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Halo 4 story discussion (SPOILERS)

Geosurface

Geosurface

Diamond Member
After you've finished the game, come here and discuss the story.

I am, I think, near the end... I'm at the Composer. I won't get too deep into commentary until I finish, but for now I wanted to say a couple of things.

I like the game a lot, but I definitely prefer the Bungie efforts.

Some things that bug me:

  • Chief talks too much
  • Cortana's teeth are weird
  • Jackal redesign
  • Music isn't as good, not enough Halo theme.
  • Convoluted story
  • I don't like Master Chief becoming Neo.

The last one is the one I'd like to address most of all.

In previous Halo games it seemed like the implication was that Forerunners were human, now there's some convoluted mess about the humans being enemies of the forerunner... but the forerunner look almost exactly identical to humans except for having Voldamort noses...

and Master Chief now goes from being the best hope of a technologically outgunned species, who has some luck and a lot of skill, to now being Neo... THE ONE, chosen hundreds of thousands of years earlier to end up in that exact place, with that exact armor, with that exact Cortana AI...

that's stupid.

I frankly didn't like the original revelation that humans were forerunners... now that it's gotten less clear it hasn't gotten any less stupid.

The whole story of the Halos going off previously and wiping out all life, and life having to be seeded and restarted... didn't fit with what we know of biology on this planet and it's history, and I always felt the Forerunner were cooler when they were absent, mysterious, alien, unfathomable, not human.

Now we're seeing too much of the Forerunner and the mystery is being sapped. It's exactly like Prometheus. The Space Jockeys too, were this enigmatic thing in the original Alien... some incredibly intelligent, maybe long extinct... huge species we had little in common with other than spacefaring, whom had started a warning beacon countless millenia earlier... it was a mysterious little tidbit, it was cool to think of the sad fate of that lone pilot, the mentality of a species which would trust a huge ship to only one pilot, not worry about his loneliness... and in fact graft him into the seat of the ship. It was interesting, it was mysterious, it sparked your imagination. In Prometheus? They did the same shit as Halo. "Oh you know that mysterious ancient alien race? They were humans, lol! but maybe like, paler... with a voldemort nose" stupid, stupid. stupid.

I used to read the Halo books pretty religiously but I haven't kept up with the more recent ones that dealt more with Forerunners. There's a reason for that.

I really liked the original narrative of humans being this sort of post-superstition, technological, militaristic society that was hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered by the Covenant, who were like galactic Taliban with their religious zeal and "heretic, demon!" crap. Dedicated to wipe out humanity for vague heresy... with the backdrop of the long gone, unfathomable Forerunners.

But y'know, I set my issues with that stuff aside and have still enjoyed the Halo games. I'm still enjoying Halo 4, don't get me wrong.

Just venting a little.

As stupid as the Foreunners are humans development was, it was nowhere near as stupid as Master Chief ending up being the ultimate Neo chosen one destined product of Forerunner plans from a half a million years ago, implanted with a "gene song" lol. C'mon. Just dumb.

And while I'm talking dumb...

Forward Unto Dawn web series? Not very good. Oh of course... we're still well within the throes of a stupid, stupid trend which started perhaps with Aliens when Ripley was the badass, although it was actually DONE WELL IN THAT CASE. All this derivative bullshit that has come since... and REALLY needs to run it's course soon, is just stupid.

I'm talking about how in Forward Unto Dawn, the academy commander... woman of course, whom they call "sir" (dumb), best shot in their little group? Narnia girl. Leader of their group and only one who can hold her shit together? Black girl.

Enough with the overly feministic bullcrap... having an occasional strong female character who is a little badass, in a believable way like Chicone from Aliens (The butch Latina with the big gun)? Sure, that can work. Endlessly presenting these little waifs like Mila Jovovich in Resident Evil, Ultra Violet, Fifth Element, and every other fucking movie she does, as being these unstoppable badasses? Just dumb, and getting REALLY OLD.

Plus it seems to come at the expense of male heroes a lot, it's this big over correction for movies in the past not having enough female heroes... yes, there was a correction required, we've gone WAY beyond what it was. The funniest for me was how Narnia girl with her big fish lips always looked like a little kid wearing her dad's helmet, it was always way too big for her. This undermined even moreso, the idea of her as some kind of badass.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. The main reason I was underwhelmed by Forward Unto Dawn was having to focus on a bunch of stupid kids... it was not completely awful overall, but there were a lot of retarded moments. Like the two teenaged Spartans taking off their helmets at the end. In the books when it's just words + your imagination, a concept like them being active in the field in their teens can work better than when you're forced to see some little shit looking like their head is 1/100th the size it should be on their body...
 
Lots of text, lord.

My take - It was a good game. The story didn't jive in some areas and the gameplay got a bit repetitive (I swear, WHY DO I NEED TO DO THE SAME THING TWICE EVERY TIME?!) but I liked it.

The Chief had more lines in this game than the other 3 combined but it was to be expected. 343 said they wanted to humanize him, can't do that if he doesn't talk.
 
Chief does talk a lot more. The center of the series is MC's humanity, if he is broken, and if he can be healed.

Cortana's redesign is...let me just say that I'm not feeling it.

The story isn't convoluted per say, but they don't give it to you on a silver platter. You have to read the terminals to get a lot of it, or have read the canon books released on the side of the game.

The forerunners are not human. Humans and forerunners were both created by the precursors a long, long time ago. The precursors ended up being wiped out by the forerunners, who then assumed the mantle of responsibility for the universe.

Humans used to be as technologically powerful as the forerunners (the covenant also existed at this time). However, humans ran into the flood while expanding their empire. To flee from the flood, they turn around and tried to aggressively cut through forerunner territory, basically pillaging and destroying as they went. The forerunners didn't take kindly to this and ended up destroyed the humans who were fighting a two-front war. Human technologically was dismantled and the surviving humans put back on Earth in a stone-age society.

Also, I think it isn't that MC is chosen. But that the rise of humanity to acquire the mantle has been thousands of years in the making.

As far as the web series, I don't know what you are talking about. The characters were pretty 50/50 gender wise (which makes sense). It is feminist that a woman has the best shot? Also you say the "black girl" is the only one who can hold it together, while ignoring that Lasky was the true leader and the one who kept his calm throughout the whole thing.

Oh, and also ignoring MASTER CHIEF, the badass who WRECKED EVERYTHING.
 
I'll add a correction, the Humans were not pillaging the Forerunners. The Humans were running from the flood and as they found worlds that were infested, they destroyed the food source in order to also destroy the flood. (this is explained in the terminal videos). That meant wiping out the Forerunner worlds. The Didact falsely concluded that Humanity was barbaric and only sought war and was attempting to wipe out the forerunners. The Librarian saw things differently, had the humans never made contact with the flood they woiuld not have destroyed the worlds. Humanity was in line to surpass the Forerunner civilization, they possessed technology and combat skill that rivaled them and in some cases surpassed them. The Didact felt that this was incorrect and he enacted a gene cleansing of sorts that reverted humanity to the stone age. The Librarian felt that Humanity would assume the mantle of responsibility in time and disagreed that they should be supressed in order to keep Forerunners at the top. She safeguarded a select few Humans from destruction and reversed the gene cleansing so that in time they would evolve to be what they always should be. Through the course of the story in Halo 4 it is revealed that through Humanity and specifically Doctor Halsey's tinkering with human DNA we have unlocked our potential. The Master Chief's combat prowess, critical thinking skills, leadership abilities are all at a level beyond the average Human and the Librarian notes that if they continue on this path they will be at a level which would allow them to be come the caretakers of the galaxy. She doesn't say John is the chosen one, but his abilities are noted and she knows that without speeding up the evolutionary process in him, Humanity might perish under the Didact.

The Librarian says that they were working on technology to turn organic beings into semi-synthetic beings. This is why she took an interest in Cortana. Cortana is the closest thing to achieving this ultimate goal. A synthetic lifeform cannot be infected by the flood but the side effects were severe. It was never perfected. The promethian warriors are what happens when an organic being is turned into a synthetic and regenerated again. It is also explained that the ones you are fighting were humans, taken captive by the didact to create a synthetic army.

As for the series Forward Unto Dawn, the whole story revolves around Lasky finally realizing what it means to be a soldier and his meeting with the Master Chief, This sets up the Halo 4 story line, when he receives the signal from Forward Unto Dawn and attempts to find the origin of the signal and is trapped on the artificial world. Also they call the superior officers "sir" whether male or female because an officer is an officer is an officer. You said "sir" to someone in a position of authority over you and any feminine qualities are considered weakness in a command position in the UNSC. It would be strange for us to do this, but I believe it was to make an impression...your superior is the same as another. Female is equal to Male.


Here's what I don't understand about Halo 4's story and someone might have understood. What happened to Cortana? I understood that she "died" but what was it that allowed her to shield the Master Chief from a nuke? I was like..."seriously? that's retarded" when I saw it. I mean...she's an AI but how can she affect the physical world? Is this what was meant by creating synthetic life using organic material? That Cortana somehow was an organic being with an artificial body and that is why she was able to create the barrier and all? That's what got me very lost.
 
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cmdrdredd said:
I'll add a correction, the Humans were not pillaging the Forerunners. The Humans were running from the flood and as they found worlds that were infested, they destroyed the food source in order to also destroy the flood. (this is explained in the terminal videos). That meant wiping out the Forerunner worlds. The Didact falsely concluded that Humanity was barbaric and only sought war and was attempting to wipe out the forerunners. The Librarian saw things differently, had the humans never made contact with the flood they woiuld not have destroyed the worlds. Humanity was in line to surpass the Forerunner civilization, they possessed technology and combat skill that rivaled them and in some cases surpassed them. The Didact felt that this was incorrect and he enacted a gene cleansing of sorts that reverted humanity to the stone age. The Librarian felt that Humanity would assume the mantle of responsibility in time and disagreed that they should be supressed in order to keep Forerunners at the top. She safeguarded a select few Humans from destruction and reversed the gene cleansing so that in time they would evolve to be what they always should be. Through the course of the story in Halo 4 it is revealed that through Humanity and specifically Doctor Halsey's tinkering with human DNA we have unlocked our potential. The Master Chief's combat prowess, critical thinking skills, leadership abilities are all at a level beyond the average Human and the Librarian notes that if they continue on this path they will be at a level which would allow them to be come the caretakers of the galaxy. She doesn't say John is the chosen one, but his abilities are noted and she knows that without speeding up the evolutionary process in him, Humanity might perish under the Didact.

The Librarian says that they were working on technology to turn organic beings into semi-synthetic beings. This is why she took an interest in Cortana. Cortana is the closest thing to achieving this ultimate goal. A synthetic lifeform cannot be infected by the flood but the side effects were severe. It was never perfected. The promethian warriors are what happens when an organic being is turned into a synthetic and regenerated again. It is also explained that the ones you are fighting were humans, taken captive by the didact to create a synthetic army.

As for the series Forward Unto Dawn, the whole story revolves around Lasky finally realizing what it means to be a soldier and his meeting with the Master Chief, This sets up the Halo 4 story line, when he receives the signal from Forward Unto Dawn and attempts to find the origin of the signal and is trapped on the artificial world. Also they call the superior officers "sir" whether male or female because an officer is an officer is an officer. You said "sir" to someone in a position of authority over you and any feminine qualities are considered weakness in a command position in the UNSC. It would be strange for us to do this, but I believe it was to make an impression...your superior is the same as another. Female is equal to Male.


Here's what I don't understand about Halo 4's story and someone might have understood. What happened to Cortana? I understood that she "died" but what was it that allowed her to shield the Master Chief from a nuke? I was like..."seriously? that's retarded" when I saw it. I mean...she's an AI but how can she affect the physical world? Is this what was meant by creating synthetic life using organic material? That Cortana somehow was an organic being with an artificial body and that is why she was able to create the barrier and all? That's what got me very lost.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction and further explanation. It is a lot of lore to remember.

What exactly happened to Cortana is (I think) a bit of an open ended mystery. I bet she will reappear in Halo 5 or 6 somehow. After all, she let a bunch of copies of herself run rampant on the Didact's ship, and who knows if all the ship was destroyed in the blast.

As far as Chief's escape, Cortana seems to have turned herself into hardlight (the stuff they use to make bridges). I assume that after chief set the bomb, Cortana warped him outside the ship and covered him in some sort of hardlight shield. Pretty much hardlight Cortana teleportation magic...
 
Dumac said:
Thanks for the correction and further explanation. It is a lot of lore to remember.

What exactly happened to Cortana is (I think) a bit of an open ended mystery. I bet she will reappear in Halo 5 or 6 somehow. After all, she let a bunch of copies of herself run rampant on the Didact's ship, and who knows if all the ship was destroyed in the blast.

As far as Chief's escape, Cortana seems to have turned herself into hardlight (the stuff they use to make bridges). I assume that after chief set the bomb, Cortana warped him outside the ship and covered him in some sort of hardlight shield. Pretty much hardlight Cortana teleportation magic...
Click to expand...

Hrm...might be something like that. One other strange thing...why did the Didact have powers out of Harry Potter? That was um...odd.

The Librarian told the Master Chief that without speeding up the evolutionary process he could not defeat the Didact but all it seemed to do was shield him from the effects of the Composer. All the while the Didact could force choke you Darth Vader style.
 
Geosurface said:
After you've finished the game, come here and discuss the story.

I am, I think, near the end... I'm at the Composer. I won't get too deep into commentary until I finish, but for now I wanted to say a couple of things.

I like the game a lot, but I definitely prefer the Bungie efforts.

Some things that bug me:

  • Chief talks too much
  • Cortana's teeth are weird
  • Jackal redesign
  • Music isn't as good, not enough Halo theme.
  • Convoluted story
  • I don't like Master Chief becoming Neo.

The last one is the one I'd like to address most of all.

In previous Halo games it seemed like the implication was that Forerunners were human, now there's some convoluted mess about the humans being enemies of the forerunner... but the forerunner look almost exactly identical to humans except for having Voldamort noses...

and Master Chief now goes from being the best hope of a technologically outgunned species, who has some luck and a lot of skill, to now being Neo... THE ONE, chosen hundreds of thousands of years earlier to end up in that exact place, with that exact armor, with that exact Cortana AI...

that's stupid.

I frankly didn't like the original revelation that humans were forerunners... now that it's gotten less clear it hasn't gotten any less stupid.

The whole story of the Halos going off previously and wiping out all life, and life having to be seeded and restarted... didn't fit with what we know of biology on this planet and it's history, and I always felt the Forerunner were cooler when they were absent, mysterious, alien, unfathomable, not human.

Now we're seeing too much of the Forerunner and the mystery is being sapped. It's exactly like Prometheus. The Space Jockeys too, were this enigmatic thing in the original Alien... some incredibly intelligent, maybe long extinct... huge species we had little in common with other than spacefaring, whom had started a warning beacon countless millenia earlier... it was a mysterious little tidbit, it was cool to think of the sad fate of that lone pilot, the mentality of a species which would trust a huge ship to only one pilot, not worry about his loneliness... and in fact graft him into the seat of the ship. It was interesting, it was mysterious, it sparked your imagination. In Prometheus? They did the same shit as Halo. "Oh you know that mysterious ancient alien race? They were humans, lol! but maybe like, paler... with a voldemort nose" stupid, stupid. stupid.

I used to read the Halo books pretty religiously but I haven't kept up with the more recent ones that dealt more with Forerunners. There's a reason for that.

I really liked the original narrative of humans being this sort of post-superstition, technological, militaristic society that was hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered by the Covenant, who were like galactic Taliban with their religious zeal and "heretic, demon!" crap. Dedicated to wipe out humanity for vague heresy... with the backdrop of the long gone, unfathomable Forerunners.

But y'know, I set my issues with that stuff aside and have still enjoyed the Halo games. I'm still enjoying Halo 4, don't get me wrong.

Just venting a little.

As stupid as the Foreunners are humans development was, it was nowhere near as stupid as Master Chief ending up being the ultimate Neo chosen one destined product of Forerunner plans from a half a million years ago, implanted with a "gene song" lol. C'mon. Just dumb.

And while I'm talking dumb...

Forward Unto Dawn web series? Not very good. Oh of course... we're still well within the throes of a stupid, stupid trend which started perhaps with Aliens when Ripley was the badass, although it was actually DONE WELL IN THAT CASE. All this derivative bullshit that has come since... and REALLY needs to run it's course soon, is just stupid.

I'm talking about how in Forward Unto Dawn, the academy commander... woman of course, whom they call "sir" (dumb), best shot in their little group? Narnia girl. Leader of their group and only one who can hold her shit together? Black girl.

Enough with the overly feministic bullcrap... having an occasional strong female character who is a little badass, in a believable way like Chicone from Aliens (The butch Latina with the big gun)? Sure, that can work. Endlessly presenting these little waifs like Mila Jovovich in Resident Evil, Ultra Violet, Fifth Element, and every other fucking movie she does, as being these unstoppable badasses? Just dumb, and getting REALLY OLD.

Plus it seems to come at the expense of male heroes a lot, it's this big over correction for movies in the past not having enough female heroes... yes, there was a correction required, we've gone WAY beyond what it was. The funniest for me was how Narnia girl with her big fish lips always looked like a little kid wearing her dad's helmet, it was always way too big for her. This undermined even moreso, the idea of her as some kind of badass.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. The main reason I was underwhelmed by Forward Unto Dawn was having to focus on a bunch of stupid kids... it was not completely awful overall, but there were a lot of retarded moments. Like the two teenaged Spartans taking off their helmets at the end. In the books when it's just words + your imagination, a concept like them being active in the field in their teens can work better than when you're forced to see some little shit looking like their head is 1/100th the size it should be on their body...
Click to expand...

I think you should finish a story line before posting any thoughts. Yes u do have some merit to what you were saying and everyone is entitled to their opinion. For example, my opinion is that I like how the direction of Halo is going. I like the idea of exploration and that's what 343 said they were setting out to do. And I guess I was more prepared than you were because I was reading some stuff online prior to the game coming out, so I kinda had the gist of what was going to happen.

I didn't see MC as Neo, that surprised me when I read that. The "Gene Song" was implanted into the human seeds after the destruction of the human race. But someone has to... "unlock it?" in order for it to be useful. In other words, all the humans have the gene song, they just need the Librarian, or perhaps another forerunner, to unlock it in order for it to work.

I agree with you that the music wasn't as good as the previous halos. But I do like the Infinity Lobby music lol.

I appreciate your opinions and your thoughts. I came originally to see if anyone can answer my question if Cortana is completely dead cuz I was not buying into the bullshit that she died. But it seems people are agreeing that her other seperate rampant parts could have survived. We will never know until the next Halo so I'm hopeful for that.

I miss the old Halo. While I'm badgering here, does anyone know how to get Halo 2 and play it on Xbox 360? I was trying to get it a long time ago but I gave up. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated please...
 
braddah said:
I think you should finish a story line before posting any thoughts. Yes u do have some merit to what you were saying and everyone is entitled to their opinion. For example, my opinion is that I like how the direction of Halo is going. I like the idea of exploration and that's what 343 said they were setting out to do. And I guess I was more prepared than you were because I was reading some stuff online prior to the game coming out, so I kinda had the gist of what was going to happen.

I didn't see MC as Neo, that surprised me when I read that. The "Gene Song" was implanted into the human seeds after the destruction of the human race. But someone has to... "unlock it?" in order for it to be useful. In other words, all the humans have the gene song, they just need the Librarian, or perhaps another forerunner, to unlock it in order for it to work.

I agree with you that the music wasn't as good as the previous halos. But I do like the Infinity Lobby music lol.

I appreciate your opinions and your thoughts. I came originally to see if anyone can answer my question if Cortana is completely dead cuz I was not buying into the bullshit that she died. But it seems people are agreeing that her other seperate rampant parts could have survived. We will never know until the next Halo so I'm hopeful for that.

I miss the old Halo. While I'm badgering here, does anyone know how to get Halo 2 and play it on Xbox 360? I was trying to get it a long time ago but I gave up. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated please...
Click to expand...

Well, I think I can elaborate on two points.

1) The Gene Song is inside every human but remember the Librarian only sped up the evolutionary process of the Master Chief, didn't unlock it. It is already unlocked but needs time to develop. That's what I got out of it. Am I incorrect?

2) Cortana is not dead. Remember, the composer and the Didact's ship was destroyed by a nuke but she could still function. Presumably all the computers on the ship and composer were destroyed as well. She could still project herself into physical space somehow. What this means in the grand scheme of things I have no idea, but she is not really gone. It's my belief that she put herself into a dormant state fearing herself going fully rampant and burning out.

Halo 2 on Xbox can be found locally at some gamestop stores. It sells for $13 these days. You would have to call around to different stores to see if they have it available.
 
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so i finally finished the campaign and got everything being discussed here however i have a question

Is everyone on Earth dead? or did the beam from the composer only kill a certain percentage?
 
ok, I've finished the campaign and was avoiding this thread until I had done so. I wish there was more input from everyone.

1. yes, the music wasn't that great.
2. I like that the jackals have the red dot now. But I think it is a little large and makes killing them a little too easy.
3. I think Spokane, WA, is dust now.
4. I do like that MC is talking more.
5. Cortana better make a comeback. MC shouldn't have a true sidekick like Carter had Kat.
6. I hate the Knights. I still cannot get headshots after I pop their shields. How does one do it?
7. I thought that it was interesting that humans were gimped by the Forerunners.
8. It was pretty haunting when Lasky said that we were hiding in the shadows and were not going to do so anymore.
9. Do the books go into Halsey's research?
 
I played this through once. The first 30% or so of single player was just quite boring and the "story line" was more or less non-existent. I thought how can such an expensive game suck at this? It gets much better. Some more story kicks in, but more importantly the game gets more fun, with some larger scale human battles.

Overall I'd say the single player campaign is decent, nothing more. Certainly not spectacular and I frankly think the game has been given a pass on this by reviewers. The single campaign should have been better. Who would ever get to the end and say they wanted to play again? Just nothing much to see, really.

For the life of me I CANNOT imagine why they f**ked up the music so badly. What music you say? Exactly. I could barely hear it. Every game I can think of has an independent music audio volume and this one doesn't, so I never got to hear the music. I think that was just a terrible oversight on their part. Others have complained about this, so it's a common problem. Music was way over hyped for the game considering they turn the volume too low to hear it in the end product.

Graphics were good (although the endless promethean architecture quite spartan and gets bland). Frame rates were superb.
 
I didn't think the music was hyped at all. At most it was said many times that the original bungie music would be gone. No more chanting monk style opening and no more thumping dynamic orchestra style stuff during engagements. The music in this game was designed to be ambiance only. I remember that mentioned in many previews.
 
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