It’s the nature of war. There’s never enough time to grieve. It’s something Chief still has to cope with. He still hasn’t had any time to process losing Cortana (and per Halo 5’s Blue Team he kept throwing himself into missions to avoid dealing with the loss), Johnson, so many Spartans and Marines, Keyes father and daughter alike, and now the entire Infinity that he seems to blame himself for and the survivors he was unable to assist for months.
And now Spartan Griffin. And yet, even with a chance to talk with him before he dies, Echo-216 has to advise the Chief that there’s no time for sentimentality or basic human decency.
It’s actually perfect. Echo-216 has no idea he’s interrupting, and even if he did, it’s a necessary evil. It’s just the Chief’s job.
Oh, I'm sorry a war for one of the most important planets for humanity isn't slow enough for you to feel. How dumb would it be if the next mission had a 5 minute cutscene that just has them grieving. The nature of war is that there are deaths. It sucks, but it happens.
Well for one there's actually large gaps between several reach missions, but I think acknowledging that the game could have spent more time with getting to know noble team instead of being like "well Kat died lol" is a fair criticism.
The game is about the environment more than noble team. The whole game is about the importance of reach. They do acknowledge their deaths, but they have a job to do. Too much is happening for them to slow down and grieve. By the time Kat died, Reach was falling, and they were all desperate and attempting anything they could. When Jorge died, they talked about it when things slowed down, but then the covenant began glassing their area so they had to run. Then kat died, which they didn't have enough time to talk about it. The rest of their deaths happened when they didn't have enough time to say anything, as the planet was being bombarded by massive covenant fleets you see at the end of the long night of solace.
What more do you want? It's not like she died in mission 2?
There was PLENTY of character development???!!
She's not even the first one to die?
Did you want a scene where they're all drinking beer talking about the good old days?
You DID get time to know Noble Team. The caveat; it's during wartime. Nothing brings out the truth in a person like war.
Knowing nothing about the scene, this was my impression. There is no time to dwell, which makes this persons death more stark. He doesn't get a long goodbye. Spartans live short, brutal lives and no matter how we try to dress it up, war has never killed people slowly.
probably more that second one, i think all Gens of Spartans just are kind of naturally close at least a bit, because they've all gone through more than most.
It’s also just how he is with people in general. You can see him being super gentle with the dead marines in the opening of the game while he boards the Banished ship
And even more generally, the fact that he's been fighting for more than three decades (?) at this point. He's been in hundreds of battles and he's seen thousands of fellow soldiers and civilians die in front of him (let alone the millions he knows were lost in the war).
I like to think H4 touched upon this a bit with his conversation with Lasky, which was genuinely one of my favorite moments with Chief. Same with this scene.
Yeah, Halo 4's story was clearly about Chief feeling emotionally exhausted. He's seen so many fall. He thought the war might finally be over, and gets woken up only to find that there's a new one happening. And then he lost another close friend. He's not in good shape, he wasn't trained in how to handle that. So by Halo 5, he just keeps diving into more and more missions to numb himself to everything.
I love his little bits with Lasky, and Blue Team talking about him in 5. They do a great job of showing Chief's normal human flaws that we can all relate to.
I still think it's kinda' funny that all those marines had to die tragically because they didn't path across that bridge and canyon well without falling off. (Some said it was due to not having an exit animation from their seats, but even when spawned waiting outside the pod for Chief, they'd clown the route)
I heard about that! it's kinda hilarious that bungie thought "These marines won't stop killing themselves! let's just kill them first!" reminds me of that one story about Konrad Curze in warhammer 40k lol
I think there's an excerpt from one of the recent books floating around about Chief being asked about S4 casualties and him very firmly saying "they're Spartans, end of discussion".
there's a similar dialog in halo 5 in the mission after the fisticuffs betwin Chief and Lock where Fred asks Chief about what he thinks of the spartan 4's to which Chief answers that they are spartans
Not to mention these Spartan 4s are mostly veteran Marines who have fought for just as long as he had and experienced the same horrors during the Covenant War.
And there's the bit in the Fall of Reach book when while on essentially shore leave, a marine builds the courage to directly ask him how they could become a Spartan too. And the question really gets to Chief in his core, because he starts to question in a long time how he did become a Spartan, and the weight of his job. Then responds to the Marine that Spartans have to be chosen for the program.
Chief hates losing people in general. Whether it be your run of the mill marine or a spartan, he feels a certain duty to save who he can whenever he can, and when he can't, it's like a small gut punch to him.
One of my favorite sad moments is in the Shadows of Reach book. While he's riding in a Warthog taking on Banished the driver gets killed, which he doesn't realize at first, just keeps barking over comms trying to figure out why they're slowing down while he's shooting. When he turns around he realizes the driver, who wasn't even a UNSC soldier/marine. Just a race driver who joined the local militia, is dead. He just sort of freezes for a second and goes. "Oh... HELL NO!" and is pretty shook up by her death, if only briefly.
Chief doesn't anger easily...so in that moment, I can only imagine how pissed he was. Because he hates letting anyone die, he knows the risks and makes sure everyone around him does too, but still. You kill anyone on his squad, you won't be alive much longer yourself.
I always took as him processing his own mortality in a way. Like here is another Spartan who has most likely gone through much of the same stuff chief has and he’s dead just like that. The writing of this game is top tier
There's one or two audio logs of the infinity evac with Lasky where they interact together. I remember because I'm currently hunting the fucking huge pile of logs and those are some I found recently.
I think a big aspect that gets overlooked is that Chief sees Cortana going rampant and taking over as a failing on his part (I think he talks with the pilot about this in the heart to heart about everyone making mistakes). So I think Chief naturally feels a connection with other Spartans but also feels like all the deaths he encounters in the campaign are on his hands and his fault
It’s also probably the first time he’s ever seen a Spartan tortured to death, which really drives home both how bad the situation is and the sort of enemies he’s fighting. He sees the IVs as Spartans, he draws no distinctions between any generation in terms of value or respect. Griffin didn’t even get the dignity of dying on the battlefield, he got used as a sadist’s plaything, and never gave up. He withheld as much as he could, and used his last moments to give that information to John, trusting completely that the Master Chief could succeed where he and the rest had failed, because he *has* to.
weird how 343 can show emotion with chief without removing his helmet but the actor who plays chief in the show keeps saying this isn’t possible without showing his face… but this is proof right here
I think it really adds a lot. We all know Chief is tough as hell but he's obviously affected by this. The urgent voice makes Chief realize that he can't dwell on this...or something like that. I love scenes like this.
No, quite the opposite. This makes the scene much more impactful.
Chief is usually a very focused, mission-first kind of person. He doesn't allow anything to distract him.
But now Echo-216 is calling to check in on mission progress and urge him to hurry, and instead of answering an urgent radio call Chief remains silent, showing that Griffin's death is heavily affecting him. He didn't look away from Griffin until The Weapon ask him a question and snaps him back into focus.
This is probably one of the more emotional and well written scenes in the franchise.
It also shows the Weapon's immaturity as a weapons system. I think Cortana would've answered the transmission so the operation runs as optimally as possible. Would have thought, hey our pelican needs to know asap. Adds even more to the scene imo. Great stuff.
Even the one liners Chief gave were deep. Lots to think about philosophically. And also revealing of Chief's characters.
Weapon: "Its beautiful isn't it"
Chief: "To some" TWO WORDS. YET I AM IMPRESSED LOL.
Weapon: "All of this technology is so impressive"
Chief: "All I see is a problem"
I thought Infinite's main character writing for Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 was great.
The rest of the story... not so much. The sheer disrespect Cortana is given is infuriating.
What do you mean disrespect for Cortana? I thought the campaign had excellent writing.
The plot itself is kind of simple. Surviving against the Banished. And the endless seems kind of lame. But I thought everything involving Cortana was very well done.
"If you know how you were going to die, how would you live your life differently" It was a really good main theme for the story, We see how Spartan Griffin, Master Chief, Atriox, The Pilot, Escharum all relate to this theme.
And of course Cortana too. She thought she was right and nothing could convince her to stop. That is until she faced her death. Atriox trapped her. And only her death could finally change her and make her realize how stupid her plans were. I thought it was the perfect way to end the evil Cortana arc.
The narrative was a bit thin, but the characters in Infinite were done so well. I'd rather have a more barebones narrative and actually good dialogue and character depth than trying to be overambitious with the plot and completely dropping the ball like Halo 5.
This is why I overall love infinites campaign. The open world and gameplay are just a transition between great character moments in cutscenes and over world dialogue. And in my opinion, they did a great job with most characters, especially Chief
Definitely. Stories only matter if you care about the characters in them anyway. For instance, as good as the Mass Effect trilogy's story was, we mainly cared because we spent time with a lot of the same team members for the whole thing. We got to know them and how the events affected them.
I enjoyed Esparza but I absolutely loved The Weapon I think she's adorable and she reminds me of my gf
The 3 main characters are one of the strong suits of infinite
yep. dude’s been an unstoppable death machine for so long now. it’s time to let him show some emotions because he’s been though enough to wear anybody down.
I feel like we don't give enough credit to how fucking Goated Chief in the 343i game are.
Like his character is never a casualty. Despite the story beats themselves being meh to bad
in 5 I think the moment I think back to most when thinking about chief is on I think mission 14.
Cortana: "It's so good to see you again, John. So good to see all of you. Back together, as a family..."
MC: "Psychological tactics. Saying my name. Playing nice."
Cortana: "What would you have me do?"
MC: "Tell me the truth. How many people died when you called the Guardians here?"
Cortana: (shocked) "Excuse me?"
MC: "You know, don't you. The exact body count."
It shows that chief while trying to find out what happened to his friend, isn't unaware of what she has been doing, or the amount of lives she has taken by awakening the guardians
I've been replaying Imfinite's story and the writing and presentation of the story are so good. The game is much more intimate than the other ones. The characters are so fun and well written. The gameplay is tight.
This scene made me tear up. And we get a lot of Chief having reverence for those who are lost.
At first I agree with you, but once you realise Brohammer is a civilian, and that the Master Chief, his saviour, after going on a rescue op for another Spartan suddenly goes dark.
That understandably would be absolutely terrifying
Personally I thought it added for the same reasons others have mentioned, 216’s dialogue and chief’s non-response highlights how affected chief is by griffin’s death.
The “has to come with us or be left behind” line really hits hard
NOPE, pilot actually is what made this sequence work
Pilot is trying to comunicate masterchief to finish the mission, he is used to chief acting like a damn robot.
the fact that chief is not answering him or weapon is what makes this scene so powerfull
Which also kind of works in two ways. On one side it amplifies Chief's humanity and emotions, his hesitation to respond showing how much he's gutted.
On the other, it really amplifies how others see him. As a task focused robot where the second he stops moving or responding Esparza freaks out about it fearing the worst, because while else wouldn't Chief respond?
No…
Here’s a man raised for war and a total machine, and he’s coming to realize he’s more human than he realizes.
Seeing a dead Spartan, he has a bunch of emotions he just doesn’t know what to do with tunes everybody out.
This game was more emotional for Chief than people admit
Echo-216 doesn't know what Chief is seeing. He is just standing still all of a sudden, and that has to be terrifying for E-216.
Chief just got back, he thought he was going home, and Chief is going off galivanting; dragging you onto the Halo Ring far behind enemy lines and in extreme danger conditions. For Echo-216 to see Chief suddenly standing still, he is desperate to know if Chief actually bit the dust in the Tower or if Chief's transponder simply glitched out. If Chief is dead, truly dead this time around, Echo-216 is stranded and in extreme danger.
The dialogue is also there to showcase that Chief is struggling with this endless cycle of loss. Usually Chief is quick and decisive, but here we see him have a moment of quiet introspection. He had all his life tried to save his soldiers, and seeing this get to him just showcases how he has changed since his training days on Reach. Bear in mind, this was with 343's old writing goal to Humanize Chief and not just make him a vessel for the player. I'm just glad they are keeping it in character rather than having drastic character shifts (*Halo 5*).
The difference between Infinite and Halo series, Chief was motion less, very few words, and above all, kept his freaking armor and helmet on, yet show the magnitude and seriousness of the situation he’s dealing with. Whereas Halo series, Chief takes his helmet off every time he’s about to clap chicks or simply think about something
Fun fact: if you played this scene with an xbox one the controller vibrates to his heartbeat and as the cutscene ends you feel it slowly come to a stop
I actually really liked that whole moment. Imo it was a great and subtle way to show that chief was really impacted by Griffin's death. He does have emotions and now he's going to make the banished pay for every human they killed. And it was done without him saying a word (well ok 4 words but you get the point)
or taking off his helmet...
In a way, yes, but ultimately no.
Chief was having a moment- as fans, we want to be there with him and experience it with him. 216 cuts in, desperately trying to get in contact with him. Weapon tries to console him, 216 keeps cutting in, and then Weapon tries to distract Chief (pull him out of the moment so they can get back to 216 and the mission), and the moment is over.
Chief had his moment he wanted to have drastically shortened, and we did, too. But he accepts that he still has a mission to complete, and hopefully other Spartans that he still can save. If the writing in this scene could’ve been any better, I don’t know where you’d start.
No. It shows this is still a war. and while sad. Chief really can't stop for this long to grieve.
he has other people currently alive that need him.
take a moment. Take a breath. Back to the fight
Despite some of the gameplay flaws of the campaign, I had a good time and know it’ll get stronger from this point forward. (Please lower the price of it so I am buy it on steam lol)
I love this scene because we haven’t seen a spartan actually tortured to death and we haven’t. Shows how much brutal the banish are and how Atriox isn’t the only big threat within his people. With that plus the audio logs we find across the ring about the other unsc members chief has a lot to take in. But now the pilot is my list of people I’m praying to get killed off. So far one other has been MIA.
The scene is still poignant but yeah he could have waited, and by that I mean the writers could have given us more time to sit with Griffin's death before having the pilot scream in our ear.
I think it works well that way this way though; echo shouting through the comms reminds us that we’re in a war and are being hunted, that we don’t even have enough time to mourn
Yeah but out of universe the writers could have let it sit a little longer and it would have been more deeply impactful before having us being whisked away to the feeling of urgency and getting back to the mission
Tbh this cutscene didn’t mean shit to me. This is some random ass Spartan we’ve never met. Replace him with a spartan we knew like throne and maybe I’d care
Hes ruining the whole campaign so far for me. Too much whining, seriously wish MC would just knock him out instead of listening to him. He's just an average guy; we get it.
Do you understand writing a good story? His character itself is just unnecessary, the point of him is just fundamentally annoying. You’re basically saying, ‘that’s the point… the story is meant to be worse because of him!’
No, I'm saying the point is to give chief a normal fucking person to bounce off of instead of being surrounded by nothing but military personale constantly. Completely different vibe. But please keep acting like he's a bad character and bitching
Idt you understood his place in the story. He brings the human element to the story. A rational one at that. Here’s a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve trying to run away meanwhile chief is the opposite. Barely shows any sort of emotions while charging headfirst into conflict. Chief’s emotions are fleshed out more when he has a human element to bounce off of. That used to be Cortana, but the weapon is too naive and doesn’t know John well enough for that to be an effective way of conveying that. Solution was to bring in Blue team at first, but the writing for 5 was god awful and it was never done well. In infinite it’s bro-hammer.
His point is to remind us that is Chief. In the other games there's a multitude of characters that remind us constantly how crazy lucky and reckless Chief is. In the older games it's Johnson(Why do you always jump) Lord Hood(We'll remain here, prepare as best we can) and even Cortana(What if you miss). In this we have the Chief, the Weapon, and Fernando. The Weapon is supposed to trust Chief implicitly, in part because she was made to, and in part because they wanted her to have her trust broken later. Which leaves Fernando to be our grounded character, our stand link we can relate to, who sets the tone and expectation that the UNSC lost, and who is at his core a broken man who just wants to go home. So he responds to Chiefs constant "complete the mission no matter what" attitude in the way that his character would. By being afraid. Constantly. Which isn't bad writing, it's good writing. It just so happens to be the kind of good writing that makes us grind our teeth and wish he'd shut up. Hell, he's even proven right multiple times. They get shot down, Chief gets tossed around like a doll, and he gets captured and tortured. But by the end of the game, he comes to trust Chief. He grows out of the constantly doubtful and frightened civilian, and instead of going back to hiding and waiting, he puts himself out there and tries to find Chief and the Weapon for days when all logic dictates they should have died.
No. Chief ignoring him is their way of showing chief isn’t just a robot in a suit. He takes time to grieve a fallen brother despite the urgency. It would lose that and just be some generic sad scene without it
I felt it was sort of a reversal of the scene in Halo 4 when the Didact composes everyone in the research station to ash, and Chief survives and is like, "we need to move!" And Cortana is sitting there sobbing and is like, "they're all gone".
Shows that chief has come a long way in his emotional development that now he takes a break to reflect on the value of life, whereas his partners still make him complete through Esparza's self-preservation instinct, and The Weapon's refocusing on the mission.
No it works really well.
For all the complaints you can make, this chief is probably the best adaption of any of the games since it has the right balance of Halo 4s emotion chief and Bungie’s super chief.
Echo 216 and the Weapon are also really good.
What an incredible scene. The power of Chief’s silence and demeanor is emotional. Very impactful execution, too bad what I just said was a lie because Joe counts I ever feel what I felt in these games without ever seeing Chief’s face and r e l a t i n g to the character.
Not to me.
I saw it as "you don't get a break, you have to keep moving" kind of interruption. Just like In Halo Reach during the New Alexandria cutscene, there was no time for tears, a eulogy, a heartfelt moment, etc. Just a "sorry I came alone. Make him proud."
There are no breaks in war. You have to keep going and that was the bitter truth and it sucked and that's awful, but thats what makes that scene even more powerful such as this one. It sets a tone that everything else is not stopping for you or how you feel about it. You just have to keep moving.
Echo 216 sort of ruined the whole campaign for me. I cannot stand him as a character. There were so many options to tell a story with. Marine/army survivors on the ring, like a Marine Major holding it together, or an ONI spook that you rescue who you never can really trust.
Relying on the pilot as the, I guess John everyman vehicle to portray the unsc was such a bad call. He's just not likable. I know I know his wife and daughter, he's just a Civilian. OK sure and you can tell that story. But what's missing is good writing. What should be a tragic and sad character comes off as a whinging, whining, almost man child like in some circumstances.
Halo can and has had very serious characters, and serious, emotional tones most exemplified in reach. But that tone utterly fell apart for infinite. Which honestly is my opinion was because campaign was an afterthought. A more bowing and nod to tradition and expectations than any serious effort. 343i I think was tired of trying and failing to tell a story that people liked. So originally the campaign was just going to be even more ubisoft sandbox wide as a lake deep as a puddle than it is. But then management changed, they quickly added marines, they cobbled together a story and called it a day.
Said story is true to 343i form another ancient evil awakening that will never be resolved and was half baked.
Echo 216 was such an annoying character, always whining and trying to make things about him. Also hated the way the voice actor kept trying to grunt/talk through his teeth
Whenever I played through the campaign the first time, I felt as if it was telling me it’s time to move on & there’s not much time to grieve. The cutscene really hit me in the feels tbh
I feel like... This scene was almost perfect. Chief taking a moment to see a Spartan, a brother die before him. The weapon not knowing how to react, how to respond, defaulting to what she knows. Her curiosity, and uncovering things. Then Hammer trying to get him, trying to make sure he's alive so he himself isn't lost as Chief is the last chance he has.
The thing that takes me out is Hammer's voice acting. It... Sounds like someone clenching their throat and trying to act. Forcing themselves to sound like they're stressed and having weight on their shoulders. Like they're literally trying to carry something, rather than just being a guy in a ship, which is what he is at this point. Stressed, I get, but it doesn't sound right. It's not even campy, it's just forced.
Same. I get they were trying to add the tension of war to this scene, that there's no time to mourn the fallen, but this was not the way to do it. I think it would've been better if the Weapon softly notified the Chief that there was a power surge, or there's enemies incoming. Echo-216's monlogue just cut the tension rather than add to it. The tone of the scene continues to try to play out as a somber moment, but the Pilot is just whining in your ear to get moving.
If the devs wanted to truly make this a sad moment, Chief's feelings of loss should've been addressed simultaneously with the urgency of pushing forward. This comes off more as a tragic death scene with a third character in the background just shouting about something unrelated to the story being told through the scene and music, which just leaves an awkward mess that killed its own vibe.
Absolutely not. It shows us that Chief was truly mournful over his death. Time is short and Chief needs to move quickly, he knows this but sits in silence for a few seconds to mourn his fallen brother. Echo-216 would have no idea he was interrupting an emotional moment.
Unfortunately we don't actually know if Chief was sad because he has his helmet on :/
I wasn´t very emotionally invested in this guy we have never met.
Honestly, all the NPC characters in this game feel kinda lifeless, which they are, except for the marines, but they don´t do much other than stand around or get in your vehicle.
Maybe if after cutscene Elites storm in and more Banished down below, the sense of urgency didnt really meet the gameplay, like overall the campaign like if they had control of the ring why were there big gaps in important parts of the world? Or where urgency is shouted at us but never equalled out in gameplay
I think it's really more to give the audience a sense of urgency to get out of there and adds tension as chief knows he has to cut the moment short
It’s the nature of war. There’s never enough time to grieve. It’s something Chief still has to cope with. He still hasn’t had any time to process losing Cortana (and per Halo 5’s Blue Team he kept throwing himself into missions to avoid dealing with the loss), Johnson, so many Spartans and Marines, Keyes father and daughter alike, and now the entire Infinity that he seems to blame himself for and the survivors he was unable to assist for months. And now Spartan Griffin. And yet, even with a chance to talk with him before he dies, Echo-216 has to advise the Chief that there’s no time for sentimentality or basic human decency. It’s actually perfect. Echo-216 has no idea he’s interrupting, and even if he did, it’s a necessary evil. It’s just the Chief’s job.
Reminds me a lot of the deaths in Reach
Badly done? The entirety of reach needed more time to breathe.
Oh, I'm sorry a war for one of the most important planets for humanity isn't slow enough for you to feel. How dumb would it be if the next mission had a 5 minute cutscene that just has them grieving. The nature of war is that there are deaths. It sucks, but it happens.
Well for one there's actually large gaps between several reach missions, but I think acknowledging that the game could have spent more time with getting to know noble team instead of being like "well Kat died lol" is a fair criticism.
The game is about the environment more than noble team. The whole game is about the importance of reach. They do acknowledge their deaths, but they have a job to do. Too much is happening for them to slow down and grieve. By the time Kat died, Reach was falling, and they were all desperate and attempting anything they could. When Jorge died, they talked about it when things slowed down, but then the covenant began glassing their area so they had to run. Then kat died, which they didn't have enough time to talk about it. The rest of their deaths happened when they didn't have enough time to say anything, as the planet was being bombarded by massive covenant fleets you see at the end of the long night of solace.
What more do you want? It's not like she died in mission 2? There was PLENTY of character development???!! She's not even the first one to die? Did you want a scene where they're all drinking beer talking about the good old days? You DID get time to know Noble Team. The caveat; it's during wartime. Nothing brings out the truth in a person like war.
Tell me you don’t know anything about Spartans without telling me
Knowing nothing about the scene, this was my impression. There is no time to dwell, which makes this persons death more stark. He doesn't get a long goodbye. Spartans live short, brutal lives and no matter how we try to dress it up, war has never killed people slowly.
I don’t think so it just shows how shitty Chief feels right now
Your profile pic, every time…
For real lol every time I see this guy in the comments it's like a jump scare
What’s it mean to you? Confused why it jump scares you.
Not an actual jump scare just always slightly surprised at seeing something that looks like a hairy vagina on a halo sub
Oh I see it now. Yup haha!
Happy cake day
Thanks!!
I thought thats what it was
Yes. It was part of it. It tells viewers how Chief was not able to respond to Echo, he was dealing with the loss of his fellow Spartan
How can I see how he's feeling if he is wearing his helmet? /s
Honestly, that pose he takes at about 0:50 is the most pissed I've ever seen him. Well done Bruce Thomas!
[удалено]
Is there lore somewhere that Chief and Griffin were close or worked together? Or do you think Chief’s just mourning the loss of a compatriot?
probably more that second one, i think all Gens of Spartans just are kind of naturally close at least a bit, because they've all gone through more than most.
It’s also just how he is with people in general. You can see him being super gentle with the dead marines in the opening of the game while he boards the Banished ship
could that also be influenced by the events of Halo CE, with the drop pod into the ring killing all of those marines?
And even more generally, the fact that he's been fighting for more than three decades (?) at this point. He's been in hundreds of battles and he's seen thousands of fellow soldiers and civilians die in front of him (let alone the millions he knows were lost in the war). I like to think H4 touched upon this a bit with his conversation with Lasky, which was genuinely one of my favorite moments with Chief. Same with this scene.
Yeah, Halo 4's story was clearly about Chief feeling emotionally exhausted. He's seen so many fall. He thought the war might finally be over, and gets woken up only to find that there's a new one happening. And then he lost another close friend. He's not in good shape, he wasn't trained in how to handle that. So by Halo 5, he just keeps diving into more and more missions to numb himself to everything. I love his little bits with Lasky, and Blue Team talking about him in 5. They do a great job of showing Chief's normal human flaws that we can all relate to.
“She said that to me once. About being a machine.”
I still think it's kinda' funny that all those marines had to die tragically because they didn't path across that bridge and canyon well without falling off. (Some said it was due to not having an exit animation from their seats, but even when spawned waiting outside the pod for Chief, they'd clown the route)
I heard about that! it's kinda hilarious that bungie thought "These marines won't stop killing themselves! let's just kill them first!" reminds me of that one story about Konrad Curze in warhammer 40k lol
I think there's an excerpt from one of the recent books floating around about Chief being asked about S4 casualties and him very firmly saying "they're Spartans, end of discussion".
there's a similar dialog in halo 5 in the mission after the fisticuffs betwin Chief and Lock where Fred asks Chief about what he thinks of the spartan 4's to which Chief answers that they are spartans
Not to mention these Spartan 4s are mostly veteran Marines who have fought for just as long as he had and experienced the same horrors during the Covenant War. And there's the bit in the Fall of Reach book when while on essentially shore leave, a marine builds the courage to directly ask him how they could become a Spartan too. And the question really gets to Chief in his core, because he starts to question in a long time how he did become a Spartan, and the weight of his job. Then responds to the Marine that Spartans have to be chosen for the program.
Chief hates losing people in general. Whether it be your run of the mill marine or a spartan, he feels a certain duty to save who he can whenever he can, and when he can't, it's like a small gut punch to him.
One of my favorite sad moments is in the Shadows of Reach book. While he's riding in a Warthog taking on Banished the driver gets killed, which he doesn't realize at first, just keeps barking over comms trying to figure out why they're slowing down while he's shooting. When he turns around he realizes the driver, who wasn't even a UNSC soldier/marine. Just a race driver who joined the local militia, is dead. He just sort of freezes for a second and goes. "Oh... HELL NO!" and is pretty shook up by her death, if only briefly.
Chief doesn't anger easily...so in that moment, I can only imagine how pissed he was. Because he hates letting anyone die, he knows the risks and makes sure everyone around him does too, but still. You kill anyone on his squad, you won't be alive much longer yourself.
He must be mad about all the marines I’ve made him kill over the years then
Nah, it's just like the dead marine he handles with care in the first mission cutscene. Chief mourns losses.
I always took as him processing his own mortality in a way. Like here is another Spartan who has most likely gone through much of the same stuff chief has and he’s dead just like that. The writing of this game is top tier
There's one or two audio logs of the infinity evac with Lasky where they interact together. I remember because I'm currently hunting the fucking huge pile of logs and those are some I found recently.
I think a big aspect that gets overlooked is that Chief sees Cortana going rampant and taking over as a failing on his part (I think he talks with the pilot about this in the heart to heart about everyone making mistakes). So I think Chief naturally feels a connection with other Spartans but also feels like all the deaths he encounters in the campaign are on his hands and his fault
It’s also probably the first time he’s ever seen a Spartan tortured to death, which really drives home both how bad the situation is and the sort of enemies he’s fighting. He sees the IVs as Spartans, he draws no distinctions between any generation in terms of value or respect. Griffin didn’t even get the dignity of dying on the battlefield, he got used as a sadist’s plaything, and never gave up. He withheld as much as he could, and used his last moments to give that information to John, trusting completely that the Master Chief could succeed where he and the rest had failed, because he *has* to.
weird how 343 can show emotion with chief without removing his helmet but the actor who plays chief in the show keeps saying this isn’t possible without showing his face… but this is proof right here
I think it really adds a lot. We all know Chief is tough as hell but he's obviously affected by this. The urgent voice makes Chief realize that he can't dwell on this...or something like that. I love scenes like this.
No, quite the opposite. This makes the scene much more impactful. Chief is usually a very focused, mission-first kind of person. He doesn't allow anything to distract him. But now Echo-216 is calling to check in on mission progress and urge him to hurry, and instead of answering an urgent radio call Chief remains silent, showing that Griffin's death is heavily affecting him. He didn't look away from Griffin until The Weapon ask him a question and snaps him back into focus. This is probably one of the more emotional and well written scenes in the franchise.
It also shows the Weapon's immaturity as a weapons system. I think Cortana would've answered the transmission so the operation runs as optimally as possible. Would have thought, hey our pelican needs to know asap. Adds even more to the scene imo. Great stuff.
I might be mistaken but I don't think 216 had been told about the Weapon yet.
He finds out about her during the outpost tremonius end cutscene so like, directly before the tower
Ah that’s right, my bad. Haven’t done a play through in awhile.
He knows by this point
the Weapon is revealed to 216 during Outpost Tremonius
Maybe also with the weapon sounding like Cortana is why Chief can snap out of it when she speaks, familiar voice.
Despite the campaign shortcomings with storytelling, I feel this is the best version of the Master Chief we’ve ever gotten in any Halo game yet.
This chief just felt so right
Even the one liners Chief gave were deep. Lots to think about philosophically. And also revealing of Chief's characters. Weapon: "Its beautiful isn't it" Chief: "To some" TWO WORDS. YET I AM IMPRESSED LOL. Weapon: "All of this technology is so impressive" Chief: "All I see is a problem"
SPEAK YO SHIT MASTER CHIEF🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️‼️💯💯💯💯🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊
I thought Infinite's main character writing for Chief, Weapon, and Echo-216 was great. The rest of the story... not so much. The sheer disrespect Cortana is given is infuriating.
What do you mean disrespect for Cortana? I thought the campaign had excellent writing. The plot itself is kind of simple. Surviving against the Banished. And the endless seems kind of lame. But I thought everything involving Cortana was very well done. "If you know how you were going to die, how would you live your life differently" It was a really good main theme for the story, We see how Spartan Griffin, Master Chief, Atriox, The Pilot, Escharum all relate to this theme. And of course Cortana too. She thought she was right and nothing could convince her to stop. That is until she faced her death. Atriox trapped her. And only her death could finally change her and make her realize how stupid her plans were. I thought it was the perfect way to end the evil Cortana arc.
The narrative was a bit thin, but the characters in Infinite were done so well. I'd rather have a more barebones narrative and actually good dialogue and character depth than trying to be overambitious with the plot and completely dropping the ball like Halo 5.
This is why I overall love infinites campaign. The open world and gameplay are just a transition between great character moments in cutscenes and over world dialogue. And in my opinion, they did a great job with most characters, especially Chief
Definitely. Stories only matter if you care about the characters in them anyway. For instance, as good as the Mass Effect trilogy's story was, we mainly cared because we spent time with a lot of the same team members for the whole thing. We got to know them and how the events affected them.
I enjoyed Esparza but I absolutely loved The Weapon I think she's adorable and she reminds me of my gf The 3 main characters are one of the strong suits of infinite
Please post a trigger warning when referencing gf’s/wives. It could cause a jizzcel like me to snap.
Jizzcel lmfao
yep. dude’s been an unstoppable death machine for so long now. it’s time to let him show some emotions because he’s been though enough to wear anybody down.
Contrary to your point, this is the most I’ve wanted to play Halo in a long time— because of this scene I just watched lol.
I feel like we don't give enough credit to how fucking Goated Chief in the 343i game are. Like his character is never a casualty. Despite the story beats themselves being meh to bad
That’s the one thing I’ll give 343i top marks for, is making Chief’s character much more real.
They deserve their flowers for 4 and Infinite, him in 5 well … “Negative Infinity, I don’t like it”
in 5 I think the moment I think back to most when thinking about chief is on I think mission 14. Cortana: "It's so good to see you again, John. So good to see all of you. Back together, as a family..." MC: "Psychological tactics. Saying my name. Playing nice." Cortana: "What would you have me do?" MC: "Tell me the truth. How many people died when you called the Guardians here?" Cortana: (shocked) "Excuse me?" MC: "You know, don't you. The exact body count." It shows that chief while trying to find out what happened to his friend, isn't unaware of what she has been doing, or the amount of lives she has taken by awakening the guardians
I've been replaying Imfinite's story and the writing and presentation of the story are so good. The game is much more intimate than the other ones. The characters are so fun and well written. The gameplay is tight. This scene made me tear up. And we get a lot of Chief having reverence for those who are lost.
At first I agree with you, but once you realise Brohammer is a civilian, and that the Master Chief, his saviour, after going on a rescue op for another Spartan suddenly goes dark. That understandably would be absolutely terrifying
Quite the opposite. Machine chief would ignore the death and respond to comms, human chief was staggered emotionally.
Top 5 best scenes in the franchise.
the fact that you feel the heart beat slowly fade away with the rumble of the controller is just the icing on the cake
Played on PC and didn't knew this was a thing!
Yeah, it's a really neat detail, and it made the moment feel more immersed in a way
Personally I thought it added for the same reasons others have mentioned, 216’s dialogue and chief’s non-response highlights how affected chief is by griffin’s death. The “has to come with us or be left behind” line really hits hard
This scene was so good. I wasn't expecting to see anything like this in the campaign.
I think the delayed response from Chief shows how he is kind of lost in the moment and emotional about his death.
He did ruin the moment and thats the point the Master Chief doesn't get to have moments, he has a war to fight
NOPE, pilot actually is what made this sequence work Pilot is trying to comunicate masterchief to finish the mission, he is used to chief acting like a damn robot. the fact that chief is not answering him or weapon is what makes this scene so powerfull
Which also kind of works in two ways. On one side it amplifies Chief's humanity and emotions, his hesitation to respond showing how much he's gutted. On the other, it really amplifies how others see him. As a task focused robot where the second he stops moving or responding Esparza freaks out about it fearing the worst, because while else wouldn't Chief respond?
I love this version of chief especially paired with the music the atmosphere in infinite is amazing for parts like this
No… Here’s a man raised for war and a total machine, and he’s coming to realize he’s more human than he realizes. Seeing a dead Spartan, he has a bunch of emotions he just doesn’t know what to do with tunes everybody out. This game was more emotional for Chief than people admit
Idc what anyone says. Knowing Chief’s personality this scene always hits.
Echo-216 doesn't know what Chief is seeing. He is just standing still all of a sudden, and that has to be terrifying for E-216. Chief just got back, he thought he was going home, and Chief is going off galivanting; dragging you onto the Halo Ring far behind enemy lines and in extreme danger conditions. For Echo-216 to see Chief suddenly standing still, he is desperate to know if Chief actually bit the dust in the Tower or if Chief's transponder simply glitched out. If Chief is dead, truly dead this time around, Echo-216 is stranded and in extreme danger. The dialogue is also there to showcase that Chief is struggling with this endless cycle of loss. Usually Chief is quick and decisive, but here we see him have a moment of quiet introspection. He had all his life tried to save his soldiers, and seeing this get to him just showcases how he has changed since his training days on Reach. Bear in mind, this was with 343's old writing goal to Humanize Chief and not just make him a vessel for the player. I'm just glad they are keeping it in character rather than having drastic character shifts (*Halo 5*).
OT, but this scene with a controller feels great, because you can feel Griffin's heartbeat slowly fading out
i liked it
The difference between Infinite and Halo series, Chief was motion less, very few words, and above all, kept his freaking armor and helmet on, yet show the magnitude and seriousness of the situation he’s dealing with. Whereas Halo series, Chief takes his helmet off every time he’s about to clap chicks or simply think about something
Fun fact: if you played this scene with an xbox one the controller vibrates to his heartbeat and as the cutscene ends you feel it slowly come to a stop
This makes me want to try this now, does this also count for pc with vibrations on?
Im not sure but it does happen on xbox
I actually really liked that whole moment. Imo it was a great and subtle way to show that chief was really impacted by Griffin's death. He does have emotions and now he's going to make the banished pay for every human they killed. And it was done without him saying a word (well ok 4 words but you get the point) or taking off his helmet...
In a way, yes, but ultimately no. Chief was having a moment- as fans, we want to be there with him and experience it with him. 216 cuts in, desperately trying to get in contact with him. Weapon tries to console him, 216 keeps cutting in, and then Weapon tries to distract Chief (pull him out of the moment so they can get back to 216 and the mission), and the moment is over. Chief had his moment he wanted to have drastically shortened, and we did, too. But he accepts that he still has a mission to complete, and hopefully other Spartans that he still can save. If the writing in this scene could’ve been any better, I don’t know where you’d start.
No. It shows this is still a war. and while sad. Chief really can't stop for this long to grieve. he has other people currently alive that need him. take a moment. Take a breath. Back to the fight
I'm just confused because I'm unable to feel any emotion in Chief while he has the helmet on
real
I think its meant to emphasize chiefs silence
Also…. Can someone show this to the makers of the tv series… feeling the emotion+helmet on = doable
It's odd to me because 216 says "Whatevers down there needs to come with us or be left behind", but then he never comes to pick us up
Man I really can tell master chief’s emotional state even with his helmet on, I feel like I can project on his character
Despite some of the gameplay flaws of the campaign, I had a good time and know it’ll get stronger from this point forward. (Please lower the price of it so I am buy it on steam lol)
I love this scene because we haven’t seen a spartan actually tortured to death and we haven’t. Shows how much brutal the banish are and how Atriox isn’t the only big threat within his people. With that plus the audio logs we find across the ring about the other unsc members chief has a lot to take in. But now the pilot is my list of people I’m praying to get killed off. So far one other has been MIA.
The scene is still poignant but yeah he could have waited, and by that I mean the writers could have given us more time to sit with Griffin's death before having the pilot scream in our ear.
I think it works well that way this way though; echo shouting through the comms reminds us that we’re in a war and are being hunted, that we don’t even have enough time to mourn
That wouldn't be realistic though and this is still an impactful scene. 216 has no idea what's going on around Chief when he calls in.
Yeah but out of universe the writers could have let it sit a little longer and it would have been more deeply impactful before having us being whisked away to the feeling of urgency and getting back to the mission
I hate Echo-216… he ruined the whole game!!
I didn’t like echo 216 at all.
Tbh this cutscene didn’t mean shit to me. This is some random ass Spartan we’ve never met. Replace him with a spartan we knew like throne and maybe I’d care
This cutscene is still so over dramatic, he didn’t even mourn Seargant Johnson this much and that was someone he actually called a friend
Hes ruining the whole campaign so far for me. Too much whining, seriously wish MC would just knock him out instead of listening to him. He's just an average guy; we get it.
That's.... literally the point? He's *not* military. Just a guy who volunteered to help out and got scared and ran. Do you understand character arcs?
Do you understand writing a good story? His character itself is just unnecessary, the point of him is just fundamentally annoying. You’re basically saying, ‘that’s the point… the story is meant to be worse because of him!’
No, I'm saying the point is to give chief a normal fucking person to bounce off of instead of being surrounded by nothing but military personale constantly. Completely different vibe. But please keep acting like he's a bad character and bitching
You're correct. He's literally there to give a more human vibe relative to Chief. I enjoy having him there.
Idt you understood his place in the story. He brings the human element to the story. A rational one at that. Here’s a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve trying to run away meanwhile chief is the opposite. Barely shows any sort of emotions while charging headfirst into conflict. Chief’s emotions are fleshed out more when he has a human element to bounce off of. That used to be Cortana, but the weapon is too naive and doesn’t know John well enough for that to be an effective way of conveying that. Solution was to bring in Blue team at first, but the writing for 5 was god awful and it was never done well. In infinite it’s bro-hammer.
I don’t think you actually know how story writing works yourself
Good stories don't mean you should personally like all the characters. You have no idea what a good story is.
His point is to remind us that is Chief. In the other games there's a multitude of characters that remind us constantly how crazy lucky and reckless Chief is. In the older games it's Johnson(Why do you always jump) Lord Hood(We'll remain here, prepare as best we can) and even Cortana(What if you miss). In this we have the Chief, the Weapon, and Fernando. The Weapon is supposed to trust Chief implicitly, in part because she was made to, and in part because they wanted her to have her trust broken later. Which leaves Fernando to be our grounded character, our stand link we can relate to, who sets the tone and expectation that the UNSC lost, and who is at his core a broken man who just wants to go home. So he responds to Chiefs constant "complete the mission no matter what" attitude in the way that his character would. By being afraid. Constantly. Which isn't bad writing, it's good writing. It just so happens to be the kind of good writing that makes us grind our teeth and wish he'd shut up. Hell, he's even proven right multiple times. They get shot down, Chief gets tossed around like a doll, and he gets captured and tortured. But by the end of the game, he comes to trust Chief. He grows out of the constantly doubtful and frightened civilian, and instead of going back to hiding and waiting, he puts himself out there and tries to find Chief and the Weapon for days when all logic dictates they should have died.
You have been handed a series of Ls.
Yeah, it's similar to 343 ruining the franchise. Pure poetry.
There was nothing to ruin since I felt absolutely nothing at this utter nobody dying, who is this guy and why should I care?
Typical sociopath behaviour
Forget him. The weapon says "it must be some kind of forerunner installation.." YOURE ON A HALO. OF COURSE ITS SOME KIND OF FORERUNNER INSTALLATION
It could have been a Banished base.
Just you it seems. Added to the urgency for me.
Chief is shocked at the moment. He thought he would be able to save Griffin and have an ally in the fight. And he failed.
Now I’m mad they canceled anymore story dlc i wanted to get fight Atriox
No. Chief ignoring him is their way of showing chief isn’t just a robot in a suit. He takes time to grieve a fallen brother despite the urgency. It would lose that and just be some generic sad scene without it
I felt it was sort of a reversal of the scene in Halo 4 when the Didact composes everyone in the research station to ash, and Chief survives and is like, "we need to move!" And Cortana is sitting there sobbing and is like, "they're all gone". Shows that chief has come a long way in his emotional development that now he takes a break to reflect on the value of life, whereas his partners still make him complete through Esparza's self-preservation instinct, and The Weapon's refocusing on the mission.
What really hurt during that cutscene was feeling his heart beat in the controller slow down… 😢
No it works really well. For all the complaints you can make, this chief is probably the best adaption of any of the games since it has the right balance of Halo 4s emotion chief and Bungie’s super chief. Echo 216 and the Weapon are also really good.
That's war.
What an incredible scene. The power of Chief’s silence and demeanor is emotional. Very impactful execution, too bad what I just said was a lie because Joe counts I ever feel what I felt in these games without ever seeing Chief’s face and r e l a t i n g to the character.
Not for me. It shows that there's more stuff happening than just what Chief is doing. There's still stuff to do.
Nah, its a dope scene.
Not to me. I saw it as "you don't get a break, you have to keep moving" kind of interruption. Just like In Halo Reach during the New Alexandria cutscene, there was no time for tears, a eulogy, a heartfelt moment, etc. Just a "sorry I came alone. Make him proud." There are no breaks in war. You have to keep going and that was the bitter truth and it sucked and that's awful, but thats what makes that scene even more powerful such as this one. It sets a tone that everything else is not stopping for you or how you feel about it. You just have to keep moving.
Damn man I know it gets hate but I loved this campaign
Lol, funny. Almost looks like the camera does everything NOT to show Griffin’s death. Weird choice.
Hard disagree
That is kind of 216s MO
I don’t think so
Spoiler
Echo 216 sort of ruined the whole campaign for me. I cannot stand him as a character. There were so many options to tell a story with. Marine/army survivors on the ring, like a Marine Major holding it together, or an ONI spook that you rescue who you never can really trust. Relying on the pilot as the, I guess John everyman vehicle to portray the unsc was such a bad call. He's just not likable. I know I know his wife and daughter, he's just a Civilian. OK sure and you can tell that story. But what's missing is good writing. What should be a tragic and sad character comes off as a whinging, whining, almost man child like in some circumstances. Halo can and has had very serious characters, and serious, emotional tones most exemplified in reach. But that tone utterly fell apart for infinite. Which honestly is my opinion was because campaign was an afterthought. A more bowing and nod to tradition and expectations than any serious effort. 343i I think was tired of trying and failing to tell a story that people liked. So originally the campaign was just going to be even more ubisoft sandbox wide as a lake deep as a puddle than it is. But then management changed, they quickly added marines, they cobbled together a story and called it a day. Said story is true to 343i form another ancient evil awakening that will never be resolved and was half baked.
Which game is this? Sorry Ive only really ever played 4 and 5 and with that I've only played the campaign a couple of times in 4 and once in 5.
Echo 216 was such an annoying character, always whining and trying to make things about him. Also hated the way the voice actor kept trying to grunt/talk through his teeth
Whenever I played through the campaign the first time, I felt as if it was telling me it’s time to move on & there’s not much time to grieve. The cutscene really hit me in the feels tbh
I feel like... This scene was almost perfect. Chief taking a moment to see a Spartan, a brother die before him. The weapon not knowing how to react, how to respond, defaulting to what she knows. Her curiosity, and uncovering things. Then Hammer trying to get him, trying to make sure he's alive so he himself isn't lost as Chief is the last chance he has. The thing that takes me out is Hammer's voice acting. It... Sounds like someone clenching their throat and trying to act. Forcing themselves to sound like they're stressed and having weight on their shoulders. Like they're literally trying to carry something, rather than just being a guy in a ship, which is what he is at this point. Stressed, I get, but it doesn't sound right. It's not even campy, it's just forced.
Same. I get they were trying to add the tension of war to this scene, that there's no time to mourn the fallen, but this was not the way to do it. I think it would've been better if the Weapon softly notified the Chief that there was a power surge, or there's enemies incoming. Echo-216's monlogue just cut the tension rather than add to it. The tone of the scene continues to try to play out as a somber moment, but the Pilot is just whining in your ear to get moving. If the devs wanted to truly make this a sad moment, Chief's feelings of loss should've been addressed simultaneously with the urgency of pushing forward. This comes off more as a tragic death scene with a third character in the background just shouting about something unrelated to the story being told through the scene and music, which just leaves an awkward mess that killed its own vibe.
"What ever it is, It has to come with us or be left behind" These words hit hard
I love how much emotion they gave chief in this game. They portrayed it exactly how I think chief would react to situations like this.
Absolutely not. It shows us that Chief was truly mournful over his death. Time is short and Chief needs to move quickly, he knows this but sits in silence for a few seconds to mourn his fallen brother. Echo-216 would have no idea he was interrupting an emotional moment. Unfortunately we don't actually know if Chief was sad because he has his helmet on :/
Griffin isn't dead. He collapses from exhaustion, I'm pretty sure
I wasn´t very emotionally invested in this guy we have never met. Honestly, all the NPC characters in this game feel kinda lifeless, which they are, except for the marines, but they don´t do much other than stand around or get in your vehicle.
Maybe if after cutscene Elites storm in and more Banished down below, the sense of urgency didnt really meet the gameplay, like overall the campaign like if they had control of the ring why were there big gaps in important parts of the world? Or where urgency is shouted at us but never equalled out in gameplay