Changing Halo 5's Story

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I’m sure I speak for a lot of us when I say that Halo 5’s campaign plot wise was very underwhelming. It’s a real shame since gameplay wise in both campaign and multiplayer I’ve been loving it. And, I know what I’m about to say probably won’t lead to much, but I was just thinking, why not just redo it? It’s just this idea that’s been stuck in my mind for the last few days. It’s not unheard of for developers to change or restructure a game’s plot after launch, like Mass Effect 3 for instance, and I honestly think that Halo 5 really needs the face lift, especially after how misleading this game’s marketing was (what happened to cloaked Chief?). I hope that this thread gets enough traction so we can at least get a response from someone at 343.

I was thinking that they could release it as something like a Halo 5 Supercut. They could give it to everyone who bought the game at launch and up to a certain date afterward for free and then include it in all future copies of the game so they can charge $60 a little longer than they normal would. We’re probably going to have to wait 3 years at least for Halo 6 anyway so it could be something fun to hold us over with.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

As for actual changes that should be made, they really need to make it like 3x longer. Right now its just to damn short (only like 6 hrs!) for any significant plot or character development to happen. And another thing they need to do is make what chief is doing less obvious and really make it look like he’s the one behind the guardians awakening. Instead of having Blue Team go AWOL right off the bat, they should have two back to back missions, one being the Argent Moon mission as a way to introduce Blue Team and the next being the one they actually go AWOL, with a better reason than just Chief had a bad dream and wants to go somewhere the UNSC said they couldn’t. Then it should focus entirely on Locke hunting him down while really making look like Chief is responsible for all the mayhem and really show Locke having a real mental conflict over it, like in The Conquering Hero trailer. Then like 1/2-2/3 of the way through switch it back to Chief and show us what he’s really doing and that he’s really doing the right thing by trying trying to hunt down the source of Guardians. As for the ending, I would be alright with Cortana becoming the villain so long as they come up with a better reason for it, like someone else behind the curtain is really pulling the strings like a composed Diadact or Warden Eternal, or maybe that she just THINKS she’s cured her rampancy, while in reality it just won’t kill her anymore and she’s still going crazy. Which also bring me to the Domain, where did that come from? It was supposed to have been destroyed when the Halo array fired, how did it come back? Did the Precursors come back and reactivate it? An explanation would be nice. Anyway that’s just some rough ideas, they should just bring Joseph Staten back and have them build off the current framework and make it good.

To wrap up this wall of text, I would just like to reiterate that I know that this probably won’t happen and that it’s unlikely to make any difference, but I still just felt the need to post it anyway. Please just help spread the idea around to as many places you can if you agree, if enough of us get loud and complain about it we can at least get a response or maybe some of what I talked about above. Like I said, look at Mass Effect 3’s example, if it worked then it could still work now.

2

I have to disagree that your plot line “should” happen as you lay it out. 343i have every right to tell the story they want, and to be honest, I enjoyed it even if I feel there are certain plot points that could have been elaborated or tweaked for a deeper emotional attachment to what’s going on in the campaign.

What they did with Cortana is fine by me, and frankly, intriguing. I think there is a lot of potntial for the story going forward. I enjoyed the Warden Eternal as a character (maybe not the cookie cutter battkes themselves), and while Locke could have been fleshed out more, he grew on me to the point where I did a 180 on my opinion of him as a character from all the media lead up.

They may not have used the marketing in the direction people thought, but either way, it was all centered on the Guardians and figuring out what was going on. People seems to forget that Halo 2 was like this as well… more or less a build up to something greater, ending abruptly. I’d love story DLC to get more detail on the plot, but the game is what it is and had enough to buil up Halo 6 and on.

As for Cortana, I assume she is rampant, and I like the twist of AI as inheritors though I think it’ll need to go into more detail. As far as people always think the domain is gone forever… maybe Cortana is lying and is rampant and hasn’t found the Domain, maybe it the warning the Domain would be destroyed was a lie in the Forerunner saga, maybe itvs neural physics evolved so that some part of it could become reborn as sentient soecies were reseeded… there’s a lot we will hopefully find out in time. I think you’re just quick to jump the gun since the story didn’t jibe with promotion ads from over 2 years ago (the MC in the robe in the desert).

TL;DR
Areas could have been better, but it was entertaining, interesting to me if you pay attention, and a setup to even greater story in future Halos (hopefully).

3

The plot they gave was underwhelming, but the DNA of a great plot was there. Honestly the solutions to fix it is rather simple.

  1. Give the protagonists an actual, tangible goal to work for. Someone made a point that everything set in motion in Halo 5 would’ve happened regardless of the whole Locke chasing Chief down thing. From a narrative standpoint, there was nothing to come out of it. No Holy Chalice, if you will. Nothing tangible. I do understand the point of the game to set up the events of Halo 6, but there needed to be some type of payoff. I do appreciate the Master Chief “failing” in his task to convince Cortana to come home, but there needed to be something else so that we didn’t have to walk away empty handed. Halo 2 had similar problems, but it had the benefit of a nice payoff, (the elites as allies and a weakened covenant infrastructure).

  2. Give us roughly 2-3 more hours of gameplay, which can be somewhere between 3 and 5 more missions for character development and proper story growth. Linda is supposed to be the best sniper in the UNSC but nothing, NOTHING in the game indicates that aside from the fact that she spawns with one. Show us Kelly’s speed in practice. Explore the dynamic between John and Fred and how similar they are. On the other hand, Tanaka’s an engineer, show us more of that. Let’s get more on her experience surviving on a glassed planet. What about Vale as the cultural consultant, let’s see her interact more with Elites. Let’s further explore the bond between Buck and Locke, one being an ODST the other being an assassin. Also, give Lasky and Roland more to do for Christ’s sake.

  3. Return to the theme of “multiple evils” explored in previous Halo games. It was never just a singular enemy, always the covenant and the flood, a three way battle. Take it to the next level. We know the prometheans and covenant are evil, but throw ONI in there too.

4

The campaign definitely needs more adding to it, however it’s done. I’m not going to suggest any story additions, suffice to say the campaign is a real let down for all of the reasons posted all over the forums and reviews everywhere.
I would back the suggestion by the OP, Silk Ostrich that additional story needs to be added very promptly. Many die hard Halo fans (I’m a relative newbie to Halo) are very disenfranchised by Halo 5’s campaign… and I fear that if nothing is done, Halo will die.
Even though I’m a newbie (only started playing with the release of Reach), I love Halo, and it’s pretty much my go to game. The death of Halo, will mean the death of the gamer in me… so this is a rather selfish, but heartfelt plea.
Love the multi-player (bring back Grifball, Flood…?) but without good storytelling, Halo will become nothing.

5

To me at least, Halo 5 is analogous to Halo 3: ODST, a side story that is part of the bigger story. I think that if the real story is Halo 4/6, then they should have flushed out more of the upcoming story as the ‘real’ Halo 5 1st, and then made a side game called Halo: Osiris. Personally I would have liked to have seen 12-15 chapters of Master Chief, initially solo, then teaming up with Blue team, chasing clues across the galaxy trying to find Cortana as Halo 5 and then Halo: Osiris could have been an interesting back story to flush out more detail before Halo 6 comes out.

6

> The campaign definitely needs more adding to it, however it’s done. I’m not going to suggest any story additions, suffice to say the campaign is a real let down for all of the reasons posted all over the forums and reviews everywhere.
> I would back the suggestion by the OP, Silk Ostrich that additional story needs to be added very promptly. Many die hard Halo fans (I’m a relative newbie to Halo) are very disenfranchised by Halo 5’s campaign… and I fear that if nothing is done, Halo will die.
> Even though I’m a newbie (only started playing with the release of Reach), I love Halo, and it’s pretty much my go to game. The death of Halo, will mean the death of the gamer in me… so this is a rather selfish, but heartfelt plea.
> Love the multi-player (bring back Grifball, Flood…?) but without good storytelling, Halo will become nothing.

Dude, I also started with Reach and Halo is now BY FAR my favorite franchise, and it just KILLS me on the inside seeing 343 finally get the gameplay right, only to shoot themselves in the foot AGAIN and screw up the story. That’s really why I felt the need to make this post, because 343 has always seemed to take one step forward in one area then take two steps back in another, and its alienating everyone, hardcore fans and casuals alike. And like you said, gamplay sure as hell is important, and Halo 5 passes in spades in that department (minus lack of gamemode variety, GIVE ME GRIFBALL), but the campaign and story is Halo’s heart and soul. So in short, I whole heartedly agree with you.

> I think you’re just quick to jump the gun since the story didn’t jibe with promotion ads from over 2 years ago (the MC in the robe in the desert).

The problem is that they STILL have cloaked Master Chief in the achievement art, which I find VERY annoying because that never happens. And even despite that, the more recent live action trailers were also extremely deceptive, like All Hail and The Mission. Those made it out to seem like Chief and Locke were going to have a battle of ideals on top of Locke’s hunt, which also never happened in the game. Or the one where Chief was declared dead? Not even mentioned in the game. And i get that it’s not my story to tell, it’s 343’s, but that shouldn’t excuse them when they make a shtty one. I don’t want to get in an argument with you, but to disregard the deceptive as fck marketing just doesn’t make sense to me. I also have to disagree with you about the quality of the characters in the campaign. I went in only caring about Blue team and Buck, and I finished still only caring about Blue Team and Buck, and to be honest I probably wouldn’t have cared about Blue Team except for Chief if I didn’t already know who they were from the extended canon. I don’t really have a problem with Cortana becoming the villain, its just that it was very poorly protrayed, like it basically came out of no where and really didn’t fit her character very well.

> The plot they gave was underwhelming, but the DNA of a great plot was there. Honestly the solutions to fix it is rather simple.
>
> 1. Give the protagonists an actual, tangible goal to work for. Someone made a point that everything set in motion in Halo 5 would’ve happened regardless of the whole Locke chasing Chief down thing. From a narrative standpoint, there was nothing to come out of it. No Holy Chalice, if you will. Nothing tangible. I do understand the point of the game to set up the events of Halo 6, but there needed to be some type of payoff. I do appreciate the Master Chief “failing” in his task to convince Cortana to come home, but there needed to be something else so that we didn’t have to walk away empty handed. Halo 2 had similar problems, but it had the benefit of a nice payoff, (the elites as allies and a weakened covenant infrastructure).
>
> 2. Give us roughly 2-3 more hours of gameplay, which can be somewhere between 3 and 5 more missions for character development and proper story growth. Linda is supposed to be the best sniper in the UNSC but nothing, NOTHING in the game indicates that aside from the fact that she spawns with one. Show us Kelly’s speed in practice. Explore the dynamic between John and Fred and how similar they are. On the other hand, Tanaka’s an engineer, show us more of that. Let’s get more on her experience surviving on a glassed planet. What about Vale as the cultural consultant, let’s see her interact more with Elites. Let’s further explore the bond between Buck and Locke, one being an ODST the other being an assassin. Also, give Lasky and Roland more to do for Christ’s sake.
>
> 3. Return to the theme of “multiple evils” explored in previous Halo games. It was never just a singular enemy, always the covenant and the flood, a three way battle. Take it to the next level. We know the prometheans and covenant are evil, but throw ONI in there too.

Love your ideas man, Brian Reed should start taking notes haha.

7

> 2533274797310197;5:
> To me at least, Halo 5 is analogous to Halo 3: ODST, a side story that is part of the bigger story. I think that if the real story is Halo 4/6, then they should have flushed out more of the upcoming story as the ‘real’ Halo 5 1st, and then made a side game called Halo: Osiris. Personally I would have liked to have seen 12-15 chapters of Master Chief, initially solo, then teaming up with Blue team, chasing clues across the galaxy trying to find Cortana as Halo 5 and then Halo: Osiris could have been an interesting back story to flush out more detail before Halo 6 comes out.

Thats a good idea! Oh, well

8

I think longer missions could made a big difference. Maybe they’ll give us a Spartan Ops-type remedy

9

> 2533274920212800;8:
> I think longer missions could made a big difference. Maybe they’ll give us a Spartan Ops-type remedy

I certainly hope they do something, however they do it - a Spartan Ops type addition to fill in the story gaps (focussed on MC?) is one idea.

Silk Ostrich, we’re simpatico, bro!

10

> Silk Ostrich, we’re simpatico, bro!

My brutha from anotha mutha!

11

I also found this on reddit talking about Brian Reed and how -Yoink- he is at writing. I agree with it completely, if they can fix these major issues then Halo 5 can have a good campaign, hopefully.

> Reed seems like some writer that came into the franchise having not played the games. To prepare to write Halo 5, he had his 6 year old son explain the Forerunner books and then skimmed the wiki summary of the franchise. Spoiler
> Halo 5’s story has a few major flaws that I can’t even rationalize: major spoilers and major -Yoinking!- ahead
> -Threads set up in Halo 4 are untouched. Librarian’s Geas, Chief’s humanity, Didact, Janus Key, all untouched.
> -The game required knowledge of other material, leaving casual fans of the games in the dark, just like Halo 4. What’s The Domain? Who is Chief’s team really? What’s with the Arbiter’s war? I have friends who don’t even understand why the covenant are even still a thing because they never explain it in the games. A single line of dialogue in the moment can solve a lot of these, and Blue Team as a whole just needed more material for Locke’s description of them to stick.
> -The narrative of the promo material was awesome and very robust, yet nonexistent in the game. This made it feel misleading.
> -If we’re gonna play 4/5 of the game as not Chief, the characters have to be endearing. Buck was the only good part of Osiris, and even he felt under represented. 343 also has a serious problem with creating new characters, not developing them, and then abandoning them. Vale and Tanaka’s roles would be better off with filled by under used established characters. Palmer and Dare would have been good fits, and then make Palmer not infuriating so players can warm up to her, and maybe gasp she develop her attitude for the better after the events of Halo 4/Spartan Ops.
> -Jul 'Mdame had a pretty anticlimactic death after his major role in Spartan Ops. His entire story could have been better told (see previous bullet…) and his death just seemed like a quick way to show off Locke as a badass so we’d like him, ending a big thread from Halo 4.
> -Cortana being alive completely undermines the impact of Halo 4’s ending.
> -Claiming AIs were the actual Reclaimers is a huge retcon. Hopefully it’s just Cortana being crazy (see next bullet)
> -The Cortana we saw in Halo 5 is nothing like the character that had over a decade of development. The shift to her hating Halsey and totalitarian rule and AI > humans was on a dime and without an explanation, it is completely immersion breaking. At face value, it makes no -Yoinking!- sense and honestly ruined the whole campaign for me. They can fix this with more story (say she’s rampant crazy or the Domain corrupted her) but as it was presented I completely rejected it as a long time Halo fan.
> -More story in Halo 6 can solve some of these issues, like the Cortana thing. But it doesn’t change the fact the 343 intentionally will leave players feeling a certain way for 2 years, and they should have taken care to make sure players were not left disappointed. If they’re going to have payoff’s like Cortana is actually still rampant or the Domain is actually Gravemind’s -Yoink- controlling her, lay some seeds now so people can speculate. As it stands there is no indication that the story at face value isn’t the complete reality, and we’ll have to stew in this for the next few years.
> All the franchises I loved have failed the test of time, Halo was the one game that could still ignite that spark because I’ve always been so invested in the story. Halo 5 extinguished that, and unless Halo 6 has something to redeem our new antagonist as more than just an uninspired AI vs. Meatbag story, then the last franchise I love, my rock, is just another thing I once loved that’s changed.
> I don’t want to be “that guy” that comes into the subreddit and only complains about the campaign, but I’m just really invested in the universe and am just super bummed.

Here’s the subreddit if anyone is interested

12

I think they should do almost exactly what you said as to additions to the story. I agree with everything you said. What 343 should do, instead of adding story dlc, they should make another game, like halo 3 ODST. Except this halo 5 would be called something like “Halo 5: The Hunt” and we could play more as master chief and visit other places, while we activate the guardians, try and save cortana, while your being pursued by Locke intensely, have a major battle with Locke while blue team and Osiris go at it. It would be a great opportunity to give us some more back story and character development. Pretty much the add on game would be the “greatest hunt in game history” part to the halo 5 story. It could be done, the add on story could be molded to fit the current halo 5 story, as well as to satisfy the community greatly! I think they should do that so they can keep us happy and occupied with halo 5 for a while. And it would be a great redeemer for 343 and restore everyone’s faith in them so everyone would love both story lines.

13

It may seem odd for what I’m about to say (considering my recent waypoint history)…but… Halo 5s story NEEDS to stay as it is. What do I mean by this, well it sets an example for what NOT to do for 343i if they do indeed listen just like they did with halo 4 in terms of the MP. But this is based on how 343 were during the h4 days which at this point 343 has shown that it’s quite different. Plus it should show 343 that Brian reeds work for the series has now had a 3rd strike and that his writing is not popular, they should know this by now.