@previous posts by reyo that I missed and forgot to quote: I'm not saying the other games are copying Halo? I'm saying that other games were trying to beat Halo with
similar art styles. Their styles aren't nearly as refined or polished, though - the Halo games up to Reach managed to straddle a line, almost perfectly I believe, between having really cool designs and being believable; Halo's competition, games like
Section 8 and
NOVA, tried to woo players with designs that do little more than pack detail and curvature onto every available square inch.
Previous Halo games understood that good design relies aesthetic refinement.
I think these pictures demonstrate the differences between Reach (only my opinion, but I very much believe Reach has the best art direction in the series) and 4 well enough:
Emile compared to
Pioneer Variant.
Let's look at the notable differences.
Helmet: Emile's helmet has multiple pieces, yes, but they're much more reasonable. The level of detail here isn't far off from where more advanced military equipment (tanks, for one) is today. If we had much less detail, it'd be a solid piece of metal, which would cross the line into boring. His visor provides a huge viewing angle (though he's etched a skull on it which sort of ruins the effect. I'd wager he relies more heavily on the camera on the side. This was obvious his choice, so it doesn't weigh into the armor's design itself. The camera would otherwise likely serve the purpose of recording footage.) The Pioneer's helmet.... um. What is that huge grey circle? What are the circles above it? What about the circles on the cheeks? Why are the eyes sunk an inch or two behind the functionless brow? I'm sure if we had a side view, even more questions would come up.
Chestpiece: We can't really see Emile's, but I can tell you what's there - a rectangular panel covers the center and the rest of it slopes above/under his arms. Of note: Dude's drowning in capsules. That's great, soldiers have always and likely always will carry a lot of bulky gear. The Pioneer... doesn't have any gear. Instead, it has a bunch of circles in its chest. What's the point of that? There are a lot of unnecessarily exposed areas that would have been avoided if
whatever electrical shit is in those cylinders was under a solid panel instead. And exposde cables/pipes? Woah fuck no.
Legs: Look at that solid metal there, with seams in places appropriate for functionality. Emile can take off his armor but it still offers protection. The places not covered by hard metal at least have sliding panels, providing a balance of flexibility and protection. The Pioneer... well, its calf armor is split in two. Its knee pads are only barely as wide as the vital joint they're supposed to protect. The thigh armor stops halfway down on the side. Judging by the size of the feet, there's a good foot and a half left uncovered from on the leg. Also of note: feet. Emile's boots have hard casing all around them. The Pioneer has a toe-stub-guard and about two inches of metal.
Halo 4's UNSC forces look like Covenant* except that their armor placement sucks.
*of note: shiny, curved, detailed armor is great on the Covenant! They're supposed to look alien and their bodies work differently. (Grunts and Brutes should have bulky armor because they're less graceful - if you'll notice, they
do have bulkier armor)
I'll admit that in screenshots, the game looks fine. I'll be able to play it, and I'll even think it's graphically impressive. But I'm not going to be able to appreciate the game's art nearly as much as I did Reach's because beneath all the detail, there's very little aesthetic appeal. 343 doesn't yet have the touch that Bungie did.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
