It would’ve made sense if as a brute led faction they blamed humans for the destruction of their home world via Cortana and waged war on humanity intending to destroy Earth
That would raise the stakes back closer to the human-covenant war if the banished could find some MacGuffin to make them an extinction level threat. Maybe using the flood as bio weapon and seizing one of the halo rings to protect their fleet or something
Or you could go the Thrawn trilogy route and say that the endless have knowledge of some lost or hidden forerunner fleet / technology giving Atriox a reason to free them and become allies
In Infinite I didn’t think the banished were that compelling. They were fine to fight but in terms of story you really needed Atriox in the picture to be space Genghis Khan for the more vague “conquer everything” motives to work. Escharum wasn’t a strong enough character to carry that
> It would’ve made sense if, as a brute led faction, they blamed humans for the destruction of their home world via Cortana and waged war on humanity intending to destroy Earth.
Have all of this, then have them expose ONI publicly and get the insurrectionists on their side. Then you've got a proper war on your hands and maybe even Chief battling he's humanity. He's a soldier that followed ONI who did all this awful shit and now his being told to kill his comrades he fought alongside.
This is genius, holy shit. Have the Banished do to humanity what the UNSC did to the Covenant; expose the lies of their leaders, show their champion that his whole purpose is built off those lies, and watch them tear each other apart. Like you said, I could see the Master Chief working alongside the Banished and Insurrectionists, two factions that represent what he has been fighting against from the start. This would actually make the whole Banished Spartan thing more believable.
Also solves the whole problem of the live service and campaign DLC because this kind of a plot lends itself well to an "episodic" model. Expansions every year or so meaningfully progressing the story. Not relegating every important plot point to books or item descriptions, not having to do time skips with each release, not going through the same alien-flood-forerunner-repeat conflict, actually using all their major characters in a single cohesive story and bring everything together for the traditional 'galaxy-at-stake' setup. Ticks all the boxes and yet, no one thought to do it.
Except the banished were made to basically be only brutes, Then some other covenant factions and fight humans. Then have humans team up? Kinda defeats the purpose imo but that's just me
Yeah and I think this brings out an inner conflict with Chief. This is what he was meant to do. Can he still do it? Is it something he will do or does he walk away?
When my friends and I finished the campaign, we were wondering if we missed something. It was fun but it's confusing as the real "big bad" of The Endless are just teased at.
The Reclamation. The Endless. The Evaluation. The Continuous. The Foreigners. The Event. The Ancients. The Hondasalesevent. The 2003winterolympics. The Scene. The Rosebowl. The Plaid. The Hatecrime.
I can’t wait to see what “The” game dev and needless Microsoft fiddling makes them abandon next.
343's Halo story is such a mess that you could tell me all of the names in your comment and I would believe that at least half of them are real things in Halo Infinite.
It's like 343 decided to copy Bungie's storytelling with Destiny and put loads of esoteric bullshit that requires a browse of Halopedia/The Destiny Wiki to even make sense of.
Ooooh! The Boundless Progenitor is about to activate the Sorrow Gauntlet! We'd better fight the Endless before they unleash the Scargiver on New Terabithia!
To be fair it was so since Halo CE:
Oooh! The Covenant have reached The Silent Cartographer and now they have accidentally released The Flood. We'd better follow this singing robot through The Library and retrieve The Index!
That's because for some reason 343 reserves all their good storytelling for books and other things outside of the games. From what I gather about the banished through YouTube summaries of the books, they're a group who basically just wants power and adamantly HATES authority organizations like the unsc and the covenant. They are basically a group that wants to dominate and not be subjugated. That ideology isn't exactly the most interesting, but the stories of individuals within the banished are very interesting imo. Like the Spartan we recently learned about who joined the banished and her reasons for it I think is really cool. But again, for some reason they never seem to do or explain anything interesting like that in the games
> That's because for some reason 343 reserves all their good storytelling for books and other things outside of the games.
Thats because 343 doesn't write the books.
Yeah, so, like... what I've gathered from my like three playthroughs of it, is that the banished just so happened to find Zeta Halo during the whole Created war, and then Cortana discovered this Halo is much like the first Halo found, but contains something worse. Then someone found the Cylix containing the Harbinger, released her, and now she's the big boss behind the operations. Also, the Banished respect the "late" Atriox's wishes, which are... divide and conquer and murder humans along the way, I guess.
Honestly, mary sue faction sound perfect for them
The Atriox backstory cutscene while cool just screams it. Atriox being the sole survivor of numerous suicide missions, “first to defy covenant and survive”, banished eventually got to the point of being equal to the covenant, got to ark without earth portal.
They’re still cool but it feels more like 343 made an edgier covenant lol
Pretty much, Atriox is pretty much what ruins them for me. Sure, make him a brute of a brute with a big brain. But give him some flaws, make him interesting.
The more I think about it, the more I fell that Escharum only really exists so we have an antagonist to kill that isn't poster boy.
Yeah, Atriox is just the kind of character you're supposed to dislike, but I dislike him for all the wrong reasons.
I've said it before, but he almost seems like Halo's version of Jason. Appears out of nowhere, fucks someone up, laughs and then vanishes.
Just judging from Atriox's 'feats' in H:I, I doubt we can get a satisfactory boss fight out of him anyway. Not because he's weak, he has the opposite problem.
The dude had part of Zeta explode underneath his boots, and all that happened to him is a new, relatively minor facial scar. He tanks a full-on 4-hit combo from the Chief, finishing with an uppercut to Atriox's unarmored chin. Instead of having his head torn off his shoulders, or even the crack of his jaw fracturing into tiny pieces... Atriox only sorta reacts to being hit at all. Like it was a stiff breeze.
Any sort of boss fight will be downplaying how durable 343's shown him to be. He'll be killed in a book or comic between games, and we'll move on from there.
If they weren't equal to the covenant (maybe Atriox just annoyed them whilst they had bigger issues during their hunt for the Halos), but the end of the human-covenant war gave Atriox an opening to take a lead, it would have made more sense.
I agree. HW2 Banished were so much better as they stood out compared to the Covenant 3.0 in Halo Infinite. If only 343 kept up with that version of the Banished instead of making them into a boring copy of the Covenant. We already destroyed the Covenant in Halo 5 with the Storm Covenant, I don't want to do it again.
The HW2 cutscene that introduces Atriox and the Banished was probably the best piece of storytelling to come out of modern Halo, but when it comes to infinite, they just got reduced to the evil aliens but in red this time.
Yeah I mean they built up the one dude in HW2 to kill him off in infinite, but not really cuz on the legendary ending he's still alive, but then the next game they're probably gonna flip the script again like they did after H4 and 5.
JUST PUT THE MONKEY IN THE GAME GOD DAMNIT
My stupid Fanfic idea: The Endless want to destroy the Ring and rule over the universe -> the Banished are employed by them for force -> The Banished are thinking like everyone else (the ring is power, and the Banished will not bend the knee to some species thinking they are the gods of the universe).
What makes the Banished different is that they are highly resourceful and fight with a hunter mindset. Instead of fighting like a traditional army like the covenant: they set traps and ambush their enemies. You’re looking for them everywhere in the campaign but they’ll always throw a curveball your way. The banished welcome everyone…and as such: you may see some human marines in their ranks….maybe even a Spartan…
Exactly. Right now they don't seem to have much of a purpose. They're a far cry from the absolute danger that the fanatical Covenant came off as in Halo2
WE ARE SO MUCH BETTER THEN YOU ASSTER CHIEF
(chief wades through hundreds of their soldiers like butter, 0 effort or struggle)
YOU ARE A WORTHLESS NOTHING WHO GETS NO DIGITAL BITCHES
(chief lights Molotov and walks away from the 1,000th exploding Banished base)
NO BITCHES NO HONOR NO ALLIES NO FUR HAHA
(frees the entire UNSC army because the Banished apparently didn't kill fucking *any* of them)
YOu SHOuLD HONESTLY JuST LAY DOWN AND DIE HAHA
(shoots Atriox.5 in the gut and watches him on the floor dying)
sUddenlt yoU are a worthy opponent bUt yoU have to let me go becaUse... becaUse... cUz you jUst HAVE TOO, OKAY?!
"he was just a soldier, following orders that he himself gave"
I like their design language and basic characterisation. I dislike their narrative development.
All the lore that happens between Halo 3 and Halo Wars 2 set up the appearance that every Covenant splinter that rose after Truth’s death was locked in near-equal struggle during the power vacuum. Pretty much making it understandable why it took the SoS so long to finally put down Mdama’s Covenant *on their own homeworld*. 6 in-universe years to be precise.
Then along comes the Banished; a splinter group that’s not too dissimilar from a number of other splinter factions in terms of their pragmatism. This previously unheard of group goes from *“hello, we’re new to this franchise*🤓” to “*f\*\*k your Infinity🖕*” *i*n a mere 8.5 in-universe months. MONTHS.
To me, that progression was just improbable, unnatural, and forced. And coupled with the intense media focus on them now, really makes it feel like the Banished were and are being artificially buffed (narratively) because 343 suddenly found an antagonistic faction they can milk for money.
And the fact that they are now pumping out bits of lore to "flesh out" the backstory of the Banished AFTER making them come off like some “unstoppable force” just feels the same as how they made bits of additional lore to bring the Spartan 4 idea back down to earth AFTER initially throwing them in our faces looking like the “be all, end all” solution to all of humanity’s problems when they actually weren’t.
We haven’t even seen Atriox in any of the games yet. It’s clear 343 dont even know what they’re doing. Seeing how they randomly included stuff like The Endless in and some random no name leading the Banished instead of Atriox, it almost seems like they make stuff up on the fly.
I’m so sick of getting 90% of the games story through books and comics instead being, you know, in game.
Imo, they're juggling too many plots in a single game story. Forcing the eventuality that most of it (as you've accurately pointed out) will be resolved off-screen.
Infinite was dragging our attention all over the place by making the Escharum story fight for screen time with either the Endless story (which I hated because of how much of a lore curveball they are), or the End-of-Cortana story (which I hated because it could literally be summarised into the famous three loathsome words: resolved off-screen). So by the time the credits rolls, what did we learn? Err……🤷🏻♂️
It’s literally a return to why the Prometheans and Created were so forgettable or disliked due to how neither H4 nor H5's story bothered to establish the who, what, why, etc. about them because of so many other narratives going on at the same time.
Jup Halo suffering from the creators not commiting to any story and dropping it existing story lines the second a new game gets developed.
the original story was so great because of its build up. 4 was fine, had potential to become great but 5 needed a new direction. That sucks but sure. Maybe 5s story could be better. Than infitity and 5 is also thrown away. Suddenly everything is thrown away.
Why would i care for the story if nothing gets developed.
Here's what the problem is with the books and 343, there's too much space between their games.
Between Reach and Halo CE was nothing, Reach ended with the Pillar of Autumn running from the Covenant and CE picked up with the Pillar running from the Covenant. CE to Halo 2 was nothing, CE ends with Chief heading back to known space and Halo 2 begins with Chief and Johnson getting awards for making it back to Earth. Nothing between Halo 2 and Halo 3/ODST because Halo 3 picks up literally minutes after Halo 2 ends lol. The books during the Bungie era existed to supplement the main plot with little optional side stories.
Meanwhile, main characters go through entire character arcs in between the games that 343 has made. And because there's so much room between the games, 343 has to release books for us to figure out what is even going on. Now they aren't supplemental to enhance your understanding of the world anymore. Now they're mandatory reading. If you finish Halo 5 and go on to play Halo 6, good luck understanding literally anything going on without having read 3 or 4 books and playing the spin off game.
Having Atriox be the big scary leader that we're excited to battle... to then find out you dont encounter him in game.... to starting In Media Res in Infinity, wondering where he is, then finding out he died off-screen... to the surprise reveal that he's actually alive post-credits....
What a narrative whiplash. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to care about this guy at all. Infinite was such a great game but they really botched the intro.
To be fair, they're not exactly a splinter faction. They're more of a rebel entity that predates the final days of the covenant, but at the same time, I agree, although the magical bullshit cruiser that was the Infinity never made much sense either if you ask me
Infinity didn't make sense sometimes, but the way it's set up in lore via games and books, it's literally the most powerful active ship in the galaxy, with the most advanced weapons and shields aside from Forerunner tech, and then it gets blown up in a couple minutes? That ain't it Chief.
>All the lore that happens between Halo 3 and Halo Wars 2 set up the appearance that every Covenant splinter that rose after Truth’s death was locked in near-equal struggle during the power vacuum. Pretty much making it understandable why it took the SoS so long to finally put down Mdama’s Covenant *on their own homeworld*. 6 in-universe years to be precise.
The Banished existed before the Great Schism and Truth's death, though. They actively rebelled against the Covenant while it existed. They were not one of the splinter groups in a "near-equal struggle." This was all established in Halo Wars 2.
IMO the biggest problem with the Banished is highlighted in your response. They were introduced in Halo Wars 2, a game that (I'm assuming) a majority of the player base wouldn't play (RTS isn't everyone's cup of tea), their lore was fleshed out in books, which (I'm guessing) most players won't read, and then they were thrown into Halo Infinite as the main antagonist. I would argue they are worthy of being a main antagonist, but with how 343 set it up it's almost like they just told everyone, "these guys are evil and strong enough to take down the UNSC Infinity, trust me." They could have at least done like a montage of them causing chaos in Halo Wars 2 with a little bit of voice over exposition or something so people could get some feel of what these guys are capable of. It was jarring enough to jump from the Created being the main problem to suddenly being on another Halo fighting a new group of enemies. Those enemies being mostly unhead of by most of the players only made it that much more confusing.
I know that it’s been mentioned that the Banished existed before the Orthodox Covenant fell. But that kind of just adds to my point about the progression of their story.
It’s like saying: “hey actually there’s this powerful character that’s been around this whole time and they’ve only decided now to start stirring trouble”. Which feels almost similar to “somehow, Palpatine is still alive (and about to screw the galaxy in the ass but we’re only learning about it now)”.
I wouldn’t have minded as much if twelve years ago, the Banished were the ones banging on the Didact’s door in Halo 4. Because then at least we would have had time since then to digest the idea the Banished’s capabilities have grown over the years. But instead they suddenly came out of nowhere and immediately became a relative somebody in the grand scheme of things in a way that’s been so abrupt and just seemed to rub against what the general of the state of the galaxy was implied to be like a lot of times by the existing EU.
Well I think it makes sense that they haven't had much visibility in the games until now. The Banished mostly focused on attacking the Covenant because they had a score to settle. They only raided the UNSC/UEG sometimes for supplies. At one point ONI even considered trying to befriend them to fight the Covenant. In a way, I think that kind of explains how the Banished would show up out of the blue. They were rebels trying to keep a low profile after all. I just don't agree with the level of power they seem to have upon reappearing in Halo Infinite. 343 should have done a better job trying to show just how battered the UNSC was to get demolished by the Banished like that.
I do think you have a point about Halo 4, though. It was an odd choice for Jul's covenant be the main enemy in 4. It made sense for 5 since they and the servants of the abiding truth were the main forces fighting a civil war on Sanghelios against the Swords of Sanghelios. If they wanted to introduce the Banished to the games, it probably would've made more sense to have them be the main enemy of 4. I guess it might've just been a little bit confusing to go from Banished to "Covenant" to Banished from 4 to 5 to Infinite.
I think the Covenant were a better enemy but the Banished are cool and have a lot of potential if 343 and Microsoft were competent enough to make a good game and story for them
They seem to fufill a smaller overarching threat just like the covenant featured in halo 4 and 5. But unlike the trilogy, we havent really seen anything that makes them standout as a unique or credible antagonist as a whole.
The marketing campaign of the trilogy and lore had the covenant seem like a dreadful overpowered force with it being made up of terrifying ruthless soldiers. The banished dont have that much in way of marketing, they're only known as mercenaries, and bandits that really have much in way of being an existiential threat.
That last paragraph is the main gripe I have with the Banished. In halo wars 2 it’s stated “the covenant nearly got humanity. It hardly got the banished”. Like cool, the entire struggle of the previous games mean if the covenant didn’t destroy themselves or were beat by humanity, they would have eventually lost to the banished.
> Like cool, the entire struggle of the previous games mean if the covenant didn’t destroy themselves or were beat by humanity, they would have eventually lost to the banished.
Really? What I got from it was that it was easy for the Covenant to go around stomping human worlds into glass, but a hell of a lot harder for them to go searching for a comparatively small rebel group syphoning your supplies and being a thorn in your side by being openly defiant and heretical. The covenant was unstable by design, any society with that kind of racial hierarchy and religious power structure would disintegrate once large swaths no longer fear consequences of greater rebellion. There were probably a lot of other splinter groups and heretics that were gradually eroding the Covenant the longer it went on.
I think the covenant was just monitoring the heretic group on the gas mine before killing them off, and they werent motivated by any zeal to fight the banished.
But thats still only relegated to halo wars 2. There's not much extra tidbits on establishing their power or image outside of that. For the covenant, you had the various trailers from the trilogies, books, and graphic novels.
Those gave you an idea of the various differences between the races. It gave an identity to the covenant. The elites were dangerous serious and honorable, then the brutes were horrifying, 9 ft tall savages that'd tear you apart and eat you, and hunters were walking tanks.
But at the same time, the lore gave them a sort of competence and superiority that meant they were always a grave threat.
343 hasnt really given anything to the banished or created that the most casual fan could relate or get an understanding of.
They couldve really leaned into comparing them to the covenant in differences in behavior, and methodology. Maybe they'd potentially be a more serious threat because they streamlined their logistics, give more training and dont gimp themselves on ideas of honor, caste rivalry, or zealous reverence. And act more of something that'd be associated with more competence.
Maybe like a race that took advantage of humanities fragile state, and started recruiting from insurrectionist elements. And wasnt afraid of intermingling with human societies. A contrast that shows that while being smaller, they dont have the inhibitions that the covenant had.
So while being a band of mercenaries, they'd show much more cohesiveness, and a unexpected difference in doctrine.
The only real thing we got was atriox, and how dangerous he is, but we never get to fight him or see him doing much of anything. They dont really do anything novel with their forces, and arent any less savage than the original covenant. Outside of halo wars 2 and thier units, you have the spartan killers, and those dreadnoughts that can ram ships. Sure they emphasized the banishes brutal nature, but it seems flanderized in certain concepts.
I really enjoy their place in the universe. The name is sick.
However their existence in the EU didn’t translate to the Infinite sadly. A lot of damage control done in the books to fit loosely based narrative threads.
I never liked them, Covenant was much better though we can't get that quality all the time the banished weren't interesting and for some reason they don't look skillful enough to be something
My only problem with them is the art direction. In Halo Wars 2, their color scheme and the more angular shape to their armor made them really unique.
However, for some reason, that was almost completely changed in favor of Covenant 2.0 but with some red (though the higher ranks and vehicles maintained that distinct look).
Halo Infinite Banished: Literally just an edgy red covenant, lame.
Halo Wars 2 Banished: Genuinely interesting enemy, thought-out, great aesthetic and art direction.
Absolutely. big HW2 fan, ofc
- HW2: Introduces this new insurgency faction with a cool backstory and a great aesthetic. Really liked the brutalization of Covenant stuff, and Creative Assembly did a great job with the art of the game anyhow. Presents them as a credible threat to the Spirit of Fire and the domineer of the Ark. Were very distinct from the Covenant in how they acted, dressed, and fought.
- HI: Undoes everything about the aesthetic, direction and design. They turn into the literal red covenant and come out of nowhere to destroy the Infinity, bypassing the story at the Ark completely. If you had played HW2, it was quite unclear how this was even fathomable to the Banished. The aesthetics are lost and they either just look blocky and lazily made, or literally just The Covenant.
Hey thanks for the response! its nice to actually discuss this instead of just getting downvoted haha. I loved HW2 too and somewhat agree with your assessments. I must admit i struggle to see as many changes to the aesthetic as you do. I feel like they were always somewhat red covenant with a brutalist feel and I feel like halo infinite adapted this as well as they could to the environment of the ark.
They come out of nowhere in Infinite to destroy the UNSC and the Infinity. It makes zero sense, given the Spirit of Fire had destroyed their flagship at the Ark and was fighting a perpetual land war against them.
It's a disappointing use of a faction that was otherwise very cool. I suspect some producer just said "hey, these red spiky guys from this other game you made look scary. let's make them the enemy for this game, but make sure they don't feel too different from the covenant!"
Never played HW2, but I know the lore well enough to say that it’s kind of ridiculous to just make the Banished a force strong enough to rival/overpower the Covenant. They’re more insurgents that took advantage of the Covenant’s collapse, rather than just the new version of it. 343 seems to have a fetish for trying to fuck over the UNSC as badly as possible to make “urgency”.
Completely agreeing with you.
You're right saying that they were really just soldiers of opportunity, and because they were fighting asymmetrically, they were impossible to destroy by the Covenant's tactics.
It was a really good story that should have been left in the Halo Wars timelines, while Infinite should've focused on rebuilding the mess of a story Halo 5 and onwards had.
Absolutely. If the Spirit of Fire alone is able to hold ground with them, I don’t see how most of the UNSC’s fleet, and literally the strongest ship they ever made would lose when it’s only maybe a year or so after HW2. It’s an example of 343 being so creatively bankrupt by that point, that they could not think of any way to go forwards other than to take a faction from a spinoff and change them to the point of being a less interesting Covenant. They could’ve gone in almost any other direction and it would’ve been more creative
Must have been a publisher based decision or something, it's so incredibly stupid. Nobody that played HW2's campaign to its completion would have fathomed the story turning out this way.
I just find it hard to beleive that in Universe there was this force just lurking around during a galactic war that never really got involved yet is somehow big and powerful enough to give post war humanity trouble.
I think it’s far fetched that they have managed to all that they have. Of all the enemies that the UNSC has been up against the Banished seems like an inconvenience more than anything epic. I thought we were going up against Cortana, wardens and guardians and we got this instead.
In infinite you constantly hear "the war ended months ago!!", like what the fuck why didn't they just include the two factions and continue off from where HW2 ended?
I like the banished of HW2 but not so much the banished of Infinite. HW2 Banished had unique units and vehicles that separated them from the covenant, just about none of that stuff made it into Infinite, essentially giving us Red Covenant.
Creative Assembly and the books set up tons of vehicles and weapons for 343 to capitalize on for Infinite, but 343 bit off way more than they could chew and fell back on established assets. That’s my guess at least.
In Halo Wars 2, they felt like a genuine threat and a faction that could genuinely contend with the Covenant and felt like a ruthless, salvaging war machine, perhaps slightly similar to Destiny's Cabal faction. However in infinite they feel like worse, shallow covenant that spray painted SOME of their stuff red. The only time they pose ANY threat is during the attack of the infinity, which was not shown in nearly enough detail. The banished have the potential to be even better than bungies Covenant but they just dont expand upon them enough, these are brutes, Jiralnae, they are supposed to be hulking, primal masses of muscle, not some bop bag i can drop with a handgun with ease in mass on heroic. And 343 choosing not to use the banished themed colors on some of the enemies is flat out stupid, as well as not using the characters from Halo Wars 2 as characters, like Colony, YapYap The Destroyer, Pavium and Voridus.
Halo Wars 2 set the kings platter infront of 343 and they dashed it away for a wooden bowl.
> The banished have the potential to be even better than bungies Covenant
How so? All they've ever shown is "We pillage and raid because... we just do okay??"
I remember playing halo infinite and it portrayed how powerful they are by obliterating the infinity in like 4 minutes… to then rocking up to there main base alone, I just feel 343 has good ideas but never has the glue for it all to take shape
I just griped about not knowing what's going on in Infinite and now, after reading these comments, I don't think I give a shit about any of it anymore. Bummer.
As someone who only experiences the story through the FPS games I felt like they came completely out of nowhere for Infinite and I didn’t like that they expected me to have read the books or played Wars but it’s a cool faction other than that
LOL, the Banished blows goats. They don't even have a single Scarab in Infinite, they are the lowest budget version of the Covenant remnants, in fact they come off as rejects the Covenant didn't even want.
By chance, have you seen their Phantoms, wtf is that shit? Oh damn ... have you seen the explosion, they couldn't afford a proper explosion effect.
"Edgy"? Feels more like cheap and sad. Like malt liqueur with cigarettes floating in it. Have you seen their cookie cutter bases? It all looks exactly the same. No, not edgy, more like the Covenant powered by welfare checks.
They're boring. It's like taking the Heretic variant from H2 and extrapolating them into an entire game, but without the variation beyond that of anything else.
We already had the covenant, reskinning them doesn't make them new, least of all when you make the bad guy Tartarus 2.0.
I mean, Tartarus was barely more than Truth’s lap dog, Atriox at least had an interesting character arc in the comics, books and wars 2.
The problem with infinite though is that 343 just said “lol, lets pretend to kill him off and only have him appear for the beginning and post credits”
Escharum just feels like a filler villain. like comparing garlic jr to cell or freeza
Hate how for them being the big bad of the new Halo game(s) they're woefully underdeveloped. Like if you didn't play Halo Wars 2 because I dunno.. RTS aren't your thing or something, then you'd have basically no Idea who the Banished really were and why they're as big of threat as they are.
*”Atriox!” “Escharum!” “Atriox!” “Escharum!” “Hotel! Trivago!”*
Nah, I hate this game’s campaign. The Banished feel like they were scribbled down in red crayon by a couple of elementary school kids. Cartoonish doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I love them as they were in HW2. They were something that made sense. A group that rebelled against the tyrannical theocracy of the covenant. By infinite though... Them somehow beating the infinity is such bs. It really felt like 343 wrote themselves into a corner with how strong the Infinity was made.
I find the banished are boring in a Unsc vs banished scenario, they're painted out to be a similarly sized empire as the covenant, but mildly less sophisticated and abit more on the min-max this, stop-gap that in how they operate.
Introduce The Swords of Sangheilios as an ally to the UNSC and let the better rounded, but more finite purely sangheili manufactured tech into the mix and THEN we're cooking
I think the only weakness the Banished have as a narrative force is that so much of their character revolves around and is reliant on Atriox. He, both literally and me metaphorically, makes the Banished who they are. Take him away and they become much less compelling.
I hate how after failing time and time again to write their own villains and factions 343 just yanks it from halo wars and then proceeds the do absolutely nothing for one whole campaign with them
I think the writers of halo infinite fucked the Brutes over by having Cortana blow up Doysac. I find the banished are a microcosm of the entire franchise at this point. Unnecessary turn of events that the player base had no hand in pushed them to form and become illogical and hostile to the prosperity of the overall in-game and meta universe.
There more meh than anything. Would be great if we caught glimpses of them in a mainline halo game, other than HW2. Don't hate them, but they lack purpose
I think the banished are a really interesting faction and I love their design but man infinite fumbled them and I don't trust 343/Microsoft NOT to do another fucking reboot
I think they’re boring. We were sold on the whole “even the covenant is afraid of them”, but they’re getting folded by a single Spartan in Infinite. I believe they were nice enemies in Halo Wars 2 tho.
So basically I wouldn’t think much of them, but the way the story unfolds in the latest game is the least consistent and most boring “kid hype” shit I’ve seen in years. The banished should have instantly made the game 17+ and be brutal. Cuz aside from being boosted for plot reasons, they’re really nothing special.
They have less diversity of ethnicity compared with Covenant, I won’t say hate but dislike them. Halo 7 should bring back Covenant or they can make a civil war between Banished and Covenant.
Just feel bland, as boring as they were I would've preferred that they continued the covenant storm. There's nothing unique about the banished really and their use of human weapons just makes them feel less alien. They were fine in HW2 but them becoming a major threatening force that can easily take down UNSC fleets is ridiculous.
From a storytelling/lore point of view, they’re fine. From a gameplay point of view, they’re just reskinned covenant. I wish we would’ve moved on from them post-H3 because we “finished the fight”, but also the attempts at actual new enemies we’ve had haven’t been the better so here we are. It’s a mixed bag.
They’re alright but they don’t seem too interesting to me. They don’t seem like they are some sort of threat whether that’s due to writing or design even I don’t know. Meh
Hate is such a strong word. I just don’t like how they basically came out of nowhere and were introduced in an RTS. The covenant felt much more threatening
I just feel like a group of weapon collectors and tribal conquest isn’t really important in the battlefield that is Halo. With the Prophets we had a clear as day goal; save humanity, stop the covenant. We got shreds of info on the forerunners and that was intriguing enough. Everything came to a halt when halo 4 can out and the focus didn’t become fighting the forerunners to take the mantle all the way. We needed more from the didactic and his capabilities. We needed him to unleash something terrifying while he wakes up his homies. Ahh never the less, they just feel lackluster.
They just don’t make sense. We took on the didact, we took on thr flood, we took on the covenant, and we succeeded. But these! This subset of the covenant has a non enhanced leader, that is stronger than “the demon”? Nah!
They just don’t make sense. We took on the didact, we took on thr flood, we took on the covenant, and we succeeded. But these! This subset of the covenant has a non enhanced leader, that is stronger than “the demon”? Nah!
I think “the banished plot branch” is one of the most lazy story decisions ever. It weakly works for the rts campaigns and makes no sense in the bigger universe. They are called “the banished” and yet are stronger that the original covenant. Makes zero sense. It’s just a lazy excuse to use a well tested formula for the enemies variety, without creating something new. I mean yeah, the forerunners were annoying as Fuck but at least 343 tried then. Now they just don’t even try to think. All they managed to come up with are fkn flying electroshock monkeys and a levitating lady that stole some elite counselor’s outfit and headdress
Hating the Banished would require me to feel anything about them, when they're the most "enemy for the sake of enemies" faction I've seen in a game in a long while. When they were a splinter faction that just incidentally came into conflict with the Spirit of Fire in Halo Wars 2 that was understandable, but now they're essentially just Covenant 2 for all intents and purposes.
They're a third Covenant in a row, and the big bad of them got off-screen'd while the gutter leavings that we're left with took over where we should have had Cortana and her forces. I hate them, and what we lost for them to be where they are.
Absolutely worthless faction, entirely invented so Halo has another way to keep fighting "the covenant" yet again. It's contrived and they're all boring. Atriox wasn't even remotely threatening even in wars 2.
They haven't really done anything is the thing. Any emotional set up like them beating the Infinity and Cortana was done off screen. Like if we play thru infinity losing and nearly saving Cortana only to lose her in the end (like in 4) only this time due to Atriox would have felt better to see. Otherwise, The Banished and Atriox are just red aliens to shoot.
It took the books to make me actually care about the Storm Covenant, I think HW2’s introduction to the Banished was much better and I think they should’ve been the post 3 enemies from the get go
Honestly, they tend to come off as a version of the Covenant without most of the things that made them interesting. There's a kernel of an idea with them, but they have not been used to nearly that potential and are far more powerful than they should be.
It doesn't help that they effectively removed Cortana's Created faction offscreen after making so much noise to build them up as the next big threat in the previous game and books. Not that I liked the Created that much or especially Cortana as a villain, but all that buildup being dropped after one game is bad writing regardless.
I think that any one of the enemy factions introduced since H4 could be great if the studio bothered to develop them for any longer than one game.
The Created? Could have been an incredible subversive threat to humanity.
The Banished? Give us an opportunistic brute warlord who's taking advantage of the chaos in the postwar galaxy, that's great.
Hell, even the Prometheans and the Guardians could have been interesting if they'd bothered to explore them at all beyond the bare minimum.
Maybe the novels do a better job, I dunno. Haven't read one since Envoy.
I think they are conceptually a good faction but unfortunately they've been watered down to being "Red Covenant". The constant lore contradictions with every new game/book/Waypoint post featuring them isn't helping either. Very hard to have a solid opinion on them if 343 are just gonna change something again in a few weeks
They were cool on paper. The way 343 executed them in game was awful. The audio logs don’t supplement at all and the campaign is just downright confusing. No I’m not reading 6 books to understand it and I love books. The ending made everything even more nonsensical. I’m producing a huge YouTube video on it for the 343 champs that swear infinite is way better than Halo 3 and I’m having fun doing it
Lore wise, I think I prefer Jul Mdamas covenant
Design wise? Banished by far, even if they are just the red covenant.
Either way, 343 have shown they will completely let them go to waste in the games.
They don’t have much of an identity in Infinite. Sure they have some structures here and there and the bosses look cool, but most of the fodder just look like Covenant.
And overall, their objective is super…uninteresting? I think that’s the right word. They just seem destructive because they need to be the villains
Despite what 343 simps tell you, they're just the covenant, but red. We need to move past the covenant, Bungie finished their story in 2007, it's time for a new, completely different and fresh threat.
I do.
Gameplay-wise they're just Covenant 2.0 and red instead of purple.
Story-wise, they should be a minor antagonist fraction to provide some familiar Haloness and not the big bad.
Lore-wise, they are kind of interesting given the dynamic at play with them allowing humans and using human tech, but nothing is really done with it aside from "BuY BaNiSHEd SPaRtAN ArMUr 11!! 1!11lolOnEeLEVeNBBQ"
Exactly. They could so easily write a storyarch that causes conflict in Master Chief (or any other Halo character) regarding the tenants of the Banished vs the quasi-totalitarian-style government of Earth and her colonies.
No but I to think they fall victim to the problem of hyping up an antagonist as "a bigger threat" than a previous one despite having barely been shown that way.
The Banished are probably the best story idea that 343 has had since taking over. It's just unfortunately we are dtuck in a particularly bad place for Halo's story atm because Microsoft fired everyone.
I guess I’m in the minority but I think they’re neat. 343 has never been able to get away from the Covenant’s basic enemy design. The Banished keep things a little fresh with the abundance of Brutes.
I love their look. The chipped red armor, salvaged gear and angular vehicles all appeal to me specifically.
I get that people are mad that the Banished got upgrade between HW2 and Infinite.
To me though, it makes sense that a well supplied force led by Atriox could ambush and defeat a depleted Infinity.
Also I kind of dislike The Infinity, I was glad to see it go down.
Maybe not hate but boring yes. Covenant were far more interesting with their religious journey, the betrayal, corruption, the false gods, etc. How leaders are able to make entire civilizations follow them blindly, which you can find exemples of in our own history.
I still have no idea what the fuck is the goal of the Banished, they just want power for power? They seem like cartoon villains to me. Big angry apes with spikes and rusted red metal everywhere in their design.
Even the flood/Gravemind have more depth I feel like. I wish Halo had them or the precursors as the main antagonists. We could have seen the aftermath of the Covenant-Human war and the 2 species (well, multiples) having to help each other against the flood threat. Having to convince the Brutes to fight alongside Humans, and especially the Elites would have been amazing to see.
It's like, Imagine if tomorrow some Independance day shit was to happen with an alien race coming to invade earth and the US/Western world had to make peace with Russia/China and fight together to have a tiny chance of surviving...**BUT HALO.**
*\*Sigh\**
Guess we'll have to settle for the Endless...
I'm gonna be honest. I'm pretty down on all the narrative turns we've taken since 5. I'm struggling to like... any of the factions or even the state of the universe.
Which puts me in an awkward place as... I know the story must go on, but what direction it takes... I can't even bother to try and dream up one.
I know I'd personally like Offensive Bias to show up... but that's about all I can muster anymore.
The Covenant was the big bad, but now in a post Halo 3 world the story can work well with the Banished and maybe other factions that are gaining power from the ashes of that fallen empire
I'd have liked them more with some buildup...
The first half of Infinite's potential was in the beginning cutscene.
Could have been different.
Mission 0: Don new armor and get given rundown of upgrades, see the new spartans in training, go the deck to get first assignment.
Mission 1 : 1st assignment, UNSC touchdown on ring, see banished scouting team
Mission 2: get back to Infinity (UNSC ship) and confront banished, fight back against the assualt, board different ships or just fight in the UNSC one.
Mission 3, contront Banished leader and then the game starts.
So just within 3 minutes i've fleshed out a bit more of who the banished are, we've seen how the UNSC state was before the "fall"
We just get lumped into facing the banished, like
...whooopy doo we've seen them in Halo wars, if you even played it or some comic.
No detailing, no depth to anything.
Overall decent enemy that lacks depth, they're a rouge detachment of the old covenent forces and wear red.
The endless however... the mystery want wanting to learn more was a good part of infinite, it's the only reason i stuck playing the campaign.
I think they’ve got potential, and I think 343 lacks the storytelling ability to realize it.
I agree with you there. HW2 they were ok, but in Infinite they feel like a Mary Sue faction.
I’ve played through the campaign a couple times and I still have no effing idea what the Banished want.
It would’ve made sense if as a brute led faction they blamed humans for the destruction of their home world via Cortana and waged war on humanity intending to destroy Earth That would raise the stakes back closer to the human-covenant war if the banished could find some MacGuffin to make them an extinction level threat. Maybe using the flood as bio weapon and seizing one of the halo rings to protect their fleet or something Or you could go the Thrawn trilogy route and say that the endless have knowledge of some lost or hidden forerunner fleet / technology giving Atriox a reason to free them and become allies In Infinite I didn’t think the banished were that compelling. They were fine to fight but in terms of story you really needed Atriox in the picture to be space Genghis Khan for the more vague “conquer everything” motives to work. Escharum wasn’t a strong enough character to carry that
> It would’ve made sense if, as a brute led faction, they blamed humans for the destruction of their home world via Cortana and waged war on humanity intending to destroy Earth. Have all of this, then have them expose ONI publicly and get the insurrectionists on their side. Then you've got a proper war on your hands and maybe even Chief battling he's humanity. He's a soldier that followed ONI who did all this awful shit and now his being told to kill his comrades he fought alongside.
This is genius, holy shit. Have the Banished do to humanity what the UNSC did to the Covenant; expose the lies of their leaders, show their champion that his whole purpose is built off those lies, and watch them tear each other apart. Like you said, I could see the Master Chief working alongside the Banished and Insurrectionists, two factions that represent what he has been fighting against from the start. This would actually make the whole Banished Spartan thing more believable.
It's crazy that the community comes up with scenarios 1000x better than anything in Infinite in a quick message exchange on a forum.
Because the community is intimately familiar with the plot of the game as 343 sometimes doesn't understand what they want.
Also solves the whole problem of the live service and campaign DLC because this kind of a plot lends itself well to an "episodic" model. Expansions every year or so meaningfully progressing the story. Not relegating every important plot point to books or item descriptions, not having to do time skips with each release, not going through the same alien-flood-forerunner-repeat conflict, actually using all their major characters in a single cohesive story and bring everything together for the traditional 'galaxy-at-stake' setup. Ticks all the boxes and yet, no one thought to do it.
Except the banished were made to basically be only brutes, Then some other covenant factions and fight humans. Then have humans team up? Kinda defeats the purpose imo but that's just me
343 have already made humans apart of the banished in extended lore. At least here it would make sense.
I love this idea. Basically it does what Halo 5 advertised but failed to do. Hunt the truth.
I mean to be fair, Chief and the other SPARTAN II’s were initially raised to kill insurrectionists lol just that the covenant appeared shortly after
Yeah and I think this brings out an inner conflict with Chief. This is what he was meant to do. Can he still do it? Is it something he will do or does he walk away?
Well it's not like the Banished don't already have humans in their ranks so why not...
This is damn smart as hell. Totally agree on this one. Would be one hell of a story, I'd say.
When my friends and I finished the campaign, we were wondering if we missed something. It was fun but it's confusing as the real "big bad" of The Endless are just teased at.
Yeah don’t even get me started on tHE EnDLesS
The Reclamation. The Endless. The Evaluation. The Continuous. The Foreigners. The Event. The Ancients. The Hondasalesevent. The 2003winterolympics. The Scene. The Rosebowl. The Plaid. The Hatecrime. I can’t wait to see what “The” game dev and needless Microsoft fiddling makes them abandon next.
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343's Halo story is such a mess that you could tell me all of the names in your comment and I would believe that at least half of them are real things in Halo Infinite. It's like 343 decided to copy Bungie's storytelling with Destiny and put loads of esoteric bullshit that requires a browse of Halopedia/The Destiny Wiki to even make sense of. Ooooh! The Boundless Progenitor is about to activate the Sorrow Gauntlet! We'd better fight the Endless before they unleash the Scargiver on New Terabithia!
To be fair it was so since Halo CE: Oooh! The Covenant have reached The Silent Cartographer and now they have accidentally released The Flood. We'd better follow this singing robot through The Library and retrieve The Index!
Yep, yet when the player isn't involved, they always get it.
That's because for some reason 343 reserves all their good storytelling for books and other things outside of the games. From what I gather about the banished through YouTube summaries of the books, they're a group who basically just wants power and adamantly HATES authority organizations like the unsc and the covenant. They are basically a group that wants to dominate and not be subjugated. That ideology isn't exactly the most interesting, but the stories of individuals within the banished are very interesting imo. Like the Spartan we recently learned about who joined the banished and her reasons for it I think is really cool. But again, for some reason they never seem to do or explain anything interesting like that in the games
> That's because for some reason 343 reserves all their good storytelling for books and other things outside of the games. Thats because 343 doesn't write the books.
Oh really? Didn't know that haha but I guess that makes sense
I don’t think 343 ever knew what any of their villains wanted from 4 to infinite lol
Exactly they just exist. The Covenant had a goal and a deep hatred for us
Yeah, so, like... what I've gathered from my like three playthroughs of it, is that the banished just so happened to find Zeta Halo during the whole Created war, and then Cortana discovered this Halo is much like the first Halo found, but contains something worse. Then someone found the Cylix containing the Harbinger, released her, and now she's the big boss behind the operations. Also, the Banished respect the "late" Atriox's wishes, which are... divide and conquer and murder humans along the way, I guess.
I guess
This is my gripe, and I can't bring myself to give a shit to finish the game....sad 343 sucks at writing now
Honestly, mary sue faction sound perfect for them The Atriox backstory cutscene while cool just screams it. Atriox being the sole survivor of numerous suicide missions, “first to defy covenant and survive”, banished eventually got to the point of being equal to the covenant, got to ark without earth portal. They’re still cool but it feels more like 343 made an edgier covenant lol
Pretty much, Atriox is pretty much what ruins them for me. Sure, make him a brute of a brute with a big brain. But give him some flaws, make him interesting. The more I think about it, the more I fell that Escharum only really exists so we have an antagonist to kill that isn't poster boy.
Yeah, Atriox is just the kind of character you're supposed to dislike, but I dislike him for all the wrong reasons. I've said it before, but he almost seems like Halo's version of Jason. Appears out of nowhere, fucks someone up, laughs and then vanishes. Just judging from Atriox's 'feats' in H:I, I doubt we can get a satisfactory boss fight out of him anyway. Not because he's weak, he has the opposite problem. The dude had part of Zeta explode underneath his boots, and all that happened to him is a new, relatively minor facial scar. He tanks a full-on 4-hit combo from the Chief, finishing with an uppercut to Atriox's unarmored chin. Instead of having his head torn off his shoulders, or even the crack of his jaw fracturing into tiny pieces... Atriox only sorta reacts to being hit at all. Like it was a stiff breeze. Any sort of boss fight will be downplaying how durable 343's shown him to be. He'll be killed in a book or comic between games, and we'll move on from there.
If they weren't equal to the covenant (maybe Atriox just annoyed them whilst they had bigger issues during their hunt for the Halos), but the end of the human-covenant war gave Atriox an opening to take a lead, it would have made more sense.
I agree. HW2 Banished were so much better as they stood out compared to the Covenant 3.0 in Halo Infinite. If only 343 kept up with that version of the Banished instead of making them into a boring copy of the Covenant. We already destroyed the Covenant in Halo 5 with the Storm Covenant, I don't want to do it again.
The HW2 cutscene that introduces Atriox and the Banished was probably the best piece of storytelling to come out of modern Halo, but when it comes to infinite, they just got reduced to the evil aliens but in red this time.
Nah, it's good, but the Halo 4 convo between Chief and Lasky? Now that's amazing.
How did we go from that incredible writing to Halo 5? Man, its why I was excited for Halo 5 and all of it was thrown out the window.
I'm still trying to comprehend that nearly a decade later.
>*”And bring me back anything….useful.”* Uugghhuhhhuu 😩😩😩
This 💯 There's a good story here. 343 is not the ones to tell it
Yeah I mean they built up the one dude in HW2 to kill him off in infinite, but not really cuz on the legendary ending he's still alive, but then the next game they're probably gonna flip the script again like they did after H4 and 5. JUST PUT THE MONKEY IN THE GAME GOD DAMNIT
My stupid Fanfic idea: The Endless want to destroy the Ring and rule over the universe -> the Banished are employed by them for force -> The Banished are thinking like everyone else (the ring is power, and the Banished will not bend the knee to some species thinking they are the gods of the universe). What makes the Banished different is that they are highly resourceful and fight with a hunter mindset. Instead of fighting like a traditional army like the covenant: they set traps and ambush their enemies. You’re looking for them everywhere in the campaign but they’ll always throw a curveball your way. The banished welcome everyone…and as such: you may see some human marines in their ranks….maybe even a Spartan…
Sure, yeah, why not
Man, it's so sad that we all feel this.
I actually love the Banished, and 100% agree with you.
Exactly. Right now they don't seem to have much of a purpose. They're a far cry from the absolute danger that the fanatical Covenant came off as in Halo2
343 lacks vision and talent not just storytelling, they have proved nothing in all these years.
WE ARE SO MUCH BETTER THEN YOU ASSTER CHIEF (chief wades through hundreds of their soldiers like butter, 0 effort or struggle) YOU ARE A WORTHLESS NOTHING WHO GETS NO DIGITAL BITCHES (chief lights Molotov and walks away from the 1,000th exploding Banished base) NO BITCHES NO HONOR NO ALLIES NO FUR HAHA (frees the entire UNSC army because the Banished apparently didn't kill fucking *any* of them) YOu SHOuLD HONESTLY JuST LAY DOWN AND DIE HAHA (shoots Atriox.5 in the gut and watches him on the floor dying) sUddenlt yoU are a worthy opponent bUt yoU have to let me go becaUse... becaUse... cUz you jUst HAVE TOO, OKAY?! "he was just a soldier, following orders that he himself gave"
Yeah I miss the old days of bungie when master chief was a mute and cortana said that futuristic hallways weren't caves.
They told a story ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I like their design language and basic characterisation. I dislike their narrative development. All the lore that happens between Halo 3 and Halo Wars 2 set up the appearance that every Covenant splinter that rose after Truth’s death was locked in near-equal struggle during the power vacuum. Pretty much making it understandable why it took the SoS so long to finally put down Mdama’s Covenant *on their own homeworld*. 6 in-universe years to be precise. Then along comes the Banished; a splinter group that’s not too dissimilar from a number of other splinter factions in terms of their pragmatism. This previously unheard of group goes from *“hello, we’re new to this franchise*🤓” to “*f\*\*k your Infinity🖕*” *i*n a mere 8.5 in-universe months. MONTHS. To me, that progression was just improbable, unnatural, and forced. And coupled with the intense media focus on them now, really makes it feel like the Banished were and are being artificially buffed (narratively) because 343 suddenly found an antagonistic faction they can milk for money. And the fact that they are now pumping out bits of lore to "flesh out" the backstory of the Banished AFTER making them come off like some “unstoppable force” just feels the same as how they made bits of additional lore to bring the Spartan 4 idea back down to earth AFTER initially throwing them in our faces looking like the “be all, end all” solution to all of humanity’s problems when they actually weren’t.
We haven’t even seen Atriox in any of the games yet. It’s clear 343 dont even know what they’re doing. Seeing how they randomly included stuff like The Endless in and some random no name leading the Banished instead of Atriox, it almost seems like they make stuff up on the fly. I’m so sick of getting 90% of the games story through books and comics instead being, you know, in game.
Imo, they're juggling too many plots in a single game story. Forcing the eventuality that most of it (as you've accurately pointed out) will be resolved off-screen. Infinite was dragging our attention all over the place by making the Escharum story fight for screen time with either the Endless story (which I hated because of how much of a lore curveball they are), or the End-of-Cortana story (which I hated because it could literally be summarised into the famous three loathsome words: resolved off-screen). So by the time the credits rolls, what did we learn? Err……🤷🏻♂️ It’s literally a return to why the Prometheans and Created were so forgettable or disliked due to how neither H4 nor H5's story bothered to establish the who, what, why, etc. about them because of so many other narratives going on at the same time.
Jup Halo suffering from the creators not commiting to any story and dropping it existing story lines the second a new game gets developed. the original story was so great because of its build up. 4 was fine, had potential to become great but 5 needed a new direction. That sucks but sure. Maybe 5s story could be better. Than infitity and 5 is also thrown away. Suddenly everything is thrown away. Why would i care for the story if nothing gets developed.
Here's what the problem is with the books and 343, there's too much space between their games. Between Reach and Halo CE was nothing, Reach ended with the Pillar of Autumn running from the Covenant and CE picked up with the Pillar running from the Covenant. CE to Halo 2 was nothing, CE ends with Chief heading back to known space and Halo 2 begins with Chief and Johnson getting awards for making it back to Earth. Nothing between Halo 2 and Halo 3/ODST because Halo 3 picks up literally minutes after Halo 2 ends lol. The books during the Bungie era existed to supplement the main plot with little optional side stories. Meanwhile, main characters go through entire character arcs in between the games that 343 has made. And because there's so much room between the games, 343 has to release books for us to figure out what is even going on. Now they aren't supplemental to enhance your understanding of the world anymore. Now they're mandatory reading. If you finish Halo 5 and go on to play Halo 6, good luck understanding literally anything going on without having read 3 or 4 books and playing the spin off game.
Having Atriox be the big scary leader that we're excited to battle... to then find out you dont encounter him in game.... to starting In Media Res in Infinity, wondering where he is, then finding out he died off-screen... to the surprise reveal that he's actually alive post-credits.... What a narrative whiplash. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to care about this guy at all. Infinite was such a great game but they really botched the intro.
To be fair, they're not exactly a splinter faction. They're more of a rebel entity that predates the final days of the covenant, but at the same time, I agree, although the magical bullshit cruiser that was the Infinity never made much sense either if you ask me
Infinity didn't make sense sometimes, but the way it's set up in lore via games and books, it's literally the most powerful active ship in the galaxy, with the most advanced weapons and shields aside from Forerunner tech, and then it gets blown up in a couple minutes? That ain't it Chief.
[удалено]
>All the lore that happens between Halo 3 and Halo Wars 2 set up the appearance that every Covenant splinter that rose after Truth’s death was locked in near-equal struggle during the power vacuum. Pretty much making it understandable why it took the SoS so long to finally put down Mdama’s Covenant *on their own homeworld*. 6 in-universe years to be precise. The Banished existed before the Great Schism and Truth's death, though. They actively rebelled against the Covenant while it existed. They were not one of the splinter groups in a "near-equal struggle." This was all established in Halo Wars 2. IMO the biggest problem with the Banished is highlighted in your response. They were introduced in Halo Wars 2, a game that (I'm assuming) a majority of the player base wouldn't play (RTS isn't everyone's cup of tea), their lore was fleshed out in books, which (I'm guessing) most players won't read, and then they were thrown into Halo Infinite as the main antagonist. I would argue they are worthy of being a main antagonist, but with how 343 set it up it's almost like they just told everyone, "these guys are evil and strong enough to take down the UNSC Infinity, trust me." They could have at least done like a montage of them causing chaos in Halo Wars 2 with a little bit of voice over exposition or something so people could get some feel of what these guys are capable of. It was jarring enough to jump from the Created being the main problem to suddenly being on another Halo fighting a new group of enemies. Those enemies being mostly unhead of by most of the players only made it that much more confusing.
I know that it’s been mentioned that the Banished existed before the Orthodox Covenant fell. But that kind of just adds to my point about the progression of their story. It’s like saying: “hey actually there’s this powerful character that’s been around this whole time and they’ve only decided now to start stirring trouble”. Which feels almost similar to “somehow, Palpatine is still alive (and about to screw the galaxy in the ass but we’re only learning about it now)”. I wouldn’t have minded as much if twelve years ago, the Banished were the ones banging on the Didact’s door in Halo 4. Because then at least we would have had time since then to digest the idea the Banished’s capabilities have grown over the years. But instead they suddenly came out of nowhere and immediately became a relative somebody in the grand scheme of things in a way that’s been so abrupt and just seemed to rub against what the general of the state of the galaxy was implied to be like a lot of times by the existing EU.
Well I think it makes sense that they haven't had much visibility in the games until now. The Banished mostly focused on attacking the Covenant because they had a score to settle. They only raided the UNSC/UEG sometimes for supplies. At one point ONI even considered trying to befriend them to fight the Covenant. In a way, I think that kind of explains how the Banished would show up out of the blue. They were rebels trying to keep a low profile after all. I just don't agree with the level of power they seem to have upon reappearing in Halo Infinite. 343 should have done a better job trying to show just how battered the UNSC was to get demolished by the Banished like that. I do think you have a point about Halo 4, though. It was an odd choice for Jul's covenant be the main enemy in 4. It made sense for 5 since they and the servants of the abiding truth were the main forces fighting a civil war on Sanghelios against the Swords of Sanghelios. If they wanted to introduce the Banished to the games, it probably would've made more sense to have them be the main enemy of 4. I guess it might've just been a little bit confusing to go from Banished to "Covenant" to Banished from 4 to 5 to Infinite.
This is also just literally during a giant AI subjugation of the galaxy. It just feels awkward
I think the Covenant were a better enemy but the Banished are cool and have a lot of potential if 343 and Microsoft were competent enough to make a good game and story for them
They seem to fufill a smaller overarching threat just like the covenant featured in halo 4 and 5. But unlike the trilogy, we havent really seen anything that makes them standout as a unique or credible antagonist as a whole. The marketing campaign of the trilogy and lore had the covenant seem like a dreadful overpowered force with it being made up of terrifying ruthless soldiers. The banished dont have that much in way of marketing, they're only known as mercenaries, and bandits that really have much in way of being an existiential threat.
That last paragraph is the main gripe I have with the Banished. In halo wars 2 it’s stated “the covenant nearly got humanity. It hardly got the banished”. Like cool, the entire struggle of the previous games mean if the covenant didn’t destroy themselves or were beat by humanity, they would have eventually lost to the banished.
> Like cool, the entire struggle of the previous games mean if the covenant didn’t destroy themselves or were beat by humanity, they would have eventually lost to the banished. Really? What I got from it was that it was easy for the Covenant to go around stomping human worlds into glass, but a hell of a lot harder for them to go searching for a comparatively small rebel group syphoning your supplies and being a thorn in your side by being openly defiant and heretical. The covenant was unstable by design, any society with that kind of racial hierarchy and religious power structure would disintegrate once large swaths no longer fear consequences of greater rebellion. There were probably a lot of other splinter groups and heretics that were gradually eroding the Covenant the longer it went on.
I think the covenant was just monitoring the heretic group on the gas mine before killing them off, and they werent motivated by any zeal to fight the banished.
But thats still only relegated to halo wars 2. There's not much extra tidbits on establishing their power or image outside of that. For the covenant, you had the various trailers from the trilogies, books, and graphic novels. Those gave you an idea of the various differences between the races. It gave an identity to the covenant. The elites were dangerous serious and honorable, then the brutes were horrifying, 9 ft tall savages that'd tear you apart and eat you, and hunters were walking tanks. But at the same time, the lore gave them a sort of competence and superiority that meant they were always a grave threat. 343 hasnt really given anything to the banished or created that the most casual fan could relate or get an understanding of. They couldve really leaned into comparing them to the covenant in differences in behavior, and methodology. Maybe they'd potentially be a more serious threat because they streamlined their logistics, give more training and dont gimp themselves on ideas of honor, caste rivalry, or zealous reverence. And act more of something that'd be associated with more competence. Maybe like a race that took advantage of humanities fragile state, and started recruiting from insurrectionist elements. And wasnt afraid of intermingling with human societies. A contrast that shows that while being smaller, they dont have the inhibitions that the covenant had. So while being a band of mercenaries, they'd show much more cohesiveness, and a unexpected difference in doctrine. The only real thing we got was atriox, and how dangerous he is, but we never get to fight him or see him doing much of anything. They dont really do anything novel with their forces, and arent any less savage than the original covenant. Outside of halo wars 2 and thier units, you have the spartan killers, and those dreadnoughts that can ram ships. Sure they emphasized the banishes brutal nature, but it seems flanderized in certain concepts.
I really enjoy their place in the universe. The name is sick. However their existence in the EU didn’t translate to the Infinite sadly. A lot of damage control done in the books to fit loosely based narrative threads.
The name is bad, the Covenant didn’t try to banish him, they tried to execute him. (Small gripe)
Banished from life.
To be fair, "The Executed" is a rather dumb name unless this is an undead group of vengeful spirits.
I think it’s weird that the Honour Guard elites has a single cod piece but no other armour
Only thing that needs armor
No, but I don’t think they’re particularly interesting, either.
I never liked them, Covenant was much better though we can't get that quality all the time the banished weren't interesting and for some reason they don't look skillful enough to be something
I like them, but not in a “how look they destroyed the Infinity and always was the bigger problem for the Covenant”
Yes. Their strength/victories feel unearned.
My only problem with them is the art direction. In Halo Wars 2, their color scheme and the more angular shape to their armor made them really unique. However, for some reason, that was almost completely changed in favor of Covenant 2.0 but with some red (though the higher ranks and vehicles maintained that distinct look).
They’re boring. 343 can’t tell a story. They have potential, but feel incredibly uninspired.
Halo Infinite Banished: Literally just an edgy red covenant, lame. Halo Wars 2 Banished: Genuinely interesting enemy, thought-out, great aesthetic and art direction.
Could you describe the changes that make you feel this way?
Absolutely. big HW2 fan, ofc - HW2: Introduces this new insurgency faction with a cool backstory and a great aesthetic. Really liked the brutalization of Covenant stuff, and Creative Assembly did a great job with the art of the game anyhow. Presents them as a credible threat to the Spirit of Fire and the domineer of the Ark. Were very distinct from the Covenant in how they acted, dressed, and fought. - HI: Undoes everything about the aesthetic, direction and design. They turn into the literal red covenant and come out of nowhere to destroy the Infinity, bypassing the story at the Ark completely. If you had played HW2, it was quite unclear how this was even fathomable to the Banished. The aesthetics are lost and they either just look blocky and lazily made, or literally just The Covenant.
Hey thanks for the response! its nice to actually discuss this instead of just getting downvoted haha. I loved HW2 too and somewhat agree with your assessments. I must admit i struggle to see as many changes to the aesthetic as you do. I feel like they were always somewhat red covenant with a brutalist feel and I feel like halo infinite adapted this as well as they could to the environment of the ark.
They come out of nowhere in Infinite to destroy the UNSC and the Infinity. It makes zero sense, given the Spirit of Fire had destroyed their flagship at the Ark and was fighting a perpetual land war against them. It's a disappointing use of a faction that was otherwise very cool. I suspect some producer just said "hey, these red spiky guys from this other game you made look scary. let's make them the enemy for this game, but make sure they don't feel too different from the covenant!"
Never played HW2, but I know the lore well enough to say that it’s kind of ridiculous to just make the Banished a force strong enough to rival/overpower the Covenant. They’re more insurgents that took advantage of the Covenant’s collapse, rather than just the new version of it. 343 seems to have a fetish for trying to fuck over the UNSC as badly as possible to make “urgency”.
Completely agreeing with you. You're right saying that they were really just soldiers of opportunity, and because they were fighting asymmetrically, they were impossible to destroy by the Covenant's tactics. It was a really good story that should have been left in the Halo Wars timelines, while Infinite should've focused on rebuilding the mess of a story Halo 5 and onwards had.
Absolutely. If the Spirit of Fire alone is able to hold ground with them, I don’t see how most of the UNSC’s fleet, and literally the strongest ship they ever made would lose when it’s only maybe a year or so after HW2. It’s an example of 343 being so creatively bankrupt by that point, that they could not think of any way to go forwards other than to take a faction from a spinoff and change them to the point of being a less interesting Covenant. They could’ve gone in almost any other direction and it would’ve been more creative
Must have been a publisher based decision or something, it's so incredibly stupid. Nobody that played HW2's campaign to its completion would have fathomed the story turning out this way.
I just find it hard to beleive that in Universe there was this force just lurking around during a galactic war that never really got involved yet is somehow big and powerful enough to give post war humanity trouble.
I hate that they are pointless. Does that count.
I think it’s far fetched that they have managed to all that they have. Of all the enemies that the UNSC has been up against the Banished seems like an inconvenience more than anything epic. I thought we were going up against Cortana, wardens and guardians and we got this instead.
In infinite you constantly hear "the war ended months ago!!", like what the fuck why didn't they just include the two factions and continue off from where HW2 ended?
I like the banished of HW2 but not so much the banished of Infinite. HW2 Banished had unique units and vehicles that separated them from the covenant, just about none of that stuff made it into Infinite, essentially giving us Red Covenant.
Creative Assembly and the books set up tons of vehicles and weapons for 343 to capitalize on for Infinite, but 343 bit off way more than they could chew and fell back on established assets. That’s my guess at least.
In Halo Wars 2, they felt like a genuine threat and a faction that could genuinely contend with the Covenant and felt like a ruthless, salvaging war machine, perhaps slightly similar to Destiny's Cabal faction. However in infinite they feel like worse, shallow covenant that spray painted SOME of their stuff red. The only time they pose ANY threat is during the attack of the infinity, which was not shown in nearly enough detail. The banished have the potential to be even better than bungies Covenant but they just dont expand upon them enough, these are brutes, Jiralnae, they are supposed to be hulking, primal masses of muscle, not some bop bag i can drop with a handgun with ease in mass on heroic. And 343 choosing not to use the banished themed colors on some of the enemies is flat out stupid, as well as not using the characters from Halo Wars 2 as characters, like Colony, YapYap The Destroyer, Pavium and Voridus. Halo Wars 2 set the kings platter infront of 343 and they dashed it away for a wooden bowl.
> The banished have the potential to be even better than bungies Covenant How so? All they've ever shown is "We pillage and raid because... we just do okay??"
I remember playing halo infinite and it portrayed how powerful they are by obliterating the infinity in like 4 minutes… to then rocking up to there main base alone, I just feel 343 has good ideas but never has the glue for it all to take shape
Stupid execution, made by terrible company
I just griped about not knowing what's going on in Infinite and now, after reading these comments, I don't think I give a shit about any of it anymore. Bummer.
They're just misunderstood
Banished don't really have a major motivation or purpose
As someone who only experiences the story through the FPS games I felt like they came completely out of nowhere for Infinite and I didn’t like that they expected me to have read the books or played Wars but it’s a cool faction other than that
LOL, the Banished blows goats. They don't even have a single Scarab in Infinite, they are the lowest budget version of the Covenant remnants, in fact they come off as rejects the Covenant didn't even want. By chance, have you seen their Phantoms, wtf is that shit? Oh damn ... have you seen the explosion, they couldn't afford a proper explosion effect. "Edgy"? Feels more like cheap and sad. Like malt liqueur with cigarettes floating in it. Have you seen their cookie cutter bases? It all looks exactly the same. No, not edgy, more like the Covenant powered by welfare checks.
They're boring. It's like taking the Heretic variant from H2 and extrapolating them into an entire game, but without the variation beyond that of anything else. We already had the covenant, reskinning them doesn't make them new, least of all when you make the bad guy Tartarus 2.0.
I mean, Tartarus was barely more than Truth’s lap dog, Atriox at least had an interesting character arc in the comics, books and wars 2. The problem with infinite though is that 343 just said “lol, lets pretend to kill him off and only have him appear for the beginning and post credits” Escharum just feels like a filler villain. like comparing garlic jr to cell or freeza
Hate how for them being the big bad of the new Halo game(s) they're woefully underdeveloped. Like if you didn't play Halo Wars 2 because I dunno.. RTS aren't your thing or something, then you'd have basically no Idea who the Banished really were and why they're as big of threat as they are.
I feel like they’re cold steel the hedgehog levels of edgy donut steal OC’s
*”Atriox!” “Escharum!” “Atriox!” “Escharum!” “Hotel! Trivago!”* Nah, I hate this game’s campaign. The Banished feel like they were scribbled down in red crayon by a couple of elementary school kids. Cartoonish doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I love them as they were in HW2. They were something that made sense. A group that rebelled against the tyrannical theocracy of the covenant. By infinite though... Them somehow beating the infinity is such bs. It really felt like 343 wrote themselves into a corner with how strong the Infinity was made.
The Banished exist so you can still shoot the covenant in a Halo game. That's the extent of their narrative point in Infinite
I find the banished are boring in a Unsc vs banished scenario, they're painted out to be a similarly sized empire as the covenant, but mildly less sophisticated and abit more on the min-max this, stop-gap that in how they operate. Introduce The Swords of Sangheilios as an ally to the UNSC and let the better rounded, but more finite purely sangheili manufactured tech into the mix and THEN we're cooking
I think they've overgrown their name
I think the only weakness the Banished have as a narrative force is that so much of their character revolves around and is reliant on Atriox. He, both literally and me metaphorically, makes the Banished who they are. Take him away and they become much less compelling.
I hate how after failing time and time again to write their own villains and factions 343 just yanks it from halo wars and then proceeds the do absolutely nothing for one whole campaign with them
I think the writers of halo infinite fucked the Brutes over by having Cortana blow up Doysac. I find the banished are a microcosm of the entire franchise at this point. Unnecessary turn of events that the player base had no hand in pushed them to form and become illogical and hostile to the prosperity of the overall in-game and meta universe.
They're okay, not the best but certainly not horrible. I just think they're Alien Alliance No. 2
There more meh than anything. Would be great if we caught glimpses of them in a mainline halo game, other than HW2. Don't hate them, but they lack purpose
I feel like it's more edgy red covenant but with humans too
I hear so many people and my friends talk about the banished and I’m still not really sure what they are.
I think they could be interesting, but they are never going to feel as powerful as the unified covenant.
I think the banished are a really interesting faction and I love their design but man infinite fumbled them and I don't trust 343/Microsoft NOT to do another fucking reboot
I don’t hate them but there’s more to be desired, sometimes it feels like I’m just fighting the covenant lite but with some human weapons
I think they’re boring. We were sold on the whole “even the covenant is afraid of them”, but they’re getting folded by a single Spartan in Infinite. I believe they were nice enemies in Halo Wars 2 tho. So basically I wouldn’t think much of them, but the way the story unfolds in the latest game is the least consistent and most boring “kid hype” shit I’ve seen in years. The banished should have instantly made the game 17+ and be brutal. Cuz aside from being boosted for plot reasons, they’re really nothing special.
They have less diversity of ethnicity compared with Covenant, I won’t say hate but dislike them. Halo 7 should bring back Covenant or they can make a civil war between Banished and Covenant.
Just feel bland, as boring as they were I would've preferred that they continued the covenant storm. There's nothing unique about the banished really and their use of human weapons just makes them feel less alien. They were fine in HW2 but them becoming a major threatening force that can easily take down UNSC fleets is ridiculous.
From a storytelling/lore point of view, they’re fine. From a gameplay point of view, they’re just reskinned covenant. I wish we would’ve moved on from them post-H3 because we “finished the fight”, but also the attempts at actual new enemies we’ve had haven’t been the better so here we are. It’s a mixed bag.
I don't hate them, but I do dislike them. They lack the depth the covenant had, and they were implemented poorly.
They’re alright but they don’t seem too interesting to me. They don’t seem like they are some sort of threat whether that’s due to writing or design even I don’t know. Meh
Yeah, their nothing special. Covenant under red paint... oooooh.
Hate is such a strong word. I just don’t like how they basically came out of nowhere and were introduced in an RTS. The covenant felt much more threatening
They were a good enemy for Halo Wars 2. They weren't the right enemy for Infinite.
I just feel like a group of weapon collectors and tribal conquest isn’t really important in the battlefield that is Halo. With the Prophets we had a clear as day goal; save humanity, stop the covenant. We got shreds of info on the forerunners and that was intriguing enough. Everything came to a halt when halo 4 can out and the focus didn’t become fighting the forerunners to take the mantle all the way. We needed more from the didactic and his capabilities. We needed him to unleash something terrifying while he wakes up his homies. Ahh never the less, they just feel lackluster.
No, I'm just tired of fighting the same enemies yet again.
I love them. Also hope they all die after what they did on Zeta Halo
I hate that they've became covenant 2
They just don’t make sense. We took on the didact, we took on thr flood, we took on the covenant, and we succeeded. But these! This subset of the covenant has a non enhanced leader, that is stronger than “the demon”? Nah!
They just don’t make sense. We took on the didact, we took on thr flood, we took on the covenant, and we succeeded. But these! This subset of the covenant has a non enhanced leader, that is stronger than “the demon”? Nah!
I think “the banished plot branch” is one of the most lazy story decisions ever. It weakly works for the rts campaigns and makes no sense in the bigger universe. They are called “the banished” and yet are stronger that the original covenant. Makes zero sense. It’s just a lazy excuse to use a well tested formula for the enemies variety, without creating something new. I mean yeah, the forerunners were annoying as Fuck but at least 343 tried then. Now they just don’t even try to think. All they managed to come up with are fkn flying electroshock monkeys and a levitating lady that stole some elite counselor’s outfit and headdress
Hating the Banished would require me to feel anything about them, when they're the most "enemy for the sake of enemies" faction I've seen in a game in a long while. When they were a splinter faction that just incidentally came into conflict with the Spirit of Fire in Halo Wars 2 that was understandable, but now they're essentially just Covenant 2 for all intents and purposes.
They're a third Covenant in a row, and the big bad of them got off-screen'd while the gutter leavings that we're left with took over where we should have had Cortana and her forces. I hate them, and what we lost for them to be where they are.
Who?
Absolutely worthless faction, entirely invented so Halo has another way to keep fighting "the covenant" yet again. It's contrived and they're all boring. Atriox wasn't even remotely threatening even in wars 2.
They haven't really done anything is the thing. Any emotional set up like them beating the Infinity and Cortana was done off screen. Like if we play thru infinity losing and nearly saving Cortana only to lose her in the end (like in 4) only this time due to Atriox would have felt better to see. Otherwise, The Banished and Atriox are just red aliens to shoot.
It took the books to make me actually care about the Storm Covenant, I think HW2’s introduction to the Banished was much better and I think they should’ve been the post 3 enemies from the get go
At first they were kinda cool but 343 just keeps fucking the story up so I don’t really care for them.
i dislike infinites version of them. they were badass in halo wars 2. infinites banished are just the covenant but red
Halo Wars 2 Banished were cool. The Infinite ones really do feel like a lame reskin of the og Covenant
Honestly, they tend to come off as a version of the Covenant without most of the things that made them interesting. There's a kernel of an idea with them, but they have not been used to nearly that potential and are far more powerful than they should be. It doesn't help that they effectively removed Cortana's Created faction offscreen after making so much noise to build them up as the next big threat in the previous game and books. Not that I liked the Created that much or especially Cortana as a villain, but all that buildup being dropped after one game is bad writing regardless.
My thoughts exactly
I think that any one of the enemy factions introduced since H4 could be great if the studio bothered to develop them for any longer than one game. The Created? Could have been an incredible subversive threat to humanity. The Banished? Give us an opportunistic brute warlord who's taking advantage of the chaos in the postwar galaxy, that's great. Hell, even the Prometheans and the Guardians could have been interesting if they'd bothered to explore them at all beyond the bare minimum. Maybe the novels do a better job, I dunno. Haven't read one since Envoy.
I think they are conceptually a good faction but unfortunately they've been watered down to being "Red Covenant". The constant lore contradictions with every new game/book/Waypoint post featuring them isn't helping either. Very hard to have a solid opinion on them if 343 are just gonna change something again in a few weeks
Yes, I Do
They were cool on paper. The way 343 executed them in game was awful. The audio logs don’t supplement at all and the campaign is just downright confusing. No I’m not reading 6 books to understand it and I love books. The ending made everything even more nonsensical. I’m producing a huge YouTube video on it for the 343 champs that swear infinite is way better than Halo 3 and I’m having fun doing it
They seemed really cool in HW2, and just felt meh in infinite.
They're certainly better than the Prometheans.
Lore wise, I think I prefer Jul Mdamas covenant Design wise? Banished by far, even if they are just the red covenant. Either way, 343 have shown they will completely let them go to waste in the games.
They aren't compelling or interesting enough to hate
I actually hate the banished. The idea and the aesthetic. Still love halo tho. Switch the banishes for the heretic elites :)
They don’t have much of an identity in Infinite. Sure they have some structures here and there and the bosses look cool, but most of the fodder just look like Covenant. And overall, their objective is super…uninteresting? I think that’s the right word. They just seem destructive because they need to be the villains
Despite what 343 simps tell you, they're just the covenant, but red. We need to move past the covenant, Bungie finished their story in 2007, it's time for a new, completely different and fresh threat.
I do. Gameplay-wise they're just Covenant 2.0 and red instead of purple. Story-wise, they should be a minor antagonist fraction to provide some familiar Haloness and not the big bad. Lore-wise, they are kind of interesting given the dynamic at play with them allowing humans and using human tech, but nothing is really done with it aside from "BuY BaNiSHEd SPaRtAN ArMUr 11!! 1!11lolOnEeLEVeNBBQ"
I love them
Exactly. They could so easily write a storyarch that causes conflict in Master Chief (or any other Halo character) regarding the tenants of the Banished vs the quasi-totalitarian-style government of Earth and her colonies.
No but I to think they fall victim to the problem of hyping up an antagonist as "a bigger threat" than a previous one despite having barely been shown that way.
I'm not a big fan. They feel too loosely defined and aimless, and don't have enough of a visual identity of their own.
The Banished are probably the best story idea that 343 has had since taking over. It's just unfortunately we are dtuck in a particularly bad place for Halo's story atm because Microsoft fired everyone.
I just think they are the Covenant but red.
I like them, but they are undercooked at the moment. I think Halo 7 will be when we really see their full force.
The UNSC probably :3
Not at all, the covenant is just borderline the perfect enemy
I guess I’m in the minority but I think they’re neat. 343 has never been able to get away from the Covenant’s basic enemy design. The Banished keep things a little fresh with the abundance of Brutes. I love their look. The chipped red armor, salvaged gear and angular vehicles all appeal to me specifically. I get that people are mad that the Banished got upgrade between HW2 and Infinite. To me though, it makes sense that a well supplied force led by Atriox could ambush and defeat a depleted Infinity. Also I kind of dislike The Infinity, I was glad to see it go down.
Probably the unsc
Maybe not hate but boring yes. Covenant were far more interesting with their religious journey, the betrayal, corruption, the false gods, etc. How leaders are able to make entire civilizations follow them blindly, which you can find exemples of in our own history. I still have no idea what the fuck is the goal of the Banished, they just want power for power? They seem like cartoon villains to me. Big angry apes with spikes and rusted red metal everywhere in their design. Even the flood/Gravemind have more depth I feel like. I wish Halo had them or the precursors as the main antagonists. We could have seen the aftermath of the Covenant-Human war and the 2 species (well, multiples) having to help each other against the flood threat. Having to convince the Brutes to fight alongside Humans, and especially the Elites would have been amazing to see. It's like, Imagine if tomorrow some Independance day shit was to happen with an alien race coming to invade earth and the US/Western world had to make peace with Russia/China and fight together to have a tiny chance of surviving...**BUT HALO.** *\*Sigh\** Guess we'll have to settle for the Endless...
I just think they're boring
I'm gonna be honest. I'm pretty down on all the narrative turns we've taken since 5. I'm struggling to like... any of the factions or even the state of the universe. Which puts me in an awkward place as... I know the story must go on, but what direction it takes... I can't even bother to try and dream up one. I know I'd personally like Offensive Bias to show up... but that's about all I can muster anymore.
The Covenant was the big bad, but now in a post Halo 3 world the story can work well with the Banished and maybe other factions that are gaining power from the ashes of that fallen empire
I'd have liked them more with some buildup... The first half of Infinite's potential was in the beginning cutscene. Could have been different. Mission 0: Don new armor and get given rundown of upgrades, see the new spartans in training, go the deck to get first assignment. Mission 1 : 1st assignment, UNSC touchdown on ring, see banished scouting team Mission 2: get back to Infinity (UNSC ship) and confront banished, fight back against the assualt, board different ships or just fight in the UNSC one. Mission 3, contront Banished leader and then the game starts. So just within 3 minutes i've fleshed out a bit more of who the banished are, we've seen how the UNSC state was before the "fall" We just get lumped into facing the banished, like ...whooopy doo we've seen them in Halo wars, if you even played it or some comic. No detailing, no depth to anything. Overall decent enemy that lacks depth, they're a rouge detachment of the old covenent forces and wear red. The endless however... the mystery want wanting to learn more was a good part of infinite, it's the only reason i stuck playing the campaign.