: Anyway, if you feel the same as Levi, why do you think that is? I myself have
: decided to stay away from DBO until I discover more about Destiny on my
: own to know if I want to play it or not (to not be influenced by any hype,
: etc) so I don't know if you are over there and posting about it.

: If you are, (as in posting excitement for Destiny) do you like it more
: because if feels like the Halo you miss, or because it feels like Bungie?

: Maybe both?

I don't post frequently at DBO, (because there isn't that much to talk about yet, for me) but I do hang around and read through the threads.

I'm very, very excited for Destiny for one reason. Bungie is exceptionally skilled at world building and then proceeding to tell stories within said world. I see concept art, screenshots, and footage of the world, and I feel burning questions come to mind. I see locations I desperately want to explore. I see details waiting to be examined. I see enemies with backstories ready to be delved into so, if you want, they aren't just another AI to shoot in the face.

In many ways, to me, Halo 4 felt like a step backwards. A step towards being a very generic scifi shooter.

Since the last time I played through the campaign, I've gone over the framework of the story multiple times in my head. By all accounts, I feel there's a good story there, but it's been very poorly executed upon.

The Didact's purpose as a villain is never clear. He's obviously stronger than the Chief, has an opportunity to just kill him early in the game, and willingly avoids it. He's never a threat at any point follow that encounter. In fact, he's pretty much entirely absent. They made quite a bit of noise over giving the Chief a flesh and bones adversary, a nemesis, and failed to execute on the concept in any meaningful way. Did the terminals expand on his purpose as a character? Hell if I know. This, by the way, is another sore point. Putting a villain's potential motivations behind hidden terminal videos I can't even view inside the game, within the context of the level I'm playing. At any rate, I have seen them, and they did nothing to clear up confusion. Forerunner Trilogy? What happened to keeping your media separate, but linked? In the interest of disclosure, I struggled through the first one, retained perhaps nothing of value, got five or six chapters into the second, and gave up.

Cortana's story was meant to be something I was emotionally invested in. It started strong, but was then seemingly supplanted by the Didact and ignored for most of the game, outside of when she glitches.

Del Rio was a joke. Lasky could've been a strong character, but unless you've watched Forward Unto Dawn, there's little reason to care about him. What irritated me was the game implies on several occasions the connection he and Chief share, but never elaborates on it for the sake of those that didn't watch FUD. It becomes a loose end that makes no sense. The friendly AI you interact with during missions feel entirely devoid of any personality. Zero attachment. And Palmer? Ugh. Every time she opened her mouth, I was imagining Khalisah al-Jilani punching her really friggin hard.

The Covenant largely felt shoehorned in for the sake of something familiar, while the Prometheans were drab, boring, lifeless, hard to tell apart, and a pain in the ass the fight.

The pacing of the story was always off. If I watch the cinematics alone, I can clearly see what I'm meant to be feeling, what storytelling beats they're trying to achieve. The final scene with Cortana is a perfect example. That's clearly meant to be very moving, and if I watch it alone, it very nearly reaches that point, I know that with context, it should absolutely nail it. Except, when I add the context of the mission leading up to that moment, it fails. As a player, I'm feeling all the wrong things during the mission, so when I finally see that cinematic, it's attempting to play and build off emotions it simply hasn't built up. And it's the same story over and over throughout the game. I see what they're going for, but they miss the swing. Either because of what I described above, or for another reason entirely, the story beats they carry through cinematics, are missing during gameplay. And by the end of the game, as the credits roll, I'm left feeling like neither story, Cortana's rampancy and death, the Didact's rampage and defeat, have been sufficiently concluded. They just end.

Gameplay wise... it's tricky for me. In many places, it feels off. Personalized Load Outs feel wrong. The Chief using Armor Abilities feels wrong. The gameplay during War Games felt too fast, too aggressive. And Ordnance Drops? Ugh. Despite all of that, however, Halo 4's gameplay is ridiculously smooth, and ridiculously well polished (remember, the last time I played was months ago, after all these TUs... who knows). I was honestly exceptionally impressed with it. I don't agree with their changes, I don't even like many of them, but good lord if it wasn't smooth and polished.

And the world? Level to level? Stepping onto Halo for the first time was a treat. Silent Cartographer was mind blowing. The drop onto Delta Halo and driving a Warthog to the hill overlooking the lake and temple? Wow. High Charity overlooking the Dreadnaught. Tsavo Highway overlooking the Portal. The transition to the Ark and our first landing. The Arc from Halo. The Control Room ziggurat for the first time. Again. The drop to New Mombasa and exploring those empty, lonely streets at night. Our introduction to Reach, as a planet. A glassed planet. Long Night of Solace's transition from ground, to orbit. The lead in to New Alexandria and the feeling of loss. The run to the Pillar of Autumn and renewed feeling of hope as it blasts away. Those moments have stayed with me, some of them for years after I first played them. And Halo 4, largely, didn't feel like it offered many new ones. It should have.

Admittedly, stepping out onto Requiem for the first time was like setting foot on Halo or the Ark, but that feeling never persisted. In fact, after a fairly exciting romp through Requiem as a level, the game as a whole just kinda stopped presenting powerful new moments, and started being an obvious cover band version of "Halo's Greatest Hits". Yes. Halo 3 and ODST aped the Maw Run, but they both felt right to me. Forerunner's Ghost Run by comparison felt forced. Tromping through the jungle in Infinity felt like a poor man's Sierra 117. And our time onboard Infinity (even in Spartan Ops) a ship so large, and so obviously full of interesting things and wonder, felt like a stomp through an industrial complex or a sunshine warehouse (dear god bloom), respectively. I never felt like there were interesting nooks and crannies to explore, or signage to ponder over, even the scenery, by and large, became uninteresting fairly quickly, which is shameful because we're inside of a hollow planet. And the Forerunner structures which seemed so mysterious and so full of character in every prior Halo felt... boring. Like an endless run through the Library (ironically I don't have a major problem with the Library).

And art direction? Let's sum this up quickly. Returning assets should have never been altered. Newer assets are a mixed bag of good and bad.

Compared to past Halos, to Bungie Halos, 343's first outing did not stack up. If I take away the Halo, and judge it compared to other AAA titles, it's fantastic. They did a phenomenal job and they should be proud. I'm not being sarcastic, I truly believe that. But as a Halo, a game in a franchise that I'm used to wowing me, to giving me a story that stays with me, to giving me a world I can revisit over and over again, that I can explore and always find something new or interesting to consider, it fell woefully short.

I'm not sure if I answered the question or not. In fact, I feel like I probably went way off topic and did what I didn't want to do (give a rundown of everything I didn't like). I clearly remember what being burned out and done with a franchise feels like, it happened with Star Wars. Me and Halo... it isn't the same feeling. I can tell you that I don't feel done with Halo. I've never once felt done with Halo since 4 launched. I'm not burned out on it. I do feel, however, that Halo is perhaps done with me. The storytelling has changed, the world building has changed, and I feel not for the better. Maybe it's still too early to tell. Maybe Halo 5 will be a reversal, a return to what I love. But everything I see right now, everything I hear, tells me that while I'd be more than willing to stay another ten years, to continue defending humanity, shooting aliens, and running around in Mjolnir, it's not going to happen.