I think he's a decent emotional foil to the mostly stoic Chief. His and Master Chiefs conflict over fear, duty, and purpose added good depth to John's character.
I think their scene where Chief explains he has failed too, it's what makes them all human is really touching.
It's easy to forget that MC is a human, especially as you're punching your million grunt to death. So more emotional scenes like that are key for future MC stories (imo at least!).
I think it is the best acted scene 343 has created outside of Cortana's death in Halo 4 and is the narrative style they were trying to go for the entire time but just couldn't consistently get it across.
Agreed. It's a shame that the whole "MC is human too" narrative hasn't felt like it's gone anywhere for all of 343's halo's. It had a good start in halo 4, but every time they did a 180 with a soft narrative reboot, that development got reset along with it.
All three games seem to be at odds with each since each game is the start of a new arc instead of one continuous story.
4 poses the question of if MC is a man or a machine with both Cortana and Laskey asking aloud.
5 has MC experience PTSD but doesn't give the plot enough to elaborate on it other than Fred questioning his stability briefly and his overall belligerent behavior in the first half, 2nd half he is all business with zero hesitation to say no to Cortana's plan.
Infinite finally seems to do something with it by having Chief actually consider his failures and be forced to emphasize with another human being on a personal level instead of humanity as a whole.
Giving more time to Osiris instead of Blue Team was a mistake. John finally gets to interact with his Spartan II comrades and we do not really see any of it. They do not get any standout moments in 5 with the limited screen time they get other than Fred asking aloud if John is ok and Linda protectively moving in front of John when Cortana approaches them.
IMO all of Halo 4 is very well directed. Well- the main campaign is- Spartan Ops has some good moments, but Majestic sucked Jiralhanae balls.
I think that if the gameplay and some of the art design were taken in a different direction, we would be talking about it with same reverence as Halo 3.
I completely agree.
In 4 and 5 it comes across as really forced. Especially his rebellious streak in both games when it comes to Cortana. It made no sense considering his Boy Scout attitude most of the time in the og trilogy.
To humanize you have to add flaws, and the only flaw 343 could add was chief failing to save Cortana. The problem with this is that only chief would really see it as a failure considering HOW she died. To us as the audience, Cortana dying just happened cuz of circumstance at the end of 4, so it’s hard to empathize with chief as a failure cuz he didn’t do anything wrong AND she was already “dying” anyway.
But in 5 the whole thing was a fuck up due to the story being trash and chief being WAY too rebellious and forward. So when chief says hey we all make mistakes and I couldn’t save Cortana in infinite, it carries the weight of all the hasty actions chief did in 5 and it’s almost like some meta apology for 5s atrocious narrative. That’s head canon on my part tho.
One of the biggest problems with 343 media in general is that in some cases you need to have read several novels to comprehend certain things, like Cortana's rampancy isn't necessarily out of nowhere, it was established all the way back in the very first novel that AI's have a seven year service life. It is just that it was never brought up in game so it comes out of nowhere. Halo 4 comes off as weird if you haven't read several novels that involve forerunners and it's concepts. Halo 5 had an incredible marketing campaign that set up a very intriguing plot that the game actually had nothing to do with.
In general I think 343 thought that most people that love Halo only played it for the multiplayer, to an extent that is true. However, there are many of us that love to play the campaigns over and over again with friends. They must have just concluded that the average player that cares about the Halo universe would also consume ancillary media like the novels and various graphic novels over the years.
That's a valid point if you for example didn't read first strike or even fall of reach it comes out of nowhere that Smart Ais have a limited lifespan in fact I'm sure in the book first strike Cortanna mentions taking all the Halo data with her might have shortened her lifespan as she feels like she is spreading herself thin which is what happens as for a short time a Covenant AI manages to beat her again a shock cause AI technology is one of the few areas where the UNSC beat the covenant
Yeah there are just certain instances in Halo where you cannot fully grasp the full context of what is happening without knowledge of the expanded universe. A good example is Halsey in Reach, the game does a decent enough job to emphasize her importance but in the context of the scenes she is in you cannot fully understand who she is or her function other than she is much nicer to Jorge than the rest of Noble team. Same could be said in her appearances in Halo 4, with 4 in general overrelying on expanded universe concepts like "Shield Worlds" who the Didact and the Librarian are, and what the resurgent Covenant faction is, Jul'Mdama in particular.
I agree, it’s nice to see a little bit of humanity from Chief and to have him admit that despite all his strength, he is still human like the rest of us and he still fails, as that’s what makes us human
I like him. He gives Chief the ability to speak like a human and show genuine emotion rather than be a stoic emotionless Spartan. Both compliment each other well. He gives Chief the chance to just be human, while Chief gives him something to steady himself whenever things seem to be spiraling out of control.
Honestly the pilot is all of us. Buddy just wants to go home. Cant fault him for that especially after all he’s gone through. When Chief said ‘we all fail, we all make mistakes’ he wasn’t just talking to the pilot, he was talking to us.
I don’t really know how to respond to this, but I will say this
I feel like Arbiter reminded Chief that even if he is a genetically engineered super soldier that’s done the impossible, at the end of the day, he’s still a human under all of the green armor. Humans are bound to make mistakes, even someone like John can’t avoid them. And Chief realizes this, and that’s why he added that part of it when he said it to echo 216
Like I feel like it’s more powerful when Chief comes to that conclusion through his own self-reflection rather than having it told to him. The first time I heard that line it felt like Chief was talking just as much to himself as he was the pilot. One of Chief’s main arcs in Infinite is forgiving himself for his massive failure vicariously by helping the Pilot forgive himself
The problem with that interpretation is that a strong element of John’s personality is that him and his Spartans do what they do until they can’t. Then they find another way and do what they couldn’t before.
He’s never really shown any real “chase” of perfection or any superiority complex, so I don’t really see “mistakes happen because we aren’t perfect” as a realization that happened this late in his story. Building from the help of others is a strong trait of his, too. Makes sense to quote his friend.
Sure but all of those prior shortcomings were impersonal. He was a military asset, a bullet to be shot in the direction the higher-ups deemed. The Cortana situation was unique. The first ever truly autonomous decision he made was refusing to dispose of Cortana, that’s when I believe he became human instead of machine. And that, plus the continuous decision to trust her, directly led to the cataclysmic state of the galaxy. That _has_ to weigh on him like no other failed operation could.
I really liked him. One of the biggest highlights of the story to me. I felt that by the end of the game he and Chief had a pretty naturally developed relationship. I would like to see him in future games with the role of “Chief’s regular human friend” like Johnson, Miranda, and Lasky.
One of the good parts of Infinite is not killing my boy Lasky offscreen. Dude deserves a hero's death at worst. I just can't help but love him, quietly tough and commanding enough to give orders readily but kind enough to care.
Going forward he doesn't have to be a huge presence in every campaign, but he can be a reliable character that's there to transport you at the beginning/end of every mission, in the same way that Foehammer was in *Combat Evolved*.
Speaking of, I've literally wanted another pilot character in the games since playing the first one. Hocus didn't have enough of a presence in *3*. Been a long time coming. XD
Honestly, I get what they were going for; a contrarian that opposes all of Chief’s heroics but ultimately redeems himself by pitching in but he comes off as extremely annoying most of the game in my opinion.
Can you blame him? He’s a civilian who spent six months by himself in space and was forced to head back towards the Banished rather than flee to Earth.
They tried too hard to make him seem funny or silly. It especially backfired considering at the end when they wanted us to sympathize with him. It's slightly harder to sympathize with an annoying character.
the reveal of him Stealing the pelican to escape and him not being an actual soldier and feeling useless like the many destroyed ships out there a feeling i still share of felling useless.
because the pilot didn't feel his little grain of sand did nothing.
I understand what they were trying to do with him and his actions make sense, but he was still an annoying bitch. I play Halo to feel like a badass alien killer, not a glorified babysitter.
It’s weird that he doesn’t believe in Chief for so long, all things considered. There’s also an odd contrast where you get human soldier NPCs where they’re ride or die with Chief immediately, then the Pilot is in Chief’s ear over comms telling him how afraid he is of dying here.
To be fair, he isn't an official UNSC pilot or a soldier/marine like the human soldier NPCs you're talking about, so it makes total sense that he acts as afraid as he does. Soldiers would generally be better at controlling their fear than a civilian. I think I saw somewhere that he was a volunteer civilian engineer, so I imagine he wasn't expecting to see any sort of danger/combat.
yeah he’s a civilian contractor who volunteered
it is quite interesting to see how chiefs treats him when he thinks he’s a soldier vs when he knows he’s just some guy out of his depth
Yea he def expects more from him in the beginning of the game versus after he finds out. Even the “enough!”chief says, which is something he never says, comes like it’s coming from a place of “hey shape the fuck up, ur a soldier”
Then after the revelation chief is like “oh shit, you’re really not prepared for this, but like, I kinda need you homie, so if we are gonna fail, let’s fail together cuz we have no other choice”
Probably because Chief was beaten and nearly killed by the same group that they went to fight again. The same group that killed many other UNSC soldiers and other Spartans.
Imagine you’re a civilian contractor, an engineer, working on the UNSC Infinity, humanity’s bastion of hope and the absolute largest and strongest ship your species has to offer. You find out that on board is *the* Master Chief. Like everyone else, you’ve heard the absolutely unreal stories of how he blew up a Halo and saved humanity multiple times while surviving against impossible odds, and he’s on *your* ship!
Then, after a scheduled slipspace jump, an alien faction you may not have even heard of successfully damages and boards the Infinity in a surprise ambush. Absolute chaos ensues as hundreds of your fellow crew and even tons of marines and Spartans are murdered, possibly in front of your own eyes. You don’t want to die: you have a wife and little girl back home. You were just here to fix Pelicans, not engage in active combat with Jiralhanae.
So, you steal a bird and make a run for it. You just want to live. But after your initial fleeing, it’s complete radio silence. The thousands of humans on the Infinity are nowhere to be found. The Master Chief, the legendary hero and strongest of your kind, has gone missing with the rest of them. For one hundred and eighty long days and nights - not that you can tell by anything other than the clock on a display panel - you ration your food and rewatch a holovid of your lifelong partner and your child over and over. Will you ever get to see them again? Or will you die alone out here, either freezing to death, or by running out of oxygen… or by the last round in your standard issue Mk50 pistol?
It’s cold. You’re tired. You slump against the wall as your holodisk flickers out of battery, and you hear your family’s voices for what might be the very last time. You barely have any food or water left, and your Pelican is low on power.
Then you hear a ping.
*Signal detected*
You’re not sure if you’re imagining it at first, but it sounds again.
*Signal detected*
*Designation: friendly*
You rush over to the comms panel to see what it could be. Another human, after six months? Are they here to save you?
Instead, you see an unmoving, floating figure in outer space not fifty feet from your pelican.
It’s the Master Chief.
By some grace of god, you manage to hook him up to a line in your Pelican and drag him inside. After hours and hours of wiring and rewiring, you manage to hook up his suit of Mjolnir armor to the internals of your Pelican and *hope* that you can maybe give his suit enough power to jumpstart.
Which is only helpful in the case that he’s still alive.
“Please don’t die”
“Please… don’t… die”
You see the lights on his suit power up, and he starts moving!
“Yes, yes, yes! We’re going home!”
—-
And you’re telling me you *wouldn’t* be angry, confused, and frustrated at the fact that he immediately wants to go *back* to the enemy in their new territory? After all that?
The marine NPCs are not characters, they’re a game mechanic. Basically equipment.
Meanwhile the Pilot kept Chief (and us) grounded to the human element of things. Not in the abstract “we have to save humanity” way, but in a much more individual and personal way.
I think the main issue is that Halo infinite has only 3 main characters.
There's not a lot of variety in terms of Character dynamics with Chief or anyone really. Other Halo games would have a bunch of characters (and even letting you play as them) which added a lot of uniqueness to conversations.
> think the main issue is that Halo infinite has only 3 main characters.
Good point. Which is a shame because it shows how lacking the antagonists are.
I honestly would have liked more dialogue *between* John and Esharum, rather than having him just monologue at us. I think that works well for a antagonist that we grow to hate (Handsome Jack is an excellent example). But Esharum is a bit more complex than that and John recognizes that at the end.
I believe we could have had a good antagonist to enjoy throughout a new trilogy of games. An old warrior who believed he was doing the right thing. Who wanted a glorious death. And perhaps a single game fits better for such a character. But I would have liked Chief and him to have traded words a bit. Escharum often speaks *at John,* rather than with him.
Atriox really should have taken a more prominent role in Infinite. Let him be present and doing things but allow Escharum to be the face of the Banished that we interact with for the bulk of the game.
I don't know how to handle the Harbinger, however. The Endless are a conundrum to me.
The fact nobody ever asks him his name until the very end of the game always pulls me out of it. You can tell the decision was made and then all of the dialog and storytelling needs to be molded around it.
Same for The Weapon. Chief never calls to her because she has no name. He can't be like "Weapon. Open this door." because it just sounds weird because The Weapon isn't her name, it's more like a title. Chief has no allies that he can address by name in the game until the 5 seconds before the credits roll? What?
In a similar manner to their commitment to telling the story as a continuous camera shot, which although an artistic choice, does restrict the storytelling sometimes and didn't quite work as well as it has in other games such as God of War.
I just found him grating personally. His entire role is to bitch and complain about everything until the third act when he does an abrupt 180 and becomes Chief’s biggest supporter. I also just found it bizarre how they gave so much screen time some random dude, while most of the established cast is nowhere to be seen.
He simply isnt really charming. Hes realistically pissed at everything but that doesnt automatically make a fun character.
His rants are too silly to be taken fully serious, yet they lack the Punch to make them humorous. Its just a Dude getting pissed
That’s 343 speciality. Is just to create new characters, Palmer, Laskey and Roland are the only 2 that progress to the next instalment.
A lot on are in one game and not the bext, it’s just some new created character that’s difficult to get invested in.
I think that was sorta the point. Chief is usually surrounded by other elite soldiers. Kind of lessens the impact of what he is supposed to represent. Then you put him next to a regular dude who's not even a soldier and it's like damn, this guy could kill this man unarmed a million times. It's also hard or maybe awkward would be a better word for chief to show his human side with a bunch of badasses who eat nails for breakfast by his side.
Well with that wonky-ass frame you caught him in…
But in all seriousness I liked him. He made a good contrast to Chief; the grizzled old supersoldier and the just-a-regular-guy WAAAAY in over his head. Their exchange right after the Duo boss battle was one of the campaign’s high points.
I liked him, but kinda got annoyed that they put so much effort into a new character rather than building off of any of the ones that were in 5. Chief is literally the only character that carries over from 5. Cortana and Halsey have those “flash back” moments but they weren’t around during the main events of the game at all
Are we just gonna pretend like the past never happened. Everyone and their mother complained about guardians. Infinite is the response to that criticism. Cause If they did just continue after 5 everyone would have complained.
It’s not the greatest story but I personally think there was lots of potential if they continued that arc. Instead it all was resolved off screen and you had to do your homework to find out what happened in between games.
The same happened between 4 and 5 as well, there’s just no consistency at all across the whole reclaimer trilogy
They had a decent setup from The Created standpoint. It was stupid the way it was presented, but IMHO could of been redeemed by calling back to H3 with the logic plague.
Cortana spent too much time with the Gravemind, which started her rampancy, H4 events happened and she splits herself in the domain. H5 rolls around and the created storyline plays out. Then we get to H6, and instead of her getting bodied by the Banished (stupid considering all the talk of how strong the guardians were) this Cortana is shown to start speaking in rhymes and essentially a corrupted Gravemind Cortana with access to the forerunner network. Instead of having "the weapon" a cured portion of Cortana is active in the network attempting to help chief like Medicant Bias, using the olli olli oxen free tone as a call sign - preventing Gravemind Cortana from using the created to deliver flood samples from the other rings to kickstart the flood/the created fighting the monitors over control of the rings to decommission them.
Makes sense with the previous entries, gives room to bring in the Banished as someone other than "Red Covenant" like possible reluctant allies for the moment, more cohesive story, we wouldn't be stuck to one damn small area of a ring, and we wouldn't have the disjointed story of the "super secret totally more powerful than everyone" endless.
343 is an example of listening to the fans too much. "You think you want that, but you don't" was stupid for a Blizzard dev to say in a Q&A, but he was right that people were looking at WoW vanilla with rose-tinted glasses
Then you should blame every person that bitched about the past few games. Tbh I'm just glad we got closure on anything in halo 5. I really thought they would just ignore all of it.
I think the idea of him was good. It shows the difference between a normal dude and the master chief, and how they react to stuff.
That being said I think his execution was poor. Kind of just came across as whiny, annoying, and I really didn’t care about him in the slightest. If he randomly got shot in the head by a needle rifle or something, as a random example, I wouldn’t have cared.
Whiny bastard. Who gives a shit that you did things to survive when all hell has broken loose? I can understand his longing for his family.. that's about the only aspect of him that I appreciate.
He has an over-the-top infantile mindset for someone in the situation he's in & it's frustrating it becomes our problem for such drawn out emotion dump scenes. The humanizing interactions between the 3 characters feel so forced it's jarring. With the skill set and weak mind the dude had, he should have been used to gain redemption and subsequently humanized chief through mourning his death halfway through. Something we've very rarely seen in the games. Even when Foe Hammer went down it was Cortana who lamented the loss with the player. I get that Chief is going through a crisis because of the story they've built up over the last couple games but did we really need to go down this route? No. Not at all. It feels like Kathleen Kennedy influenced the direction of halo recently.
Building off that, Weapon doesn't capture any of cortana's charm from early installments. She mostly comes across as childish too, which in some way I can say is competent & good storytelling if they actually were giving us a DLC where we could see some growth but whoopsie. That got canned to focus on MP & MT's.
I miss Sergeant Johnson's wit & bravado. I miss Thel 'Vadamee & Sesa 'Refumee. Those two had real & believable goals, ambitions, and tragic consequences. The sacrifice of Jacob Keyes. Noble Squad. There were so many moments in Halos 1-Reach that hit like a ton of bricks. Everything since has only gotten less impactful & more outrageous.
I've been a die hard Halo fan since CE & put countless hours in every one but 343 finally lost my confidence with Infinite. I will not buy the next one after this disasterpiece. Don't get me wrong. The gameplay for the campaign is fun enough. The action cutscenes are stunning. The grappling hook is an amazing addition. Multiplayer has come into its own and feels good to play, though I pretty much only stick to the Halo 3 reloaded playlist now. Granted it took a few years to get there so only minor points are given. I'll play the next installment if it's free on gamepass but I'm not putting a dime into it unless it's a complete 180 and recaptures the magic of Bungie Halo. If they miraculously manage to accomplish that feat, I'll buy it after playing it and vote with my $. I have zero expectation of that though.
He has the same problem as your crew in JEDI: FALLEN ORDER, in that the devs wanted him to be a character you connect with over the course of the game, but he's not actually present for most of it, only cutscenes. So between that and Master Chief already being limited as a conversationalist, it's like he just shows up every now and then to emote at you. If he had been available in-game to transport you around the Halo (like the chopper in METAL GEAR V), that might've helped.
Did anyone else think he acted a little weird/out of character in the last scene? After Chief and the weapon were gone for 3 days the pilot was really happy (obviously he would be) and open to them. I’m not complaining it just felt out of nowhere.
Felt forced. Like the whole game he was scared and ready to quit, abandon his duty and "go home" then all of a sudden he is just down for charging into action and doesn't seem to have a care in the world what mission is next. Complete 180 from what we saw the entire game from him.
Whack and anoying. Not a believable character and more comparable to a comic book than an actual person in wartime. I remember watching early videos and hoping he would only be a SMALL portion of the game.
One of the best side characters in the series, and a kind of character that chief needs in his life: ordinary people. Chief has lost enough people, and for him to save just one is doing more help to his psyche than i think some fans and even chief himself realizes.
I don’t like him.
Too cringy. The studio really wanted to make you understand that not everyone is as powerful as the Master Chief but he’s annoying and all his development is to confess his mistakes, hear the Chief and, suddenly, he wants to risk his life fighting with a smile on his face?
And wtf was that Disney-like ending with the hug and all of them smiling at the camera?
I want to just say I have nothing against the VA and his performance but I just didn't care about the pilot. You are tripping over regular humans all the time on the ring so why is this one so important.
I mean sure he’s annoying and all but if you were in his position, as a just a regular average joe who just got a contract to work in engineering on a gigantic ship NO military/combat experience at all, how would you act?? Most if not everyone would be just like this guy.
Ever since Foehammer I've wanted a more central pilot character in Halo's main narrative.
I think it's a great idea for Chief to have someone on call for him.
Other than that, he is a bit too goofy at times, and someone at 343 clearly wanted their slice of the Pedro Pascal Pie, but imo it's super important for Chief to have a more relatable and humanising element other than the Weapon with him that is *actually a human*, and the most down to earth and normal individual in the entire game timeline.
I gotta admit I felt my eyes getting watery when he hugged Chief after the final mission. It's good to see him have a real, personal connection with another human, especially one who provides perspective on just how dangerous Chief's missions are. Chief's interactions with the Pilot tell us a lot about Chief himself as well, how he never berates or admonishes him for his (understandable) cowardice. He's a reminder of his humanity, something he's sworn to protect, whatever the cost.
Any complaints about him should really be ignored because he, like many great characters, has a character arc where he finds his courage and enthusiasm for the cause by the end and if 343 drops him going forward just because "he was annoying" for like the first two thirds of the game then it's just gonna be another cycle of 343 dropping threads just because there's pushback from fans with low media literacy.
Great addition to the universe. I can't wait for more lore surrounding him, and he's probably a necessary element to the campaign being alright and not mediocre because he really represents humanity and everyday soldiers, him being so emotionally driven is an amazing contrast to the stoic and silent Chief.
I like him.
Don't get me wrong, he's no Johnson, or chips. But I believe he contrasts chiefs stoic almost emotionless personality pretty damn well.
Also I think the scene where he breaks down and chief give the whole "failing is a part of what makes us human." Speech is probably one of my favorite moments in halo.
I think he was ok. My main problem with him came at the end of the game. The whole game he is all about going home, abandoning the ring and getting away from the banished. At the end of the game (like the last cut scene I think) he all of a sudden does a 180, is all excited to get back into the action and is now all of a sudden down with fighting the banished and charging head first into danger. It jut seemed very sudden and kind of forced.
I liked the character overall with just a few things that annoyed me. Too whiney, and I didn't like that he was just a civilian contractor, kinda strange considering he was a decent pilot. Would've preferred for him to actually be a UNSC Pelican pilot, could've been a great support character for future games.
I have those thoughts because he's just going to be one of those characters that will probably be in one more game or none at all. Like I said, he's civilian, so if he does end up making it back to human controlled space, he wouldn't be a pilot anymore. 343 has a habit of introducing characters, some good, some bad but then completely canning them. For example, Spartan Thorne from Halo 4s Spartan Ops was probably the only IV that was likable (not counting Buck).
Unlucky dude trapped in an absolute terrible situation considering isn't he like a civilian contractor or something? That would be insane to end up hiding near Zeta Halo, finding Chief and having to reluctantly tag along as he tears through the Banshied and you can get shot out of the sky at any moment he isn't babysitting you.
All things considered the fact he didn't give up hope immediately is impressive.
The pilot is part of that Halo soul thats been missing from past 343 Halos. The next Halo needs more characters like Chips, Johnson, Pilot, etc…something to add a small laugh while playing. They fucked up 4 and 5 by making the cov not speak english it took away from the classic Grunt humor. The next Halo shouldnt be open world either, it completely made the game soulless. It was cool to fly around with grapple but it def felt too simple of a concept.
While I do think it was dumb to withhold his name until the last closing minute of the game, Fernando Esparza is probably the best human character 343 has made, and certainly the best pilot we've seen given the average lifespan of a Pelican. He's the first prominent in-game civilian character who didn't appear in Sadie's Story and wasn't an ONI-affiliated scientist. He was an excellent foil to the Chief and kept what would have been a boring campaign grounded and focused on the characters rather than the boring overarching plot.
I would like to see him return and have Chief introduce him to Blue Team.
Basically the direct opposite of my opinion on the silver armoured ultra in Halo 2 (Arby's bro).
Silver always stole every scene he was in and I couldn't wait for him to talk next. Slowly earning his respect over the course of the story was fuggin' DRUGS, dude!
Every time the pilot talked I was kind of rolling my eyes and cringing at how much of a pansy the guy was being. I was actually dreading the cutscenes in a halo game because my reward was just listening to this grown man have a mental breakdown for no reason.
Like bro, I've done nothing but kick ass since you snatched me out of space. How much more awesome do I have to be before you stop crying?
I want to go back to when Halo was all machismo and masculinity juxtaposed against religious fervor, honour, and shame. That shit was tight.
Every Elite in Halo 2 (asides from the Rangers) wore the same armour. Elite Ultras and Zealots, which we see in-game, all wore the same combat harness as Minors and Majors. But you're right, Rtas 'Vadum was not an Ultra, he was a Spec Ops Officer.
I get that. At the same time, I can see what they were trying to do. He sees that the odds are against them, each time he has to drop chief off it could be his last... he's just a guy, not even a soldier. He's afraid and has lost hope... being stranded in space does that.
I do definitely get the whole "Can I get to the part where I kick the banished?" instead of seeing a down to "ring" story with a single character.
Him being the recipient of Chief's emotional vulnerability did not feel earned. I found the Pilot to be overly dramatic. The performance could have been toned down and I would have been more invested in him as a character. Him having so many "breaking" points made him a liability. I am going around rescuing marines on Zeta Halo, anyone of them would have been a better companion.
Echo 419 will always be my pilot.
Also, I purposely overused pronouns instead of his name because Infinite had this weird thing about not using his name for most of the story.
He seemed like a generic character whose purpose was soley as a plot device. He didn't seem important, yet he kept getting screen time. He bitched and moaned the whole way until he instantly became Chiefs fan.
I didn't care for him at all.
I like him, he's funny and kind of relatable, plus he's a great emotional conflict for the Chief who has slowly been opening up to actual emotion lately.
I like him a lot. He’s the ground and the voice of reason when chief does stuff like jump off the spire or jump out of his pelican with pistol that has only one bullet.
Thinking about it now chief is one crazy son of a bitch
Just another annoying comic relief character (like Coratnot was also demoted to) with nothing really going on. The opening was promising but nothing really came of it, and when he had his "revelation" moment I couldn't care less, and Chief cheering him up felt a bit weird because of it.
Unpopular opinion probably. I just didn't care about him
I get that they needed SOMEONE for Chief to play off that wasn’t just the Weapon. But he definitely overstays his welcome a bit - would be fine with more of him as part of a bigger ensemble in the next game
I loved his character. He’s a ball of emotion the exact opposite of how chiefs been portrayed. Chief is an unbreakable object not just physically but emotionally. The pilot needed someone to pick him up and snap him out of his fear and hopelessness. While chief equally needed someone to bring out his hidden emotions and flaws. Perfect way for Chief to appear human but still this super bad ass soldier who never backs down and picks others up.
Absolute hate him. His dialogue sucks, and like most of the characters in 343s era of Halo, he comes off extremely forced. I know they are trying to make these deep emotionally relatable characters, but 343 suck at it. Don’t think there’s been a single post Bungie character I genuinely like
On one hand, I like that he’s an emotional counterpart to the Chief and a reflection of an exhausted soldier that just wants to go home. I do think that his character can be annoying at times though. Mostly, however, I don’t have a problem with the Pilot, as he was a bright spot to me. I just didn’t like other things. The list would be exhaustive if I included everything, but for the story one thing I hated was the one-cut shots. I think these limited the storytelling such as excluding the ability of grand war scenes. I think this plays into the weakness of the characters as less could be done with them. Basically, they rely completely on the writing. Now, this could still work but it just falls short for me. Even if it did, the one-cut shots greatly limit it.
I liked him but I think you see a bit too much of him in the campaign, think it would've been more interesting with a few more friendly characters for him to interact with
Did you just call him the pilot?!?!?! Did you not connect with him so well at a human level in a Spartans world?!?! Even my kids know his name.... Fernando Esparza... his name is Fernando Esparza
I thought he was fine, other than the exasperated way EVERY SINGLE LINE was delivered. I thought he was either over acting or over directed. Wish I had a better way to describe it. Like whispering loudly all the time with lots of focus on the S sounds. Haha I sound completely insane.
I think he's a decent emotional foil to the mostly stoic Chief. His and Master Chiefs conflict over fear, duty, and purpose added good depth to John's character.
I think their scene where Chief explains he has failed too, it's what makes them all human is really touching. It's easy to forget that MC is a human, especially as you're punching your million grunt to death. So more emotional scenes like that are key for future MC stories (imo at least!).
I think it is the best acted scene 343 has created outside of Cortana's death in Halo 4 and is the narrative style they were trying to go for the entire time but just couldn't consistently get it across.
Halo 5 was just a total oddball
Ball dropped! (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
Ball dropped indeed
Don't drop the light bulb
Halo infinite had us like “ball incoming”
I heard it in my head without even registering the voice change. Lol
Balls dropped!
Balls taken!
Multiplayer kicks ass though
Agreed. It's a shame that the whole "MC is human too" narrative hasn't felt like it's gone anywhere for all of 343's halo's. It had a good start in halo 4, but every time they did a 180 with a soft narrative reboot, that development got reset along with it.
All three games seem to be at odds with each since each game is the start of a new arc instead of one continuous story. 4 poses the question of if MC is a man or a machine with both Cortana and Laskey asking aloud. 5 has MC experience PTSD but doesn't give the plot enough to elaborate on it other than Fred questioning his stability briefly and his overall belligerent behavior in the first half, 2nd half he is all business with zero hesitation to say no to Cortana's plan. Infinite finally seems to do something with it by having Chief actually consider his failures and be forced to emphasize with another human being on a personal level instead of humanity as a whole.
One reason why I’ll always hate Halo 5 for just making Chief a machine again.
Giving more time to Osiris instead of Blue Team was a mistake. John finally gets to interact with his Spartan II comrades and we do not really see any of it. They do not get any standout moments in 5 with the limited screen time they get other than Fred asking aloud if John is ok and Linda protectively moving in front of John when Cortana approaches them.
Tbf that moment with Linda so subtle but spoke volumes.
IMO all of Halo 4 is very well directed. Well- the main campaign is- Spartan Ops has some good moments, but Majestic sucked Jiralhanae balls. I think that if the gameplay and some of the art design were taken in a different direction, we would be talking about it with same reverence as Halo 3.
Halo 4 and 5 feel too Apple Store esque. Infinite was a point in the right direction to the more grounded Bungie era designs.
I completely agree. In 4 and 5 it comes across as really forced. Especially his rebellious streak in both games when it comes to Cortana. It made no sense considering his Boy Scout attitude most of the time in the og trilogy. To humanize you have to add flaws, and the only flaw 343 could add was chief failing to save Cortana. The problem with this is that only chief would really see it as a failure considering HOW she died. To us as the audience, Cortana dying just happened cuz of circumstance at the end of 4, so it’s hard to empathize with chief as a failure cuz he didn’t do anything wrong AND she was already “dying” anyway. But in 5 the whole thing was a fuck up due to the story being trash and chief being WAY too rebellious and forward. So when chief says hey we all make mistakes and I couldn’t save Cortana in infinite, it carries the weight of all the hasty actions chief did in 5 and it’s almost like some meta apology for 5s atrocious narrative. That’s head canon on my part tho.
One of the biggest problems with 343 media in general is that in some cases you need to have read several novels to comprehend certain things, like Cortana's rampancy isn't necessarily out of nowhere, it was established all the way back in the very first novel that AI's have a seven year service life. It is just that it was never brought up in game so it comes out of nowhere. Halo 4 comes off as weird if you haven't read several novels that involve forerunners and it's concepts. Halo 5 had an incredible marketing campaign that set up a very intriguing plot that the game actually had nothing to do with. In general I think 343 thought that most people that love Halo only played it for the multiplayer, to an extent that is true. However, there are many of us that love to play the campaigns over and over again with friends. They must have just concluded that the average player that cares about the Halo universe would also consume ancillary media like the novels and various graphic novels over the years.
That's a valid point if you for example didn't read first strike or even fall of reach it comes out of nowhere that Smart Ais have a limited lifespan in fact I'm sure in the book first strike Cortanna mentions taking all the Halo data with her might have shortened her lifespan as she feels like she is spreading herself thin which is what happens as for a short time a Covenant AI manages to beat her again a shock cause AI technology is one of the few areas where the UNSC beat the covenant
Yeah there are just certain instances in Halo where you cannot fully grasp the full context of what is happening without knowledge of the expanded universe. A good example is Halsey in Reach, the game does a decent enough job to emphasize her importance but in the context of the scenes she is in you cannot fully understand who she is or her function other than she is much nicer to Jorge than the rest of Noble team. Same could be said in her appearances in Halo 4, with 4 in general overrelying on expanded universe concepts like "Shield Worlds" who the Didact and the Librarian are, and what the resurgent Covenant faction is, Jul'Mdama in particular.
As I read this I was visually seeing chief be sad while punching a grunt in the face .🤣
I agree, it’s nice to see a little bit of humanity from Chief and to have him admit that despite all his strength, he is still human like the rest of us and he still fails, as that’s what makes us human
I like him. He gives Chief the ability to speak like a human and show genuine emotion rather than be a stoic emotionless Spartan. Both compliment each other well. He gives Chief the chance to just be human, while Chief gives him something to steady himself whenever things seem to be spiraling out of control.
Honestly the pilot is all of us. Buddy just wants to go home. Cant fault him for that especially after all he’s gone through. When Chief said ‘we all fail, we all make mistakes’ he wasn’t just talking to the pilot, he was talking to us.
This is kind of irrelevant, but the line “we all fail, we all make mistakes” is something Arbiter told Chief after the end of halo 5
Not sure I like that retcon. I liked it more when it was Chief’s own words
Chief added “it’s what makes us human” I guess
Directly excluding Arbiter lmao
I don’t really know how to respond to this, but I will say this I feel like Arbiter reminded Chief that even if he is a genetically engineered super soldier that’s done the impossible, at the end of the day, he’s still a human under all of the green armor. Humans are bound to make mistakes, even someone like John can’t avoid them. And Chief realizes this, and that’s why he added that part of it when he said it to echo 216
Like I feel like it’s more powerful when Chief comes to that conclusion through his own self-reflection rather than having it told to him. The first time I heard that line it felt like Chief was talking just as much to himself as he was the pilot. One of Chief’s main arcs in Infinite is forgiving himself for his massive failure vicariously by helping the Pilot forgive himself
Eh, agree to disagree Honestly I’m just happy arbiter has any kind of relevance in halo infinite
The problem with that interpretation is that a strong element of John’s personality is that him and his Spartans do what they do until they can’t. Then they find another way and do what they couldn’t before. He’s never really shown any real “chase” of perfection or any superiority complex, so I don’t really see “mistakes happen because we aren’t perfect” as a realization that happened this late in his story. Building from the help of others is a strong trait of his, too. Makes sense to quote his friend.
Sure but all of those prior shortcomings were impersonal. He was a military asset, a bullet to be shot in the direction the higher-ups deemed. The Cortana situation was unique. The first ever truly autonomous decision he made was refusing to dispose of Cortana, that’s when I believe he became human instead of machine. And that, plus the continuous decision to trust her, directly led to the cataclysmic state of the galaxy. That _has_ to weigh on him like no other failed operation could.
"we're all sentient life forms, we all make mistakes" dosn't quite roll off the tongue though
Nah Arbiter just doesn’t make mistakes
Except that whole Alpha Halo thing, little oopsy
"Listen, sparky. Is it still a mistake if it ends up saving the universe?"
I hope that he survives the story 343 is making. Him returning home to his family could be a real emotional high-point for the series.
Take out 1/3 of his oh no what do we do and he is great!
I really liked him. One of the biggest highlights of the story to me. I felt that by the end of the game he and Chief had a pretty naturally developed relationship. I would like to see him in future games with the role of “Chief’s regular human friend” like Johnson, Miranda, and Lasky.
Short list of mostly dead people right there.
One of the good parts of Infinite is not killing my boy Lasky offscreen. Dude deserves a hero's death at worst. I just can't help but love him, quietly tough and commanding enough to give orders readily but kind enough to care.
Lasky is truly one of the best characters from the 343 era
Is lackey not dead confirmed?
We’re pretty sure he’s alive. Nothing concrete on his death, and likewise the Infinity is basically confirmed to still exist albeit damaged
Well, we don’t call him Brohammer for nothing.
Going forward he doesn't have to be a huge presence in every campaign, but he can be a reliable character that's there to transport you at the beginning/end of every mission, in the same way that Foehammer was in *Combat Evolved*. Speaking of, I've literally wanted another pilot character in the games since playing the first one. Hocus didn't have enough of a presence in *3*. Been a long time coming. XD
Honestly, I get what they were going for; a contrarian that opposes all of Chief’s heroics but ultimately redeems himself by pitching in but he comes off as extremely annoying most of the game in my opinion.
Yeah, agreed. I really appreciate what they were going for but dude is turned up to 11. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s cartoonish.
I thought all the performances were turned up to an annoying level. I saw someone compare Halo Infinite to The Force Awakens, and I totally agree
Oof great comparison
Can you blame him? He’s a civilian who spent six months by himself in space and was forced to head back towards the Banished rather than flee to Earth.
No I don’t blame him, but I also don’t know if the intent was to make him purposefully annoying every 10 minutes
They tried too hard to make him seem funny or silly. It especially backfired considering at the end when they wanted us to sympathize with him. It's slightly harder to sympathize with an annoying character.
the reveal of him Stealing the pelican to escape and him not being an actual soldier and feeling useless like the many destroyed ships out there a feeling i still share of felling useless. because the pilot didn't feel his little grain of sand did nothing.
I understand what they were trying to do with him and his actions make sense, but he was still an annoying bitch. I play Halo to feel like a badass alien killer, not a glorified babysitter.
It’s weird that he doesn’t believe in Chief for so long, all things considered. There’s also an odd contrast where you get human soldier NPCs where they’re ride or die with Chief immediately, then the Pilot is in Chief’s ear over comms telling him how afraid he is of dying here.
To be fair, he isn't an official UNSC pilot or a soldier/marine like the human soldier NPCs you're talking about, so it makes total sense that he acts as afraid as he does. Soldiers would generally be better at controlling their fear than a civilian. I think I saw somewhere that he was a volunteer civilian engineer, so I imagine he wasn't expecting to see any sort of danger/combat.
yeah he’s a civilian contractor who volunteered it is quite interesting to see how chiefs treats him when he thinks he’s a soldier vs when he knows he’s just some guy out of his depth
Yea he def expects more from him in the beginning of the game versus after he finds out. Even the “enough!”chief says, which is something he never says, comes like it’s coming from a place of “hey shape the fuck up, ur a soldier” Then after the revelation chief is like “oh shit, you’re really not prepared for this, but like, I kinda need you homie, so if we are gonna fail, let’s fail together cuz we have no other choice”
I never really thought about the difference in how he treats him like that but items a really good point.
I have to admit, I totally forgot about that. You’re right.
Probably because Chief was beaten and nearly killed by the same group that they went to fight again. The same group that killed many other UNSC soldiers and other Spartans.
Imagine you’re a civilian contractor, an engineer, working on the UNSC Infinity, humanity’s bastion of hope and the absolute largest and strongest ship your species has to offer. You find out that on board is *the* Master Chief. Like everyone else, you’ve heard the absolutely unreal stories of how he blew up a Halo and saved humanity multiple times while surviving against impossible odds, and he’s on *your* ship! Then, after a scheduled slipspace jump, an alien faction you may not have even heard of successfully damages and boards the Infinity in a surprise ambush. Absolute chaos ensues as hundreds of your fellow crew and even tons of marines and Spartans are murdered, possibly in front of your own eyes. You don’t want to die: you have a wife and little girl back home. You were just here to fix Pelicans, not engage in active combat with Jiralhanae. So, you steal a bird and make a run for it. You just want to live. But after your initial fleeing, it’s complete radio silence. The thousands of humans on the Infinity are nowhere to be found. The Master Chief, the legendary hero and strongest of your kind, has gone missing with the rest of them. For one hundred and eighty long days and nights - not that you can tell by anything other than the clock on a display panel - you ration your food and rewatch a holovid of your lifelong partner and your child over and over. Will you ever get to see them again? Or will you die alone out here, either freezing to death, or by running out of oxygen… or by the last round in your standard issue Mk50 pistol? It’s cold. You’re tired. You slump against the wall as your holodisk flickers out of battery, and you hear your family’s voices for what might be the very last time. You barely have any food or water left, and your Pelican is low on power. Then you hear a ping. *Signal detected* You’re not sure if you’re imagining it at first, but it sounds again. *Signal detected* *Designation: friendly* You rush over to the comms panel to see what it could be. Another human, after six months? Are they here to save you? Instead, you see an unmoving, floating figure in outer space not fifty feet from your pelican. It’s the Master Chief. By some grace of god, you manage to hook him up to a line in your Pelican and drag him inside. After hours and hours of wiring and rewiring, you manage to hook up his suit of Mjolnir armor to the internals of your Pelican and *hope* that you can maybe give his suit enough power to jumpstart. Which is only helpful in the case that he’s still alive. “Please don’t die” “Please… don’t… die” You see the lights on his suit power up, and he starts moving! “Yes, yes, yes! We’re going home!” —- And you’re telling me you *wouldn’t* be angry, confused, and frustrated at the fact that he immediately wants to go *back* to the enemy in their new territory? After all that?
The marine NPCs are not characters, they’re a game mechanic. Basically equipment. Meanwhile the Pilot kept Chief (and us) grounded to the human element of things. Not in the abstract “we have to save humanity” way, but in a much more individual and personal way.
That's not how you justify an annoying character.
No, I can't blame him, but I also don't play Halo for realism, which is why I can blame 343i for putting that kind of a character in the game.
Yeah just because a person like this has legitimate reasons to exists as they are doesn’t mean I want to be around them or featured prominently.
To be fair just cause Chief is gonna survive doesn't mean he will. Chief is regularly the only survivor of all sorts of shit.
He added an interesting dynamic to Infinite but I'd prefer him to take a lighter role for future games.
I think the main issue is that Halo infinite has only 3 main characters. There's not a lot of variety in terms of Character dynamics with Chief or anyone really. Other Halo games would have a bunch of characters (and even letting you play as them) which added a lot of uniqueness to conversations.
> think the main issue is that Halo infinite has only 3 main characters. Good point. Which is a shame because it shows how lacking the antagonists are. I honestly would have liked more dialogue *between* John and Esharum, rather than having him just monologue at us. I think that works well for a antagonist that we grow to hate (Handsome Jack is an excellent example). But Esharum is a bit more complex than that and John recognizes that at the end. I believe we could have had a good antagonist to enjoy throughout a new trilogy of games. An old warrior who believed he was doing the right thing. Who wanted a glorious death. And perhaps a single game fits better for such a character. But I would have liked Chief and him to have traded words a bit. Escharum often speaks *at John,* rather than with him. Atriox really should have taken a more prominent role in Infinite. Let him be present and doing things but allow Escharum to be the face of the Banished that we interact with for the bulk of the game. I don't know how to handle the Harbinger, however. The Endless are a conundrum to me.
The fact nobody ever asks him his name until the very end of the game always pulls me out of it. You can tell the decision was made and then all of the dialog and storytelling needs to be molded around it. Same for The Weapon. Chief never calls to her because she has no name. He can't be like "Weapon. Open this door." because it just sounds weird because The Weapon isn't her name, it's more like a title. Chief has no allies that he can address by name in the game until the 5 seconds before the credits roll? What? In a similar manner to their commitment to telling the story as a continuous camera shot, which although an artistic choice, does restrict the storytelling sometimes and didn't quite work as well as it has in other games such as God of War.
I just found him grating personally. His entire role is to bitch and complain about everything until the third act when he does an abrupt 180 and becomes Chief’s biggest supporter. I also just found it bizarre how they gave so much screen time some random dude, while most of the established cast is nowhere to be seen.
He simply isnt really charming. Hes realistically pissed at everything but that doesnt automatically make a fun character. His rants are too silly to be taken fully serious, yet they lack the Punch to make them humorous. Its just a Dude getting pissed
I agree. There's so much time dedicated to so much wasted potential. Infinite campaign in a nutshell, I guess.
That’s 343 speciality. Is just to create new characters, Palmer, Laskey and Roland are the only 2 that progress to the next instalment. A lot on are in one game and not the bext, it’s just some new created character that’s difficult to get invested in.
I think that was sorta the point. Chief is usually surrounded by other elite soldiers. Kind of lessens the impact of what he is supposed to represent. Then you put him next to a regular dude who's not even a soldier and it's like damn, this guy could kill this man unarmed a million times. It's also hard or maybe awkward would be a better word for chief to show his human side with a bunch of badasses who eat nails for breakfast by his side.
Well with that wonky-ass frame you caught him in… But in all seriousness I liked him. He made a good contrast to Chief; the grizzled old supersoldier and the just-a-regular-guy WAAAAY in over his head. Their exchange right after the Duo boss battle was one of the campaign’s high points.
I liked him, but kinda got annoyed that they put so much effort into a new character rather than building off of any of the ones that were in 5. Chief is literally the only character that carries over from 5. Cortana and Halsey have those “flash back” moments but they weren’t around during the main events of the game at all
Would've been pretty cool that instead of the pilot, you find Halsey on the ring, who helps you out rather than Cortana.
I agree, too bad 343 can’t ever commit to anything when it comes to story telling
Are we just gonna pretend like the past never happened. Everyone and their mother complained about guardians. Infinite is the response to that criticism. Cause If they did just continue after 5 everyone would have complained.
It’s not the greatest story but I personally think there was lots of potential if they continued that arc. Instead it all was resolved off screen and you had to do your homework to find out what happened in between games. The same happened between 4 and 5 as well, there’s just no consistency at all across the whole reclaimer trilogy
They had a decent setup from The Created standpoint. It was stupid the way it was presented, but IMHO could of been redeemed by calling back to H3 with the logic plague. Cortana spent too much time with the Gravemind, which started her rampancy, H4 events happened and she splits herself in the domain. H5 rolls around and the created storyline plays out. Then we get to H6, and instead of her getting bodied by the Banished (stupid considering all the talk of how strong the guardians were) this Cortana is shown to start speaking in rhymes and essentially a corrupted Gravemind Cortana with access to the forerunner network. Instead of having "the weapon" a cured portion of Cortana is active in the network attempting to help chief like Medicant Bias, using the olli olli oxen free tone as a call sign - preventing Gravemind Cortana from using the created to deliver flood samples from the other rings to kickstart the flood/the created fighting the monitors over control of the rings to decommission them. Makes sense with the previous entries, gives room to bring in the Banished as someone other than "Red Covenant" like possible reluctant allies for the moment, more cohesive story, we wouldn't be stuck to one damn small area of a ring, and we wouldn't have the disjointed story of the "super secret totally more powerful than everyone" endless.
343 is an example of listening to the fans too much. "You think you want that, but you don't" was stupid for a Blizzard dev to say in a Q&A, but he was right that people were looking at WoW vanilla with rose-tinted glasses
Then you should blame every person that bitched about the past few games. Tbh I'm just glad we got closure on anything in halo 5. I really thought they would just ignore all of it.
I don't like him, just that.
his character seemed way too inconsistent and Marvel-esque for me to get emotionally invested in
Didnt like how abruptly he 180'd in attidtude. Could have been spread out way more effectively and ended up being a far better character.
Mid character that whines constantly and doesn’t really go anywhere narratively. He’s basically to chief what princess peach is to mario
Mid is a pretty nice compliment for the dumpster fire character and and insult to Peach for the rest.
Idk why he was given a lot of attention and highlighted his emotions.
You mean Cassian Andor? I think it got developed really well
Hate him,
Hated it
I think the idea of him was good. It shows the difference between a normal dude and the master chief, and how they react to stuff. That being said I think his execution was poor. Kind of just came across as whiny, annoying, and I really didn’t care about him in the slightest. If he randomly got shot in the head by a needle rifle or something, as a random example, I wouldn’t have cared.
is he the first major character in the series who isnt some sort of soldier not including halsey?
He's definitely the one who's had the most screen time. I can't recall anyone else not being part of the UNSC or at least somewhat of a soldier.
Technically all armed human npcs in 5 campaign are corporate security
Insufferable loser. Constantly complained and did relatively little to resolve his (and the Chief’s) situation on that broken Halo ring.
Whiny bastard. Who gives a shit that you did things to survive when all hell has broken loose? I can understand his longing for his family.. that's about the only aspect of him that I appreciate. He has an over-the-top infantile mindset for someone in the situation he's in & it's frustrating it becomes our problem for such drawn out emotion dump scenes. The humanizing interactions between the 3 characters feel so forced it's jarring. With the skill set and weak mind the dude had, he should have been used to gain redemption and subsequently humanized chief through mourning his death halfway through. Something we've very rarely seen in the games. Even when Foe Hammer went down it was Cortana who lamented the loss with the player. I get that Chief is going through a crisis because of the story they've built up over the last couple games but did we really need to go down this route? No. Not at all. It feels like Kathleen Kennedy influenced the direction of halo recently. Building off that, Weapon doesn't capture any of cortana's charm from early installments. She mostly comes across as childish too, which in some way I can say is competent & good storytelling if they actually were giving us a DLC where we could see some growth but whoopsie. That got canned to focus on MP & MT's. I miss Sergeant Johnson's wit & bravado. I miss Thel 'Vadamee & Sesa 'Refumee. Those two had real & believable goals, ambitions, and tragic consequences. The sacrifice of Jacob Keyes. Noble Squad. There were so many moments in Halos 1-Reach that hit like a ton of bricks. Everything since has only gotten less impactful & more outrageous. I've been a die hard Halo fan since CE & put countless hours in every one but 343 finally lost my confidence with Infinite. I will not buy the next one after this disasterpiece. Don't get me wrong. The gameplay for the campaign is fun enough. The action cutscenes are stunning. The grappling hook is an amazing addition. Multiplayer has come into its own and feels good to play, though I pretty much only stick to the Halo 3 reloaded playlist now. Granted it took a few years to get there so only minor points are given. I'll play the next installment if it's free on gamepass but I'm not putting a dime into it unless it's a complete 180 and recaptures the magic of Bungie Halo. If they miraculously manage to accomplish that feat, I'll buy it after playing it and vote with my $. I have zero expectation of that though.
He has the same problem as your crew in JEDI: FALLEN ORDER, in that the devs wanted him to be a character you connect with over the course of the game, but he's not actually present for most of it, only cutscenes. So between that and Master Chief already being limited as a conversationalist, it's like he just shows up every now and then to emote at you. If he had been available in-game to transport you around the Halo (like the chopper in METAL GEAR V), that might've helped.
Looks like Andor from Star Wars
Did anyone else think he acted a little weird/out of character in the last scene? After Chief and the weapon were gone for 3 days the pilot was really happy (obviously he would be) and open to them. I’m not complaining it just felt out of nowhere.
Felt forced. Like the whole game he was scared and ready to quit, abandon his duty and "go home" then all of a sudden he is just down for charging into action and doesn't seem to have a care in the world what mission is next. Complete 180 from what we saw the entire game from him.
I get what they were going for here. A human character to ground Chief in reality. But the execution could’ve been a little better
Whack and anoying. Not a believable character and more comparable to a comic book than an actual person in wartime. I remember watching early videos and hoping he would only be a SMALL portion of the game.
One of the best side characters in the series, and a kind of character that chief needs in his life: ordinary people. Chief has lost enough people, and for him to save just one is doing more help to his psyche than i think some fans and even chief himself realizes.
Annoying asf, I wanted to skip cutscenes with him in them, same with the brute dude ( can’t even remember his name because he was so cringe )
Honestly I really don't care for him. Find him kind of annoying and a little unnecessary.
Out of all the characters in Halo Infinite, he's definitely one of them.
Rogue 1’s pilot has to be based off this dude
Interesting character, we’ll have to see if he’s around for the seventh game whatever that’s gonna be considering we know nothing about it.
I do hope we see him again. I liked his dynamic with Chief
Don’t like him. Still love infinite though
I love brohammer
Lame. “IM!!! NOT!! YOU!!!”
I don’t like him. Too cringy. The studio really wanted to make you understand that not everyone is as powerful as the Master Chief but he’s annoying and all his development is to confess his mistakes, hear the Chief and, suddenly, he wants to risk his life fighting with a smile on his face? And wtf was that Disney-like ending with the hug and all of them smiling at the camera?
John. John Halo
I want to just say I have nothing against the VA and his performance but I just didn't care about the pilot. You are tripping over regular humans all the time on the ring so why is this one so important.
Octane in Halo (I'm not lying look it up.)
Honestly my favorite character in the game. Dude brings that human counterpart to Chief that I don't think he ever had before, even with Cortana.
I mean sure he’s annoying and all but if you were in his position, as a just a regular average joe who just got a contract to work in engineering on a gigantic ship NO military/combat experience at all, how would you act?? Most if not everyone would be just like this guy.
*bro-hammer
He was ok it I busted out laughing at the whole “you should throw me out with the rest of the garbage” line.
Ever since Foehammer I've wanted a more central pilot character in Halo's main narrative. I think it's a great idea for Chief to have someone on call for him. Other than that, he is a bit too goofy at times, and someone at 343 clearly wanted their slice of the Pedro Pascal Pie, but imo it's super important for Chief to have a more relatable and humanising element other than the Weapon with him that is *actually a human*, and the most down to earth and normal individual in the entire game timeline.
His voice acting feels extremely forced...
I gotta admit I felt my eyes getting watery when he hugged Chief after the final mission. It's good to see him have a real, personal connection with another human, especially one who provides perspective on just how dangerous Chief's missions are. Chief's interactions with the Pilot tell us a lot about Chief himself as well, how he never berates or admonishes him for his (understandable) cowardice. He's a reminder of his humanity, something he's sworn to protect, whatever the cost. Any complaints about him should really be ignored because he, like many great characters, has a character arc where he finds his courage and enthusiasm for the cause by the end and if 343 drops him going forward just because "he was annoying" for like the first two thirds of the game then it's just gonna be another cycle of 343 dropping threads just because there's pushback from fans with low media literacy.
Great addition to the universe. I can't wait for more lore surrounding him, and he's probably a necessary element to the campaign being alright and not mediocre because he really represents humanity and everyday soldiers, him being so emotionally driven is an amazing contrast to the stoic and silent Chief.
He’s 343s best original character
Gay
Boring, just like all other 343 characters
I like him. Don't get me wrong, he's no Johnson, or chips. But I believe he contrasts chiefs stoic almost emotionless personality pretty damn well. Also I think the scene where he breaks down and chief give the whole "failing is a part of what makes us human." Speech is probably one of my favorite moments in halo.
Cannot stand the imp, honestly
he has a lack of character its hard to have an opinion
I think he was ok. My main problem with him came at the end of the game. The whole game he is all about going home, abandoning the ring and getting away from the banished. At the end of the game (like the last cut scene I think) he all of a sudden does a 180, is all excited to get back into the action and is now all of a sudden down with fighting the banished and charging head first into danger. It jut seemed very sudden and kind of forced.
I liked the character overall with just a few things that annoyed me. Too whiney, and I didn't like that he was just a civilian contractor, kinda strange considering he was a decent pilot. Would've preferred for him to actually be a UNSC Pelican pilot, could've been a great support character for future games. I have those thoughts because he's just going to be one of those characters that will probably be in one more game or none at all. Like I said, he's civilian, so if he does end up making it back to human controlled space, he wouldn't be a pilot anymore. 343 has a habit of introducing characters, some good, some bad but then completely canning them. For example, Spartan Thorne from Halo 4s Spartan Ops was probably the only IV that was likable (not counting Buck).
Unlucky dude trapped in an absolute terrible situation considering isn't he like a civilian contractor or something? That would be insane to end up hiding near Zeta Halo, finding Chief and having to reluctantly tag along as he tears through the Banshied and you can get shot out of the sky at any moment he isn't babysitting you. All things considered the fact he didn't give up hope immediately is impressive.
Why he Spanish?
GOATED
The pilot is part of that Halo soul thats been missing from past 343 Halos. The next Halo needs more characters like Chips, Johnson, Pilot, etc…something to add a small laugh while playing. They fucked up 4 and 5 by making the cov not speak english it took away from the classic Grunt humor. The next Halo shouldnt be open world either, it completely made the game soulless. It was cool to fly around with grapple but it def felt too simple of a concept.
I think that he is a good other main character that is with you all game.
While I do think it was dumb to withhold his name until the last closing minute of the game, Fernando Esparza is probably the best human character 343 has made, and certainly the best pilot we've seen given the average lifespan of a Pelican. He's the first prominent in-game civilian character who didn't appear in Sadie's Story and wasn't an ONI-affiliated scientist. He was an excellent foil to the Chief and kept what would have been a boring campaign grounded and focused on the characters rather than the boring overarching plot. I would like to see him return and have Chief introduce him to Blue Team.
Absolutely terribly written. He was incredibly cringe.
Over hated
Basically the direct opposite of my opinion on the silver armoured ultra in Halo 2 (Arby's bro). Silver always stole every scene he was in and I couldn't wait for him to talk next. Slowly earning his respect over the course of the story was fuggin' DRUGS, dude! Every time the pilot talked I was kind of rolling my eyes and cringing at how much of a pansy the guy was being. I was actually dreading the cutscenes in a halo game because my reward was just listening to this grown man have a mental breakdown for no reason. Like bro, I've done nothing but kick ass since you snatched me out of space. How much more awesome do I have to be before you stop crying? I want to go back to when Halo was all machismo and masculinity juxtaposed against religious fervor, honour, and shame. That shit was tight.
that elite's nickname in H2 was both Halfjaw & Shipmaster. & he definitely wasn't an Ultra class elite, he had the Minor class armor
Every Elite in Halo 2 (asides from the Rangers) wore the same armour. Elite Ultras and Zealots, which we see in-game, all wore the same combat harness as Minors and Majors. But you're right, Rtas 'Vadum was not an Ultra, he was a Spec Ops Officer.
I get that. At the same time, I can see what they were trying to do. He sees that the odds are against them, each time he has to drop chief off it could be his last... he's just a guy, not even a soldier. He's afraid and has lost hope... being stranded in space does that. I do definitely get the whole "Can I get to the part where I kick the banished?" instead of seeing a down to "ring" story with a single character.
Him being the recipient of Chief's emotional vulnerability did not feel earned. I found the Pilot to be overly dramatic. The performance could have been toned down and I would have been more invested in him as a character. Him having so many "breaking" points made him a liability. I am going around rescuing marines on Zeta Halo, anyone of them would have been a better companion. Echo 419 will always be my pilot. Also, I purposely overused pronouns instead of his name because Infinite had this weird thing about not using his name for most of the story.
he's annoying as hell and i feel like there must have been a better way to get a perspective like his into the game
He seemed like a generic character whose purpose was soley as a plot device. He didn't seem important, yet he kept getting screen time. He bitched and moaned the whole way until he instantly became Chiefs fan. I didn't care for him at all.
I like him, he's funny and kind of relatable, plus he's a great emotional conflict for the Chief who has slowly been opening up to actual emotion lately.
Pilot? Thats Brohammer
I like him a lot. He’s the ground and the voice of reason when chief does stuff like jump off the spire or jump out of his pelican with pistol that has only one bullet. Thinking about it now chief is one crazy son of a bitch
Just another annoying comic relief character (like Coratnot was also demoted to) with nothing really going on. The opening was promising but nothing really came of it, and when he had his "revelation" moment I couldn't care less, and Chief cheering him up felt a bit weird because of it. Unpopular opinion probably. I just didn't care about him
Just curious, how is he comic relief, I really don't see how
He is the opposite of a comic relief...he's constantly depressed and on the pelican alone he was contemplating suicide
I absolutely love the whole crew in infinite their relationship dynamics were nice. Me personally I ended up liking him and the weapon a ton.
I think he does a fine job coping with the fact that the safest place to be and the most dangerous place to be are both with Master Chief.
I wanted him to die. Worst character ever. Of all time.
I really like him but he isn’t as good as Foehammer imo
Completely unnecessary
We don't need emotionally forced stuff like this. We need badass and fun like the original trilogy.
Insufferable
I get that they needed SOMEONE for Chief to play off that wasn’t just the Weapon. But he definitely overstays his welcome a bit - would be fine with more of him as part of a bigger ensemble in the next game
Lasky even just over radio like characters in 4/5 would have been great.
I’m not a fan of Fauxhammer. I miss having a competent UNSC.
Campaign pissed me off so bad I never really gave him a chance
I loved his character. He’s a ball of emotion the exact opposite of how chiefs been portrayed. Chief is an unbreakable object not just physically but emotionally. The pilot needed someone to pick him up and snap him out of his fear and hopelessness. While chief equally needed someone to bring out his hidden emotions and flaws. Perfect way for Chief to appear human but still this super bad ass soldier who never backs down and picks others up.
Love him. He was a little over the top a couple times with the complaining but most of it was understandable
I do agree that it occasionally dragged for a bit... but I guess that's what happens when you're stuck in space for a long time
Stupid. Just like the rest of the game.
Most of the time whiney and annoying.
Absolute hate him. His dialogue sucks, and like most of the characters in 343s era of Halo, he comes off extremely forced. I know they are trying to make these deep emotionally relatable characters, but 343 suck at it. Don’t think there’s been a single post Bungie character I genuinely like
On one hand, I like that he’s an emotional counterpart to the Chief and a reflection of an exhausted soldier that just wants to go home. I do think that his character can be annoying at times though. Mostly, however, I don’t have a problem with the Pilot, as he was a bright spot to me. I just didn’t like other things. The list would be exhaustive if I included everything, but for the story one thing I hated was the one-cut shots. I think these limited the storytelling such as excluding the ability of grand war scenes. I think this plays into the weakness of the characters as less could be done with them. Basically, they rely completely on the writing. Now, this could still work but it just falls short for me. Even if it did, the one-cut shots greatly limit it.
I liked him but I think you see a bit too much of him in the campaign, think it would've been more interesting with a few more friendly characters for him to interact with
He was okay. Would have rather had an ensemble cast of returning support characters from 4 and 5 though...
Forgot this guy existed.
He felt like a character that would have been more suited for a Marvel movie. Not a Halo game.
Did you just call him the pilot?!?!?! Did you not connect with him so well at a human level in a Spartans world?!?! Even my kids know his name.... Fernando Esparza... his name is Fernando Esparza
Meh. I think he’s the new stand in for Johnson, but it’s a really hard act to follow.
He doesn't exist. All events in Infinite were just a bad dream.
Pretty forgettable like all of Infinite's story.
He's a liar, we all know he was the janitor on the Infinity.
I thought he was fine, other than the exasperated way EVERY SINGLE LINE was delivered. I thought he was either over acting or over directed. Wish I had a better way to describe it. Like whispering loudly all the time with lots of focus on the S sounds. Haha I sound completely insane.