Halo 2: An Evolution of Storytelling

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  • Опубліковано 21 лис 2024

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  • @calvinfishermedia
    @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +9

    Thanks for watching everyone!
    I apologize for the faded-out footage halfway through. My capture card decided to change settings midway through the game, which caused the washed-out look and made the footage a pain to edit by freezing and stuttering my editor. I'll get that resolved before my next video.
    Also, if you're wondering, I played the Anniversary version for Halo 2 instead of the classic because I think it captures the essence of the original and has great revamped cutscenes, which I think works better for the story focus of the video.

  • @ransombarnes5775
    @ransombarnes5775 Рік тому +10

    It's nice being taken back to see stories of these games that I only saw as shooting games as a kid.

  • @shreksnow1918
    @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +13

    I really wish that we got to fight humans during the Arbiter missions. Not only would it have broken up the repetitive nature of his levels, but it would also act as a great way to contrast him and Chief. You’d be able to see the war from both sides, and had Halo 2 not ended on a cliffhanger it would’ve made the ending where humans are confirmed to be the children of Forerunners feel like more of a gut punch since they player is actively involved. It would also make the human Elite alliance feel more like one of desperation because you would’ve been fighting against humans, but now they’re on your side. In terms of gameplay the marines/ODSTs would work best if they were like the FEAR soldiers where they’ll run in and out of cover, try to flank you, have some squad members aggressively charge you while others stay back, and have them use grenades to flush you out of cover (if they were allied with the Sentinels it would’ve further hinted at the human Forerunner connection). It’s such a shame we didn’t get that.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +5

      I feel the same way! Human enemies would have enhanced the gameplay difference between chief and the Arbiter. As it stands, they feel a bit too similar when playing. I wonder if there are any cool mods out there that add this…

    • @shreksnow1918
      @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +3

      Fortunately, various mods like Vanilla with Sprinkles, Ruby’s Rebalanced, Zoephie's Overhaul, and others add enemy marines. Some of them even add enemy Brutes (that would’ve been a great way to make the Brutes feel more like a proper Covenant member species and you’d be able to see how dangerous they can be before facing them in combat.
      More on the topic of missed opportunities where gameplay is concerned I’ll add that ODST should’ve been a tactical shooter with a fleshed out stealth system (the silenced weapons still alert enemies. There was also a leaning mechanic that was briefly prototyped for Halo 3 before Bungie scrapped it because they didn’t think it fit with the player being a super soldier. Too bad they didn’t carry that over to ODST where it would’ve helped convey to that player that ODSTs are normal humans fighting all these powerful aliens). Elites should’ve been the main officer type enemy with the Brutes appearing at night and in the last few flashbacks. They also missed the opportunity to make the lesser Covenant (Drones, Jackals, and Grunts) feel like you’re equals/close lessers by giving them new behaviors and abilities. ODST did a truly phenomenal job of making the player feel like a normal human with it’s presentation, but kind of falls flat with it’s gameplay since it was just diet Halo 3. You can still do most of the same things Chief did, just worse. The Brutes also inherited a lot of their problems from 3 where they were just bootleg Elites (say what you will about Infinite, but I think we can all agree that as far as gameplay in concerned it has hands down the BEST Brutes in the entire series with them being the perfect marriage of the 2 and 3 Brutes. Reach on the other hand has the absolute worst Brutes in the series with them having the worst aspects of 2 and 3’s Brutes). That would’ve been the perfect opportunity to fix these various issues and really change up the gameplay to convey the differences between Spartans and normal humans. Spin-offs are where the devs should be allowed to really experiment with the gameplay to give you a different experience. I know that was only really meant as a level pack early on, but they sold it for $60 back in the day so they don’t really have an excuse for not going crazy. I still love the game (in fact it’s one of my favorites because of its presentation), but it’s filled with missed opportunities.
      Good luck on your ODST video when you get around to it.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +1

      @@shreksnow1918 thanks!! I agree on ODST, I think my biggest issue is that you play as an odst yet the gameplay is so similar to 3

  • @rahulravishankar3152
    @rahulravishankar3152 9 місяців тому +4

    Fun fact: There's a reason the second Halo ring's structures are all overgrown and in ruins. 2401 Penitent Tangent, the monitor, was negligent in his duties for basically as long as the ring existed- it's also the reason there's a massive flood infestation on the ring- to the point of a Gravemind being allowed to form. The only reason it's not all over the ring is because the sentinels had to enact emergency containment protocols themselves (as Penitent Tangent wasn't doing anything about it) and construct a Quarantine Zone to contain the flood.

  • @TheZamaron
    @TheZamaron 10 місяців тому +3

    I love the scene where Arbiter encounters Tarterus to stop the activation of the Halo. He could have just gone in shooting, even Johnson, but Johnson follows Arbiter's lead, and Arbiter decides to try and talk to Tarterus, Tarterus doesn't believe him and so Arbiter asks Spark to explain things, here we brilliantly see Tarterus is loyal TO THE PROHPETS over their religion and reverence of the Forunners as he doesn't treat Spark very well, we see how lost Tarterus is that even after being told by the Arbiter, and 343 Guilty Spark a creation of his gods, basically an "oracle" of the gods they believe in is telling him the truth, and he STILL blindly ignores it, his faith is to the Prophets, not his gods. Thus Tarterus had his chance of redemption and threw it away as we see him raise up his hammer for battle, thus we begin the fight with Tarterus and kill him, he works so well with Arbiter and Truth representing 3 perspectives of the Covenant, the Elites represented by Arbiter were devoted and loyal till their demotion and later being killed by the Brutes, Tarterus shows how the Brutes are lower in rank then the Elites and clearly newer to the Covenant, but they back the Prophets and Truth specifically because they'll be elevated in status, and finally the Prophets through Truth, we see how they lie and manipulate the Covenant to Truth's own ends, how he casts aside the Elites for the more loyal Brutes and when his fellow Hierarchs die one by one he cares not for them, showing how he manipulates EVERYONE for his own ends. I like to think that the change in Truth to Halo 3 where he comes off more like a religious zealot is simply him maintaining what power he has left in the Brutes by acting like a religious man, and maybe even believes his own hype, thus why in his death he says "I am Truth, the voice of the Covenant." To him he IS the COvenant now.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  10 місяців тому

      This is a great breakdown of the scene! I definitely agree, I like how it shows what really motivates Tartarus: loyalty, not the truth.

    • @TheZamaron
      @TheZamaron 10 місяців тому

      @@calvinfishermedia Yah, it makes him a tragic character, I actually feel kind of bad killing him, but Ariter gave him a choice, Kieth David did such a good job in this scene, his normal tough voice is softer here, you really feel Arbiter's sadness in the line "Tarterus, the Prophets have betrayed us." I'm actually going to meet at the Kansas City Comic Con in March.

  • @Deadforge
    @Deadforge 10 місяців тому +1

    I absolutely loved this and literally just finished this game for the first time in nearly 20 years this morning. This is the game that git me into Halo amd changed FPS games and games in general for me.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  10 місяців тому +1

      Halo 2 is revolutionary for sure! I hope your latest playthrough was just as awe-inspiring as the first!

  • @forrest99.
    @forrest99. Рік тому +4

    Keep this going, very excited to watch this vid!

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +3

      Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy!!

    • @forrest99.
      @forrest99. Рік тому +3

      I did very much enjoy it! Great work! You capture details about the halo games I think a lot of people miss but are what make it so great!

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +1

      @@forrest99. awesome!! Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for watching, I appreciate it

  • @Adamcint
    @Adamcint Рік тому +3

    Glad you did the sequel! Great job

  • @vaniellys
    @vaniellys Рік тому +1

    Halo 2 was my introduction to the series, and its first cutscene did an amazing job at introducing the universe, story and characters.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +1

      Glad the intro worked well for you! I think it does a fantastic job of making you interested in the world of halo. Thanks for watching

  • @Mikeamoo
    @Mikeamoo Рік тому +2

    love the video man, keep it up!

  • @shreksnow1918
    @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +3

    Unfortunately Bungie didn’t get to truly complete Halo 2. Halo 3 was really fun, but they over corrected various issues (like turning the Brutes into bootleg Elites, and making dual wielding useless) and the story was a dramatic step down. Truth went from this brilliant manipulator to a raving madman. The Arbiter was turned into a side character who didn’t do much. Miranda died because she was smoothbrained and thought it was a good idea to crash her pelican alone without the help of any marines or ODSTs to back her up. Not much of substance happened aside from some cool moments. Don’t get me wrong, I still love 3, it just falls flat as far as the story is concerned. We also missed out on the AMAZING reveal where we’d learn that the Ark (later changed to the portal to the Ark in 3) was located in East Africa where modern humans first appeared 100,000 years ago, and that just so happens to be when Forerunners disappeared from the galactic scene. Inside the Ark the Arbiter would find a sarcophagus that housed a Forerunner skeleton who acted as a holotype the Ark used as a reference to guide indigenous life to a desired result. Truth knew all along what the Rings would do and his plan was to wipe the slate clean to he could start over with him as the template for the new species becoming God that way. His plan actually made sense and the reason for the Great Schism was so the Covenant would’ve been far too distracted with killing each other to notice what he was doing, and he started the Human Covenant War as a way to erase evidence that the Covenant was a farce. It’s nothing short of a tragedy that we didn’t get that ending instead.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +1

      Thanks for sharing! That ending sounds so crazy, it would have been awesome to see. I haven’t played Halo 3 in a while, so I hope to jump back in soon to see how the ending to the trilogy holds upb

    • @shreksnow1918
      @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +3

      There’s this guy who animated the Halo 2 storyboards and it’s definitely interesting. A lot of the things were really cool, but some of them were kind of weird and dumb (instead of Mercy having the Infection Form jump him he’d instead be locked out of the Forerunner ship when the player shows up and you’d have a boss fight with him. He had a wizard staff, which was weird. I’m glad that didn’t happen). Some of the plot holes in the retail game weren’t present in the storyboards. When the Arbiter fights the Heretic leader you’d first have the boss fight and after that you’d have him laying on the ground with the same converses retail, but then Tartarus and his Brutes would show up finishing him off and collect Guilty Spark before either can tell Arbiter what the Rings actually do (I like that a lot more than what we got in retail where the Heretic leader opens fire on the Arbiter when he easily could’ve gained an ally). There was also a part where when you get to the second Ring a few Covenant ships are already there explaining how they were able to set up the fortifications you see when you arrive (in the developer commentary for that cutscene they said the original plan was for the cutscene to be in first person and you’d see everything happening from inside the drop pod as you’re falling. Since you’re observant I’m assuming you noticed this sounds a lot like something we’d get in another Halo). When you confront Truth and it’s revealed that he knew all along what the Rings would do the Arbiter removes his helmet and throws it to the ground rejecting the mantle that Truth gave him and snaps his neck instead of stabbing him. The reason Trith had the other two prophets killed off was to eliminate competition so he’d be able to get inside the sarcophagus and have the Ark’s machinery make a new species based on him.
      There was also some religious symbolism with the Forerunner who fired the Rings and became the template of humanity is implied to be the Abrahamic god and the more mythical Bible stories like Noah building an Ark to save the world from a flood and God creating man in his image are retellings of Forerunner history. This being was guiding humanity and when Halo 2 takes place human architecture looks suspiciously like something the Forerunners would’ve built. The guy who animated the Halo 2 storyboards also has this great video called We Were Forerunner where he talked about a lot of this stuff. There were other things that HEAVILY implied if not outright stated that humans are Forerunners like the Sentinels in Ghosts of Onyx speaking Latin, in CE Guilty Spark mistakes Chief for someone else implying that an armored human is indistinguishable from a Forerunner. In 3 when you interface with the Ark’s terminals a reversed voice will occasionally say “lineage confirmed”. In 3 Truth is under the impression that humans already know about their Forerunner ancestry and taunts Johnson about why they were left behind. The Gravemind also calls Chief “child of my enemy”. Humans can interact with Forerunner technology with ease, while the Covenant really have to tinker with it to get a response. There’s other things I can’t remember off the top of my head. It was really interesting and eye opening.
      As a game Halo 3 holds up really well since it fixes various issues that 2 had and wraps up the story. The campaign was a lot of fun with the Scarab fights being the highlight of the game. The level Cortana is the worst part since the Flood are repetitive to fight (I also don’t like how it doesn’t look like High Charity since they reused a lot of the assets from Floodgate to make a new level. I know a lot of people weren’t really fans of the fact that CE reused some levels, but I think if we had gotten a remixed version of Halo 2’s High Charity levels that became overrun with Flood biomass it would’ve been fine. There was also supposed to be a fight between you and the Gravemind where Cortana takes over a damaged Scarab to fight the Gravemind while you’ll fight off the Combat and Pure Forms). Part of the reason the story is lackluster is because Halo 3 is quite literally the extended third act of 2. They implemented a lot of the gameplay and story ideas they had for 2. The two most brilliant story people weren’t present since Jason Jones went on a long vacation and Joseph Staten was writing Contact Harvest because both were burnt out from Halo 2’s development. I had a lot of fun with the game. I just wish there was more substance to it.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому

      @@shreksnow1918 that makes a ton of sense! Yeah, that is what I remember about 3, with it playing better than 2, but the story feeling like it took less risks and had less impact as a result

  • @Yuukat25
    @Yuukat25 Рік тому +3

    Another great video! Loved it man!!

  • @maruu777
    @maruu777 Рік тому +2

    been waiting for this vid lets gooo

  • @williambreeze2659
    @williambreeze2659 8 місяців тому +1

    One hell of a video!

  • @MarcoTulio-mi1ov
    @MarcoTulio-mi1ov Рік тому +1

    halo 1 ao reach são perfeitos!! otimo video mais uma vez!!!! halo 2 foi uma continuação digna e que aumentou a extensão da historia

  • @shreksnow1918
    @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +2

    Do you think you’d ever do a video talking about the narrative in the Half-Life games? It would be interesting to see you’re analysis of it.

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому +1

      Yes! Half Life is on my radar. I think it would be a great fit for the channel. I have a handful of other games I plan on covering first, but I plan on getting to them eventually

    • @shreksnow1918
      @shreksnow1918 Рік тому +2

      That’s great news. Good luck on that. I really liked how Half-Life was able to convey its story entirely in first person. Valve did a really good job of that.
      I’m one of those weirdos who’s in the camp that Half-Life 2 is a really good game that was super innovative for the time, but it’s a bad sequel and that the Beta would’ve done a better job of carrying over the same dark atmosphere and tone of the original. It also had more enemy variety carrying over various Xen creatures and had a bunch of Combine Synths that would’ve made the combat feel less repetitive. There were also more weapons, but a lot of them were repetitive filling a lot of the same roles (you were supposed to lose your weapons a few times so I guess that’s fine). In the Beta you can feel the oppressive nature of the Combine with them being far more totalitarian, the earth was far more damaged by them and even if you win there is no recovery since the oceans have been drained and most of the plants and animals were replaced with the Xen infestation and/or were killed off by the Air Exchange (the Combine were replacing the atmosphere as a way to terraform it for full colonization and harvesting the human population). There’s a few drawbacks like the story not flowing very well with the chapters being disjointed. There’s also other problems like certain vehicles not really working and some of the enemies would need to be HEAVILY reworked to not be terrible. Some of the Beta mods carry over the Beta’s problems because they’ll try to faithfully recreate everything including things that don’t work, or the modders added their own problems. A lot of the things didn’t really work, but Valve cut back too much making the retail game feel lackluster in comparison to it and the original/expansions. It would also be much more replayable with more enemy variety. I still love the retail game even though I’d rather get the Beta with various refinements/improvements.
      I’m also not a big fan of Portal and Half-Life being in the same universe because it comes with all kinds of issues. Stuff like Aperture Science having this MASSIVE facility with all kinds of weird energy readings that somehow managed to evade the Combine. In the first Portal when you get too the surface it looks perfectly fine despite Alyx having a glide with a big X over North America since it’s been COMPLETELY overrun with the Xen infestation. In Portal 2 the earth looks perfectly fine despite the Combine draining the oceans (just not nearly as much as in the Beta), there’s plenty of green despite the Xen infestation and Combine occupation turning large areas into a wasteland akin to what you’d see in Fallout. I also don’t like how Half-Life has a more serious tone, while Portal is more wacky. In the eroded portions of Aperture you also see no signs of the Xen infestation. The two simply do not fit together and would be much better off as their own things. It would be like cramming TF2 and Left 4 Dead into the same world.
      There’s this bizarre old shooter called Vivisector Beast Within that you could cover. It’s the textbook definition of Slavjank and it looks AMAZING. It’s a VERY loose adaptation of The Isle of Dr Moreau with all these weird mutated/genetically engineered animals. You can tell it’s trying to be intellectual, but the scuffed translation and B movie wacky story make that fall flat. It looks like so much fun. That game deserves the Nightdive Studios remastered treatment. Same goes for other games like Command and Conquer Renegade (this weird C&C fps game I haven’t played).

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  Рік тому

      @@shreksnow1918 thanks for sharing your perspective on HL2! Those are some interesting points I haven’t heard before, so I appreciate your insight

  • @SilverViper1000
    @SilverViper1000 Місяць тому +1

    Algorithm lately send me a lot of really good halo videos into my feed. And to my surprise... From really small creators compared to the quality delivered.

  • @austinwiseman3186
    @austinwiseman3186 6 місяців тому +1

    Halo 2 and COD 4-7 are the best fps games in history

    • @calvinfishermedia
      @calvinfishermedia  6 місяців тому

      It was a golden era for shooters for sure! So many great games in such a short period. Thanks for checking out the video!

  • @grantapplegate7442
    @grantapplegate7442 11 місяців тому +1

    117th like 😎