I think the literal best scene in this game is the one where all the research staff get composed. It's the first time we well and truly see Chief fail, and it's great to see how it affects him and Cortana differently. The sheer brutality of it, the sound design and the aesthetic, along with Cortana's explanation after, really hammers in how horrible what happened to them is.
Hearing Doctor Tilson's scream go from organic to digital was, and still is, pretty terrifying. And then Cortana talks about hearing what was left of them. Definitely one of the best parts of the game
You know I think you hit 4 on the head of what it was. It was a leap of faith to try and fill massive shoes that fell painfully short. The extended universe around halo 4 and the forerunners is excellent but the game really came short.
I'm not gonna lie, that scene actually horrified me more than most shit, even in stuff that's supposed to be horror related. Guessing because as far as games like this goes, it's not something one tends to expect, which made it all the more impactful (for me anyways) And overall, the effects and way it was handled was just great. Fucking horrifying and freaky, but great.
The reason Lasky is so relaxed with Chief and feels weird being called "sir" by him is because he met him years prior as a cadet. His story is told in the live action film Forward Unto Dawn, which I believe came out just before this game.
I think you missed the cutscene where we find out about Cortana's rampancy. Chief's immediate reaction to it is so telling of their relationship and worth noting.
@@Masso-gy9yu yeah a he makes a big deal about how there should've been a cutscenes to explain her rampancy. No hate against him though, he probably just accidentally pressed a button that skipped it. Happens to the best of us.
I’m honestly glad Halo 4 exists, it gave this rather bombastic space drama some very much needed human emotional drama that was somewhat lacking in the Bungie games. Sometimes you don’t need the fate of the galaxy to feel like you lost everything.
And people who liked the "lack of emotion" (of which there is plenty if you know where to look) show an awful lot of emotion by whining about the emotion in H4 and beyond. If you can't handle Chief expressing even a little bit of emotion you have no business projecting onto him in the first place.
@@redrenegade7724 Actually, people dislike the fact that Halo 4 insisted on shoving it in your face without any aspect of subtlety. Fans like you prove exactly why it was such an annoyance. The people complaining about it were the ones able to see the abundance of emotion in the classic trilogy without having to have it spelled out for them, an entire arc of 2 and 3 being about Chief's regret over losing Cortana and the relief of having her back. People insisted that the reason we didn't like the new version of the Chief was because we wanted the soulless drone they'd seen in the classics, while in reality it was just ignorance to the truth that the Chief was always expressive, just reserved. If you can't handle the idea of people having valid complaints about a terribly written change in character you have no business projecting your inability to handle others' opinions in the first place. The issue was and always has been the people who rush to whine and complain and then insist it's the other side doing it, and then assert the side they don't like as being unworthy of associating themselves with the character, of expressing their valid opinions, or other nonsense.
@@Espartanica It's all very well to claim maturity but try not to do it while parroting someone's words back to them next time. Have a drink of water, calm down, and log back in later. You'll feel better and this whole comments section will be like a bad dream.
Hey when you start feeling better I would love to suggest a game to review. Subnautica was an amazing game I stumbled onto after its huge blowup and I feel like you would love it! Have a great day man!
when Cortana say she is thinking herself to death it is as if she thinking hard enough that she stops breathing and keeping her heart beating if she were organic.
1:38 as much as I respect your viewpoint on your head canon of why the armor is like this in the cutscene, the truth is that they had limited time and resources, and so decided to use the same armor as chief to save time in producing the cutscene. Me personally I just look at this scene and imagine it being the original Mjolnir armor instead of this one.
Yeah, I disagree with him as well on this viewpoint. I mostly saw it as the public perception in-universe of the fabricated or half-truthed events that ONI was telling.
@@babytricep437 No, Halo 2 is a great story told in a great way. CE and 3 are lackluster stories told very well. Halo CE and 3 have really simple, and in a few ways, bad actual plot. Especially Halo 3. Good god, the sheer number of inconsistencies and wasted potential in Halo 3 is staggering, but you don't care because the PRESENTATION of that lacking plot is very very good.
Can't believe you didn't win the scene of Chief returning to Infinity with all the other soldiers saluting him. The mad level of respect they have for him
I never had a problem with Chief’s armor in Halo 4 or 5. I thought it made him look way cooler and menacing. I think all of the armor we’ve seen Chief in looks great.
I thought it looked dumb. They tried to copy Crysis, but Chief ended up looking like a Power Ranger instead, I'm glad they bulked him up a little in 5 and even more glad they scrapped it and gave us Halo Wars armor instead. Which makes Chief look like a walking tank.
Most people only have two real issues with it: 1. The armour is overdetailed. I don't fully agree but I get it. 2. The armour is completely different than the one he SHOULD be wearing at the start of the game, and it's never addressed why he suddenly looks so different, which is an objective flaw. If you're going to change your hero's wardrobe between titles, you have to give some sort of explanation.
@@themindfulmoron3790 My main issue is it doesn't look like armor. In Halo1/Reach the armor is clearly metallic and all the unarmored bits are heavy covered in what looks like rubber. In Halo 2-3 they gave Chief more hoplite looking armor, which I thought was a downgrade, but still looks decent and is a practical design. Halo 4 is a cosplayer trying to turn his Crysis suit into what kinda looks like Master Chief.
@@RG-df2lr It's impossible to find out where they actually took inspiration from when designing the new armor. Corporate will never allow the people who worked on the design to speak on the subject for fear of a lawsuit. If we're ever getting confirmation about that it'll happen years from now. Looking at the games that came out before 4 though you can guess where they copied their homework from. Not that I'm complaining mind, the best artists steal everything and the Crysis suit is great, my complaint is that they decided to retcon Halo 1-3's designs, lie about it in interviews and give us a worse design that makes 0 in universe sense.
For all the shit 4 and 5 had issues with, it was nice to hear John speaking and acting like a human being. It reminds me much more of the John from the books, who was still human and spoke more often than he ever did in the first couple of games, and I think they did a great job flushing him out as his own person, especially after years of the whole "strong silent type" to allow the imprint process for players. And it's done so easily that it feels natural.
@@Espartanica Come again? The guy barely spoke at all in those games. Not sure where you're getting that from. And I'm saying that I appreciate the way make him work in both trilogies
@@lifeliberty9235 Barely speaking doesn't mean emotionless. He's subtle and reserved but if you pay attention he's still plenty expressive. Watch the scene where Spark and Cortana meet at the Control Room in CE for example, or during the outtro of Floodgate. He was never an emotionless drone, he was just subtle and quiet, but always had a distinct personality that didn't need to be shoved in your face. Halo 4 made the same mistake as Other M with thinking everything had to be shoved in your face, without any trace of subtlety and ad a result had a very flat story. There's a LOT of filler dialog that would have made the Chief and Cortana's story feel a lot more natural and keep that subtlety and humor of the classic titles, but was cut to focus on only the most straightforward parts.
ua-cam.com/video/VSWzo47MTQ8/v-deo.html Watch this and pay attention to the Chief's body language, and you'll realize he's been a pretty expressive character ever since the classics
@@Espartanica Expressive, sure. But I'm referring specifically to the amount of speaking or talking he does. That is something which I can appreciate him doing more in the 343 games, in large part due to the fact that it's much more like his book counterpart. Thats what I was trying to get at, if perhaps my initial comment didn't make that clear enough
I’ll be honest cortana’s death really got me my first play through, tears were drawn but overall I really liked the game despite some issues, also I kind of got a feeling that you wouldn’t like 4 as much just based off the video length when compared to the other halos
I like Halo 4. I do. It's probably my favorite campaign tied with ODST. I will admit not every moment in the story hit like it did with me but I understand what you mean. The stuff with the Didact could've been handled better, maybe give him some more of a presence. But being able to finally fly a Pelican (especially in co-op, it's super fun), fighting alongside other Spartans as the Chief, the Death Star-style Trench Run opening the final level (which I didn't find that frustrating for some reason. I know, I might be in the minority on that), literally... everything about John and Cortana. These moments all stood out to me. I can name all the games that made me tear up at the end on one hand. Halo 4 was one of them. I'll defend Halo 4 till I die. It gets way too much crap than I think people give it.
@@2020_Visi0n I wished they would have finished it, then use the banished as a means of going back to the old halo with dlc. Infinite doesn’t finish what 4 and 5 set up sadly
@@muskatDR that’s what makes it a good story. Show halo 4 to an average person and it would still feel just as heartbreaking. Halo 5 didn’t work tonely as a sequel but at least it progressed the story. Halo 5 has interesting ideas but a terrible execution. In infinite, instead of throwing away the story, they could have shown Chief choosing between his mission and her, since both are now at odds.
Halo 4 is a game I like more the more I replay it. I am a sucker for emotional storytelling and pretty scenery, two things Halo 4 nails. One of the things that always made Halo work for me was the Chief and Cortana relationship., and I will maintain that its absence in H3 brought it down. I at first didn't like Halo 4 very much, feeling underwhelmed by it when I first played it and ranking it near the bottom of the series. I have come to appreciate it more, however, for story, art, designs, gameplay, and music. It really clicked a couple years ago when I played all the games on Legendary consecutively so I had really fresh comparisons, and, honestly, there wasn't anything wrong with it when you compared it to the other games, and every other game puts at least one supposed flaw of H4 on display front and center. I would say some of them even have far more severe flaws that get either passed or excused. 1 reused environments heavily with severe padding. 2 had a pathetic weapons sandbox. 3 botched story and characters. ODST had an at best fragmentary plot. Reach underdeveloped its cast and focused on gimmicks. Give it time, more people will come around and love Halo 4 as much as the Bungie titles. I came around when I stopped trying to envision Halo 4 as the 6th Bungie game and instead treat it as its own thing; it wasn't going to have the same set of priorities and values. Bungie Halo is a product of end 90s gaming and the first Xbox generation; H1 even had powerup pickups like an arcade game, with emphasis on keeping the action pumping at all costs. H4 is from an entirely different generation, a generation that sees games as more than dopamine induction devices, a generation where a game can be a meaningful intellectual experience, make you cry, or challenge your ideals. If you're looking for a couch arcade experience, H4 won't deliver. If you're willing to engage with Halo 4 as a soulful and challenging piece of interactive media, you'll have a great time with it. 343 made a huge gamble pushing that angle, knowing they would never outbungie Bungie at literally their own game. I think it was a gamble that ultimately worked. In H5, they took the lesson nobody likes sober emotional Halo and went for an action game drawing on old Bungie favorites, emphasis on action, and cues from COD and MCU, and everyone hated in. The parts that went into Infinite that people love all come from H4.
@@The_Obsessed i think the nanobots explanation *could* work, but only if the spartans in the flashbacks were wearing either the Mk4 or Mk5, or an older design.
I agree halo 4 art style is actually good I think I love the new armor look but the reason chiefs armor changed is so dumb and far fetched this game is crap and it’s potential was seriously wasted
12:25 When the Covenant and Prometheans stop fighting as the Didact shows up, the Covenant all chant 'Didact.' Cortana wasn't just pulling that name out of nowhere.
As much it has it’s faults, something that has grown on me during repeat playthroughs of Halo 4 - the background ambience/immersion is really strong. I love the moment when the composer arrives at earth and FLEETCOM has no idea what to do. It’s just a shame it was the background to an annoying flight section :/
I honestly really like the Prometheans' design. The fact they're so advanced even compared to the covenant shows just how impressive forerunner tech is. Also, no win for Chief literally punching a nuke and surviving?
I think the main issue people have with the Prometheans is that it’s just hard to believe that the Forerunners actually made them. If the Knights looked more blocky like those giant sentinels from Halo 2, no one would have issues with them from an design standpoint. The main issue when it comes to their designs is mostly with the crawlers and the drones the knights spit out. Me and many others just find it hard to believe that the Forerunners who have left behind all of these very smooth yet imposing structures and other robotic beings like the Monitors and Sentinels would decide to just add spikes to some robotic animals and design tiny faces on the drone. They could’ve easily fixed this issue by just stating that maybe the Didact and a rogue group followers under his cause took over some sort of Forerunner production plant, moved it into the shield world where we are in Halo 4 and made their own designs to separate themselves from the original Forerunner art design. I actually would’ve liked this approach as it signifies that the Didact really wants to maintain the Mantle for the Forerunners, and he has committed to his actions despite the opposition the Forerunners have given the Didact with these Prometheans representing his drastic shift to save his species “responsibility”. But now the Prometheans are just in every Forerunner installation as if they have always been their and it’s just… meh. Overall the designs are nice, they just don’t really identify with the existing designs of that faction
@@RoachCatJr yea its understandable, but i feel like those people are just looking at the downsides of the game. I mean yea the game is below average or average at best, but i was just saying i enjoyed it personally.
Personally, I love Halo 4 to bits. I loved the story, really enjoyed the gameplay - even if the only really new things it brought to the table were in adding other aspects like weapons, enemies, etc rather than actual gameplay facets, and adore the setting. I'm really rather disappointed it all seems to have been discarded since I loved the Prometheans as a faction that, unlike the Flood, felt like they could really carry the gameplay with the Covenant Remnant being very much a lesser threat. A couple of notes - the Didact's name is briefly heard when the Elites are kneeling, and can be found in an audio console in the crash, though the fact that these aren't readily known if you aren't looking around is still a flaw. Halsey's scene I think is actually important to plant her in our minds, so when Chief immediately suggests they need to get to her, she's still someone we remember. I also honestly really enjoyed the exposition, even though it would have been nice to get it into two parts - make the fact that ancient humans were running from the Flood more of a twist, though I can understand why 343 didn't necessarily consider this since it was lore being ported in from the books (which was another reason I loved seeing it in the game). I will admit that I always have a hard time considering the notion of "you have to explore all this stuff to get the story", because I *like* looking for that lore to understand the story! (That, and I have a habit of getting it mixed in with what's revealed in the story). (Jeepers, sorry for the mini-essay).
I was waiting for when you'd do Halo 4! Glad it was before Christmas! Personally this is my favorite game of the series for a variety of reasons: 1) The fact they fleshed out Chief and Cortana's relationship as something not like lovers, but perhaps like a loving brother and sister with Cortana showing that he is a man somewhere inside that machine and him sticking with her despite her rampancy progression. Also the cutscene with them together for the final time, always chokes me up especially with "Welcome home, John." I bawled my eyes out the first time it happened, still do to this day. The way 343 executed that was just excellent! *chef's kiss* 2) The Didact as a villain. Yes, I know he was gone too fast too soon (in terms of him being in only Halo 4 and he doesn't make an appearance after that, besides the comics for a bit,) but with his design, voice acting (the same VA who voiced Harbinger in Mass Effect 2) and his ideals, he could've been probably one of the greatest villains in the Halo saga, but it's wishful thinking right? 3) The score is superb with how cinematic it sounds. Sure, it's not as iconic as Marty's score (yet anyway), but nearly ten (hard to believe it's nearly that old already) years later, the music has aged like wine and Neil Davidge did a fantastic job on it! 4) Cortana's design is arguably the best in the series, besides how she looks in CE. She does appear to be a bit more thicc in all the right places (if you know what I mean,) but she seems more natural and fluid in terms of her body movement in the game. (Okay, this one might be personal opinion, but you know what I mean.) Though I will admit, I do agree with what you said that as a whole, Halo 4's story is weak in some aspects and I will admit that (between Del Rio being unlikable, Palmer (even though I love me some Jen Hale/FemShep) does essentially nothing in the game and how they killed off the Didact too soon in the series, but overall, I love this game to death and will defend it until I die. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but that's just me though. Halo 4 is, in my eyes, still a piece of art, faults and all. Also 6:38 scared the everliving fuck out of me when I first played the game. Otherwise, great video man! Love your analysis and intake! Keep up the amazing work!
That's Halo wars though. They've got enough metal on them to count as an APC. Halo 4-5 has them look like "walking tanks" because of good cinematography, not armor design. Tanks aren't made of rubber.
I didn’t mind the art style changes. Most of my issues stemmed from the Spartan Armor designs. I wasn’t even that much of a fan of Halo 2 and 3’s armor design. Reach was always my favorite and Infinite is a very close runner up.
I broke the prologue down and reviewed it's connection to the story. As far as I can tell, that guy from ONI was trying to find out why the Master Chief performed so well so that he could implement that into the Spartan IV program
As a Cortana/Chief story, Halo 4 is great, and yes, Green and Blue the theme that plays in that final scene between them is great. The Didact and the M'dama led Covenant forces are really just third wheeling this story constantly getting between Chief and Cortana and their goal of reaching Halsey. (4's Spartan Ops tried to give the Covenant more story reasons for being there and establish a proper leader for them but I don't know if enough people paid attention to that mode or it's cinematics to really care.) I do love the hell out of some of the mo-cap animation that went into Chief in a few scenes there's alot of subtle nuance there, especially notable in his body language after the composer scene and when Cortana fades away at the end. The terminals were cool and all but they did also rely a bit heavily on players having also read the books that surrounded 4's launch. It's not my favourite game in the franchise though I appreciate the attempt at a more personal story even if it gets bogged down by all the forerunner's bullshit, but it doesn't come close to being the worst.
I would say enough people paid attention to Spartan Ops as they were very upset about how Halo 5 killed of Jul M'dama in the first mission just like that.
@@DerultimativeOzzy I feel like I never encountered anyone who really talked about (or at least enjoyed) Spartan Ops much at the time. But you're right, that was the first thing about Guardians that annoyed the hell out of me, so much set up from the Karen Travis novels and Spartan Ops and he gets done in barely ten minutes into the campaign.
You know what? I know you said your ethos is to be positive but even your negative points had validity and it was very nice to hear youre opinion on top of that. Good job on getting this done as u said it was one of ur hardest! Love all ur videos
I can't help but feel as if he skipped through a lot of important details which actually help in the flow of the story. Like when Cortana tells Chief about her problem and his reaction to it. Or the fact that Del Rio despite being an asshole actually wanted to protect the crew members and not put them in more danger. (That was during Cortana's breakdown) There are many more instances but I will give it a rest. Also.....Something I wanna point out. The main focus of the story in this game was MC and C dynamic. Not Didact.
First time I saw the goodbye from Cortana to Chief, I teared up. To this day it is still one of the best Halo Cutscenes. Right next to the Spartans Vs Elites in Halo Wars 1 And the last stand of Noble 6
Halo 4 was the first halo game I ever owned. I had played halo reach and halo 3 at friends houses but 4 was my first one I owned. I played so much of the multiplayer I earned the green splatter visor. I completed the Spartan ops with many friends, and stayed up to watch the launch of forward until dawn and I enjoyed the story even if it was weak. I often say halo 4 was slept on by the fans. And I’m happy to hear someone talk about it I’m a positive light. Have a happy holiday!
Infinite is the best 343 game, easily. imo, better than ODST and Reach as well. Not better than CE - 3. Though the gameplay beats CE and 2... but the story in 1-3 is probably unbeatable for future halo installments.
Have a good night, a merry Christmas, and a happy new year brother. I grew up with Halo, can't wait for your videos for 5 and Infinite. Wasn't able to play those myself because I became a PS gamer and don't have a gaming capable PC.
There IS a cutscene that explains Cortana's rampancy, but you probably skipped it by accident. Halo 4 is one of my favorite games in the series, specifically because of how it deals with John's humanity. For the first time, he feels like a fleshed out character rather than a proxy for the player. I get that's what video games are, but I just prefer stories where the protagonist is a person rather than an empty shell. I'm quite capable of connecting with a character who isn't me and still getting something meaningful out of the experience. So I love the humanity this story brings to Chief. The ending is still the best in the series, as far as my tastes go.
With Chief talking more in this game, it felt like he and Cortana were bouncing ideas off each other and solving provlems together rather than her just giving waypoints and him just shooting. I liked that. Haven't played Infinite yet but I hope there's more of that.
Whenever a series that has a pretty definite ending is brought back, I feel that the new entry has to justify it's existence. Why are we going back? Why does this story deserve to be told? Its the first hurdle that any new story has to get over for me to enjoy it. That's why a game like Gears of War 4 doesn't do it for me, it felt like that whole game could have been a chunk of Gears 5's story and it would have been better for it. But then you have games like God of War (2018) that take a character we know and put them into a new situation and see where they go from there, and that works in my opinion. So, 343 taking this game and going 'We're done with the Covenant (to a point), we're done with the rings, let's bring in a new threat who is more powerful than the Chief, and we'll threaten his relationship with Cortana', and genuinely make the player worried that they'll lose her, and then actually following through and having one of the most heartfelt scenes in a video game to that. This game is exactly what a sequel to a finished series should be. This was a great way to start a new trilogy. And then Halo 5 came out, and we know how that went.
Wholeheartedly agree with the halo statement. Sadly halo fans reject anything new or different so halo 4 was hated a lot for trying to be a more personal story. Concerning Gears, we have yet to see how Gears 6 will end it, but the plot and story aren’t too bad. Gears 4 was definitely playing it safe with the story, while gears 5 took risks, which is why I feel like gears 5 feels more like a gears game than 4 because the stakes and consequences were high like the old games.
@Trav *Whoosh* lol I was just being a smart ass. I wasn’t being serious. If you ask a stranger on the internet why you don’t have leg hair, you should not expect a serious answer haha
I wish you gave a point to right after cortana leaves. All of the debris falling behind chief kinda visually showing us his world fell apart the second she left. It was point worthy!
You said that you prefer the 4 armor because it looks more menacing to fight against rebellions, but SPARTAN-IIs were not equipped with their armor until the Human-Covenant War.
You don’t know how happy I am you’ve made these halo videos. I’ve literally just jumped in to infinite and had no idea what the hell was happening, the story with cortana and which species is which, so just watching this has clued me in to the previous games. So thank you very much indeed.
Chiefs new armor isn’t functional, most of the complaints about the change in art style weren’t that it had just changed but that it had changed to prioritize form over function.
Just to be clear I love this game, the only thing I didn’t like about the game was the art style. Just don’t want to see somebody write it off like that.
Also she says “that Didact,” because she probably knows there’s more than one… as far as forerunner knowledge of the didact goes there’s literally elites that in that scene call him the Didact and Cortana can extrapolate from the information she has what that may mean.
One minor thing that always bothers me is that when the Didact is force-gripping Chief, it clearly shows Chief is hanging a good 10 feet off the edge of the bridge. Then, when the Didact drops him, one cut later and the Chief is close enough to grab the edge of the bridge.
As someone who is a childhood fan I can say I genuinely like this game. Although I wasn't exactly there for anything before reach, I remember my dad playing 3, reach, and odst. He always praised the games I never got to experience in their peak. And I came to love the series as a whole. I felt like 4 was my official step into the Halo franchise, and although it wasn't under the sacred light of Bungie, I feel that Halo 4 will always have a special place in my heart.
Maybe im alone... but i loved halo 4, in fact like my favorite Master chief game. (Reach is the best) i have yet to pay infinite but ive seen it all because i hate myself and i know its really good. But i genuinely loved 4, obvious couple bits got annoying but i thought it was great. Maybe im alone in this but i feel like the game was awesome. Quick note tho i havent played 5 but also have seen it and liked 5 so maybe I just adore halo
Can’t believe you didn’t give the scene with Chief being armored by the scientists a win. First time you truly get the perspective of how huge he is next to regular humans
if you'd like to grow even more appreciation for lasky i highly recommend the (initially miniseries leading up to halo 4's release combined into a) film "halo 4: forward unto dawn" if having not already seen it (you can find the entire movie for free on youtube from the creators) it's essentially his origin story but even without that context it's a kickass video game film - in my opinion one of the greater ones - and a great watch for halo fans lore-knowing and casual alike. honestly it's the sole reason i remember lasky as a character despite not being a big fan of h4
i am in a very small boat maybe even a paddle boat by myself but i feel with what 343 has done with the franchise is far better than what bungie done, sure bungie started it but 343 have improved every aspect from story to gameplay to art just everything about Halo is the best it's ever been
343 has done good things but I disagree with them doing better than Bungie. 4's story was good but messy, 5's story was horrible due to Microsoft messing with production. Art is debatable because I liked the armors in 4 but the bulky Elites looked off and they went way overboard with 5's armors. Infinite's art looks amazing though so that is the right step forward. On gameplay I agree actually because it actually made me feel fast and strong.
I would recommend watching "Halo4 - Forward Unto Dawn" which serves as an introduction to where the Chief is at the beginning of the game and (if you have a passable sound system) a good first look into Cortanas Rampancy. Also it is the story of Lasky as a cadet and his motivations for being in the military. It seems not very well liked (like Halo 4), but I think it's very worthwhile to watch and a great addition to the game.
While definitely not on the same level as the trilogy halo 4 will always hold a very special place in my heart, my father giving me this as an early Christmas present and borrowing my step brothers Xbox just so I can play the story and I honestly wasn’t that disappointed in it getting chief and Cortana again is amazing, the didact was a mind blowing villain just with a non existent boss fight, and learning more about the forerunners was interesting even if it did take away some of their mystery, and the ending was so bittersweet and I loved it
This video made me kinda sad. I really enjoyed Halo 4's story. The ending was perfect. But I can respect why people don't like it. It's very different from what came before. 343 has come a long way since Halo 4, I can't wait to see where the series goes next
(Typing this as I'm watching it) I think you may not have noticed that when Cortana says "I need you" to Chief? If you recall, the last thing Chief says to Cortana at the end of Halo 3 was "Wake me... when you need me."
5:43 bc she changes appearance in literally EVERY halo game that we dont even question it anymore . it sucks that its not consistent but it's pretty obvious why we dont question Cortana's changes of appearance
I think you should have touched on the moment between Chief and Cortana when she is talking about knowing that Requiem's sun isn't an actual sun and she ends with the line "before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine." I think it really showed how even though Chief is human he acts more like a machine than Cortana does.
I fkn love this game, how I wish I could go back and play this game, it was my 1st ever halo game when I was 6 or 7 and i am now am 15. It was a 10/10 game, the voice acting, the lines, the gameplay, the sound effect, the story, the graphics and design, the gun design and characters. absolutely everything about this I was in love with. It was the perfect game through and through. When I realized I couldn't get that feeling about this game, I feel like I matured way way way to fast. This game, I would die for to play this for the 1st time as a child.
Halo 4 holds a special place on my heart, my grand ma lived throug halsaimer her last few years alive, and once ahe passed away i decided to play halo 4 in her honor after watching an interview of the director saying that he went through the same while directing the game, it hits diferent knowing this, it gets to you how devastating it is to see a loved one turn into a complete stranger that hurts you and geta you in trouble at seemengly random intervals, amd when they are finaly gone... Do i cry? Is this a realif for them?... The more personal story between cortana an chief is veri devisive on the halo comunity, and i am glad it grew on me because is a very enjoyable game
There’s a few scenes I think you’ve missed maybe because you were showing your frustrations with the plot. But that’s understandable, 4 gave me the most emotions out of any game until Infinite. Seeing Cortana going through Rampancy, the scientists we fought so desperately to save getting turned to ash, watching Cortana “die” twice, and the final talk with Laskey. I respect your honesty with 4, I’ll wear the punches you didn’t pull proudly on my Halo fanboy chest.
The way they portrayed Rampancy in 4 disappointed me greatly because I see all the ways they could have easily improved it. The gradual degradation of a character and tackling the subject of the inevitably of death could have been a poignant thing to portray. Instead Cortana becomes a teenager and gets mad in a few scenes, which becomes increasingly more annoying the more you replay the game, having to wait for her to remember how to open a door for 5 minutes while you're eyeing the par time timer count down. What a colossal waste of fantastic writing material.
@@reusablebelt1718 I mean...unlike ODST Reach is kinda central to the story I guess? So...yeah? I've always considered ODST to be like a sidestory. A *really fucking awesome* side story, but side story nonetheless.
Fun fact, The ONI guy that was interrogating Halsey was not actually ONI, it was Jun, after Reach he retired being a spartan and became one of the people responsible for the spartan 4s, him also being the recruiter for these new spartans
You started talking about Silent Cartographer and then it got me thinking about pelicans and then it made me think of Foehammer, which led to me thinking about her death, and now I'm sad. Our favorite faceless African American pilot was the last character to die in CE
Nah people not liking them changing the art style is completely fair, game looks entirely different from a halo game, completely fair criticism to not like the reasonless change
Halo 4 had a great campaign and storyline. Sad that Halo 5 threw it all away, but Infinite brought me right back to the greatness that is the story of Halo from Reach, CE, 2, 3, ODST, and 4.
I feel like my best simple description of Halo 4 would be "good ideas, poor execution" most of the stuff introduced was welcome but they just didnt quite stick the landing And it starts from the first scene, new spartan armor? Great, it makes perfect sense to get better armor and a good way to ease us into the new art style. But its just here now, no real explanation for it and the flashback shows new armor in older times? Its like they just said fuck it nobody will care. Couldn't they have simply kept the old armor for the first few missions and when we get to the Infinity have a scene where we get the upgraded stuff? That would have made much more sense New enemy faction? Great, promethians have a stunning and cool art style, but they dont do anything to make the sandbox interesting and their weapons are just weaker and boring versions of pre existing weapons, with maybe the exception of the binary rifle New story focused around chief and Cortana? Great i love it, its nice to explore the two characters we spend the most time with across the series. But its not really eased into at all, its just kinda "this is it now, get used to it" And the librarian scene, its nice to get some extra information like this but its done in the most uninspired and boring way possible that made my, and probably many others, eyes just kinda glaze over a few minutes in I really want to like Halo 4, but its Definitely the weakest of the games to me. Even 5, for all its issues actually innovated and made things new. But 4? It didnt really do much that was praise worthy. Its not awful, people who say 4 and 5 are garbage need to take a step back and play and actually terrible game But its still a disappointment overall. I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate, but it probably stung more for people like me who grew up with the series to see it changed so radically, so quickly, with no real easing into it. Overall its not awful but really not worth playing now days except for when your playing the games for the first time and run through it once to get the general story from it. after that? Its pretty much a hard pass for me
13:18 You know Johnson was a Spartan as well right? He was a Spartan I which was solely mind alterations to make them smarter. Its how he survived the Flood in Halo: CE
The reason Cortana knew to call the Didact ‘Didact’ is because when the Didact first emerges the Covenent kneel before him saying his name. On top of that, when you first crash on Requiem, one of the ships has an audio file that has the Didact’s name on loop transmitting to the planet.
I think the literal best scene in this game is the one where all the research staff get composed. It's the first time we well and truly see Chief fail, and it's great to see how it affects him and Cortana differently. The sheer brutality of it, the sound design and the aesthetic, along with Cortana's explanation after, really hammers in how horrible what happened to them is.
and you see chief reach out to them as he falls
The shot with the scientist Chief was talking to is straight up horror movie materiel
Hearing Doctor Tilson's scream go from organic to digital was, and still is, pretty terrifying. And then Cortana talks about hearing what was left of them. Definitely one of the best parts of the game
You know I think you hit 4 on the head of what it was. It was a leap of faith to try and fill massive shoes that fell painfully short. The extended universe around halo 4 and the forerunners is excellent but the game really came short.
I'm not gonna lie, that scene actually horrified me more than most shit, even in stuff that's supposed to be horror related. Guessing because as far as games like this goes, it's not something one tends to expect, which made it all the more impactful (for me anyways) And overall, the effects and way it was handled was just great. Fucking horrifying and freaky, but great.
The reason Lasky is so relaxed with Chief and feels weird being called "sir" by him is because he met him years prior as a cadet. His story is told in the live action film Forward Unto Dawn, which I believe came out just before this game.
The film was really a setup for the game's release. The ending of the film is the beginning cutscene of the first mission although altered
Am I the only one who actually loved that film unironically?
I enjoyed it to. The production on the customers and props where really nice
@@goldenshadowproductions no. Tons of people did and is the main reason why the new Halo show got put into production
@@goldenshadowproductions mate FUD was absolutely brilliant. I loved it.
I think you missed the cutscene where we find out about Cortana's rampancy. Chief's immediate reaction to it is so telling of their relationship and worth noting.
I know right, very surprised he just glossed over that.
@@Masso-gy9yu yeah a he makes a big deal about how there should've been a cutscenes to explain her rampancy. No hate against him though, he probably just accidentally pressed a button that skipped it. Happens to the best of us.
can't forget that she was even showing signs of it back in halo 3 when the gravemind had her
And the music that plays during it fits so well
Kinda like he says that the story in terminals doesn't count because its "outside" when its literally part of the campaign...
Honestly my favorite moment is delrio yelling "arrest that man" at palmer and her face just saying "yeahhhhhh no you can do that yourself"
"Plot is what happens. Story is what our characters experience and what messages we are left with." Nice quote!
I’m honestly glad Halo 4 exists, it gave this rather bombastic space drama some very much needed human emotional drama that was somewhat lacking in the Bungie games.
Sometimes you don’t need the fate of the galaxy to feel like you lost everything.
The lack of emotion was really what people liked In the old games, but I see your motivation
And people who liked the "lack of emotion" (of which there is plenty if you know where to look) show an awful lot of emotion by whining about the emotion in H4 and beyond. If you can't handle Chief expressing even a little bit of emotion you have no business projecting onto him in the first place.
"Sometimes you don’t need the fate of the galaxy to feel like you lost everything." that's just halo reach
@@redrenegade7724 Actually, people dislike the fact that Halo 4 insisted on shoving it in your face without any aspect of subtlety. Fans like you prove exactly why it was such an annoyance. The people complaining about it were the ones able to see the abundance of emotion in the classic trilogy without having to have it spelled out for them, an entire arc of 2 and 3 being about Chief's regret over losing Cortana and the relief of having her back. People insisted that the reason we didn't like the new version of the Chief was because we wanted the soulless drone they'd seen in the classics, while in reality it was just ignorance to the truth that the Chief was always expressive, just reserved. If you can't handle the idea of people having valid complaints about a terribly written change in character you have no business projecting your inability to handle others' opinions in the first place.
The issue was and always has been the people who rush to whine and complain and then insist it's the other side doing it, and then assert the side they don't like as being unworthy of associating themselves with the character, of expressing their valid opinions, or other nonsense.
@@Espartanica It's all very well to claim maturity but try not to do it while parroting someone's words back to them next time. Have a drink of water, calm down, and log back in later. You'll feel better and this whole comments section will be like a bad dream.
I apologize for my voice being a little horase. Was a little sick recording this audio. Hope you still enjoy!
It’s all good!! We understand that stuff happens. Take a break if you need it, you deserve it:)
Thanks for your hard work
Stay safe!
Hey when you start feeling better I would love to suggest a game to review. Subnautica was an amazing game I stumbled onto after its huge blowup and I feel like you would love it! Have a great day man!
when Cortana say she is thinking herself to death it is as if she thinking hard enough that she stops breathing and keeping her heart beating if she were organic.
1:38 as much as I respect your viewpoint on your head canon of why the armor is like this in the cutscene, the truth is that they had limited time and resources, and so decided to use the same armor as chief to save time in producing the cutscene. Me personally I just look at this scene and imagine it being the original Mjolnir armor instead of this one.
Yeah, I disagree with him as well on this viewpoint. I mostly saw it as the public perception in-universe of the fabricated or half-truthed events that ONI was telling.
They would've had Mark IV at this point which is one of the best Mjolnir designs
Limited time and resources? It really is a first Halo game lmao
It's the best design Master chief had so I don't mind seeing a squad of Spartans wearing it
@@xotimyth That's fine. For me personally it's just a matter of continuity
I feel like CE and 4 show perfectly that a competent story told really well will always be more enjoyable than a great story told poorly
Newsflash, halo 1-3 is a great story told great
@@babytricep437 indeed, but the point of the comment was that something good told well is better than something great told like shit
@@PianoEmu1120 And something shit told in an amazing way can be even better. Presentation matters just as much if not moreso than content
@@babytricep437 No, Halo 2 is a great story told in a great way. CE and 3 are lackluster stories told very well. Halo CE and 3 have really simple, and in a few ways, bad actual plot. Especially Halo 3. Good god, the sheer number of inconsistencies and wasted potential in Halo 3 is staggering, but you don't care because the PRESENTATION of that lacking plot is very very good.
@@Espartanica Well, it's a good thing the presentation is good then, because the stories themselves, particularly in CE and 3, just aren't...
Can't believe you didn't win the scene of Chief returning to Infinity with all the other soldiers saluting him. The mad level of respect they have for him
I never had a problem with Chief’s armor in Halo 4 or 5. I thought it made him look way cooler and menacing. I think all of the armor we’ve seen Chief in looks great.
I thought it looked dumb. They tried to copy Crysis, but Chief ended up looking like a Power Ranger instead, I'm glad they bulked him up a little in 5 and even more glad they scrapped it and gave us Halo Wars armor instead. Which makes Chief look like a walking tank.
Most people only have two real issues with it:
1. The armour is overdetailed. I don't fully agree but I get it.
2. The armour is completely different than the one he SHOULD be wearing at the start of the game, and it's never addressed why he suddenly looks so different, which is an objective flaw. If you're going to change your hero's wardrobe between titles, you have to give some sort of explanation.
@@themindfulmoron3790 My main issue is it doesn't look like armor. In Halo1/Reach the armor is clearly metallic and all the unarmored bits are heavy covered in what looks like rubber.
In Halo 2-3 they gave Chief more hoplite looking armor, which I thought was a downgrade, but still looks decent and is a practical design.
Halo 4 is a cosplayer trying to turn his Crysis suit into what kinda looks like Master Chief.
@@CoffeeMaus Just because your head wants to believe "herp derp they copied crysis" doesn't make it true.
@@RG-df2lr
It's impossible to find out where they actually took inspiration from when designing the new armor. Corporate will never allow the people who worked on the design to speak on the subject for fear of a lawsuit. If we're ever getting confirmation about that it'll happen years from now.
Looking at the games that came out before 4 though you can guess where they copied their homework from. Not that I'm complaining mind, the best artists steal everything and the Crysis suit is great, my complaint is that they decided to retcon Halo 1-3's designs, lie about it in interviews and give us a worse design that makes 0 in universe sense.
For all the shit 4 and 5 had issues with, it was nice to hear John speaking and acting like a human being. It reminds me much more of the John from the books, who was still human and spoke more often than he ever did in the first couple of games, and I think they did a great job flushing him out as his own person, especially after years of the whole "strong silent type" to allow the imprint process for players. And it's done so easily that it feels natural.
If you want that, then play the classic trilogy, where John spoke and acted like a human being.
@@Espartanica Come again? The guy barely spoke at all in those games. Not sure where you're getting that from. And I'm saying that I appreciate the way make him work in both trilogies
@@lifeliberty9235 Barely speaking doesn't mean emotionless. He's subtle and reserved but if you pay attention he's still plenty expressive. Watch the scene where Spark and Cortana meet at the Control Room in CE for example, or during the outtro of Floodgate. He was never an emotionless drone, he was just subtle and quiet, but always had a distinct personality that didn't need to be shoved in your face. Halo 4 made the same mistake as Other M with thinking everything had to be shoved in your face, without any trace of subtlety and ad a result had a very flat story. There's a LOT of filler dialog that would have made the Chief and Cortana's story feel a lot more natural and keep that subtlety and humor of the classic titles, but was cut to focus on only the most straightforward parts.
ua-cam.com/video/VSWzo47MTQ8/v-deo.html
Watch this and pay attention to the Chief's body language, and you'll realize he's been a pretty expressive character ever since the classics
@@Espartanica Expressive, sure. But I'm referring specifically to the amount of speaking or talking he does. That is something which I can appreciate him doing more in the 343 games, in large part due to the fact that it's much more like his book counterpart. Thats what I was trying to get at, if perhaps my initial comment didn't make that clear enough
I’ll be honest cortana’s death really got me my first play through, tears were drawn but overall I really liked the game despite some issues, also I kind of got a feeling that you wouldn’t like 4 as much just based off the video length when compared to the other halos
John's and Cortana's goodbye was the first scene ever in Halo to make me cry, and I've been playing since 2001.
I like Halo 4. I do. It's probably my favorite campaign tied with ODST. I will admit not every moment in the story hit like it did with me but I understand what you mean. The stuff with the Didact could've been handled better, maybe give him some more of a presence. But being able to finally fly a Pelican (especially in co-op, it's super fun), fighting alongside other Spartans as the Chief, the Death Star-style Trench Run opening the final level (which I didn't find that frustrating for some reason. I know, I might be in the minority on that), literally... everything about John and Cortana. These moments all stood out to me. I can name all the games that made me tear up at the end on one hand. Halo 4 was one of them. I'll defend Halo 4 till I die. It gets way too much crap than I think people give it.
The game had a great framework, art style and I loved the premise of the 'Reclaimer' saga. I hate that they pussied out and abandoned it
@@2020_Visi0n I wished they would have finished it, then use the banished as a means of going back to the old halo with dlc. Infinite doesn’t finish what 4 and 5 set up sadly
Wasnt halo 4s story self contained? 5 was abonded because fan backlash
@@muskatDR that’s what makes it a good story. Show halo 4 to an average person and it would still feel just as heartbreaking. Halo 5 didn’t work tonely as a sequel but at least it progressed the story. Halo 5 has interesting ideas but a terrible execution. In infinite, instead of throwing away the story, they could have shown Chief choosing between his mission and her, since both are now at odds.
Halo 4 is a game I like more the more I replay it. I am a sucker for emotional storytelling and pretty scenery, two things Halo 4 nails. One of the things that always made Halo work for me was the Chief and Cortana relationship., and I will maintain that its absence in H3 brought it down. I at first didn't like Halo 4 very much, feeling underwhelmed by it when I first played it and ranking it near the bottom of the series. I have come to appreciate it more, however, for story, art, designs, gameplay, and music. It really clicked a couple years ago when I played all the games on Legendary consecutively so I had really fresh comparisons, and, honestly, there wasn't anything wrong with it when you compared it to the other games, and every other game puts at least one supposed flaw of H4 on display front and center. I would say some of them even have far more severe flaws that get either passed or excused. 1 reused environments heavily with severe padding. 2 had a pathetic weapons sandbox. 3 botched story and characters. ODST had an at best fragmentary plot. Reach underdeveloped its cast and focused on gimmicks. Give it time, more people will come around and love Halo 4 as much as the Bungie titles. I came around when I stopped trying to envision Halo 4 as the 6th Bungie game and instead treat it as its own thing; it wasn't going to have the same set of priorities and values. Bungie Halo is a product of end 90s gaming and the first Xbox generation; H1 even had powerup pickups like an arcade game, with emphasis on keeping the action pumping at all costs. H4 is from an entirely different generation, a generation that sees games as more than dopamine induction devices, a generation where a game can be a meaningful intellectual experience, make you cry, or challenge your ideals. If you're looking for a couch arcade experience, H4 won't deliver. If you're willing to engage with Halo 4 as a soulful and challenging piece of interactive media, you'll have a great time with it. 343 made a huge gamble pushing that angle, knowing they would never outbungie Bungie at literally their own game. I think it was a gamble that ultimately worked. In H5, they took the lesson nobody likes sober emotional Halo and went for an action game drawing on old Bungie favorites, emphasis on action, and cues from COD and MCU, and everyone hated in. The parts that went into Infinite that people love all come from H4.
I won't lie, I love Master Chiefs armour in 4. It looks so good.
It looks good! I just wish it was something we got through story means rather than Chief magically having it straight out the pod.
@@The_Obsessed i think the nanobots explanation *could* work, but only if the spartans in the flashbacks were wearing either the Mk4 or Mk5, or an older design.
Sure. But they fucked up it's introduction
I agree halo 4 art style is actually good I think I love the new armor look but the reason chiefs armor changed is so dumb and far fetched this game is crap and it’s potential was seriously wasted
12:25 When the Covenant and Prometheans stop fighting as the Didact shows up, the Covenant all chant 'Didact.' Cortana wasn't just pulling that name out of nowhere.
As much it has it’s faults, something that has grown on me during repeat playthroughs of Halo 4 - the background ambience/immersion is really strong. I love the moment when the composer arrives at earth and FLEETCOM has no idea what to do. It’s just a shame it was the background to an annoying flight section :/
I honestly really like the Prometheans' design. The fact they're so advanced even compared to the covenant shows just how impressive forerunner tech is.
Also, no win for Chief literally punching a nuke and surviving?
I think the main issue people have with the Prometheans is that it’s just hard to believe that the Forerunners actually made them. If the Knights looked more blocky like those giant sentinels from Halo 2, no one would have issues with them from an design standpoint. The main issue when it comes to their designs is mostly with the crawlers and the drones the knights spit out. Me and many others just find it hard to believe that the Forerunners who have left behind all of these very smooth yet imposing structures and other robotic beings like the Monitors and Sentinels would decide to just add spikes to some robotic animals and design tiny faces on the drone.
They could’ve easily fixed this issue by just stating that maybe the Didact and a rogue group followers under his cause took over some sort of Forerunner production plant, moved it into the shield world where we are in Halo 4 and made their own designs to separate themselves from the original Forerunner art design. I actually would’ve liked this approach as it signifies that the Didact really wants to maintain the Mantle for the Forerunners, and he has committed to his actions despite the opposition the Forerunners have given the Didact with these Prometheans representing his drastic shift to save his species “responsibility”. But now the Prometheans are just in every Forerunner installation as if they have always been their and it’s just… meh.
Overall the designs are nice, they just don’t really identify with the existing designs of that faction
What’s crazy is there are terminals in halo 3 with conversations between the didact and the librarian. I found that today and was very surprised.
Literally just finished the campaign, perfect timing.
I finished the campaign a couple days ago and actually enjoyed it, i dont understand why ppl hate on it so much
@@slatter7772 u don't ? it's easy to find a plethora of videos explaining why
@@RoachCatJr yea its understandable, but i feel like those people are just looking at the downsides of the game. I mean yea the game is below average or average at best, but i was just saying i enjoyed it personally.
@@slatter7772 As a fan of the series, Halo 4 isn't the best but I still enjoy it for what it is and what it does well.
@@Turbulentdesk3967 exactly 👍🏾👍🏾 same here
Personally, I love Halo 4 to bits. I loved the story, really enjoyed the gameplay - even if the only really new things it brought to the table were in adding other aspects like weapons, enemies, etc rather than actual gameplay facets, and adore the setting. I'm really rather disappointed it all seems to have been discarded since I loved the Prometheans as a faction that, unlike the Flood, felt like they could really carry the gameplay with the Covenant Remnant being very much a lesser threat.
A couple of notes - the Didact's name is briefly heard when the Elites are kneeling, and can be found in an audio console in the crash, though the fact that these aren't readily known if you aren't looking around is still a flaw. Halsey's scene I think is actually important to plant her in our minds, so when Chief immediately suggests they need to get to her, she's still someone we remember. I also honestly really enjoyed the exposition, even though it would have been nice to get it into two parts - make the fact that ancient humans were running from the Flood more of a twist, though I can understand why 343 didn't necessarily consider this since it was lore being ported in from the books (which was another reason I loved seeing it in the game). I will admit that I always have a hard time considering the notion of "you have to explore all this stuff to get the story", because I *like* looking for that lore to understand the story! (That, and I have a habit of getting it mixed in with what's revealed in the story).
(Jeepers, sorry for the mini-essay).
My favorite part of this game is how chiefs armor has noise and you hear all the crunching when he moves
Halo 4 is not only my favourite story in the series, but it's also one of my favourite sci-fi stories ever. I absolutely love it
I was waiting for when you'd do Halo 4! Glad it was before Christmas! Personally this is my favorite game of the series for a variety of reasons:
1) The fact they fleshed out Chief and Cortana's relationship as something not like lovers, but perhaps like a loving brother and sister with Cortana showing that he is a man somewhere inside that machine and him sticking with her despite her rampancy progression. Also the cutscene with them together for the final time, always chokes me up especially with "Welcome home, John." I bawled my eyes out the first time it happened, still do to this day. The way 343 executed that was just excellent! *chef's kiss*
2) The Didact as a villain. Yes, I know he was gone too fast too soon (in terms of him being in only Halo 4 and he doesn't make an appearance after that, besides the comics for a bit,) but with his design, voice acting (the same VA who voiced Harbinger in Mass Effect 2) and his ideals, he could've been probably one of the greatest villains in the Halo saga, but it's wishful thinking right?
3) The score is superb with how cinematic it sounds. Sure, it's not as iconic as Marty's score (yet anyway), but nearly ten (hard to believe it's nearly that old already) years later, the music has aged like wine and Neil Davidge did a fantastic job on it!
4) Cortana's design is arguably the best in the series, besides how she looks in CE. She does appear to be a bit more thicc in all the right places (if you know what I mean,) but she seems more natural and fluid in terms of her body movement in the game. (Okay, this one might be personal opinion, but you know what I mean.)
Though I will admit, I do agree with what you said that as a whole, Halo 4's story is weak in some aspects and I will admit that (between Del Rio being unlikable, Palmer (even though I love me some Jen Hale/FemShep) does essentially nothing in the game and how they killed off the Didact too soon in the series, but overall, I love this game to death and will defend it until I die. Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but that's just me though. Halo 4 is, in my eyes, still a piece of art, faults and all.
Also 6:38 scared the everliving fuck out of me when I first played the game.
Otherwise, great video man! Love your analysis and intake! Keep up the amazing work!
I will miss the lanky Armour from 1 to 3, but I absolutely adore the "walking tank" the spartans become from 4 onwards
They were always tanks. We just didn’t have much in contrast
That's Halo wars though. They've got enough metal on them to count as an APC. Halo 4-5 has them look like "walking tanks" because of good cinematography, not armor design. Tanks aren't made of rubber.
I think Infinite does a good job of striking a good balance between "agile and slender" and "walking fucking tank"
I didn’t mind the art style changes. Most of my issues stemmed from the Spartan Armor designs. I wasn’t even that much of a fan of Halo 2 and 3’s armor design. Reach was always my favorite and Infinite is a very close runner up.
I broke the prologue down and reviewed it's connection to the story. As far as I can tell, that guy from ONI was trying to find out why the Master Chief performed so well so that he could implement that into the Spartan IV program
As a Cortana/Chief story, Halo 4 is great, and yes, Green and Blue the theme that plays in that final scene between them is great. The Didact and the M'dama led Covenant forces are really just third wheeling this story constantly getting between Chief and Cortana and their goal of reaching Halsey. (4's Spartan Ops tried to give the Covenant more story reasons for being there and establish a proper leader for them but I don't know if enough people paid attention to that mode or it's cinematics to really care.)
I do love the hell out of some of the mo-cap animation that went into Chief in a few scenes there's alot of subtle nuance there, especially notable in his body language after the composer scene and when Cortana fades away at the end. The terminals were cool and all but they did also rely a bit heavily on players having also read the books that surrounded 4's launch. It's not my favourite game in the franchise though I appreciate the attempt at a more personal story even if it gets bogged down by all the forerunner's bullshit, but it doesn't come close to being the worst.
I would say enough people paid attention to Spartan Ops as they were very upset about how Halo 5 killed of Jul M'dama in the first mission just like that.
@@DerultimativeOzzy I feel like I never encountered anyone who really talked about (or at least enjoyed) Spartan Ops much at the time. But you're right, that was the first thing about Guardians that annoyed the hell out of me, so much set up from the Karen Travis novels and Spartan Ops and he gets done in barely ten minutes into the campaign.
I know the gameplay didn't feel right, and the campaign felt repetitive because of the prometheans, but man this game's story was so beautiful.
You know what? I know you said your ethos is to be positive but even your negative points had validity and it was very nice to hear youre opinion on top of that. Good job on getting this done as u said it was one of ur hardest! Love all ur videos
the broadsword flight is fun, if you recognize the name Battletoads
its only appropriate that i hear the nutcracker as often as possible for the remainder of this month lol
I can't help but feel as if he skipped through a lot of important details which actually help in the flow of the story.
Like when Cortana tells Chief about her problem and his reaction to it.
Or the fact that Del Rio despite being an asshole actually wanted to protect the crew members and not put them in more danger. (That was during Cortana's breakdown)
There are many more instances but I will give it a rest.
Also.....Something I wanna point out.
The main focus of the story in this game was MC and C dynamic. Not Didact.
Feels like he did it on purpose to fit the narrative that halo 4 is a messy game, when in reality, it isn’t.
First time I saw the goodbye from Cortana to Chief, I teared up. To this day it is still one of the best Halo Cutscenes.
Right next to the Spartans Vs Elites in Halo Wars 1
And the last stand of Noble 6
Halo 4 was the first halo game I ever owned. I had played halo reach and halo 3 at friends houses but 4 was my first one I owned. I played so much of the multiplayer I earned the green splatter visor. I completed the Spartan ops with many friends, and stayed up to watch the launch of forward until dawn and I enjoyed the story even if it was weak. I often say halo 4 was slept on by the fans. And I’m happy to hear someone talk about it I’m a positive light. Have a happy holiday!
5:23am and about to sleep then this drop, 6am sleep time it is!
bri'ish moment
Good for you. One order of insomnia coming your way!!
@@pancakes7579 thankfully its the holidays and im used to being up during the night so its somewhat normal.
@@coin2085 pretty much, the joins of living in Scotland.
@@KMiller3114 damn, i just calculated and took a guess, you're an hour behind me!
Subscribed. Would love to hear your thoughts on Infinite. As a childhood fan, I love it, particularly the dialogue and freedom of choice
Im willing to bet he’s gonna do the whole series. Curious how he hasn’t done odst yet
Infinite is the best 343 game, easily. imo, better than ODST and Reach as well. Not better than CE - 3.
Though the gameplay beats CE and 2... but the story in 1-3 is probably unbeatable for future halo installments.
@@Jorsk3n bruh better then Reach? That’s a ballsy statement.
Have a good night, a merry Christmas, and a happy new year brother. I grew up with Halo, can't wait for your videos for 5 and Infinite. Wasn't able to play those myself because I became a PS gamer and don't have a gaming capable PC.
There’s an achievement you can get if you beat Halo 4 on legendary without dying within 8 hours called “ You Gotta Be Kidding Me”
There's a similar achievement in all the mainline games, not just 4
I read this, and all i think is "Yeah, most speedrunners already have that."
@@SeraphOC I doubt they’re speedrunning on legendary
@@thedeepfriar745 Well no duh, but it is a category
There IS a cutscene that explains Cortana's rampancy, but you probably skipped it by accident.
Halo 4 is one of my favorite games in the series, specifically because of how it deals with John's humanity. For the first time, he feels like a fleshed out character rather than a proxy for the player. I get that's what video games are, but I just prefer stories where the protagonist is a person rather than an empty shell. I'm quite capable of connecting with a character who isn't me and still getting something meaningful out of the experience. So I love the humanity this story brings to Chief. The ending is still the best in the series, as far as my tastes go.
With Chief talking more in this game, it felt like he and Cortana were bouncing ideas off each other and solving provlems together rather than her just giving waypoints and him just shooting. I liked that. Haven't played Infinite yet but I hope there's more of that.
17:22 "SURRENDER ME THAT A.I.!" One of the funniest lines from this game
Whenever a series that has a pretty definite ending is brought back, I feel that the new entry has to justify it's existence. Why are we going back? Why does this story deserve to be told? Its the first hurdle that any new story has to get over for me to enjoy it. That's why a game like Gears of War 4 doesn't do it for me, it felt like that whole game could have been a chunk of Gears 5's story and it would have been better for it. But then you have games like God of War (2018) that take a character we know and put them into a new situation and see where they go from there, and that works in my opinion.
So, 343 taking this game and going 'We're done with the Covenant (to a point), we're done with the rings, let's bring in a new threat who is more powerful than the Chief, and we'll threaten his relationship with Cortana', and genuinely make the player worried that they'll lose her, and then actually following through and having one of the most heartfelt scenes in a video game to that. This game is exactly what a sequel to a finished series should be. This was a great way to start a new trilogy.
And then Halo 5 came out, and we know how that went.
Wholeheartedly agree with the halo statement. Sadly halo fans reject anything new or different so halo 4 was hated a lot for trying to be a more personal story. Concerning Gears, we have yet to see how Gears 6 will end it, but the plot and story aren’t too bad. Gears 4 was definitely playing it safe with the story, while gears 5 took risks, which is why I feel like gears 5 feels more like a gears game than 4 because the stakes and consequences were high like the old games.
I understand the critiques of this campaign and most are fair. But I was completely engrossed in the story. That was enough for me to love it
@Trav It’s probably cancer tbh
@Trav *Whoosh* lol I was just being a smart ass. I wasn’t being serious. If you ask a stranger on the internet why you don’t have leg hair, you should not expect a serious answer haha
I wish you gave a point to right after cortana leaves. All of the debris falling behind chief kinda visually showing us his world fell apart the second she left. It was point worthy!
To pull a meme that is referenced way too much:
“A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!”
You said that you prefer the 4 armor because it looks more menacing to fight against rebellions, but SPARTAN-IIs were not equipped with their armor until the Human-Covenant War.
Is he gon do ODST or...
I hope so
If not “Fine, I’ll do it myself ”
You don’t know how happy I am you’ve made these halo videos. I’ve literally just jumped in to infinite and had no idea what the hell was happening, the story with cortana and which species is which, so just watching this has clued me in to the previous games. So thank you very much indeed.
I’m very interested to see what you have to say for Halo 5 after your little plot discussion when it came to the Librarians whole scene lol
Chiefs new armor isn’t functional, most of the complaints about the change in art style weren’t that it had just changed but that it had changed to prioritize form over function.
Just to be clear I love this game, the only thing I didn’t like about the game was the art style. Just don’t want to see somebody write it off like that.
Also she says “that Didact,” because she probably knows there’s more than one… as far as forerunner knowledge of the didact goes there’s literally elites that in that scene call him the Didact and Cortana can extrapolate from the information she has what that may mean.
It's a small thing, but I like how Cortana followed John's last instruction to the letter:
"Wake me when you need me."
"Wake up, Chief. I need you."
Wonder if or when we’re getting a Gaming Sins
One more win for the skeleton crew working on the Master Chief Collection for fixing the lighting in that "SURRENDER THAT AI" cutscene
Ending of Halo 3:
“Wake me….when you need me.”
4:08 first thing She says, “I need you”
Did you not just put out the Creed video??? Holy cow bro you’re a beast!
One minor thing that always bothers me is that when the Didact is force-gripping Chief, it clearly shows Chief is hanging a good 10 feet off the edge of the bridge. Then, when the Didact drops him, one cut later and the Chief is close enough to grab the edge of the bridge.
Dude when master chef take off the armor my head cannon is all the dude that help pass out do to chef not having a shower in like 4ish years
Nice! Will you ever do Death Stranding?
Straight up the first time I noticed cheif's helmet pokes through the UI, can no longer unsee it
Legendary ending: Chief face reveal.
As someone who is a childhood fan I can say I genuinely like this game. Although I wasn't exactly there for anything before reach, I remember my dad playing 3, reach, and odst. He always praised the games I never got to experience in their peak. And I came to love the series as a whole. I felt like 4 was my official step into the Halo franchise, and although it wasn't under the sacred light of Bungie, I feel that Halo 4 will always have a special place in my heart.
Hahahah
Arrest the master chief?
I didn’t know we were at a stand up show!
GOLD!!
Maybe im alone... but i loved halo 4, in fact like my favorite Master chief game. (Reach is the best) i have yet to pay infinite but ive seen it all because i hate myself and i know its really good. But i genuinely loved 4, obvious couple bits got annoying but i thought it was great. Maybe im alone in this but i feel like the game was awesome. Quick note tho i havent played 5 but also have seen it and liked 5 so maybe I just adore halo
13:14 I always figured that she was trying to break the ice with a joke but just didn't know her audience.
Can’t believe you didn’t give the scene with Chief being armored by the scientists a win. First time you truly get the perspective of how huge he is next to regular humans
if you'd like to grow even more appreciation for lasky i highly recommend the (initially miniseries leading up to halo 4's release combined into a) film "halo 4: forward unto dawn" if having not already seen it (you can find the entire movie for free on youtube from the creators)
it's essentially his origin story but even without that context it's a kickass video game film - in my opinion one of the greater ones - and a great watch for halo fans lore-knowing and casual alike. honestly it's the sole reason i remember lasky as a character despite not being a big fan of h4
I’ve played through this game multiple times, I only ever came back to see Cortana and chief’s relationship
Coming back to this video after I finished Halo 5’s campaign…
Man, I wish you luck. That’s going to be a tough one for you
i am in a very small boat maybe even a paddle boat by myself but i feel with what 343 has done with the franchise is far better than what bungie done, sure bungie started it but 343 have improved every aspect from story to gameplay to art just everything about Halo is the best it's ever been
343 has done good things but I disagree with them doing better than Bungie.
4's story was good but messy, 5's story was horrible due to Microsoft messing with production.
Art is debatable because I liked the armors in 4 but the bulky Elites looked off and they went way overboard with 5's armors.
Infinite's art looks amazing though so that is the right step forward.
On gameplay I agree actually because it actually made me feel fast and strong.
4 was the first halo game I played and so it will always have a special place in my heart
Ah, wait until you drive a warthog in Halo Infinite. Feels like it weighs less than the chief himself and drives like it's drifting on a frozen lake.
I would recommend watching "Halo4 - Forward Unto Dawn" which serves as an introduction to where the Chief is at the beginning of the game and (if you have a passable sound system) a good first look into Cortanas Rampancy. Also it is the story of Lasky as a cadet and his motivations for being in the military.
It seems not very well liked (like Halo 4), but I think it's very worthwhile to watch and a great addition to the game.
10:16, i swear to god when i played this around the time it came out i remember it as a button mashing scene.
How ain't we gonna talk about Requiem playing in the background or coming out the crevasse it was iconic af
I do remember thinking the space physics were awesome on the first mission. It was so cool that weapons and enemies actually floated
Cortana’s death in Halo 4 was friggin heart wrenching. Hell, it was the first scene in media that truly made me cry. Especially with the music.
While definitely not on the same level as the trilogy halo 4 will always hold a very special place in my heart, my father giving me this as an early Christmas present and borrowing my step brothers Xbox just so I can play the story and I honestly wasn’t that disappointed in it getting chief and Cortana again is amazing, the didact was a mind blowing villain just with a non existent boss fight, and learning more about the forerunners was interesting even if it did take away some of their mystery, and the ending was so bittersweet and I loved it
This video made me kinda sad. I really enjoyed Halo 4's story. The ending was perfect. But I can respect why people don't like it. It's very different from what came before. 343 has come a long way since Halo 4, I can't wait to see where the series goes next
(Typing this as I'm watching it) I think you may not have noticed that when Cortana says "I need you" to Chief? If you recall, the last thing Chief says to Cortana at the end of Halo 3 was "Wake me... when you need me."
I won't lie the 'arrest that man!' Scene gives me chilllllllllls
I fucking LOVE this game and forgive scrutiny because of THAT scene
5:43 bc she changes appearance in literally EVERY halo game that we dont even question it anymore . it sucks that its not consistent but it's pretty obvious why we dont question Cortana's changes of appearance
I think you should have touched on the moment between Chief and Cortana when she is talking about knowing that Requiem's sun isn't an actual sun and she ends with the line "before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine." I think it really showed how even though Chief is human he acts more like a machine than Cortana does.
I fkn love this game, how I wish I could go back and play this game, it was my 1st ever halo game when I was 6 or 7 and i am now am 15. It was a 10/10 game, the voice acting, the lines, the gameplay, the sound effect, the story, the graphics and design, the gun design and characters. absolutely everything about this I was in love with. It was the perfect game through and through. When I realized I couldn't get that feeling about this game, I feel like I matured way way way to fast. This game, I would die for to play this for the 1st time as a child.
Halo 4 holds a special place on my heart, my grand ma lived throug halsaimer her last few years alive, and once ahe passed away i decided to play halo 4 in her honor after watching an interview of the director saying that he went through the same while directing the game, it hits diferent knowing this, it gets to you how devastating it is to see a loved one turn into a complete stranger that hurts you and geta you in trouble at seemengly random intervals, amd when they are finaly gone... Do i cry? Is this a realif for them?... The more personal story between cortana an chief is veri devisive on the halo comunity, and i am glad it grew on me because is a very enjoyable game
There’s a few scenes I think you’ve missed maybe because you were showing your frustrations with the plot. But that’s understandable, 4 gave me the most emotions out of any game until Infinite. Seeing Cortana going through Rampancy, the scientists we fought so desperately to save getting turned to ash, watching Cortana “die” twice, and the final talk with Laskey.
I respect your honesty with 4, I’ll wear the punches you didn’t pull proudly on my Halo fanboy chest.
The way they portrayed Rampancy in 4 disappointed me greatly because I see all the ways they could have easily improved it. The gradual degradation of a character and tackling the subject of the inevitably of death could have been a poignant thing to portray.
Instead Cortana becomes a teenager and gets mad in a few scenes, which becomes increasingly more annoying the more you replay the game, having to wait for her to remember how to open a door for 5 minutes while you're eyeing the par time timer count down. What a colossal waste of fantastic writing material.
Whoa whoa whoa we can't just skip over Halo 3:ODST (Seriously though love your videos man and keep up the great work!)
He's going to return to it. For now he's doing the mainline games.
@@KiraDaBeastNY ah that would make more sense, but wait us halo reach mainline? Like legitimately I've never thought about it......huh
@@reusablebelt1718 I mean...unlike ODST Reach is kinda central to the story I guess? So...yeah? I've always considered ODST to be like a sidestory. A *really fucking awesome* side story, but side story nonetheless.
No win for one of the best lines of the series?
"What do you say Chef? Take a girl for a ride?"
Fun fact, The ONI guy that was interrogating Halsey was not actually ONI, it was Jun, after Reach he retired being a spartan and became one of the people responsible for the spartan 4s, him also being the recruiter for these new spartans
You started talking about Silent Cartographer and then it got me thinking about pelicans and then it made me think of Foehammer, which led to me thinking about her death, and now I'm sad. Our favorite faceless African American pilot was the last character to die in CE
this being released around Xmas is a personal win as thats when I played it proper solo first time, good memories with this game
oh nice, a new GW upload to watch while i drink my coffee. hell yeah.
Nah people not liking them changing the art style is completely fair, game looks entirely different from a halo game, completely fair criticism to not like the reasonless change
Halo 4 had a great campaign and storyline. Sad that Halo 5 threw it all away, but Infinite brought me right back to the greatness that is the story of Halo from Reach, CE, 2, 3, ODST, and 4.
I feel like my best simple description of Halo 4 would be "good ideas, poor execution" most of the stuff introduced was welcome but they just didnt quite stick the landing
And it starts from the first scene, new spartan armor? Great, it makes perfect sense to get better armor and a good way to ease us into the new art style. But its just here now, no real explanation for it and the flashback shows new armor in older times? Its like they just said fuck it nobody will care. Couldn't they have simply kept the old armor for the first few missions and when we get to the Infinity have a scene where we get the upgraded stuff? That would have made much more sense
New enemy faction? Great, promethians have a stunning and cool art style, but they dont do anything to make the sandbox interesting and their weapons are just weaker and boring versions of pre existing weapons, with maybe the exception of the binary rifle
New story focused around chief and Cortana? Great i love it, its nice to explore the two characters we spend the most time with across the series. But its not really eased into at all, its just kinda "this is it now, get used to it"
And the librarian scene, its nice to get some extra information like this but its done in the most uninspired and boring way possible that made my, and probably many others, eyes just kinda glaze over a few minutes in
I really want to like Halo 4, but its Definitely the weakest of the games to me. Even 5, for all its issues actually innovated and made things new. But 4? It didnt really do much that was praise worthy. Its not awful, people who say 4 and 5 are garbage need to take a step back and play and actually terrible game
But its still a disappointment overall. I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate, but it probably stung more for people like me who grew up with the series to see it changed so radically, so quickly, with no real easing into it. Overall its not awful but really not worth playing now days except for when your playing the games for the first time and run through it once to get the general story from it. after that? Its pretty much a hard pass for me
Del Rio: “ARREST THAT MAN!”
Palmer: “No thanks, I choose life.”
I love the fact 343 made the worthog sound like a monster truck
13:18 You know Johnson was a Spartan as well right? He was a Spartan I which was solely mind alterations to make them smarter. Its how he survived the Flood in Halo: CE
The reason Cortana knew to call the Didact ‘Didact’ is because when the Didact first emerges the Covenent kneel before him saying his name. On top of that, when you first crash on Requiem, one of the ships has an audio file that has the Didact’s name on loop transmitting to the planet.