Bungie has a new ViDoc out that highlights the various Spartans of Nobel Team, giving you an insight into the minds of your squad members in Halo: Reach. Although the video isn’t especially long, I have to say that the character animations for Halo: Reach are much improved over the previous titles, and every Spartan in the trailer seems to have a great deal of personality. As a little treat to Halo fans, the trailer is narrated by a character we’ve read a lot about in the books, but have never seen in a game. Watch the following video to get the run down on your teammates:
We’re almost at September, so the Halo: Reach news will be coming fast and furious. We’ll definitely try to sort out the chaff so we’re not flooding the website with Halo posts, but this trailer was too good to pass up as a fan of Halo lore. I know this sort of video won’t turn anyone around who has decided not to get Reach, but what about those who are? Even more excited now?
A couple of things that struck me about the trailer:
1) It is awesome to see Dr. Halsey and have her voiceover, but I thought the writing was bordering on terri-bad at the very beginning. Reminded me of the Gears chick. It seemed like more of a fantasy monologue than something out of sci-fi. Still, it was cool to see her finally, and even have the recording book end against her conversation with Cortana, after she chose the Master Chief.
2) While I love the idea of playing with a team of Spartans, and I see that Bungie is trying to make Noble 6 this elite team, they could have done it without the cliche personalities. The characters have seemed generic from day one, and seem to get MORE generic as each new piece of information is revealed. Hearing the dude with the skull shout “DATS WHAT YOU GET” made me cringe. Really, Bungie? You’re trying to get some Cole Train in your game? And yay, the mostly silent and boring protagonist of the bunch is just the same as MC. That’s supposed to be exciting, right?
I hate to rag on the trailer so much, because I still really enjoyed it, and have no doubts it’s going to be one of my games of the year. But it’s crazy that after all these years Bungie still seems to come up short in the storytelling department. Everything good about Halo storywise has come from outside of the games.
@ Eddy: I really don’t get why people hate on the silent protagonist. He’s an envoy for the player. How is that bad? As for the other characters, yeah they’re cliche, but it’s called an archetype for a reason.
I’m still psyched for Reach, and seeing Dr. Halsey is really cool. It brings the Halo series to a nice close since it starts at the beginning.
I’m not hating on all silent protagonist’s – just Halo’s, haha.
Yeah, Halo needs work in the character department. Halo Wars was the worst in this regard, I think.
People are starting to claim that Nobel 6 is the Master Chief since Halsey is apparently talking to Cortana at the end, asking which Spartan to choose. Silly people, Chief was on board the Pillar of Autumn for most of the Reach battle.
Actually Noble Six is not a silent protagonist. He (or she if your custom spartan is female) is fully voiced.
Yes, they are fully voiced, just like Master Chief, but I still consider Master Chief a generic silent protagonist. More than likely going to be the same with Noble Six.
True, but at least he opens his mouth every now and then to spout out bad ass one liners. Unlike Gordon Freeman, the most overrated protagonist of all time.
By the way, Eddy, you’ve helped me confirm which voice I’ll be using in Firefight.
WHO’S NEXT?!
Master Chief has badass one liners? Oh, I didn’t see them behind all the blandness that he exudes. Seriously, the Gears of War marines have more character than Chief does.
The more I watch this trailer, the more I notice Jen Taylor’s terrible enunciation.
“But..even in our DARKEST hour..HOPE..remains”.
Is that Dr. Halsey or Captain Kirk?