My first time through the Campaign, I was a little confused, and slightly disappointed. Here is where you can find my initial impressions. And here is where you can find a reimagining of Halo 5’s story. After spending quite a bit of time playing through Campaign levels for the 2nd or third time. (Even more for a mission like the last Chief mission) I realized that I like the Campaign more than I did at first.
Don’t get me wrong. The story still has major issues, and probably comes off as very confusing to a lot of people. But every time I play I seem to get a little bit more out of the story and it’s characters. One of 343’s goals with Halo 5 was to expand the players scope and make the world feel more alive. They succeeded in reaching that goal. While replaying levels, I was surprised to hear new conversations that I hadn’t heard before. Sometimes it was just the squad members noticing something, or a full on conversation that expands on the backstory of a character. Here’s a couple I can think of off the bat:
- Linda asking Chief about his time with Cortana. In an almost comical way, he says he’d rather not talk about it when she asks more about it.
- Two people in lab coats discussing Governor Sloans "rampancy and what the Company Liang Dorthmond is going to do after Sloan croaks.
- Tanaka asking about Bucks relationship with Veronica and he maintains it even though they are both in service. Not to mention tiny tease at Tanaka maybe being interested in Locke (Although he isn’t actually mentioned by name). Maybe a nod at the live-action trailer. Which by the way, 343 why would you bother teasing the Locke x Tanaka relationship if it almost isn’t even a thing? I digress.
- Osiris discussing the motives behind Cortana trying to take Chief in the last mission. Interesting note that Buck acknowledges Cortana’s action as “love for the Chief”
- A couple conversations regarding Tanaka’s origins and how she is from a glassed world.
- Elites discussing the Guardian awakening. One of the Elites refers to it as something almost religious. The other assures him that it is no god. Shows off the transition Elites had to go through after the fall of the covenant. Some still hold on to their old religion, even though they abandoned the covenant to join Arbiter.
Conversations such as these really make things interesting, and well, more alive, as they don’t always happen, or are triggered by certain things in game. But this is also a weakness for Halo 5. Based on the various paces at which people play the game, they might’ve missed extra info and conversations like the ones I mentioned. And people who chose to avoid exploring the social spaces continue to miss other interesting conversations. But it isn’t necessarily their fault for rushing through. The game simply spends more time rewarding exploration and slower pace through levels. Not a bad thing, but I feel like there’s a lot that people might’ve missed on their first playthroughs. Overall I think my opinions of this Campaign are slowly improving. And maybe, just maybe, I’m starting to become a little more fond of Osiris.