: I can't be the only one who has noticed that 343i is very good at talking up
: their stories, but the execution always falls short. Always. Now, we could
: bitch and moan that, say, the Didact went down like a chump and got
: shelved before he could prove his mettle as the Chief's nemesis... or we
: could push for change. We could push for the current crop of writers to
: step aside in favor of whoever has been writing the advertisements for the
: current generation of Halo games.

: Take Halo 5. The core problem with the story isn't that it was bogged down in
: details from the EU or that the villain was Necrotana. The problem is that
: whoever wrote Hunt the Truth wasn't writing for the game. The problem is
: that someone is writing this stuff that Frankie and Bonnie and all those
: other guys say on-camera when talking to Gamasutra or whoever, and that
: stuff is game of the year material, but that's not what's actually in the
: game.

[snip]

: Whatever happened to this whole "Exploring the Chief's humanity"
: theme? I refuse to believe that it was abandoned because a minority of
: fans complained that the Chief was talking too much.

I haven't played that many first person shooters. Is there any that truly delve into the protagonist's personality? maybe they can explore themes or have great plots but, I think, the first person shooter's mechanics are not conducive to the exploration of a character's internal mental state.

To me, that is book territory. Or films, or plays.

And you have the double story telling burden of the friendly NPC AI. How to you have pathos or gravity when the Chief is hanging out with the Keystone cops? How can you mistake them for awesome Spartan super soldiers?