Halo 3 worked as the perfect ending to the game trilogy. the covenant storyline was done, the flood eliminated once again and chief left in a perfect position to be discovered and gracefully brought into any storyline you want. it is a model of how to properly end a trilogy and leave it open ended ready for the next story.
I've been begging for a sangheili based Souls game set during ancient times ala The Duel. Different types of weapons and fighting styles with other sangheili, assassin's, beasts, etc.
Though now that I think about I'd I'd also fuck with a vehicle combat game. Like choosing between mongoose, warthog, tanks, ghosts, banshees, etc in a more causal party game where you just murder each other. Like Twisted Metal but Halo.
Nah that's just facts. I didn't like Halo 4 because it mauled the core gameplay loop; not because it had a bad story. Halo 5, even after reading ALL the books, was just shit.
Before Halo 5, I read everything there was to know about halo. I listened to the HTT podcast. I was pretty confident in some deep lore knowledge. Then they lost me. I still dunno wtf Infinite is about (I've played the MP a bunch, but not certain about any story).
Very sad what they did to my boy.
I played 4, and while I can understand why it's not beloved, I didn't hate it or anything. It was fun, and I liked the separation of Sprint from Armor Abilities, that was a good choice.
5, despite finally giving us the ability to aim down sights, is the game that killed the series for me. I was on painkillers while playing (dental surgery) and I still feel disappointed by it. The story is all over the place, it basically undoes everything interesting 4 did, and doesn't introduce anything new. (The team of Spartans that hunt down rogue Spartans could be interesting, if they weren't after Chief, who was always gonna win that fight.)
4 has its issues, but I could forgive them. 5 is garbage
Rampancy was a big talking points in the books -- it's mentioned in Fall of Reach, which came out before the original Halo game. It was the perfect thing to follow up on for Halo 4 imo, though I didn't really care for anything else they did in the game. Never actually played Halo 5 or beyond.
“Oh you thought that’s bad?! I’m just the tutorial level! That’s the next level right over there!
*points menacingly to 1000 more [promethean knights]
-whatssupppp”
It'd also be nice for John to just hit the ground running like he did in 4 but with a new threat.
No time to explain. He rushes in to save UNSC personnel because that's his job. Someone else will fill him in once everyone is safe.
The flood wasn’t eliminated just halted, "Resignation is my virtue; like water I ebb, and flow. Defeat is simply the addition of time... to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed."
My only major complaint was mostly with how... hasty and "no time to explain" h3's story ended up being.
The ship being cut in half precisely because of the exact timing of the portal shutting down feels arbitrarily contrived.
The Arbiter getting back to Earth and leaving MC behind could have been accomplished in a number of other ways more satisfying than "pure coincidence".
I get that MC is lucky and survived all sorts of things, but leaving MC on half of a ship floating adrift that also has absolutely no problems powering itself for 4 years was not what I would consider "good writing".
as much as i hate to say it, chief should have died, it would have made all subsequent halo games better as they wouldn't be carried by "chief hype" and we'd have a new main character. one of the reasons reach was so great is because MC wasn't the main character.
also "chief died to save arby" would have been so much better as an ending to the trilogy, making it clear that he wasn't just saving humanity, he was saving everyone, including former enemies turned friends, and given arby a powerful message to drive reconcilliation between humans and sangheili, I.E. "the demon died to save my life, all of our lives, there will be no more talk of fighting the humans"
arby being the main character for the sequels would have also been great, instead of MC "oh boy, here i go killin again", it'd be arby hunting down the "covies who wanna keep killing humans" in memory of the master chief, carrying on his legacy.
I think it would have worked well if chief was woken up far into the future for a new threat.
- game start with chief waking up in a science facility.
- there is a scientist in a rush saying “I’m sorry for waking you but we need you and time is short. Take this device, make it to the surface, and use a jet to go to these coordinates
- you work your way up to the top and find out you are on a planet where the races of the covenant and humans live in peace.
- you see all of them running for their lives while a new threat of species is attacking the planet.
Then we can add in some cool extras.
- chief goes on a side mission to reactivate his Cortana.
- we find out it’s been 200-1000 years in the future
- the new enemy is from the androma galaxy and is superior in technology and is creating warp gates to start invading the Milky Way galaxy which is heavily populated now by the covenant and human races.
- the invaders are actually planning on activating the halos to kill all in the Milky Way to inhabit it. This fits into the halo theme too as we need to go back.
- we find out halos are actually shrines now that people live on.
- the invaders we need a reason too why they left their galaxy. Maybe they destroyed it trying to do an experiment.
- also we can have wild super advanced weapons due to the gap in the future.
This is the halo game I would love to play.
Instead we got junk.
it'd be cool, but would also take vision, and no game studio would take such a gamble when they can "bring back chief" for some stupid bullshit poorly-written adventure and profit off the "OMG ITS THE CHIEF" factor.
Ngl dawg that's a pretty decent idea; you're writing as though you're just now thinking of it, very casual-like. But I genuinely don't hate it lol, and there's some dumbass takes out there, sometimes. That would've been a much cooler idea than what we got
Honestly gives me half-life vibes, like the whole 'introduction to a world in peril' type. Respect 🤎
It’s nothing amazing and I’m sure with competent writers it would be great. Just a quick idea I had.
Really they just needed a good idea for why master chief is back and make it so the world has changed enough so we can get new weapons and enemies.
The problem with halo after 3 is the enemy was right away, not interesting, and Cortana needed to stay as a grounded sidekick.
Yes. It was made with that in mind. When I played it back in 2007 I thought it would be the final game in the series and I was more than fine with how it wrapped up.
Ngl every 343’s “trilogy” (lol) should’ve been standalone games. They make way more sense as a “here’s where Chief is during _____” and not as a trilogy. Time skips, lore dumps in supporting media, all of it supports that it should’ve been Halo: Reclamation, Halo: Guardians, and Halo: Infinite. They make way more sense if you think of them that way retroactively.
Bungie’s Halo worked as a trilogy because they told a single, mostly cohesive storyline from 1 through 3, with a side story of the “origin” of Halo, and a side story of non-Spartans during that origin.
Indeed, the 343 trilogy all feel like three distinct games with only a loose connection between them. While the books fill in the gaps in the story, it ideally shouldn't have been that way. The Bungie trilogy also had books released between the games, but it was possible to understand just about the whole main picture from the games without needing the books.
Give an actual satisfying Didact fight and I could've accepted 4 ending the story as an epilogue. Chief and Lasky's exchange would've been a very powerful final moment.
Same. Cortana's breakdown and Chief's increased amount of lines and emotional portrayal worked really well to me as an epilogue. We get a interesting glimpse of the man under the helmet outside of the books and I would have been happy.
I will always stand by explaining the mystery ruins the entire thing, I remember people pissed with startgate because it's never going to be satisfying
And with these people if 343 kept the humans are forerunners bit and it came out some people at bungie wanted it the other way you know damn well they would complain about how THAT was a better idea
I always chose to interpret that not in the literal sense that Forerunners were just ancient humans, but rather, as the inheritors of all they left behind, as the reclaimers, that humanity was, for all intents and purposes, now Forerunner. But he prioritized his Installation, his protocol, above even the will of the Forerunners. It was said to give weight to the fact that the installation was literally everything to him, and nothing would change his stance on the matter.
Yeah that's how you have to interpret it now with 343s new lore. But before halo 4 dropped, everyone I knew took it literally and no one complained. There were plenty of Easter eggs in the past games that fit nicely with humans=forerunner and they were gems to realize on replays.
That's fair, it's not a theory that I had ever subscribed to or heard from my own social circle though (tbf most of my friends that were into halo were not so into it for the lore that they were looking for clues or explanations)
There's also the Gravemind quote: "Defeat is simply the addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed." which obviously refers to humans = Forerunners activating the Halo array originally.
That’s exactly how it was intended to be. Bungie initially intended humans to be forerunners but changed their minds. When Guilty Spark refers to the Chief as Forerunner, he is referring to him as the inheritor of the Forerunner’s Mantle.
> I will always stand by explaining the mystery ruins the entire thing
I think if you let people sit on a mystery for a long time with no foreshadowing about what the real answer is, then it ruins the entire thing.
However if you just keep the story going quickly, then people accept an answer to the mystery.
It depends on how you use the mystery. In the original trilogy the Forerunners were more of a plot device than anything else. Who they were was mostly irrelevant, the only thing that was important was the artifacts left behind. Which makes it perfect to keep them a mystery.
>think if you let people sit on a mystery for a long time with no foreshadowing about what the real answer is, then it ruins the entire thing.
Ironically enough this is then what Bungie did with every plot element in _Destiny_ 😂😂
I am with you.
Forerunners were the ancient, disappeared, misterious society bested by the flood and using a desperate attempt to stop it. Their rings, their style, their creations were clean, old, dusty, silent. Misterious. They spoke of time, and rock, and almost forgotten memories.
Then comes 4, and 5 and Infinite and all is sparkling, too new, doesn't sing ancient memories, doesn't talk about people long buried. It like a commercial center, were neon lights and blinding floating dogs and nevrotic soldiers try to take you down using teleportation and strange weapons of light.
I'm liking the idea of the didact being an ancient human that looks at current humanity and just deems them as another failed forerunner project to be cleaned up
I kind of like it, but I also find the idea that an original forerunner surviving the rings mass extinction as a huge cop out. Now, maybe an AI version of an ancient forerunner human like how Cortana is to Halsey, but hates modern humanity and ancient forerunners would've been some badass lore. Basically the evil Cortana story, but not with Cortana and better cause it doesn't ruin actual Cortana.
Hell, would even work with that whole Domain garbage we got in 5.
Totally, honestly, I kind of thought that was what the didact was originally going to be when we saw him in his armour till they revealed he was flesh under it.
the whole idea of non-human forerunners really shits on the end of Halo 3, with 343 saying the line "You ARE forerunners"
they still gave us an ancient, powerful humanity too, but after acknowledging they existed, refused to actually do anything with the new plot point.
the new games have had decent gameplay, but the story has gone off the rails, and they never close off any plot line in a remotely satisfying way.
Halo, without the religious allegory of the Covenant as a primary factor, has very little unique identity. How do the previous games allegories work when the “gods” the Covenant were claiming to speak for were apparently still alive and actually also evil enemies of humanity? (assuming you don’t read the ridiculous new books to learn all the actual reasons they justify it, which hardly anyone did). So the covenant was apparently right that the Gods wanted to destroy humanity, even though part of the reason the elites rebelled was them lying about that! To this day I don’t know why 343 fumbled cool ideas like Medicent Bias and the Guardians (as they were conceived by Bungie), I’ll never understand. Halo got caught up trying to be impressive and dramatic with the didact but he felt more like a bad marvel villain than a real character. It was sort of interesting to play with the didact leading them, but honestly it was more interesting when the covenant captured 343 in Halo 2 to shut him up, because the whole point was that the prophets (ironically, the prophet of Truth) were purposely ignoring the truth to hold onto power, not blindly following their religion. Whoever wrote Halo 4 just did not understand the critique of religious hierarchy at the core of Halo, and just went straight to generic scifi tropes and rampancy, its sad.
I miss halo so much man 🥲🥲it’s was so easy to hop in make friends no sweat no cheaters hop on make friends play forge play awesome matches play great online games against ur friends go to friends house and play split screen, I’ve always replayed the campaigns especially in halo 3 and reach trying to collect the skulls for the recon armor man … we had it good boys we really did. Back then games were so good
You know you can still play the games you once enjoyed, right? MCC still has very active Reach, 3, and CE player bases in the customs browser regularly.
(Also, apologies if I came off as unnecessarily hostile. Discussions like these annoy me, and I'm not good with social interactions at the best of times)
*ODST* could have had some great sequels if *New Blood* and *Bad Blood* were made into games, as Edward Buck's story is incredible in its own right as well. As just one example, the latter book features a section on the Grunt homeworld of Balaho, and I think THAT would have potentially been awesome to experience in a game.
Odst yes but reach is definitely mainline because it takes place in a actual point in the timeline leading up to everything the fall of reach was the most definitive point In the human covenant war thats what started chief's mission without it chief would never have found halo alpha , reach is almost like a prequel and I think Halsey's son is a spartan in noble team I may be wrong correct me if I am about that though but im pretty sure noble 5 is her son
Except legendary ending of Halo 3 isn't an open ending. It directly tells you that there is something new on the horizon. An open ending would be the standard ending of H3, where we only see Chief getting into cryosleep and Cortana sending a beacon, so we can only guess what happened after that.
It wrapped up the story line they started with CE but very clearly left the door open for Master Chief's role to continue. "Wake me when you need me" was included for a reason, not to mention showing them drifting towards a Forerunner shield world.
Same. It was a fitting end for the hardest of them all. Made you feel like you finished the fight, the new games are now trying to kill him off or make him an enemy of the state for some reason.
This is not true. In fact, in Halo: Reach's development, Bungie had considered doing Halo 4 with Master Chief as the lead before deciding on the prequel setting.
So you know I'm not pulling that out my ass like you did: https://www.mtv.com/news/n551qh/bungie-considered-halo-4-starring-master-chief-instead-of-reach-prequel
Came here to say this. I remember finishing this game and just being at ease with how it ended. Now the way halo 4 came back was pretty epic in my opinion.
The top comment on this post put it perfectly. They ended the trilogy, closed off all the major story threads, but also put Chief and Cortana in a position to be called back into action should another trilogy ever open up.
Yea medicant bias guides the dawn there
You get a glimps of it from reversing the one track in the last mission
Medicant says he guided the chief and is on the track to redeem himself
Halo 4 prob wouldve been chief being on a shield planet(shield planet were meant to be actual planets that were shielded from halo) and maybe see the history of humans and reclaim what humans/forerunners have lost
It was incredible to realize that the collapsing tiles in the Warthog run were not just "random", but Mendicant helping Chief have a safe path back to the *Dawn*.
Jup i wish we'd get a interview with joe staten where he explains the whole halo story how he intendes it to be and his future plans
It would make me so happy
I actually had just beat H3 (MCC) on legendary for the first time and was curious, was that cutscene already in the base game or was it added after Halo 4 was released? It was my first time seeing it, so I was a little confused.
No ODST and reach where made with Destiny in mind and only made by Bungie because of a 5 halo games contract
ODST has the whole hub you even have a destiny ad
Reach has armor abilities and the jet back that destiny has recharging abilities and a glide. Also I believe dog fights in space were cut from destiny another thing from reach, multiplayer character armor in single player like guardians will have different armor not just one set like chief.
You just needed to add another caveat in there.
They're arguably arguably spin-offs.
Until someone comes in and says it's inarguable that they are arguably spin-offs.
Absolutely. There's a reason the subsequent games Bungie made were spinoffs set during earlier events.
Looking at how 343 has handled their storylines since getting the IP, I think they probably should have stuck to spinoffs for a while too and let Chief nap in space until they knew wtf they were doing... he'd still be there now, but the franchise would probably be in a better state.
I think it could’ve been. But the cliffhanger of him drifting in space would’ve driven all of us crazy.
I think 343 shouldn’t have picked up with Master Chief so soon. They could’ve made a few standalone games or a spinoff series following other Spartans. Or noncanon games like the mega blocks one. And then bringing back the Chief during infinite or something YEARS later would’ve been incredible. Kinda like how it’s gonna feel when (hopefully) they unite the spirit of fire with the unsc infinity.
I’m a Halo 4 stan but, I feel the obvious route based on your suggestion, would be to make a continuation of Halo following new characters and a new story and that trilogy ends with…”What is that? Forward Unto…” “*This is Sierra 117 requesting immediate assistance*”
[Cue](https://youtu.be/D3lKIgXyZy0?feature=shareds=78s)
I did but I didn’t want a continuation of the Chief. I would have been completely happy with some more stand alone games, prequels, or post halo 3 following a new character.
Same. Even though I didn't like Halo 5's story, I was hopeful that we were moving to a new main character or at least taking the focus off of Chief.
Every time a 343 Halo game comes out, it seems like they learn the wrong lesson and then double down in the wrong direction in the next game. Now we have Infinite which is another start to a new story with Chief and the Weapon, kind of resetting everything. I truly just want to move on from Chief.
Let me play as my Spartan character like Reach, create a new protagonist and have Chief be a support character, etc.
The reason I didn’t want them to use Chief was because they wouldn’t be able to do him justice. And I was unfortunately right. I’d be much happier if they made Jerome or Locke the protagonist for a few games and we hear about Chief on the periphery. That way they can have more creative freedom and I don’t have to worry about them doing something dumb with Chief. It’s a win win.
At the time I didn't think Microsoft was done making Halo games, and I really thought after Reach we would continue to have a customizable protagonist, and that the next game would end with our character discovering the Forward Unto Dawn floating in space.
Also the new Gears games do a great job having Marcus be a supporting character, I think that's the way they should have treated Chief as well.
And Bungie gave you 2 more games without even needing to touch the main story again. It was the perfect way to add to the series without feeling gratuitous.
I think so, but reach was also amazing. Anything after Bungie left just wasn't worth it imo, should have just let it ride into the sunset but it's really all ms had to offer for people to buy their consoles
Yes, and it still does.
I'm not really a 343 hater; I fucking hate Halo 5 intensely and I'm not a huge fan of how they and Microsoft have handled the franchise at large, but I must admit that I quite like 4 and Infinite's campaigns. The gameplay of Infinite in particular is so much fun.
However, you can still handily finish with 3's story and walk away satisfied by the whole experience. I have a lot of PC-only friends who did exactly that when the MCC came to Steam.
Absolutely. And ever since Chief has acted as a crutch to hold this series up because the creators are too scared of forming their own new story with new characters instead.
Kinda? I just felt like the plot was really rushed the last three missions. Some of the character deaths felt like they happened to brush them under the rug. It really gives the sense that bungie wanted to be done despite making two more games after. I really do like halo 3, and it has a fine ending but I don't its perfect per say.
While I do enjoy the Halo 4s campaign quite a bit, the game itself doesn't live up to most fans expectations. I think Halo 3 could have worked as an ending, but the universe definitely had potential for post human covenant war games.
In terms of the story it is?
Reach and ODST are prequel type stuff, non mainline.
4-5-and infinite just kinda have nonsense story to justify big set piece fights.
what do you mean \*could\*? It is.
Reach CE 2 odst 3. Thats it. everything after that is just pointless. 343 should have just let chief be frozen. Theres so much other room for better/different stories bringing him back has only hamstrung the plot so hard.
What do you mean? It did work. It was the final mainline game in the series. If Halo 4 + was planned at that point, there's no way it was planned by Bungie.
I think it would be even more legendary. John would be floating towards a planet and we would never know what would’ve happened. The game was perfect in itself. Would’ve been even more so if it was.
I’ve been saying that since Reach was announced
Halo 3 was perfection in so many ways. The story was a masterpiece, the multiplayer was highly competitive and addictive, something about doing forge “merging” the hard way made forged maps feel very special.
In my mind. It 'IS' the final mainline game.
Reach is a great prequel, and also tremendously fun.
Frankly, every halo game 343 has made has been subpar at BEST. Even the MCC which was just a compilation of the older games was a steaming mess FOR YEARS, its only now 'playable', but still missing features... Remember when the ghost was about to explode and it started vibrating then flying all over the place going apeshit before it blew up? that is NOWHERE to be found in MCC, even though the sound is still there. they just sit still, then pop. This is just one of the things that still isnt in the game.
Ill be totally honest, if they wanted to retcon EVERYTHING post halo 3, meaning halo 4 onwards and just 'redo' everything in a different direction, i wouldnt just NOT CARE, id actually be HAPPIER if they did this rather than try to fix the mess of a story that is the prometheans.
I was content with the ending. It served perfectly as a vehicle for Chief to be involved in future entries one day, but it also worked just fine as the book-end to an incredible trilogy. In some ways, I wish 343 had introduced another character to helm their games. I didn't hate Halo 4 as much as others, but the story served no purpose in the grand scheme of things. Imagine what an incredible moment it could've been to meet Chief again as a different character - breaking him out because the galaxy needed the help only he could provide. To me, Halo 3 is a perfect way to end a franchise.
I always held a head canon where Halo ended at 3 - However all the games afterwards were dreams of the Chief while still on the Dawn. It would explain all the dramatic changes
I mean, yeah. It wrapped up every plot thread and character's story arc. Chief & Cortana were left open-ended but not in a way that "needed" a return. Cortana's rampancy is the *only* thing in 343's games that wasn't their own invention.
It not only could have — it does — and I personally consider it the end.
I actually just decided 48 hours ago to give Halo 4 a try and it left me sad and empty. RIP Bungie ❤️.
It’s what those foolish enough to believe good IP have endings thought would be the end.
Then they made prequels, and I did not speak out, for prequels aren’t sequels. Then they made halo 4.
To me, that was the final game. Reach felt like the beginning of something really new, and cool. I would have liked to see other stories that took place outside of Chief and Cortana. Everything since then is what it is and I am really happy for anyone it resonates with, but it just hasn’t gotten me in the same way.
Halo 3 was the ultimate conclusion for Master Chief’s story, The Arbiter, Cortana and so many other characters. The knot was tied for all the plot threads. Post Halo 4 it just seems like they’re making stuff up to sell a game with the name halo on it.
I think it was the perfect ending to the Human-Covenant war. Personally, I wanted more when it comes to "defeating" the Flood and learning more about the Forerunners. The Forerunners technically didn't defeat the Flood, so I don't understand why folks feel like we did.
Like, Halo to me started off as Human-Covenant, and then everything happened with finding the Halos and stuff, and for me it became a story bigger than the Human-Covenant war. So the Covenant ending, overall, didn't make me feel like the bigger story concluded fully.
Easily, the fact we got odst a reach was just a bonus, whenever I replay halo I start with reach and end with 3, just the best way to end it and I guess 4 could be an epilogue but I don’t like the gameplay or art style of 4. I don’t care for the post 4 games as the narrative is just a mess
It absolutely could've, because it was intended to be. The single player story concluded neatly, and the multiplayer was so popular (still pulling [nearly 800,000 unique daily players two years after launch](https://twitter.com/SteveChillGame/status/1715084683057279145)) that Microsoft absolutely could've continued funding support for the long haul. Halo 3 could've been to Microsoft what CSGO became to Valve.
It was, and it did.
The literal subtitle of the game was "Finish the fight"
After that:
Halo 4 was a fiasgo
Halo 5 was a fiasgo
Halo infinite is an ok re-start of a new threat.
I’d say so — especially considering how hard it’s been for 343 to carry on a coherent plot since then.
Which, to be entirely fair, isn’t really their fault. Once you blow up the proverbial Death Star and save the galaxy what else is there to do? Except… keep blowing up bigger and bigger Death Stars…
Halo 3 worked as the perfect ending to the game trilogy. the covenant storyline was done, the flood eliminated once again and chief left in a perfect position to be discovered and gracefully brought into any storyline you want. it is a model of how to properly end a trilogy and leave it open ended ready for the next story.
“Wake me.. when you need me.”
Ayo chief turns out we need yo a$$ sooner than we thought rise and grind mafacka - Microsoft, probably
Rise and... shine, Master Chief. Rise and... smell the ashes.
Not to imply you have been... cryogenically frozen on... the job
No one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in the galaxy would have gone to waste until....
Yeah kinda wish we had some anthropology games before waking up John. Would love a game following Arbiter, Lasky or a new Spartan IV rookie ala ODST.
I've been begging for a sangheili based Souls game set during ancient times ala The Duel. Different types of weapons and fighting styles with other sangheili, assassin's, beasts, etc. Though now that I think about I'd I'd also fuck with a vehicle combat game. Like choosing between mongoose, warthog, tanks, ghosts, banshees, etc in a more causal party game where you just murder each other. Like Twisted Metal but Halo.
You mean "anthology"?
I read this in Jroc’s voice and it was hilarious
NAWWHATIMSAYIN
He a big green mafaka NAMSAYIN
As fearless as the Chief is, I bet he wished he had stayed sleeping.
Cortana: ''Chief wake up! There's another galaxy-destroying threat for you to fight!'' Chief: ''Yes honey''
"It's me this time" "Maybe it's not tho" "It is" "Oh"
Preston Garvey: Chief, another forerunner settlement needs your help
Unbelievable how they fumbled Halo 4 with this set up, tbh
I really liked some of the ideas they brought in though, like rampancy and getting into Forerunner lore.
I probably have the unpopular opinion here but halo 4 campaign was way better than halo 5 campaign..
*Halo 5*'s campaign was a textbook example of how not to make a good campaign in a game.
I only played 10 mins or so and was wtf is this shit... The warthog sounded like a ride on lawn mower.
Nah that's just facts. I didn't like Halo 4 because it mauled the core gameplay loop; not because it had a bad story. Halo 5, even after reading ALL the books, was just shit.
Before Halo 5, I read everything there was to know about halo. I listened to the HTT podcast. I was pretty confident in some deep lore knowledge. Then they lost me. I still dunno wtf Infinite is about (I've played the MP a bunch, but not certain about any story). Very sad what they did to my boy.
I played 4, and while I can understand why it's not beloved, I didn't hate it or anything. It was fun, and I liked the separation of Sprint from Armor Abilities, that was a good choice. 5, despite finally giving us the ability to aim down sights, is the game that killed the series for me. I was on painkillers while playing (dental surgery) and I still feel disappointed by it. The story is all over the place, it basically undoes everything interesting 4 did, and doesn't introduce anything new. (The team of Spartans that hunt down rogue Spartans could be interesting, if they weren't after Chief, who was always gonna win that fight.) 4 has its issues, but I could forgive them. 5 is garbage
I don’t even hate H4, love some of the ideas. It’s the gameplay mainly and the fact that it just didn’t feel as magical as the original trilogy
Rampancy was a big talking points in the books -- it's mentioned in Fall of Reach, which came out before the original Halo game. It was the perfect thing to follow up on for Halo 4 imo, though I didn't really care for anything else they did in the game. Never actually played Halo 5 or beyond.
Yayyyyy time to ride a slow horizontal elevator through three identical forerunner buildings while I fight a billion fucking Promethean Knights...
“Oh you thought that’s bad?! I’m just the tutorial level! That’s the next level right over there! *points menacingly to 1000 more [promethean knights] -whatssupppp”
Chief should have stayed in stasis for 10 years while we explored other stories
You win. They could’ve burned through another war or two before waking up master cheeks
It'd also be nice for John to just hit the ground running like he did in 4 but with a new threat. No time to explain. He rushes in to save UNSC personnel because that's his job. Someone else will fill him in once everyone is safe.
Also could have still had Him lost and Easter eggs through a few games that we were slowly getting closer to finding him and him coming back.
Damn it, see you guys in a week after I binge the 1-3 single players again.
The flood wasn’t eliminated just halted, "Resignation is my virtue; like water I ebb, and flow. Defeat is simply the addition of time... to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed."
My only major complaint was mostly with how... hasty and "no time to explain" h3's story ended up being. The ship being cut in half precisely because of the exact timing of the portal shutting down feels arbitrarily contrived. The Arbiter getting back to Earth and leaving MC behind could have been accomplished in a number of other ways more satisfying than "pure coincidence". I get that MC is lucky and survived all sorts of things, but leaving MC on half of a ship floating adrift that also has absolutely no problems powering itself for 4 years was not what I would consider "good writing".
as much as i hate to say it, chief should have died, it would have made all subsequent halo games better as they wouldn't be carried by "chief hype" and we'd have a new main character. one of the reasons reach was so great is because MC wasn't the main character. also "chief died to save arby" would have been so much better as an ending to the trilogy, making it clear that he wasn't just saving humanity, he was saving everyone, including former enemies turned friends, and given arby a powerful message to drive reconcilliation between humans and sangheili, I.E. "the demon died to save my life, all of our lives, there will be no more talk of fighting the humans" arby being the main character for the sequels would have also been great, instead of MC "oh boy, here i go killin again", it'd be arby hunting down the "covies who wanna keep killing humans" in memory of the master chief, carrying on his legacy.
I think it would have worked well if chief was woken up far into the future for a new threat. - game start with chief waking up in a science facility. - there is a scientist in a rush saying “I’m sorry for waking you but we need you and time is short. Take this device, make it to the surface, and use a jet to go to these coordinates - you work your way up to the top and find out you are on a planet where the races of the covenant and humans live in peace. - you see all of them running for their lives while a new threat of species is attacking the planet. Then we can add in some cool extras. - chief goes on a side mission to reactivate his Cortana. - we find out it’s been 200-1000 years in the future - the new enemy is from the androma galaxy and is superior in technology and is creating warp gates to start invading the Milky Way galaxy which is heavily populated now by the covenant and human races. - the invaders are actually planning on activating the halos to kill all in the Milky Way to inhabit it. This fits into the halo theme too as we need to go back. - we find out halos are actually shrines now that people live on. - the invaders we need a reason too why they left their galaxy. Maybe they destroyed it trying to do an experiment. - also we can have wild super advanced weapons due to the gap in the future. This is the halo game I would love to play. Instead we got junk.
it'd be cool, but would also take vision, and no game studio would take such a gamble when they can "bring back chief" for some stupid bullshit poorly-written adventure and profit off the "OMG ITS THE CHIEF" factor.
Ngl dawg that's a pretty decent idea; you're writing as though you're just now thinking of it, very casual-like. But I genuinely don't hate it lol, and there's some dumbass takes out there, sometimes. That would've been a much cooler idea than what we got Honestly gives me half-life vibes, like the whole 'introduction to a world in peril' type. Respect 🤎
It’s nothing amazing and I’m sure with competent writers it would be great. Just a quick idea I had. Really they just needed a good idea for why master chief is back and make it so the world has changed enough so we can get new weapons and enemies. The problem with halo after 3 is the enemy was right away, not interesting, and Cortana needed to stay as a grounded sidekick.
Yes. It was made with that in mind. When I played it back in 2007 I thought it would be the final game in the series and I was more than fine with how it wrapped up.
And every mainline game since has reinforced that that’s how it should’ve been, acknowledging Reach and ODST as standalone entries.
Ngl every 343’s “trilogy” (lol) should’ve been standalone games. They make way more sense as a “here’s where Chief is during _____” and not as a trilogy. Time skips, lore dumps in supporting media, all of it supports that it should’ve been Halo: Reclamation, Halo: Guardians, and Halo: Infinite. They make way more sense if you think of them that way retroactively. Bungie’s Halo worked as a trilogy because they told a single, mostly cohesive storyline from 1 through 3, with a side story of the “origin” of Halo, and a side story of non-Spartans during that origin.
Indeed, the 343 trilogy all feel like three distinct games with only a loose connection between them. While the books fill in the gaps in the story, it ideally shouldn't have been that way. The Bungie trilogy also had books released between the games, but it was possible to understand just about the whole main picture from the games without needing the books.
True. I think a game based on the First Strike novel would be insane!! Probably would require some adjustments to adapt it but still
I consider Halo 3 to be the canon ending in my head canon.
Give an actual satisfying Didact fight and I could've accepted 4 ending the story as an epilogue. Chief and Lasky's exchange would've been a very powerful final moment.
Same. Cortana's breakdown and Chief's increased amount of lines and emotional portrayal worked really well to me as an epilogue. We get a interesting glimpse of the man under the helmet outside of the books and I would have been happy.
Nah, the Didact, and Non-human Forerunners as a whole, were a bad move.
Forerunners were always better as these mythical beings that we never actually see.
I will always stand by explaining the mystery ruins the entire thing, I remember people pissed with startgate because it's never going to be satisfying And with these people if 343 kept the humans are forerunners bit and it came out some people at bungie wanted it the other way you know damn well they would complain about how THAT was a better idea
Halo 3 ended with Spark saying the Master Chief was a forerunner. I've never met anyone who played the game complain about that at the time.
Even the first game treated them like Forerunner, giving access to Halo's controls when the Covenant were rejected.
O I know, especially that cut scene on the Pillar of Autumn with Guilty spark being ecstatic to find "a record of all our lost time. Human history..."
I always chose to interpret that not in the literal sense that Forerunners were just ancient humans, but rather, as the inheritors of all they left behind, as the reclaimers, that humanity was, for all intents and purposes, now Forerunner. But he prioritized his Installation, his protocol, above even the will of the Forerunners. It was said to give weight to the fact that the installation was literally everything to him, and nothing would change his stance on the matter.
Yeah that's how you have to interpret it now with 343s new lore. But before halo 4 dropped, everyone I knew took it literally and no one complained. There were plenty of Easter eggs in the past games that fit nicely with humans=forerunner and they were gems to realize on replays.
That's fair, it's not a theory that I had ever subscribed to or heard from my own social circle though (tbf most of my friends that were into halo were not so into it for the lore that they were looking for clues or explanations)
There's also the Gravemind quote: "Defeat is simply the addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed." which obviously refers to humans = Forerunners activating the Halo array originally.
That sounds like someone retconned the original plan.
That’s exactly how it was intended to be. Bungie initially intended humans to be forerunners but changed their minds. When Guilty Spark refers to the Chief as Forerunner, he is referring to him as the inheritor of the Forerunner’s Mantle.
Which is why the Star Wars movie explaining the origin of the force and showing the first Jedi is a terrible idea.
> I will always stand by explaining the mystery ruins the entire thing I think if you let people sit on a mystery for a long time with no foreshadowing about what the real answer is, then it ruins the entire thing. However if you just keep the story going quickly, then people accept an answer to the mystery.
It depends on how you use the mystery. In the original trilogy the Forerunners were more of a plot device than anything else. Who they were was mostly irrelevant, the only thing that was important was the artifacts left behind. Which makes it perfect to keep them a mystery.
This is the exact opposite thing that happens with mysteries, typically
>think if you let people sit on a mystery for a long time with no foreshadowing about what the real answer is, then it ruins the entire thing. Ironically enough this is then what Bungie did with every plot element in _Destiny_ 😂😂
I am with you. Forerunners were the ancient, disappeared, misterious society bested by the flood and using a desperate attempt to stop it. Their rings, their style, their creations were clean, old, dusty, silent. Misterious. They spoke of time, and rock, and almost forgotten memories. Then comes 4, and 5 and Infinite and all is sparkling, too new, doesn't sing ancient memories, doesn't talk about people long buried. It like a commercial center, were neon lights and blinding floating dogs and nevrotic soldiers try to take you down using teleportation and strange weapons of light.
I would've preferred the Didact be a rogue Forerunner AI, and forerunners stay humans. 100% would've worked for me as decent sequel story.
I'm liking the idea of the didact being an ancient human that looks at current humanity and just deems them as another failed forerunner project to be cleaned up
I kind of like it, but I also find the idea that an original forerunner surviving the rings mass extinction as a huge cop out. Now, maybe an AI version of an ancient forerunner human like how Cortana is to Halsey, but hates modern humanity and ancient forerunners would've been some badass lore. Basically the evil Cortana story, but not with Cortana and better cause it doesn't ruin actual Cortana. Hell, would even work with that whole Domain garbage we got in 5.
I do like that idea. As long as it's not just another monitor but an actual forunner in ai form that would of been awesome
Totally, honestly, I kind of thought that was what the didact was originally going to be when we saw him in his armour till they revealed he was flesh under it.
the whole idea of non-human forerunners really shits on the end of Halo 3, with 343 saying the line "You ARE forerunners" they still gave us an ancient, powerful humanity too, but after acknowledging they existed, refused to actually do anything with the new plot point. the new games have had decent gameplay, but the story has gone off the rails, and they never close off any plot line in a remotely satisfying way.
Halo, without the religious allegory of the Covenant as a primary factor, has very little unique identity. How do the previous games allegories work when the “gods” the Covenant were claiming to speak for were apparently still alive and actually also evil enemies of humanity? (assuming you don’t read the ridiculous new books to learn all the actual reasons they justify it, which hardly anyone did). So the covenant was apparently right that the Gods wanted to destroy humanity, even though part of the reason the elites rebelled was them lying about that! To this day I don’t know why 343 fumbled cool ideas like Medicent Bias and the Guardians (as they were conceived by Bungie), I’ll never understand. Halo got caught up trying to be impressive and dramatic with the didact but he felt more like a bad marvel villain than a real character. It was sort of interesting to play with the didact leading them, but honestly it was more interesting when the covenant captured 343 in Halo 2 to shut him up, because the whole point was that the prophets (ironically, the prophet of Truth) were purposely ignoring the truth to hold onto power, not blindly following their religion. Whoever wrote Halo 4 just did not understand the critique of religious hierarchy at the core of Halo, and just went straight to generic scifi tropes and rampancy, its sad.
I thought they were Prometheans not forerunners? Not defending halo 4 by any stretch though. Game fucking sucked
The fact that those two don’t follow chief is what makes their differences from the mainline games more acceptable imo
Facts odst and reach could have had their own trilogy but instead they went back to the halo series and just shitted on them with 4-5 and infinite
There was a lot we could've had away from MC.
And that garbage show
I miss halo so much man 🥲🥲it’s was so easy to hop in make friends no sweat no cheaters hop on make friends play forge play awesome matches play great online games against ur friends go to friends house and play split screen, I’ve always replayed the campaigns especially in halo 3 and reach trying to collect the skulls for the recon armor man … we had it good boys we really did. Back then games were so good
You know you can still play the games you once enjoyed, right? MCC still has very active Reach, 3, and CE player bases in the customs browser regularly. (Also, apologies if I came off as unnecessarily hostile. Discussions like these annoy me, and I'm not good with social interactions at the best of times)
I think I might have more fun now, I can listen to a podcast while I play online and don’t have to talk to anyone
*ODST* could have had some great sequels if *New Blood* and *Bad Blood* were made into games, as Edward Buck's story is incredible in its own right as well. As just one example, the latter book features a section on the Grunt homeworld of Balaho, and I think THAT would have potentially been awesome to experience in a game.
Odst yes but reach is definitely mainline because it takes place in a actual point in the timeline leading up to everything the fall of reach was the most definitive point In the human covenant war thats what started chief's mission without it chief would never have found halo alpha , reach is almost like a prequel and I think Halsey's son is a spartan in noble team I may be wrong correct me if I am about that though but im pretty sure noble 5 is her son
It was made with that in mind, yet its legendary ending has a cliffhanger.
They kept their options open
Sometimes, leaving an ending open to fan interpretation is better than buttoning every loose end if half the fans don't like how the buttons look
Except legendary ending of Halo 3 isn't an open ending. It directly tells you that there is something new on the horizon. An open ending would be the standard ending of H3, where we only see Chief getting into cryosleep and Cortana sending a beacon, so we can only guess what happened after that.
I thought it was supposed to be a fanservice-y callback to the start of Marathon or something.
People always say this but the terminals and legendary ending are a teaser for the next game
It wrapped up the story line they started with CE but very clearly left the door open for Master Chief's role to continue. "Wake me when you need me" was included for a reason, not to mention showing them drifting towards a Forerunner shield world.
Same. It was a fitting end for the hardest of them all. Made you feel like you finished the fight, the new games are now trying to kill him off or make him an enemy of the state for some reason.
Unfortunately it was the final game in the series
In my head canon 343 never even made h4.
In my head Halo ended at Macworld demo /s
Anything after Halo 3 is just John having cryo-fever nightmares, and he's still just floating in space
Pretty much, yeah
Admitting to not accepting reality is not the flex you think it is. Edit: Damn, really hit a nerve with the Bungie fanboys.
This is not true. In fact, in Halo: Reach's development, Bungie had considered doing Halo 4 with Master Chief as the lead before deciding on the prequel setting. So you know I'm not pulling that out my ass like you did: https://www.mtv.com/news/n551qh/bungie-considered-halo-4-starring-master-chief-instead-of-reach-prequel
Yes. I remember finishing it in 2007, thinking to myself: "this is perfect."
Came here to say this. I remember finishing this game and just being at ease with how it ended. Now the way halo 4 came back was pretty epic in my opinion.
the idea was fine, the execution was terrible
Exactly, it had me hooked at first, but it just sorta devolved pretty badly the more I kept playing through the story.
And then reach came along and rewrote the concept of perfection.
on legendary it did end with chief and cortana drifting towards some forerunner planet
The top comment on this post put it perfectly. They ended the trilogy, closed off all the major story threads, but also put Chief and Cortana in a position to be called back into action should another trilogy ever open up.
Yea medicant bias guides the dawn there You get a glimps of it from reversing the one track in the last mission Medicant says he guided the chief and is on the track to redeem himself Halo 4 prob wouldve been chief being on a shield planet(shield planet were meant to be actual planets that were shielded from halo) and maybe see the history of humans and reclaim what humans/forerunners have lost
It was incredible to realize that the collapsing tiles in the Warthog run were not just "random", but Mendicant helping Chief have a safe path back to the *Dawn*.
Jup i wish we'd get a interview with joe staten where he explains the whole halo story how he intendes it to be and his future plans It would make me so happy
I actually had just beat H3 (MCC) on legendary for the first time and was curious, was that cutscene already in the base game or was it added after Halo 4 was released? It was my first time seeing it, so I was a little confused.
It was in the base game, I remember speculating about it with the homies in middle school lmao
It feels like a fever dream, imagining Bungie's Halo 4 being teased at one point.
You have to wait til after the video, after the credits you get another 30s or so. And yes that has always been there.
Wait really
[удалено]
Wym arguably, what else would they be?
[удалено]
I feel reach was a mainline game but spinoff to the story.
No ODST and reach where made with Destiny in mind and only made by Bungie because of a 5 halo games contract ODST has the whole hub you even have a destiny ad Reach has armor abilities and the jet back that destiny has recharging abilities and a glide. Also I believe dog fights in space were cut from destiny another thing from reach, multiplayer character armor in single player like guardians will have different armor not just one set like chief.
Just wait til I get to your fashion sense
You just needed to add another caveat in there. They're arguably arguably spin-offs. Until someone comes in and says it's inarguable that they are arguably spin-offs.
Because Reach and ODST *are* spinoffs lol.
Reach is a spinoff *story* but it's still a mainline Halo game. ODST can't really make the same claim though lol
Bungie did start working on Halo 4 before deciding to do a prequel.
That never happened. They discussed a Halo 4 before quickly turning that down. Work was never done.
Fittingly becuase they didn't have enough faith the fans wouldn't shit on their replacements and how they ruined the next saga
Well it is. It's the end of the original trilogy and a cohesive story.
Absolutely. There's a reason the subsequent games Bungie made were spinoffs set during earlier events. Looking at how 343 has handled their storylines since getting the IP, I think they probably should have stuck to spinoffs for a while too and let Chief nap in space until they knew wtf they were doing... he'd still be there now, but the franchise would probably be in a better state.
I think it could’ve been. But the cliffhanger of him drifting in space would’ve driven all of us crazy. I think 343 shouldn’t have picked up with Master Chief so soon. They could’ve made a few standalone games or a spinoff series following other Spartans. Or noncanon games like the mega blocks one. And then bringing back the Chief during infinite or something YEARS later would’ve been incredible. Kinda like how it’s gonna feel when (hopefully) they unite the spirit of fire with the unsc infinity.
I’m a Halo 4 stan but, I feel the obvious route based on your suggestion, would be to make a continuation of Halo following new characters and a new story and that trilogy ends with…”What is that? Forward Unto…” “*This is Sierra 117 requesting immediate assistance*” [Cue](https://youtu.be/D3lKIgXyZy0?feature=shareds=78s)
It was perfect. The covenant, Truth, the Flood...all finished. And his journey came full circle with it ending like it began: In a cryo pod.
It is. Halo without bungie is essentially a spin-off.
Yes, but let's be honest: we wanted more
I did but I didn’t want a continuation of the Chief. I would have been completely happy with some more stand alone games, prequels, or post halo 3 following a new character.
Same. Even though I didn't like Halo 5's story, I was hopeful that we were moving to a new main character or at least taking the focus off of Chief. Every time a 343 Halo game comes out, it seems like they learn the wrong lesson and then double down in the wrong direction in the next game. Now we have Infinite which is another start to a new story with Chief and the Weapon, kind of resetting everything. I truly just want to move on from Chief. Let me play as my Spartan character like Reach, create a new protagonist and have Chief be a support character, etc.
The reason I didn’t want them to use Chief was because they wouldn’t be able to do him justice. And I was unfortunately right. I’d be much happier if they made Jerome or Locke the protagonist for a few games and we hear about Chief on the periphery. That way they can have more creative freedom and I don’t have to worry about them doing something dumb with Chief. It’s a win win.
At the time I didn't think Microsoft was done making Halo games, and I really thought after Reach we would continue to have a customizable protagonist, and that the next game would end with our character discovering the Forward Unto Dawn floating in space. Also the new Gears games do a great job having Marcus be a supporting character, I think that's the way they should have treated Chief as well.
I agree completely. We played his story. Let him be a character in someone else’s now or just let him rest. Halo can exist beyond Master Chief.
And Bungie gave you 2 more games without even needing to touch the main story again. It was the perfect way to add to the series without feeling gratuitous.
That and Microsoft wanted more money lol
I think so, but reach was also amazing. Anything after Bungie left just wasn't worth it imo, should have just let it ride into the sunset but it's really all ms had to offer for people to buy their consoles
FINISH THE FIGHT
What do you mean? It is the final mainline game. 343? Infinite? No clue what those are.
What do you mean? It *was* the final game. [There are only three Halos in Ba Sing Se.](https://imgur.com/gallery/there-is-no-war-ba-sing-se-rPXiZwt)
Yes but exactly as my older bro said upon finishing h3 for the first time … “that can’t be the end of halo because Microsoft liked money”
halo 4 should have never been made.
Yes, because it was. Everything since has been a stasis induced fever dream. ( Excluding Reach)
I'm pretty sure that was the entire point of Halo 3.
Yes, and it still does. I'm not really a 343 hater; I fucking hate Halo 5 intensely and I'm not a huge fan of how they and Microsoft have handled the franchise at large, but I must admit that I quite like 4 and Infinite's campaigns. The gameplay of Infinite in particular is so much fun. However, you can still handily finish with 3's story and walk away satisfied by the whole experience. I have a lot of PC-only friends who did exactly that when the MCC came to Steam.
Absolutely. And ever since Chief has acted as a crutch to hold this series up because the creators are too scared of forming their own new story with new characters instead.
Kinda? I just felt like the plot was really rushed the last three missions. Some of the character deaths felt like they happened to brush them under the rug. It really gives the sense that bungie wanted to be done despite making two more games after. I really do like halo 3, and it has a fine ending but I don't its perfect per say. While I do enjoy the Halo 4s campaign quite a bit, the game itself doesn't live up to most fans expectations. I think Halo 3 could have worked as an ending, but the universe definitely had potential for post human covenant war games.
It did to me. I know You guys must be tired of people like me, but i'll Say it anyways, ONLY the Bungie Games exist.
It is
In terms of the story it is? Reach and ODST are prequel type stuff, non mainline. 4-5-and infinite just kinda have nonsense story to justify big set piece fights.
Uhhh yeah? How much better could it possibly have ended?
It did. And then Microsoft decided to shit all over it.
What are you talking about. It IS the final and perfect end to the halo trilogy.
In my mind it did.
Worked for me back in 2007.
3 ended really well in my opinion but 4 isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and honestly I also like that conclusion
Yes but don't forget the bonus ending that left the series open to more
what do you mean \*could\*? It is. Reach CE 2 odst 3. Thats it. everything after that is just pointless. 343 should have just let chief be frozen. Theres so much other room for better/different stories bringing him back has only hamstrung the plot so hard.
The legendary ending and leading into Halo 4(which i love) was so awesome tho. But yeah i guess they could've just left it
Yes
It was supposed to be but Microsoft wanted to do a Scrooge McDuck dive into money and farted out some terrible sequels
shoulda been
Shoulda been. Reach was great but obv different story. Halo 4 bad halo 5 worse, halo infinite campaign was okay. but just shows 343 sucks.
Well it was for me. Halo died after that precious game.
What do you mean? It did work. It was the final mainline game in the series. If Halo 4 + was planned at that point, there's no way it was planned by Bungie.
I think it would be even more legendary. John would be floating towards a planet and we would never know what would’ve happened. The game was perfect in itself. Would’ve been even more so if it was.
It was... thats was the intent.
100% it could have. Arguably it should have. I did really enjoy Reach tho. 4, 5, and infinite are meh. Fuck 5 in particular.
Yes. And seeing what 343 did to my boy, it should have stayed the end.
The features alone in Halo 3 is more than 99.9% of games ever made after H3 Truly ahead of its time
I’ve been saying that since Reach was announced Halo 3 was perfection in so many ways. The story was a masterpiece, the multiplayer was highly competitive and addictive, something about doing forge “merging” the hard way made forged maps feel very special.
In my mind. It 'IS' the final mainline game. Reach is a great prequel, and also tremendously fun. Frankly, every halo game 343 has made has been subpar at BEST. Even the MCC which was just a compilation of the older games was a steaming mess FOR YEARS, its only now 'playable', but still missing features... Remember when the ghost was about to explode and it started vibrating then flying all over the place going apeshit before it blew up? that is NOWHERE to be found in MCC, even though the sound is still there. they just sit still, then pop. This is just one of the things that still isnt in the game. Ill be totally honest, if they wanted to retcon EVERYTHING post halo 3, meaning halo 4 onwards and just 'redo' everything in a different direction, i wouldnt just NOT CARE, id actually be HAPPIER if they did this rather than try to fix the mess of a story that is the prometheans.
Halo did end with number 3. (Plus Reach) The 343i games are so bad.
I was content with the ending. It served perfectly as a vehicle for Chief to be involved in future entries one day, but it also worked just fine as the book-end to an incredible trilogy. In some ways, I wish 343 had introduced another character to helm their games. I didn't hate Halo 4 as much as others, but the story served no purpose in the grand scheme of things. Imagine what an incredible moment it could've been to meet Chief again as a different character - breaking him out because the galaxy needed the help only he could provide. To me, Halo 3 is a perfect way to end a franchise.
I always held a head canon where Halo ended at 3 - However all the games afterwards were dreams of the Chief while still on the Dawn. It would explain all the dramatic changes
whatchu mean?? it IS the end of the mainline series lol... the 343 stuff is just fan fics lol
It IS the final mainline game in the series.
Wait, there are more games after 3...?
It's the ending of the series in my head canon
Absolutely, anything after wasn’t necessary
Yes it should have, they should’ve ended it there and maybe done prequels. Now halo is a forgettable mess of what it used to be.
So ive played every halo except halo 3 😭 just ordered a 360 and waiting on halo 3 to be shipped 🙏🏽wish me luck on the late experience
I mean, yeah. It wrapped up every plot thread and character's story arc. Chief & Cortana were left open-ended but not in a way that "needed" a return. Cortana's rampancy is the *only* thing in 343's games that wasn't their own invention.
It not only could have — it does — and I personally consider it the end. I actually just decided 48 hours ago to give Halo 4 a try and it left me sad and empty. RIP Bungie ❤️.
It’s what those foolish enough to believe good IP have endings thought would be the end. Then they made prequels, and I did not speak out, for prequels aren’t sequels. Then they made halo 4.
It is?
To me, that was the final game. Reach felt like the beginning of something really new, and cool. I would have liked to see other stories that took place outside of Chief and Cortana. Everything since then is what it is and I am really happy for anyone it resonates with, but it just hasn’t gotten me in the same way.
Halo 3 was the ultimate conclusion for Master Chief’s story, The Arbiter, Cortana and so many other characters. The knot was tied for all the plot threads. Post Halo 4 it just seems like they’re making stuff up to sell a game with the name halo on it.
I think it was the perfect ending to the Human-Covenant war. Personally, I wanted more when it comes to "defeating" the Flood and learning more about the Forerunners. The Forerunners technically didn't defeat the Flood, so I don't understand why folks feel like we did. Like, Halo to me started off as Human-Covenant, and then everything happened with finding the Halos and stuff, and for me it became a story bigger than the Human-Covenant war. So the Covenant ending, overall, didn't make me feel like the bigger story concluded fully.
Wait, it isn’t?
Easily, the fact we got odst a reach was just a bonus, whenever I replay halo I start with reach and end with 3, just the best way to end it and I guess 4 could be an epilogue but I don’t like the gameplay or art style of 4. I don’t care for the post 4 games as the narrative is just a mess
It absolutely could've, because it was intended to be. The single player story concluded neatly, and the multiplayer was so popular (still pulling [nearly 800,000 unique daily players two years after launch](https://twitter.com/SteveChillGame/status/1715084683057279145)) that Microsoft absolutely could've continued funding support for the long haul. Halo 3 could've been to Microsoft what CSGO became to Valve.
Yes.
It was, and it did. The literal subtitle of the game was "Finish the fight" After that: Halo 4 was a fiasgo Halo 5 was a fiasgo Halo infinite is an ok re-start of a new threat.
It did 👌
I’d say so — especially considering how hard it’s been for 343 to carry on a coherent plot since then. Which, to be entirely fair, isn’t really their fault. Once you blow up the proverbial Death Star and save the galaxy what else is there to do? Except… keep blowing up bigger and bigger Death Stars…