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Had an idea

ill m ake refs for them eventually

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When I say this is in my top 2 fav campaigns for Halo, I mean it.

Let’s talk about the story itself. I’m tired of nobody talking about the one good thing about this game.

Halo 4 touched up on Chief’s struggle with humanity, but Halo Infinite knocked that shit outta the ballpark. It was a genius idea to pair Chief with a Normal civilian and a newborn AI. These contrasts are what brought out the obvious issue John has and it was freakin’ brilliant. Without that contrast, everybody meshes into the same mold (not in a bad way!! everyone was a badass and thats just the story). So finally having somebody ask Chief, “are you okay???” is one of the best ideas they’ve ever had. No, he’s not okay. Who would be in his situation? Infinite brought to light what previous games hadn’t. He’s more than a vessel you play as. For the first time, he’s forced to look at everything, all at once, while having someone tell him “dude, that’s not normal.”

Esparza is a big reason why I love this game as much as I do. He’s just A Guy, and we’ve never had that as a main character before. He didn’t get sucked into a religious cult, he’s not a spartan, he’s not an ODST or a badass AI. He’s literally just a guy. And that was brilliant. Without someone next to Chief yelling “why the hell are we running towards the explosion” all the time, you don’t really catch John’s issues as easily. Esparza is interesting and new for this franchise. He’s also and incredible foil for Chief— he expresses any and every emotion he feels, good and bad. Esparza never feels guilty for it, never feels like he has to hold back. If he feels something, he lets you know (yelling at Chief for telling him to calm down, literally PUNCHING Chief’s chest plate, damn near sobbing at the Graveyard, hugging him as close as he can when Chief and Joy (the weapon) get back, constantly being afraid if what’s coming next, ect). That’s beautiful to see, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character in-game as expressive and emotionally honest as Esparza. And Chief? He’s literally the exact opposite, as we all know. And having Joy (The Weapon) play as the “innocent” trope is interesting, because she sheds light on the beauty of the ring for John. Nobody’s done that— ever. And what’s interesting is that John will do anything for Esparza. Which is odd to see, because all of his previous friends were either spartans, AI, a badass Sargent, or an 8 foot tall alien. This time, it’s a literal civilian, someone so vulnerable compared to everybody else.

This campaign was beautiful. Escharum was a drama queen with the excessive monologues, that’s my personal opinion (the Anakin Skywalker of Halo lmfao), but despite that, I still ended up liking him in the end after his death scene. It started to make sense, and Chief could tell it was, too. Everything was beginning to make some damn sense. So many events and words were finally enough to make him cock his head to the side and say, “wow, I’m actually not okay, and that means something”. And it’s perfect, it’s almost completely perfect. It’s literally a crime that this is being ignored, because not only do we get to see Chief actually process his own emotions, but we get to see phenomenal character development in a new character (Esparza), and that’s hard to come by in a video game.

Mary-Ann.

The Marionette.

Mary-Ann.

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