If players don't like bullet sponges. (I really don't), then why are games so devoted to them?
I remember the Halo 3 ViDoc's, and they admitted they "cheated" by making the brutes bullet sponges in Halo 2, and appeared visibly uncomfortable with what they had done.
But games still do it.
Halo 4 should have started with a new Spartan. I can't see the UNSC fielding a fake chief, that could have disastrous results, but Halo 4 should have started with Master Chief declared MIA, as per Spartan Doctrine.
All the events of Halo 4 can still pretty much progress from there, and even the rebellion would make more sense. By the time of Halo 4, the master chief has over 45 years of operational time. I know some fucking comic book did a joke about Chief having enough clout to outrank George Fucking Washington, and he flat out says no one would know what to call him then.
So have the rebelling spartan be junior. Maybe a mustang officer, and have the AI be his training partner, almost a reprise of Chief and Cortana, but not using Chief or Cortana.
Hell, that would give 343 a clean board to operate from. No one can bitch about mischaracterization, because the new guy is a clean slate. When the AI goes rogue, you can buy it, because we're not familiar with this AI, and have the betrayal of Spark fresh in our memory from 3.
But no, Halo is the story of Halo, a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.
pretend the Starchild part doesn't exist.
STARCHILD POWER CONTROL ON / OFF. YOU HAVE SELECTED - OFF.
some previous party member died, they just replace them with some other generic NPC
You mean like in actual war? Veteran dies, gets replaced by FNG. I believe the replacement squadmates had lower skills than the returning ones, and rather than being retarded handholding, it seems like a commentary on war. Not everybody makes it, but the job remains the same.
God that testicle fucker needs a thread ban. He shops in the EXOTIC ASIAN section of Tesco for EXCITEMENT.
I realize both the things I talked about happened like 20 pages ago, but those 20 pages were dogshit.