So we have currently got a couple of teasers to go on thus far but given what they reveal we can all make educated guesses and with the news of the Banished attacking a Halo ring intent to wipe out humanity, we are left to our own devices to try and make sense of this information. Now I can kinda understand why they have been added but you have to admit this has leaves a ‘LOT’ of speculation to how the story will play out and how certain details will be covered.
Here’s what we know based on the H5G, HW2 campaigns and the 2 Teasers:-
- Cortana is leading the created and forerunners; she is infected with the logic plague thanks to the gravemind and has accessed the domain letting it’s power corrupt her further. - Cortana has sights on the Rings (H5G Legendary Ending) and possibly the Ark…where the Banished are (Most are, we still don’t know if they are all on the Ark) - Atriox, a brute who served the Covenant only to be betrayed and thus rebelled against them, now must submit to Cortana’s will for the banished to be allied with her (Something he’ll either be doing under duress or he’ll be killed off as I doubt his character would bend the knee to another dominating force and I really hope that’s not the case but the use of “We are his Will, We are his Legacy” leads me to think this would happen). - Speaking of the Ark There is still ambiguous topic of the Flood’s resurgence. Yes it’s locked up in High Charity for the most part given Voridus was last seen being told to ‘Secure the Breach’…so did the Sentinel’s repair the shield or did they seal it some other way…for that matter what does the SoF crew know of the Flood. - Having Other Species allied with Cortana wouldn’t be far fetched as Grunts…well Grunts, Jackals are scavengers so if they have something to gain I can see that. Hunters? depends on how the lekgolo are viewed by Cortana or if they just serve the forces she commands such as the banished, remnants etc…A single bit of dialog or a data log could explain this as just a record of the time following Cortana’s takeover. - If the Banished are allied with Cortana, has word reach the Spirit of Fire and if so how will this factor into things. I am hoping Halo Wars 2 gets another expansion of sorts or a sequel. - Human and Sangheli are most likely working together, the Swords of Sanghelios forces (Grunts and all) under the Arbiter’s command and the UNSC. That’s a given but will others ally with them to take on the Cortana’s forces. As said in regards to how the hunters, jackals and grunts would ally with Cortana, a dat log of piece of dialogue would give this some clarity. - Then there’s the secret Cortana audio from discover hope…“This…this is part of me. I don’t know why,…I don’t know how, but it is me”. Quite frankly one of the more head-scratching of the bunch.
This could be one of 2 things, 1 a fragment of Cortana that Halsey had kept or that survived the Mantle’s Approach’s destruction and was teleported to Zeta Halo, The slip-space portal at the end of H4 could potentially lead to other places, Since a good chunk of Cortana ended up on Genesis, the Didact of Gama Halo, so it’s not farfetched to say a fragment ended up on Installation 07…there is the topic of how the fragment would be useable due to it being left over from Cortana’s rampant stat which does poke a hole in this idea though leading to the second point. Halsey made Cortana so it’s not unprecedented to assume she could do it again, basically in H4 Cortana said that here rampancy could be cured with Halsey using the methods employed to create her to repair her but also Cortana highlights that it wouldn’t be her…until maybe she reunites with another piece of herself and merges with it…it’s convoluted as hell but it would be interesting to see how that plays out. I doubt they’d go the whole Cortana to Bias Parallel but it’s one logical deduction from this piece of dialogue. I just hope they don’t go the whole, She was evil now she’s good with little build up or payoff.I’m sure there’s more to cover but these are the points I felt most noteworthy to include. As you can see there’s a lot to go through and ultimately we can’t say for certain how it plays into Infinite, my only wish is that we don’t get a disconnect like with Halo 5 only really getting the in-depth character details from tie in media meaning those who have only played the games feeling disconnected and less inclined to look up these pieces of media. in short, this needs to be handled right.
The potential lead to a convoluted campaign story is present and I pray to god that this isn’t just explained in intel collectables, logs, tie in comics or more obscure media as many games have had that count against them…Final Fantasy XIII and Mass effect’s Datalogs to name some though at least Mass effect had it read like an audio book when new lore was added. Also I feel that the HW characters deserve a decent wrap up, not to say that giving them a comic or book ending would be bad, I do feel that it would be an insult to not give them a game expansion or animated story leading up to the release of infinite.
How does everyone else feel about this?
Could 343 put some of this additional content into the limited editons to help such as a Book. or something along those lines…and if so would you be ok with that or rather have it accessible through the halo channel or other means (take a play from H3 and have a Bonus DVD with either an animated movie or something on there)?