- anton1792
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- Noble Legendary Member
"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum
Posted by: privet caboose
Look at what Halo got when it tried to be diverse. ODST didn't get great reviews, half of the fans didn't like it, and the game didn't sell as well as Halo 3.
Even assuming that ODST did not get great reviews and all, (Which I find dubious) all this conveys to me is an appeal to popularity. Just because something is not mainstream and popular does not make it crap. Halo is in with the wrong crowd. Half the fanbase could care less about quality character development and a carefully thought out and clever story/plot. All their primary concerns seem to be around whether or not the BR or the DMR will feature again! Appealing to them on what is best for the quality of the franchises story and characterisation is about as non sequitur as one can get.
All I can see happening, from following these reviews like a dog, is Halo becoming as cheap, meaningless and unoriginal as the lyrics and ideas in Lady Gaga's songs.
Posted by: privet caboose
Now look at Halo: Reach, that's just self explanatory. The characters were dull and boring. There's nothing to "analyze" about them. The story is arguably the worst of the Halo games.
Well I would normally agree to this, but at least Reach gave us a sense of anticipation before it was released as to what its story would be like, what its characters would be like. Now I know what future Halo games will be like, I have had 3 games of it, and it is flat. Bungie had a great opportunity to develop Noble Team but they were not successful. (Trying to do 6 Spartans in one game would never work) That does not automatically mean that the concept of focusing on other characters is innately flawed.
Posted by: privet caboose
But the simple fact is that Master Chief IS Iconic for Halo. A Halo game without the chief is like a Legend of Zelda game without Link. The only difference is, we actually see Chiefs personality in the novels. Where as link hardly has any backstory.
Master Chief may be iconic for Halo but I don't think that it does it justice. Also, Zelda and Halo are completely different franchises with completely different beginnings. Zelda began as an arcade game back in the 80s. The appeal that the two have to their respective fanbases must be different.
Posted by: privet caboose
Chief was always meant to be the hero of the original trilogy. Bungie expanded out and the quality just wasn't as consistent as it was with the Chief. It's only natural Microsoft wants to go back to their "mascot."
Quality is entirely subjective and in this case decided, unfortunately, by the fanbase who by my experience can't tell good story telling from poor, cheap, unoriginal garbage. As I said above, relying on them for a representation of what is "quality" and what is not in the Halo Universe is not wise.
But of course, Microsoft should act accordingly to these statistics right, for business sake? I never thought I would see myself say this but that is called milking, where you consistently and deliberately lower the quality so that you can appeal to the mainstream.
Posted by: privet caboose
Also, you're jumping the gun quite a bit. You sound as if they came out and said, "WE'LL NEVER MAKE A HALO GAME WITHOUT THE CHIEF AGAIN."
This is perhaps the most important thing, and I do hope you are right. But let's consider the logistics of it:
Frankie said that, all the way back when 343 Industries announced themselves, that they had planned to continue the franchise to a minimum of 2016. That is what they have planned. At the time, they had not planned to go any further than that. They have to fit 3 AAA titles into the time between '09 and '16. Easy enough. Add to it other games on the scale of Wars and ODST? Can't see it happening. Of course, they could divide the labour but look how things turned out when Bungie tried it. Reach got the Bungie B team, who didn't quite put their heart and sole into it.
And they implicitly debased Master Chief-less games in that article but never once hinted at spin-offs. In fact they denied that Spin-offs were even planned. As for debasing other Halo games:
"The key question for me in managing the studio and the creatives is 'what is Halo?'"
"What does that mean? Playing Master Chief," he said. "We kind of lost our way a little bit, I'll say. And that's why I wanted to make sure that at the unveiling of Halo 4, you knew you were playing Master Chief, that John was back. Because Master Chief is the John Wayne character of that universe, and that's who you want to play."
"We really spent time thinking about the story arc that we want to tell, in the world, to get back to Master Chief,"
"That's the role I want Halo to play, to be what Halo [already] is."
The implication is overwhelming.