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« Last post by Tar Alacrin on July 06, 2016, 02:36:22 AM »
Yeah, I agree Pretty much what Capac said. They had a chance to really open things up post covenant fall and really create a fascinating universe with tons of little factions and make like a mini game of thrones in space with all the different factions and characters and cultures that rose up post fall. Instead we get UNSC + maybe a couple innies + Arby and friends Covy + a single new faction that they introduce for each new story they tell that has no impact on anything outside that story and probably gets disbanded or depowered at the end of it.
EDIT: Frick, that mini-game of thrones in space with Halo idea... With like, the Flood as the White Walkers, and Cortana and the Created as Danny and her crew, and all the myriad of UNSC and post-war covenant factions and ex UNSC innie factions as all the warring houses of Westeros... Then like, throw an original idea into the mix somewhere... I want this... So bad... It hurts...
But anyways, in reply to Dave: There are WAY many things that they could do to re-establish the sense of mystery without making up new stuff. Like, on so many levels; if you want to do the easy, sensationalist, and massive spectacle way; Bring back the precursors some how. Them's full of mystery. Or we can not do that, and explore what the heck is going on with the entire other ark that's still floating about out there somewhere. Or we could bring in Installation 07 and what the heck is going on there? There is the possibility of forerunner-flood forms or something and just creepy stuff in general, perhaps the mystery is that since its the remnant of the original halo array it still retains the power to do targeted halo blasts; making it infinitely more dangerous and scary once we learn that; but it would require some self control on their part to not reveal that info in the first two missions and then have the rest of the missions involve explosions all over the galaxy. Just, spend some time in one place. Don't run around across the entire galaxy. Spend time in one place and develop that location; make the location and the factions there all characters unto themselves. Especially if its a place that we don't know everything about. And don't tell us everything about it in the first two missions. And don't hurtle the thing into the sun as soon as you are done with that game.
And that's all ideas that don't even touch on all the crazy cool possibilities that would arise with dealing with different post-war post-covenant factions and settings. I mean, imagine if we flipped the formula on its head and had us stumble upon a huge covenant-built installation, that's purpose we Don't know and can't immediately figure out. An installation/space-station/giant superstructure that in the events following the war has fallen into disrepair and is seemingly abandoned and overgrown. Perhaps it was an experimental thing that's existence was kept fairly secret, and when the covenant collapsed; all record of it was lost in the civil war. And we have to survive on it and figure out what it is, and then we discover some crazy weird faction of covenant has taken up residence deep within. A faction that has a really weird social hierarchy and culture from what we are used to.
But really, its not even just about the central mystery in the game, but even just the way that you tell it. Obviously if you want that experience; its important for you to actually Have a mystery to piece together, both at the start AND at the end of the game. But that sense of mystery that I'm talking about is created separate from all that within the games themselves; from how they doll out information, and how they Don't doll out information.
That sense of mystery is created by a bunch of things; like by giving the player information on a subject, then throwing a wrench into it later and revealing that that was actually misinformation or half truths; this creates a mindset in the player that they don't know if all their assumptions are correct, an emotion crucial to mysteries. Also by simply Not giving the player information on every single topic; at the end of the game there should be multiple questions left unanswered, or at least not completely answered. The sense of mystery is also created by dolling out the information you do give slowly in a well thought out and timed manner; stringing you along and making the player try to piece together whats going on themselves. Between giving out misinformation, not giving out all information on every topic, and the practice of giving out information slowly the player can't help but get drawn in to the universe and try to piece together the whats going on. You have to introduce something, then don't give loads of information about it, then let the player develop their own theories and speculations about it; then give them a little bit of information about it that subverts their expectations and let them think about what this new information means.
Seriously, just look at each level of the original halo, and you'll realize that pretty much the whole narrative of the game can be broken down into levels that introduce something new and don't hardly explain anything about it, Give a small amount of information about a previously established topic, or give more information that contradicts and overrides previous information. Everything down even to the level design on levels like 343 Guilty spark is designed to foster that sense of mystery. Halo wasn't a space opera, it was a mystery thriller set in space in a military sci-fi universe.
All that to say though, the sense of mystery has just as much to do with how the story is told and how the game is designed, as it does with the actual story being told or setting or events that take place.
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