: Oh no Rev didn't #1

: I'm going to say something controversial to y'all. Ready?

: I think that the gap between Halo 4 to Halo 3 was handled better than all
: of the other Halo games thus far.

: Aside from 343's poorly chosen and explained aesthetic changes (see Forward
: Unto Dawn, MC's Armor, Hogs and weapons on the Dawn) the transition
: between the way Halo 3 ended and Halo 4 began is pretty solid.

: When we left MC at the end of H3, he was asleep in cryo floating in a gutted
: FUD towards a mysterious Forerunner installation.

: When we pick back up, he's waking from cryo, floating in a gutted FUD towards
: a mysterious Forerunner installation.

: Unnecessary visual changes and flair aside, story wise, we're right on the
: money.

: Now, a few people might chime in and say something like "Revenant, When
: they changed the Dawn for no raisin or when they changed the Chief's armor
: and just said nano-bots in one sentence and just left it at that it wasn't
: cool and really caused a disconnect for me, thus setting the mood for the
: rest of the game and therefore my enjoyment of the game"

: And you know what? You'd be totally right, and I agree with you.

: Some people are more affected by visual and artistic alterations than others.
: (see change for the sake of change, Levi, Loftus etc)

: Others like myself, are more forgiving of visual changes but are more
: affected by the set pieces, environments, or theater from where we stopped
: to where we started again. (see disconnect between H1-H2-H3)

:

I agree with you, the bridge from 3 to 4 was handled better than any other Halo game's (barring Reach time event horizons), however, once you cross the bridge you realize you successfully bridged to a not all that interesting part of town. Not bad, but if the other halo games had failed the bridge and been mediocre, no one would care about the story or bridge wholesale. I very much believe the rule of cool dictates a lot of what we think was well done or worth forgiving the faults of.

Also, all you had to do 343 was offer a simple geopolitical explanation of where the elites, brutes, covenants, and everybody is now and start the game, but instead we ignore the fractured covenant and a wholly interesting thing and opt for storm cult and their leader who is vaguely an asshole. (Still best bridging of any halo game, that's not saying much.)

: Oh no Rev didn't #2

: If you sit down and think about it, Halo's story doesn't make a whole lot of
: sense.

: If you take "average Joe gamer" who hasn't delved into any of the
: books, comics, videos, movies, and other media the games leave a lot to be
: desired. (Understandable, there is only so much you can put in a game and
: not bore the player to death)

: I would argue that for a brief moment, 343 did a better job transitioning
: from H3's end to H4's beginning that Bungie did with H1-H2-H3.

: I dunno about you guys, but my average gamer friends that played Halo always
: asked me those questions that I posed to you above because they didn't
: read the books or anything, and I honestly hated telling them "oh,
: yeah, they explained that, go read First strike".

: Time and nostalgia are funny things.

: Sure, we'll bitch till the cows come home about how if you really want to
: understand anything about the Didact leading into H4 you need to read the
: Forerunner saga by Greg Bear, and how not cool that is, or that you have
: to go out of the game for the terminals.

: But tell someone they need to read First Strike to understand how Master
: Chief got home between H1 and H2, or they need to read uprising to see how
: he made it back to Earth and try to explain how the 'Believe' ad campaign
: fits and they'll do it with a smile on their face.

: I don't see how that's fair, honestly.

: All of them are equally consistent about how inconsistent they are on some
: level or another.

: We all want to say we're not biased, but sometimes we are.

:

It has decent consistency, decent enough that people care about it. the rule of cool I talked about above definitely makes my wish fulfillment of a consistent halo story a reality. As long as I have head canon holding it together with all the cool set pieces glued together, I am happy boy.