Halo 5 Discussion Thread: SPOILERS INSIDE!

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the Halo 5 plot. If you have not finished playing/viewing the story do not read this thread! Spoilers Inbound!

Anyway. Let me say this now. I did not buy Halo 5. I do not own an Xbox One. But the former Halo fanboy in me was desperate to know what was so bad about the story. So I viewed it online. it's possible that I missed something that may have happened outside of the videos, so forgive me if that's the case. I wasn't particularly fond of the story. I feel that the whole four person group breaks the story, especially when a teammate goes down, but is running next to you not a second later in a cutscene. Things like that bother me, but it might not bother others. I also feel like, besides the ending, all of Locke's missions had no weight on the actual events of the story. It felt like a side story. I also think that the confrontation between Chief and Locke was not really fleshed out.

I guess I expected a real rivalry here, along with multiple confrontations, both directly or indirectly. I wanted to see Locke's actions have an affect on Chief's missions and vice versa. Most of the story was just Locke following a trail.

The plot itself seems to be a classic AI vs Organics story. It's a decent spin on it and I'm surprised that Cortana is the main antagonist. But the rest felt too familiar. It felt like Mass Effect too me. Cortana is the catalyst, the Guardians are the reapers and the Warden/Prometheans are collectors led by Harbinger. That may just be me but I started seeing it once the Warden made his appearance. And boy is the Warden annoying.

Anyway, what do you guys think of the story? Love it? Hate it? Who cares?

Story sucked ****, but multiplayer is the best of any FPS/genre in many years. So I guess it all worked out, huh? lol

To elaborate more: The characters were stale, cut-scenes felt like they were built off a 13 year old's fantasy of Halo action figure toys. Acting was laughable at times, writing was questionable. Revive mechanic got old REALLY fast. The AI's are OK, but not very useful, the commands felt pretty useless. 15 level count was a joke, it was more like 7(?). We never go to play as chief...except like 3 times? Locke ended up being a giant panzy ass.

Looking back, I remember how we all shit on Halo 2's campaign, but now it's actually pretty decent tbh, especially playing it remastered. But Halo 5...I don't think will ever be good or age like wine :/

@-RocBoys9489-: I've always been about the Story.

One thing that I think is being overlooked is that this is a trilogy. After Halo 6 comes out, we might look back and understand why they made 5 they way that they did. I'm thinking that Cortana might actually be the Didact or she might bring him back or something to where he gains another physical body.

The story is absolutely garbage.

Here's a summary of what happens. Spoilers for the entire game:

As a huge Halo fan who has yet to play Halo 5, I'm pretty devastated to hear that the storytelling in 5 is practically non-existant, especially after it seemed 343 proved they were up to the task with 4. halo 5 has been a complete reversal. Abysmal story and mediocre campaign paired with an excellent competitive; the opposite of Halo 4. I have faith that with 6 they'll have learned from their mistakes, but the brand damage is real at this point. Halo is no longer king.

The story was pretty bad and just didn't make any sense outside of a generic AI v the world thing they were building up to with Cortana. The marketing led us to expect a huge reveal as to why MC had gone rogue and that never happened. All the stuff in Hunt The Truth was completely ignored. The relationship between MC and the rest of blue teams was completely ignored and it was never explained how they came to be fighting together.

Halsey was in the middle of this basically wondering where John was. Why? Just because, that's why. She sends Locke out to find John and bring him back because she doesn't know where he is, not because he has gone rogue, they all knew he hadn't. Locke FOR NO REASON other than to obey orders says sure I'll go out and headhunt the biggest hero the galaxy has ever known and bring him back I won't ask any questions about what I'm doing or why I'm doing it, why would I?

It seemed to me the ending was decided upon just before they made mission 15. I honestly don't believe they had any clue where they were going with it. You can tell from playing the game from the start it never leads anywhere other than the cat and mouse stuff with John and MC. Pretty tragic really.

Honestly, I think they just built a co-op game and decided to build loose thrash around it tying it together because they were contracted to do a single player game as well. Even the cut scenes are laughable and serve no real purpose outside of loosely setting up another mission. I couldn't believe it in later missions you're just told 'find Palmer' who's standing around the other side of level so you can just get going with another mission. Really shabby stuff IMO. Also they whacked Cortana 5 or 6 times with the ugly stick I mean seriously WTF did they do to her?

I still liked the game it's pretty good as a sci fi FPS but as a main entry in the Halo series the campaign is just weak as shit. If they have forced co-op in Halo 6 with weak ass AI characters and use the same writers as in 5 I'm pretty much out till it hits the bargain bins for a few dollars. Halo isn't just about MP for me. Story matters.

Watch this episode of Podcast Unlocked from IGN... they sum up pretty well what's wrong with the campaign. Skip to about 28 minutes in to hear about the campaign.

And yes, definite Spoiler warnings!

Link

I didn't play the campaign, but let me get this straight they went with a Cortana heel turn, in a game where the person with the closest relationship to her (Chief) is only in 3 of the 15 missions?

No one at 343 saw the issue there?

I don't understand people's complaints with the story. It is disjointed and not well paced, but I was definitely hooked and wanted to see the ending to that tale. Too bad we have to finish the fight...again

However, the actual campaign and the presentation is a massive step back from its predecessor.

Cortana herself is only in it right at the end too and she is the reason for what passes as the entire story arc.

I much preferred 4 as well. I actually think graphically 4 is much better than 5 too which is just bizarre. When I finished 5 I thought this can't be right and loaded up 4 in the MCC and yep, it pisses on 5 graphically (ingame not cut scenes).

Pretty much lol

That's right! He didn't even go rouge! He was just trying to recover a lost asset and was so intent on doing it that he didn't waste time going back home first. It's not like the trailers, making it look like chief switched sides or something. Or that something big was happening and your interpretation of it depended on which side you were on. It was literally a fetch quest all the way up to the end.

The story is actually very good and surprising. Maybe people don't remember something or are unhappy with something? IDK but it all fits perfectly. forget 1-3 those followed a different ark. So it starts with halo 4, cortana is dying chief is on a mission to save her runs into the didact, has to stop him, cortana "sacrifices herself" to save chief and stop the didact.... then shit happens in between we can gather. cortana and the didact fell into a slip space where they wind up on a fore runner installation and cortana has found a way to cure herself of rampancy (or so she thinks, i feel like her cure has a nasty side effect) and she takes over the mantle which the warden eternal (the protector of the mantle) seems to be ok with and are protecting her. meanwhile cheif thinks she is dead and is sent on other missions with blue team ... then comes halo 5 during one of those missions chief is still upset by the loss of cortana (this scene was amazing BTW) when cortana reaches out and contacts him he has to go looking for her and says he'll go alone but blue team (who are like a family) decides they will go with him. In comes locke who just got back from a rescue mission for hasley (the one who created cortana and who also seems to have another cortana with her) gets sent to retrieve chief who refused the order to come back to the ship and went looking for chief. Lockes job is pretty straight forward retrieve chief and doesn't really add to the story outside of introducing him as a new ally to chief eventually (and when they did finally meet, it was an amazing scene) meanwhile cheif is talking to cortana and finds out she went ape shit crazy (see my side effect remark) has taken the mantle, called in all the AI's to her side, and plans on using fear to bring peace (logically speaking, and AI would find this reasonable where a human not so much) (BTW if anyone seen the movie equilibrium you would get it) Chief knows he has to stop her but she won't hurt him (they still clearly love each other) so she restrains him to bring with her so he can see her vision for the universe. Locke and his team try to stop cortana when they get there, the only hope with chief now detained. They can't stop her and she escapes but they do manage to rescue chief and bring him back. Locke completed his mission...now comes halo 6, which my theory will pick up with the 2 fire teams still active. Chief and locke will be working together to stop cortana and take back the mantle from her. They will capture cortana and bring her back to hasley and this trilogy will compete with cortana being returned to chief

I hope you realise how much external material (i.e. stuff that's not in ANY of the games) you had to use to come up with this theory? I'm including in this who the **** blue team even are and what MC's relationship is to them and all the stuff with Cortana didn't even appear right till the end as a footnote almost as an apology for, ya know, not actually having a fucking plot during the actual game?

Did you play it on mute? lol see my replies above in bold and underline.

Yeah this is the first I've heard of blue team. Always thought John was a lone wolf.Another question is why did Cortana spare Chief AND Blue team? Why does she trust them? And how is it that she trusts them and not Locke? Maybe Locke would have listened?

Isn't that kinda bungies fault for not going further into it in halo 1-3. and yet nobody seemed to mind. Why would you expect halo 5 to explain things that happened during the halo 1-3 period? That would make a terrible story.

Let's go through this slowly so you don't get confused...

He went rogue because Cortana contacted him. How? What did she do? Was it telepathy? Magic? What went down? Shall I tell you knows all this? Nobody, certainly not anyone playing the game.

They've always been together, just not in the games. Right. Just NOT IN THE GAMES. That's okay then. Sell a game to somebody and don't tell them they need to read loads of books to make sense of it all. Good.

No they sent him out because they called him back to the ship and he refused the direct order because he found out cortana isn't dead. again thats all in the 1st mission as MC Right, just like I said they go looking for him because Halsey doesn't know where he is, NOT because he's gone rogue they all knew he hadn't. All the PR material promoting the game advertised it as something completely different, so did the whole Hunt The Truth campaign.

He's doing his job as a soldier. that's how the military is, you take orders and don't question them. He does in fact show that he doesn't like doing it when he tells buck "you know everyone is going to hate us for this" So you're fine with a Spartan (Locke) going to hunt down the biggest hero humanity ever had and bring him back on a leash for Halsey and he wouldn't question it because 'he's a soldier'? lol. And it was Buck who says 'you know everyone is going to hate us for this' not Locke. Locke was fine and dandy with it all.

Lol the talk missions were there to give you more info, personally I didn't mind them but they didn't add much to the game. it was more here is additional info if you want it. What talk missions? A couple of lines of filler text is just fluff, I know it, you know it.

I see people say that, I'm not saying it doesn't but honestly the game is so good even if the story did suck it would still be GOTY for me. Story in games is overrated, If i want a good story i'll watch a movie, when i play a game I want to have fun doing so, a good story is a bonus. reviewers put way too much emphasis on story nowadays. That's your take on it and that's fair enough. I like stories in games they add to the experience for me. I'm not expecting award winning actors or epic movies I just like the game to give me a good reason to do what I'm doing and make me feel a part of it all. This is just personal taste for both of us and really has nothing to do with the fact the Halo 5 campaign is pretty much an absolute disaster, hopelessly crippled by the absolute insistence of the devs on making it a MP experience in EVERY aspect right down to forced co-op with AI bots for the single player game which just does not work either from a gameplay perspective (it is largely agreed the AI is just shit) or a narrative perspective.

It wasn't really necessary at the time. How about 343 actually make a game that explains some of this, instead of leaving it up to us? Maybe even have some flashback cutscenes and sequences? Could have made the game's campaign better.

All this takes place in the 1st halo trilogy (1-3). I can understand people not knowing this, but it makes no sense to explain something in halo 5 that was already explained in halo 1-3.

Anyway Cortana has been with chief for a long time, she is no longer just an "AI" she is his best friend. 343 did a great job showing that during halo 4. What you are asking is why does somebody trust their best friend and not a stranger. And again, she spares him because that is her best friend. Blue team is the team of SPARTAN II which are much more advanced physically because they were augmented as kids and raised to be soldiers. they grew up together, that's his family (which they did mention in the cut scene when they decide to ignore the order with chief) That program was stopped because they found it to be cruel. Now they are in the SPARTAN IV which is what locke is where they are augmented soldiers who volunteered and are already adults, making them not as dominating physically but they can compete due to better armor. The fact you think John is a line wolf, would be more on halo 1-3 not halo 5.

So you want them to better explain a story from a trilogy that ended 8 years ago to make halo 5 better? that makes no sense. It's like watching only the 3rd lord of the rings movie and complaining you don't know who the characters are and that they should have flashbacks for the 1st 2 to explain it. If you don't know who MC is at this point, the blame isn't on halo 5.

I have played every single Halo game including ODST and Reach. Where in Halo 1-3 is it explained who blue team are and how John 117 goes way back with them and has deep bonds with all of them? Locke doesn't appear in any other Halo game either.

Loved the campaign. I was okay with the story though I much preferred Halo 4's. We needed to care about the Spartans and the writers didn't do enough to make us care about any of them.

I didn't care for Cortana returning and taking on the Mantle. The ending sets up for an interesting conclusion to the trilogy, but things could have been simpler and more focused on 117 and Locke and I really do think it would have helped in overall reception.

**** fighting 3 Wardens, too. Worst part of the game. It's probably kind of fun with four-player coop, but solo it was shit.

I originally thought the warden made copies of himself to confuse me but no, three fucking wardens lol. You can pick them off one at a time if you go right back to where the level opens but yeah it was a real cheap shot.

lol i didn't even knew the story was this bad.

I think the ending is cool where pretty much the entire galaxy is held hostage by Cortana and Infinity going full Battlestar Galactica. The problem is that you spend like 7 missions on Sanghelios with Locke doing absolutely nothing. Sure, ending the Covenant once and for all is cool I guess but all that shit could have been two missions. Cortana making a heel turn is cool, especially since its seems like shes gone crazy and could be still influenced by the Gravemind. She quotes the Didact's speech from the epilogue of Halo 4 and he was also warped by the Flood so maybe the Flood come back in Halo 6? In one of the comics you do see a single flood spore still alive aboard the Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars.

Also, holy ****, I thought fat Cortana with toes was an awful redesign but 343 manages to out shit itself with the new Cortana. Who the **** thought this looked cool or menacing?

Its in all the first 3 halo's (except locke) It's not explained in great detail but that's not halo's 5 job to do. The halo nightfall tv series gave locke a backstory on how he became a spartan and how he came from oni, but for all intents and purposes his backstory isn't necessary to the game, all you need to know is he is a spartan who was sent to retrieve MC

I liked it first time round I was perplexed cause I did like many others believe that it would be what hunt the truth Alluded too but now I am doing a legendary playthrough taking my time finding the collectibles and it's so much better story flows so well, also I noticed a few things first of all Cortana i don't think it's cortana I think it's actually a left over piece from when she split her essence on the didacts ship in 4 I think she's rampant as well and has transferred that to the warden, first time you fight him he has dialogue like "Would you leave I have friends coming over" and a few others,

He sounds very rampant insane, I also noticed a lot of the AI that are joining her sound rampant as well perhaps when she contacts them she turns them rampant? Halo 5's story takes time and patience to truly understand everything or almost everything unfortunately not many gamers will scour for such things. I can understand not knowing much on the spartans at least blue for non canon fans, I thought 343 made Osiris team very relatable and interesting as characters, but like borderlands you need to be in specific areas for certain dialogue to open up and well some people just like to run through levels so theres that. I do hope in halo 6 they give us a Mass effect or witcher 3 type of codex to get up to speed for non canon fans, hell ask the fans to do it.

i actually posted a blog post on my blog where i made a plot prediction for the game back on Oct 12th. Not really sure how to link it so i will repost my theory from before launch here:

------------------------------

".....Following the marketing campaign #HunttheTruth heres my theory:

UNSC/ONI have basically sold out to corporate interests and the military industrial complex, they have basically monetized the war on the Outer Worlds a la Halliburton. In Nightfall Locke's investigation revealed a new Flood-based bioweapon that only effects humans. So the Flood are returning as an enemy in Halo 5.

117 and Blue Team go AWOL so they can use the Janus key to activate the Forerunner Guardians which protect against the Flood. The Guardians are the broken up pieces of Mendicant Bias, who is being revived because the new Flood threat is that severe.

They are going planet to planet activating them, which could possibly play out in the campaign. Activating the structures causes massive damage so USNC/ONI is trying to stop him. Maybe they dont understand whats hes doing is to protect humanity, maybe they do but dont trust Mendicant Bias since they know it once supported the Flood. Either way they see him as a traitor for stealing the key and animating huge Forerunners structures that destroy cities and send Locke and Team Osiris to hunt him down.

They may also think hes being manipulated by a remnant of rampant Cortana.

Cortana isnt really dead, she merged with the Domain at the end of Halo 4 and has been enslaved by the evil Didact to do his bidding. Chief finds this out (see 5:11), steals the Janus Key and goes AWOL to save her. Maybe she can talk to him mentally now thru the Domain after the Librarian zapped him and gave him superpowers? "Help me 117 you're my only hope!"

117 will use the a Composer with help from Halsey to resurrect Cortana in human form then they will ride off into the sunset together after having saved the galaxy one more time, closing all the chapters on Bungies' Halo and moving forward with their completely own version of Halo based on Locke, Team Osiris and Blue Team.

The evil Didact was basically set up to be the equivalent of Space Sauron with the Janus Key as the One Ring at the end of Halo 4."

-------------------------------------

I actually did guess the part about Cortana joining with the Domain correctly. I also feel that based on how Halo 5 ended, the other part of my prediction could very well come true as well. I find it hard to believe they would resurrect Cortana just to make her a villain.

I think that she is actually being manipulated by the evil Didact who also really didnt die in Halo 4.

they just left too many loose ends and I was actually pretty disappointed the didnt bring the Flood back in H5.

I can see how people think the plot of Halo 5 wasnt good, but if you follow the story outside of the games it made a lot of sense in an ongoing story sort of way.

it is not in the first 3 Halo's at all. And how is it not Halo 5's job to explain who these fucking people are in their game? Are we supposed to say 'oh look it's some dudes'? Or are we to accept the people in the game are all complete non entities we are not supposed to care about any of them in any way?

Man.... you are stretching yourself out to hell and back to try and justify this shit. Just accept the story in Halo 5 is abysmal and they know it and don't care because their whole focus was on MP. Even when you die IN THE CAMPAIGN you don't get Locke or Chief you get a fucking gamertag. It's pathetic.

@mems_1224 said:

I think the ending is cool where pretty much the entire galaxy is held hostage by Cortana and Infinity going full Battlestar Galactica. The problem is that you spend like 7 missions on Sanghelios with Locke doing absolutely nothing. Sure, ending the Covenant once and for all is cool I guess but all that shit could have been two missions. Cortana making a heel turn is cool, especially since its seems like shes gone crazy and could be still influenced by the Gravemind. She quotes the Didact's speech from the epilogue of Halo 4 and he was also warped by the Flood so maybe the Flood come back in Halo 6? In one of the comics you do see a single flood spore still alive aboard the Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars.

Also, holy ****, I thought fat Cortana with toes was an awful redesign but 343 manages to out shit itself with the new Cortana. Who the **** thought this looked cool or menacing?

Yeah I don't know what they're going for. Voice doesn't match anymore either.

The story wasn't bad in itself, it just wasn't told very well IMO. It felt rushed and felt like they cut a lot of the story out. Maybe they ran out of time or something... who knows.

But If they insist on doing this whole co-op level design thing again in H6 campaign (which I assume they will), they need to improve the friendly AI & flesh out the story more. Maybe cut out a few of the "big explosions then throw waves of enemies at you" missions, and throw in a couple more quieter & intimate moments. This isn't a COD campaign where everything has to be dialled up to 150% every mission. Or at least have some proper cut scenes to explain things better.

Well that's my opinion anyway.

As far as plot/story goes, I still don't understand the decision to feature Locke in roughly 80% of the campaign. It's like 343 wanted to only feature Locke but then remembered at the end of the development that Halo fans from 10 years ago would probably be upset if the Chief was in Halo 5 but only in the cutscenes. So then they tacked on two or three incredibly forgettable missions.

Granted every campaign mission is incredibly forgettable. All the missions are damn near identical. Though I do very much enjoy the missions that feature zero fighting and just have you walking around a space where random people are just living their life. It is a very cool change and made the story more grounded and real....shame there is only two of them.

Then there is the decision to run the exact same "boss" fight, what, five or six times over the course of 13 missions? Who in their right mind would say "yeah, I like this boss. Let's have him be the only boss you fight throughout the game and the only variations will be sometimes you fight one, sometimes you fight two, sometimes three and in one instance you fight about 20-30...and when I say "you" I mean you watch a cutscene of the Spartan IV's fighting them.

I thought the story for Halo 5 was pretty decent tell the end when the doctor said "what took you so long" /queue credits.

Also my Halo/Spartan lore might be off a little but I have no fraking idea how Blue team even exists since MC/John is suppose to be one of three Spartan II's left in the whole galaxy (one is suppose to be lost on a unknown planet and the other is crippled), think that was mentioned in the prequel book for Halo 1.

That stuff was terrible. The way it's presented and designed is just...lame. It would have been cool to have a Mass Effect break with Locke talking to his squad and the other residents. Instead, you hit down on the d-pad and talk to like two people, and that's the end of the mission. It's all slapdash and dully animated. They expect you to run around and find intel in those areas? No thank you

@Ballroompirate: https://youtu.be/d2wqJ6qvPAQ

Hey, I'm pulling out my personal high points from a campaign that I, frankly, do not remember AT ALL.

I beat the game just tonight and I already have completely forgotten everything except the two missions where you don't fight and just explore an area and the damn stupid repetitive 'boss' battles.

Hell(!) even when you destroy that big thing that mission just leads you to another of the exact 'boss' battle.

Hmmm interesting that was a pretty good catch up on spartan history and what happened to them.

It's disappointing

Halo 4 had so much variety and atmosphere. Halo 5 feels like a major step down in almost every way. Here's hoping that 343 abandons this dumb 4-player co-op and does something new and more ambitious for Halo 6.

People need to chill out calling this the worst campaign in the series. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Reach was way lazier, Halo 2 was a jumbled mess and Halo 4 was just plain forgettable. I will tell you something though...I was not fond of 343 trying to paint Locke as this super badass hero who saves Masterchief's ass. They tried way too hard to shove Locke down our throats even though everyone who played this game only cared about Masterchief's part of the story. Oh and I fucking hated the way 343 killed off Jul Mdama like he was just a generic Elite and wasn't a major character in the Halo universe. Again, just because they needed a way to build up Locke for everyone. Bunch of try hards.

Like, there were problems with the direction of the story in my opinion, but it really wasn't that bad. I enjoyed a lot of it.

And for everything I loved about Halo 5, there's one thing the game showed me I really want: either a Halo RPG a la Elder Scrolls or something, or a Telltale Halo game. Sure, Telltale is spread thing and I've expressed worry for it, but I'd be stoked for a Telltale Halo series or an RPG of sorts. The Sanghelios missions were awesome and I want to dive deeper into the possibilities.

And now that many of us are finishing up our playthroughs, when are we gonna get together and coop/warzone it up?

Well it's this age of video games. Cooperative gameplay is what you do in this modern age...granted cooperative as long as you're not on the same console. Want to play Halo 5 with four friends? You better buy three more Xbox One's!

If you are making a game called Halo in 2015 you don't make money off of the campaign even if it has 4-player coop.

Halo 2 was unfinished, that's why it felt....well, unfinished.

343 should have realized Locke sucked after Halo: Nightfall failed as hard as it did. So much negativity towards the mini series and then you go and make him the protagonist of Microsoft's biggest franchis?

@R3FURBISHED: yea, Locke sucks. They should just put Vale and Tanaka in Majestic and bring back Thorne or something. Leave Buck out, he sucks too.

I'm also mad about how they tried to make Locke and the Spartan 4's equal to Masterchief when in reality based on the lore...spartan 2's should be at least a foot taller and have augmentations...so basically MC should have been able to easily brush off Locke in that lame ass fight. It's really a fucking joke.

The only thing I could figure out is 343 wanted two sets of eight so they added one that longtime Halo fans would recognize. It's easier than writing a new character!

Story is 7/10 imo

Start out in an interesting way but ended up really weak, lots of cheesy shit between the chief and cortana, locke beats chief in one second and tries to join his team in the next second (make up your freaking mind), more cheesiness between a 60 year old (chief) and a...computer woman...., cliffhanger (we know there will be 500 more halo's but at least give the game an understandable ending), warden had an interesting design but he barely had any screen time like he kept being shutdown by cortana.