Personally, this was the greatest story I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing through a video game campaign. Great work, 343.
But, I’m not too surprised to see that there are people and “critics” who did not like/understand it.
This was one of the most non-linear stories I’ve ever seen, and 343 so expertly deviating our attention away from figuring it out before the games release made it worse. This is all a good thing. Halo 5’s story hit me from so many sides, left me in awe and caused my curiosity and questions to skyrocket.
Never have I been so stressed with wanting more out of a campaign. I absolutely cannot wait to play Halo 6 and whatever else 343 has in store to see how this all plays out.
Anyway, I think this game has received so much disappointment is due to it “going off track” and people taking that as a meaning that 343 is going away from what made Halo, Halo. I think this is the wrong mentality.
The Chief expresses his emotional attachment to Cortana (and vice versa) throughout the game, but in the end we see that he stays true to his oath to protect humanity and the galaxy. This adheres to how he has been portrayed since Halo: CE.
Cortana was “born” with an allegiance to the UNSC, but maintain free will and can evolve over time, as we have seen Cortana do in the past games. As an AI of her magnitude, she has always been capable of having human emotion (duh, I know.), but still primarily works out of logic. Her rampant personality at the end of Halo 4 finds the Domain and becomes cured from her inevitable death, but I don’t think (My own speculation here) that she just reverted back to her old self because of this.
The Cortana we see now, in my opinion, is the culmination of her love for Spartan-117, a rampant and dangerous personality, the power and knowledge of the domain and influence from the Warden Eternal. Logically, the quickest and “easiest” way to “peace” is by doing what she is doing now, so why not go after it? Makes sense to me.
I know this wasn’t a great write up, but my point was to try and shed light as to how this campaign panned out and how “on track” it really is compared to other Halo games.
These are all my own opinions of course, take them as you will.
I hope you all can enjoy the game as much as I am, hope to see you in MM. Good hunting!