Halo Infinite Kept the Promise | A Story Retrospective
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- After Halo 4 brought us a wonderful character story for the Master Chief, declaring their intentions to develop him beyond a player cypher going forward, 343 Industries dropped the ball hard with Halo 5: Guardians. Fans felt that it betrayed the emotional impact of Halo 4's climax and put the series' story on a path that only the most dedicated fans of the extended universe could follow. When the time came to push the story forward with Halo Infinite, 343 Industries were in a precarious position: do they soldier on with the major upheavals they had established in Halo 5, or would they brush it under the rug and tighten the focus back on our favorite super soldier?
They would do the latter. And they would do so brilliantly.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
03:48 - How Did We Get Here?
05:15 - You're Gonna Carry That Weight...
13:15 - Patreon
13:34 - Shedding the Armor
27:22 - Of Books and Banished
48:03 - Endless Guilt
55:24 - Can't Get No Satisfaction
Twitter: / lorddrubie
Patreon: / andrewbluett - Hry
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This video is beautiful, absolutely and utterly beautiful.
ok just finished this vid and its glad to see that you followed up the best piece of halo analysis on this site with the next best piece of halo analysis on this site. your stuff is a joy to watch
This video is horridly underrated😮
It came out at the worst possible time, but I stand by it 100%
I finished the campaign recently and was impressed with how it good it was. This video was a brilliant encapsulation and expansion of what I was thinking when I read lukewarm reviews of the campaign. Its unfortunate it only got 2.4k views, when you clearly showed that there was alot more care and effort put into the game than most people think.
I'm sure this vid will bang but today was the most unfortunate timing for this video title given yesterday's splitscreen news 💀
Gotta get those hate clicks
@@AndrewBluett true🤑
I don't typically play any online multiplayer modes these days. I prefer enjoying the single-player narratives, and as such I gotta say I really enjoyed Infinite in that respect. I played the first 3 Halo games many, many times and it felt so great getting this narrative along with the classic-inspired gameplay. It definitely felt like Halo for this old timer.
Really enjoyed this vid, this perspective was very damn refreshing.
This is a MASTERWORK of a story breakdown! Very in depth, expertly worded, and edited together for a genuinely enjoyable experience. You sir, have absolutely earned my sub! As soon as I find the time, I'll be going to watch your Halo 4 Retrospective. I already view H4 in a very positive light overall, so I'm interested to hear what you have to say about it!
Truth be told, I dodged watching this for a while, despite pretty aggressive recommendations from the YT algorithm. That's no fault of yours, of course. At the time I was being EXCEPTIONALLY careful about how much Halo I took in, for reasons I won't get into here. Not the place for that particular subject.
I understand the aversion to watching Halo content as of late; so much of it is toxic or constant dribble about how 343i fucked up or how Infinite is dead or whatever. Which is why I made this video in the first place, and why I gave it the controversial title I did. Nobody's really talking about these stories on a deeper level than purely narrative, and see Infinite's story as big nothing burger when I saw something much more emotionally engaging than most are giving it credit for.
Thanks for giving the video a chance!
@@AndrewBluett I had already planned to. The length alone told me it was more than another typical rant. The reason I'd avoided mentioning earlier - coz I think it takes away from the focus of the initial comment - is actually narrative oriented. Halo's been a long-standing inspiration for a universe and characters of my own, and so I regularly avoid content from it and other inspirations while I'm working on said universe and/or characters. Simply put, I don't want to have the inspiration overly affect my thought process when writing characters or building the world. One of my main characters is already jokingly referred to as "MECHster Chief" - both in his appearance and outward-facing personality. Like Chief, he's more than he appears, but such comparisons make me fear that he might be taken as a 'ripoff Chief' or something like that, which is *not* what I'm going for at all.
This video is such a banger
What I hated about Infinite's plot is that in its efforts to continue off of Halo 5, arguably an entire plot/game and a half has happened and the player is dropped at the immediate aftermath. You got the Guardians blowing planets up and the Banished wrecking the Infinity, and you only get to finally be the Chief again when all that exciting shit JUST STOPPED happening.
Where Halo 5 dropped the ball with expecting the player to have done their homework to even get half of what's happening in the story, Infinite overcompensates with a backstory to its main plot that is arguably more exciting to witness than be told about than the main plot itself.
Yeah you don't have to do homework anymore, but the teacher also just gave you a pop quiz where they already filled in the answers for you.
This was amazing look at Infinite, your videos are of amazing quality!
Wait but atriox isnt dead, wasnt there a after the end of the 'campaign' there was a scene with him wasnt there?
Yup, Atriox is alive. Everyone just thinks he's dead. We don't know exactly what happened there right now.
343 injected some great story. But I just wish I didn't have to play through such middling games to experience them.
I remember when Halo 5 came out, I had no interest in it but I do with the Bungie games, so when I heard a couple guys talk about it I was like "So what happens in it? Does Cortana go evil or something" and they freaked out because they were acting like it was a major spoiler. But now I'm finding out that it's revealed only on the second mission LOL
IMO the Banished were pretty interesting in HW2. Their concept and potential is also pretty awesome, as are their visuals. The, say, version of the Banished that exists in my head when I'm roaming Zeta Halo seems interesting but I can't really tell how much of it I'm putting together for 343i. My version is that they're essentially space libertarians, with a lot of "might makes right" and they value ability with no real regard for differences between species beyond what they're capable of. So the strongest and smartest make the top. The enemy bosses seem to support this. They're mercenaries at their foundation, even if that has grown massively. A profit-driven empire of individuals rather than a religious and caste-based collective like the Covenant. It's something pretty unique for Halo.
My issue with their portrayal in Halo Infinite is that all of the bosses have some backstory involving being evil. Escharum at least has his honor. Atriox can be merciful as shown in Awakening the Nightmare. Pavium and Voridus both don't seem exactly super evil either. They're a rival power, a *faction* not necessarily a society built completely on cruelty and ruthless expansionism. Yet, a lot of their basic portrayal seems to be Covenant II. Some of that I would accept as a lingering cultural thing, but... Having an actual hatred for humanity is a missed opportunity IMO. A severe one at that. Instead of having humanity and the Banished be rival factions where neither side is particularly evil but still at war over control of the Rings for obvious geopolitical reasons sounds much more interesting to me than "they're the bad guys."
Of course there are a lot of flaws to explore in a society all about profit and "might makes right." It'll inevitably turn into authoritarianism and seeing that explored more would be pretty neat. For instance someone like Escharum with all his old school military honor could struggle to accept the flaws with the Banished that he and his student have created, frustrated that many of them lack honor or say, lie/cheat/steal which makes commanding them less efficient.
I do feel like we get some of this, but not as much as I would really like. If more of the bosses weren't the most pure, abject sort of evil psychopaths and instead were host to a variety of personality types that may even clash with one another, it would give more room for thought. I don't mean to turn the game into an RPG, but we could have more to at least chew on.
As I read it now, the Banished (hopefully) don't even really want Zeta Halo to wipe out humanity, so much as to have insane geopolitical power. It's like having nukes when nobody else does. Or if the UNSC has other rings then both of them have nukes and it can come to a tense situation as the end of the universe sits on a knife's edge. Their desire to have galaxy-nukes could even stem from their cultural fear of oppression that lingers from the subjucation of most of them by the Covenant not long ago. That fear of having a power determine whether they live or die could be a part of their violent zeal, and while I already see that as the case, it would be nice to see it displayed more clearly.
I got basically nothing on the Endless so far, except the comparison to the Flood bit. In that instance I think it's important to note that the Endless were *considered* more of a threat by the Forerunners than the Endless: not because they are actually more dangerous, but because what they are represents a challenge to the Forerunners. For instance if they are immortal and have a mastery over time, that challenges the Forerunners' seeming mastery over reality, as they still are not immortal and instead live on by basically turning their children into clones of themselves. There are many ways to explore it and right now is basically just speculation. But if it's more about Forerunner arrogance rather than a true, unbiased evaluation of the threat posed by both species/factions, then there is a lot to work with.
Lore-wise, the Flood are... Well, to me anyways, I find them too hilariously overpowered. So much that it kind of makes them not actually a real threat ironically. In the same way a horror movie monster loses its sense of threat when it is invincible to the protagonist because there is no longer any tension over whether the protagonist can succeed. (See: why the original Predator movie was so great about maintaining tension. Both the Predator and the humans were vulnerable even if the Predator was clearly more dangerous. While in the reboot, it's just invincible and becomes boring and lacks tension as a result.) When the Flood is depicted as too powerful and impossible to stop, then it means the story will never actually put them in that favorable of a position. The threat is lessened on the larger scale. The Flood can still be scary but, hyper-intelligent 2834984th dimension chess-playing shenanigans just doesn't really matter beyond some Warhammer 40,000 style "look how cool I am!" to me.
The Banished could be a really fantastic faction, and I feel like they could be/are my favorite faction in theory. The Covenant was fun but their time is over and it's better to make something new.
It would be even better if we have some humans in the Banished, and they were at least a little less silly evil from all the boss descriptions though. Especially if 343i ever wants to seriously address the UNSC's darker history and government.
There actually are humans among the Banished...just not in the games. There are a couple in Shadows of Reach that are with one of the Brute factions that got absorbed into the Banished, and they have to leave the room whenever their superior conferences with Escharum. Atriox has no ill will towards humans and welcomes those who join his ranks; Escharum feels nothing but contempt for them.
Really, the Banished as a whole don't feel ready for prime time. They were originally made just to be the antagonists of Halo Wars 2, people liked them, and they were thus made the antagonists of Infinite. They have very little presence in the EU beyond the odd reference here and there, with the comic Rise of Atriox and the aforementioned Shadows of Reach being their most prominent appearances outside the games. Conceptually, they're only as interesting as those within their ranks. Because they don't have a unified belief system, like the Covenant did, it's difficult to view them as a compelling enemy as opposed to just an obstacle.
@@AndrewBluett Yeah, in Halo Infinite it would be nice to see enemy humans among the Banished. I imagine the reason they're not there is to not confuse the player. Like how Bungie didn't add Grunts or other races to allied forces alongside the Elites in H3.
Atriox is probably my favorite character in Halo, despite what little we have. I'm pretty happy with his portrayal in thr flashbacks and how completely unwilling he was to kneel for Cortana, while also turning her situation and even words on her at the end. I hope he is depicted well as an intelligent and credible threat in future DLC/stories.
With Atriox and perhaps other HW2 characters as well as new ones all being written as more nuanced, competent and creative, the Banished as a whole will feel more satisfying.
Also their ideology could be more present. I do like the Banished having a collective fear of being subjugated to where it drives them to act aggressively. Or how their scientific progress is accelerating drastically now that they are no longer held back by the Covenant just like in their history. There are more they could add, and sects of the Banished could even vary in ideology while having thematic overlap.
There is a ton that can be done with the Banished. I hope to see it more realized in the future.
Also, a question: How did you come to the idea that the Endless symbolize guilt? I've been chewing on the idea but I feel like other than the neuralphysics and time power implications, and the reclaimer symbol on the Warden, all I really got is that the Forerunners saw them as a threat (possibly to their pride) and freaked out and entombed them. The idea that they might be another species that was designated for the Mantle of Responsibility and now they are trying to reclaim it is at least interesting. But we don't have many details.
@@wolfgangspiper I got that interpretation of the Endless based on how the Harbinger is presented in the story, i.e. no audio logs. When she shows up. What the Chief experiences emotionally around the same time as his encounters with her (or becoming aware of her presence). A harbinger is one whose coming announces the coming of something else, something more. Chief's feelings of regret and guilt, reminders of Cortana and how he feels that her turn and the damage she wrought was all his fault, often precede encounters with the Harbinger. He (and the player) can't fight her head on while he's still grappling with these feelings, and while he's still harboring distrust towards the Weapon. When he looks at the Weapon, he can't see her as her own entity; just as a facsimile of Cortana, a reminder of his mistakes and guilt. It's only after he sees her as she is--not as Cortana--and makes an effort to trust her, and after seeing that Cortana still had faith in him and did the right thing in the end, is he able to confront the Harbinger and stymie the Endless Guilt the coming of which she heralds.
You're focusing on the lore of the Endless, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself. But what's important for gleaming meaning from a story is how characters, emotions, and ideas are utilized. The lore of the Endless aren't part of the story being told. Their power over time isn't part of the story; it's optional background text. It's meaningless when talking about the Chief's character arc, because Halo Infinite is his story.
The Endless don't symbolize guilt in general; they represent John's guilt, specifically, in this story. In other stories? They could represent whatever. They could even lack any sort of deeper subtextual meaning and just be bad guys in another Forerunner book. But here, they're John's feelings of guilt.
There is literally an entire story in this comment thread😂
For views
Thing is that such a story could work with living beings, if they were related, like sisters… but they are AI. Her looks and voice create confusion and hurt the mission? Just change the voice and keep it audio only. It’s a PROGRAM. None of this melodrama is necessary, it’s all manufactured and illogical, incoherent.
i like the drugs you take, staff that makes you that delisionion is pretty rare
"delisionion"
Huh?