I remember being fairly unimpressed with Halo 4 when it was released a decade ago.

Six games into the series, you can't expect the player to get that spartans are super soliders unless you show one doing a John Woo-style flip-kick.

All the other Halos ended with a badass Warthog escape. This one begins and ends with a walking simulator followed by "quickly, press f to pay respects or we will send you back to your last checkpoint and you will have to rewatch this dramatic moment!"

I love a good Star Fox/trench run redux. Or maybe I don't because this one was pretty uninteresting.

Chief has to save Earth - nay, the galaxy - from an ancient power. And there's a halo ring. It's all very novel.

So the main plot is about awakening an ancient evil that's very much like a Bond villain. There's a more emotional arc about Cortana reaching EOL and turning into Sydney. Finally, the game begins and ends with discussions about the spartan program ripping the humanity from its subjects. I *think* Chief's friendship with his AI waifu is supposed to indicate that there's still humanity there, but the lack of supporting dialogue means it's either very subtle writing or very poor writing - Chief visibly shrugging off Lasky's expressions of sympathy is certainly better than a scene where he's sobbing in the fetal position or shouting "Cortanaaaaa" at the top of his lungs. To muddy the waters more, the Librarian tells Chief he's the future of humanity, as if being 30% more badass is somehow a giant leap for civilization.

Isn't there a better story to tell?

Indiana Jones, probably

The beauty of archaeology is that there are an infinite number of ancient evils to awaken.

But, like, why not just let the halo rings and the ring factory be the end of the xenoarchaeology thing? There are a ton of Halo universe books that probably have better stories. Here are some more fanscript inspirations:

• The remains of Forward Unto Dawn crashes on a rando halo ring and they need to find a way off. Master Chief says to Cortana, "Ahh shit, here we go again". The ring's local fauna has evolved into intelligent, exoskeletoned predators with acid blood and, like, a mouth inside their mouth.
• Chief returns to Earth and travels to a small town to visit his old friend Arbiter. A run-in with local law enforcement ends poorly and Chief gets arrested. Chief escapes and uses his combat skills to evade the sheriff's manhunt. The sheriff is a brute.
• Just do something like ODST or Reach but with the Chief.

The rest is a better-looking copypaste of Halo 3 with a few new weapons/vehicles. Because Microsoft spent good money on the franchise and wasn't about to let their XBox loss leader do something different. But the Halo series is fun to play and that includes Halo 4.

Mostly harmless.

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