their lore is built on retcons of bungies lore.

[@VeeZee777]

I miss when halo missions felt like real military campaigns. I miss radio chatter between squads of over UNSC personnel. Even the Pelican pilots were given names and characters

[@beautyofthebonfire]

You brought up some very good points in this video. You opened my eyes to just how much motivation is actually missing from Halo infinites world. You don’t meet marines that you would protect with your life, you don’t get excited to meet the villain again after your last encounter, you don’t Feel the pain and hopelessness humanity should feel at the very edge of their genocide. There definitely should have been something like base camps where chief can take up rest among other marines and interact with them, maybe even have a marine engineer do your suit upgrades with parts you found around the world. It would’ve also been nice to see the marines get better equipment while the game progressed. Starting off in their prisoner outfits and then getting their armor when humanity was strong enough. Even seeing the chief do mundane task like eat, sleep, or even clean his weapons among fellow marines and see how that affected him would’ve been amazing. I hope 343 can learn the importance of the little things, and that the Spartans are just one piece of a once beautiful puzzle. (I still think infinites campaign is among the best Halo experiences I’ve had, especially in recent time though.)

[@Ironclad17]

5:25 One critique: 343 Brutes are orks in Ironman armor. They lack any of the charm or character of Bungie's Brutes with their stylized armor reminiscent of Trojan myrimdons.

[@Chad_Thunder-Koch]

The marines in infinite feel so family friendly. Idk what it is but it feels like a halo 2/3 marine would make infinites marines shit themselves.

[@shcdemolisher]

Yeah I blame the teen rating, if it was M then it would be a lot more appropraite. Hearing them swear and actually yell good insults, and hearing the Banished do the same! More good battle banter is ALWAYS a plus!

[@simonback8227]

i343 chose to make Halo appeal to a wider audience, rather than make Halo appealing to a wider audience.

[@LieutenantLysol]

They named themselves after one of the main antagonists, you know they don't have fans interests in mind.

[@stevenstodd16]

The banished “defeating” the unsc was a really bad idea and horrible way to start the game they way they did. Unrealistic after the unsc having just achieved serious victories over the covenant and created a larger spartan program. It’s an uninteresting idea and most importantly horribly executed. The Banished are supposed to be pieces of the covenant not a suddenly so great military force that it can win battles that cripple the unsc and leave master chief to do literally everything. Its horse shit. Execution is just dog shit.

[@niccr4279]

all this years and cortana hasn't awaken the chief, and he is having a nightmare, thats how I see this 343 universe

[@DarthDimmadome]

Bruh I haven’t played a halo game since 4 LOL

[@Catequil]

343 has shown time and time again that they do not understand the core fundamentals of Halo. They think it's all about competitive PvP and this power fantasy of a single Spartan saving the day, with his AI sidechick. That is not Halo. Halo is a story about simple humans. Soldiers like Johnson, Miranda, Noble Squad. Everyone is working together to win the war. Everyone chips in, whether that is by simply resupplying the magazines with bullets, or laying down their lives for the cause. And we just happen the follow the story of one of the soldiers who is willing to put everything on the line for the cause, but manages to survive.

[@supersnow17]

It just blows my mind 343 were giving the gaming equivalent of the Star Wars franchise and they can't come up with anything anyone actually really likes? Seriously man, I'm not even a writer by any means and I could come up with a far better story than the 343 writers. it's not even that hard to do anyways, Halo has ALWAYS been easy to understand but hard to dig really deep into. Again it's like Star Wars. Anyone can just watch the movie, but not everyone will fully understand the universe it's set in. It's the reason why you see so many Halo lore videos that usually are always about the older titles, I wonder why?

[@logan_jp3]

343 has no idea how to write halo characters. Palmer was an attempt to replace Johnson, Mdama was supposed to replace the Prophet of Truth, Chief literally just talks all the time despite being almost mute in the original trilogy, etc. 343 either rip off other franchises or poorly mimic Bungies creations.

[@Cheif_Espada]

I loved the first 2 Halos but I hate XBox.

[@jacobmccutcheon9448]

Thank you for this. Halo has been my favorite gaming storyline since I was a kid. The way it has been handled brings me nothing but cold sadness. This video is a perfect summary why.

[@WrectumTerror]

Reach was the decline of Halo. Try to make a logical argument without feelings.

[@EvilPhoenix007]

*Laughs in Classic Slayer with Recon control button layout implemented.

[@ForrestHoward]

Ngl im kinda glad they didnt bring back the flood, because knowing 343 they would have completely fucked it up

[@thetominator917]

It’s wild that 343s strategy was to be more like Call of Duty (crosshair placement, sprint, titling the worst game in the series “Infinite [Warfare]”, etc.), not write a single good storyline, and then remaster the classic/good Halo games but with garbage net codes. Like I don’t know how 343 is still in charge of this project. It really makes no sense. They haven’t really done ANYTHING positive in any way, shape, or form.

[@rando5673]

It's not just the campaign. The gameplay feels like every other generic shooter. The grappling hook and climbing could be from Just Cause, Overwatch, or any number of other games

[@sjbrooksy45]

The hook makes no sense to me. I'm really to believe this tiny arm wench can hoist 1000 pounds of spartan at high speed?

[@EvilPhoenix007]

@@sjbrooksy45 They got inspiration from Doom Eternal since they had the meathook.

[@S0RGEx]

Another thing that I feel is worth adding - Humanity bounced back from the Human-Covenant War *way* too quickly. This is a war that genuinely threatened humanity with extinction. One that lasted over a quarter of a century and saw tens of billions of lives lost and undoubtedly billions more left with debilitating injuries and PTSD, the destruction of hundreds of colony worlds - the military strongholds such as Reach, the economic powerhouses of the Inner Colonies, the resource-producing Outer Colonies, and the devastation of Earth itself. While the Insurrection (the same one that seriously threatened the UNSC and UEG prewar) did generally cease activity during the war, the extended universe material has made it clear that it came back stronger than ever thanks to the dissolution of the Covenant. ONI is an amoral, increasingly powerful and controlling shadow government, the UNSC should be crippled but just as draconian as before, the UEG is a bloated and corrupt bureaucratic nightmare. All that, and 343 wants us to believe the UEG and UNSC are *stronger* than they were both before and during the war? Less than a decade after it came to an end? Hell no. I don't care what kind of Forerunner bullshit is going on, humanity should be utterly fucked and set back hundreds of years, not the new dominant species in their part of the galaxy. And the thing is, the extended universe under 343i has shown moments of brilliance where that is the case. Where they've shown that dirtier and less optimistic side of a devastated and fragmented humanity. I think they've handled that part of Halo fairly well, actually. But in the games it all gets thrown out the window.

[@OnurTheXbot]

343 isn’t even reaching the “broader audience” Something I that I don’t like about Infinites campaign is that you don’t really get to fight side by side with ODSTS, Spartans and Marines. Infinite has no unique level design like in CE keys had that green pool and My favourite Halo level, The Covenant, had more diversity then all of Infinites campaign.

[@yewtewbstew547]

tbh I think it was obvious that this series was in trouble just after playing the first hour of Halo 4 all the way back in 2012. Between Master Chief's new edgy armour, Cortana's heaving underboob, and The Covenant quickly being replaced by a roster of enemies that can be described in totality as "silver and spiky with orange glowy bits", the writing was on the wall. A lot of fans understandably didn't want to admit it back then, but it has been 10 years. We can admit it now lol.

[@lucaskatar9004]

343: hey, let’s play this new next gen halo game, with awesome textures and new vehicles Halo players: The Ark, 4 players on legendary, but you can’t fire a gun, use granades, walk, jump or fart.

[@kummer45]

Bungie understood their creation. 343i tried to make it trendy but they missed the point and hence Bonny Ross got the boot for three consecutive failures. Halo is a game about the Chief, the squad of marines, the new technology and the borderline between good and evil in three factions. Halo deserves a full remake and reboot. It's sad that games like God of War 5 gets things right. Halo franchises needs WRITERS. Hire them.

[@Stratacaster87]

The story from halo 4 through infinite just has absolutely no balls whatsoever. It all just feels completely pointless, empty, uninteresting, and like it has no consequences. The banished who? Forerunners what? Who fucking cares? It's an empty shell to allow for meaningless action

[@user-pq4by2rq9y]

Halo lost its identity since halo 4. Halo is hardly the only franchise that has been killed by Microsoft's search for a broader audience. In fact, the search for a broader audience killed many, many IPs lately. It is the most relevant negative selling point for anyone with a brain. Let's face it, can you imagine GTA without racism or a Modern Warfare without No russian or Mortal Kombat without fatalities and so on.

[@Continuum7]

Halo was lost the moment Halo 4 came out for me and its only been more and more downhill since. I NEVER thought I would be against Halo or even say anything bad about the franchise but starting with H4 started it with me. MCC (when fixed) is a small glimmer but only becasue I can play the classics in a somewhat refreshed way.

[@TangoSuckaa1]

Halo didn’t lose its identity. It was torn away by a completely negligent development team. 343 you have a lot to answer for!

[@AlternateKek]

A new company needs to be in charge and give 343's Halo the same respect 343 gave Bungie's universe

[@willspeakman2461]

There are two companies that could do a better job. The crysis game studio or the Titanfall studio. Both of them proved they could make a great Sci fi military story work well. Titanfall 2 story was amazing for a multiplayer based game.