“While we love our transmedia, sometimes I do think we tell a bit too much story in our games,” she said. “You know when you have a gun and aliens shooting at you, it is kind of hard to digest a lot of story. Hopefully we’re showing in Halo Wars 2 a more simple story and using transmedia as part of the way to get the deeper story, but keeping the game story more simple.”
I just want to hear people’s opinions on how 343 plans to develop the universe moving forward. I have not seen a forum post on it and if this is considered the wrong place for it I don’t really care, this is the place for Halo Transmedia.
I think this is a really good move.
Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
Overall, I think it’s going to make a lot of people Happy. So they don’t have to do much homework. 
> 2533274870389366;2:
> I think this is a really good move.
>
> Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
>
> It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
>
> It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
>
> 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
While I totally agree with almost everything you said I still disagree overall with this strategy. Halo 5 isn’t bad because its a complicated story. Its bad because its a bad story. I think of Halo 4 as the example of being too complicated , that needed better explaining , not less. The people who care about campaign still are the hardcore fans who follow the plot. The average audience doesn’t care about the game’s story and simply wants to play multiplayer. That’s the reality of it. Halo 2 is by no means a “simple game” . It has tons of story, a large amount of characters and world building and depth and consequently is the best.
Halo will continue to lose relevance, that much has been inevitable for a while. The problem is if you start losing the hardcore sect then Halo is in more serious trouble.
> 2535465364486894;3:
> > 2533274870389366;2:
> > I think this is a really good move.
> >
> > Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
> >
> > It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
> >
> > It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
> >
> > 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
>
> While I totally agree with almost everything you said I still disagree. Halo 5 isn’t bad because its a complicated story. Its bad because its a bad story. I think of Halo 4 as the example of being too complicated , that needed better explaining , not less. The people who care about campaign still are the hardcore fans who follow the plot. The average audience doesn’t care about the game’s story and simply wants to play multiplayer. That’s the reality of it. Halo 2 is by no means a “simple game” . It has tons of story, a large amount of characters and world building and depth and consequently is the best.
I should of expressed myself differently. When I mean “Simple” I mean, it’s easy to understand and follow, it’s well thought out and can be understood easily when there’s so much going on.
I wouldn’t say Halo 5 was necessarily a bad story although, every game does have its own flaws. Halo 5 did definitely stand out from the other Halo games. There’s a forum around here and I can’t remember where. But it proposes some very good ideas as to why Halo 5 played out the way it did. It’s truly a brilliant post. If I can find it, I will share it.
I think ultimately it was because people just didn’t understand a lot of what happened. There was too much missing to make things make sense.
And I do agree that we should of been able to kill Jul M’Dama just like killing previous leaders in the Halo games. But also, we never got to kill The Prophet of Truth in game. There wasn’t even a boss fight in Halo 3.(if I remember correctly I haven’t played it in years lol) That was a cut scene as well, and people didn’t seem to upset about it.
Honestly, this could tie into a whole 'nother subject but I will leave it with this. People just aren’t satisfied anymore with how games are. They’re either too rushed, too complicated, or just not enough to keep the player interested. Look at CoD, the launch of BF4, the launch of GTA V. They all had something bad happen with them, some of them more than others. It’s just so hard to please so many people at once these days. I think 343 is making a good decision on this. Thus, hoping it will make Halo a good (better) driven story again.
> 2533274870389366;4:
> > 2535465364486894;3:
> > > 2533274870389366;2:
> > > I think this is a really good move.
> > >
> > > Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
> > >
> > > It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
> > >
> > > It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
> > >
> > > 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
> >
> > While I totally agree with almost everything you said I still disagree. Halo 5 isn’t bad because its a complicated story. Its bad because its a bad story. I think of Halo 4 as the example of being too complicated , that needed better explaining , not less. The people who care about campaign still are the hardcore fans who follow the plot. The average audience doesn’t care about the game’s story and simply wants to play multiplayer. That’s the reality of it. Halo 2 is by no means a “simple game” . It has tons of story, a large amount of characters and world building and depth and consequently is the best.
>
> I should of expressed myself differently. When I mean “Simple” I mean, it’s easy to understand and follow, it’s well thought out and can be understood easily when there’s so much going on.
>
> I wouldn’t say Halo 5 was necessarily a bad story although, every game does have its own flaws. Halo 5 did definitely stand out from the other Halo games. There’s a forum around here and I can’t remember where. But it proposes some very good ideas as to why Halo 5 played out the way it did. It’s truly a brilliant post. If I can find it, I will share it.
>
> I think ultimately it was because people just didn’t understand a lot of what happened. There was too much missing to make things make sense.
>
> And I do agree that we should of been able to kill Jul M’Dama just like killing previous leaders in the Halo games. But also, we never got to kill The Prophet of Truth in game. There wasn’t even a boss fight in Halo 3.(if I remember correctly I haven’t played it in years lol) That was a cut scene as well, and people didn’t seem to upset about it.
>
>
> Honestly, this could tie into a whole 'nother subject but I will leave it with this. People just aren’t satisfied anymore with how games are. They’re either too rushed, too complicated, or just not enough to keep the player interested. Look at CoD, the launch of BF4, the launch of GTA V. They all had something bad happen with them, some of them more than others. It’s just so hard to please so many people at once these days. I think 343 is making a good decision on this. Thus, hoping it will make Halo a good (better) driven story again.
Boss fights in Halo have never been done well so I don’t really expect them to be. I don’t mind Jul getting killed off at all. He was a loose end of a story that was lingering for too long. Halo 5 gameplay is my favorite Halo , by a wide margin, the campaign missions were fun, but the story anyway it is spun was awful and it the entire crux of that rests on the twist or large turn in the game and how little agency any character in the game actually has on the story.
I think Halo Wars 2 is the perfect example of Bonnie Ross’ comments as she indicated and the story is bare bones awful, so I look to that as the example of what to expect in future Halo.
> 2535465364486894;5:
> > 2533274870389366;4:
> > > 2535465364486894;3:
> > > > 2533274870389366;2:
> > > > I think this is a really good move.
> > > >
> > > > Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
> > > >
> > > > It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
> > > >
> > > > It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
> > > >
> > > > 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
> > >
> > > While I totally agree with almost everything you said I still disagree. Halo 5 isn’t bad because its a complicated story. Its bad because its a bad story. I think of Halo 4 as the example of being too complicated , that needed better explaining , not less. The people who care about campaign still are the hardcore fans who follow the plot. The average audience doesn’t care about the game’s story and simply wants to play multiplayer. That’s the reality of it. Halo 2 is by no means a “simple game” . It has tons of story, a large amount of characters and world building and depth and consequently is the best.
> >
> > I should of expressed myself differently. When I mean “Simple” I mean, it’s easy to understand and follow, it’s well thought out and can be understood easily when there’s so much going on.
> >
> > I wouldn’t say Halo 5 was necessarily a bad story although, every game does have its own flaws. Halo 5 did definitely stand out from the other Halo games. There’s a forum around here and I can’t remember where. But it proposes some very good ideas as to why Halo 5 played out the way it did. It’s truly a brilliant post. If I can find it, I will share it.
> >
> > I think ultimately it was because people just didn’t understand a lot of what happened. There was too much missing to make things make sense.
> >
> > And I do agree that we should of been able to kill Jul M’Dama just like killing previous leaders in the Halo games. But also, we never got to kill The Prophet of Truth in game. There wasn’t even a boss fight in Halo 3.(if I remember correctly I haven’t played it in years lol) That was a cut scene as well, and people didn’t seem to upset about it.
> >
> >
> > Honestly, this could tie into a whole 'nother subject but I will leave it with this. People just aren’t satisfied anymore with how games are. They’re either too rushed, too complicated, or just not enough to keep the player interested. Look at CoD, the launch of BF4, the launch of GTA V. They all had something bad happen with them, some of them more than others. It’s just so hard to please so many people at once these days. I think 343 is making a good decision on this. Thus, hoping it will make Halo a good (better) driven story again.
>
> Boss fights in Halo have never been done well so I don’t really expect them to be. I don’t mind Jul getting killed off at all. He was a loose end of a story that was lingering for too long. Halo 5 gameplay is my favorite Halo , by a wide margin, the campaign missions were fun, but the story anyway it is spun was awful and it the entire crux of that rests on the twist or large turn in the game and how little agency any character in the game actually has on the story.
>
> I think Halo Wars 2 is the perfect example of Bonnie Ross’ comments as she indicated and the story is bare bones awful, so I look to that as the example of what to expect in future Halo.
Bonnie Ross said the Halo Wars 2 story was bare bones awful?
> 2533274870389366;2:
> I think this is a really good move.
>
> Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
>
> It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
>
> It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
>
> 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
>
> Overall, I think it’s going to make a lot of people Happy. So they don’t have to do much homework.
It could be easily solved if there was a good writer. I don’t see the point of simplifying the plot, just explain it and don’t convolute it.
> 2533274870389366;6:
> > 2535465364486894;5:
> > > 2533274870389366;4:
> > > > 2535465364486894;3:
> > > > > 2533274870389366;2:
> > > > > I think this is a really good move.
> > > > >
> > > > > Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
> > > > >
> > > > > It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
> > > > >
> > > > > It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
> > > > >
> > > > > 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
> > > >
> > > > While I totally agree with almost everything you said I still disagree. Halo 5 isn’t bad because its a complicated story. Its bad because its a bad story. I think of Halo 4 as the example of being too complicated , that needed better explaining , not less. The people who care about campaign still are the hardcore fans who follow the plot. The average audience doesn’t care about the game’s story and simply wants to play multiplayer. That’s the reality of it. Halo 2 is by no means a “simple game” . It has tons of story, a large amount of characters and world building and depth and consequently is the best.
> > >
> > > I should of expressed myself differently. When I mean “Simple” I mean, it’s easy to understand and follow, it’s well thought out and can be understood easily when there’s so much going on.
> > >
> > > I wouldn’t say Halo 5 was necessarily a bad story although, every game does have its own flaws. Halo 5 did definitely stand out from the other Halo games. There’s a forum around here and I can’t remember where. But it proposes some very good ideas as to why Halo 5 played out the way it did. It’s truly a brilliant post. If I can find it, I will share it.
> > >
> > > I think ultimately it was because people just didn’t understand a lot of what happened. There was too much missing to make things make sense.
> > >
> > > And I do agree that we should of been able to kill Jul M’Dama just like killing previous leaders in the Halo games. But also, we never got to kill The Prophet of Truth in game. There wasn’t even a boss fight in Halo 3.(if I remember correctly I haven’t played it in years lol) That was a cut scene as well, and people didn’t seem to upset about it.
> > >
> > >
> > > Honestly, this could tie into a whole 'nother subject but I will leave it with this. People just aren’t satisfied anymore with how games are. They’re either too rushed, too complicated, or just not enough to keep the player interested. Look at CoD, the launch of BF4, the launch of GTA V. They all had something bad happen with them, some of them more than others. It’s just so hard to please so many people at once these days. I think 343 is making a good decision on this. Thus, hoping it will make Halo a good (better) driven story again.
> >
> > Boss fights in Halo have never been done well so I don’t really expect them to be. I don’t mind Jul getting killed off at all. He was a loose end of a story that was lingering for too long. Halo 5 gameplay is my favorite Halo , by a wide margin, the campaign missions were fun, but the story anyway it is spun was awful and it the entire crux of that rests on the twist or large turn in the game and how little agency any character in the game actually has on the story.
> >
> > I think Halo Wars 2 is the perfect example of Bonnie Ross’ comments as she indicated and the story is bare bones awful, so I look to that as the example of what to expect in future Halo.
>
> Bonnie Ross said the Halo Wars 2 story was bare bones awful?
There is an “and” there to separate Bonnie Ross’ comments and my opinion of that that example.
One big thing I saw in different posts about Halo 5, especially on other tech sites (like Verge, Polygon and Ars) when this story hit, were a ton of people saying oh I never bought the game because it didn’t have split-screen, or the story of 4 was too confusing so I didn’t want to buy 5, especially if it didn’t have split screen. I love Halo, it is probably the series that originally got me more into gaming as CE came out while I was in High School and played a crap load of it and 2 in split-screen and LAN. I don’t know anyone personally that still uses split screen (my friends and I all now play online), and I would personally much rather have a better single player experience than have split-screen. However, if adding split-screen and simplifying the story are the things that the vast majority of people are yelling about and will be the only things that keep the game going forward then so be it. I will continue to read the books, (the Halo Mythos book was a pretty summary of stories with some good art) to fuel my Halo nerd-dom.
> 2533274935099360;9:
> One big thing I saw in different posts about Halo 5, especially on other tech sites (like Verge, Polygon and Ars) when this story hit, were a ton of people saying oh I never bought the game because it didn’t have split-screen, or the story of 4 was too confusing so I didn’t want to buy 5, especially if it didn’t have split screen. I love Halo, it is probably the series that originally got me more into gaming as CE came out while I was in High School and played a crap load of it and 2 in split-screen and LAN. I don’t know anyone personally that still uses split screen (my friends and I all now play online), and I would personally much rather have a better single player experience than have split-screen. However, if adding split-screen and simplifying the story are the things that the vast majority of people are yelling about and will be the only things that keep the game going forward then so be it. I will continue to read the books, (the Halo Mythos book was a pretty summary of stories with some good art) to fuel my Halo nerd-dom.
The splitscreen issue is a pinata for fools to get angry about. The vast majority do not even bother with it when it is in the game. If they want to add it back in that’s cool too though. Making a simple story is irrelevant to the majority because the majority don’t even finish campaigns… Give them some explosions, well choreographed action and actual cool writing and they will be satisfied.
> 2535465364486894;10:
> > 2533274935099360;9:
> > One big thing I saw in different posts about Halo 5, especially on other tech sites (like Verge, Polygon and Ars) when this story hit, were a ton of people saying oh I never bought the game because it didn’t have split-screen, or the story of 4 was too confusing so I didn’t want to buy 5, especially if it didn’t have split screen. I love Halo, it is probably the series that originally got me more into gaming as CE came out while I was in High School and played a crap load of it and 2 in split-screen and LAN. I don’t know anyone personally that still uses split screen (my friends and I all now play online), and I would personally much rather have a better single player experience than have split-screen. However, if adding split-screen and simplifying the story are the things that the vast majority of people are yelling about and will be the only things that keep the game going forward then so be it. I will continue to read the books, (the Halo Mythos book was a pretty summary of stories with some good art) to fuel my Halo nerd-dom.
>
> The splitscreen issue is a pinata for fools to get angry about. The vast majority do not even bother with it when it is in the game. If they want to add it back in that’s cool too though. Making a simple story is irrelevant to the majority because the majority don’t even finish campaigns… Give them some explosions, well choreographed action and actual cool writing and they will be satisfied.
Yeah I agree, I saw someone else post on here that based on achievements only like 30% of people finish the campaigns, I have played all of them numerous times haha I’m going back now mopping up achievements in MCC
> And I do agree that we should of been able to kill Jul M’Dama just like killing previous leaders in the Halo games. But also, we never got to kill The Prophet of Truth in game. There wasn’t even a boss fight in Halo 3.(if I remember correctly I haven’t played it in years lol) That was a cut scene as well, and people didn’t seem to upset about it.
I think the difference between Truth and Jul is that Truth was killed late in the game so it gave people some sense of completion as you fight your way through to stop Truth. While in Jul’s case, he was killed at the first -yoinking- mission where you just getting started.
Imagine if Darth Vader was developed as a character in The Empire Strikes Back only to have him killed in ROTJ at the first 10 minutes of the movie. There will be no satisfaction in there.
I’ve said before, I’ll say again, 'cause why not: I am displeased.
Halo 5 was not too complicated. Halo 4 was not too complicated. They were poorly explained, and Halo 5 in particular was simply a poor story for the setting and characters in the time it takes place in. I think 343 Industries had some really great ideas lined up for the Reclaimer trilogy (now, worryingly, a saga), but they trusted too much that casual audiences would overlook the stuff they don’t get, or do the homework happily.
Further, Bonnie Ross’s words could very well be an insult to the fanbase. Presumably Bonnie Ross doesn’t mistakenly hold the notion that Halo 5 was the most complicated video game story to date; she should be aware, I hope, that there are video games with more complicated stories that are critically successful. But she claims that Halo 5 is too complicated – which sounds to me like she’s suggesting that the Halo audience isn’t just unhappy because the story is complicated, they’re unhappy because the story isn’t simple – that anything more than simple would be complicated for the fans. Basically sounds to me like she’s calling the Halo fans dumb. At the very least, she’s definitely saying that Halo itself should be dumb, because they tried to not be dumb and people didn’t like it.
<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
Halo 5 was Terrible. Left a sour note on otherwise brilliant series. You need lore and layers in story, build charcters not play 80% of a game as boring solider, Bonnie Ross needs to be layed off, failed as a director
> 2533274870389366;2:
> I think this is a really good move.
>
> Why? Because of the criticism that Halo 5 got, it was all over the place. Character development, story line and locations. It was a bit confusing. (this doesn’t mean I don’t like Halo 5, infact I think it’s one of the best games in the franchise)
>
> It’s Simple like how Halo 1, 2, and 3, were. Stop the rings from firing, stop the flood. Run and gun.
>
> It’s a great move for those who don’t want to invest their time into the deep lore of the game.
>
> 343 is clearly learning what a larger portion of the community wants, and I think it’s great.
>
> Overall, I think it’s going to make a lot of people Happy. So they don’t have to do much homework.
Ya i really liked Halo 5 it had amazing elements just the execution wasn’t done right imo.