343 Studios latest developer diary for Halo 4 gives gamers a window into the creative process, and reveals a strong emphasis on the team's mission to craft a more intimate, narratable story this time around.
In the original Halo trilogy, Master Chief established himself as an iconic character despite keeping dialogue to a minimum and never showing his face to the player. Yet, we never got to dig as deep into his character as some would have liked. Halo 4 sets out to remedy this problem.
"Master Chief is human, he's not a machine, he's not a set of armor with a big weapon," said project executive producer Kiki Wolfkill.
Humanity. This is a word that is repeated many times over in 343's first-look. There seems to be a tonal shift in Master Chief's new trilogy, one that is informed by situations that will knock our hero "out of his comfort zone. The Master Chief has settled into this comfort zone of being the 'hero'. It's interesting, early on we talked about the hero's journey and how do you have a hero's journey when he's already a hero," expressed Senior Writer Christopher Schlerf. "The journey is the important part. The growth is the important part. Where does he still need to go as a human? That became the key, not just to Halo 4, but to the entire (new) trilogy."
343 seems intent on exploring the missed opportunities of past Halo narratives, grounding the action in emotion.
Writer Brian Reed explains, "We're always telling these huge big stories. We have Infinity, it's the biggest ship that's ever been launched. We've got Requiem, which is the biggest Forerunner artifact we've ever found. But in the middle of all that we've got this very small, personal story between Master Chief and Cortana.
Fans can look for Halo 4 on store shelves on November 6, 2012.
Look for the web-series Forward Unto Dawn to premiere in October.
Halo 4: A Hero Awakens (Developer Diary)
Forward Unto Dawn Trailers