For us, it’s only been a mere two months since we last left off with the Master Chef. For him, it’s been nearly five years. In that time, the world has gone through many changes. And with those changes, new threats have emerged.
It’s a brave new frontier, but that risotto still needs to be cooked properly. Find out how our culinary expert manages to keep it from burning in Halo 4!
As I said on stream, I do not envy the position 343 Studios would themselves in when starting development on this project. Halo: Reach was such a high note to end Bungie’s contribution to the series on that following up that act was going to be nigh impossible. The fact that it wasn’t universally lambasted was a minor miracle in-and-of-itself.
Creating a new Halo game after that is such a tight, precise balancing act. On one hand, the dev team isn’t “allowed” to stray too far from the established blueprint left behind by their predecessors. If they do, they risk not making a “true Halo game” in the eyes of the fanbase. And yet, rigidly adhering to that same blueprints brings with it the risk that their product will be “too safe”, and grow stale in the eyes of the fans.
To some extent, the Prometheans, specifically their weapons, seem like a symptom of that problem. All of their guns feel like another variant of weapons we already have in the arsenal: Pistols, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, and Sniper Rifles. Unlike the Covenant weapons, they don’t do enough to distinguish themselves from regular human weapons. Not only do the Covenant weapons usually inflict a different type of damage (with hurts shields more than flesh), but with few exceptions aren’t capable of being reloaded. The Promethean weapons, in contrast, feel like palette swaps of human guns with worse audio design and unique animations.
Not to say they don’t play well. I’ve been having a blast with the time I’ve been using them. However, I can’t help but wonder if I would have had the same level on enjoyment from just wielding ordinary weaponry, or something more exotic.
It’s tough to tell.
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