Why isn't the series as popular as it used to be?
Why do people say that the Halo series went to shit after 343 took over?
-Garbage art style
Shitty mechanics
Crappy map design
It didn't have marty's music
even if they were good it still wouldnt be popular because of how widespread the fps genre became after cod 4
>Why do people say that the Halo series went to shit after 343 took over?
Because the Halo series went to shit after 343 took over. You fucking retard.
Non-shitpost answer: Martin O' Donnell's music being absent and fucked up gameplay pacing caused by Sprint and other shit.
they made "Halo 4 - Start Another Fight" real
Shut up, Sonyfag
they just kinda missed the point of pretty much everything. like I seriously can't think of a single aspect they got right. everything from the art direction to the gameplay to the sound design to the story, they fucked it all up.
>Try to give Chief some real character development
>End up somewhat succeeding with 4 only to fail spectacularly with 5
>Try to introduce Locke as some stone cold badass that you might actually side with when he goes against Chief
>He ends up being a retarded gary stu who isn't fit to lick Chief's boots
What a fucking massive waste of potential
two words for ya:
>Bonnie Ross
-Shit ost
-decent at best art design
-spartan fucking 4, like really Spartan 3 was barely tolerable as it was.
-"Advance your DNA so you don't get zero summed by the FUCKING DIDACT"
-Weapons sound like shit
-Master Cheif talks more in the fucking promo for Halo 5 "hunt the truth" than the entire bungie series.
-Trying to humanize Chief as a story plot when he is ment to be a literal ONI tool.
-No flood (HW2 dlc did bring them back but waaaay too late for a series named after a mega weapon to kill the flood's food)
-No flood, I have to state this again because they are literally the reason the games existed.
-Shit skin customizations and weapon skins that weren't needed and add quite possibly negative gameplay value to the games.
-Halo 4 Specializations
Don't get me wrong I liked Halo 4's multiplayer and the story is decent and could be worse but they ruined a 10/10 shooter and its story for a 4/10 story and generic gameplay.
user lets time travel to 2007 when 343 Industries came into fruition. Tensions were high at this point, Halo 3 released and Bungie was no longer obligated to slave away for Microsoft. Around mid 2007 Microsoft put together 343 industries and hired people from Bungie that wanted to continue working on Halo and expanding the Franchise but unfortunately this was the year Call Of Duty World At War and Battlefield Bad Company came out and (((revolutionized))) the FPS genre with time to kill, killstreaks, running and other mechanics.
>Why does this matter user?
They blew up in population, stole players from Halo's fanbase and so Microsoft took this into account and came to the conclusion that the only way they could continue making bank was by also (((Revolutionizing))) Halo's simple gameplay. Long story short its 2009 Bungie leaves dramatically, they fire veterans from 343I and hire people who HATE Halo and want to ENHANCE or (((Revolutionize)))) the gameplay.
That is what happened.
Because they had to somehow build off a perfect trilogy, which only could have led to mediocrity, plus all of their halo titles came out when Xbox was at its worst.
This but they never hired Halo veterans they only hired a few, very few.
Because people don’t actually want new ideas or directions. They say they do, but they don’t. What most fans really wanted was a recreation of that feeling the first time they played Halo CE when they were 10. Thing is, if 343 had done a rehash of the oriotrilogy, people would say it’s uniriginal and boring. We’re all fucking hypocrites that can’t make up our minds.
Halo 4 had Marty's music. It was still trash.
Wrong, almost all of it was recomposed by incompetent millennials.
What utter nonsense, is this what zoomers that started with 3 actually believe?
>Neil Davidge
>incompetent millennials
Books
He's actually right.
Absolutely none of that is true.
thats literally what happened you dumb fuck.
You gonna back up any of those claims, retard?
user, its literally a click away.
Most of it except the Bungie veteran hire part is true, 343 brought a vertical slice to Microsoft of Halo 4 that played like Halo and Microsoft told them to change it because it didn't play like Call of Duty, they also told them to change the art style too.
I'll probably get shit for saying this, but 343 hasn't been given a fair chance. Listen to the recent IGN interview, Don Mattrick and Microsoft handled the property horribly for almost the past decade. Infinite will be their first true test.
youtu.be
Bait or not this is pretty succinct
inb4 >crowbcat
Zero proof, faggot. Keep rambling though, im sure someone will believe you
A lot of people say Reach was the beginning of the end, I personally think Halo 3 was when it started getting old
Literally none of that proves anything you retards are rambling about.
Thats what happened, look up all those articles. Infact ask anyone, keep living in your delusional world eat shit nigger.
Inoperable
>HAHA DIS WAT HAPPENED
>No, it didnt
>NO YES IT DID LOOK IT UP HURR DURR IM NOT GONNA SPOONFEED YOU HUURR DDURR DURR
Do you honestly believe that shit works on anyone that isnt as clearly mentally challenged as you are?
Yet you haven't explained or even proven me wrong other than "B-bro y-you're wrong!"
So keep eating that shit faggot.
The removal of the fun part of the old engines is literally past the 5 minute mark in the video
Yet you havent explained or even proven me wrong other than "B-bro y-you're wrong!"
So keep eating that shit faggot.
Dude this %100.
It’s not a question of what they got wrong, it’s what did they get right?
Nothing.
They took a massively popular ip with a very specific uniqueness and turned it into a bland uninspired Fps. Some of the scenery looked nice but that’s aboot it
4's campaign was shit.
>Prometheans are literally the most unfun enemy ever conceived in an FPS
>guns all feel like crap, new ones aren't fun to use aside from railgun
>can only care like 3 spare magazines for any weapon
>Covenant have worse AI than they used to
Didn't bother with 5 afterward. Aside from that I have misgivings with their art style and where they took the story.
Halo 1-3 managed to satisfy the casual and muh MLG community. You could play these games with friends to have a good time or be some tryhard grinding for his 50s and montages. The games supported and encouraged so many playstyles that everyone could like them in his own way. Reach had some controversial changes but you could have as much fun with it as with the other games. 4 just trashed the whole multiplayer fun. You had classes with unbalanced weapons so everyone would be using the DMR, there was no single competitive gamemode until a year after release and the Forge (which 343 could have literally copied from Reach as it was the best Forge) was the worst of the entired series. There were only a few gamemodes you could queue up for and most of them were involved DMR spam. The Spartans looked absolutely ugly. There was no point or reason behind their armor looking like it so no point in unlocking it.
To sum it up Halo 4 managed to only satisfy a fraction of the playerbase that played the other Halo games. There was a huge lack of gamemodes and overall no reason to progress as the unlockables were simply not worth it. If the game isn't fun and there is nothing to grind for then why even play?
I don't know you tell me?
>halo 4 had marty's music
how could anyone think this?
>Why do people say that the Halo series went to shit after 343 took over?
Because they made a shitty campaign with fucking QTEs (including the final boss fight), fucked up the Didact and Forerunner backstory from the novels, fucked up Chief's characterization, shitty UNSC/Covenent/Forerunner weapon analogs, pseudo-killstreaks via weapon drops instead arena/map-control, shitty maps that lagged during splitscreen, and such a focus on graphics that they had to massively reduce the number of weapons that persist on the ground due to RAM limitations (i.e. fucked up weapon scavenging in campaign).
And then Halo 5 doesn't even have splitscreen anymore.
You'll never get a reply from Yea Forums that's not hyperbolic rage, but here's my take at a fair assessment
>4
- Ruins the art style
- Campaign is pretty meh. It's not bad but it's not up to par with the past games relative to the year it released
- Tried to have an emotional story between MC and Cortana, which is polarizing
- Makes the UNSC super powerful in the postwar era, many of the human characters are obnoxious
- Adds full out Call of Duty Loadouts, perks, killstreaker esque shit, removed pickups from maps in MP by default, added sprint (this is the big one people have an issue with)
- Overall general conseusus aside from "it's shit" is that the MP sucks but the campaign is alright
>5
- Continues with shit art style
- Campaign is even worse then 4s, even not accounting for age it's worse then CE's
- Introduced a new squad of spartans you play as a la arbiter for some missions, except the main guy is even blander then MC is, unlike the arbiter.
- MP removed most of 4's codshit, and is back to even starts with pickups but added a bunch of new movement systems like a thruster pack, slide, a shoulder charge, etc. I personally think these are fine and most of the complaints are people reeeing at change just because
- Has a micotransaction system for comestics and for in a specific modeActually one of the least shit microtransaction systems i've seen
- No splitscreen/local play, MP is online only
- Overall general coensusus beyond the people who just go "it';s shit" is that the MP, core mechanics, and weapon balance is actually really good, if perhaps not quite what Halo should play like, but the campaign is complete trash
Eh, this is true for somewhat, for the good things 343 has done people whine about in principal but 343 has also legitmately fucked up a lot
Honestly 4's soundtrack is pretty good, it's just not marty tier
See above for 5. Even worse then 4 for SP but MP is really solid
you have no right to use mike ross in this capacity you dumb turbonigger
They tried to "modernize" it and in turn made not play like Halo anymore
343 had an early build of Halo 4 that played just like Halo 3, suits told them "this is just Halo" and had them change it and add a bunch of shit that doesn't fit the game.
>but here's my take at a fair assessment
All you do is dickride Halo 5 and ignore any criticisms towards its mechanics though.
>MP removed most of 4's codshit
All 4 added was loadouts and sprint for everyone
5 removed loadouts but kept sprint and added even more bullshit like ADS, clambering, ground-pounds, thruster packs, etc.
Halo 5 is just as, if not more, not-Halo as Halo 4, and the MP is fucking online-only on top. Halo 5 is easily the worst entry in the series for this reason alone.
>They tried to "modernize" it and in turn made not play like Halo anymore
What should Halo be playing like then? Be very specific.
Oh, and killstreaks/ordinances, but 5 might have those too anyway
>What should Halo be playing like then?
Fun
>Be very specific.
No more words needed
As close to any of the original trilogy as possible, take your pick.
The core formula stayed more or less the same. You had to make weighted decisions regarding on-foot movement, maps were design with this in mind, you couldn't just sprint from piece of cover to piece of cover. Vehicles played a primary role and were very important for map control and movement. No fluff like thruster packs or sprint that give the player a get-out-of-jail-free-card half the time when they're taking fire, jump height was higher and hadn't been replaced with stupid climbing animation.
Then Halo can be anything and have any gameplay mechanic as long as it is fun.
Did Truth know that activating Halo would kill everything?
In 2, he orders Tartarus to activate it, while Truth himself is not safe from the blast, so it sounds like he doesn't know.
In 3, he announces to the Covenant that the Ark will shield them from Halo, so I guess he knows?
Did he learn in between 2 and 3? If so, why isn't the player informed of this complete shift in the antagonist's motivation?
Also, even starts made sure players were incentivized to run around the map to find more weapons, loadouts and ordinances kind of ruined that. Marking power weapons was bunk.
>Did Truth know that activating Halo would kill everything?
Yes.
All three prophets embody the opposite of their namesake. Mercy calls for Arbiter to be executed in the opening on Halo 2 before he becomes the Arbiter, for example. Truth knew everything and was likely planning to fire the rings while out of range in a power-grab, he'd eliminate pretty much everything in the galaxy and he and his covenant would be the sole ruling power with unmatched tech and firepower..
But most would say the original Halo trilogy movement is way too slow for today.
halo.bungie.org
>Halo? In 2010 we started working on what we call "vertical slice" which is really just a representative section of how we imagine the final game will look, feel and play. Going through that prototype process, we made the obvious decision that before we could add new things to the Halo recipe, we first needed to fully understand the existing ingredients. Could we make a level that feels and plays like Halo? Could this team build Halo?
>Typically with a vertical slice, you're supposed to showcase the graphical art bar as well as a segment of gameplay. Our artists were working on a lot of art, but in 2010, David Berger and the development team were in the beginning of overhauling the engine so that in the future our artists could get their art in the game without compromising their vision.
>For the vertical slice, the mission we chose to build was part of our second mission, Requiem. We submitted it to our user research testing and it tested well. Users thought it was Halo, and they liked it. We at 343, as small a step as that was, celebrated a great milestone - and a kind of game design Hippocratic Oath:"First, do no harm."
>When Kiki and the team presented the slice to the execs, it was met with straight faces with people saying this just looks like Halo, this just plays like Halo. "Yeah, I know", I replied proudly, "Isn't that great? 343 can build Halo, this is huge." The execs sat with straight faces repeating, "This just plays like Halo." I walked my team from the room. "Was that good or bad?", Kiki asked. "Um, good. I think they ate something bad for lunch."
>To be fair to the execs, they didn't want to see the inside of the sausage making factory, they just wanted to know this team could not only build Halo, but take Halo forward. They wanted to see the "Wow."
1/2
>It was kind of a crazy time in the studio as we had a bunch of "wow" on paper, but really nothing in the game yet. Coming out of vertical slice, the team heard the message that it wasn't enough. While it was in the plan to take that "wow" from paper to game, we were just getting started. Bungie wasn't built in a day, and neither was 343.
2/2
Time to kill yourself, m8.
And Regret is bull-headed and ruthless
So why did he order Tartarus to fire the ring? Since, you know, it would kill him (Truth)?
Shouldn't have even given him attention, its probably some 343shill or better yet an employee.
Not really. The FOV was the only thing holding back the game from feeling properly fast, and it still does now.
Which is why it got changed, to "modernize" it for a new audience.
Problem was that the people they tried to appeal to didn't care and just kept playing other shooters so Halo 4 and 5 died a few months after release. In comparison to Halo 3 that stayed in the top-3 most-played games on XBL for years and still had daily peaks of over 1 million players a year after release. Halo 4 peaked at 20k after a year.
>Did Truth know that activating Halo would kill everything?
Yes. He lies to the rest of the Covenant in order to keep control, despite knowing that their entire religion is a lie, the Halo's are actually superweapons that will destroy everyone, and that humanity are the rightful inheritors of all Forerunner technology. He's a vicious nihilist who initiated the Covenant war against humanity in order to cover up the fact that humans are the rightful inheritors of Forerunner technology, because that revelation would destroy the religion of the Covenant and thus the power of the San'shyuum/prophets who rule it.
He's known this since before the start of the first game. The Contact Harvest novel (first human/Covenant contact) details this.
I don't remember the specific chain of events but I believe Truth said the Ark would shield him and everyone else on it, or that it would be out of range of the rings, one or the other
Because destroying you and your allies was worth it to him. He wants to protect the other prophets, and in order to do that he needs to keep the Covenant together, and in order to do that he needs to cover up the truth about Forerunners and humanity. Killing all humans is the fastest and safest way to ensure that, and the Chief has been one of the biggest obstacles to that.
9/11, constant mentions of holy war, and the middle east wars were the perfect backdrop for Halo's marines and the Covenant's Holy War. It was the perfect game at the perfect time. Gears of War as well (seeing a pattern?) These zoomers don't care about that shit+the themes got old+games falling in quality+e3 2013 = no one cares anymore.
So he's okay with killing everything including himself just because his religion was wrong about something?
This makes him sound like a really weak villain...
Halo 4's reason was that it played like COD, 343 fucked up the Season's Pass, and they fucked up red X's when they first implemented them in Halo 4, plus there was no file share, Forge felt barebones, there was no ranking system, and there was no classic playlist. By the time 343 added all of that to Halo 4 it was too late, Halo 5's problem was it didn't have split screen and less features than Halo CE. 343 took too long to add anything and everyone left. With Infinite they plan to have everything at launch including split screen and they plan to release free DLC faster that will be new content and not shit that should have been in the game since launch. I believe Halo Infinite will be the first Halo game in years to keep its players even if it has Sprint.
He wasn't going to kill himself, IIRC he was on the Ark, which was on its way to earth, and would have been out of range of the rings.
Someone please correct me if it is incorrect.
But by the time he reaches the Ark he and all the Covenant would be toast (if Tartarus would've succeeded in activating 05)
>So he's okay with killing everything including himself just because his religion was wrong about something?
Because his religion was wrong about something AND his attempts to stop that from coming out keep failing. If the San'Shyoom can't rule the galaxy, then no one should!
>This makes him sound like a really weak villain...
Dude needs a hoverchair to carry his wobbly ass around because his race is a bunch of lazy inbreds. No shit he's weak.
There was a ring there on the ark, are we sure it wouldn't have fired as part of the global activation?
so when the fuck is the beta?
>I believe Halo Infinite will be the first Halo game in years to keep its players even if it has Sprint.
I don't think there are that many who still care. I'm sure it won't flop or anything but its not going to come anywhere near Halo 2/3/Reach levels of popularity or match their long-term playerbases.
I was a die-hard fan, I bought the translucent green OG Xbox just for Halo CE and 2, never had anything else for it aside from DOA Volleyball, and I have zero interest in Infinite. Its going to have microtransactions regardless, so they can fuck themselves just for that. Why bother to maintain CE/2/3/Reach levels of functionality and content when most of it won't sell loot crates? Its 100% absolutely why 5 lacked local MP and co-op, because people playing locally or with guests probably aren't buying shit in Warzone.
By the events of the Halos, he's kinda gone full Nihilist because the war against humanity has been going very poorly for the Covenant. He's probably got some "dignified end" thing going on, where a suicide pact with the whole Covenant is preferable to the disgrace of the truth being revealed.
I'm not too clear on it to be honest, been years since I've played, but I'm pretty darn sure Truth was not planning to take himself or the Ark out when the rings were to be fired. IIRC Earth was out of range of the rings, or they were going to an installation that was out of range but near Earth, but I could be wrong about that, smeone correct me if this isn't the case.
>IIRC Earth was out of range of the rings
Oh? I thought the stakes of activating the rings were that Earth, the Covenant and every sentient being in the galaxy would die?
>Its going to have microtransactions regardless
Going by MCC recently, it won't.
Halo 5 had them, why wouldn't Infinite?
Ring 4 was destroyed, so everything in it's range would be safe
That's right, duh, Chief blew it up in CE.
The installation near Earth (maybe ?) was in the process of making a new one IIRC
They said that Infinite won't have any real money loot boxes and now they're using Reach as a testbed to test out a new armor unlock system, which they already said Infinite will be taking cues from Reach in terms of armor customization while also stating that the new unlock system for Reach in MCC won't have any sort of microtransactions or loot crates.
Okay that would make sense. But why does Miranda and Chief say in the beginning of Halo 3 that every sentient being in the galaxy would die?
Because it's possible the rings have overlapping fields of fire and can in fact still wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy despite missing a few.
Miranda: "If he succeeds, Humanity, The Covenant, every sentient being in the Galaxy..."
Chief: "The rings will kill us all"
Everything else still would have, and Installation 00 was making a replacement ring
Okay I don't know who to believe here
>They said that Infinite won't have any real money loot boxes
Not all microtransactions are loot crates though
The foundry in Installation 00 was almost finished making the replacement ring for the one Chief blew up
Yeah but that's clearly out of range of Earth. My question (or one of them anyways) is whether or not Earth would be hit by Halo despite 04 being destroyed?
stopped being an arena shooter with a plot, turned into a trend-copying shooter with a plot designed by devs who dont understand how to make an arena shooter, music went to shit, art went to shit, story went to shit, mechanics went to shit, sound direction went to shit, graphics went to shit, gameplay went to shit, features went to shit
It turns out when you hire shit, you get shit, how many scenes in Halo 4 had you rocking the shit out of an arena while goofy 2000s rock was shredding? thats right, none
Can you recall a moument from Halo 4 that stacks up with duel wielding alien plasma guns while shitting on an alien civil war?
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What about blowing across an African suspension bridge in a giant ass tank?
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Cutting a cable? seeing a Halo rise?
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kneeling by a friend to comfort him as he died? racing humans across a battlefield full of ancient space-zombies to ensure the Journey is fulfilled?
Now lets look at Halo 4
>I AM CHIEF AND I AM SAD
now lets look at halo 5
>I AM CHIEF AND I AM SAD ALSO MY HOLO GF IS EVIL NOW AND MY GAME WAS HIJACKED BY A NIGGER
Hmmm
True but the way they are talking I think they've removed them and will tie reqs to progression whereas you play multiplayer you'll increase your progression and then be able to go to a store like Reach and use your in-game credits to get armor, weapons, vehicles, and skins but there will be no way you purchase anything with real money and the way reqs work in Halo 5 will probably be a thing of the past.
Hi Frankie
I think Earth was in range of another ring and not 04/08
>Why isn't the series as popular as it used to be?
Because it's an archaic relic of a bygone era.
Movement in Halo games is slow as molasses, weapon diversity and control is extremely narrow, rocket splash is so huge you only need to lead on vehicles, and the crosshair magnetism is way too heavy-handed and not in-line with advances in manual gamepad aiming since 2001. Things like the BR and removal of health packs took the game backwards after CE, and yet the fans still argue for a Halo 3 clone.
The thing is, Halo isn't just slow compared to arena FPS; it's slow compared to other console shooters. Everything from the movement speeds, to the physics, to the ultra-heavy crosshair magnetism, is all a relic of a by-gone era where no one knew how to make FPS control smoothly on gamepads. By the 360 era, things improved enough to support the much faster gameplay of later COD games, BF series, UT3, even some Quake 4 console tournaments in France, etc.
So yeah, you can call Halo whatever you want, whether it's "tactical arena FPS" or whatever, but it's really its own thing which bears limited appeal either to PC arena FPS players or even people used to the later console military shooters.
Halo generally had 3 claims to fame
1) memorable music
2) plot and characters people could give a shit about
3) simple but satisfying gameplay
Marty got forced out, so 1 was out.
343 kind of had a hold on making their own way with plot and characters by working on Chief, but killed it by shoving in characters nobody cared about, letting Traviss call the shots, and adding in plot points you had to read fucking books to actually get
The gameplay came out at a time when CoD was on the rise, and the attempts to "modernise" it were so blatantly obvious that people took notice.
All this combined to chip away at the Juggernaut that was Halo, until it stopped being a name that instantly grabbed attention.
a slow paced arena shooter with well designed encounters and weapons sandbox designed to take you on fucking awesome space adventures with 10/10 music and cutscenes
>ADS
Every fucking threads you retards keep claiming this: It's 100% mechnically identical to the zoom the series always had, it's just made to look like ADS
>Clambering, ground pound, thruster packs
And these work fine in the context of Halo's gameplay, and if anything only enhance the core elements of Halo's design, so there's nothing wrong with them aside from a few snafus in how they are balanced and executed.
>Halo 5 is just as, if not more, not-Halo
Only because you are retardedly seeing any deviation from Halo's 1-3 as automatically being "un-halo", without xconsidering how specific mechanics either destract, enhance, or don't impact Halo's underlying design goals
For fucks sake, Halo 3's equipment is a violation of Halo's golden triangle philsophy. I don'-t fundementally think that's a problem, but if you wanna be a Halo purist, then you should be mad as that. 5's mechanics not only preserve the golden triangle but also preserve even starts.
>Halo 5 is easily the worst entry in the series for this reason alone.
And I agree with you, which is why while I'll defend 5's mechanics, I have never and will never rec anybody actually buy the game, because it's anti-consumer as fuck
It doesn't.
Nah, unlike most shitposters on Yea Forums I actually try to engage and even encourage people to have back and forths with me, it's just 99% of the time people don't have any actual counterpoints to what i'm saying. I do and have conceded when I'm wrong though
Truth's entire characterization changed in Halo 3 as a result of Joe staten being on a sabbartical from bungie, we don't know what his actual end goals were supposed to be as a result.
>and adding in plot points you had to read fucking books to actually get
end this meme, 4 fucking explains more shit about the characters and concepts it introduced then CE, 2, and 3 combined, the issue is just 4's writing is shit
I just don't see them not implementing microtransactions in some form, its far too lucrative
Explain to me the relationship the spartans with Chief have using information you'd only find in the main games.
He was hauling ass to the Ark which wasnt in range of the rings, thats why the Ring at the ark could fire and not set off any of the other rings
>The Galaxy is completely fuck-empty save for you and your most loyal followers
>now you are free to assume any direction of the universe you want once the reseeding starts
>Truth becomes God becuase who knows any better?
I will always laugh at how retarded and wrong this copypasta is.
>It's 100% mechnically identical to the zoom the series always had
Then why even fucking change it
Fuck off, Halo isn't COD
With governments cracking down on it, I just don't see it.
See
I feel like if Tartarus would've succeeded in activating 05, it would go off before Truth reached safe distance.
Or is it that easy to avoid a Halo blast? To the point where you can activate it and haul ass out of range before it goes off?
Specifically randomized lootcrates, and not the US
I have been a fan of Halo since the Halo 1 E3 trailer, I designed maps for CE and have followed this series for it's technical keystones. Halo as a series has a bible of rules to follow that make it Halo
>The Golden Triangle
Halo 4 breaks this
>Ten seconds of fun
Halo 4 breaks this
>Never take control from the player
Halo 4 breaks this
Halo was an innovator in an era of imitators, now Halo is an imitator in an era of innovators
I do believe he'd have accidentally killed himself too, it still takes him a while to dig the ark out and get it running, he'd have been a victem of his own schemeing
I also think that Elite pressure on the Brute forces at the control room accelerated plans ahead of schedule, Tarturus was badly losing the battle and was backed into the control room with no way out. Remember that he unironically believed in the journey and had no idea of what Halo actually was. So rather than let the Journey die at his hands he fired it early before Truth was ready at the Ark. Had Arbiter not been on the ring at that time it's activation likely would not have been ordered until Truth was ready to just lift off to the ark to watch the milky way die from a safe distance.
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