Zodi Plays: Halo Reach (Reach Out And Touch This Guy)

[LaZodiac]

Wait, you play FFXIV Zodi? I don't think I knew that. Which server are you on? I started a couple months ago and it's been really fun so far!

Zalera, on Crystal.

Hyperion, Ensara Bloodmoon. I'd be surprised if we and Ninja Prawn are on the same server though. it'd be fortunate, but.....hm. will have to look into how this can be done...

Yeah, seems tricky.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Yeah, I mean I'm in Europe (Twintania, Light). But data centre travel is coming soon!

[Rynjin]

Even accounting for all of that they shot her with a gun and she's wearing what looks to be full on metal-alloy armour. A single bullet should not kill her. Or at the very least, have it be mentioned "hey when the building got hit and I got briefly cut off that was me taking damage and now my suit is broken" or, you know, have the needle rifle do the needle explosion. Would ruin the gravitas, but as it is it's SUPER overwrought anyway.

I mean, it's consistent with gameplay. If someone's shields are gone and you dome them with the needle rifle, they just die. Those crystals they use in those guns are no joke. The books make them even more horrifying, they have a lot of penetrating power.

Also wait she had an artificial arm? And we never get to actually see that? That sucks! Booo! Boo-urns!

You do get to see it, it's part of her character model.

Spoiler: Images; Right arm

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[LaZodiac]

I mean, it's consistent with gameplay. If someone's shields are gone and you dome them with the needle rifle, they just die. Those crystals they use in those guns are no joke. The books make them even more horrifying, they have a lot of penetrating power.



You do get to see it, it's part of her character model.

Spoiler: Images; Right arm

Show

Maybe I'm just biased since I've never played multiple player, but they don't seem THAT dangerous.

... oh man now I feel bad she's dead because that's super cool. Shame she didn't get to do anything of real interest.

[Rynjin]

Reach has, IMO, the best multiplayer in the series (though there's a bit of a feud in the community about Reach or 3) so it might be worth giving a shot.

[DataNinja]

So! Fun fact about this mission: It's randomized! (Well... sorta. According to all of the Wikis the missions are randomized, but I do remember my guidebook saying that on Easy and Normal the first destination is always Sinoviet - the place you went to first - and a speedrunning site says the same thing.)

...anyways, it's randomized which order the three jammers are taken out in. And in between the jammers, there is always one random objective, chosen from a list. If you have 3 or 4 people, you have two simultaneous objectives to do. (Now's a good time to mention co-op: if you have 3 or 4 players, all enemy types go up a rank. So Blue Elite Minors promote to Orange Elite Majors, for instance.)

In addition, if you have at least 2 people, you'll get a second Falcon at the start of the mission - this one's got grenade launcher turrets, instead of machine guns. If you lose your Falcon, and need to call for evac, this one'll show up, too.

There's also an easter egg - you can pilot a Phantom or Pelican. You need to find a switch on the underhang of one of the buildings, and then press it. If single player, you need a jetpack, and if multiplayer, someone needs to stand on the nose of the falcon. Then, you fly your aircraft through that loop-shaped building. And... yeah. Now, I've never actually done this personally, but it's pretty neat.


I love the Focus Rifle. It was my favorite gun for a time. It just needs to be able to fire longer.


I also love the touch of the jammer jamming your UI a bit with every pulse of it.


As you've learned, enemies with Armour Lock are smart! If you try and supercombine needles, they'll armour lock before the last one hits, giving the others time to shatter.


"Hold still you stupid monkey." It wasn't holding still because it was an Elite jumper. The Elites came in when the Brutes all died.


I love how you get the Buck escort, when I've never seen him in all my times I've played this mission.

Even accounting for all of that they shot her with a gun and she's wearing what looks to be full on metal-alloy armour. A single bullet should not kill her. Or at the very least, have it be mentioned "hey when the building got hit and I got briefly cut off that was me taking damage and now my suit is broken" or, you know, have the needle rifle do the needle explosion. Would ruin the gravitas, but as it is it's SUPER overwrought anyway.

The implication I always got was that all the radiation overloaded the shields. But, that's me making assumptions based on external information and stuff, just based on how shields react in other stuff. But, yeah... it's definitely dramatic hyperbole.

But, yeah. This is another reason I call Reach the game that ODST was trying to be. Because the game's willing to kill off some of your squad (and, in theory, you care about them at least a bit). We've lost the heart, and we've lost the technical operative. Whereas everyone in ODST made it out, even when there should have been no way.

[LaZodiac]

So! Fun fact about this mission: It's randomized! (Well... sorta. According to all of the Wikis the missions are randomized, but I do remember my guidebook saying that on Easy and Normal the first destination is always Sinoviet - the place you went to first - and a speedrunning site says the same thing.)

...anyways, it's randomized which order the three jammers are taken out in. And in between the jammers, there is always one random objective, chosen from a list. If you have 3 or 4 people, you have two simultaneous objectives to do. (Now's a good time to mention co-op: if you have 3 or 4 players, all enemy types go up a rank. So Blue Elite Minors promote to Orange Elite Majors, for instance.)

"Hold still you stupid monkey." It wasn't holding still because it was an Elite jumper. The Elites came in when the Brutes all died.

I love how you get the Buck escort, when I've never seen him in all my times I've played this mission.

The implication I always got was that all the radiation overloaded the shields. But, that's me making assumptions based on external information and stuff, just based on how shields react in other stuff. But, yeah... it's definitely dramatic hyperbole.

But, yeah. This is another reason I call Reach the game that ODST was trying to be. Because the game's willing to kill off some of your squad (and, in theory, you care about them at least a bit). We've lost the heart, and we've lost the technical operative. Whereas everyone in ODST made it out, even when there should have been no way.

Oho! That's actually really interesting. Explains why we got like, two achievements; we got two of the FUN random objectives.

I knew that jetpack man was to svelte to be a monkey, I just thought he was just... thinner, so specced for flight.

Just my luck. Just my Buck.

I will say this, and will probably say it in a video too; while it is nonsensical that none of the ODST members died while Kat died so offhandedly, it does kind of sell the idea that "this is a war we're going to lose, one of humanity's darkest moments". Like, we know plot wise this planet is getting GLASSED. It SHOULD be dramatic with even Spartans falling in battle. Jorge's sacrifice fits that quite well; it is the Spartan doing a noble heroic sacrifice... that turned out to be wasted effort. Kat getting gackted out of nowhere, while realistic (in the sense that war is brutal) is not realistic in the sense of how the game world functions. It's an unfortunate flaw in that it is hard to write a satisfying "sudden and tragic death", especially in a setting where everyone has power armour and energy shields.

So yeah. It does feed that theme a little, but ultimately doesn't quite make the hurdle of sensibility. If I were to do it, under the assumption it had to be done here, I'd have the spike go through the neck specifically- we hear her sputtering as she bleeds out, as they try to save her, as she tries to say what she needed to say before dying. Have it also be mentioned, or shown through just visual language, that her being in a building that got hit with artillery fire ****ed up her armour, so the shield is down. Having the needle shot go through the neck (where it'd be lightly armoured to allow movement) makes sense. It's okay for death to be sudden, but set it up.

[DataNinja]

I knew that jetpack man was to svelte to be a monkey, I just thought he was just... thinner, so specced for flight.

Yeah. I do love the storytelling where the Elites make not one move to help out the Brutes while they have any choice.

I will say this, and will probably say it in a video too; while it is nonsensical that none of the ODST members died while Kat died so offhandedly, it does kind of sell the idea that "this is a war we're going to lose, one of humanity's darkest moments". Like, we know plot wise this planet is getting GLASSED. It SHOULD be dramatic with even Spartans falling in battle. Jorge's sacrifice fits that quite well; it is the Spartan doing a noble heroic sacrifice... that turned out to be wasted effort. Kat getting gackted out of nowhere, while realistic (in the sense that war is brutal) is not realistic in the sense of how the game world functions. It's an unfortunate flaw in that it is hard to write a satisfying "sudden and tragic death", especially in a setting where everyone has power armour and energy shields.

So yeah. It does feed that theme a little, but ultimately doesn't quite make the hurdle of sensibility. If I were to do it, under the assumption it had to be done here, I'd have the spike go through the neck specifically- we hear her sputtering as she bleeds out, as they try to save her, as she tries to say what she needed to say before dying. Have it also be mentioned, or shown through just visual language, that her being in a building that got hit with artillery fire ****ed up her armour, so the shield is down. Having the needle shot go through the neck (where it'd be lightly armoured to allow movement) makes sense. It's okay for death to be sudden, but set it up.

Yeah, it's... tricky. Especially when compared to Jorge's death. I think having the two basically opposing types is good, and it doesn't bother me as much as it does others, but... it's definitely a bit of a "wait what?" moment, and not in a good way.

I do absolutely applaud them for killing off a third of your squad, though. Since that's something that you basically never have happen.

Sure, Keyes happened (well, both Keyes'), but... in Halo 1, he's basically a non-character McGuffin figure. And while his daughter does get more, that's... basically at the climax of the arc of three games. Same with Johnson, it's literally right at the end. And these are characters that you've really only briefly crossed paths with, narratively. You've gotten to know them (especially Johnson, who's on the ground sometimes - but, again, is there until the very end), but not closely. Unlike your (and Nathan Filion's) squad, that's been with you through the entire game.

...though, I do wish Kat got more spotlight. Jorge and Carter were the ones with the most active screentime, while Kat was mostly Cutscenes (and even with that, Carter got more). Would have hit harder if it was Carter, honestly. And then someone else had to pick up command. At least in my opinion. Clearly Bungie didn't think that way.

[LaZodiac]

Reeeach out and touch this guuuy

Zodi Plays: Halo Reach [9] It Is Hard To Make A Joke About The Package

Video Length: 39:10

In this thrilling episode of Reach, we go back to the ONI Sword Base to blow it up- except not, we have to pick up a thing instead. Something tells me we're not working for very morally upstanding people. There's some pretty solid dodges by yours truly here, and also a question is raised at the end that we really need some lore experts to explain because what? What??

[PoeticallyPsyco]

In Halo, AIs can fragment themselves to better work on multiple tasks simultaneously. The titular package is a fragment of Cortana she split off to assist in Halsey's research. Your next mission, The Pillar of Autumn, is to deliver this fragment to the ship from the first game so that it can rejoin the rest of her and she can take advantage of what she's learned here.

AIs splitting themselves only comes up one other time in the lore as far as I know, when a ship AI splits a fragment of itself to watch over a medical proceeding and then the ship is boarded by Covenant, who manage to get engineers directly to the AI core and shut it down/cut it off from the rest of the ship. The fragment and the single ODST she was operating on then have to work together to blow up the ship and prevent them from accessing vital information. This is made a lot harder by the fact that, as a mere fragment, the AI doesn't have the power or authority to override the Three Laws of Robotics anymore, which makes, for instance, blowing up the ship the ODST's on impossible for her.

The series that really goes all in on the AI fragments idea, though, is Red Vs Blue. Non-canon, but it and Halo share a lot of canon, and I wouldn't be surprised if the idea of fragmenting Cortana was inspired by RvB.

[Rynjin]

Normally I would say that's silly, but somebody, perhaps multiple people at Bungie were clearly real big fans of Red vs Blue given some of the promotional stuff they did, and the addition of Grifball as a base multiplayer game mode, so...maybe?

[Lord Raziere]

On Fragmenting AI:
Halo Reach came out in 2010. the Recollection Trilogy of Red Vs Blue where the concept of AI fragments is first explicitly stated, ran from 2008-2010. It is very possible that they saw the first one of the trilogy and had enough time to add that in.

Halo Reach Log 009:
Ah yes, thanks welcoming me Zodi. I feel very welcomed to Oh Water.

at this point, I'm pretty sure UNSC's general ammunition plan for Spartans is "give them only one clip to save on ammo, let them pick up guns from our enemies to use against them because they are so good at killing them."

I dunno, Spartans killing the Covenant mostly with stolen Covenant tech says otherwise.....

did you just.....? Zodi. you switched a gun with 128 ammo for a gun with only five fuel rods when you could've discarded the gun wit only 15 ammo. your making poor ammo decisions.

this is just poor ammo decisions: the video isn't it?

we need more "Space Is Airplanes" that would be a bit more accurate. not a whole lot, but y'know. I'm pretty sure they are more equipped to handle 3D movement. but then again aircraft carriers ARE navy.....of course we really want to be accurate about space combat, there is a lot things you need to do to make sure its entertaining or it pretty much boils down to "computer sees little dot in the distance. we fire missiles at that dot before it fires them at us. hope it didn't fire first or we're screwed because this is basically very long range rocket tag." so y'know, naval combat but with no missing because computers can be incredibly precise and there is no stealth in space, longer ranges because space, on sudden death rules because one hit makes you lose your air supply. unless you design to have multiple redundant air supplies and make your ships....big like navy ships with multiple sections and layers that automatically shut the doors to not lose ALL the air when they detect no atmosphere. either that or we're sending robots do our fighting in space anyways, which worries about robot rebellions aside is probably more practical anyways.

ten million sassy robot characters disagree with M here and so do I.

to give himself a challenge. he was too good at fighting so he decided to put a skull in front of his sight to make sure fighting is fun again.

your theory was close.

Not in this particular instance, Zodi. not in this particular instance, unless you count escorting someone being bad guys. its strange neither of you guessed what is actually being done here.

Okay lore time to set things straight:
Cortana is not a Forerunner AI. She is a digital brain clone of Dr. Halsey. the only difference from any other AI the UNSC uses is that she is designed for cyber-warfare and intelligence and such. the Forerunner artifact.... is just basically a database. a database that Cortana decoded because she is probably the only AI that could. that database pointed her to the Halo of the original game. thats all. there is no special artifact your carrying other than information that leads to MC and Co to discovering the Halos and the Flood. your overthinking this.

[DataNinja]

So, one thing I always loved that I only realized later - the reason there's water and stuff here is because the glaciers that were by Sword Base before have all melted because of the glassing.


...are we, uh, are we just going to walk past the TANK???


So, uh, because we walked past the tank: You can use it to blow up the AA guns without going inside. A couple of shots from the main turret at the gun platform itself does it.

The good thing about not taking the tank, though, is that the Fuel Rod Shades make it a nightmare to approach Sword Base proper with it.


Excuse me, if there were no sassy robots, we wouldn't have GLaDOS. And I think we'd lose something if only the Portal 1 version existed in this world.


The Mongoose by Halsey's lab is mostly for getting around to reactivate the turrets quickly. Also, there's a bunch more stuff. Including jetpacks. Hijacking a Banshee is annoying, but super fun.


The energy orb thingy in Halsey's lab is, I believe, referencing the ones that appeared in Halo Wars. So that's neat.


Poor Jun. Stuck with escorting Halsey and/or performing asset denial. I wish we'd got to see a bit more of him.

***

So: This is where Reach branches off a lot from canon. In Book!Canon, Cortana never stepped foot (well, as much as an AI can step) on the planet. She remained in orbit with the Pillar of Autumn, as the ship's AI was still yet to be delivered. There was no facility on Reach - the coordinates Cortana used to find Halo during the "random" Cole Protocol jump were found from a Forerunner artifact in the Sigma Octanus system. So... things are going to be fuzzy no matter what.

According to game canon, this Cortana is the actual Cortana. And, no, there is zero bridging information reconciling why she was there and when she was delivered compared to any earlier adventures. If we want to weld canon, we can, however, easily say that this Cortana was just a fragment. Fragments are... an idea from Halo that keeps popping up once or twice, then disappearing again. It's never been mentioned in the games as of this point, even when it would have been super useful to be able to have just... left a fragment in Covenant Systems.

(Fragmenting was first mentioned in the First Strike novel (the prelude to Halo 2), I believe, which was released in 2003 - Cortana fragmented there in order to help the Master Chief on a mission. Again, would have been super useful later! It comes up again with both voluntary and involuntary fragmentation in other novels. I see one's already been mentioned by PoeticallyPsyco, but the other that I can recall involves one being involuntarily fragmented due to a Forerunner-artifact-induced Slipspace Bubble accident.)

To make a long story short, the game makers had no interest in working with book canon, or even making it work. The game definitely makes a much better game because of it, but it's been a controversial choice because The Fall of Reach as a novel is considered one of the best Halo pieces of media, and they're essentially incompatible.

Also: You absolutely aren't the only ones who misinterpreted this scene, though. My friend that I played through Reach with who knew nothing about Halo 100% thought that the implication was that Cortana was the Forerunner artifact. They really did not tell it well. (Halsey's Journals included with the collectors edition of Halo Reach is the source that explicitly canonizes in-game(ish) that Cortana was made from flash-clones of Halsey's brain. It was only in novelizations before.)

...let's just say that 343i's penchant for making you need to know external lore to understand stuff didn't exactly start with 343i.


Tldr; Cortana's just carrying around the library of Forerunner stuff in her, hence why she has Halo's coordinates.

[LaZodiac]

Thank you all very much for the explanations as to why Cortana. It is certainly enlightening! I will never escape Roosterteeth's decisions for as long as I live.

Do you think 343 also misinterpreted this scene and that's why, apparently, Cortana is super duper important in their games?

[DataNinja]

Thank you all very much for the explanations as to why Cortana. It is certainly enlightening! I will never escape Roosterteeth's decisions for as long as I live.

Do you think 343 also misinterpreted this scene and that's why, apparently, Cortana is super duper important in their games?

I feel like it's probably a coincidence, given that it's never established canonically to be a fragment. (But, also, it's this large, unwieldy capsule, as opposed to a chip you put in your armour, so... who knows what they're doing.)

And... I think that's also giving 343i too much credit. As opposed to just... not having any plan at all because Halo really didn't have any plans to go anywhere after Halo 3.

[Lord Raziere]

I feel like it's probably a coincidence, given that it's never established canonically to be a fragment. (But, also, it's this large, unwieldy capsule, as opposed to a chip you put in your armour, so... who knows what they're doing.)

And... I think that's also giving 343i too much credit. As opposed to just... not having any plan at all because Halo really didn't have any plans to go anywhere after Halo 3.

Yeeeeaaaaaaah, probably.

though to be fair, Cortana IS technically more important than MC in a military sense. Cortana is the thing that they'd hope actually gets the data/info they need, or hack the systems that screw Covenant over, things like that. MC is just the incredibly violent mailman/bodyguard that delivers the AI from place to place and no matter how many he kills personally probably doesn't even make a difference in the overall war against the Covenant.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

(Fragmenting was first mentioned in the First Strike novel (the prelude to Halo 2), I believe, which was released in 2003 - Cortana fragmented there in order to help the Master Chief on a mission. Again, would have been super useful later!

That was actually not fragmenting; it was a different, way more useful trick, to the point of being potentially story breaking for the current Halo universe. The Covenant seemingly can't create smart AI, yet they do have a few. First Strike shows that what they do have is code that can copy an existing AI, with some errors. The implication is that Covenant AI are so jumbled and kind of crazy because they are at this points copies of copies of copies of copies, but Cortana demonstrates that if the original is present they can find and fix most of those errors. (Cortana herself is kinda terrified by this, since it does precisely nothing to help the rampancy she's getting distressingly close to, and the more of her are around the more likely that one of her will go rampant, but does still use it once and essentially subsumes the copy to double her capacity, as an aside making her theoretically twice as powerful as any other human AI at the time).

During the climactic mission of the book, Chief and co are infiltrating a huge Covenant base, and Cortana sends a copy of herself along while she stays with the ship. The mission goes bad, and Copy!Cortana starts duplicating herself like crazy to keep ahead of Covenant countermeasures. There are thousands of her, maybe millions, in that base by the time they leave.

Spoiler: Current Halo canon

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If they give current, tyrant Cortana this ability in Halo Infinite and going forward, she becomes essentially unstoppable. She could have a copy of herself in every star system in the galaxy, and that copy could still duplicate itself into every piece of technology capable of holding it in that star system at need.

The end result of that would probably be much like the Ancillary Justice series, but a rebellion is never going to have enough military might to take her down.

[DataNinja]

That was actually not fragmenting; it was a different, way more useful trick, to the point of being potentially story breaking for the current Halo universe. The Covenant seemingly can't create smart AI, yet they do have a few. First Strike shows that what they do have is code that can copy an existing AI, with some errors. The implication is that Covenant AI are so jumbled and kind of crazy because they are at this points copies of copies of copies of copies, but Cortana demonstrates that if the original is present they can find and fix most of those errors. (Cortana herself is kinda terrified by this, since it does precisely nothing to help the rampancy she's getting distressingly close to, and the more of her are around the more likely that one of her will go rampant, but does still use it once and essentially subsumes the copy to double her capacity, as an aside making her theoretically twice as powerful as any other human AI at the time).

During the climactic mission of the book, Chief and co are infiltrating a huge Covenant base, and Cortana sends a copy of herself along while she stays with the ship. The mission goes bad, and Copy!Cortana starts duplicating herself like crazy to keep ahead of Covenant countermeasures. There are thousands of her, maybe millions, in that base by the time they leave.

Oh, riiiight. It's been so long since I read it that I forgot it introduced, like, five new things that are literally never brought up again despite how incredibly important they'd be.

[LaZodiac]

This time... we finish the fight.

Zodi Plays: Halo Reach [10] [FINALE] Pillar of Fall Down

Video Length: 54:03

In this episode... we beat Halo Reach! What?! That's kind of surprising and out of nowhere! Speaking of surprising and out of nowhere; what exactly shot Noble 1, again? Did we miss it or did it happen off screen? Who knows! The level mechanically isn't a bad level either, it's just... odd that THIS is the finale for the game. It felt like we had like, a third of the game left honestly.

That said, this was fun. Reach is, for me, decidedly average, but a high average! It's a good game, and I get why people like it. The ending is also unbelievably good... minus the very obviously tacked on thing that I go more into in the video. But yeah, hope you all enjoyed! Next time... Halo Floor.

[Ninja_Prawn]

"We didn't even get to see me die!"

Yes we did, Zodi, you've died dozens of times during this LP.

And I believe the phrase you were going for is Bolivian Army Ending, not Bohemian. Though I don't think that's actually the right trope - in a Bolivian Army Ending it fades to black before any actual violence happens. It's more like just a bonus 'endless' mode tacked onto the end of the game, kind of like how it kicks you straight into Zombies at the end of the Call of Duty Black Ops.

It was definitely a smart choice to use and endless game mode to reflect the mantra of 'Spartans never die' on a meta level. Though it'd have been even better if all the other members of Noble team had been removed from the action in ways where you could plausibly have believed they escaped alive...

what exactly shot Noble 1, again?

I don't know if there's an official answer, but I assumed he was hit with plasma cannon fire from the banshees that were strafing the pelican.

[DataNinja]

"I don't like the answer, but..." Well... welcome to every question you'll have about lore from this point forwards. Every. Single. One.


Ah, this level. Notorious for being the main place to get the achievement that requires you to survive a fall that'd kill you by doing an assassination. There's an elite right at the start you have to run off and hit in the back at just the right time. It takes... a long time.
(You can also use a banshee, but need to be stupid lucky.)


Yeah, plasma pistol's actually decently useful. EMPs vehicles (great for hijacking), and a charged shot instantly drops shields.


The Skirmishers with the buckler shields also have the Hologram Armour ability! They can project a duplicate ahead of them! It's neat, and only shows up there.


Fun fact! On Legendary (or with the Mythic Skull), all Hit Points are doubled. That includes the Glassing Port. Which means it takes two shots from your Mass driver to take it out.


Leave it to Halsey to interrupt your moment of triumph.


So, there aren't any Easter Eggs in the ending, besides a Datapad on Legendary, and an achievement for getting a certain score. But the one neat little quirk (beyond the damaged HUD, which I love), is that if Player 2 dies second during splitscreen... it's their Spartan who's in the ending cinematic. As opposed to every other cinematic, where it's always Player 1.

-----

So, obviously, I'm biased, because Reach was my first Halo game. But, I genuinely think that your enjoyment of the game lives or dies on how much you like gimmicks. Because each level has its own, which is basically never revisited. You have the Ordinary Level, the Vehicle Level, the Sniper Level, the Space Level, the Helicopter Level, the Rocket Warthog level, the ODST level, etc.

Other Halos had gimmicks, sure, but, like, besides vehicle runs, sniper levels, or banshee flights, you didn't have a whole bunch of levels focused around specific gimmicks. You had setpieces like the Scarabs, but the games tended to use roughly the same stuff, just... progressing through locales. Reach has a lot more skipping around in a concentrated area.

And, I'll be the first to admit, Reach's story, absent of the other Halos is... not that compelling. I liked it, but also I felt the deaths were more compelling than y'all did. And was more "...they actually went ahead and killed off everyone." (Except Jun.)

But, to me, the story isn't really about Noble Team. It's the story of Reach, and watching it die. You're in various locales, seeing the inexorable Covenant assault. Watching as you try your best to eke out any victory. You destroy the Spire... but there are so many more. You destroy the supercarrier... only to have the fleet arrive. Defend Sword Base... only for it to fall. Have to do what you can as New Alexandria is glassed around you. As many civilians don't make it off-planet. Have to run through a force that you don't have the firepower to defeat. And which is only a fraction of what's being thrown at the planet.

I dunno. For me, I really like that. Leaning into the futility of it all. Showing what the Covenant's like when you aren't the Master Chief, in a most extraordinary situation. The fact that no matter how good you are, they're still unstoppable.


----

Ahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa. Halo 4. Ooooooooboy. I'm not gonna spoil anything but... it sure is a ride.

[Rynjin]

Halo 4 is the game that killed the franchise for me, and I never finished it.

...Have fun?

[Lord Raziere]

Halo Reach Log 010: Unlucky
Technically not dead yet......

Post-Mortem Profile: Carter-A259, Noble One
Carter was born in Durban, Bilko, August 27, 2520, making him.....32 years old. His parents were killed when Bilko when it was glassed by the covenant in 2526, he obviously survived. Before he could join the refugee program he was conscripted into Spartan-III program's Alpha Company in 2532, meaning he was only 12 at the time. His talents and leadership ability led his superiors to form Noble Team as he was considered more valuable to waste on disposable suicide missions, and he earned the rank of Commander, one of the few highly ranked Spartans to serve the field and hewas given a lot of freedom to choose which Spartans got on his team. Kat is actually one of the few remaining survivors of the original team, so those two actually go way back.

Battle of Fumirole of course, happened, Thom died, y'know the rest. his profile unfortunately, is just "he was a really great leader" and something about minor trust issues according to this but......I don't think we spent a long enough time to see that.

End of Profile

...there NOW he is dead. at least he went down taking down a scarab.

Technically its not the same model of Spartan Laser as the one in Halo 3, and therefore the tech probably isn't as good because prequel, but whatever.

I get the sith reference.

Well......actually....... well....

Post-Mortem Profile: Emile-A239, Noble Four
Emile was born in Luxor, on Eridanus II (same homeworld as MC), 2523, making him 29. His parents were killed by Insurrectionists, his brother sacrificed himself against the Covenant so he can escape when he was 7, Sparten II picked up yet another orphan (seeing the pattern here?) graduated from the the program at the age of 13, removed from the general population of Spartan IIIs, and later became the Noble team member. his backstory is nothing special but his personality on the other is more interesting:
Emile believed that maintaining one's humanity in war was irrational. that both ideas cannot co-exist. so he decided not to let them. he favored a loud aggressive approach to combat, he wanted to prove that he wasn't afraid of the enemy, nor of whatever is necessary to win the war, he was often guilty of overkill, though his sadism apparently an affectation to potentially break the enemies will to fight, not because he enjoyed it, and his skull carving on his visor was a trophy- one for every covenant he killed to threaten the covenant when they see him. he was distrustful of civilians, had difficulty interacting with non-Spartans, and his aggressiveness actually made him difficult to field against insurrectionists due to the bad press it got, so of course they wanted to replace the guy with someone named Rosenda-A344. y'know, before Reach happened. He was kind of merciless and wrathful like that, and his fight against the Covenant was pretty much one of revenge.

however the other spartans apparently respected him for being loyal, detail-oriented and unbreakable, and maintained strict discipline off the field so he is kind of a guy who threw away being a human to be a soldier. he also collected Covenant contraband, which while a violation of the Cole Protocol, was ignored because his superiors are apart of the Army, not the Navy. also we never see his face in game, he is the only one who never takes off his helmet. a piece of early concept art depicts him as black with scars and really short hair, but for some reason is obscured in the tribute room. Fitting for someone who devoted himself so much to being an inhuman soldier of vengeance.

this guy was probably the most broken out of all of them. Kat was at least a functional if rude human being, but Emile here....I don't see how he would've lived life after the war, unfortunately. Going down stabbing a Sanghelli was probably the death he was hoping for. if you weren't the protagonist, he probably would be.

End of Profile

And so.....that brings us.....to Noble Six. Last Spartan on Reach. what do they do? use the turret to protect the Pelican as it flies away. and yeah its cool they let you use the cool MAC cannon at the end.

and yup! Endless mode, aka fighting until you die! I think its really cool they allow you to go out this way. because there is no way to win. you just fight until you lose.

But thing is.....

I dunno. For me, I really like that. Leaning into the futility of it all. Showing what the Covenant's like when you aren't the Master Chief, in a most extraordinary situation. The fact that no matter how good you are, they're still unstoppable.

I mostly agree. the futility however in my opinion comes from the fact that Noble Six is all but explicitly stated to be just as badass as Master Chief.....and it makes no difference. no matter how skilled, or what shields they have, or what guns they have, the real thing MC has over anyone else is pure luck. noble Six COULD have been the hero of the franchise instead....if they one of the other team mates survived to use the MAC cannon and thus could get on the pelican- if something didn't go wrong with Jorge's detonator, if Kat wasn't sniped out of nowhere, if Carter didn't crash himself into a scarab, if Emile hasn't been stabbed from behind by a Sanghelli. But thats not the way the dice were rolled.

Though I think Zodi's over blowing a minor point with that ending bit though. really overblowing it, its just a minor detail. But whatever, guess its just me not knowing whats bad again.

Edit: also both Emile and Noble Six were confirmed KIA by the Sanghelli so.....

But don't worry! there is a survivor! CONGRATULATIONS JUN! YOU SURVIVED REACH!
*fweeeee, pathetic confetti*
......Wait who the heck is the Jun?
The Sole Survivor: Jun-A266, Noble Three
Jun was born in 2524, on Tyumen, New Harmony, a year before the Covenant War, so he is 28 at this time, through "unspecified circumstances" they became an orphan then conscripted into Spartan III, proved to an expert marksman and scout, he nearly got crippled by the augmentations, but recovered and graduated at the age of 12.

So age 12, he was working in special forces and naval special weapons, he lead a headhunter team because he is a great sniper, killed a lot of insurrectionist leaders, by the time he attained warrant officer he was apart of Noble team, and was one of the ones to consistently make it back in their ops. okay.

Why didn't he die? Basically he was the guy escorting Dr. Halsey to ONI's base and they both somehow made it off Reach along with Buck. the wiki doesn't specify how. Where is he now as of Halo 3? uh, doesn't say, I think thats technically Halo 4 stuff.

but yeah, technically Jun survived.

Well. time for Halo 4. I saw it once on another lets play, I kinda liked it, didn't dislike or hate it. but then again.....I'm either not a very critical person or I don't know what bad is. So, take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[DataNinja]

Well. time for Halo 4. I saw it once on another lets play, I kinda liked it, didn't dislike or hate it. but then again.....I'm either not a very critical person or I don't know what bad is. So, take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Being perfectly honest, Halo 4, as a game is... mechanically fine. It doesn't tend to do anything spectacular, but... it doesn't necessarily need to. Where many Halo fans hate it is the direction the story took, and the requirements for reading external material to actually understand what the heck is going on with some things. If you don't care about the story, you'll probably find it decently serviceable, maybe even kinda good.

[LaZodiac]

But don't worry! there is a survivor! CONGRATULATIONS JUN! YOU SURVIVED REACH!
*fweeeee, pathetic confetti*
......Wait who the heck is the Jun?
The Sole Survivor: Jun-A266, Noble Three
Jun was born in 2524, on Tyumen, New Harmony, a year before the Covenant War, so he is 28 at this time, through "unspecified circumstances" they became an orphan then conscripted into Spartan III, proved to an expert marksman and scout, he nearly got crippled by the augmentations, but recovered and graduated at the age of 12.

So age 12, he was working in special forces and naval special weapons, he lead a headhunter team because he is a great sniper, killed a lot of insurrectionist leaders, by the time he attained warrant officer he was apart of Noble team, and was one of the ones to consistently make it back in their ops. okay.

Why didn't he die? Basically he was the guy escorting Dr. Halsey to ONI's base and they both somehow made it off Reach along with Buck. the wiki doesn't specify how. Where is he now as of Halo 3? uh, doesn't say, I think thats technically Halo 4 stuff.

but yeah, technically Jun survived.

Well. time for Halo 4. I saw it once on another lets play, I kinda liked it, didn't dislike or hate it. but then again.....I'm either not a very critical person or I don't know what bad is. So, take my opinion with a grain of salt.

JUN!!!!! THAT GUY! I KNEW THERE WAS ONE LEFT AND WAS WONDERING WHERE HE WENT! Also god damnit the evil scientist lady lives? Really? Blegh.

To further elabrate on why Halsey's little ending coda ruins the ending so much for me; consider what is more poignant. Ending on the shattered remains of your helmet as the music, horrifying and somber plays out, just letting it sink in... or Dr Halsey speaking to you directly on a suddenly nice and idyllic Reach with your helmet intact saying "you did a good job you died to save us good job you get a head pat : )"

It just... ruins the mood, for me. It tells me things that I know and can feel sinking in, alongside the sheer dread of what happened. It takes one out of the moment, I feel.

[Lord Raziere]

I can see that.

I would give you more information on Dr. Halsey for a clearer picture but unfortunately, she is kind of a very important figure in Halo both in lore and its story, and will only continue to be for the foreseeable future. she is spoilers galore.

also on the "reading external materials" part: do you want context without spoilers for what is happening in Halo 4 before it happens or do you just want to go in blind without any context for whats going on and judge it based on that?

[LaZodiac]

I can see that.

I would give you more information on Dr. Halsey for a clearer picture but unfortunately, she is kind of a very important figure in Halo both in lore and its story, and will only continue to be for the foreseeable future. she is spoilers galore.

also on the "reading external materials" part: do you want context without spoilers for what is happening in Halo 4 before it happens or do you just want to go in blind without any context for whats going on and judge it based on that?

I want to be blindsided.

[Rynjin]

If you're looking to be confused, you won't be disappointed.

[DataNinja]

I want to be blindsided.

Absolutely the right call. Since even with context, it's all pretty stupid. So it's more fun to try and just fill in the blanks yourself.

I want you to guess when the time comes what questions get answered in the games, and how many need external materials.

I'm absolutely willing to fill in lore relevancy when asked, and I have a whoooooole rant by the end, but that's a story for another day and barely has much relevancy to the game itself.

[LaZodiac]

And so it begins!

Halo Floor everyone!