[TrashMan]

This is HLP, we don't let dead horses rest without giving them one last good kick. 

x 1000 times.

[General Battuta]

But that's it. It can amuse you, but if you search a good story, go play a RPG.

Compared to a majority of RPGs Halo's story is actually fairly awesome, as it requires much less severe levels of invoking the idiot ball and the like. Certainly it has any Final Fantasy you care to name beat all to hell in that department. It's also often much more coherent.

Yeah, I agree. But we really don't need another discussion on the merits of Halo.

How about the merits of Halo 3.5 (which is what this seems to be)

Right, because it's an expansion set. This isn't a big project, just filler before their new IP.

[Mefustae]

*Cracks knuckles* I'm a total curmudgeon when it comes the pile of shattered dreams that has become of the Halo universe, so you'll excuse me for taking a few extra kicks at the deceased equine.

But that's it. It can amuse you, but if you search a good story, go play a RPG.

Compared to a majority of RPGs Halo's story is actually fairly awesome, as it requires much less severe levels of invoking the idiot ball and the like. Certainly it has any Final Fantasy you care to name beat all to hell in that department. It's also often much more coherent.

See, that's the thing, you're right and wrong here. The Halo universe is a great damn sci-fi smorgasbord of spaceships, aliens and plasma. It's a well structured, coherent and logical creation. Above all, the universe is interesting. Which is why it's such a crying shame that it was utterly wasted and smeared by the abortion that was Halo 3.

As per a previous post of mine:

Halo 3 really fell down in the story department. And by fell down, I mean down a disused elevator shaft. Onto several dozen bullets.

The transition from Halo to Halo 2 was relatively smooth. Master Chief escaped, Halo was destroyed. The opening cinematic picked up pretty much where the game ended. Apparently, that was too much to expect from Halo 3, which began a good while after the conclusion of Halo 2 and stoically refused to help the player fill in the gaps. Better we just do what the game tells us, and don't ask questions later.

Everything sort of spirals downward from that inauspicious beginning. Ignoring the innumerable smaller issues, the biggest problem with Halo 3's storyline was that it took itself way, way too seriously. It aimed for complex, and hit confusing. It aimed for poignant, and scored laughable. I went in at the start expecting to be blown away by new revelations and having the mysteries and complexities of Halo revealed to me. By the half-way point, I had resolved that I would be happy just to have a few loose ends tied complete with a nice ending. By the finale I had totally lost any interest I had in the storyline, I just wanted to get it over with so I could give the multiplayer a half-assed go.

If you're like me and actually felt immersed and interested in the Haloverse story by the end of Halo 2, don't bother looking any further. You'll find nothing but overwhelming disappointment. Such a promising new sci-fi universe, such a ****ing waste.

[General Battuta]

I agree that Halo 3's story was a horrible letdown. I can't help but feel that it was somehow dumbed down or neutered for the younger fans.

The announcement trailer was so spectacular, too. It was disillusioning to realize that when they rendered that trailer they didn't know where the story would be going from there -- it wasn't until later that they conceptualized the whole idea of the Ark being a distant megastructure rather than an artifact buried on Earth.

[carbine7]

I too was expecting loose ends to be tied up, questions answered, and to actually 'Finish the Fight'. But no, the ending I get screams HALO 4, but will, of course, not deliver. Made it seem half-baked and rushed

[achtung]

I particularly hate the "happily ever after"ish ending.  I want to know what happens to Human-Sangheili relations, I want to know what happens with the remnants of the covenant, among many other things.  =/

[MR_T3D]

buy the next MS console, you will have to, to find out.

or youtube it when it arrives.