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343 industries looking for a new Narrative Director

Was a bit confused, thinking that didn't they just get one?

Then realized that no, actually, the guy I'm thinking of, Chris Schlerf, left them, joined Bioware as writer for ME Andromeda, then left them and joined up with Bungie for Destiny.

Kind of amusing, from Halo to ME then to the original Halo-guys.
 
kill off all the frakkin space marines and start with someone with some real character...

the frakkin doom slayer got more character than master chief
 
Squire said:
I don't see why Locke needs to be killed, but people have probably done enough bitching for Chief to be the single lead character again.
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Which is so less exciting than having multiple perspectives T_T

Halo 2 and 5 are both leagues above the other campaigns for me and the multiple perspectives are definitely a reason why. I like getting other characters' point of view, even if I do love Chief.
 
Double Donut said:
Which is so less exciting than having multiple perspectives T_T

Halo 2 and 5 are both leagues above the other campaigns for me and the multiple perspectives are definitely a reason why. I like getting other characters' point of view, even if I do love Chief.
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Halo 5 wasn't perfect but I do agree that the amount of bitching can have negative consequences. After Halo 2's epic story Bungie nerfed Halo 3's story by making it a Master Chief only campaign due to a vocal minority and the game ended up having the worst written and most uninteresting campaign of the original trilogy.
 
Double Donut said:
Which is so less exciting than having multiple perspectives T_T

Halo 2 and 5 are both leagues above the other campaigns for me and the multiple perspectives are definitely a reason why. I like getting other characters' point of view, even if I do love Chief.
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Arbiter was actually an interesting character. Locke's team was awful, with Buck only being okay.
 
I'm interested to hear other people's opinions: would you prefer a reboot down the line (like halo 7 ish) or not? I don't really see any way to salvage what they currently have in terms of story.
 
spootime said:
I'm interested to hear other people's opinions: would you prefer a reboot down the line (like halo 7 ish) or not? I don't really see any way to salvage what they currently have in terms of story.
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They end the current story with 6 and come up with something new in 7.
 
The narrative is so bad since 343 took over. They have NO how to proceed.

- Halo 3 ended with MC floating towards a mysterious planet.
- Halo 4 starts as a new trilogy about the Promethean's. However MC is back to Earth...and so are the covenant. But Cortana dies so it does move the series forward.
- Halo 5 teaser as MC as a lone wolf looking for something to do with Cortana. Bring her back? Possibly something she left him to do?
- 343 decides to cancel the trilogy. Makes it a continuing series.
- Gets rid of lone wolf story and now MC has a squad without any clear explanation as to why he's back with them. And some other random Spartan squad no one gives a shit about. And Cortana is back! No build up, no surprise, just back. Remember how she died? Oh well. And the covenant again...and Promethean? I guess.

It's like they kinda had an idea with Halo 4 then panicked and tried to cram something else in with not enough time. It's a total mess. Halo 5 is like one long Mass Effect 3 ending of fuckery for that series.
 
I wouldn't want this job. At this point I'd want to 180 on the tone of the series and bring back the light hearted military Vs alien romp with a side of saving the universe. Doing so mid trilogy would be strange and disruptive tho.
 
Gorillaz said:
Bring back my boy the arbiter tho. Savage turned side kick in halo 3. Scust.

So much disrespect
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Even weirder is that they had this female Elite named Mahkee 'Chava who we never saw but ended up with more storyline and lines of dialogue than Arbiter (voiced again by the amazing Keith David).
 
Halo 4 nailed the story for me, the gameplay just wasn't fantastic. I thought it was the best work so far "humanizing" Chief and Cortana.

Halo 5 got the gameplay down perfect (or near at least) but just went off the rails with that story. The ideas for a good story were there but somehow it just felt all wrong. None of the books had that issue, but the preceding comic books now remind me of the Halo 5 narrative issues.

Hopefully now that they have a couple different mistakes under their belts, we'll see a good output for Halo 6. Halo Wars 2 had a much more simple story, but I thought it was well done and communicated to the audience. I would have liked more cut scenes but Blur be 'spensive.
 
Get me the job! I wish. We starting over with going back to a halo and having connected environments and ship boards etc

Chief is our man and no bs prome.. We won't even mention them once they are done. We will also have flood coming back with a twist and alternate versions that better form a flood zone. Hell, our new story doesn't even allow for armor abilities or sprint!
 
Guys I barely get emotional, when talking about hoe bad parts of a game could be. But the campaign in Halo 5, killed my love for thid franchise. It requires a lot to get me back on board in Halo 6.

Argh.. getting angry thinking about Locke, Crazy Cortana..
 
I would be perfect for this job. I love Seattle too!
master chief -"FUCK off cotana I have shit to do"
cotana- "like what putting out another shitty game that makes no sense?"
naster snief- "scorpio".
 
The way they handled the introduction of Forerunners has been real poor. They tried to tell so much stuff with Halo 4 and leaving key story information out of the main campaign (Halo 4 terminals) was a terrible idea.

Then Halo 5 just went in a completely different direction. Characters were underdeveloped, there was really no reason to care for any of the main cast except Chief, Cortana and to some extent the Arbiter. That Hunt the Truth marketing campaign was more engrossing than Halo 5's story.

They also shown an unwillingness to let go of the Covenant by continuing to bring them back in some form each game.
 
Apparently there's plenty of people on GAF who think they can do better.
 
Whoever the new Narrative Director is I hope they start building a cohesive narrative for the next Halo campaign that does not source a bunch of lore from the extended universe without explaining in a concise manner what exactly is occurring on screen and it should have some pay off outside of gratuitous cameo.

For example: Halo 4 sets up the Didact, Requiem and Promethean, but the planet carries no sense of wonder or mystery. The prometheans are just crappier versions of the covenant, complete with bullet sponge and you're never really told why you should care for Voldemort outside of "he's the bad guy." Only the terminals that you unlock which can -only- be viewed through Waypoint fill in his backstory and why he even matters. That's not even getting into Spartan Ops which depicted new Spartans as a bunch of reckless frat bros that want to blow shit up. Oh and Requiem gets blown up.

While Halo 5's marketing campaign set up this sense of rivalry, mystery and opposition, but the game itself explores none of these themes. The brilliant HUNT the TRUTH series did a better job of it.

Locke and his crew are a poor stand-in for long time favorite Master Chief and speaking of Master Chief the more they say they want to write about him the more the actual games run the opposite, I know less about Chief now than I did from 1-3. From 1-3 he was a charismatic character of few words and when he spoke it mattered. Not necessarily in terms of advancing the story, but the impression it left on one as the player assuming him. Yet In 343's universe, he's just another soldier, often disregarded of his rank & status. Less charismatic and less memorable a shell of his former self. I won't even get into how they just tossed in Blue Team with no real setup, see: gratuitous cameo.

Often existing story elements from the EU are tossed in haphazardly and presented without explanation which in turn leaves players set to run through the one arena bowl to the next to fight yet another wave of enemies so they can push a button, to watch a cutscene they have no reason to care about let alone necessarily understand.
 
I beat Halo 5 on legendary, and I hated the game up until Mission 8 when the gameplay picks it up tremendously; by then I had a great time. Nevertheless, I did not enjoy the story. I really dislike how Master Chief became a secondary character in the Halo universe.

I see there was a lot of hate towards the previous narrative director:
https://halomonitor.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/brian-reed-the-mismanagement-of-343is-narrative-team/

Interesting, I never thought much about who was directly in charge of the narrative; I always assumed it was a team effort in which even Stinkles participated.
 
Plywood said:
Whoever the new Narrative Director is I hope they start building a cohesive narrative for the next Halo campaign that does not source a bunch of lore from the extended universe without explaining in a concise manner what exactly is occurring on screen and it should have some pay off outside of gratuitous cameo.

For example: Halo 4 sets up the Didact, Requiem and Promethean, but the planet carries no sense of wonder or mystery. The prometheans are just crappier versions of the covenant, complete with bullet sponge and you're never really told why you should care for Voldemort outside of "he's the bad guy." Only the terminals that you unlock which can -only- be viewed through Waypoint fill in his backstory and why he even matters. That's not even getting into Spartan Ops which depicted new Spartans as a bunch of reckless frat bros that want to blow shit up. Oh and Requiem gets blown up.

While Halo 5's marketing campaign set up this sense of rivalry, mystery and opposition, but the game itself explores none of these themes. The brilliant HUNT the TRUTH series did a better job of it.

Locke and his crew are a poor stand-in for long time favorite Master Chief and speaking of Master Chief the more they say they want to write about him the more the actual games run the opposite, I know less about Chief now than I did from 1-3. From 1-3 he was a charismatic character of few words and when he spoke it mattered. Not necessarily in terms of advancing the story, but the impression it left on one as the player assuming him. Yet In 343's universe, he's just another soldier, often disregarded of his rank & status. Less charismatic and less memorable a shell of his former self. I won't even get into how they just tossed in Blue Team with no real setup, see: gratuitous cameo.

Often existing story elements from the EU are tossed in haphazardly and presented without explanation which in turn leaves players set to run through the one arena bowl to the next to fight yet another wave of enemies so they can push a button, to watch a cutscene they have no reason to care about let alone necessarily understand.
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I can find myself in this post. 343i has been a real let down so far.
 
Thats why i hope we ever get a Halo RPG. Doesnt even have to be from a Spartan side of things. RPG has way more room to tell the deeper story.
 
2 games in a row ending on a Cliffhanger with several reveals, introductions, etc. in other media and in-between games. Then you also have this lovely new piece by Bonnie Ross:

"Not every story is for every person. But in telling those stories, there does have to be some, you know, look-back, paying homage to the lore, and reasons for moving things forward. "

"And while we love our transmedia, sometimes I do think we do tell a little bit too much story in our games, you know when you have a gun and then you have aliens shooting at you, it is kind of hard to digest a lot of story."

"And so I think - good learnings - hopefully we're showing in Halo Wars 2 a little more simple story, and really using trasnsmedia as part of the way to get the deeper story but keeping the game story more simple."
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My hope for a good and cohesive Halo Story is gone.

Plywood said:
Whoever the new Narrative Director is I hope they start building a cohesive narrative for the next Halo campaign that does not source a bunch of lore from the extended universe without explaining in a concise manner what exactly is occurring on screen and it should have some pay off outside of gratuitous cameo.

For example: Halo 4 sets up the Didact, Requiem and Promethean, but the planet carries no sense of wonder or mystery. The prometheans are just crappier versions of the covenant, complete with bullet sponge and you're never really told why you should care for Voldemort outside of "he's the bad guy." Only the terminals that you unlock which can -only- be viewed through Waypoint fill in his backstory and why he even matters. That's not even getting into Spartan Ops which depicted new Spartans as a bunch of reckless frat bros that want to blow shit up. Oh and Requiem gets blown up.

While Halo 5's marketing campaign set up this sense of rivalry, mystery and opposition, but the game itself explores none of these themes. The brilliant HUNT the TRUTH series did a better job of it.

Locke and his crew are a poor stand-in for long time favorite Master Chief and speaking of Master Chief the more they say they want to write about him the more the actual games run the opposite, I know less about Chief now than I did from 1-3. From 1-3 he was a charismatic character of few words and when he spoke it mattered. Not necessarily in terms of advancing the story, but the impression it left on one as the player assuming him. Yet In 343's universe, he's just another soldier, often disregarded of his rank & status. Less charismatic and less memorable a shell of his former self. I won't even get into how they just tossed in Blue Team with no real setup, see: gratuitous cameo.

Often existing story elements from the EU are tossed in haphazardly and presented without explanation which in turn leaves players set to run through the one arena bowl to the next to fight yet another wave of enemies so they can push a button, to watch a cutscene they have no reason to care about let alone necessarily understand.
Click to expand...

Good post. Agree with everything.
 
Took em long enough....


But until Halo goes back to the roots without all the fast paces abilities i see no hope for this franchise.
 
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