Thread 11908818

Is there a retro game that portrays the alien race or faction as the cool and good guys? The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Mass Effect, which isn’t retro.

Perfect Dark has friendly aliens and bad aliens.

I wouldn't call the Protoss bad guys.

Halo 2

>>11908818 (OP)
Half Life 2 has good guy Vortigaunts, after you spend the first game shooting them in the face with the shotgun's double barrels.

From Wing Commander IV onwards, the Kilrathi are sort of friendly.

Franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars and Warhammer 40k games all have more complex relationships with 'aliens'.

For games like Starcraft, you can play whatever alien species.

There's also Destroy all Humans - which just about fits this board's definition of retro and is probably a bit more in line with what you're thinking.

Hybrid Heaven has friendly aliens.
Mr. Saturn in Earthbound are aliens too.

>>11908818 (OP)
Incoming Forces. You play as innocent aliens who defend their worlds from rampaging genocidal humans.

>>11908927
he's hunting innocent green xenos. somebody stop him!!!

>>11908829
Halo 2 would have been infinitely better if they just ditched Chief's story, focused on the arbiter, got rid of the flood, and let the arbiter slaughter marines.

What would you do if you saw E.T.?

>>11908945
How tf can you have halo without the halo guy?

>>11908957
>ODST
>Reach

>>11908986
>the worst bungie halo games
You're not helping your case.

To this day I still don’t get if the movie was meant to be a parody.
If the director wanted the audience to relate to the ones getting kicked out of their homeland by some aggressive invader, maybe don’t make them disgusting bug creatures.
And don’t get me started on the first love interest, she ended up feeling like a cocktease.

>>11908818 (OP)
I guess it's kind of cheating if it has you playing as the alien protagonists, having to deal with problematic humans. >>11908949 and pic.

>>11908945
Found the scalefag.

>>11908884
>Destroy all Humans
>alien race as good guys
I thought the whole hook of the series is playing as stereotypical cartoony evil Grey.

>>11908945
better yet, they should have just not made halo 2 at all since CE is the only one that approaches being good

>>11908945
That would be so fucking kino

What if, get this, you play AS the alien?

Global Defence Force Tactics sucks, but when you beat the game, you get to play the campaign as the bugs.

>>11909013
What is compelling about Chief's story in Halo 2? Fucking nothing. From chief's perspective nothing fucking happens. He starts fighting the covenant on earth and ends up.... going to fight the covenant on Earth. His story is a boring retread of Halo CE. Arbiter'a story is the only thing that's interesting or unique in Halo 2. Have him kill Marines to get the activation index while discovering the Prophet's betrayal ans have him switch sides. Hell the game wouldn't have had a shitty cliffhanger if the team wasn't stuck dividing their focus on two campaigns.

>>11909008
Yeah he did want it to be a parody, but it was so campy that the humans were endearing.

>>11908945
>>11909046
This is so fucking dumb, like fanfiction.net tier shit. I’m glad you don’t get to design video games.

Off the top of my head “giving the covenant back their bomb” is the most memorable and iconic scene in that whole game and Chief coming back to earth is the second most iconic AND being able to play as the arbiter halfway through the game was an awesome surprise, and fighting over the giant lake in the sky gondolas and then punching a prophet to death was the most fun level in the game- you have dogshit vision and I consign your idea to the trash.

The only dumb part was where Gravemind somehow gets ahold of Chief and arby and can speak in English and forces them to be friends. That plot point was out of nowhere and a complete asspull, but everything else (especially the two parallel campaigns) was fucking awesome.

>>11909067
>I like set pieces that are ultimately pointless and I have no control over
>I also defend that shitty cliffhanger
Take the fucking rose tinted glasses off you massive retard. Half the shit you explained as being worth it are just fucking marvel tier zingers. Halo 2 easily has the second worst narrative of the bungie games after Reach and is only held afloat by the arbiter's story.

>>11909075
>buzzword buzzword buzzword

If you have nothing to contribute, please refrain from wasting site bandwidth.

>>11908818 (OP)
War Wind II has some good aliens and aggressive humans.

>>11909008
The director didn't even read the very short book he was "adapting" to film.

>>11908818 (OP)
Good alien races aren't that uncommon in video games. What I wonder is are there any retro games with insectoid races portrayed as the cool or good guys? All I can come up with are K'Chekrik from Heretic 2 and even then they're corrupted by plague so you have to fight them.

>>11908818 (OP)
Pic unrelated?

>>11909008
You might simply be retarded in which case films are not for you.

>>11909084
Maybe actually articulate a legitimate reason to enjoy a game apart from cutscene set pieces you fucking retard. But no go ahead and concede because you have no answers and you have to resort to a reddit tier argument about fucking "buzzwords"

>>11909067
>defending the regret fight
Dude this is just a bad take. Boss fights in halo games are gay and will always be gay.

Star Wars? I don't know if there's an alien "faction" that's particularly good, everyone just seems integrated. Coruscant is the original human world in Star Wars iirc but that place is really diverse too.

>>11909008
He didn't use the word "parody" I think, he says "hyperbole". He satirises things by cranking things up to ridiculous levels. Robocop and Showgirls were the same way in different areas.

>>11909253
I gave multiple reasons for why the campaign remains iconic to this day. You’re writing TERRIBLE fanfiction alternative campaigns on an anonymous anime forum for a game that is rated 9.5/10.

Im not obligated to address your (terrible) headcanon alternative campaign point by point. There is no concession because your opinion will never be relevant. Pray that this thread hits bump limit sooner than later so less people are subjected to your embarrassing post.

>>11909008
It's just something leftists have run with because they really really hate the military/America and project their views into the funny bug movie.

>>11909393
Nigger you gave a cutscene, a shitty boss, and the shit gondola fight as reasons for why the game's narrative was good. Your reasons are absolute shit. You didn't even mention actual fun gameplay moments like fighting along covenant rebels. Fuck I bet you liked the sacrab section like the mouth breathing retard you are.

I was lamenting legitmate gameplay and narrative issues with the game as is and explaining that simply focusing on a single fucking campaign narrative would have fixed those issues.
If Arbiter were the only character and Bungie actually let you kill fucking humans guess what? The flood and by extension the gravemind no longer need to make an appearance ruining every level they are featured in because the Arbiter wouldn't need some other faction to fight because god forbid you kill humans as a fucking alien.
If bungie focused on one single campaign then the fucking developlment wouldn't have been rushed and the game would actually have a fucking ending.
If bungie had to program humans to be a worthwhile adversary then they'd have actually been well designed AI support for later in the game and the sequel.
Cheif's fucking entire campaign experience is lame ass copy paste battle wave sections and most of that stems from the fuckers needing to bad the game out because they were retards who bit off more than they could chew and couldn't even bother telling a good story with the green brick because his campaign is just a retelling of CE only worse.
So fuck off you have no fucking standing to be calling my criticisms "fan fiction" when I literally have only provided gameplay reasons for why the game would be better if focused on the Arbiter's much better story.

>>11908818 (OP)
the cancelled Babylon 5 game?
the birdmen are considered the honorable guys in MOO1. not sure about MOO2 lore.
there's also Star Control 2/Urquan Masters. even the antags are the good guys who were trying to save the galaxy from hypnotoad.

>>11909478
Nice meltdown or whatever, still don’t care about your lame fanfiction.

>>11909075
Halo 2 has the best narrative.

>>11909181
Starflight 1 and 2?
https://starflight3.fandom.com/wiki/Veloxi

>>11909573
>The covenant have found earth! By accident lol
>man this guy could be a great ally better start shooting him insteas of letting 343 explain Halo's purpose
>the flood are back! Wait.... why are they back?
>the fuck is this little shop of horrors reject? How is he teleporting me
>Chief instead of getting the thing that literally controls the galaxy death weapon kill the Prophet instead, don't capture him to force a ceasefire just kill him

>>11909569
>thread topic: games that portray alien races as cool or good guys
>retard: ANYWAY HERE’S MY SHITTY HEADCANON REDO FOR HALO 2, WHAT DO YOU THINK GUYS?

Go make a thread for “autistic fanfiction rewrites”, your spergouts are off topic for this thread and no one’s obligated to answer them in earnest.

>>11909581
Never heard of it. Is it like Star Control?

>>11909606
Hey guess what faggot, halo portray the elites as good guys sorry your dumb ass can't comprehend that shit. But then again your taste in games is shit.

>>11909593
Not him but
>The covenant have found earth! By accident lol
Yes, the Ark is there on Earth. Regret didn't know that was the human homeworld, just that there was supposed to be another Forerunner artifact.
>man this guy could be a great ally better start shooting him insteas of letting 343 explain Halo's purpose
Yeah, that part was stupid. I assume the Heretic leader never would have trusted Arby and was just letting his guard drop to kill him. Dumb decision on his part because Arby was naturally more curious than others and would have probably been a reluctant ally, possibly faking his death for him
>the flood are back! Wait.... why are they back?
The floating station was a research facility around one of the moons of the destroyed ring. Only half of the ring was fractured so the rest was still around. The flood would have still survived on that ring. The other rings, like Delta Halo also contained them to study them, just like the ring in Halo 1
>the fuck is this little shop of horrors reject? How is he teleporting me
An evolved version of the thing you see with Captain Keyes in Halo 1, 2401 Penitent Tangent was part of him so he's able to teleport others like how 343 Guilty Spark was able to teleport Chief in CE
>Chief instead of getting the thing that literally controls the galaxy death weapon kill the Prophet instead, don't capture him to force a ceasefire just kill him
Capturing him wouldn't have forced a ceasefire lol. Truth was ready for Regret to bite the bullet. He literally sacrifices Mercy a few missions later. Truth was consolidating power and held the fleet back long enough for the "demon" to either kill Regret, or use the glassing to kill Chief as an excuse to get rid of Regret. Either way, after alerting the humans that they knew about Earth, Truth was ready for Regret to disappear.

>>11909612
Actual answer to the thread: “Halo, the elites are the good guys from two onwards”

That’s all you had to say and could have left it at that.

>>11909639
Alright I'm going to go over this as comprehensively as I can because there is a lot of plotholes in Halo 2 that even people who pay attention seem to completely miss because they simply accept it at face value so here it goes.

>Regret was there because of the ark
This is never stated in game, in fact the location of the ark is only made evident by 343 guilty spark when the Arbiter asks him it's location. This implies only installation monitors know of the ark and it's location (later retconned to be the location of the Ark's slipspace portal). Only Mercy and Truth would know this location because they actively interrogated 343 guilty spark after his retrieval by the Arbiter. Now it is implied Regret was looking for some sort of artifact which does alleviate some of the contrivance of his appearance on Earth however what cannot be excused is his blind slipspace jump somehow managing to bring his carrier to yet another Halo installation by accident. It is a peak example of a contrivance and makes no sense.

>>11910073
>The floating station was a research facility around one of the moons of the destroyed ring
No, the installation was a forerunner gas mining facility on Threshold the gas giant Alpha Halo orbited. It was specifically designed to mine gas, the presence of flood on thos station makes no sense. Even if we assume the flood can somehow survive the destruction of Halo, which is an asinine assumption, the flood would still have burned up in re-entry if not out right killed by Threshold's radiation or the vacuum of space. The flood can be killed by traditional means this is evident in game, they can't survive the vacuum of space, massive radiation exposure, or atmospheric re-entry without technological assistance. This is why they were trying to hijack the Truth and reconciliation in CE
>The other rings, like Delta Halo also contained them to study them, just like the ring in Halo 1
This is true but they are all in cryostasis and only infection spores and forms are contained. Remember that the flood only break containment in Halo CE because of the covenant freeing them by accident and all combat forms are infected covenant or humans, no other combat forms are present or contained. This would not reoccur on Delta Halo as both the Covenant and UNSC know of the flood's containment and would not make this mistake again. Not to mention that Halo 2 heavily implies that the flood somehow broke containment long before the covenant or unsc arrived on delta halo. How did they break containment? The monitors lack access to these systems and can only run containment protocols which literally expects the firing of the ring by a reclaimer. The UNSC and Covenant couldn't have done it as previously stated they only arrived recently and wouldn't free the flood by mistake again. So how did the flood of delta halo break containment and then accumulate enough mass to create a gravemind? There is no way to make the flood's inclusion in Halo 2 make sense.

>>11910076
>An evolved version of the thing you see with Captain Keyes in Halo 1, 2401 Penitent Tangent was part of him so he's able to teleport others like how 343 Guilty Spark was able to teleport Chief in CE
This is a huge assumption for the player to make. There is nothing to imply in game that the geavemind is a flood form. Many people who originally played the game had no idea he was a part of the flood and thought he was a seperate entity all together. It's funny that one of the longest cutscenes in game can't even explain who the fuck the gravemind actually is, he isn't even given a title. I suppose you're right that having access to the minitor could provide give the gravemind access to Halo's teleportation array but that still doesn't explain how the gravemind was able to teleport Chief off of the ring and onto high charity outside the ring's teleportion field.

>Capturing him wouldn't have forced a ceasefire lol.
There is an entire novel that states the UNSC believe otherwise. Even without this supplementary material the UNSC are completely unaware of Truth's treachery and would still see Regret as a high value target worth more alive than dead. More importantly killing Regret is a waste of Miranda's resources. The more important objective is collecting the activation index and denying the covenant the capability to fire the halo installation. Cheif going after Regret would be a secondary objective after securing the index because regardless of whether Regret is alive or not the activation index being in the hands of the covenant means game over for all parties.

>>11909573
This. Halo 2 > CE > 3 > Reach > ODST narrative speaking.
I still like CE the most overall.

>>11909014
the first game from crypto's POV he's going to earth to find out what happened to his older "brother" and harvest human DNA in an effort to save his species who sterilized/castrated themselves via genetic cloning (i.e. copy of a copy).

in the sequel crypto mellows out on earth as the president until the KGB set off the events of the game and blow up his ship and later kills the british spy he developed a relationship/feelings for.

the third and fourth game deals with the aftermath of the second game and crypto trying to get over the death of his MI6 waifu as well as some ancient aliens ancestors of his and a greenpeace like group who found out what his boss did with all the dead bodies from the previous games. this part is from memory so take that with a grain of salt.

>>11910201
CE had a pretty unremarkable story but the aesthetics were off the charts

>>11909067
>>11909573
>>11910201
NTA but halo 2 is overrated. the campaign starts of promising with the earth stuff (even if it's all corridors and linear setpieces) but once you switch to the arbiter it just immediately devolves into a rehash of the first game except you're playing as an elite for most of it.

but that's basically the bungie trilogy in a nutshell. everything after the library in CE rehashes the first game, everything after the arbiter (H2) & floodgate (H3) rehashes the first game.

>>11910539
>everything after the library in CE rehashes the first half of the game.
sorry for the typo

>>11908818 (OP)
Starcraft?

>>11910535
The story was good if you were a preteen/teen in the early 2000’s thoughbeit

>>11910539
The Arbiter was the best part of the series. I loved seeing things from the other perspective and teaming up with Grunts and other Elites to kill Brutes was fun.

>>11910073
>>11910076
>>11910084
Extremely comprehensive summary and you make some good points. I also appreciate you being cordial and not immediately going into a frenzy like a lot of other anons here can. You mentioned a novel and the UNSC, so is supplementary info allowed or just classic Bungie Halo 2 video game only? Because for Regret, in Halo 2 Anniversary's terminals they mention how Regret found out about the Ark as well as Delta Halo's location through a Forerunner luminary. He wanted to be a gloryhound and achieve the Great Journey himself and when he got caught with his pants down, booked it to Delta Halo and called for help.

I'm fairly certain the floating station was a research facility as well as mining facility harvesting gas from Threshold, with the idea that if Flood broke containment, the facility could fall into the moon and kill the infestation. As for how they escaped, the Heretics probably let them out to stop the Arbiter and crew.
>“Heretic fools! What have they done?”.
343 Guilty Spark's dialogue during the Heretic leader fight:
>"This mining facility predates Installation Alpha by several hundred years. It was retrofitted to research possible offensive and defensive measures against the Flood. Indeed, I designed and oversaw the construction of this facility's various outbreak management systems."
>"The tether connecting the mine to the high-altitude suspension grid was the primary failsafe. I am glad that someone was aware of the necessary protocols and severed the tether locally."
>"The Flood will not survive once this mine enters the planet's liquid hydrogen core. Then again, neither will we. What a pity..."
As for them needing TnR, I figured it was because they needed a way to actually escape orbit because they couldn't fly or escape the ring's gravity.

>>11910689
The Flood only break containment when The Arbiter lowers the shields when looking for the index. Up until that point, they were only located there right? They probably escaped due to neglect and the shield was probably holding them there. As for how they got a Gravemind so early, I'm unsure since Arby's team was the only one there along with the human squad ahead of them.
As for how he was able to get Chief on High Charity, I just assumed that the grid teleportation is slipspace based and with High Charity being in close enough range of Halo, he just sent him there. Or just story convenient Forerunner space magic.

As for wanting to assassinate Regret instead of capture, I believe it's just flat out easier to do that. Why risk trying to capture only for him to maybe escape? They figured Regret was on his way to activate the ring, better to split up and send Chief to buy time and for them to get the index first. And to be fair, everything was going smooth until the Arbiter showed up and the Flood appeared.

>>11910535
For me it was just the simplicity of the story.
>outnumbered and outgunned by alien faction
>desperate blind jump into unknown space
>mysterious ring world
>alien architecture, which everything feeling artificial yet purposeful. Very uncanny.
>guerilla warfare with both factions being in unfamiliar territory
>alien parasite revealed, even the Covenant are terrified
>mass panic
>new faction (Sentinels) show up
>learn some about the creators of this ring and its purpose, not just a weapon but a prison
>new faction almost makes you self delete
>you're now completely alone and a one man army against 3 separate factions all trying to kill each other
>blow up God's own anti-sonofabitch machine and fly away
It just works. No muss, no fuss. Just simple yet entertaining.

Halo should have never
A. had the elites start speaking english
B. had the elites join your team
They were fun enemies. It was a terrible idea to take these really fun iconic guys to fight and then make them a boring honorable warrior race fps ally so you can fight retarded monkeymen instead. I don't want to understand them. I don't want to team up with them. I want to fight them, because they're fun to fight. I don't give a fuck about the narrative. I want them to go "worbleworbworb" and then shoot back at me.

Anyone who thinks this was a good change just wants to suck their dicks.

>>11908945
This is cool but what would be even better is if Microsoft allowed Bungie the time they needed so that they could give us two campaigns. One for Chief and one for Arbiter. Maybe even allow for Halo 2 to be the final Halo game like Bungie was envisioning at a certain point. Had it been delayed longer and turned into an Xbox 360 launch title instead I think its pretty safe to say they would have had an even bigger head start against Sony.

360 at launch or near it could have had Oblivion, Halo 2, Gears of War, Mass Effect all as "exclusive" titles. ME of course ends up on PS3 anyways and Oblivion was only console exclusive since it was better on PC. But its not like dudebro normal faggots understand this or give two fucks.

>>11909013
The Elites don't have scales, they have nice cockskin over their whole body

>>11910201
Sorry but the reality is
ODST>CE>3>2>Reach
Odst is easily the most solid narrative. It's plot is straightforward and easy to comprehend while having details and subtext that just blow the rest of the stories out of the water that's without even discussing how it's atmosphere and sound design compliment the story impeccably. CE is also basic but it is solid with only a few stupid plotholes and redundancies it overall has a strong if hammy story. The rest of the games suffer immensely from plot holes, contrivances, meandering plots, or a complete lack of focus. The reality is that 2 and 3 have lots of cinematic and memorable moments but those moments don't make up for the big picture being a mess.

>>11911084
ODST was dogshit. So was Reach.

>>11910928
No way, because Halo 2 carried Xbox Live on the original Xbox. Microsoft would never delay their golden goose an entire console generation when it was selling monthly subscriptions by itself.

Plus, Halo 3 as it existed moved units for the 360 and Xbox Live anyway.

>>11911084
ODST was the Fallout 4 of the Halo franchise. It was ok to play through once and then never go back again. Meanwhile the original trilogy campaigns all hold up through multiple play throughs.

>>11908818 (OP)
Halo

They're good because they want to destroy sentient life

>>11911013
And that's totally gonna deter scalefags, right?

>>11911602
>"ODST was the Fallout 4 of the Halo franchise. It was ok to play through once and then never go back again"
>he doesn't realize that FO4 is the most played game in the franchise.
kek. ODST + the earth levels from 2 & 3 are what halo 2 should've been.

>Meanwhile the original trilogy campaigns all hold up through multiple play throughs.
nah 3 does. CE jumps the shark once the flood are introduced and 2 jumps the shark once you leave earth.

>>11910870
this. elites were basically filling the role the humanoid enemies in FPS ala possessed soldiers in doom or the HECU & combine in half-life. replacing them with brutes was a massive downgrade and a mistake.

>>11912616
>total sales indicate quality

Good goy

halo babies shat up the thread

>>11909610
>Star Control?
According to AI search:
>Greg Johnson, who was the lead designer of Starflight, contributed to Star Control 2 by writing dialog for several aliens and creating most of the artwork for the alien spaceships. Additionally, Paul Reiche, one of the creators of Star Control 2, had previously worked with Greg Johnson during the creation of Starflight, and this friendship and mutual admiration influenced the development of Star Control 2.

Combat is quite different though, and you only control 1 ship in SF.
There's no trading or logging planets for colonization in SC2 either.

>>11912706
>>total sales indicate quality
in the age of woke games that don't sell, yes.
>goy
curb your riceism. it's ok to be non-jew zionist.

>>11909606
iAgree. i wanna talk about cancelled Babylon 5 games instead.

>>11908827
Came here to say this.

>>11909257
>take
Try "opinion" next time.

>>11910732
I always liked it, never got the hate for the Flood, were people really gunning for a fight to the death with the Covenant at the end of the game?

>>11914382
Zios are why there are so many fucking browns outside of brown countries.

>>11916527
Sorry to upset you with basic slang grandpa.

>>11916660
Just trying to help you not sound like a faggot.

>>11916805
Nothing sounds gayer than correcting someone's vocabulary like gradeschool teacher.