Category Archives: Game Logs

Halo Fest 2020 – Nightfall

Halo: Nightfall is a live action digital series that was released as part of the Master Chief Collection in late 2014 as a promotional tie-in with Halo 5. I’d never seen Halo: Nightfall and knew only the scantest details about it before watching the feature length movie version for this post. While the parallels with the previously covered Halo: Forward Unto Dawn should be obvious, Nightfall feels a lot more like a legitimate movie that was chopped up to make a series than a series of separate shorts that were edited together to make a movie and, despite having similar budgets, Nightfall also features a lot more effects, more notable actors, and was produced by legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott’s production company. It’s certainly equally as ineffective as a tie-in to the game it is associated with, though!

“Alpha Halo, a little worse for wear after Master Chief’s visit.”

That is, Halo: Nightfall was supposed to be something of an origin story for Jameson Locke who we’d come to know as Spartan Locke, one of the main characters featured in Halo 5. The problem is that by the time we meet Locke in Nightfall he’s already pretty much the same character we get to know in-game, and while it’s not a bad introduction to him, we definitely learn a lot about who he is in the sense of his personality and values, there’s not much else there, nor is the overall story significant to the plot of the game either. That said, since it is a side story let’s just dive right into spoiler land! Skip next two paragraphs if you want to avoid a somewhat vague plot summary and some random but specific nitpicks.

The Story: Lieutenant Commander Jameson Locke and his four-man Office of Naval Intelligence team operating on the colony world Sedra track an Elite Zealot to the center of Sedra City where it detonates an unknown device. The device unleashes a never-before-seen element deadly to humans, resulting in a large number of casualties. Investigating, the ONI team discovers that the Elite acquired this element from smugglers who harvested it from a semi-intact fragment of Installation 04. Orbiting close to a sun, the ring fragment’s surface reaches extreme temperatures when directly facing it, making only short visits during its night cycle possible. Locke and his team devise a plan to head to the fragment, arrest any smugglers they locate, and, as it’s believed to be the sole source of the element, destroy it with a Havok nuclear warhead. The team is granted use of a slipspace capable Sedran Colonial Guard ship to make the journey, but only under the condition that they’re accompanied by members of the Sedran military. Arriving at the fragment, the joint team quickly locates the smugglers but are attacked by a swarm of Lekgolo, killing several of them and downing their ship before they can extract. With no way to call for help and only the smugglers’ small ship left intact, the team decides to complete their mission and journeys on foot to retrieve the warhead. With their numbers dwindling as they’re pursued by the Lekgolo, the group eventually has to shed most of their technology when they learn that the Lekgolo can track them by it. With time running out of time and desperation setting in, Locke’s remaining two agents take the rest of the team by surprise, taking a hostage and making their way back to the ship to save themselves. With few options left, the commander of the Sedran team, Colonel Aiken, a former SPARTAN-II who lost his only child to the terrorist attack, volunteers to manually detonate the warhead while Locke and Macer, the only other surviving Sedran soldier, attempt to intercept them. The pair reach the smugglers’ ship just in time to witness the Lekgolo finish off the last of them and swarm the now powered-up ship. Aiken begins to activate the warhead, drawing the Lekgolo away and giving Locke and Macer the window they need to board the ship and escape the fragment before it is obliterated.

“Locke, James Locke. Our protagonist.”

While we’re told Sedra is surrounded by conflict and that the Sedrans have this archaic warrior culture (err, they still believe in Valhalla?!) we’re shown exactly none of this. Maybe this was a budget thing, but then why mention it at all? The almost constant tension between the ONI agents and the Sedran soldiers felt more than a little contrived and I found Colonel Aiken’s over-the-top combativeness to be especially unbelievable, even if it is explained by his backstory. Speaking of which, I really don’t buy him as an ex-Spartan. Furthermore, even knowing his backstory, Aiken wanting to sacrifice himself due to losing his daughter is a little lame for reasons I feel best described towards the bottom of this lengthy (and otherwise much more positive) article by Haruspis. Also, why in the hell was getting the Havok right then and there so damn critical? Why not just get out of dodge now and destroy the fragment later? The sad part is that I think the premise of the story actually works on paper, and while it might not have been an amazing Halo movie, it could have at least been much more entertaining if executed differently.

Thankfully most of my issues with the execution are wrapped up in those kinds of details. While some of the CGI is pretty bad, the majority of the practical effects, costumes, and props are quite excellent. The actors are all also mostly good despite being betrayed by the script a bit, with a pre-Luke Cage Mike Colter giving a typically solid performance as Locke. Another likely budget related letdown is the rather boring filming location in the latter part of the movie. While I get that the place they’re at is supposed to be destroyed, I can’t help but imagine how cool it would be if it resembled the games more closely. Speaking of the games, the soundtrack is another letdown. I’m sure it’s fine, but I literally remember nothing about it, and that really isn’t good enough for a game franchise whose soundtrack has always been a huge part of the formula.

“The combined team on the fragment. Love those ODST helmets!”

I feel like I’m being quite negative here, but Halo: Nightfall isn’t that bad. It’s entertaining enough to watch through once, sure, but it earns the “entirely skippable” I tagged Spartan Assault with and then some. In fact, unless you’re really curious about it and/or just have to consume everything Halo related, I’d suggest skipping it. At least I still liked Locke by the end of it so maybe that at least bodes well for my playthrough of Halo 5 when I eventually arrive there. Maybe? In any case, like Forward Unto Dawn before it, Nightfall still fails to deliver on a strong effort to make Halo a crossover success. At this point our only remaining hope is the 2022 series, and skepticism already abounds about that one.

A quick extra mention goes to the “Second Stories” bonus content that was released on the Halo Channel as something of an in-universe version of the after-episode shows that have been popularized with some of the bigger television series in recent years. While these shorts do contain interesting details that help fill in some gaps in the story, I can’t say they impressed me much. Still, they’re definitely a very notable but easily missed part of Nightfall.

Adventure Break!

My partner and I decided to do a quick co-op play through one of the numerous FMV style games we’ve been seeing all over the Xbox Store for years now. Most of these games (titles like The Bunker and The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker) are put out by a publisher called Wales Interactive, though despite similarities, they’re actually developed by a variety of different studios. I guess Wales is trying to corner the market on modern FMV games? Regardless, the one we ended up picking was Late Shift.

Late Shift follows Matt, a 20 something working as an attendant on an overnight shift in a parking garage in London. Almost immediately events on this particular evening lead to Matt being caught up in a criminal plot and, well, to go much more into would spoil things. The story is all, honestly, pretty silly fun. It’s not over the top campy, and the excellent production values lend the whole thing a more serious tone than it probably deserves. That‘s the part where I was pleasantly surprised, actually. The production, direction, acting; they’re all surprisingly good. As a movie it might not win any Academy Awards but as a game? Maybe this comes from playing too many FMVs in the 90s, but I tend to expect a certain amount of grade-a terrible from my FMV games. I mean, that’s the main draw to people going back and replaying them these days, right? On the other hand, Late Shift feels like it actually had a budget. Pfft!

“Things go off the rails in Late Shift quite quickly.”

Another interesting thing about Late Shift (and from what I gather, most of these other Wales FMV games) is that they’re not what a lot of us old timers would think of when we think of FMV games. In the 90s most FMV games were simply games that used copious amounts of embedded video sequences and/or cutscenes, and maybe some digitized spites for good measure. Gameplay wise, while some were games of a distinct genre that got slapped with the label simply for featuring a lot of video, the majority of these games weren’t far off from the classic point and click adventure game formula, though the more they leaned on video the less interactive they tended to be.

Late Shift takes that to the extreme, being something more along the lines of an interactive movie; imagine a Telltale game with nothing but cutscenes and decisions, or Dragon’s Lair with all of the input relating to decisions rather than quick time event like action. This made me think a lot about a similar game I played before Late Shift, but one I never wrote about here due to it being presented as less of a game and more of an interactive movie. Netflix’s surprisingly high profile experiment Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The idea of an interactive movie played with just a remote isn’t really anything new; there were various similar games released when DVD first started blowing up (including a version of the aforementioned Dragon’s Lair) and I suppose it makes even more sense with modern streaming technology.

“Your average Bandersnatch dilemma.”

Really, Bandersnatch is quite interesting in its own right. It’s about a budding game developer in the days of the UK’s storied early 1980s bedroom programming scene. This is a pretty damn esoteric subject to most Americans, but it’s one I happen to be into so I was sold on the premise alone. As you follow the main character Stefan through being offered a job at a game studio alongside one of his programming idols, Colin, you’re occasionally prompted to make decisions to progress the plot, and believe me this, it goes all over the place. Indeed, Bandersnatch is far from a straightforward experience. Fitting with Black Mirror’s overarching themes of the existential dark side of modern technological advancement, the fourth wall is broken in numerous ways throughout, and the game itself is all too happy to punish you for picking the obvious “right” choices, leading to dead ends and other unsatisfying endings which ultimately encourage or otherwise manipulate you to replay the game multiple times, exploring the branches of its decision tree ad nauseam. In some ways, this reminds me a lot of how old classic adventure games were intended to be played; by sinking endless hours into them to figure out solutions to every puzzle on your own through copious amounts of exploration and trial and error.

“Shit continues to escalate in Late Shift…”

Late Shift is far more traditional in this respect. It doesn’t try to play clever mind games with the player. You’re simply making decisions as presented to you and watching how those choices affect the events of the story until eventually reaching one conclusion or another. There’s no complicated decision structures that need to be charted to be understood, nor any trick options or any other elements of subversive design here. In fact, compare these flowcharts based on the choices for both games: Bandersnatch vs Late Shift. It should be noted that Late Shift features a lot more choices than shown here, though those not represented in this flowchart tend to lead to minor varations in scenes rather than major branches of the plot. Also, try not to pay too much attention to the details, as these charts are absolutely spoiler ridden!

That might sound (and look) like a mark against Late Shift, but to me, this made it a far smoother and overall, more digestible experience. The game is perfectly happy with you playing it once and never touching it again, and none of the endings felt overly abrupt or unsatisfying. If you do feel like playing through it again, choosing radically different decisions as some might do with, again, a Telltale game, the game does provide enough different scenarios and other variations to be satisfying to play through 2 or 3 times. While Bandersnatch may have failed in some respects, I immediately went out and added some of Wales Interactive’s other FMV games to my wishlist upon beating it. I’m just hoping I didn’t spoil myself by trying one of the better quality ones first. I suspect I might have.

“Tell Me Why’s scenery is as chill inducing as it is beautiful.”

Speaking of adventure games, we also played through the next of Dontnod’s games, 2020’s Tell Me Why. Tell Me Why tells the story of two college aged siblings reconnecting to clean up and sell off their childhood home, naturally leading to some tying up of other loose ends concerning their family’s dramatic past. Tell Me Why is also a transgender story, although these elements are handled with a subtly that ultimately makes sure they’re not the focus of the story, despite being pivotal to it. Instead, the most intriguing parts of the story are about our characters’ unusual relationship with their mother, an artist who seemed to embrace fantasy as much as if not more than her children, and as usual with Dontnod games, the compelling setting; this time it’s a picturesque small town in Alaska.

As you might have guessed, this is a much more personal story than any of the Life is Strange games, focusing more on the interpersonal and slice of life aspects of those games. While there are some bigger plot elements, the stakes don’t ever feel quite as high as stopping a serial killer or being on the run from the authorities for a murder you didn’t commit, to use two very specific examples. Part of that has to do with so much of the game being about the past; examining nearly forgotten childhood memories, trying to find answers to questions that had been bouncing around for most of the protagonists’ lives, that sort of thing. The lack of urgency is a bit of a tonal shift, and if, like my partner, you’re the type of person who doesn’t find a lot of value in obsessing on the past, you might even fail to connect to the story entirely like she did.

“Unpacking emotional baggage in Tell Me Why.”

Gameplay-wise, Tell Me Why feels very much like it could be a part of the Life is Strange series, so if you’ve played any of those games then you pretty much know what to expect. Of course, even between games in the LiS series there are numerous mechanical changes, and Tell Me Why is no different. One big one is that the journal is gone, replaced with a book of children’s stories which is occasionally (and rather obtusely) used to solve puzzles. As is always the case in those games, the supernatural power your characters possess is new and different too. And yes, “characters”; you play as both siblings at different parts of the story. A rather huge departure is that I feel like exploration is a bit less of a focus in Tell Me Why. While mechanically it’s just as present as in any of the previous Dontnod adventures, I rarely found any point to it. Descriptions of items were less interesting and insightful, and it was rare to find anything useful in the world. For that reason I didn’t really engage with the collectibles this time around, which is a first for me in these games.

Still, I really enjoyed Tell Me Why, though the particular story and some elements of its storytelling mean it’s less likely to stick with me than any of the previous Life is Strange games. Regardless, after playing this I’m even more curious to check out Dontnod’s next and seemingly least popular adventure game, Twin Mirror. Soon enough, but for now I better get back to Halo Fest…

The Black Mirror: Bandersnatch screenshot above was taken from a random image search result rather than my own Xbox. I found out the hard way that you apparently can’t screenshot the Netflix app. Shenanigans…

Halo Fest 2020 – Spartan Assault

The Story So Far: 6 months after the Didact was defeated the UNSC Infinity embarks on a mission to return to the Forerunner Shield World Requiem and reclaim it from Jul’Mdama’s rogue Covenant faction. As part of a massive combined force, including over 300 SPARTAN-IVs led by Commander Sarah Palmer, Spartan fireteams engage in various operations on Requiem’s surface. During one such mission, fireteam Crimson recovers a mysterious Forerunner artifact. Later investigating it aboard the Infinity, head engineer Dr. Glassman appears to be disintegrated by the artifact. In his absence, Dr. Catherine Halsey is temporarily released from custody after being arrested for war crimes, including her role in the SPARTAN-II program, and brought onboard to continue the investigation. During her research, Dr. Halsey begins communicating with an unknown entity who she eventually pieces together is Jul’Mdama himself. Caught in the act, Halsey is placed back into custody though not before reaching out to Jul’Mdama to offer her assistance with unlocking the Librarian’s AI imprint. As a result, combined Covenant and Promethean forces lay siege to the Infinity, appearing to abduct Dr. Halsey in the process. Brought to the Librarian’s shrine, Halsey is able to unlock and enter it before Jul’Mdama can intervene. ONI learns of Halsey’s betrayal and orders her assassination with Commander Palmer departing to handle it personally. Captain Lasky orders fireteam Majestic, who are already on Requiem, to rescue the doctor instead. The Librarian shows Halsey another artifact called the Janus Key, which can provide the real time location of all Forerunner technology, and gives it to her in hopes that it can be used to propel humanity’s evolution forward. Pulling her out of the shrine, Jul’Mdama snatches one half of the Janus Key from her just as Palmer and fireteam Majestic arrive. In the ensuing chaos Halsey passes the other half of the Janus Key to Majestic, Palmer wounds her, and Jul’Mdama absconds with her. As his fleet begins to jump away, Jul’Mdama deactivates the slipspace anchors holding Requiem in place, pulling it into a nearby sun. The Infinity is able to free itself from the artifact’s hold and jump away just in time.

With 343 Industries continuing to grow Halo as a full “transmedia” franchise, more of the type of spinoffs Microsoft first tried with Halo Wars seemed inevitable. Unlike Halo Wars though, 2013’s Halo: Spartan Assault wouldn’t be limited to a niche genre on a single platform; Spartan Assault was an easy to pick up and play twin stick shooter that was eventually available for Windows and iOS mobile devices, Xbox One and Xbox 360, and Windows. I’m not sure whether Spartan Assault’s sales actually reflected being both more approachable and more available but, given that it was quickly followed up with a sequel the following year, it seems likely.

“While the gameplay is a little repetitive there’s plenty of variety in the maps.”

I can’t say I have any particular fondness for twin stick shooters myself but these kinds of genre spinoff games are always intriguing to me. Still, never much of a mobile gamer, Spartan Assault flew completely under my radar and I honestly didn’t know that it was released on anything other than mobile devices until spotting it in the Xbox Store just a few years ago. Indeed, it’s that version I played for this playthrough; the Xbox One version on my Series X. Notably, this also marks the first time I’ll be covering something entirely new to me as part of Halo Fest 2020 and that remains the case from here on out. Kind of weird given how rooted in nostalgia this whole thing is, eh?

Spartan Assault actually does a fairly good job at taking a great deal of the core Halo formula and cramming it into a twin stick shooter mold. You play as a single Spartan wandering around on foot spraying down Covenant forces en masse with a variety of weapons. Included are staples like your Mjolnir armor’s recharging shield and a two weapon limit, with many of Halo’s iconic weapons showing up, and even armor abilities making a prominent appearance. One of the bigger twists to the genre is the lack of unlimited ammo, though scavenging from weapon racks, ammo crates, and fallen enemies should keep that from ever being more than a minor inconvenience. You’re sometimes given a UNSC Scorpion or Grizzly tank (though oddly no Warthogs) and hijacking Ghosts and Wraiths is an option as well. Overall, it all feels sufficiently “Halo”.

“Everything is better with tanks!”

Developed as a mobile game first, each mission takes no more than 10 or 15 minutes to complete, with many clocking in closer to 5 minutes. Between that and the lack of anything more than simple objectives like “destroy this emplacement” or “hold this point” there really isn’t a ton of challenge here. While there is a stripped down but otherwise familiar skull system, there isn’t any kind of selectable difficulty level either. Instead, the challenge is in earning a star rating based on your score at the end of each mission. In most missions earning a bronze star is effortless, though you’ll need to intentionally chase as many kill streaks and multikills as possible to get beyond that. The other way of doing this is via in-app microtransactions in the form of score boosts and temporary special weapon unlocks. Thankfully, these microtransactions (and indeed chasing high scores in the first place) can be easily ignored if you prefer, and purchasable with in-game experience points if you’re desperate to use them without laying down cash for the privilege.

Graphically Spartan Assault doesn’t come close to representing what the Xbox One can do. While serviceable, I’d argue that the Halo game it shares the most in common with, Halo Wars, shows a much higher degree of polish. The soundtrack fares better, with the original Halo trilogy’s soundtrack being an obvious influence. It’s just a shame you don’t get to hear more of it. A bigger complaint I have is that certain button assignments and other UI choices make it obvious that the controls definitely don’t appear to have been designed from the ground up with a gamepad in mind. That’s not to say they’re horrible, but they never clicked with me in a truly satisfying way which is kind of make or break for a twin stick shooter in my opinion. I also find it shocking that, despite being a common feature of both the Halo series and this entire genre, the campaign completely lacks cooperative play. There was a mini cooperative-only campaign that introduced a Firefight-like wave defense mode against our old friends the Flood added to the console releases, but even that lacks local co-op. Definitely a huge missed opportunity.

“The dryness of the mission briefings makes sense in context.”

Taking place sometime before the Infinity returned to Earth after the end of the Requiem Campaign (as described above) Spartan Assault is framed around a TACSIM training simulator that lets Spartans experience historical battles. The campaign covers the events of the Battle of Draetheus V, and follows the exploits of SPARTAN-IVs Edward Davis and Sarah Palmer. A motion comic style cutscene (similar to some of the ones we’ve seen in the terminals of earlier games) narrated by the Infinity’s quirky AI Roland sets up each operation, while each mission therein is presented by a strategic map and a couple of paragraphs of text that dryly describe each scenario.

Given that this is a side story that actually takes place out of chronological order, I’ll go over the plot here. While I’m fairly vague in these summaries they do still contain spoilers, so skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid them.

The Story: A splinter fleet of Covenant forces led by Sangheili Merg Vol appeared over the research colony of Draetheus V and launched an assault on its moon, X50. Spartans Edward Davis and Sarah Palmer rallied the UNSC defense, fortifying its primary research facility as well as setting up anti-air defenses to target incoming Covenant dropships. While successful in slowing the attack, Meg Vol’s fanatical forces still quickly overwhelmed them and established a solid foothold on X50. Spartan Palmer departed for Draetheus V to assist with its defense which soon escalated to targeted strikes against Covenant officers and an organized counter offensive resulting in a large armor engagement in which both sides suffered great losses. Meanwhile Meg Vol’s true goal became clear as it was discovered that X50 was not a natural moon but a massive Forerunner structure capable of building and destroying entire planets. With the support of the UNSC Eminent Domain and its marines, Spartan Davis was able to fight through the Covenant’s lines to the Forerunner control structure. UNSC technicians successfully disabled the weapon, though not before Merg Vol had already begun to unleash its devastating power against Draetheus V itself. Back on Draetheus V, Spartan Palmer’s efforts shifted to assisting with the evacuation of the planet, commandeering numerous Covenant troop carriers. With Meg Vol still at large on X50 and not being able to contact Davis who had been killed in action in a ferocious Covenant counterattack, Palmer headed back to X50 to hunt for the rogue Covenant leader. After a vicious battle, Palmer subdued and killed Vol. With his faction now leaderless and in retreat, the survivors were able to evacuate the system.

“He’s no Master Chief, but Spartan Davis did save an entire planet.”

Spartan Assault’s plot retreads a lot of familiar ground, especially on the heels of playing through Halo 4 and its Spartan Ops campaign. I can’t say it adds very much either; I’d personally hoped to learn a little more about Sarah Palmer given that she was already an established character but, as was increasingly the trend, 343 saved that for elsewhere. Still, the details of Palmer’s heroics during the battle of Draetheus V are certainly impressive and surely contributed to how she ended up as the Commander of Spartan Operations on the Infinity. Overall, while not all that significant to Halo’s overarching plot, the story of the Battle of Draetheus V at least doesn’t feel out of place in the canon.

In the end, Spartan Assault feels like a fairly typical budget spinoff game. It’s decently executed and relatively fun to pass the time with, but ultimately a fairly mediocre experience for anyone who isn’t a big fan of the twin stick shooter genre (who I’d imagine would have a heap of their own criticisms beyond the ones I brought up.) Still, as a unique experience within the franchise that’s quite quick to play through, it was an enjoyable enough diversion. I wouldn’t say you should avoid it, but it’s entirely skippable.