Halo 4 leaves a hero emotionally damaged and a major character never to be seen again... Until Halo 5 walks in and says FUCK YOU and destroys Halo 4's ending
BlackPantherFTW Didact was going to be the main villain in 5, but that was back when 343 was just doing a new trilogy, which has been expanded into an entire saga
Halo Fan 76 they dumbed it down too much, and they tried to have too many characters at once, and it doesn't help that content was missing, just fueling the hate
There were more issues with 5's story than just it being dumbed down. A lot of things like Cortana as the main antagonist in that game felt very contrived to me. Considering that by this point we have known her for 4 games I find this a betrayal to her character. What kind of sense is it to make her the antagonist when in the previous games she was her ally? That's like if I made Toad the antagonist in the next Mario game.(Actually, that might make more sense because unlike Cortana people really hate Toad for his voice.) Honestly, it makes no sense to me regardless. Not just that but from what I also heard of the campaign has a lot of issues regarding filler. Quantity doesn't also mean quality and in this case I feel like if it was more focused and had better pacing it would of been much better. At least 4 I feel was focused even with the exposition dumps and the confusing opening. I just wonder, what was 343 trying to accomplish with 5? I think that's the biggest issue with it's story. They didn't have a clear idea where they wanted to go with the story after the tragic ending of 4. Personally, if I were to fix the story I make it more about the Master Chief dealing with the death of Cortana and how much it changed him as a person. Honestly, I think that be far more interesting as then we can see how Master Chief was affected by this in 5 and how much it humanized him. I thought that was the point of 4 anyways. To humanize the Master Chief. I feel like 5 really does contradict a lot of what 4 was trying to do and it's really ashamed because I think story wise it could of been solid emotional stuff but as it is it's a lot of "what could of been" ultimately.
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Making this series has been a blast and while I originally planned to end it here, there is one more game... More videos are to be released on my channel, and I hope to see you there!
Nice, gives me motivation to continue my own similar passions to see this type of content be successful. Great work, I enjoyed the other videos as well :]
***** True haha, but this guy's analysis of gameplay mechanics, story choices etc. Del Rio was an arse and I was disappointed that we didn't get to see what happened to him, but then again, I was disappointed with Halo 5 as a whole. It actually makes me appreciate Halo 4 more.
***** Yeah, Del Rio's attitude was trash haha, like after everything the chief did, if he just up and walked on the ship and wanted to commandeer it, by rights they should have let him. I also love how he didn't even bother to question the chiefs disappearance nor thank him for his previous successful efforts to save not just humanity, but the galaxy, he's straight up a dick lmao. I loved Halo 4, wasn't perfect by any means but it still a gorgeous, atmospheric game that gave the Chief and Cortana lots of humanity, but I feel like Halo 4 was a bit of a missed opportunity, with all the lore that was there from what Bungie had built I was expecting something mind blowing for the forerunners, I was expecting to be blown away by the environments, the characters and the story itself...instead I was rather underwhelmed and sad to say that I genuinely think us fans could have created a better story. As for Halo 5, look it felt the most 'Halo-y" and the soundtrack is great but god damn the campaign is a mess, and that sequal baiting ending pissed me right off, I mean we had it with Halo 2 but that was because Bungie had to take out some subsequent levels and anyway, Halo 2 still had an amazing campaign (It's my favourite Halo) and I didn't feel mugged off. Either way I hope Halo 6 pulls it together and realises that Halo is anything but a mindless shooter, it's story, atmosphere, music, characters, gameplay...they're all just as important as each other.
You bring up many opinions that I share but I think you missed a few issues When it comes to the multiplayer, the issue of allowing you to spawn with weapons like the storm rifle (plasma rifle equivalent) DMR, carbine and so on is that it removes KEY aspects of halo's online gameplay.. no more fighting for BR tower.. no more picking up the plasma pistol.. it takes away from the sandbox Also in regards to the story, I feel that the prologue and epilogue's were vital to the narrative punch. The prologue shows us that darker things are stirring with ONI and Halsey and the epilogue would have actually taken away from Halo 4's ending if it were not there.. it shows chief taking off his armor (visual representation of him officially not hiding anymore) and taking the first steps to understanding his humanity
LateNightGaming - Video Game News & Entertainment Everything you said and also the ability to maintain zoomed when shot: I know it was mostly done as a convenience for the people who aren't used to it but it didn't work for the sake of balance: the automatics need it to allow them to get close to the ranged weapons and add an element of back and forth between the two but that just ruined that element.
That first point is really two points. The first part is subjective. Fighting for favourable positioning and map control is a fundamental part of any shooter, whereas fighting for terrain to control resources is a gameplay element that is more subjective. If a resource is important but the area to fight over doesn't offer interesting interactions it's bad design. Fighting over areas to secure weapons isn't inherently a good or bad game mechanic. It comes down to the question of what skills and strategy a person wants the game to require. If you're all about straight mechanical skill then giving everyone an equal start and having few to no power weapons would make sense. If you're the kind of person who wants resource control to be a key factor then it makes more sense to build maps and game modes around that. Alternatively some people just want good shootouts with varied situations and weapons, in which case building maps and game modes to resolve so heavily around particular areas and weapon spawns would be a negative. The second point on the situation where the effectiveness of starting equipment makes obsolete weapons available to find in the course of play is fair though. That's flawed balancing.
I agree for the most part. My one issue with the opening I suppose would have to be the seeming lack of context. Not that they didn't talk about chief or anything, but it just seemed like something which should have been at the beginning of Spartan Ops instead.
Now when I watch the cutscene with Cortana dying I get pissed off by the fact that 343 and Microsoft brought her back to life for some reason. I, and many others, regret being big giant asshats to 343 on Halo 5. I think a lot of us could've handled our criticisms a lot better than before.
Just think that the Cortana in H5 is one of the fragments she split off in H4. That really helps explain how Cortana isn't Cortana in H5. Not a perfect fix, but one nonetheless.
I know that, but for better or for worse, both H4 and H5 are canon. As such, the only way I can reconcile H4 Cortana with H5 Cortana, and the way I hope 343i takes it, is what I detailed earlier.
Whats wrong with 4 Cortana dying of rampancy was instilled way in the beginning of bungie times they made the 7 year life span for AI they invented rampancy. Halo 4 was by far the best story since 2. The fact John finally broke out of his machine and became his own person. Which was by far bungie's biggest blunder in development. Bungie kept saying halo was a universe of emotional consequences yet your main hero's were devoid of any interaction with that universe. John has 54 lines throughout CE-3 and in Halo 4 he has well over 100.
You can thank the fan base for that. Everywhere I looked after halo 4 I saw comments like "I miss Cortana...):" and 343 did what they always do and back slid on ambition just to cater to its childish fan base.
"It's gorgeous, but this is an awful place to fight bad guys in. The space needs to be fun before it's pretty" That's the quote you got it FUCKING WRONG AHHHHHHH!!!
The Infamous Cloaker Videos halo 5 did neither, it looks awful and plays awful, I mean dammit we're super soldiers, and yet we die in 2 rifle shots... really?
How to make a phenomenal Halo game: - Halo 4 level-of story. Halo 3-type of diverse levels & epic scales. (The Ark & The Covenant, etc.). - Reach's diversity of core game modes. Customs, Forge, Theater, Firefight, online Matchmaking, Campaign. - Halo 5's Forge. - Split fucking screen. - Less variety of weapons so sandbox becomes easier to refine & polish. (The huge variety in Halo 5 warzone is cool, but look what was sacrificed- actual playable maps & gametypes at launch). - No map remixes. Quality maps over quantity. Focus on Halo 1 & 2 calibre of maps. - Focus on giving community gametypes more options and new gametypes must have these more in mind. (Infection & Race) Rationale behind is this is to maximize the value of the gametype: majority of the custom maps that's being paired with gametypes since Halo 3 has had a lot of emphasis on either Slayer, Infection or Race. ____________ And yea that's really it. We don't need a Warzone or Spartan Ops. We need content that allows us to create even more custom content so we can keep coming back to play the game. (I still do split screen/LAN on Reach twice a month on average, despite it being a 6 year old game. Why? Firefight. Forge. Split screen (Looking at you Halo 5). Infection. Race.
If you mean by map remixes, bringing old maps form other Halo games into the new one i personally like that, just two or three should be the upper limit. I also do not mind getting a suitable map from the campaign, just again not to many. Most of the maps should be new with a few remakes and maybe one or two from the campaign and plenty of community maps.
***** Cortana combined herself with the forerunner holo-light tech that makes the light bridges. In that last moment she basically just surrounded chief in cube. That's why he's safe and why she's physical. I'm pretty sure all of that was explained through context. Also, she's sorta dying. How would you and your friends handle your mortality.
***** And you missed my point, "Also, she's sorta dying. How would you and your friends handle your mortality." They're close friends... saying goodbye for the last time. (hopefully) lol
***** I bet you get your ideas from Encyclopedia Dramatica. You've gotta remember that the people who write those articles are the master trolls who know the secret techniques for getting the perfect response. If they told you the real way to get a response when trolling, they'd go out of business. You need to work on that trolling, boy. It's not most excellent, it's pretty bogus.
^See, that's a better attempt. Still pretty shitty to be honest but at least he has a vague idea of how to troll. Can't really expect much more from a 14 year old making a reference to a shitty old geyboy cartoon from the 90s
I genuinely enjoy Halo 4, but your grips are very true. I think the number one issue with that game was Microsoft forcing 343 to meet deadlines. This was a company founded from nothing who had never worked together and some never on a Halo game and they had to build a AAA title in a preexisting universe in about 3 years. That left some mechanics feeling unnecessary and the multiplayer gamemodes left unfinshed. While Halo 5 isn't perfect, you can definitely see the progression to that game and how much they learned from Halo 4
I love this series of videos. Halo 4 initially blew me away with its story, graphics, music, and gameplay, but as I played more, I enjoyed less. I will defend Halo 4's narrative and soundtrack until the day I die, but multilayer aged like milk instead of Reach's or 3's wine. I thought Spartan Ops was a lot of fun, and is a shame that 343 never continued its narrative with a Season 2 or bringing more into Halo 5. On the subject of Halo 5, I think they want a video about it because, as you've said, people have torn that game to shreds, but your relative lack of bias is a breath of fresh air. Although I agree that there are many faults with it, especially with Cortana, there some highlights. Running down the Guardian, dialogue from Exuberant Witness, the last two missions, some of the post release content, and new variations of weapons.
Halo 4 story makes me wonder how far 343 could have gone if they didn't have promethians weighing down the story. The lord of the forerunners is more interesting than halo 4 iteration of them. It makes me sad. The forerunners could have easily been something working in the background much like the the Institute in Fallout 4. The story could have been about getting cortana back to earth. A break down in Covenant and human relations making them about to go to war again. Anything but the promethians.
DarthVantos I'm on the opposite end. I wish Microsoft and 343 wouldn't have jumped the gun on Halo 4 by releasing it on the 360. That way we could have a more or less Xbox One launch title, have given more time and resources to make the Prometheans better. Make them more fun to fight. We would have waited a while longer, but it would have provided a better incentive to get an Xbox One and we could have gotten a better campaign.
Neo-Mad Dog I would have liked if they were more robotic like the syths or like the eldar in the 40k universe. And yes it's true if they had time ti would made sense.
Reach's MP didn't age well at all. Reach is where halo 4's MP came from. Armor abilities and killing off comp halo. Halo 5 thankfully brought this back.
Halo 4's multiplayer is the best in MCC, id say its the other way around, halo 4 got better with time while the older games got worse. Halo ce, 2, and 3 pretty bad in mcc
@@kadirgarib3459 It means you are aging. Time is flying past you without you even noticing. Your back is starting to ache. Women don't see you as attractive anymore as you start to show your age. The dreaded years of growing old start now.
Simon Kool depends, 4 has a rather good and in my opinion underrated campaign with a clunky multiplayer whereas 5 has the worst campaign I've played in a halo game but a great fast paced multiplayer.
Sarcasm surely? Adding full sprint, loadouts, ordinance, unequal starts and flinch is keeping Halo what it is? At least Halo 5 has a well balanced multiplayer which is actually skilled based with a decent ranking system.... all of these were in Halo 2 and 3.
I've seen these "Halo _, __years later" videos recommended to me for a while now and I just ignored them, thinking they would be low-quality. Holy shit, these are so engrossing and well-made. Loving it so far!
Very good video. I'm surprised you don't have a lot of subs because you do make top notch content. My beef with Halo 4 and 5 is the armor customization. Its so bland and it all looks the same.
eemils X Raycevik must have a deal wth COG cause COG didn’t steal it. Raycevik is in these comments talking about the series. These videos are not on Raycevik’s own channel.
thats weird beef to have haha customization is option and only for multiplayer and spartan ops XD hardly worth takin points away from the whole game for that , silly
Much as I love this series and, while I don't agree with everything that's been presented I do always appreciate how well though out it is, I have to disagree with your dissection of the opening cinematic. It's purpose is to introduce casual fans to the backstory of the Master Chief, the Spartans, and Dr. Halsey (who may not appear in the campaign but does appear in Spartan Ops). In this regard, I think it does a great job, and I think you over-analyzed it a bit. 1. You mention that casual fans would only have a surface level understanding of the events being depicted, and while correct, this isn't a bad thing. That's the point, if anything. It's just meant to say "this is how the Chief, and the Spartans, came to be". Even to this day, a lot of people don't know that the Chief was kidnapped as a child and augmented to become the soldier he is. 2. You place way too much importance on when the scenes are taking place and whether any are meant to show the Chief. All we need to know is one scene showing Spartans taking on Covenant, another scene of a Spartan being a bad-ass (it's practically right there in the narration), and then the Chief receiving Cortana. 3. As mention, this interrogation is also meant to serve as a formal introduction to Dr. Halsey. Halo Reach failed at presenting Halsey for who she is and making her importance in the overall narrative of Halo known. The introduction to Halo 4 does all that, which is especially important going into Spartan Ops and later Halo 5.
The scene serving as an introduction to Dr. Halsey ultimately winds up being pointless, though, because the most she ever factors into _Halo 4_'s story is Master Chief expressing hope that she can fix Cortana's rampancy (which doesn't make sense to casual players who have only been introduced to Halsey as the creator of the Spartan program, while people who have read the books know that the concept of Halsey being able to just up and cure rampancy simply because someone asked her to is ridiculous). If they felt they needed to introduce her for the sake of Spartan Ops, then common-sense storytelling dictates that they should have done so within Spartan Ops. That said, the opening cutscene does serve a very important purpose to the story that Raycevick overlooked, which is establishing the Spartans (and, by extension, the Master Chief) as having been left developmentally damaged by their supersoldier upbringing, which informs the subtext of every character moment the Chief is given throughout the rest of the game. The real problem isn't that the scene doesn't serve a purpose, but that this crucial thematic point is easily lost on people because the rest of the scene is packed with so much unnecessary white noise.
@@HaloCanon TBH the scene is a plot hole in terms of the art and Cortana the art is that the Elite's doesn't look like the ones from the human-covenant war and the Spartan armor is not the ones from the human-covenant war and with Cortana they say that Cortana was with the master Chief since Halsey gave her to Chief but they met on the Pillar of Autumn I'm just saying
I agree about the opening cutscene. While not using the right art style (for whatever reason) it DID seem pretty straightforward to me. And I’m not too, too much of a lore nut.
I would have really liked to see in Halo 4 was for the first few missions before you reach the Infinity you use the Halo 3 suit. It's starting to show its age and shield won't fully recharge and you are slower. Then once you get a new suit from the Infinity you get to use the armor abilities and sprint. Then when the Libraian gives you that super hero deus ex thingy something else happens, maybe you gain more resistance to Promethains weapons or something
Yazite Why? Everything good about the MCC has been covered in the videos about the individual games, and everything bad is common knowledge for every Halo fan.
Because greater awareness of how bad it is outside of the Halo community is always a good thing. 343 got away with bloody murder. They never fully fixed it and ruined what should have been the resurrection of the community.
Weird comment on a Halo 4 review, but your ODST comment in final thoughts was so on point and succinct. It was a brilliant campaign, great mood change but it was a greedy cash grab instead of a generous add-on. That criticism is easier to take as time goes on, though.
Man your videos are top notch quality. You really disected every aspect of the Halo franchise, props to you. It still doesn't lower my love for the Halo franchise even though I know it will probably never peak again. In the meantime why don't you do a Gears series ? Another beloved franchise which doesn't really get the recognition it deserves. Do let me know what's next for your channel ! :)
While I do enjoy Gears Multiplayer, I've never been a massive follower of the series like I've been for Halo, and the "Years Later" series is something I want to keep for franchises that've made a big impact on me. I've been thinking about reviewing Gears of War 4, perhaps I'll cover it on my channel in the future.
Now this... this is an amazing review of the game. While you neither decided to tear it apart for its few big flaws or make it gleam for its few amazing improvements you have an actual review of the game as it is, a good addition to the halo series that needed some work. All of the comments who possibly didn't even play the game are bandwagoning to hate on it, and it's plain stupid. You need to realize the good with the bad and that's why I love this video so much.
I disliked the way they had redesigned the enemies. I am not against the lore of some of the covenant being a sub species but I would have liked to have seen the old grunts and the unbrutish elites. The elites where never meant to be like the brutes! The other thing was that the forerunner constructs where unlike in other halos and lacked the browns and different colours. I guess the other thing is that I disliked a lot of the floaty bits and the removal of some of the iconic species and weapons.
20:21 The Spartan is the Chief, or at least like with Halsey it is his modell. You can see his Number 117 written in braille on the side of his chest armor.
As someone who loves Halo 4, but has kinda drifted away from the series since the clusterfuck that was Halo 5, watching this brought me back a lot of good memories. I kinda teared up a bit at the scene when John said "Im not going to let that happen" to Cortana, and I got chills at the Requiem scene where the amazing music plays. Kinda reminded me why I love this game and this series so much.
While I will always consider Marty o'Donnell as the GOAT by a large margin, i think 343 nailed halo 4's soundtrack. Had a very ancient and mysterious feel that I feel not only fits well here, but could have fit just as nicely if not better in halo 1. This soundtrack really, imo, emphasizes chiefs' dilemma. He is trapped in a new, mysterious world where the rules have changed. His rock and most trusted ally is dying and they both know they won't be able to save her, yet, they hold on to that nugget of hope that they can pull through just like the last games. This leads the duo's dialogue to keep that witty and light dialogue yet still staying focused on the mission. The soundtrack nails that feeling of exploring a foreign world that you are the first human to step on, al a halo: ce. It ramps up with the revelations of Cortana's condition and the didacts plans coming to fruition. I think it has a rightful place in the halo universe
Not many people agree on halo 4s soundtrack in a “halo” game. It felt off to me. It’s no wonder why they brought on a change in Halo5 and then another change in halo infinite
Halo 4's campaign was my favorite. Chief and Cortana's story easily eclipsed what was going on in the background and I was glad to see the pair get some quality development in their relationship.
That "beautiful reveal" part in the level Requiem is just brilliant. I haven't played Halo 4 in awhile, but watching it here gave me chills all over again =) Neil Davidge's soundtrack might not be as memorable as Marty's, but it sure is AS beautiful. =) Great video, BTW! Love your analyzation, especially the pros and cons of each of the games in the end 😁
I feel very informed with that information on Promethean enemy types, weapons and the fact Human weapons were hitscan while Covenant were projectile (that one really got me, makes so much sense with the "playing against" design). Love your series.
I loved Halo 4's multiplayer, and the map Exile made it a whole lot better. I hate Halo 5's multiplayer. Short lines of sight, small maps, only the basic vehicles.
Cannibal Sausage Yeah, Halo 4 had great BTB and Dominion was a good counterpart as well. It's design issues don't hamper the gameplay as much on bigger maps, and now that I think on it that may be why BTB maps made up a majority of the game. Still mostly hated it though.
Man that's weird I personally didn't really like it, it wasn't atrocious but kind of pathetic in comparison to the previous games. Like half the community left over that multiplayer :D
I LOVE this video. Just one thing that you said did bug me a little. 343 bringing "War Games" into the campaign lore was a good implement, because up until this point we had no previous reason why multiplayer was..... multiplayer. War Games gives us a clear as day reason why we were fighting other Spartans. When I was a kid, I wasn't really that deep into the Halo Lore, and i actually thought Chief was the last Spartan alive, and I would always wonder why in multiplayer there were Blue Spartans vs. Red Spartans, it just never made sense. 343 doesn't shove war games down your throat, they simply hint that this is the reason why we're in this multiplayer universe with other Spartans fighting each-other.
auniversalstick Somewhat. Listen to Halo 3's AR/BR reload and then Halo 4's version. One does exactly what it needs to and sounds nice while the other does too much and messes with the overall feeling of the weapon.
Bungie were fucking great at a LOT of things, but as of Halo 2 onward, sound design was NOT one of them. Halo Reach having the only solid sound design outside of Halo 1. The sound in 2, 3 and ODST were actually bad. Opinions Bro.
I thought it was ironic how they wanted to make the human guns sound more realistic and with more oomph, but they honestly sounded to me like a stapler.
"Hardlight shield, which no one uses" Personally, I find it the most useful. I use it to keep an enemy's attention on me while my teammate flanks; or to keep them stuck waiting for it to run out to finish me off, which gives my allies time to regroup and avenge me. It also helps annoy vehicles.
Very good shit, I love breakdown videos and seeing the Halo franchise dissected was a real treat. It's been a good ride thus far and seeing you conclude on Halo 5 will be great to see
Always glad to see one of these videos in my sub box. I completely agree in regards to your comments of level design, AI, and atmosphere for single player. I think what best encapsulates Halo 4's strengths and weaknesses of it's single player is the scene you mention (and praise, to my dismay) in the start of missions 2 where you exit the cave and are given this awe inspiring view of floating pillars in the sky across a huge valley, only to be corralled moments later into a super linear warthog segment (while cortana tells you a bunch of lore inaccurate bullshit, but more on that later). It's worth noting though that I actually don't mind linear levels: Halo 2 has my favorite campaign. But even though 2 was linear, it often didn't FEEL linear because of how it's level design was given context my it's environments. Outskirts and Metropolis take place in a city, and having linear streets and tunnels feels natural. Delta Halo and Regret take place in a series of ruins and it feels more open then it actually is just due to how everything is framed. The only part of Halo 4 where anything similar is pulled off is in the jungle mission. I also can't stand CE's overuse of corridors and reused geometry, which 4 also has in spades, but I actually feel it's less grating here then it was in CE for whatever reason. Regarding the fact that the Promethean's behaviors and how you deal with them as a player don't change based on what weapons they use, that's mostly true, but you forgot an exception: Crawlers with binary rifle do behave differently, and while at the end of the day your solution is still to shoot them, you need to do so differently then otherwise. That said, they are incredibly frustrating enemies, akin to jackal snipers, so that's not really a good thing, either. You bring up how well handled Cortana is in 4, but it's honestly my biggest issue with the game. I don't know how many novels you've read, but Rampancy is described as something far more insidious and subtle then what;s shown in 4. Seeing a character known for being in control and witty reduced to acting like a scared little girl throwing temper tantrums is laughable. I get that's sort of the point, showing a strong character in the moment of weakness, but It;s inconsistent with rampancy as a concept. In fact, Cortana's behavior in halo 5 is far, far more in line with how I would have expected a rampant cortana to act: She's not submissive and scared but rather even more assured of her superiority and power, and she doesn't even realize that something with her is off. This is PRECISELY how rampancy is described in the novels. Even if you still want to go the route of her acting scared and weak due to facing her death, I would point to how she acts in Halo 3 under the gravemind's control. She also says at one -point she's the only AI she knows of made from a human brain which is ridiclious seeing how all smart AI are and she'd be well aware of that fact. I'm also annoyed by how the Master Chief acts. I don't mind them giving him more personality, as in the novels he has one, and i'm all for moving EU content and concepts into the games, but he has no reason to care about her as much as he does. He's only known her for 3 months, and he's sent other Spartans, who he''s known since childhood, off to die stonefaced. I find it very hard to believe he would disobey orders and do what he does in 4 for a single rampant AI, especially when her behavior at the time is such a flight risk to him and the UNSC. He also acts like he has no clue what rampancy is which is ridiculous. I literally cringe watching many of the cutscenes and dialog in 4 because he acts like a kid who doesn't understand the world going "why isn't everybody nice to each other/why not just cure cancer?". He should be well aware there's no way to save her and he's wasting his time. I get that part of the point is showing him breaking down and not just acting like a machine given ordes as he always does, but they just did a shitty job of it. Again, pointing to 5, how he deals with her behavior there I feel is a much better executed example of how it should have gone. He still cares about her, but he's not willing to throw everything away for her sake. Bottom line for single player, I feel both 4 and 5 would have benefited if their villians were swapped: Make a rampant cortana the villian of 4, with the end of the game being MC having to kill her, and make the Didact, who is trying to enforce galactic peace under the mantle the villian of halo 5. This would also allow for him and the Librarian to potentially be handled better by giving them extra game of buildup, though technically both were introduced in the Halo 3 terminals and had plenty of backstory given for them in the forerunner novels before 4 came out. In regards to multiplayer, I also agree that ordinance is a much bigger problem then the loadouts, though less because of the super thought out reasons you gave and more just because at the end of the day, loadouts can still be fun in certain modes, I never once had extra fun due to ordinance and more then once it frustrated me. I also think your criticism of how minor the armor mods are and how little the loadouts matter usually (aside from a few exceptions) is a postive thing, not a negative one. By keeping them minor it allows the core gameplay to still be more about map control and other "halo" things then being more about your personal loadout like other shooters. I think you are giving Halo fans too much credit, though: People hate sprint and loadouts and ordiance because ir reminds them of Call of Duty, NOT because of the very valid reasons you bring up. Though it's worth pointing out that technially, your max walking speed in CE, 2, 3, and ODST /is/ supposed to be you running. Try to "race" normal marines, and you'll notice you actually move very, very fast in the games where you play as the master cheif (around 22 miles per hour, to be exact), it just doesn't seem like it. I also agree about the multiplayer map design. A step up from reach, about on par with 3, but nowhere near as good as 2 and CE. You only breifly bring it up, but the scoreboard change in 4 is honestly my favorite thing about the game: even if it's only visual, it means that players who play the objective in many modes by defending the flag and stuff like that are rewarded by being placed higher on the scoreboard, as opposed to prior games where points were the only things that influenced that (which can lead to situations where you singlehandled allowed your team to win in CTF but the scoreboard shows you having done jack shit). Looking forward to seeing the video for 5, even if you didn't want to do it. The fact so many people asked you is evidence that you make good content. Wouldn't it be worse if people DIDN'T want more videos from you?
It's interesting to see how different opinions can be from witnessing the same content. I haven't read the novels so Cortana in Halo 4 was my first experience with Rampancy in this universe and when I saw what Cortana was going through I just thought "Okay, it's dementia for software". Something I was going to bring up but cut due to saving time and it not being vital information is that Josh Holmes' mother was suffering from Dementia while working on the project, and he encouraged Chris Schlerf to go through with Cortana's struggle despite being unsure if players would care enough about it. I never saw Cortana as "throwing temper tantrums" or being a scared little girl, I felt like a close friend was dying in front of me. For me, the roller coaster of emotions I talked about came from Cortana and had the game not featured her deterioration, it would've made the experience a lot more forgettable. Same with the Chief. I didn't see him as not understanding of Cortana's peril, but not wanting to accept it, and believing that he's able to prevent it. I don't think Chief accepting Cortana's eventual death that quickly would've been in sync with the player. When I first played Halo 4 I assumed "They're not going to follow through on this, they can't just kill Cortana off" and believe that feeling was shared with most players, making the final scene that much more powerful. It was a surprise. As I want to leave my opinion for Halo 5 in the video, let's just say I disagree with Cortana's behavior in it :D As for the sprint and loadouts thing, I'm sure people are able to identify and articulate Sprint, Loadouts, and Ordnance's faults in detail, but they're not interested in examining everything like you or me, they just care if they like it or not, hence why they use "it's like Call of Duty". It's like when people say "I Hate Nickelback" as a shorthand for annoying trends in popular music. Glad to see you back, thanks for sticking around, Jabber!
I realize this is an older video; this is the first on this channel I've stumbled across. -Really wonderful pacing, structure, and criticism! I can't wait to see more.
Biggest problem with Halo 4 is fighting characterless robots. Dull! environments were really similar. Didn't think it was a good idea to introduce mech exoskeletons, seeing as chief wears something similar. Remember seeing the artworks of bungie warthogs, one was a snow half track version that I thought Would make a cool level. Even outdoor environments were bland experience for alien worlds. Preferred 5 to 4, Didn't have to shoot something a dozen times for a kill. Multiplayer didn't hold much interest compared to other shooters. Yet at its core, Halo has something very special. I hope it returns.
You know, if 343 had just followed the formula that Halo 4 had set for them, they would have been set. But no, of course they had to fuck up Halo 5 to the extent that I think we should demand them to make another game - Halo 5. Drop the 'Guardians' from the title, dismiss everything in Halo 5: Guardians as a dream the Masterchief had, and continue on PROPERLY.
What an absolute joyride of a series. Thank you SO much for making these dude. This was a lot of fun to watch, and I look forward to all of your future content, Halo or otherwise.
I think they would have had more success dropping Master Chief altogether and making this game a trip to the past. Going back into the Forerunner era. It would have been new and given them artistic freedom while still being Halo.
Koven Zekeb human forerunner war where you play as a forerunner eatching it all unfold, halfway through flood show up, you learn about construction of rings and the end is similar to halo reachs ending where you know it's going to end.
@@rstriker21 That would still piss off fans of the old games because the Humans were the Forerunners before 343 and Halo 4 came along. That's why the Covenant needed humans in order to activate the technology in Halo.
What made the musical synchonization with the Spires reveal at 27:00, is that it also ended 5 years of waiting and speculation as to just what was inside that planet in Halo 3s legendary ending. And I think it paid off well enough.
So in terms of story, you liked the Cortana/Chief stuff but the Forerunner stuff was bad? Fair enough. I guess I didn't mind how the Forerunners were presented in H4 because I read the books and watched the terminals. I actually find a lot of their lore to be very interesting and the Didact is actually a pretty cool character despite him being underdeveloped in the game itself. However, I've always disliked the cutscene with the Librarian and I definitely agree that it is the low point of the story. It's a visually strange (why are we suddenly in this heavenly looking place?) and sloppy exposition-dump cutscene that will definitely lose people who don't care about the Forerunner story details. I will say that I think you completely missed the point of the opening cutscene. It introduces one of Halo 4's most important themes, which IS explored throughout the story, and introduces Dr. Halsey so that the player knows why Chief and Cortana decide that Halsey is their best bet at saving Cortana. It also presents the notion of Spartans being children that were kidnapped at a young age, deprived of the most important years of their development as people, and trained to be killing "machines". This helps Master Chief's character arc make sense to casual fans that are not familiar with that backstory. I do agree that there are some problems with the visuals. It mainly comes down to how 343 handles the art direction of Halo in general but I feel like that is a separate issue. Also, I don't really understand why you don't like the epilogue cutscenes in Reach and Halo 4 (which in Halo 4's case, dealt with the bigger picture of where the story was going as a whole: the "Reclamation" of the Forerunners' legacy by Humanity). But maybe I'm just biased because I thought the Didact's speech was awesome... I agree with most of what you said about the multiplayer though, and it's by far my least favorite in the series.
I haven't read Greg Bear's series but I did enjoy what i saw in the terminals, and felt more invested in the Didact and Librarian in one Terminal than I did throughout Halo 4's duration. It's a shame that the games weren't able to capitalize off of them for all players. As said in the video, I understand the opening's intention and what it presents is fascinating, but the execution was so visually confusing that the emotion is lost and I think if 343's option was either to leave it or cut it, the latter would've been better. Chief's awakening would've been able to set the tone without the player being confused by the previous scene. As for the epilogue in both games, I don't enjoy them because adding a narration at the end of the story more often than not takes me out of the experience. This applies to any art-form. Didact's point of legacy and what belongs to Forerunners is something that could've been expressed in numerous ways throughout the game but because it didn't, they threw in the narration. In both cases it also robs the previous scene of a lasting impact. They end on such a devastating and personal note, only to have someone speak to great lengths about the big picture and how important it is moments later. SOMA's a game with an ending that has this same pattern but achieves it in a brilliant way without ever cutting to a narrator or using dry exposition. (TL;DR) It's a lazy trope I'm tired of. Thanks for the comment!
I didn't mind the end-game narration in either game too much, but I will say this; At least in Reach it's a possibility that Halsey would say something like that once it's all over, Noble Team DID save her life and all. But the one in Halo 4 confused the crap out of me because it came from a character I'd just "killed" five minutes ago. I had to find out way later that it's apparently his last words when being put on trial hundreds of years before the events of the game, which is a damn ridiculous choice TBH.
+Raycevick The Greg Bear books are really good and I'd recommend reading them if you're interested in the Forerunner lore. The last one in particular is one of the best Halo novels imo. I honestly couldn't imagine Halo 4 not having that opening cutscene, and I don't agree that some of its issues are severe enough to warrant cutting it entirely. Not only is it important to the story, but it instantly drew me in with its dialogue, intriguing subject matter, production value, and music (Sacrifice is one of my favorite songs in Halo 4's OST). I understand where you're coming from, but for me personally it's a cutscene that I can watch over and over again and I'm glad that it exists in spite of some of its flaws. As for the epilogue, I think part of it comes down to personal taste. The narration didn't take any of the impact away from the previous cutscene for me personally because it doesn't make what just happened any less significant or undo the events that transpired. I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't throw it into the "lazy trope" pile, or call it dry exposition. But that's just me. Though I think its worth pointing out that in the MCC (I assume that's where you played it right?), Halo 4 doesn't have end credits. Maybe the epilogue seemed more jarring because it begins playing IMMEDIATELY after the last cutscene instead of being a post-credits scene like it is in the standalone H4? Also, the epilogue doesn't exist just because the writers couldn't figure out a way to express its ideas over the course of the story. It wasn't necessary to go into great detail about what the Didact is talking about in that narration during the main story because those things have more to do with setting up the rest of the new trilogy and don't necessarily need to be fully explored right away in Halo 4. I'd argue that the immediate focus of H4 was Cortana's situation, as well as putting the MC in a position to grow as a character. The Forerunner legacy elements were secondary and because Halo 4 is the start of a new trilogy, I think it's fine that those elements were left open for the rest of the "reclaimer saga" and teased in the epilogue. Thanks for making these videos and giving your thoughts. I really appreciate the different perspective and analysis on these games that I've loved for so many years.
slvrcobra1337 I see what your saying, and based on that I think the issue is mainly that the cutscene assumes you have the information and context behind the history of this dialogue when in reality, a lot of players actually don't becausr the game doesn't explain when this dialogue is taking place (though to be fair, I don't know why you would assume it was anything other than the past). I think this could have been possibly fixed by showing or mentioning this discussion at some point in the game or the terminals and leaving the end of it for the epilogue narration. The Didact's closing statements would have seemed less like they just came of nowhere for casual fans if they did something like this and it also might have alleviated some of the issue with the Didact's lack of character development and backstory in Halo 4.
Halo 4 has the best stand alone story. To actually see the empty husk hero actually go through emotional torment and not succeed entirely in the end... It's the same reason I personally like Mass Effect 3 the most in the trilogy because Shepard was an actual human being through out that game.
I got the biggest chills when he plays the reqiuem track ... the visuals are so striking and the sound is so riveting that I can feel the mystery, wonder, and surprise of a discovered new race. Halo 4 was overlooked at times.
To be fair although H4 campaign was average at best and the multiplayer was crap on the competitive and balance side, I thought it was a great casual game. I've played halo since CE and can say that H4 is definitely the easiest to pick up casually. Many of my friends who have never played halo before (they play cod and games like fifa) definitely picked up H4 quicker and enjoyed it more than the older halo's, when we have LANs. I guess you the game was aimed at a newer more casual audience, while screwing over the old fans.
Halo 3 was easy to pick up to be honest. While I still consider it the best game of the series it wasn't that difficult. The flood were a complete joke other then the ranged forms. All weapons were viable in Halo 3. I haven't played Halo 4, have seen it. Kinda think that it looks pretty meh. It's not that expensive so I'll probably eventually pick it up.
I fully agree. Im a moderate player, somewhere inbetween social and competitive. Both spending hours on infection matches in Halo 5 continuously as well as rocking onyx rank in team arena. And my god, for some reason, Halo 4 BTB is one of my favourite halo experiences I enjoy. I recognize the flaws, but the maps, looks, and gameplay is just so good for some reason on them
***** BTB was really the highlight of halo multiplayer. The game works so much better in the rather "Meh" vehicles in MP then in serious man-to-man battles. But thats' just my opinion.
So I came into this video to watch just a little bit before turning in for the night. Needless to say, I was shocked when the video ended. You did an absolute amazing job with this video!
I applaud your fairness in really diving into Halo 4 and looking at it objectively. I don't agree with all your criticisms, but I believe them all to be well informed and thought out on your part. For example, I know it's pointed at a lot as a terrible mission, but I LOVE the Mammoth tank mission. For me it's a high point in the whole franchise, not just Halo 4. I also had zero problem understanding and accepting the librarian's sudden entrance and plot device to help Chief. I could elaborate on WHY it doesn't bother me, but I don't think that's super important. Suffice it to say I felt any ambiguity and contrivance in her inclusion only added to the atmosphere of mystery the game was already establishing around the forerunners and I didn't personally need all the answers. I'm glad that in the end you still saw the value in the game, and enjoy playing it. It's actually my favorite of the entire franchise, just barely beating out Halo:CE and Halo 2, which are tied for second, and I view it as a flawed masterpiece - I see it has some minor issues, the rule of three in level design, and slightly inferior AI being the most prevalent, but I feel none of them detract from the excitement, awe, emotion, and simple FUN I had with this game. Frankly, It blew me away.
Emotions and emotional pacing haven’t been missing from the Bungie games, they were very present there. 4 just told a more personal story overall and went more in depth into the chief and Cortana. It is arguably overall the most character focused story (though definitely not the only one), but the Bungie games very much have emotions and emotional pacing and had character moments. 4 just does some things slightly different. All the Bungie games have good finales, not just CE. 4’s finale isn’t the most emotional scene in the series as there are many, but it is one of them. Reach’s final monologue by Cortana was good not bad. Reach’s credit ranking system was good. CE’s campaign was repetitive. 2’s Campaign was great and levels weren’t linear. 3 had great maps and equipment. ODST has great storytelling. Reach’s content made by Bungie was just as great as past games and had great quality. Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and Firefight were all great and didn’t regress.
Odst would have had a terrible story if it wasn't presented in such a good way. Once you dig deep you would realize there wasn't much. But that game is still the best game Bungie ever made
Halo 4 was my first xbox 360 game and i loved it in the campaign, spartan ops, and multiplayer. In multiplayer i felt powerful and an important part of the team (which is rare to me). In spartan ops i played story missions alongside other people and showed off my armor. In the campaign i got introduced to how emotion should be portayed in a games story (keep in mind this was my first true campaign). It holds a special place in my heart and this video makes me want to go pick it up again. Thank you for the in depth video!
Wedge lol wat? Halo 4 had a huge hitbox, a lot larger bullet magnetism and not to mention the overall arcadey feel the gunplay had. Halo 5 was a lot more skillful and satisfying to play play. It went back to what made Halo, in my opinion, a great franchise: Balanced starts.
I have 2 things to say: 1) You should also analyze Halo Wars since it technically IS a Halo game and 2) YEEAH, I finally got featured in a video (for a split second but still)!!!
I gotta thank you, raycevick, due to your reviews I'm a greater understanding and love for music, and I find myself listening to game ost's and film scores all the time, so thanks
It's sad that this game always gets shit on by the Halo community because I personally enjoyed this games multiplayer quite a bit but the campaign was pretty lack luster
I don't even wanna look in the comments after the end, but I got to say your videos are really good and happy to look foward to more of your contant in the future.
Amazing, I just watched your previous 5 films a few weeks ago, these are some of the most well made videos on UA-cam! From the bottom of my heart as a die-hard Halo fan, thank you! Can't wait for your take on Halo 5.
I love the campaign of Halo 4 - yes even the mammoth section. From all the Halo games - this is actually the most consistantly great campaign that I go back to and enjoy playing - as even Halo CE's campaign only entertains me for the first half, as everything just turns to crap after the introduction of The Flood. I love the promethians and think they are fun to fight. Your criticism on them seems to miss the fact that they are meant to work together instead as being examined in isolation. The robo-dogs attack you from all sides, while you need to keep an eye on the knights as they will fight you from a distance, when you try to shoot them their satelites will shield them catch your grenades and throw them back at you, lastly they'll even revive dead knights - making them even more of a priority. So while you try to dodge enemy fire, you need to focus on the satelites all while being progressively surrounded by the robo-dogs - which makes for a thrilling combat-loop. And the Covenant actually also mix well with the new enemies be it while they try to fight them off, or taking side with the Promethians later in the game. So, yeah your greatest criticsm - with the combat not being fun is wrong in my opinion.
Good analysis and I respect your opinion. However I disagree on a lot of things you said and I'm shocked you treat this game better than reach, I think the enemies were boring and generic to fight, the story was too far removed from what made halo fun and the art design was too much like COD. I really don't like this game and I was expecting a roast haha but still fun video to watch you know! 😎👍🏻
Yeah... that confused me too. Halo 4 returns to neon colours and alien architecture where Halo 2, 3 and Reach progressively became more and more about humans, human planets and modern tech, bringing it right in line with the (very) general look of COD.
the art is nothing like cod, if I would compare it to anything, it would actually be Crysis, in fact the similarities to Crysis 3 is fucking uncanny, I remind everyone to play Crysis 3 and halo 4, it's weird, there's neon orange enemies that remind me of Promethean, etc. But like CoD? the bright colours and deep colours return from original halo, Reach was more of the one going into CoD's design philosophy rather than 4.
I think Halo 4 needed more constructive criticism like this rather than the backlash of fanboys shouting that everything about it was bad, and that Halo was ruined forever. It provided nothing useful for 343 and only confused them, which in turn hurt Halo 5 so bad. Fans wanted the campaign to be epic just like bungie which caused 343 to do away with the great emotion that they did so well with Halo 4, which made the campaign a confusing mess. I honestly think if the fanbase was a lot more calm and collected with proper criticism, Halo 5's single player would have turned out a lot better.
Watching Halo 4... 4 Years Later... 4 Years Later
Same.
Amen
@@DaFuzeHdTV you responded to that comment 4 months later lol
Lol yep me to
Just replayed 4 for first time since it came out so looked up reviews.
Halo 4 leaves a hero emotionally damaged and a major character never to be seen again... Until Halo 5 walks in and says FUCK YOU and destroys Halo 4's ending
BlackPantherFTW Didact was going to be the main villain in 5, but that was back when 343 was just doing a new trilogy, which has been expanded into an entire saga
BlackPantherFTW halo 4's story was too complicated so 343 had to dumb it down
Halo Fan 76 they dumbed it down too much, and they tried to have too many characters at once, and it doesn't help that content was missing, just fueling the hate
There were more issues with 5's story than just it being dumbed down. A lot of things like Cortana as the main antagonist in that game felt very contrived to me. Considering that by this point we have known her for 4 games I find this a betrayal to her character.
What kind of sense is it to make her the antagonist when in the previous games she was her ally? That's like if I made Toad the antagonist in the next Mario game.(Actually, that might make more sense because unlike Cortana people really hate Toad for his voice.)
Honestly, it makes no sense to me regardless. Not just that but from what I also heard of the campaign has a lot of issues regarding filler. Quantity doesn't also mean quality and in this case I feel like if it was more focused and had better pacing it would of been much better. At least 4 I feel was focused even with the exposition dumps and the confusing opening.
I just wonder, what was 343 trying to accomplish with 5? I think that's the biggest issue with it's story. They didn't have a clear idea where they wanted to go with the story after the tragic ending of 4. Personally, if I were to fix the story I make it more about the Master Chief dealing with the death of Cortana and how much it changed him as a person.
Honestly, I think that be far more interesting as then we can see how Master Chief was affected by this in 5 and how much it humanized him. I thought that was the point of 4 anyways. To humanize the Master Chief. I feel like 5 really does contradict a lot of what 4 was trying to do and it's really ashamed because I think story wise it could of been solid emotional stuff but as it is it's a lot of "what could of been" ultimately.
And I love how halos infinites campaign looks like it's just going to ignore both and make the level Halo in CE into an entire campaign
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Making this series has been a blast and while I originally planned to end it here, there is one more game...
More videos are to be released on my channel, and I hope to see you there!
Raycevick looking forward to your review. Halo 5 is easily the most polarizing game to date. Love your videos, keep up the great work!
Nice, gives me motivation to continue my own similar passions to see this type of content be successful. Great work, I enjoyed the other videos as well :]
Just subscribed, great video with amazing analysis. Keep up the good work mate and hopefully your subscriber count will boost.
***** True haha, but this guy's analysis of gameplay mechanics, story choices etc. Del Rio was an arse and I was disappointed that we didn't get to see what happened to him, but then again, I was disappointed with Halo 5 as a whole. It actually makes me appreciate Halo 4 more.
***** Yeah, Del Rio's attitude was trash haha, like after everything the chief did, if he just up and walked on the ship and wanted to commandeer it, by rights they should have let him. I also love how he didn't even bother to question the chiefs disappearance nor thank him for his previous successful efforts to save not just humanity, but the galaxy, he's straight up a dick lmao.
I loved Halo 4, wasn't perfect by any means but it still a gorgeous, atmospheric game that gave the Chief and Cortana lots of humanity, but I feel like Halo 4 was a bit of a missed opportunity, with all the lore that was there from what Bungie had built I was expecting something mind blowing for the forerunners, I was expecting to be blown away by the environments, the characters and the story itself...instead I was rather underwhelmed and sad to say that I genuinely think us fans could have created a better story.
As for Halo 5, look it felt the most 'Halo-y" and the soundtrack is great but god damn the campaign is a mess, and that sequal baiting ending pissed me right off, I mean we had it with Halo 2 but that was because Bungie had to take out some subsequent levels and anyway, Halo 2 still had an amazing campaign (It's my favourite Halo) and I didn't feel mugged off.
Either way I hope Halo 6 pulls it together and realises that Halo is anything but a mindless shooter, it's story, atmosphere, music, characters, gameplay...they're all just as important as each other.
You bring up many opinions that I share but I think you missed a few issues
When it comes to the multiplayer, the issue of allowing you to spawn with weapons like the storm rifle (plasma rifle equivalent) DMR, carbine and so on is that it removes KEY aspects of halo's online gameplay.. no more fighting for BR tower.. no more picking up the plasma pistol.. it takes away from the sandbox
Also in regards to the story, I feel that the prologue and epilogue's were vital to the narrative punch. The prologue shows us that darker things are stirring with ONI and Halsey and the epilogue would have actually taken away from Halo 4's ending if it were not there.. it shows chief taking off his armor (visual representation of him officially not hiding anymore) and taking the first steps to understanding his humanity
LateNightGaming - Video Game News & Entertainment Everything you said and also the ability to maintain zoomed when shot: I know it was mostly done as a convenience for the people who aren't used to it but it didn't work for the sake of balance: the automatics need it to allow them to get close to the ranged weapons and add an element of back and forth between the two but that just ruined that element.
LateNightGaming - Video Game News & Entertainment Ayy, he brought that up near the end :3
That first point is really two points. The first part is subjective. Fighting for favourable positioning and map control is a fundamental part of any shooter, whereas fighting for terrain to control resources is a gameplay element that is more subjective. If a resource is important but the area to fight over doesn't offer interesting interactions it's bad design. Fighting over areas to secure weapons isn't inherently a good or bad game mechanic. It comes down to the question of what skills and strategy a person wants the game to require. If you're all about straight mechanical skill then giving everyone an equal start and having few to no power weapons would make sense. If you're the kind of person who wants resource control to be a key factor then it makes more sense to build maps and game modes around that. Alternatively some people just want good shootouts with varied situations and weapons, in which case building maps and game modes to resolve so heavily around particular areas and weapon spawns would be a negative.
The second point on the situation where the effectiveness of starting equipment makes obsolete weapons available to find in the course of play is fair though. That's flawed balancing.
I agree for the most part.
My one issue with the opening I suppose would have to be the seeming lack of context. Not that they didn't talk about chief or anything, but it just seemed like something which should have been at the beginning of Spartan Ops instead.
Now when I watch the cutscene with Cortana dying I get pissed off by the fact that 343 and Microsoft brought her back to life for some reason.
I, and many others, regret being big giant asshats to 343 on Halo 5. I think a lot of us could've handled our criticisms a lot better than before.
Just think that the Cortana in H5 is one of the fragments she split off in H4. That really helps explain how Cortana isn't Cortana in H5. Not a perfect fix, but one nonetheless.
I know that, but for better or for worse, both H4 and H5 are canon. As such, the only way I can reconcile H4 Cortana with H5 Cortana, and the way I hope 343i takes it, is what I detailed earlier.
Whoops I accidentally deleted two comments when I was trying to exist this comment section. lol
Whats wrong with 4 Cortana dying of rampancy was instilled way in the beginning of bungie times they made the 7 year life span for AI they invented rampancy. Halo 4 was by far the best story since 2. The fact John finally broke out of his machine and became his own person. Which was by far bungie's biggest blunder in development. Bungie kept saying halo was a universe of emotional consequences yet your main hero's were devoid of any interaction with that universe. John has 54 lines throughout CE-3 and in Halo 4 he has well over 100.
You can thank the fan base for that. Everywhere I looked after halo 4 I saw comments like "I miss Cortana...):" and 343 did what they always do and back slid on ambition just to cater to its childish fan base.
This was honestly a fantastically produced video - top notch quality and amazingly well produced. Time to binge the rest of your Halo videos!
Ha
343 is really pissing me off with all the confusion of quality
Hell yeah Xperia!
I think the quote from Bungie tells what Halo 4 did wrong
"This area needs to be fun to play in before it looks pretty"
"It's gorgeous, but this is an awful place to fight bad guys in. The space needs to be fun before it's pretty"
That's the quote you got it FUCKING WRONG AHHHHHHH!!!
Close enough
That actually makes perfect sense. Plus, Halo 4 looks great anyway.
Wish they felt this way about destiny
The Infamous Cloaker Videos halo 5 did neither, it looks awful and plays awful, I mean dammit we're super soldiers, and yet we die in 2 rifle shots... really?
How to make a phenomenal Halo game:
- Halo 4 level-of story. Halo 3-type of diverse levels & epic scales. (The Ark & The Covenant, etc.).
- Reach's diversity of core game modes. Customs, Forge, Theater, Firefight, online Matchmaking, Campaign.
- Halo 5's Forge.
- Split fucking screen.
- Less variety of weapons so sandbox becomes easier to refine & polish. (The huge variety in Halo 5 warzone is cool, but look what was sacrificed- actual playable maps & gametypes at launch).
- No map remixes. Quality maps over quantity. Focus on Halo 1 & 2 calibre of maps.
- Focus on giving community gametypes more options and new gametypes must have these more in mind. (Infection & Race) Rationale behind is this is to maximize the value of the gametype: majority of the custom maps that's being paired with gametypes since Halo 3 has had a lot of emphasis on either Slayer, Infection or Race.
____________
And yea that's really it. We don't need a Warzone or Spartan Ops. We need content that allows us to create even more custom content so we can keep coming back to play the game. (I still do split screen/LAN on Reach twice a month on average, despite it being a 6 year old game. Why? Firefight. Forge. Split screen (Looking at you Halo 5). Infection. Race.
Minus halo 4's story I agree with everything you said.
109 What was wrong with the Chief-Cortana arc? :(
Unless you're criticizing the Didact's development, which I agree with you.
If you mean by map remixes, bringing old maps form other Halo games into the new one i personally like that, just two or three should be the upper limit. I also do not mind getting a suitable map from the campaign, just again not to many. Most of the maps should be new with a few remakes and maybe one or two from the campaign and plenty of community maps.
Remixes are redesigns of maps that are already in the game like Regret and Truth or Eden and Empire.
Oh ok thanks. Yeah don't do that because it is lazy. I thought he meant things like say Hemorrhage from blood gulch and other remakes like that.
The Knights still look like rejected Bionicle characters.
Really? I don't get that vibe at all.
Amie Mallich When they show their skull it looks like the head piece that you connect the mask to.
BewareTheBatFamily Mmmm... which one?
Bionicle was one of the best legos
plus 1 for bionicle reference
I'm not kidding when I say Halo's last cutscene with Cortana is the best in the series. It made my little sister cry, and shes 18.
***** Cortana combined herself with the forerunner holo-light tech that makes the light bridges. In that last moment she basically just surrounded chief in cube. That's why he's safe and why she's physical.
I'm pretty sure all of that was explained through context.
Also, she's sorta dying. How would you and your friends handle your mortality.
***** And you missed my point,
"Also, she's sorta dying. How would you and your friends handle your mortality."
They're close friends... saying goodbye for the last time. (hopefully) lol
*****
You've gotta do better than that.
***** I bet you get your ideas from Encyclopedia Dramatica. You've gotta remember that the people who write those articles are the master trolls who know the secret techniques for getting the perfect response. If they told you the real way to get a response when trolling, they'd go out of business. You need to work on that trolling, boy. It's not most excellent, it's pretty bogus.
^See, that's a better attempt. Still pretty shitty to be honest but at least he has a vague idea of how to troll. Can't really expect much more from a 14 year old making a reference to a shitty old geyboy cartoon from the 90s
I genuinely enjoy Halo 4, but your grips are very true. I think the number one issue with that game was Microsoft forcing 343 to meet deadlines. This was a company founded from nothing who had never worked together and some never on a Halo game and they had to build a AAA title in a preexisting universe in about 3 years. That left some mechanics feeling unnecessary and the multiplayer gamemodes left unfinshed. While Halo 5 isn't perfect, you can definitely see the progression to that game and how much they learned from Halo 4
That's exactly what.
The evil has always been Microsoft but everyone throws shit at 343i who're genuinely trying their best.
I wish 343i would just make a new IP. They could really shine if they weren't shackled to Halo.
4 is my favourite game in the franchise but youre absolutely right
I love this series of videos. Halo 4 initially blew me away with its story, graphics, music, and gameplay, but as I played more, I enjoyed less. I will defend Halo 4's narrative and soundtrack until the day I die, but multilayer aged like milk instead of Reach's or 3's wine. I thought Spartan Ops was a lot of fun, and is a shame that 343 never continued its narrative with a Season 2 or bringing more into Halo 5.
On the subject of Halo 5, I think they want a video about it because, as you've said, people have torn that game to shreds, but your relative lack of bias is a breath of fresh air. Although I agree that there are many faults with it, especially with Cortana, there some highlights. Running down the Guardian, dialogue from Exuberant Witness, the last two missions, some of the post release content, and new variations of weapons.
Halo 4 story makes me wonder how far 343 could have gone if they didn't have promethians weighing down the story. The lord of the forerunners is more interesting than halo 4 iteration of them. It makes me sad.
The forerunners could have easily been something working in the background much like the the Institute in Fallout 4. The story could have been about getting cortana back to earth. A break down in Covenant and human relations making them about to go to war again. Anything but the promethians.
DarthVantos I'm on the opposite end. I wish Microsoft and 343 wouldn't have jumped the gun on Halo 4 by releasing it on the 360. That way we could have a more or less Xbox One launch title, have given more time and resources to make the Prometheans better. Make them more fun to fight. We would have waited a while longer, but it would have provided a better incentive to get an Xbox One and we could have gotten a better campaign.
Neo-Mad Dog
I would have liked if they were more robotic like the syths or like the eldar in the 40k universe. And yes it's true if they had time ti would made sense.
Reach's MP didn't age well at all. Reach is where halo 4's MP came from. Armor abilities and killing off comp halo. Halo 5 thankfully brought this back.
Halo 4's multiplayer is the best in MCC, id say its the other way around, halo 4 got better with time while the older games got worse. Halo ce, 2, and 3 pretty bad in mcc
Oh shit, those are clips from my videos at 9:38. Haha
I also saw a clip from GameCheat13's Halo 2 cut sprint video, too. Pretty cool!
You should get paid for that footage.
Woosh
>Video says "4 years later"
>Came out 3 years ago
>Your back is starting to hurt and women are paying less attention to you
I feel this on a spiritual level
I'm probably being a moron but what the hell is this trying to say
@@kadirgarib3459
It means you are aging.
Time is flying past you without you even noticing.
Your back is starting to ache.
Women don't see you as attractive anymore as you start to show your age.
The dreaded years of growing old start now.
@@utisti4976 I gotcha! I feel dumb lol
Pain
sign, even though Halo 4, despite taking many steps back, the game was still decent; Halo 5 on the other hand took one step forward, 10 steps back.
Master Vidxad 58 do u really think halo 4 is better than halo 5
Simon Kool depends, 4 has a rather good and in my opinion underrated campaign with a clunky multiplayer whereas 5 has the worst campaign I've played in a halo game but a great fast paced multiplayer.
+Simon Kool Halo 4 is better than Halo 5 on almost all fronts. At least Halo 4 is a Halo game and kept what made Halo what it is.
Sarcasm surely? Adding full sprint, loadouts, ordinance, unequal starts and flinch is keeping Halo what it is? At least Halo 5 has a well balanced multiplayer which is actually skilled based with a decent ranking system.... all of these were in Halo 2 and 3.
How about they're both really shit Halo games that both get some things right but ultimately fuck up in a HUGE way...can we agree on that?
I've seen these "Halo _, __years later" videos recommended to me for a while now and I just ignored them, thinking they would be low-quality. Holy shit, these are so engrossing and well-made. Loving it so far!
Yeah I am quite surprised by them.
YES! So glad I started watching your series this week. Perfect timing and your videos don't disappoint.
Ay Star Same!
Ay Star ⭐️
I loved Halo 4, mostly because it was the game that introduced me to the Halo series and I also have a lot of good memories revolving around the game.
Very good video. I'm surprised you don't have a lot of subs because you do make top notch content. My beef with Halo 4 and 5 is the armor customization. Its so bland and it all looks the same.
eemils X Raycevik must have a deal wth COG cause COG didn’t steal it. Raycevik is in these comments talking about the series. These videos are not on Raycevik’s own channel.
thats weird beef to have haha customization is option and only for multiplayer and spartan ops XD hardly worth takin points away from the whole game for that , silly
@@shredisodes2541 To each their own. He thinks so, but you think differently.
Much as I love this series and, while I don't agree with everything that's been presented I do always appreciate how well though out it is, I have to disagree with your dissection of the opening cinematic. It's purpose is to introduce casual fans to the backstory of the Master Chief, the Spartans, and Dr. Halsey (who may not appear in the campaign but does appear in Spartan Ops). In this regard, I think it does a great job, and I think you over-analyzed it a bit.
1. You mention that casual fans would only have a surface level understanding of the events being depicted, and while correct, this isn't a bad thing. That's the point, if anything. It's just meant to say "this is how the Chief, and the Spartans, came to be". Even to this day, a lot of people don't know that the Chief was kidnapped as a child and augmented to become the soldier he is.
2. You place way too much importance on when the scenes are taking place and whether any are meant to show the Chief. All we need to know is one scene showing Spartans taking on Covenant, another scene of a Spartan being a bad-ass (it's practically right there in the narration), and then the Chief receiving Cortana.
3. As mention, this interrogation is also meant to serve as a formal introduction to Dr. Halsey. Halo Reach failed at presenting Halsey for who she is and making her importance in the overall narrative of Halo known. The introduction to Halo 4 does all that, which is especially important going into Spartan Ops and later Halo 5.
Hi Toa
Hey
The scene serving as an introduction to Dr. Halsey ultimately winds up being pointless, though, because the most she ever factors into _Halo 4_'s story is Master Chief expressing hope that she can fix Cortana's rampancy (which doesn't make sense to casual players who have only been introduced to Halsey as the creator of the Spartan program, while people who have read the books know that the concept of Halsey being able to just up and cure rampancy simply because someone asked her to is ridiculous). If they felt they needed to introduce her for the sake of Spartan Ops, then common-sense storytelling dictates that they should have done so within Spartan Ops.
That said, the opening cutscene does serve a very important purpose to the story that Raycevick overlooked, which is establishing the Spartans (and, by extension, the Master Chief) as having been left developmentally damaged by their supersoldier upbringing, which informs the subtext of every character moment the Chief is given throughout the rest of the game. The real problem isn't that the scene doesn't serve a purpose, but that this crucial thematic point is easily lost on people because the rest of the scene is packed with so much unnecessary white noise.
@@HaloCanon TBH the scene is a plot hole in terms of the art and Cortana the art is that the Elite's doesn't look like the ones from the human-covenant war and the Spartan armor is not the ones from the human-covenant war and with Cortana they say that Cortana was with the master Chief since Halsey gave her to Chief but they met on the Pillar of Autumn I'm just saying
I agree about the opening cutscene. While not using the right art style (for whatever reason) it DID seem pretty straightforward to me. And I’m not too, too much of a lore nut.
I enjoyed Halo 4, but so many things about it frustrated me. Mainly with the multiplayer.
Although I did enjoy 343s take on multipalyer for a time.
I would have really liked to see in Halo 4 was for the first few missions before you reach the Infinity you use the Halo 3 suit. It's starting to show its age and shield won't fully recharge and you are slower. Then once you get a new suit from the Infinity you get to use the armor abilities and sprint. Then when the Libraian gives you that super hero deus ex thingy something else happens, maybe you gain more resistance to Promethains weapons or something
Halo MCC - Two years later
Yazite Why? Everything good about the MCC has been covered in the videos about the individual games, and everything bad is common knowledge for every Halo fan.
Because greater awareness of how bad it is outside of the Halo community is always a good thing.
343 got away with bloody murder. They never fully fixed it and ruined what should have been the resurrection of the community.
Two words:
Still Broken
2 years later:
It actually works now.
sdkfjlk 4 months later PC port is pretty broken
Weird comment on a Halo 4 review, but your ODST comment in final thoughts was so on point and succinct. It was a brilliant campaign, great mood change but it was a greedy cash grab instead of a generous add-on. That criticism is easier to take as time goes on, though.
Holy shit i literally just finished watching the halo 3 video and now this is uploaded
Need something like this for Halo 5. Because that game screams development issues and starting all over again.
JumPeRJumPzZ
YOU SCREAM DEVELOPMENT ISSUES AND STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN
...I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.
Man your videos are top notch quality. You really disected every aspect of the Halo franchise, props to you. It still doesn't lower my love for the Halo franchise even though I know it will probably never peak again. In the meantime why don't you do a Gears series ? Another beloved franchise which doesn't really get the recognition it deserves. Do let me know what's next for your channel ! :)
While I do enjoy Gears Multiplayer, I've never been a massive follower of the series like I've been for Halo, and the "Years Later" series is something I want to keep for franchises that've made a big impact on me. I've been thinking about reviewing Gears of War 4, perhaps I'll cover it on my channel in the future.
Raycevick Are you willing to do a Halo Wars review?
Now this... this is an amazing review of the game. While you neither decided to tear it apart for its few big flaws or make it gleam for its few amazing improvements you have an actual review of the game as it is, a good addition to the halo series that needed some work. All of the comments who possibly didn't even play the game are bandwagoning to hate on it, and it's plain stupid. You need to realize the good with the bad and that's why I love this video so much.
H4:
Campaign-Ok
Multiplayer-Weak
H5:
Campaign-ASS
Multiplayer-Good
This is general opinion right?
i think so though i loved halo 4s multiplayer because it was my 1st fps and multiplayer game too
H5:
Campaign-ASS
Multiplayer-Lacking
Actually, I enjoyed halo 4's multiplayer the most out of all of them. Reach is a close second, with armor lock being the highest quality of BULLSHIT
So... H6:
Campaign: Good
Multiplayer: Halo 3 levels good?
Needle that doesn't mean it's bad
WARNING ⚠️ : PERSONAL OPINION
Don't understand why people don't like this game, I loved it.
I disliked the way they had redesigned the enemies. I am not against the lore of some of the covenant being a sub species but I would have liked to have seen the old grunts and the unbrutish elites. The elites where never meant to be like the brutes! The other thing was that the forerunner constructs where unlike in other halos and lacked the browns and different colours. I guess the other thing is that I disliked a lot of the floaty bits and the removal of some of the iconic species and weapons.
yea
Multiplayer got old quick. But I love the campaign.
I understand why they didn't like it, heck I didn't even like the game that much I was just only really interested in the story
It’s my second favorite, just a bit behind Reach
20:21
The Spartan is the Chief, or at least like with Halsey it is his modell. You can see his Number 117 written in braille on the side of his chest armor.
As someone who loves Halo 4, but has kinda drifted away from the series since the clusterfuck that was Halo 5, watching this brought me back a lot of good memories. I kinda teared up a bit at the scene when John said "Im not going to let that happen" to Cortana, and I got chills at the Requiem scene where the amazing music plays. Kinda reminded me why I love this game and this series so much.
While I will always consider Marty o'Donnell as the GOAT by a large margin, i think 343 nailed halo 4's soundtrack. Had a very ancient and mysterious feel that I feel not only fits well here, but could have fit just as nicely if not better in halo 1. This soundtrack really, imo, emphasizes chiefs' dilemma. He is trapped in a new, mysterious world where the rules have changed. His rock and most trusted ally is dying and they both know they won't be able to save her, yet, they hold on to that nugget of hope that they can pull through just like the last games. This leads the duo's dialogue to keep that witty and light dialogue yet still staying focused on the mission. The soundtrack nails that feeling of exploring a foreign world that you are the first human to step on, al a halo: ce. It ramps up with the revelations of Cortana's condition and the didacts plans coming to fruition. I think it has a rightful place in the halo universe
Not many people agree on halo 4s soundtrack in a “halo” game. It felt off to me. It’s no wonder why they brought on a change in Halo5 and then another change in halo infinite
I love halo, and Halo 4 is no exception. Its fun as shit.
No game made me go into spotify to listen to the album until this one
Alvin Alers hell yeah it was
Alvin Alers halo reach has way better music. Although halo 4s is pretty good
+Pretzel Stick The first 2 games have even better soundtracks.
Alvin Alers halo 4 was my childhood. I am glad I am a fan of halo for 5 years
Halo 4's campaign was my favorite. Chief and Cortana's story easily eclipsed what was going on in the background and I was glad to see the pair get some quality development in their relationship.
I loved the flood, I'd fight them over the prometheans every time.
Chiefy N Proud Same
The Flood are a cancer that should have never been put in Halo.
Mega Guy43 What does that make the Prometheans then?
The Wizard
Necrons
That's like choosing between getting punched in the face or punched in the balls.
Just finished watching. Another enjoyable entry into this series!
I eagerly await your reluctant response to "do Halo 5".
That "beautiful reveal" part in the level Requiem is just brilliant. I haven't played Halo 4 in awhile, but watching it here gave me chills all over again =)
Neil Davidge's soundtrack might not be as memorable as Marty's, but it sure is AS beautiful. =)
Great video, BTW! Love your analyzation, especially the pros and cons of each of the games in the end 😁
I love your analysis almost as much as I love your voice
I feel very informed with that information on Promethean enemy types, weapons and the fact Human weapons were hitscan while Covenant were projectile (that one really got me, makes so much sense with the "playing against" design).
Love your series.
I loved Halo 4's multiplayer, and the map Exile made it a whole lot better. I hate Halo 5's multiplayer. Short lines of sight, small maps, only the basic vehicles.
Cannibal Sausage go back to cod
Simon Kool
I said I liked the vehicles. I hated the small maps.
In conclusion, I am a Battlefield Vet
Cannibal Sausage Yeah, Halo 4 had great BTB and Dominion was a good counterpart as well. It's design issues don't hamper the gameplay as much on bigger maps, and now that I think on it that may be why BTB maps made up a majority of the game.
Still mostly hated it though.
Man that's weird I personally didn't really like it, it wasn't atrocious but kind of pathetic in comparison to the previous games. Like half the community left over that multiplayer :D
Cannibal Sausage i agree but i still like halo 5s multiplayer
I LOVE this video. Just one thing that you said did bug me a little. 343 bringing "War Games" into the campaign lore was a good implement, because up until this point we had no previous reason why multiplayer was..... multiplayer. War Games gives us a clear as day reason why we were fighting other Spartans. When I was a kid, I wasn't really that deep into the Halo Lore, and i actually thought Chief was the last Spartan alive, and I would always wonder why in multiplayer there were Blue Spartans vs. Red Spartans, it just never made sense. 343 doesn't shove war games down your throat, they simply hint that this is the reason why we're in this multiplayer universe with other Spartans fighting each-other.
Eh, Bungie's sound design is better. Almost every sound in Halo 4 feels overproduced, as if compensating for something.
It's compensating for the shit gameplay
auniversalstick Somewhat.
Listen to Halo 3's AR/BR reload and then Halo 4's version. One does exactly what it needs to and sounds nice while the other does too much and messes with the overall feeling of the weapon.
Bungie were fucking great at a LOT of things, but as of Halo 2 onward, sound design was NOT one of them. Halo Reach having the only solid sound design outside of Halo 1. The sound in 2, 3 and ODST were actually bad.
Opinions Bro.
I thought it was ironic how they wanted to make the human guns sound more realistic and with more oomph, but they honestly sounded to me like a stapler.
343's sound design sounds like it was made by crackheads. I genuinely dislike their audio design.
"Hardlight shield, which no one uses"
Personally, I find it the most useful. I use it to keep an enemy's attention on me while my teammate flanks; or to keep them stuck waiting for it to run out to finish me off, which gives my allies time to regroup and avenge me. It also helps annoy vehicles.
man you need more subs, your content is amazing. Keep up the good work man hope to see you grow
Very good shit, I love breakdown videos and seeing the Halo franchise dissected was a real treat. It's been a good ride thus far and seeing you conclude on Halo 5 will be great to see
you're such an underrated youtuber damm. Love your vids
Very informative. What surprised me even more is the upload date. Didn't know your channel existed until it showed up in my recommended watch list!
Finally! Will Halo 5 review be coming anytime soon? Or ever?
Dan Volkov Watch the very end
Yazite ik!!! noice!!
Halo wars first lel
He stole this video from Raycevick
Always glad to see one of these videos in my sub box.
I completely agree in regards to your comments of level design, AI, and atmosphere for single player. I think what best encapsulates Halo 4's strengths and weaknesses of it's single player is the scene you mention (and praise, to my dismay) in the start of missions 2 where you exit the cave and are given this awe inspiring view of floating pillars in the sky across a huge valley, only to be corralled moments later into a super linear warthog segment (while cortana tells you a bunch of lore inaccurate bullshit, but more on that later). It's worth noting though that I actually don't mind linear levels: Halo 2 has my favorite campaign. But even though 2 was linear, it often didn't FEEL linear because of how it's level design was given context my it's environments. Outskirts and Metropolis take place in a city, and having linear streets and tunnels feels natural. Delta Halo and Regret take place in a series of ruins and it feels more open then it actually is just due to how everything is framed. The only part of Halo 4 where anything similar is pulled off is in the jungle mission. I also can't stand CE's overuse of corridors and reused geometry, which 4 also has in spades, but I actually feel it's less grating here then it was in CE for whatever reason.
Regarding the fact that the Promethean's behaviors and how you deal with them as a player don't change based on what weapons they use, that's mostly true, but you forgot an exception: Crawlers with binary rifle do behave differently, and while at the end of the day your solution is still to shoot them, you need to do so differently then otherwise. That said, they are incredibly frustrating enemies, akin to jackal snipers, so that's not really a good thing, either.
You bring up how well handled Cortana is in 4, but it's honestly my biggest issue with the game. I don't know how many novels you've read, but Rampancy is described as something far more insidious and subtle then what;s shown in 4. Seeing a character known for being in control and witty reduced to acting like a scared little girl throwing temper tantrums is laughable. I get that's sort of the point, showing a strong character in the moment of weakness, but It;s inconsistent with rampancy as a concept. In fact, Cortana's behavior in halo 5 is far, far more in line with how I would have expected a rampant cortana to act: She's not submissive and scared but rather even more assured of her superiority and power, and she doesn't even realize that something with her is off. This is PRECISELY how rampancy is described in the novels. Even if you still want to go the route of her acting scared and weak due to facing her death, I would point to how she acts in Halo 3 under the gravemind's control. She also says at one -point she's the only AI she knows of made from a human brain which is ridiclious seeing how all smart AI are and she'd be well aware of that fact.
I'm also annoyed by how the Master Chief acts. I don't mind them giving him more personality, as in the novels he has one, and i'm all for moving EU content and concepts into the games, but he has no reason to care about her as much as he does. He's only known her for 3 months, and he's sent other Spartans, who he''s known since childhood, off to die stonefaced. I find it very hard to believe he would disobey orders and do what he does in 4 for a single rampant AI, especially when her behavior at the time is such a flight risk to him and the UNSC. He also acts like he has no clue what rampancy is which is ridiculous. I literally cringe watching many of the cutscenes and dialog in 4 because he acts like a kid who doesn't understand the world going "why isn't everybody nice to each other/why not just cure cancer?". He should be well aware there's no way to save her and he's wasting his time. I get that part of the point is showing him breaking down and not just acting like a machine given ordes as he always does, but they just did a shitty job of it. Again, pointing to 5, how he deals with her behavior there I feel is a much better executed example of how it should have gone. He still cares about her, but he's not willing to throw everything away for her sake.
Bottom line for single player, I feel both 4 and 5 would have benefited if their villians were swapped: Make a rampant cortana the villian of 4, with the end of the game being MC having to kill her, and make the Didact, who is trying to enforce galactic peace under the mantle the villian of halo 5. This would also allow for him and the Librarian to potentially be handled better by giving them extra game of buildup, though technically both were introduced in the Halo 3 terminals and had plenty of backstory given for them in the forerunner novels before 4 came out.
In regards to multiplayer, I also agree that ordinance is a much bigger problem then the loadouts, though less because of the super thought out reasons you gave and more just because at the end of the day, loadouts can still be fun in certain modes, I never once had extra fun due to ordinance and more then once it frustrated me. I also think your criticism of how minor the armor mods are and how little the loadouts matter usually (aside from a few exceptions) is a postive thing, not a negative one. By keeping them minor it allows the core gameplay to still be more about map control and other "halo" things then being more about your personal loadout like other shooters. I think you are giving Halo fans too much credit, though: People hate
sprint and loadouts and ordiance because ir reminds them of Call of Duty, NOT because of the very valid reasons you bring up. Though it's worth pointing out that technially, your max walking speed in CE, 2, 3, and ODST /is/ supposed to be you running. Try to "race" normal marines, and you'll notice you actually move very, very fast in the games where you play as the master cheif (around 22 miles per hour, to be exact), it just doesn't seem like it.
I also agree about the multiplayer map design. A step up from reach, about on par with 3, but nowhere near as good as 2 and CE. You only breifly bring it up, but the scoreboard change in 4 is honestly my favorite thing about the game: even if it's only visual, it means that players who play the objective in many modes by defending the flag and stuff like that are rewarded by being placed higher on the scoreboard, as opposed to prior games where points were the only things that influenced that (which can lead to situations where you singlehandled allowed your team to win in CTF but the scoreboard shows you having done jack shit).
Looking forward to seeing the video for 5, even if you didn't want to do it. The fact so many people asked you is evidence that you make good content. Wouldn't it be worse if people DIDN'T want more videos from you?
Nailed. It.
It's interesting to see how different opinions can be from witnessing the same content. I haven't read the novels so Cortana in Halo 4 was my first experience with Rampancy in this universe and when I saw what Cortana was going through I just thought "Okay, it's dementia for software". Something I was going to bring up but cut due to saving time and it not being vital information is that Josh Holmes' mother was suffering from Dementia while working on the project, and he encouraged Chris Schlerf to go through with Cortana's struggle despite being unsure if players would care enough about it.
I never saw Cortana as "throwing temper tantrums" or being a scared little girl, I felt like a close friend was dying in front of me. For me, the roller coaster of emotions I talked about came from Cortana and had the game not featured her deterioration, it would've made the experience a lot more forgettable. Same with the Chief. I didn't see him as not understanding of Cortana's peril, but not wanting to accept it, and believing that he's able to prevent it. I don't think Chief accepting Cortana's eventual death that quickly would've been in sync with the player. When I first played Halo 4 I assumed "They're not going to follow through on this, they can't just kill Cortana off" and believe that feeling was shared with most players, making the final scene that much more powerful. It was a surprise.
As I want to leave my opinion for Halo 5 in the video, let's just say I disagree with Cortana's behavior in it :D
As for the sprint and loadouts thing, I'm sure people are able to identify and articulate Sprint, Loadouts, and Ordnance's faults in detail, but they're not interested in examining everything like you or me, they just care if they like it or not, hence why they use "it's like Call of Duty". It's like when people say "I Hate Nickelback" as a shorthand for annoying trends in popular music.
Glad to see you back, thanks for sticking around, Jabber!
Jabberwockxeno You make such an amazing point and I respect it.
Love your videos! Have you ever considered doing this format for gears of war?
I realize this is an older video; this is the first on this channel I've stumbled across. -Really wonderful pacing, structure, and criticism! I can't wait to see more.
How do you not have more subscribers?! These videos are incredible!
I disagree about the promethian grenade. It's great for area denile and spacing with it's longer timed AoE, it makes a great zoning tool.
Oh hey there's my comment at 48:46 (slow downed). :D
Lol
Blu Hat danke
Paul Beenis the Parrot :D
Biggest problem with Halo 4 is fighting characterless robots. Dull! environments were really similar. Didn't think it was a good idea to introduce mech exoskeletons, seeing as chief wears something similar. Remember seeing the artworks of bungie warthogs, one was a snow half track version that I thought Would make a cool level. Even outdoor environments were bland experience for alien worlds. Preferred 5 to 4, Didn't have to shoot something a dozen times for a kill. Multiplayer didn't hold much interest compared to other shooters. Yet at its core, Halo has something very special. I hope it returns.
You know, if 343 had just followed the formula that Halo 4 had set for them, they would have been set. But no, of course they had to fuck up Halo 5 to the extent that I think we should demand them to make another game - Halo 5. Drop the 'Guardians' from the title, dismiss everything in Halo 5: Guardians as a dream the Masterchief had, and continue on PROPERLY.
What an absolute joyride of a series. Thank you SO much for making these dude. This was a lot of fun to watch, and I look forward to all of your future content, Halo or otherwise.
I think they would have had more success dropping Master Chief altogether and making this game a trip to the past. Going back into the Forerunner era. It would have been new and given them artistic freedom while still being Halo.
Koven Zekeb human forerunner war where you play as a forerunner eatching it all unfold, halfway through flood show up, you learn about construction of rings and the end is similar to halo reachs ending where you know it's going to end.
This would alienate most fans, because as cool as that would be to us, everyone else would just whine and bitch about not playing as Chief.
And that's why everything is creatively bankrupt nowadays.
that actually sounds awesome. but taking away chief would probably make it fail
@@rstriker21 That would still piss off fans of the old games because the Humans were the Forerunners before 343 and Halo 4 came along. That's why the Covenant needed humans in order to activate the technology in Halo.
What made the musical synchonization with the Spires reveal at 27:00, is that it also ended 5 years of waiting and speculation as to just what was inside that planet in Halo 3s legendary ending. And I think it paid off well enough.
This was very entertaining and educational. Are you going to do a video on halo 5?
Watch the ending.
Thanks for giving Neil Davidge credit. I loved his musical contributions to the franchise.
So in terms of story, you liked the Cortana/Chief stuff but the Forerunner stuff was bad? Fair enough. I guess I didn't mind how the Forerunners were presented in H4 because I read the books and watched the terminals. I actually find a lot of their lore to be very interesting and the Didact is actually a pretty cool character despite him being underdeveloped in the game itself. However, I've always disliked the cutscene with the Librarian and I definitely agree that it is the low point of the story. It's a visually strange (why are we suddenly in this heavenly looking place?) and sloppy exposition-dump cutscene that will definitely lose people who don't care about the Forerunner story details.
I will say that I think you completely missed the point of the opening cutscene. It introduces one of Halo 4's most important themes, which IS explored throughout the story, and introduces Dr. Halsey so that the player knows why Chief and Cortana decide that Halsey is their best bet at saving Cortana. It also presents the notion of Spartans being children that were kidnapped at a young age, deprived of the most important years of their development as people, and trained to be killing "machines". This helps Master Chief's character arc make sense to casual fans that are not familiar with that backstory. I do agree that there are some problems with the visuals. It mainly comes down to how 343 handles the art direction of Halo in general but I feel like that is a separate issue.
Also, I don't really understand why you don't like the epilogue cutscenes in Reach and Halo 4 (which in Halo 4's case, dealt with the bigger picture of where the story was going as a whole: the "Reclamation" of the Forerunners' legacy by Humanity). But maybe I'm just biased because I thought the Didact's speech was awesome...
I agree with most of what you said about the multiplayer though, and it's by far my least favorite in the series.
I haven't read Greg Bear's series but I did enjoy what i saw in the terminals, and felt more invested in the Didact and Librarian in one Terminal than I did throughout Halo 4's duration. It's a shame that the games weren't able to capitalize off of them for all players.
As said in the video, I understand the opening's intention and what it presents is fascinating, but the execution was so visually confusing that the emotion is lost and I think if 343's option was either to leave it or cut it, the latter would've been better. Chief's awakening would've been able to set the tone without the player being confused by the previous scene.
As for the epilogue in both games, I don't enjoy them because adding a narration at the end of the story more often than not takes me out of the experience. This applies to any art-form. Didact's point of legacy and what belongs to Forerunners is something that could've been expressed in numerous ways throughout the game but because it didn't, they threw in the narration. In both cases it also robs the previous scene of a lasting impact. They end on such a devastating and personal note, only to have someone speak to great lengths about the big picture and how important it is moments later. SOMA's a game with an ending that has this same pattern but achieves it in a brilliant way without ever cutting to a narrator or using dry exposition. (TL;DR) It's a lazy trope I'm tired of.
Thanks for the comment!
I didn't mind the end-game narration in either game too much, but I will say this; At least in Reach it's a possibility that Halsey would say something like that once it's all over, Noble Team DID save her life and all.
But the one in Halo 4 confused the crap out of me because it came from a character I'd just "killed" five minutes ago. I had to find out way later that it's apparently his last words when being put on trial hundreds of years before the events of the game, which is a damn ridiculous choice TBH.
slvrcobra1337 I very much agree. I could see the strings in Reach's narration, but Halo 4's is even more shoehorned.
+Raycevick The Greg Bear books are really good and I'd recommend reading them if you're interested in the Forerunner lore. The last one in particular is one of the best Halo novels imo.
I honestly couldn't imagine Halo 4 not having that opening cutscene, and I don't agree that some of its issues are severe enough to warrant cutting it entirely. Not only is it important to the story, but it instantly drew me in with its dialogue, intriguing subject matter, production value, and music (Sacrifice is one of my favorite songs in Halo 4's OST). I understand where you're coming from, but for me personally it's a cutscene that I can watch over and over again and I'm glad that it exists in spite of some of its flaws.
As for the epilogue, I think part of it comes down to personal taste. The narration didn't take any of the impact away from the previous cutscene for me personally because it doesn't make what just happened any less significant or undo the events that transpired. I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't throw it into the "lazy trope" pile, or call it dry exposition. But that's just me. Though I think its worth pointing out that in the MCC (I assume that's where you played it right?), Halo 4 doesn't have end credits. Maybe the epilogue seemed more jarring because it begins playing IMMEDIATELY after the last cutscene instead of being a post-credits scene like it is in the standalone H4? Also, the epilogue doesn't exist just because the writers couldn't figure out a way to express its ideas over the course of the story. It wasn't necessary to go into great detail about what the Didact is talking about in that narration during the main story because those things have more to do with setting up the rest of the new trilogy and don't necessarily need to be fully explored right away in Halo 4. I'd argue that the immediate focus of H4 was Cortana's situation, as well as putting the MC in a position to grow as a character. The Forerunner legacy elements were secondary and because Halo 4 is the start of a new trilogy, I think it's fine that those elements were left open for the rest of the "reclaimer saga" and teased in the epilogue.
Thanks for making these videos and giving your thoughts. I really appreciate the different perspective and analysis on these games that I've loved for so many years.
slvrcobra1337 I see what your saying, and based on that I think the issue is mainly that the cutscene assumes you have the information and context behind the history of this dialogue when in reality, a lot of players actually don't becausr the game doesn't explain when this dialogue is taking place (though to be fair, I don't know why you would assume it was anything other than the past). I think this could have been possibly fixed by showing or mentioning this discussion at some point in the game or the terminals and leaving the end of it for the epilogue narration. The Didact's closing statements would have seemed less like they just came of nowhere for casual fans if they did something like this and it also might have alleviated some of the issue with the Didact's lack of character development and backstory in Halo 4.
Halo 4 was rough but I had a wonderful time with it.
Also the audio mixing was so much more visceral and punchy, a huge plus for me
Love this series
Halo 4 has the best stand alone story. To actually see the empty husk hero actually go through emotional torment and not succeed entirely in the end...
It's the same reason I personally like Mass Effect 3 the most in the trilogy because Shepard was an actual human being through out that game.
How did I just manage to watch the whole god damn video at once?
You enjoyed it.
I got the biggest chills when he plays the reqiuem track ... the visuals are so striking and the sound is so riveting that I can feel the mystery, wonder, and surprise of a discovered new race. Halo 4 was overlooked at times.
To be fair although H4 campaign was average at best and the multiplayer was crap on the competitive and balance side, I thought it was a great casual game. I've played halo since CE and can say that H4 is definitely the easiest to pick up casually. Many of my friends who have never played halo before (they play cod and games like fifa) definitely picked up H4 quicker and enjoyed it more than the older halo's, when we have LANs. I guess you the game was aimed at a newer more casual audience, while screwing over the old fans.
Halo 3 was easy to pick up to be honest. While I still consider it the best game of the series it wasn't that difficult. The flood were a complete joke other then the ranged forms. All weapons were viable in Halo 3. I haven't played Halo 4, have seen it. Kinda think that it looks pretty meh. It's not that expensive so I'll probably eventually pick it up.
Troy Fowler
Halo 4 is trash. Too easy to play.
I fully agree. Im a moderate player, somewhere inbetween social and competitive. Both spending hours on infection matches in Halo 5 continuously as well as rocking onyx rank in team arena.
And my god, for some reason, Halo 4 BTB is one of my favourite halo experiences I enjoy. I recognize the flaws, but the maps, looks, and gameplay is just so good for some reason on them
***** BTB was really the highlight of halo multiplayer. The game works so much better in the rather "Meh" vehicles in MP then in serious man-to-man battles. But thats' just my opinion.
Very...interesting...
So I came into this video to watch just a little bit before turning in for the night. Needless to say, I was shocked when the video ended. You did an absolute amazing job with this video!
I applaud your fairness in really diving into Halo 4 and looking at it objectively. I don't agree with all your criticisms, but I believe them all to be well informed and thought out on your part. For example, I know it's pointed at a lot as a terrible mission, but I LOVE the Mammoth tank mission. For me it's a high point in the whole franchise, not just Halo 4. I also had zero problem understanding and accepting the librarian's sudden entrance and plot device to help Chief. I could elaborate on WHY it doesn't bother me, but I don't think that's super important. Suffice it to say I felt any ambiguity and contrivance in her inclusion only added to the atmosphere of mystery the game was already establishing around the forerunners and I didn't personally need all the answers.
I'm glad that in the end you still saw the value in the game, and enjoy playing it. It's actually my favorite of the entire franchise, just barely beating out Halo:CE and Halo 2, which are tied for second, and I view it as a flawed masterpiece - I see it has some minor issues, the rule of three in level design, and slightly inferior AI being the most prevalent, but I feel none of them detract from the excitement, awe, emotion, and simple FUN I had with this game. Frankly, It blew me away.
Reclaimer is my favorite Halo mission, i always found it strange that people didn't like it.
I hate rewatching this series because of the title. Makes me feel older and older each revisit.
Emotions and emotional pacing haven’t been missing from the Bungie games, they were very present there. 4 just told a more personal story overall and went more in depth into the chief and Cortana. It is arguably overall the most character focused story (though definitely not the only one), but the Bungie games very much have emotions and emotional pacing and had character moments. 4 just does some things slightly different.
All the Bungie games have good finales, not just CE.
4’s finale isn’t the most emotional scene in the series as there are many, but it is one of them.
Reach’s final monologue by Cortana was good not bad.
Reach’s credit ranking system was good.
CE’s campaign was repetitive.
2’s Campaign was great and levels weren’t linear.
3 had great maps and equipment.
ODST has great storytelling.
Reach’s content made by Bungie was just as great as past games and had great quality.
Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and Firefight were all great and didn’t regress.
Odst would have had a terrible story if it wasn't presented in such a good way. Once you dig deep you would realize there wasn't much. But that game is still the best game Bungie ever made
Halo 4 was my first xbox 360 game and i loved it in the campaign, spartan ops, and multiplayer. In multiplayer i felt powerful and an important part of the team (which is rare to me). In spartan ops i played story missions alongside other people and showed off my armor. In the campaign i got introduced to how emotion should be portayed in a games story (keep in mind this was my first true campaign). It holds a special place in my heart and this video makes me want to go pick it up again. Thank you for the in depth video!
hurray halo 5 1 year later
This video is now older than halo 4 was when the video was made
Meta
Halo 4 was underrated
Watching this in 2023 and Halo 4 still looks so good. Amazing achievement for 2 generations ago
Still better than halo 5
Wedge Halo 4 was awful but you're right it was better than halo 5
Story wise, yes, multiplayer wise, hell no
Kevin Dyer you obviously aren't even good if you think halo 5's multiplayer is better than h4's
Wedge lol wat? Halo 4 had a huge hitbox, a lot larger bullet magnetism and not to mention the overall arcadey feel the gunplay had. Halo 5 was a lot more skillful and satisfying to play play. It went back to what made Halo, in my opinion, a great franchise: Balanced starts.
True... Halo 5 worst, Halo 4 second worst.
I have 2 things to say:
1) You should also analyze Halo Wars since it technically IS a Halo game
and
2) YEEAH, I finally got featured in a video (for a split second but still)!!!
I really liked Halo 4's multiplayer. I loved being able to use the jet pack. I had the most fun with this one and halo 2.
this channel is producing videos like they are top notch million plus channels. And i enjoy it greatly
You should do Bioshock 10 years later
I gotta thank you, raycevick, due to your reviews I'm a greater understanding and love for music, and I find myself listening to game ost's and film scores all the time, so thanks
They’re 10 times better than 99% of pop, rock and country!
It's sad that this game always gets shit on by the Halo community because I personally enjoyed this games multiplayer quite a bit but the campaign was pretty lack luster
These videos are so well edited, written, and overall produced tbh :D Please keep making them!
Halo 4... 4 years later... 4 years later
I don't even wanna look in the comments after the end, but I got to say your videos are really good and happy to look foward to more of your contant in the future.
Halo infinite 1 year later hype
probably the most balanced and reasonable summation of a game i've ever seen in my life. great video dude
The usage of the Halo 4 soundtrack is perfection!
Amazing, I just watched your previous 5 films a few weeks ago, these are some of the most well made videos on UA-cam! From the bottom of my heart as a die-hard Halo fan, thank you! Can't wait for your take on Halo 5.
I love the campaign of Halo 4 - yes even the mammoth section. From all the Halo games - this is actually the most consistantly great campaign that I go back to and enjoy playing - as even Halo CE's campaign only entertains me for the first half, as everything just turns to crap after the introduction of The Flood.
I love the promethians and think they are fun to fight. Your criticism on them seems to miss the fact that they are meant to work together instead as being examined in isolation. The robo-dogs attack you from all sides, while you need to keep an eye on the knights as they will fight you from a distance, when you try to shoot them their satelites will shield them catch your grenades and throw them back at you, lastly they'll even revive dead knights - making them even more of a priority. So while you try to dodge enemy fire, you need to focus on the satelites all while being progressively surrounded by the robo-dogs - which makes for a thrilling combat-loop. And the Covenant actually also mix well with the new enemies be it while they try to fight them off, or taking side with the Promethians later in the game.
So, yeah your greatest criticsm - with the combat not being fun is wrong in my opinion.
I really enjoyed Halo 4's Soundtrack...
WHAT ABOUT HALO WARS.....WHERES THAT VIDEO?!?!?!
Thomas VanHorn I think he's only focusing on the ones Bungie did, and only did 4 for the sake of comparing the two companies
In my opinion, the best track is 117. It may appear during the most frustrating level, but damn does it make you feel triumphant and invincible.
Good analysis and I respect your opinion. However I disagree on a lot of things you said and I'm shocked you treat this game better than reach, I think the enemies were boring and generic to fight, the story was too far removed from what made halo fun and the art design was too much like COD. I really don't like this game and I was expecting a roast haha but still fun video to watch you know! 😎👍🏻
"art design was too much like COD." okay what?
DarthVantos it sort of reflected a little bit of Black Ops 2 tbh, not graphics wise, but art and how bright the game was reminded me too much of CoD
Yeah... that confused me too. Halo 4 returns to neon colours and alien architecture where Halo 2, 3 and Reach progressively became more and more about humans, human planets and modern tech, bringing it right in line with the (very) general look of COD.
the art is nothing like cod, if I would compare it to anything, it would actually be Crysis, in fact the similarities to Crysis 3 is fucking uncanny, I remind everyone to play Crysis 3 and halo 4, it's weird, there's neon orange enemies that remind me of Promethean, etc.
But like CoD? the bright colours and deep colours return from original halo, Reach was more of the one going into CoD's design philosophy rather than 4.
I think Halo 4 needed more constructive criticism like this rather than the backlash of fanboys shouting that everything about it was bad, and that Halo was ruined forever. It provided nothing useful for 343 and only confused them, which in turn hurt Halo 5 so bad. Fans wanted the campaign to be epic just like bungie which caused 343 to do away with the great emotion that they did so well with Halo 4, which made the campaign a confusing mess. I honestly think if the fanbase was a lot more calm and collected with proper criticism, Halo 5's single player would have turned out a lot better.
I feel his vid on Halo 5 went into detail as to why it's such a mess.
"Who uses pulse grenades?"
'Slowly raises my hand'
Halo 4 being my first halo is to this day my favorite i love everything about this game.
@LSmoove 79 my personal favorite not everyone else's although It's tied with H2A. Now.