Forum:Halo 4 - Starchasers

Unless you've been hiding under the bottom of an extremely large boulder for the past couple of years, you know that Halo 4 is coming in hot and fast later this year, ETA: TBA. And so far, beyond a few stunning but vague concept art pieces, the only concrete facts we seem to know is that our beloved Master Chief is still aboard a damaged Forward Unto Dawn, drifting towards a strange mechanical portal, and that Cortana is undergoing some strangeness. I'm reminded of the release trailer for Halo 3 - the Master Chief emerging from the dusty savannah amid the ruins of New Mombasa's space elevator, looking out at a Covenant fleet above a Forerunner artefact that's activating. The untold possibilities were fascinating - how did the Chief get to Earth? How many ships made it past Earth's fleet? What is that thing that looks like the reactor complex from Aliens? And why, oh, why have the gauntlets been changed? I heard many rumours at the time - that the Forerunners were going to invade Earth, that the Chief and Arbiter were going to team up with the Flood, that the artefact was the Ark, etc. Likewise, I've been hearing whispered mutterings of "Sigma 7", Mendicant Bias hitching a lift in Cortana's basecode, the return of an ancient evil, and spirit guides locked into our genes.

This post is not about any of that. I'm not interested in what you think is going to happen. Right now, it's anyone's guess, as it rightly should be. What I want to know is far more interesting - what do you WANT to happen? What do you want to see in the first Halo game to feature everybody's favourite supersoldier? What style do you want it to take, what weapons would you like it to introduce or change, what enemies do you want to fight? And, above all else, what characters do you want to interact with? In Halo: Combat Evolved, we had the Chief, Captain Keyes and Cortana forming a nice triad. In Halo 2, we got Johnson and Miranda and introduced Hood, and for the Arbiter we got Rtas and the Prophets. Halo 3...well, uh, it gave us...um...okay, so we really got no new major characters. Another reason why the game frustrates me. But Halo 3: ODST gave us the brilliantly constructed Squad, and Halo: Reach gave us Noble team, the Sorvads, Halsey and Col. Holland. With a new trilogy, we're going to need new characters, if only to play as support to the Chief. Should they be major players, or take a back seat to the story of the Chief and Cortana? Admirals, Marines, politicians or spooks? Who do you want to see?

So, thoughts? --  Specops306   Autocrat     Qur'a 'Morhek   18:21, 4 March 2012 (EST)
 * For starters, I would like to see what the whole thing is really all about. I know Glasslands told us a little about, but I'd like to see this thing in Halo 4. Last, I'd like to see the Chief working with spooks to figure out what purpose this planet serves.--


 * He will be forced to face off against an equal foe, but then the two will have to team up and... alright, I'll be realistic.


 * Personally, I hope that the Chief doesn't get rescued too soon, or that he finds his own way back. There's a great deal more exploration that can be done with the world of the Forerunners, and having him leave that at the end of the game would rob us of all that potential.


 * Also, do not nerf the Forerunners. They should indeed feel like the most powerful civilization alive. Wouldn't that be something, a first level where you and your bullets are utterly helpless against your Tier One foes, but in later levels you join them and thus revel in their firerpower? Show how their society works as well, make this more than a shoot-em-up.


 * Also, I hope more is done with the Precursors than "they are evil, fight them all." The twist that the Precursors created the Flood in Primordium felt rather predictable to me, and I hope we'd get a deeper view into their culture and motives. Or, if they are indeed the villains, well then, the Flood can't be the only monstrosity they created, right?


 * Mendicant Bias spoke of helping the Chief in the Terminals as well. Was it by tampering with the Ark's portal so that John would be sent to this mysterious location? 343 Builty Spark once spoke of being asked a question by "John", who believed had originally fired the rings. Is John perhaps being sent back to the beginning of the war with the Flood, so he could end it prematurely?


 * Cortana is also going have a major role in this, so I hope overcoming rampancy is much more than just "calming down because I want to." After all, the whole problem is that she's formed too many relooping connections. Will she be healed by being upgraded, or even transferred to a body? Might she becomes an antagonist?


 * Lastly, if the Chief gets rescued, Arby should play a part. Science-fiction's 2nd greatest bromance must continue. Tuckerscreator (stalk )

Hmm...well I hope that the larger context that has been built over the last few years, especially that provided by Cryptum, Primordium, and Anniversary, meshes well with what will happen in Halo 4 onwards. While I am interested in any new genuine information on Halo 4, I am also very patient and will, as they say "go with the flow."

One thing that I have noticed about the "ancient evil", particularly in the sound effects and the brief visual that accompanies it, is that for all of its current mystery, there is nevertheless something very familiar about it. I don't mean anything in-universe, per-say, but rather its presentation, both visually and audibly. For starters, that loud, mechanical, blaring organ noise is the type that has been really frequent in the past several years, specifically in block-buster sci-fi movies involving malevolent aliens and especially their fearsome machines.

The first time I heard such a noise was the characteristic noise of the alien tripods in the 2007 adaptation of "War of Worlds" created by Steven Spieldberg. The next instances I can remember such sound effects are the 3 existing Transformer movies, or at least their theatrical trailers. Continuing that thought, similar sound effects can be seen with alien antagonists for the upcoming films "Avengers Assemble" and this summer's "Battleship." It would seem that ever since the Transformer films became so popular, there has been and industry-wide trend to show alien beings, especially the antagonistic ones, as being very mechanical in nature.

Even in video games, to some degree, there is an example of this; the exoskeleton-wearing Ceph of Crysis 2 not only employ similar sound effects, but they also have powerful machines and vehicles that make another, frequently-employed sound effect; mechanical or semi-mechanical entities roaring, snarling, or bellowing as if they were large animals of some kind. This has been employed with all of the examples I have mentioned, which in turn leads to yet another, frequently-used feature; these otherworldly, fearsome machines also have internal mechanisms that are similar to that of a living creature, if they aren't already living.

So in a nutshell, the theme of a formidable, alien entity with a harsh, mechanical structure and demeanor combined with eerily animalistic vocalizations, which in fact has a gooey, almost living interior, seems to be the entertainment industry's current standard for the alien antagonist.

As for how this relates to antagonists in the new trilogy, I would imagine that it could be something similar; monstrous, semi-mechanical, partially organic entities that are just as dangerous if not more so than the Flood. As for its nature and origins, I'd imagine that it could be yet another 'manifestation' of the Precursor's will, given that the Flood have been halted decisively by the Humans, who have in turn passed the 'test' that the Primordial spoke of. Perhaps they are new test, of sorts, to be employed against the Humans and the rest of universe, since it is clear that the Flood have failed.

Of course, I could be and probably am wrong, and the ancient threat could simply be a rampant AI controlling Forerunner machines contained in this artificial world, or something that I haven't guessed about. --Exalted Obliteration 01:01, 5 March 2012 (EST)


 * I've often wondered what the Monitors think of humanity being their creators' chosen inheritors - do they resent it? Do they think perhaps they could do better? Do they have goals of their own that humanity might conflict with? An independent faction of Sentinels working towards their own agenda sounds awesome, especially if they're new variants that we haven't seen in past games - it gives 343i a nice chance to expand on things. I could actually see a shape-shifting Sentinel with different modes - we see them flex their arms, which always reminded me of a transformer.


 * As for my own wants - let's start at the logical place, the beginning. Halo's tutorials have typically been...well, boring. ODST's was fantastic, and actually made the player interact with the environment to learn, whereas all the rest simply explained everything in one concentrated dose of "look up or down at the red lights." John is on a wrecked ship, with new armour, waking from a sleep that may have lasted years. I'd like to see him finding a way out in zero-gravity as the rear of the Dawn starts breaking up, burning, exploding - a really dynamic beginning to the game, to provide a dramatic punch. I would also like for the first few levels to be largely exploratory - try to recover vehicles and equipment that you can, secure the crash site of the Dawn as a base camp/armoury, and venture out into the environment to scout it out. My favourite level is Halo from CE - the sheer scale of things, the scattered enemies, the way you can decide how and when to engage them, I don't think it's been replicated successfully. Perhaps, after a while, you make tentative contact with UNSC or Elite forces who have also arrived. After that, I'm happy to sit back and see what 343i has to offer for the rest of the game.


 * In terms of new enemies, I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't want the Covenant to disappear entirely, and the Elites in Reach, and the events of Glasslands, that we'll see enemy and ally Elites in Halo 4. But, as set out above, I'd love to see an expanded Forerunner arsenal, including new mechanical guardians - I loved the Enforcer of Halo 2, and the Protectors of Halo Wars were a fantastic design. Even the tiny little Constructors have their potential. With 343i fleshing out the Forerunners history and culture, I'd like to see the same care applied to their antonymous guardians. And, of course, I'd like to shoot large explosive things at them. Perhaps they're antonymous defence systems that don't recognise you? Or perhaps a local monitor is actively trying to stop you achieving whatever purpose the artefact has? I don't know if fightable Forerunners are a good idea - we've had them built up for so long as a "good" faction, I doubt I could make the switch easily. At the same time, I also like the idea of an undebased ancestral form of Precursor making a comeback in a major way - a pre-Flood variety vying to reclaim their own lost empire, and willing to fight you for it. A power that created the Forerunners - now that would be formidable indeed. And, if the Covenant do get sidelines, it gives 343i a new enemy that can be fleshed out in any way they want - the Precursors were genetic manipulators, and it makes sense they would use old knowledge to create different forms for different purposes.--  Specops306   Autocrat     Qur'a 'Morhek   03:37, 5 March 2012 (EST)