- anton1792
- |
- Noble Legendary Member
"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum
I hated the Master Chief sections. They just dragged on and on. It was almost like reading the game script.
The characterization of the Covenant was dry as hell. It was basically all the same stuff. Genocidal hate, more genocidal hate and more genocidal hate. The least that could have been done was to show a break in that, hint at some divisions that would lead into Halo 2. Caring about people who commit genocide on a daily basis is incredibly difficult, impossible if they behave like Orna 'Fulsamee. I don't think Bungie really payed much attention to its writing, because it seriously harmed my appreciation of the Arbiter's/Elite's story in Halo 2 when I read it. To be quite frank, I read the Flood and then realized that I really couldn't give a -blam!- about the Covenant anymore. If The Cole Protocol did anything right, it was that it broke that up. I sort of view CtfU as a fix for the Flood, a sort of last ditch attempt to make us say "Oh hey look, some Elites do like us. A reason to care for their misanthropic genocidal asses and not actually be rooting for the Brutes in Halo 2!". Because honestly, had I read the Flood first, I don't think I would have regarded Halo 2 as anything more than average at the time. The Elite's and the Arbiter' story was pretty much the only thing that pulled me in. And then I read the Flood... If Bungie wanted us to care about them, the Flood was a pretty bad approach.
One thing I did like was that it showed us some of the battles that normal Marines and ODSTS were having against the Covenant rather than more gung-ho Spartans mowing down everything in sight. I think it showed how effective and creative the UNSC could actually be on the ground against the Covenant and that they could actually kick ass on their own without needing a Spartan around to take them by the hands like wee babies.