One of the things that disappoints me about this series is that it does nothing to actually address Halsey, or the UNSC for enabling ONI to let her do this. All of her work only ends up being justified in hindsight because the Covenenant attacked with the intention of extermination. If the Covenant never existed, or if they wanted diplomatic negotiation, her actions wouldn't be anywhere near as sympathetic. She tortured kids to raise them into supersoldiers, and the game not only supporters her but claims outright that this is the next evolution of the human race. That in order to evolve the human race, we need to torture kids. It's the one thing that has always left a bad taste in my mouth about everything post Halo 3, even though Halo Reach is my second favorite game in the series (only just behind Halo 2).

Interesting take because I actually have always thought the 343 games are the only ones to call Halsey out at all, and that’s part of why certain fans have such a vitriolic reaction, they want her on a pedestal where she can do no wrong. She isn’t even in the Bungie games until Reach, just lurking in the background like most of the UNSC’s wrongdoing. So for casual fans who just played the Bungie games they got “blindsided” by the fact that Halsey and the UNSC are kinda morally ambiguous at best or outright evil at their worst. Sure they could’ve tracked down Sadie’s story and learned about the police state in ODST, they could’ve read between the lines of Halsey’s cold dialog and demeanor in Reach, but by and large most fans didn’t pick up on all that. Enter Halo 4 and 5, and now we’re taking Halsey to task even if just a little. She’s arrested and being interrogated albeit not really for her crimes so much as because the UNSC wants to grill her for what she knows, she goes through -SPOILERS- in Spartan Ops, has entirely the wrong opinion of the -SPOILERS- in the campaign no matter how much some fans like to quote her opinion on them like it’s the objective truth and they aren’t as good, and as Meg already astutely pointed out she’s just an egotistical monster throughout all of it because that’s just what Halsey is, an egotistical monster. In my opinion these are the only games in the series that try to draw attention to that at all, much the opposite of the interpretation that Halsey is given some sort of pass.

@@arbington they do call out that fact in these games but they initiate this tendency that 343 has of gaslighting any argument against Halsey and humanity in general by showing her as this edgy "necessary evil" that must be protected. Even in the opening sequence of this game they completely avoid the matter of her kidnapping kids by saying "oh, the interrogator wants to replace the Master Chief, what a villain!", and don't address the fact that she has a problematic and supremacist ideology at all, they still show this as an inspiring speech.

I never really saw it like that. I think 343 constantly has her spouting off about “necessary evils” and the “greater good” because that really is how she sees herself and how the UNSC see themselves. I don’t think they intend you to take away that this is actually right though. Evil people do not see themselves as evil, they think their actions are justified just like anyone does. Of course Halsey doesn’t just outright stare right into the camera and say “I am a bad lady who does bad things.” But even in the rushed context of a video game plot you can understand that kidnapping and experimenting on children would be wrong under literally any circumstances. The game relies on the audience to have a basic sense of decency already I guess rather than being completely blunt and heavy-handed. But when Halsey is more concerned they want to replace Chief, HALSEY is more concerned they want to replace Chief, not we the audience. The interrogation scene lays groundwork for later events in the game. Halsey disapproves of that program, Halsey thinks the ethics hold it back, Halsey thinks this Halsey thinks that but it doesn’t mean 343 thinks those things or that we the audience are meant to agree. Some people idolize Halsey and real world figures like her, they elevate her opinions to facts and muddy the waters with their boneheaded misinterpretations of the story and themes, which are still the same post-Bungie as pre-Bungie. Halsey’s constant naysaying distress about things is in my opinion there to draw attention to how wrong she is, about basically everything, all the time. She’s not a savior, she’s barely even brilliant, she was just a stooge of a horrific regime who happened to be the right person in the right place at the right time to run an abhorrent program that accidentally ended up saving everyone. But what comes later in this game, and to a lesser extent Ackerson and the IIIs, it all shows that Halsey’s way isn’t the only way, even if she’s not a big enough person to see that herself. We’re expected to know that because it’s morally obvious. Maybe they could’ve spent more time spelling it out a little clearer but I’ll still take this over never even mentioning her in the first three games, there’s making your point rather unclearly and then there’s sweeping the point under the rug where it can’t be controversial. The controversy and the bad arguments surrounding it are most of the problem I think, I don’t blame the game or the devs but the fanbase for a lack of general media literacy. If Halsey stabbed the interrogator and drank his blood while proclaiming herself the space-messiah I’d definitely know she was evil but I can also listen to what she says in a poor attempt to justify herself and disagree with her, and I think the more subtle approach is better storytelling. I could make my points here better but I don’t want to spoil things. Suffice it to say I suppose that I also think there’s another character in this particular game they intended to be a foil of sorts to Halsey and I think that character is why they involved Halsey so much in the first place. There’s brute-forcing the evolution of a species through mad science and mad egos, and then there’s a subtler gentler approach which is more about slow steady guidance across millennia. Halsey obsessed with justifying herself in the here and now loses sight of the context of human life itself in the past and future which surround it. She thinks she saved everyone and everything, but only because she’s the kind of person who maybe literally can’t see herself as just one drop in the infinitely long story of humankind, she’s too pompous/self-righteous to accept that any will but her own could steer the ship right. Whether that’s other ONI figures like the ones who made the IIIs or some godlike force putting a geas on humanity. Maybe the problem is people can’t accept Halsey as just being wrong because there’s a desire for her to see the error of her ways and be redeemed somehow but she’s just not that kind of person. She’s just rotten. You could show her proof she’s wrong both morally and factually over and over and she’d still spit in your face about compromises. Which again, I think is pretty much what they do with her character.

God I wanna make these points better and I feel like I myself am being a bit heavy handed and blunt with my messaging here, but I’m trying to dance around a lot of plot without spoiling anything. Sorry if it comes across as a bit more “black-and-white, this is right and this is wrong” than I mean it.

I remember loading the game for the first time and just sitting there watching the debris float by listening to this. magical.

Does she? I thought that despite insisting on reminding herself that they were children, early on she chastised herself for using John's name because she wanted to keep some emotional distance.

@@colbyboucher6391 Both are true. Halsey is cold in interactons but an emotional mess in private. She absolutely uses first names for all of the II's despite initially chastising herself for it. She intended to have emotional distance but this was something she failed at.

​@@sambainbridge301Yeah, even the IIs can't see her anything else than their mother, for better or worse. If I remember correctly, there's a story where Halsey was with a team of IIIs and IIs, but because of one of her choices a III hits her "softly". Halsey then put her hand up to signal stop, when the IIIs looked up, the IIs where pointing their guns at them ready to fire; Halsey just stopped them.

@@valterfara5027 I don''t remember that exact scene, but sounds like it would have been on Onyx, possibly in the Kilo-5 trilogy. Cool that Halsey would just instinctively signal "stop" immedietly because she knows how Blue will react! I actually had a conversation just today about whether or not her becoming a sort of mother figure for them was intentional on her part or just a result of the situation they wer all in. And if it was intentional, was it for her own sake or for theirs? Did this mess with the II's heads even more, or did it actually make it easier for them to cope with everything? Very interpretable stuff.

@sambainbridge301 Given how ONI accuses her of being a "bleeding heart" for the Spartans and her early failed attempts at maintaining distance I don't think it was planned. As she came to care for the Spartans and regret what she did to them that dynamic naturally occurred.

Yeah... halo 4 campaign was better than people give it credit for. It's sad that people let their nostalgia get in the way of a good experience: Noone is ever going to recreate the original trilogy, except the actual people who made them. Instead, what we got was Halo from a new perspective. For me, it's neither good or bad - it's just different.

Story wise, it’s remarkable. As for gameplay, it’s a step backwards.

Yeah, I agree…… Infinite tried to live up to this, and it was *better* than most of what 343 had done, but Halo 4 still rules over all of 343’s works

Reach, less emotional that halo4? What?

@@paulmartin6209 Reach is a lot more subtle with how they deliver lines and build characters. It probably depends on the person what kind of connection they make with the characters there, whereas Halo 4 is a lot more straightforward: If you ask 10 people about their experience in Halo 4, you're probably gonna get very similar answers.

Again you have to become yourself a villain in order to save humanity, so her doing Spartan project in order to prevent outer space treats like Covenant and Flood (before even humanity know about it) makes sense

I agree with you and with Halsey. I don't see her as a "bad" figure. She just has enough guts and scientific curiosity to do everything she seems neccessary to save humanity. In a way, she is a spartan but of science. Also people don't seem to realise that ONI green lighted everything she did as she worked for them. I don't know if Halsey knew as a young scientist that she would get all the blame if everything went into a light publicly but as of now she knows this very well and still stands by her work as she should and don't try to shift blame to ONI as she should. Her work saved humanity and paved the way for more "humane" Spartans. If they would have waited longer than to start with spartan-2's when they did, humanity would have been doomed. She is neccessary evil and on that i don't think her as evil.

You do need to remember though, the Spartans being the best line of defence against threats like the covenant and the flood was circumstantial and not predictive. The Spartan project was started to face off against any human insurrection that would oppose the militant government. The mjolnir clad fist to keep the people from rebelling. The Covenant and Flood were honestly a very happy occurrence for the moral implications of the program. It all of a sudden made it okay, just so long as you forget these indomitable heroes of humanity were bred and moulded to kill you specifically, if you stepped too far out of line, and not those Alien Invaders.

@@scot9624 Yeah true, that would bad in 'What If' scenario if Covenant ignore Earth and their colonies, the ONI would be 100% the main antagonist faction

I think the audio was trash on the 360

@@josepedrofariasguimaraes7139it was lol. Could barely hear a thing back then lol

​@josepedrofariasguimaraes7139 yes, I don't like to replay halo 4 just for the audio alone. It's awful, very compressed and nonsensical, 95% of the sounds don't feel like they belong to the source of it. An example is the warthog, the motor sound like a toy that's powered by plastic gears with the pitch very powered up There is a mod that replaces most of the sounds with old ones or pitch and bass corrects them

Textures were awful though, especially on the character models. Bungie was better at textures. 343 made it so detailed in order to trick the player into thinking it had extremely high graphical fidelity

@@J4RUBY And is even more clear now that we have MCC with the HD textures in Halo 3 from the archive, they still hold surprisingly well for a 17 year old game (JFC I feel old), but Halo 4 really feels dated in texture quality, like they wanted so much variety of textures that the only way it all vould fit in the 8GB CD was by compressing textures and audio to an absurd degree, I've always wanted 343 to release the uncompressed assets and audio

ESPECIALLY on the last mission, there’s a long stretch of level where all the audio is 99% music and 1% gun and explosion SFX.

Oh god, thank you for confirming. I got 3 copyright claims for this vid 😂

@@MegMage Yep, that’s Halo 4 for ya. It’s almost like they want people to only make playthrough videos of the Bungie Halos.

@@MegMage that tracks lol

Oh my gosh Wernisagge hii

I’d say it’s decent. Not the best and FAR, FAR from the worst, but a solid middle ground

​@@Rocco049 Shhhh! Is a Good Game

@@Rocco049agreed. I think if they stuck with the original games art design and cleaned up the enemy placement it would’ve been great. It is still solid though.

@@OG_Bobby_Henderson I actually like the art style in most cases aside from elites. I think the only thing holding the game back was the terrible balancing of the promethians because the covenant only levels are great

Absolutely not lol

I believe they’re on her list!

What makes Halo 4 really special on the acting side is that it's the only Halo game where during recording the voice actors were usually in the studio together, and so those are real conversations and not just reading off a script.

meh, I find 4 and 5's music to be the worst in the series personally. Didn't have Marty or Salvatori (1-3, ODST, Reach, HW1) and the music wasn't inspired by them like it was in Infinite. Apart from 117, it kinda sounds like Mass effect music to me. Not that ME's music is bad, it just isn't halo-like... And while the game looks absolutely beautiful (environments, lighting, graphics and Cortana, lol) the art style just doesn't work. Though I def agree with you regarding the environment. Easily the best in the game, and arguably in the entire series.

@@TheAstrobiologistOW for me Infinite wasn’t great either but it rectified a lot of problem I had with 4 and 5. Again, not thrilled with the game but the campaign probably honestly saved my interest in the series imo

Yes! Forward unto Dawn is the best live action we have of Halo to this Day.

I just go with Bungie's reason that she just felt like changing up her look.

343 also hates us so your not alone

You can't even really call Mega off brand because Lego actually officially considers them a competitor brand.

Another point how this game humanizes the chief

Most of the lore she won't see anyway, she definitely won't read the books

@@Taylorwedege97she’s already read fall of reach

Has meg watched the forward unto dawn film? It's a prequel to this game. I think she would enjoy it.

@@Taylorwedege97 she is reading the books.

It's interesting how the dynamic has sorta changed over time. Many of the people who hated it originally have come around on it while others have stayed pretty steadfast. On the side of the people who liked Halo 4 from the start though the dynamic is also kinda interesting where some people have stayed pretty consistent in liking it while others have actually grown to like it even more in the face of disappointment from 5 and Infinite.

@@TheAstrobiologistOW it's called sunken cost (in the franchise) viewing middling and non-faithful halo games as better than the lowest common denominator. expectations lower and you begin to rose tint all the stuff you were more critical of before you were jaded by the miss-steps. halo 4 is a decent game, but it is a new generation's halo, and not really a halo game by any stretch other than branding and association/trimmings. people that like this game also grew up (and grew to love) MCU so, you know what sort of audience you're cultivating and polling. mouth-breathers