I’ll preface this by saying, I enjoyed the campaign and the characters it introduced, but you are correct in the fact that it’s lacking. I feel like it’s slipped into the same place that H5 did, with the player needing to read multiple novels or watch 3 hours worth of videos to explain how the game starts. I’ve outlined what I think should have been done/what could be improved upon.
Obviously Spoilers. You’ve been warned. Twice.
The first scene, with the infinity being destroyed. This could easily have been much longer, or even made into the first level of the game, akin to The Pillar of Autumn in HCE, but with the end being chief cast into the void. It just feels like the infinity gets attacked for the sake of being attacked. There’s no buildup or context to it.
There needs to be more cutscenes/flashbacks of Cortanas deletion/confrontations with Atriox. They could have added some terminals for this or expanded on this in the opening scene.
While a small point, there’s 0 indication of how long chief was in space for, until you find weapon. Just a simple ‘Six months later’ before Echo-216 picks you up would have sufficed. It confused the hell out of me at the first time I watched it.
Who the hell is harbinger? And who are the endless? The game doesn’t explain a great deal about them, even with all of the forerunner artifacts that you can collect (I’ve listened to all of them and there’s still very little explanation). If the game wanted two different enemies, it needs to be a longer campaign with adequate explanation of both. It’s disappointing to see a formidable enemy get 0 backstory, then get beaten and ultimately forgotten at the end of the game.
The bosses are all major bullet sponges, which sucks -Yoink!- for such a diverse set of characters. The only rewarding boss is harbinger, because it’s the only one that isn’t a complete bullet sponge. On legendary her attacks are crazy strong, but you don’t spend 20 minutes whittling down shield just to be met with 78 million hp to continue chipping at. This makes it more an arena manipulation/timing boss. Unlike the hand of Atriox brothers, which are just a spam fest. That is honestly the least rewarding boss I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with, in any boss fight-style game I’ve ever played.
The legendary cutscene hinting at DLC for offensive bias is pretty damn cool. I just hope they add explanations for Atriox’s shenanigans with it.
Any and all thoughts on the campaign welcome here too btw. Share as much as you like.
TL;DR
The story is great, and the campaign is ultimately good. Far better than the H4 & 5 stories. But there is a lack of exposition, cutscenes and explanation to many of the characters and important events. Plus the bosses are unrewarding and a little boring to fight.