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Halo 4 Story Spoilers and Speculations

NBtoaster

Member
Just to be clear regarding my memory of Halo 3's ending...after the slip space portal closed leaving MC and Cortana's half of the Forward Unto Dawn drifting outside of the galaxy, did it just happen to casually float towards Requiem - a planet apparently right by the Ark? If you don't recall just how far away the Ark actually was relative to the Milky Way Galaxy:

They made it through the portal and away from the ark (otherwise Chief would have been killed in the Halo blast), it collapsed when they went through putting them somewhere seemingly random - next to Requiem.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I missed both of these. I really need to invest some good surround sound headphones instead of relying solely on my tv speakers.
Look around after you crash, Cortana will even note it when you come close to the Covenant signal. There is also an audio log by Halsey laying around in that section.
 
Has Bungie ever referred to her state in Halo 3 as "rampancy"?
Actually, has it even been properly defined in the Halo universe? The few references I could find in the books are extremely vague and wikis just mindlessly repeat the Marathon definition.

I think I'm fine with the idea of the Gravemind simply failing to lead her to an early rampancy, if only because otherwise it would make her character arc mirror that of Durandal's a little too closely (except surviving it wouldn't be a character-defining event in the Halo universe, it would just be a cop out).
I wonder what people who haven't built up any dorky expectations between sequels thought about the way that subplot was resolved. After all, a large chunk of the audience had no idea that Halo's AIs even have an expiration date. To them, Cortana could have looked just a little kooky.
I'm not going to dredge up all the quotes, both by characters and Bungie or the promotional material that implied Cortana was seriously messed up, that her state was going to be a big plot point that in the end is resolved in seconds when the Chief shows up and suddenly she's absolutely fine.
 
I'm not going to dredge up all the quotes, both by characters and Bungie or the promotional material that implied Cortana was seriously messed up, that her state was going to be a big plot point that in the end is resolved in seconds when the Chief shows up and suddenly she's absolutely fine.

Yeah, the resolution of Cortana was really disappointing.

'So much of me is wrong, out of place. You might be too late...'

'You know me, when I make a promise..'

'..you keep it. Okay, I guess I'm fine. Let's go!'
 
A

A More Normal Bird

Unconfirmed Member
Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
 

Flipyap

Member
I'm not going to dredge up all the quotes, both by characters and Bungie or the promotional material that implied Cortana was seriously messed up, that her state was going to be a big plot point that in the end is resolved in seconds when the Chief shows up and suddenly she's absolutely fine.
I don't disagree, but that might actually be the one time Cortana was written like an AI. With its ability to process billions of computations per second, an AI probably could give itself the equivalent of a lifetime of therapy in the time it took her to say those cutesy lines.
Or she could keep dreaming about touching the Master Chief's manboob, whatever.

For those wondering how Cortana and Chief known Didact's name, after they release him, the Prometheans chant 'Didact' repeatedly.
Oh god. You're right.
Though wasn't it the Elite that says it? That's idiotic.
Make Elites speak gibberish to make them sound "truly alien" -> have them use English names anyway, because how else would we know what they're talking about?!

Two questions:


1) why the old humans attacked the forerunners while being attacked by the flood instead of saying "hey wemhavemdiscover a,parasitic life form who is threating to destroy all the life in the galaxy, can you help us?"

2) what is the composer doing? Seems to vaporize people not turning the, into robots.
1. That's what happens when your plots are driven by twists, not by characters or anything resembling a story.
2. It zaps them with the digitizer beam from Tron, turns them into shitty AI, then it puts those inside robots. Why do they need to use a sapient being to create an identical copy of a simplistic AI? It wouldn't be "drama", if the Didact could build an entire army out of Space Granny Tillson, I guess.
 

NBtoaster

Member
2. It zaps them with the digitizer beam from Tron, turns them into shitty AI, then it puts those inside robots. Why do they need to use a sapient being to create an identical copy of a simplistic AI? It wouldn't be "drama", if the Didact could build an entire army out of Space Granny Tillson, I guess.

They didn't need to. The Didact wanted to because of his agenda against humanity. Other forerunners knew it was a poor solution.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I'm not going to dredge up all the quotes, both by characters and Bungie or the promotional material that implied Cortana was seriously messed up, that her state was going to be a big plot point that in the end is resolved in seconds when the Chief shows up and suddenly she's absolutely fine.

I'm pretty sure that was a concession to the crunch of development time--we know that the "Cortana" level was seriously reworked fairly late in development, alongside Floodgate. Doesn't really excuse it, but I do wonder if Cortana's rampancy was supposed to come to a head in Halo 3 instead of this one.

.
2. It zaps them with the digitizer beam from Tron, turns them into shitty AI, then it puts those inside robots. Why do they need to use a sapient being to create an identical copy of a simplistic AI? It wouldn't be "drama", if the Didact could build an entire army out of Space Granny Tillson, I guess.

I've been thinking about this, and I'm guessing that either the Forerunner's tech wasn't as sophisticated in that area (the ancillas), or it simply wasn't feasible on a massive scale. The fact that there are all those memory banks the Promethean Knights appear from at the end of mission 2 suggests that their patterns are stored and each Knight might only be an *instance* of the composed individual--that is, you can only have a 1:1 use of a composed individual but once the shell is destroyed the composed data is available for resuse in another knight. That was, the Didact's strategy is still valid--he simply needed to field more soldiers at once, and decided to use humanity to do so.
 

ace3skoot

Member
okay things make alot more sense since I watch some of the terminal videos in waypoint...but its fucking stupid that you have to exit the game, and go into way point to see the videos. you can't really get the story just playing through the game, its stupid way just to force people to bother going into waypoint. bad decision hope they just don't bother and give me all the cutscenes in the actual game for the next 2 :/
 

Flipyap

Member
They didn't need to. The Didact wanted to because of his agenda against humanity. Other forerunners knew it was a poor solution.
The terminals suggest that he did need to do it that way, since he kept wasting his own warriors to create the robots (a plan made even more idiotic once they show that children and elderly scientists make for equally worthy robot guard dogs).

I've been thinking about this, and I'm guessing that either the Forerunner's tech wasn't as sophisticated in that area (the ancillas), or it simply wasn't feasible on a massive scale. The fact that there are all those memory banks the Promethean Knights appear from at the end of mission 2 suggests that their patterns are stored and each Knight might only be an *instance* of the composed individual--that is, you can only have a 1:1 use of a composed individual but once the shell is destroyed the composed data is available for resuse in another knight. That was, the Didact's strategy is still valid--he simply needed to field more soldiers at once, and decided to use humanity to do so.
They did manage to make multiple Guilty Sparks, so I don't see why they couldn't mass produce something as dumb as a Prom Bot. You'd think that finding resources to make their casings and equipment would be the difficult part, but those are seemingly unlimited... unlike data.
It's an extremely convenient technological flaw that came from nowhere and was meant to artificially raise the stakes and make it seem like this threat even comes close to matching the one presented by the ANCIENT EVIL we've faced the last time.
 
Just to be clear regarding my memory of Halo 3's ending...after the slip space portal closed leaving MC and Cortana's half of the Forward Unto Dawn drifting outside of the galaxy, did it just happen to casually float towards Requiem - a planet apparently right by the Ark? If you don't recall just how far away the Ark actually was relative to the Milky Way Galaxy:

z3DDfl.jpg


I mean... there's no way that a ship with no propulsion just drifted from that distance back to the Milky Way in any human's lifetime...so is Requiem outside of the Milky Way or is it just an oversight that I'm being overly critical about? It doesn't really make sense for a planet to be outside of the damn Milky Way, especially since in the cutscenes they show a large amount of stars in the background and Covenant and Human ships alike seem to have no problem reaching it.

Well, it ripped in half while in slipspace, and then just dropped out. So it did travel a while, which is why it took so long for them to find it. Otherwise they'd probably just head back to the Ark to look for the Chief.

Also, somebody get me some video on those 'Didact' chants, stat.

EDIT: Just found one, but those aren't Prometheans chanting, they're Elites: Also pretty hard to make out, really. Especially when the Elites have been talking nothing but gibberish before that.
 

lefantome

Member
okay things make alot more sense since I watch some of the terminal videos in waypoint...but its fucking stupid that you have to exit the game, and go into way point to see the videos. you can't really get the story just playing through the game, its stupid way just to force people to bother going into waypoint. bad decision hope they just don't bother and give me all the cutscenes in the actual game for the next 2 :/

I completely agree, I can't believe they did this.

Anyway now terminals at least make a sense compared to the shitty dialogues in halo 3.
 

Flipyap

Member
I completely agree, I can't believe they did this.

Anyway now terminals at least make a sense compared to the shitty dialogues in halo 3.
Those shitty dialogues were optional hidden goodies for literate hardcore fans. They were never designed to be something for everyone to enjoy, let alone essential to understanding the story.
 
I don't disagree, but that might actually be the one time Cortana was written like an AI. With its ability to process billions of computations per second, an AI probably could give itself the equivalent of a lifetime of therapy in the time it took her to say those cutesy lines.
Or she could keep dreaming about touching the Master Chief's manboob, whatever.
Well that'd be cool if that was explored and communicated, but in the game it just comes off as a wiff, that they abandoned that plot point in service of the game structure.

Could you (and/or Dani) take a look at and respond to this, from the last page, please?
Just wanted to clear that up in my head.
 

AzerPhire

Member
Was there any mention of why there were not a million MAC cannons firing on the Didact's ship once it got near Earth?

They were probably ready to attack but held off because MC was communicating with Laskey when the ship came out of slipspace that he was en route to the composer with a nuclear bomb. Laskey then has the Infinity and other UNSC ships engage the Didact's ship, which we don't get to see.

Really people turn on subtitles, I know it's hard to hear dialogue while you playing but most of the explanations to people's questions are in the game.
 

Flipyap

Member
Well that'd be cool if that was explored and communicated, but in the game it just comes off as a wiff, that they abandoned that plot point in service of the game structure.
That's true, but I no longer mind it. I've developed a greater and sometimes irrational appreciation for the stuff Bungie did, while dealing with all of the stages of fandom grief.

So, just so I'm sure, did the Terminals retcon the Halo 3 Terminals? Or is it a case of we don't know yet?

God, I hope Silentium is some work of art to restore some .. confidence to the Forerunner and Didact/Librarian aspects of the universe.
I think most of Halo 3's L/D terminals take place before Cryptum (this might be the century old discussion the Librarian mentions in 4's motion comic). Assuming that the transmissions involve only the Ur-Didact and that he's going to take back the Durr-Didact's place, Silentium could still make it all fit in.
The motion comics are designed to appear self-contained, with a clear ending to the Forerunner story, but it's really just a little, misleading chunk cut out from somewhere in the middle.
 

Coconut

Banned
They were probably ready to attack but held off because MC was communicating with Laskey when the ship came out of slipspace that he was en route to the composer with a nuclear bomb. Laskey then has the Infinity and other UNSC ships engage the Didact's ship, which we don't get to see.

Really people turn on subtitles, I know it's hard to hear dialogue while you playing but most of the explanations to people's questions are in the game.

Yep answers just right out in open in the game, on clearly marked consoles that give you a message to leave your game and watch a video on halo: waypoint.
 
So, just so I'm sure, did the Terminals retcon the Halo 3 Terminals? Or is it a case of we don't know yet?

God, I hope Silentium is some work of art to restore some .. confidence to the Forerunner and Didact/Librarian aspects of the universe.

There's two Didacts, so we don't know yet how that plays out. I'm guessing the betrayed the Ur-Didact and stored him in his Cryptum, while the Bornstellar Didact (who received green and black armor in Cryptum) eventually activated the Halo Rings. Maybe with 343 GS in tow, which is why GS mistakes the Chief for him in Halo 1.

See, story connections, people!

The original Ur-Didact does not have fangs; the Bornstellar one does, and the one depicted in Halo 4 does as well.

We see him undergo his mutation in the terminals. For all we know, the Ur-Didact got his fangs too. I'm still saying the one we awoke is that one. Even Halopedia has taken away those references.

Plus, I don't remember there being any reference to the Bornstellar Didact getting fangs. You have a source on that?
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
I just had an epiphany. What if the Cortana we're with from after the encounter with the Librarian is actually a copy, and the base Cortana is still with the Librarian working on becoming meta-stable and finding a way to return Prometheans to human form?
 
I just had an epiphany. What if the Cortana we're with from after the encounter with the Librarian is actually a copy, and the base Cortana is still with the Librarian working on becoming meta-stable and finding a way to return Prometheans to human form?

I definitely think they left it open for that to happen.
 

Korosenai

Member
That's weird. Just reached sr-50, I have the limited edition, but its only giving me the option for the first two specializations. I thought people with the limited edition had access to all of them?
 

TheOddOne

Member
That's weird. Just reached sr-50, I have the limited edition, but its only giving me the option for the first two specializations. I thought people with the limited edition had access to all of them?
Did you punch in the code that was in the LE? Should be in there.
 
I just had an epiphany. What if the Cortana we're with from after the encounter with the Librarian is actually a copy, and the base Cortana is still with the Librarian working on becoming meta-stable and finding a way to return Prometheans to human form?
Noooo....

Watching it last night, she never says "goodbye".
 

Korosenai

Member
Yea I did, and I know the codes working because I'm currently using the strider helmet.


Edit: just noticed this was the spoiler thread. Thought it was the ot. Whoops.

Edit 2: I got it to work.
 

Flipyap

Member
I just had an epiphany. What if the Cortana we're with from after the encounter with the Librarian is actually a copy, and the base Cortana is still with the Librarian working on becoming meta-stable and finding a way to return Prometheans to human form?
Then the whole last act was a sham and cheap emotional manipulation.
I'm pretty sure meta-stability has nothing to do with Halo AI. There's more to it than passing rampancy, which isn't even defined in the same way in those two universes.
The people who were turned into Composer Soup are dead, there's nothing to be gained from returning them back to "normal" (well, "meaty") besides creating a whole lot of confused clones and the most awkward story resolution.
 

Coconut

Banned
Then the whole last act was a sham and cheap emotional manipulation.
I'm pretty sure meta-stability has nothing to do with Halo AI. There's more to it than passing rampancy, which isn't even defined in the same way in those two universes.
The people who were turned into Composer Soup are dead, there's nothing to be gained from returning them back to "normal" (well, "meaty") besides creating a whole lot of confused clones and the most awkward story resolution.

I was under the impression that their conciousness was what the composer was taking. So like people's minds are still their.
 
Then the whole last act was a sham and cheap emotional manipulation.
Certainly by the Librarian/Cortana.

But 343I could say something like "It allowed Chief to experience loss and grow as a person. Now that she has returned he can appreciate that and her all the more, for knowing what it was like to lose her."

I agree, she shouldn't come back, she and the game deserves her earned death, but there have been so many cries out for her return in this thread alone I'm suddenly afraid they will/were planning to do it anyway.
 

Reclaimer

Member
Playing through Legendary solo right now, and have not seen the bonus Legendary ending yet.

Significant amount of new stuff? Or like 1 extra shot? I'm debating wether to just watch it now on YouTube or man up and actually earn it. ;)

I wanted to fight the Didact, not crawl up to him and QTE him

And I wanted to QTE Tartarus. 1 v 1 "boss fights" are mostly out of place in Halo.
 
Playing through Legendary solo right now, and have not seen the bonus Legendary ending yet.

Significant amount of new stuff? Or like 1 extra shot? I'm debating wether to just watch it now on YouTube or man up and actually earn it. ;)


its not even a second long YouTube it you will regret nothing. If you are only doing it for the video its not worth it
 

Reclaimer

Member
its not even a second long YouTube it you will regret nothing. If you are only doing it for the video its not worth it

Definitely not doing the Legendary playthrough for the ending, very much enjoy the game. Halo tradition for me states Heroic first playthrough, then solo Legendary, then co-op Legendary with Iron, Mythic, Thunderstorm. :)

But thanks, now I know I can watch the extra on YouTube.
 

Flipyap

Member
I was under the impression that their conciousness was what the composer was taking. So like people's minds are still their.
It would be a copy at best, just like putting any of the Guilty Sparks inside a meatbag wouldn't bring Chakas back.
I mean, sure, they could say that the people who were ripped apart layer by layer and turned to ash have been glued together and are back to normal, but then they'd abandon any pretense of making a science fiction story. On the plus side, the Master Chief might finally get his very own dragon by then.

Certainly by the Librarian/Cortana.

But 343I could say something like "It allowed Chief to experience loss and grow as a person. Now that she has returned he can appreciate that and her all the more, for knowing what it was like to lose her."
Yep. Meanwhile, the player was simply lied to.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
So, just so I'm sure, did the Terminals retcon the Halo 3 Terminals? Or is it a case of we don't know yet?

God, I hope Silentium is some work of art to restore some .. confidence to the Forerunner and Didact/Librarian aspects of the universe.

You can read Foreward Unto Dawn's excellent article on the Terminals for the long answer: http://www.forwarduntodawn.com/terminal-reconciliation/

Shameless plug aside, yeah. A lot of the halo 3 terminal timeline is moot, especially with Halo 4. That said, we're still relying on the Forerunner books thus far being accurate (seeing as they're first-person accounts).

To me Halo 4 adds more conflict with Bear's own books, so it seems we're going to get a much more fleshed out version of the H4 terminals in Silentium, which I am looking forward to.

Basically we have no idea if the Halo 3 accounts were accurate either, so as far as retcons go its not that bad.
 

Coconut

Banned
It would be a copy at best, just like putting any of the Guilty Sparks inside a meatbag wouldn't bring Chakas back.
I mean, sure, they could say that the people who were ripped apart layer by layer and turned to ash have been glued together and are back to normal, but then they'd abandon any pretense of making a science fiction story. On the plus side, the Master Chief might finally get his very own dragon by then.


Yep. Meanwhile, the player was simply lied to.

Yeah but it's a videogame with a fictional universe so they can say its what ever they want.
 
Yep. Meanwhile, the player was simply lied to.
You mean like how we were told the
Didact was executed but apparently wasn't
?
Because that stinks just as bad in my opinion.

It's not an "OH MAN, NO WAY, HE'S ALIVE" thing for me.

Basically we have no idea if the Halo 3 accounts were accurate either, so as far as retcons go its not that bad.
:-/

At what point does everything become unreliable and untrustworthy if they're going to manipulate the canon like that?
 

Fuchsdh

Member
You mean like how we were told the
Didact was executed but apparently wasn't
?
Because that stinks just as bad in my opinion.

It's not an "OH MAN, NO WAY, HE'S ALIVE" thing for me.


:-/

At what point does everything become unreliable and untrustworthy if they're going to manipulate the canon like that?
Well, I'm saying the difference here is not Bungie just rewriting the most pivotal battle in the war; even in Halo 3 the Terminals were essentially echoes of the past assembled after the Halo event (by Offensive Bias, perhaps.) I'm not saying hand waving and saying "well who the hell knows what really went down" is a good strategy long term, but in terms of building new fiction on the old the Terminals were a prime opportunity. In that way you can view it as akin the recounting the fact we never saw Hunters, Elites, Brutes, or Prophets until the final two months of the war--something necessary given the expanding scope of the universe.
 

Flipyap

Member
You mean like how we were told the
Didact was executed but apparently wasn't
?
Because that stinks just as bad in my opinion.

It's not an "OH MAN, NO WAY, HE'S ALIVE" thing for me.
Yes, just like that.

Hey, remember when they kept the last living Precursor in a cage?! That shit was craz--oh.

I, for one, can't wait until they finally reveal this ominous "Composer" creature. I heard it's a Forerunner suspended in the final stages of the Shapin--...oh, it's just a space butt plug.
 

Coconut

Banned
Damn. People need to reign in their emotions a bit, or tone down the gamefaqs talk. If I see another " *** was SHITTY, I hope someone gets fired" post, someone's getting a timeout without their milk and cookies.

I enjoyed the campaign overall, though there were some holes as people have mentioned. On the whole, though, this had the best presentation of all the halo games IMO. Putting the terminal vids on waypoint only was a huge misstep, though.

Having the need for those videos in general is a huge misstep. I think if you can't present that information within the context of the game either you need to rethink your story or rework the presentation of the information.
 
2) what is the composer doing? Seems to vaporize people not turning the, into robots.
It's Space Magic (and for some reason, people complained about this stuff only in Mass Effect) but yeah, it's the envy of all Reapers as I'd like to call it. But, I always give this stuff a pass as being ultra high tech we-can't-even-begin-to-understand kind of stuff. I'm still wondering about that artifact from Episode 2 of Spartan Ops and wanna know more about that now.
 
I was under the impression that their conciousness was what the composer was taking. So like people's minds are still their.

No, the composer never worked the the way it was intended to. It took their consciousness, but their personalites fragmented while composed. When they tried to put the personalities back into biological bodies, what was left is what the Librarian described as abominations.

Having the need for those videos in general is a huge misstep. I think if you can't present that information within the context of the game either you need to rethink your story or rework the presentation of the information.

Agree with you on this, hell, they didn't even present it in the game itself.
 
The ancient humans were good guys if anything. They just had a more upfront way to deal with the Flood. The Forerunners basically did the same as them but avoided the confrontation.

I'll say. Jesus, they sacrificed 1/3rd of their population by "feeding" them to the Flood. But shit, it worked!
 
Having the need for those videos in general is a huge misstep. I think if you can't present that information within the context of the game either you need to rethink your story or rework the presentation of the information.

I disagree, canon stuff from 100,000 years ago would bore the hell out of people playing Halo for the Campaign, making it an extra for those who care is the way they have to go.

Plus it would sorta kill the mysery behind everything, the Cryptum's purpose, the Didact being held in it, what the Librarian and Dicacts reasons for acting they way they did, the composer in general... etc.

I do agree that if the whole "ancient evil" thing was really just about the Didact then, shit... hopefully the shieldworld kelly and fred are on had a hidden Cryptum with some other forerunner and they tie that into being the real ancient evil in Halo 5,6...
 
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