Halo 5's Storytelling Was A Mistake- 343 Industries

I thought Halo 5's campaign was a lot better than I was led to believe it would be. It is fun to play and the story is hard to follow but still much better than Halo 4. I doubt Halo 6 is better-received because it is the same storyline as 4 and 5. The real issue 343 has is that the story in Halo 4 was very hard to follow and they committed themselves to a trilogy based upon that.

Yup, that's the conundrum they're in. Not sure how they can "go back to the roots" but somehow they must plus I'm not a big fan of the new enemies, I know they don't but they almost seem to be respawning which I absolutely hate in any game other than perhaps looters. Also Halos were always a game where if you could find a way, shortcut killing everything and slip past but in 343 Halos, many times you are held in a area until you kill all enemies before being let to move on.

The concept wasn't exactly a bad one. The execution is the real problem. There's just not enough motivation established for all the stupid shit that goes on in the story. You can't suddenly make Chief a bad guy, when the player knows he's not bad, there's no drama or tension at all.

Establish where Chief is at, tell us why he's doing what he's doing, and then proceed to dramatize the events. But trying to trick us into thinking Chief is a bad guy...come on now. He's too iconic for that crap. There's a reason Mario, Link, and Samus are always the standard good guy. Chief should be treated the same. He's John McClaine in Die Hard. Just give him a fun scenario and proceed to let him save the muthafukin day.

Ruining what? A shitty story remains shitty with spoilers or no spoilers.

I don't think that was what they were trying to do. It was clear from the beginning that Masterchief was trying to find Cortana against orders, and that Locke was trying to get him back. But nowhere did it ever feel to me that Masterchief was a bad guy, just going rogue for a friend

did you actually play the game or are your statements based purely on the marketing material?.. because at no point during the actual game was the player lead to believe that the Master Chief was the bad guy.. hell, even Fireteam Osiris didn't think Blue Team were bad guys, they were just tasked to find them and bring them in.. the worst thing Blue Team actually did in game was ignore direct orders to return home and therefore were labeled "AWOL" (absent without leave).. plus, in game, you know exactly where Chief is and his motivations because you play as Blue Team and then on alternating missions you're following in their footsteps as Fireteam Osiris (though there are many more Osiris missions than Blue Team missions)..

Much of the "problem" with Halo 5's story is people reading false stuff about the campaign on the internet and then passing that information off as firsthand knowledge.. i'm not necessarily saying you're doing that but I've seen it done enough times that it warrants mentioning..

The greatest games lineup in the history of mankind never makes mistakes.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. The internet had led me to believe that the campaign is a pile of garbage, so I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. I still have no real grasp of what is going on with the Prometheans and Forerunners, but that is Halo 4's fault.

I totally agree with Silversix and he's totally right. All the Halo games made by Bungie were always on top quality solid games and 343i just isn't that good and this is coming from a Halo Veteran player.

Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST, & Halo Reach were amazing and most of all, I enjoy there Campaigns & MP.

@PurpleMan5000: i'm not sure if you located many of the terminals in Halo 4 but much of the backstory of the Promethians, Forerunners, and more is located in-game as mini-episodes of a story (the videos are linked to the Halo Channel Xbox app).. but yea, much of the deeper explanations are in the Halo novels, a 3-part series based on the Forerunner war with the Flood..

As I mentioned earlier, as a fan of the lore, I love what 343 is doing but they need to do a much better job of presenting this info in-game..

@jg4xchamp: Thats part of what the Nightfall miniseries was for. It gives Locke's ONI backstory and also talks about the splinter group of the Covenant. It kind of gives the story more sensibility. Its kind of true they didnt include in the the Halo 5 game itself, but at this point, I think most of the big hardcore fans are already invested enough in the story to absorb that material.

So the story in Halo 5 doesnt seem good if you say, just started playing with 5, but theres a ton of stuff going on overall that you wouldnt really get if you didnt follow all the lore.

The Halo series went downhill long before that with Halo 2.

I think so too. What I think hurt Halo 5's story isnt even the story itself its that they marketed one way (Chief v Locke) but then actually presented it another way. If they had actually split the time 50/50 between Blue Team and Chief in the game most people wouldnt be griping.

But I think what will happen is after they finally retire Chief, it wont just be about a particular Spartan or team, they'll focus on lots of different stories throughout the whole.

Chief is an awesome character sure, but most people seem to forget that ALL the Spartans are supposed to be just as bad ass as he is. I think its really cool if they go more indepth into them in general. Just like in Halo 5 MP where theres tons of different kinds of armor etc.

If they weren't idiots they would have realized that Bungie once tried splitting the story into two main protagonists with Halo 2. Nobody liked it then either.

343 has been basically destroyed the amazing backstory and lore of the previous Halo games under Bungie as well. It's been very stupid watching them try to over explain everything to justify their ridiculous direction they took.

Why do people want more Master Chief? He was as bland as any other bland character.

My statements are based purely on the marketing material.

"Okay guys what's the least popular thing they've done in this franchise? Let's copy that."

Halo 6 needs to be breath-of-the-wilded and resident-evil-sevened. Time for a fresh start and a daring new direction for Halo.

That's right...time to go third person.

@PurpleMan5000: I think it will be. I think the Banished will be in Halo 6. From what I've heard theres actually a Banished campaign coming for Halo Wars 2 that will flesh out their story. (HW2 is a better game than SW likes to pretend based on GS' rating)

Plus they are bringing back split screen and it'll be in 4K with a big dose of Chief. I personally want to see a Blisterback in the FPS game that will be awesome.

Yeah and make next halo for PC with Master Chieeeeef

@Bread_or_Decide: Hell no. A 3rd person Halo game would work well for a spin off, but not for the main series. All they need to do is focus on the core of what made Halo 1-3 so fantastic. Semi-open environments with situations and weaponry that force the player to utilize a consistently changing strategy as they progress through interesting levels.

They don't need some grand narrative to make Halo work, just solid core gameplay.

It's that kind of reaction that makes me feel it's the right idea for Halo. Whatever pisses off the fans is the way to go.

No it's not. How the hell can you come to that conclusion?

@Wasdie: I dont agree. I liked Halo 2's story.

Because Halo is stale and needs a shot in the arm.

Worst case scenario it pulls a new Coke. People hate it so much they get nostalgic for the first person view. So the next game shifts back and you're guaranteed a hit with fans and critics alike.

@Bread_or_Decide: Radical approach to a non-existent problem. Halo 5 sold fine. The story was underwhelming but they are taking steps to fix those woes.

Not saying you can't enjoy Halo's story, I'm just saying that's not the reason why the game series is great nor what it needs to be great again. I don't replay levels of Halo 2 for the story.

@Bread_or_Decide: Yea, marketing is marketing.. Taken at face value, your statements seemed to come from firsthand experience.. Which (as i said) is half the problem with Halo 5's general reputation in my opinion.. I mean if you didn't play the game, why are you commenting on a story you didn't experience?..

Hell, I'd bet money that the vast majority of the "Halo 5 campaign is garbage" comments on these very forums and elsewhere on the internet are from people who never played the game and never intended on playing the game.. They're just repeating the uninformed statements of somebody else that didn't play the game or someone who is exaggerating the situation to display their dissatisfaction over the lack of Master Chief missions..

Yes, my opinion was based on hearsay and is not an informed one. I'll take the hit on that.

I will say this, the marketing material was a turnoff to me personally. Making chief seem like the bad guy kept me from showing any interest in the game.

So I guess it's good the actual game plays out much differently.

@Antwan3K: Yep. Half the people here that bash it all the time are only doing it on the GS score and havent played a Halo game in years because they are Bungie fanboys.

The funny thing is they talk smack about 343 in comparison to Bungie, but then turn around and talk about how terrible Destiny is too.

Hipster contrarians.

The gameplay is amazing in multiplayer and single player but ya 343 has so far sucked at the story. The first games under Bungie everyone loved Cortana and Master Chief. In 343's first game they make Cortana go bad. In their second they basically do not show chief and even worse try to make a different character the hero. So in just their first 2 games they made Cortana bad and chief a non-entity, also changed the main hero to Locke.

@oflow: Yea, that's the unfortunate reality.. A certain group of people were going to stop playing (and bash) Halo games after Bungie left no matter how well 343i did with the franchise.. Halo 4 received a 9/10 on GS and sold extremely well, yet somehow that game is "garbage".. Halo 5 received a 8/10 on GS and again broke revenue records for the franchise, yet its also "garbage".. This is not to mention that the Bungie era of Halo mostly took place during a time before Call of Duty effectively changed the console FPS landscape and ushered in an entire new age of top quality shooters to contend with and 3rd party studios in general began to take over importance from 1st party offerings.. But a deeper analysis like that would require a bit more than "343 sucks" and "Halo is garbage" so it simply wont happen..

The bottomline is that 343i is in a no-win situation with those kinds of people.. Halo 6 can exceed every expectation imaginable and, again, it will be labeled "garbage".. Whatever, I enjoyed Bungie's Halos and I'm currently enjoying 343i's expansion on that foundation.. Haters gon hate..

My issue wasn't who I was playing as, it was that you really have to read the books to understand the whole picture of the story. Reading novels shouldn't be necessary to make characters and story sequences make sense. Just my opinion.

Its time for them to evolve the game. I want to see large levels with a lot of exploration and side paths. I do not want it to become an open world game or an rpg. But having a bunch of hidden paths (that could take a while to explore) that reveal some lore (like how the Souls games have lore everywhere) would be a great addition. The run n gun with cinematic cut scenes got old long ago. Ain't cutting it anymore. Lems know it but won't admit it because they're too scared to criticize their only X1 exclusive.

@Antwan3K: Thats why I think its a good idea to eventually retire the Chief. They just need to give him the heroes' send off he deserves. Which I'm pretty is sure what they are gonna do with the story in the current trilogy like I explained in my tinfoil hat theory, so they can then concentrate on making Halo their own franchise.

Its going to turn into a new story for a new gen like the Star Wars franchise, which MS has basically said how they want Halo's Expanded universe to be.

Its just really tiresome hearing people that havent played a Halo game anytime recently talk about how bad Halo 5 is compared to old Halos when the actual gameplay in Halo 5 is mechanically outstanding and far better than any other Halos. The only thing it lacked is split screen and thats coming back on Scorpio in 4K so that makes up for that in one swoop.

Mechanically and as an overall package Halo 5 blows all the other console shooters this gen away. More weapon variety, more game modes, more maps, forge, more vehicles, better servers, the REQ system and overall presentation is great.

343 industries has made 2 trash halo games in a row

Halo 4 was bland and the new art style looked awful linear cooridors not many open war battles liek in the original halo

Exploring the master chief character is an awful idea. I didn't play 5 though

I disagree with this assessment of what's wrong with the story, I for one think the Halo universe offers lots of potential to expand on the story beyond Master Chief and I don't think the series should always have to center around him in every game. After all, Reach and ODST are among my favorite entries in the series and they didn't need Master Chief to be great. That being said, the next Halo game has to settle the story where it left off in Halo 5, between Chief and you-know-who.

I was interested to see what this "mistake" in storytelling was, I've long thought since the game's release the real mistake in storytelling began probably early in the game's development, after all Halo 5's story is very lacking in many respects, the gaps in story seem to be filled upon reading the Halo books and watching the Halo TV series/films outside of playing the game; hence you need to partake in the supplemental media for the game's story to be more flushed out to the player, rather than being self contained within the game. That, to me, is the mistake, and it disappoints me they don't own up to that.

I believe this problem I mention started when Xbox was headed by Don Mattrick, Halo 5 was likely funded under and agreement to partition the story between the game and supplemental media so they can monetize both. I believe Quantum Break was likely funded under an agreement that it would follow a similar goal. I think this idea of partitioning game story with supplement media probably died with Don Mattrick, as did the Kinect ambition, so I don't imagine that'll be a problem down the line.

I actually haven't finished Halo 4 or 5's campaign (or ODST). Halo 1-3 + Reach were enjoyable. I just never found myself buying the Halo games for the campaign to begin with.

phil was on stage during e3 2013 talking about tv and stuff he was in mattricks lair doing evil deeds

if phil wanted he coulda came out and said kinect sucks and all this stuff sucks but he didn't hes a heartless lap dog

Twas terrible. Absolutely terrible. I didn't pay full price for Halo 5 and I still felt ripped off. I don't know who are the monkeys in charge of that storytelling and the single player campaign but they should all be fired. With that said, Master Chief is such an uninteresting tool like character. I had no desire for his storyline since it was simply dry just like his robotic personality.

That's an atrocious way of telling a story in anything, where you ask me to go do homework just to get a character with a personality mate.

@jg4xchamp: I guess it came out a long time before Halo 5 did. I watched just because it was Ridley Scott not necessarily to know the info. I think people really into the lore did the same.

@ProtossRushX: lol your opinion and a nickel give us 5 cents.

Developers should never assume gamers/reviewers are gonna read that special novel or watch a miniseries to fully understand your game. its a lazy excuse to write an incomplete story. The marketing for halo 5 was also so misleading that i still can't believe it was allowed to happen.This is coming from a long time fan of the series..343 need to really step up with halo 6 and not take shortcuts.

@hrt_rulz01:

I like 4 as well. I don't understand what people hated about the campaign

Just dont have an interesting cut scene then as it gets real interesting fade to black. That was dumb and I still dont get who in there right mind would go "that's fine" I liked halo 5 story for what we got but it felt like they really had to cut a lot of content out for what ever reasons

I feel the characters were more of an issue, as opposed to splitting the story. Hell, the concept was fine, but Locke was just a turd on two legs, and not interesting enough.

343 was a mistake. I mean for real, only one level in that whole campaign was actually fun to play.

@lawlessx: I guess. I'm just saying it was all part of the marketing campaign on the Halo Channel that was in the 'hype mode' leading up to Halo 5. I watched it.

I guess people dont remember but at the time that had this big mystery type thing in the 'Hunt the Truth' ad campaign where they were putting out clues to the story of the game and stuff with audio clips etc. You watched Nightfall to get the clues.

You pretty much nailed it, Zero. It isn't this awful thing that the internet makes it out to be. The problem is the precedent Halo had and the marketing campaign are plain better than the narrative of 5's campaign. It doesn't mean 5 is bad actually. But when you have been stellar and suddenly come in with just good, the drop is noticeable.

And I call BS on the Chief as just a vessel part. Halo 4's campaign was probably the most personal of stories between Chief and Cortana. That wasn't me filling in the blanks. It was 343 and they did it wonderfully. But they dropped the ball for 5, period. I do like 5, but agree it is the weakest of the campaigns. I defend it because the tendency of the gaming community to exaggerate enormously on the internet. More often than not gamers are over dramatic babies that way.