Forum:Halo: Spartan Strike

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Dear 343i: could you keep rainbow colored armor in MP?

I suppose it was inevitable. Can't say I have anything against the idea—Spartan Assault was pretty decent all-around though it had its problems, many of which they seem to have addressed here. Removing the microtransactions is probably the high point of all the improvements. Now if only they'd patch it in to the first game too. A little surprised they'd introduce a new vehicle and basically make it a reskinned Ghost. I guess that only continues the trend of redundant sandbox elements that's been going on in the Halo games for a while.

From what we know the story doesn't look to be anything to write home about. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tired of the writers using Forerunner MacGuffins to drive every plot; it was fresh back in Combat Evolved but when it's been used in 90% of Halo fiction it's become more than a little stale. Oh, and ONI too. They apparently have bases in every random Earth city including New Phoenix which the Didact just happened to choose as his target. It realize the story for an arcade shooter like this is probably going to be cheap filler but a little more imagination wouldn't hurt. Just to surprise us.

Timeline-wise, the player character's presence in Mombasa in 2552 is curious; is he or she another "prototype" S-IV or a Spartan from another generation? I definitely hope it's the latter (the Threes have been criminally neglected as of late and making the player Spartan one of the deployed Gamma Company ones, picked to test the GEN2 armor, would be a nice reminder they haven't been totally forgotten about). Another obvious question is whether Prometheans will appear in New Mombasa, which would require some major continuity bending to work. Hopefully Mombasa will just act as a prologue of sorts (which is likely, as it comprises only one operation) and the Prometheans will only be in the levels set in 2557.

I predict the game will end with the player character being composed along with all of New Phoenix in a surprisingly dark twist. That or the Conduit will be used to magically save them and a few plot-critical characters. Speaking of plot-critical characters, I wonder if the new talking head, Lt. Kwon, is meant to be the same character as "Lieutenant Elizabeth Kwan" of the Spartan Assault loading screen quotes fame. The gender and rank match up and either name isn't too common so I wouldn't chalk it up to mere coincidence. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 05:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)

Catalog has confirmed that Prometheans will only be in the stuff set in 2557. I agree that it's an odd move to turn the Kestrel into a ground based vehicle, and some of the descriptions seem to suggest it's meant to be like the Chopper. I do wish they'd given the main character a different suit. That helmet and those bright colours just seem wildly out of place to me.

In terms of plot, they said somewhere a while back that they were planning on covering some of the gaps in information, such as how Regret found Installation 05, perhaps it's something to do with this conduit. The settings of New Phoenix and Gamma Halo both create strong connections to the more recent fiction so maybe we'll see something from Black Team, that'd be pretty nice. Maybe the presence of the Conduit in New Pheonix is connected to the Didact's attack. If this takes place before then it could be the reason he focused on that point, if it's after they may have moved all Promethean based research to one place.--Soul reaper (talk) 06:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)

"You are a Spartan IV in this classified ONI simulation of New Mombasa set during the events of Halo 2." The Gamma Company theory Jugus mentioned is popular on Waypoint. I really hope that's the route the story takes. Failing that, maybe the TACSIM projects the likeness of the in-universe "player" into engagements regardless of whether he was actually present. --Our vengeance is at hand. (Talk to me.) 12:48, 16 October 2014 (EDT)

Yeah, I'm definitely not digging their choice of appearance for the main character. They already had an orange Spartan (Davis) in Spartan Assault, and the blue visor and racing stripes look bad. Why can't they have more Spartans with the classic olive drab coloration or other military-friendly color schemes? As for the Kestrel, it might not actually be a purely ground-based vehicle and could be like any other UNSC VTOL, but is restricted to hovering near the ground in Spartan Strike for the purpose of gameplay. In either case, I hope it appears in Halo 5. It would fill the role of 1 of 2 lost vehicles if it does (either the Hornet or Chopper). Man, I miss the Chopper. Also, did anybody else get really bugged by the guy who kept saying "war-thog" in the IGN video? Ugh.--File:PENGUIN4.gifFluffyEmoPenguin^{(ice quack!)} 16:24, 16 October 2014 (EDT)

That was one of the first things I noticed when I watched the video: "war-thog...war-thog." I was annoyed too. I think 343i is getting too buck wild with the armor styles. The protagonist's armor doesn't look militaristic at all. And the bright colors don't make sense because he stands out way too much. I can understand if it's black or olive like you said. Or even a more subdued coloration. Not mp-like. It just seems unrealistic. I like the Kestrel but like Jugus said, its redundant. Its almost like what we said earlier about 343i copying old designs for new designs. They might have been better off putting the Quad Walker in the game instead as it's more unique (albeit ridiculous & impractical). The story sounds like plain-jane Forerunner non-sense w/ a splash of the past. I want to fight some insurrectionist for once. When is that day going to come? Oh, and based off the way they sidelined (& barbequed some of) the S-III's so far, I highly doubt 343i will make the protagonist a S-III from gamma company but more along the lines of a prototype of S-IV. Like everyone else I rather him/her be a S-III but who knows. Whatever the case, I might pick this title up. Be nice to have this game on my laptop since I have win 8.1 w/ touch screen.--Killamin7 [Comm|Files] 20:46, 16 October 2014 (EDT)

I think the bright colour might have been chosen specifically to make it stand out more on the small screen, not that I like it, but then, I'm not a huge fan of some of Noble's colourings, or Majestic running around in bright blue all the time. According to the game's official page; "You are a Spartan IV in this classified ONI simulation of New Mombasa set during the events of Halo 2. Lead UNSC troops through numerous missions and battle against your enemies to save Earth." So basically, we play as an S-IV the entire time but the prologue missions (or possibly all of them) will be done through a simulation. I'm hoping it's a case of the S-IV going into a simulation to experience a mission related to his present day assignment. If the whole story is a simulation I'll lose it.--Soul reaper (talk) 22:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)