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Halo Infinite | Story and Lore (Spoilers)
- Thread starter Trey
- Start date
It's incredibly well known, to the point that I assume it's taught in lit classes as well as being featured in Hollywood movies.
Cortana's story in 4-I pulls from stories of real life dementia and mental illness, so it's not like it was chosen at random.
There was a Q&A on old Waypoint about the canon status about the Assembly that more or less retconned it out. Saying that the authenticity of the data pads are questionable. Other than the fact Roland and Black Box seem to work together clandestined on occasion I doubt 343 will touch it.
This. But also, Cortana has often spoken in quotes, both from RL literature and in-fiction dialogue, and those echoes at the end of the game include a number of references. One way to look at it is that we as the player are walking through the thoughts of someone thinking of relevant quotes for an important moment in their life, just as people recite lines/poems etc at weddings and funerals. In this instance though the thoughts are those of an AI who has probably internalised all of recorded human culture and has decided to sacrifice herself to help save someone she loves (in whatever way we want to read that).
Another view is that we're hearing the things that Cortana thought of as she made her decision, rather than her looking for a quote specifically. Either way, putting aside discussion of quote selection, melodrama and the like, I don't think the intent was for these lines to be taken as character dialogue or an internal monologue. When we do see an echo of a direct message for Chief it's much more composed and conversational.
I literally laughed out loud at that part and was like of course they'd do that. Awful writing if they do.
I've been rewatching cutscenes from the old games and people that say Chief is too snarky in this one are misremembering.
John's a sassy bastard
John's a sassy bastard
Just finished the campaign. This is definitely the best writing that Halo ever had. Im particularly impressed how smoothly 343 handled the entire premise - how they managed to go from the mess that the Halo 5 story left behind and transition into telling a quintessential Halo story, just really cleverly done from start to finish.
This entire game is such a triumph.
This entire game is such a triumph.
There was some negative talk about him using MCU style quips, as if he didn't say he was giving the covenant their bomb back, or pop out of a portal and say "boo" to a grunt.
Unrelated, this was interesting:
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The weapon choosing her name as Cortana feels so stupid? Cortana has destroyed entire planets and killed who knows how many sentient creatures, but all is forgiven? I mean, I'm not sure how many humans are there left anyway, but I'm sure it will go well when they find out there's a new AI called Cortana around.
There's a doll hidden in the open world area that appears to be of unknown species/race. Do we know what this is?
There are several other dolls in the game, but all of them are of known characters: Chief, the Pilot, the Weapon, a Grunt, the Librarian, the Arbiter, Sgt. Johnson, Spartan Locke, and The Harbinger. Map Genie's interactive Halo Infinite map calls it an "Endless doll," but it doesn't look anything like the outline seen on the cylix at the end of the game.
On a different note, when going back through pre-release media for the game, I noticed a weird date in one of the trailers. There appears to be a date on a control panel in the Pelican cockpit in the original reveal from E3 2018. That date looks like 05.27.2560.
This closely matches the date shown at the beginning of the 2020 Gameplay premiere, which is 05.28.2020. And I believe that's essentially when the final game takes place as well. But in between the E3 2018 reveal and the E3 2020 gameplay reveal, we got the E3 2019 Discover Hope trailer, which got weird. When the Chief's armor is rebooting, there is a quick flash of dates corresponding to the creation and the latest update to the OS:
That second date is nearly a year and a half later than the dates from the other trailers. In the final game, the year of the second date is changed to "2559." It's definitely possible that "2561" in the Discover Hope trailer is a typo, but I'm pretty sure that 343 scrubs any officially released video like this for unintended reveals and I would assume that they also verify that a detail like this is accurate. Which leaves open the possibility that they flirted with setting the game later than they actually did.
There are several other dolls in the game, but all of them are of known characters: Chief, the Pilot, the Weapon, a Grunt, the Librarian, the Arbiter, Sgt. Johnson, Spartan Locke, and The Harbinger. Map Genie's interactive Halo Infinite map calls it an "Endless doll," but it doesn't look anything like the outline seen on the cylix at the end of the game.
On a different note, when going back through pre-release media for the game, I noticed a weird date in one of the trailers. There appears to be a date on a control panel in the Pelican cockpit in the original reveal from E3 2018. That date looks like 05.27.2560.
This closely matches the date shown at the beginning of the 2020 Gameplay premiere, which is 05.28.2020. And I believe that's essentially when the final game takes place as well. But in between the E3 2018 reveal and the E3 2020 gameplay reveal, we got the E3 2019 Discover Hope trailer, which got weird. When the Chief's armor is rebooting, there is a quick flash of dates corresponding to the creation and the latest update to the OS:
That second date is nearly a year and a half later than the dates from the other trailers. In the final game, the year of the second date is changed to "2559." It's definitely possible that "2561" in the Discover Hope trailer is a typo, but I'm pretty sure that 343 scrubs any officially released video like this for unintended reveals and I would assume that they also verify that a detail like this is accurate. Which leaves open the possibility that they flirted with setting the game later than they actually did.
Halo 4 Cortana is the most embarrassing design in the combined history of Microsoft Game Studios.I get it, but she's written as being "young". It sort of reminds me of Cortana from Halo 1 saying "Keep your head down! There's two of us in here remember?!".
I mean they toned it down after 4, but yeah, WTF were they thinking.
Though I do think Bungie kick started that process with Halo 3.
At least they fixed it in Halo Infinite.
Anyway, I loved the way the Weapon acted with positivity and even some naiveté. It made the switch in her tone when she thought Chief betrayed her much more meaningful. It was well done.
She was about 80% alright, 20% jokes that didn't land for me. And there's a couple of shots where her teeth/eyes look terrible.
There's a doll hidden in the open world area that appears to be of unknown species/race. Do we know what this is?
There are several other dolls in the game, but all of them are of known characters: Chief, the Pilot, the Weapon, a Grunt, the Librarian, the Arbiter, Sgt. Johnson, Spartan Locke, and The Harbinger. Map Genie's interactive Halo Infinite map calls it an "Endless doll," but it doesn't look anything like the outline seen on the cylix at the end of the game.
On a different note, when going back through pre-release media for the game, I noticed a weird date in one of the trailers. There appears to be a date on a control panel in the Pelican cockpit in the original reveal from E3 2018. That date looks like 05.27.2560.
This closely matches the date shown at the beginning of the 2020 Gameplay premiere, which is 05.28.2020. And I believe that's essentially when the final game takes place as well. But in between the E3 2018 reveal and the E3 2020 gameplay reveal, we got the E3 2019 Discover Hope trailer, which got weird. When the Chief's armor is rebooting, there is a quick flash of dates corresponding to the creation and the latest update to the OS:
That second date is nearly a year and a half later than the dates from the other trailers. In the final game, the year of the second date is changed to "2559." It's definitely possible that "2561" in the Discover Hope trailer is a typo, but I'm pretty sure that 343 scrubs any officially released video like this for unintended reveals and I would assume that they also verify that a detail like this is accurate. Which leaves open the possibility that they flirted with setting the game later than they actually did.
My guess. This scene was in the E3 2020 Campaign Trailer (at 0:25) but is missing in the game.
That doll is Warden Eternal I believe.
I still don't see the issue, especially since by comparison halo 3 cortana had Dead Or Alive breast physics.
I still don't see the issue, especially since by comparison halo 3 cortana had Dead Or Alive breast physics.
Halo 3's story was plain bad back in 2007. Time didn't change anything.
The only Halo games with good story are CE, 2 and ODST.
Yeah I love the Weapon's personality. A naive new Cortana worked so much better than I would have expected. She really helped the game feel like a soft reboot in an unobtrusive way, and yet her role in the plot feeds into Chief and Cortana's story so well.
My guess. This scene was in the E3 2020 Campaign Trailer (at 0:25) but is missing in the game.
What if the game originally was set after the events of Halo Infinite? As in, the Endless being (apparently) freed was at the very beginning of the game?
This would imply a new faction (potentially) to play against. Perhaps it got changed when it became a pretty high priority to get the "core" Halo experience? And that meant reserving new enemies until an expansion, so base game could be a "classic" Halo experience? So they set the game we got just a day or two before the events that would lead to the release of the Endless happened?
My man Joseph Staten cut the Endless out of the game.My guess. This scene was in the E3 2020 Campaign Trailer (at 0:25) but is missing in the game.
They must not have served a real purpose until after the game's story if they really got cut. Or this scene is Chief seeing their Cylix?
Does Halo Infinite being a 10 year platform mean we won't be getting a behind the scenes/what actually happened, until very far into the future?
I'm going to be very old by then lol.
I'm going to be very old by then lol.
It was probably his idea to cut and leave for more DLC. I'm expecting him wanting a Destiny like system for more content. I'm all for more Halo.
He still edited the remaining content. Whatever 343 had with the Endless in the 2020 trailer got further removed.
This was the part of that idea where I was like...what the heck are these people in the story thinking. A major story reveal that I really do think worked out in every other way was that Cortana went outright genocidal monster on the universe, and was then hoist by her own petard. Her getting a second chance in the form of being "re-born" is already borderline to me, but that personality still feeling so close to her that it fucking takes the same name would cause problems with how others respond to her (and they should rightfully attempt to imprison or destroy her), let alone the thematic horror of that.
I ended up really liking the story as a whole, but elements that tried to make the Weapon into Cortana 2.0 (rather than more like a daughter being different from a parent) felt twisted in a bad way.
Apparently that hidden post-credits dialogue that was uncovered a few days ago also had some unused footage.
www.reddit.com
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
I mean most of the cut content will probably find its way back in subsequent campaigns that they add to the game, and I'm sure as that happens the interviews with the press will shed some light.
While Infinite did a good job of having a story around some of its characters that I could vaguely follow during the game, it couldn't keep itself from just having stuff completely unexplained:
Who the hell is the Harbinger and where did she (?) suddenly come from?
What did Atriox accomplish to make Cortana kill herself? Did she kill herself? What the hell even happened between her ruling everything and killing civilizations and her dying?
I don't care about the lore I just want to understand what is going on in the games. I feel like the Halo franchise would need a complete reboot to accomplish that.
Who the hell is the Harbinger and where did she (?) suddenly come from?
What did Atriox accomplish to make Cortana kill herself? Did she kill herself? What the hell even happened between her ruling everything and killing civilizations and her dying?
I don't care about the lore I just want to understand what is going on in the games. I feel like the Halo franchise would need a complete reboot to accomplish that.
For what it's worth, as someone who has read all of the books, and ancillary lore stuff; All of those things are new in this game, compared to something you're supposed to know about from hidden lore or whatnot. The stuff with Harbinger, The Endless, the Atriox story, etc. are all new mysteries that are going to be pivotal in the next few Halo Infinite campaigns.
This first campaign is effectively the start of the next big thing, rather than the conclusion of the story set up in Halo 4 and 5. It's going to continue that story for sure, but this almost assuredly isn't the only campaign this game is going to have.
The choice to make this story one that's told from a limited perspective, where your main three characters are in the dark, and discovering things along side the player is a much needed change, compared to the previous two games that relied heavily on external lore from novels, and webseries. I'm sure subsequent stories will shift out into a larger perspective, but that choice seems smart as to not overflow new players with 20 years of expected knowledge.
- We don't know, just as we didn't know who the Forerunners were or what the Flood was in Halo CE.
- The Weapon locked her down, then Atriox beat the UNSC and showed up in their place to capture her. She chose to blow up part of the Halo and sacrifice herself to prevent him from controlling it. This is all explained/shown in game (although it's a little unclear when/how The Weapon was deployed, it's clear that it happened).
Maybe Spartan Agryna from MP.Apparently that hidden post-credits dialogue that was uncovered a few days ago also had some unused footage.
Reddit - Dive into anything
Apparently that hidden post-credits dialogue that was uncovered a few days ago also had some unused footage.
Reddit - Dive into anything
If this scene is still relevant (as we don't know why it was cut), I want it to be the Spirit of Fire and Red Team. They're tied to Atriox.
Plus would be perfect for Halo Wars 3 on Zeta Halo.
You say it's clear but I think the confusion is understandable.
This has to be on eof the most boring stories I have ever encountered.
I really liked some of thebmomentes between MC and Weapon, there was a lot of potential there... but my god the brutes are the dullest antagonists.
They all look the same, sound the same, repeat themselves over and over, monologue you non-stop...
I though the Spartan hunters would be mor eprominent too, like encountering them hunting you randomly in the open world... They were a massive letdown.
Loved the game overall though, but the story was pretty awful overall.
I really liked some of thebmomentes between MC and Weapon, there was a lot of potential there... but my god the brutes are the dullest antagonists.
They all look the same, sound the same, repeat themselves over and over, monologue you non-stop...
I though the Spartan hunters would be mor eprominent too, like encountering them hunting you randomly in the open world... They were a massive letdown.
Loved the game overall though, but the story was pretty awful overall.
Harbinger and Skimmers are Endless, so they didn't get removed completely. Going by what Staten said, about how they are polising what they have, makes me believe that nothing in that regard was cut after he joined. However, it's absolutely possible and it wouldn't really surprise me, if they held back on more enemy variants for DLC.
I also just watched the E3 2020 scene with the reflection and it doesn't seem like an enemy, as Chief turns away from it. I'm also not sure if I should be telling you this, but it is depicted in the "The Art of Halo Infinite" book and it's clearly of Forerunner origin and likely Offensive Bias. There's also a bunch of Endless concept in the book.
I said it's clear that The Weapon got deployed, and it is, because the second mission of the game is about retrieving her, and she spells out what her mission was right off the bat, so she clearly was deployed.
As far as not understanding the sequence of events with The Weapon, Cortana and Atriox, it seems a number of people didn't follow it, but it absolutely is all shown in game, even if it's not told linearly, instead through a combination of exposition and flashbacks. But the question of how/easy/difficult it is to follow is separate from whether or not the campaign answers these questions at all, which it does. There's no mystery left by the end; Cortana is shown realising that the UNSC locked her down using a clone, then being surprised when Atriox shows up instead of Chief, then deciding to sacrifice herself to stall/take out Atriox.
I think the only thing that wasn't made explicitly clear was that the USNC had been at/on the ring for some time prior to the Banished showing up. The intro cutsene makes it look like they pretty much just got there. (You'll have to forgive me as I don't remember where I got that info. Might have been through campaign audio logs or might have been from youtube lore explainations. Just finished the campaign last night and then went on a Youtube binge)
A quick question regarding the ending vs legendary ending. I played on Legendary and had not seen it in comparison to the regular ending. Is the difference just the voice over in the final scene and the date? I was very confused, and it made it look like Atriox was some time-travelling wizard. I presume in the normal ending its just him doing the stuff.
Yes it has the voice over for the conversation from wayyyy back BC. Atriox isn't a time travelling wizard..The date stamp is for the conversation that happened back when they betrayed and sealed the endless.
I just peaked at the concept art for them...he made the right decision cutting that shit out if he did. Looks awful.
Link for this?
I have "The Art of Halo Infinite" book...it has a few pages each on the Skimmers, Harbinger, and Sentinels (a lot of variants on these) but unless I completely missed it there isn't anything pertaining to the "Endless" in the book. I mean most think the Harbinger and her Skimmer buddies are part of the Endless (in some way or another) but it doesn't state that in the book at least.
My biggest takeaway from the book is that the Sentinels (given the different variants) likely had a much larger role in the game at some point but didn't make it in the final released version...it's likely we'll see this content down the road at some point.
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There's what purports to be leaked concept art from artist Daniel Chavez. I can't find an original source for it, but it looks real enough to me. But it also doesn't state what it's actually for, so it might not be for the Endless, though that is a good guess.
Don't worry its 343 so there's potential for all types of future fuckery haha.Damn.
I can dream...
They look pretty gross, I'm ok with that.
Although still humanoid, it'd be nice to have some more less human looking baddies!
Although still humanoid, it'd be nice to have some more less human looking baddies!
Even the Gaping Dragon thinks the design on the bottom is a little too on the nose.There's what purports to be leaked concept art from artist Daniel Chavez. I can't find an original source for it, but it looks real enough to me. But it also doesn't state what it's actually for, so it might not be for the Endless, though that is a good guess.
To answer your first question before you go outside for the first time in zeta halo master chief and the weapon find a cylix with an image that looks like the harbinger. At one point according to the audio logs a human prisoned by the banished was forced to open that cylix. She reveals more about her backstory in the chief's fight against her.
If I had to guess I'd say the left is Harbinger concept art and the right is Endless. Can't wait to find out more about them in the next game, reckon we'll get a first trailer at E3 because I think they'll have quite a lot of it deep in production already (based on cut content, recent trademark).There's what purports to be leaked concept art from artist Daniel Chavez. I can't find an original source for it, but it looks real enough to me. But it also doesn't state what it's actually for, so it might not be for the Endless, though that is a good guess.
I really wanted Halo Infinite to be this redemption arc for Cortana that would end in her going out in a blaze of glory to take out some menace and humanizing Chief along the way...I got both but didn't expect one of them to be a casual 'oh this happened earlier' reveal.
