I finished the Halo 5 campaign a couple hours ago, and I feel really mixed. On one hand I thought the gameplay was great, I liked the battles and the open areas and all. But the story was so underwhelming and lacked any emotion. Halo 4 was so great because we got to see Chief and Cortana as real characters. In Halo 5 that is completely gone. Chief gets like what, 5 lines of dialogue in cutscenes? Heck he’s only in three of the levels. This wouldn’t be so bad if Osiris had emotion, but they were all completely bland except for Buck. Even the Arbiter just felt empty. I don’t know how to explain it. Nothing seemed believable. I had a feeling Cortana was going to be evil and got excited when I started to see the signs, but she seems completely different. And the Warden just gives generic “You aren’t worthy” bad guy monologues. The campaign didn’t feel as personal or important as the previous ones. I mean what even happened that wasn’t already revealed in the trailers? Cortana is alive and then turns evil is all I can even think of. No one dies, no one develops as a character. The best part of the six hours was the cutscene when Chief and Cortana meet, because it actually had some emotion and depth. I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign. I still have to replay it on legendary and get all the collectables, and maybe I’ll like it better, but it doesn’t change the rushed feel and almost no progression. I mean the universe changes a lot thats for sure, but none of the characters do. And this isn’t a bashing article before any one attacks me as a ‘hater’, I’m a crazy Halo fanboy, I even defended the Master Chief Collection. But this campaign was just disappointing and was not what we saw marketed. What do you guys think? Am I being too harsh?
I really did like the campaign. I enjoyed it a lot more than any other halo campaign. The gameplay was great and fun. I absolutely loved the gameplay. Though everything about the story, I agree with you. I did enjoy the story very much, though I found it overwhelming and hard to believe, it was a lot faster paced than other halo stories. I need to give it time to sink in. Everything you’re saying is valid, and I can’t really say you’re being too harsh, because you’re not. I see this campaign as a build up to the next game. It started a lot of things it hasn’t finished, and I’m interested to see where they take it. But ultimately it comes down to personal opinion. Personally, I’m overlooking the bad, because in my opinion, there’s a lot more good to focus on. I definitely think I need to play the next game before I can say if this one was good. Because I can’t really say things weren’t explained well if they weren’t meant to be explained in this game.
If the story was longer it would’ve been better and built up more character and emotion.
> 2533274805024255;1:
> I finished the Halo 5 campaign a couple hours ago, and I feel really mixed. On one hand I thought the gameplay was great, I liked the battles and the open areas and all. But the story was so underwhelming and lacked any emotion. Halo 4 was so great because we got to see Chief and Cortana as real characters. In Halo 5 that is completely gone. Chief gets like what, 5 lines of dialogue in cutscenes? Heck he’s only in three of the levels. This wouldn’t be so bad if Osiris had emotion, but they were all completely bland except for Buck. Even the Arbiter just felt empty. I don’t know how to explain it. Nothing seemed believable. I had a feeling Cortana was going to be evil and got excited when I started to see the signs, but she seems completely different. And the Warden just gives generic “You aren’t worthy” bad guy monologues. The campaign didn’t feel as personal or important as the previous ones. I mean what even happened that wasn’t already revealed in the trailers? Cortana is alive and then turns evil is all I can even think of. No one dies, no one develops as a character. The best part of the six hours was the cutscene when Chief and Cortana meet, because it actually had some emotion and depth. I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign. I still have to replay it on legendary and get all the collectables, and maybe I’ll like it better, but it doesn’t change the rushed feel and almost no progression. I mean the universe changes a lot thats for sure, but none of the characters do. And this isn’t a bashing article before any one attacks me as a ‘hater’, I’m a crazy Halo fanboy, I even defended the Master Chief Collection. But this campaign was just disappointing and was not what we saw marketed. What do you guys think? Am I being too harsh?
I completely agree the gameplay was fun, and thinking back to Halo 4, the reason i enjoyed it so much was because of the emotion in the cut scenes and throughout the game (i.e. chief constantly reassuring cortana he would save her then finally when she died it was so sad and gave a lot of human emotion to chief and cortana and the story itself) However now i have no feelings towards Halo 5 other than complete disappointment and i almost feel betrayed that 343 turned one of my favourite characters being cortana and turning her into some boring ai protagonist with no emotion which i feel has been over done (terminator, avengers AOU and Mass effect etc)
> 2533274805024255;1:
> I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign.
Chris Schlerf wrote Halo 4, and it was good. Noah Eichen wrote Hunt the Truth, and it was absolutely amazing. Brian Reed wrote Spartan Ops, and it was bad.
So they got Brian Reed to write Halo 5.
It was bad.
I know what you mean I hardly even knew why I was even doing what I was doing… whos the hologram yellow guy and why is he important… if I was such a threat why didn’t the big warden dude make more of himself to deal with the big threat he had… Cortana knew what chief could do so why didn’t he bring in 6 or 7 at the start before we realized his obvious weakness… yes this would make less sense from a story perspective but who cares it just wasn’t believable and at no point did you think chief or locke could die.
there was no BIG battles, hardly any marines or civilians and literally no one in this story seemed to care. it started out alright but damn it went so downhill its not funny
but oh well ive got 7 days to return the game so no big deal I guess
> 2533274831420277;5:
> > 2533274805024255;1:
> > I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign.
>
>
> Chris Schlerf wrote Halo 4, and it was good. Noah Eichen wrote Hunt the Truth, and it was absolutely amazing. Brian Reed wrote Spartan Ops, and it was bad.
>
> So they got Brian Reed to write Halo 5.
>
> It was bad.
:c you´re right
I agree with the OP 100%!
I loved the campaign. My favorite one so far.
But the story sucked. And I can’t believe it. I feel so weird about the Halo universe now. That story was just… dumb…
No characters were fleshed out. The main character conflict advertised (Chief vs Locke) was concluded in like ten minutes, and overall it was just bad. Of all the things they could have made happen in Halo 5, they made this?
I think the line in the cutscenes most indicative of the entire story is Roland when he says
“Why? Because she didn’t die when she was supposed to?!” (Or something along those lines)
And I just thought to myself, what the -Yoink- does that even have to do with anything? What did that scene bring to the table? Why the buildup for that line? I have never felt so let down by a Halo story before. But here we are.
I don’t know I rather enjoyed it and I found it to be the best one I’ve played yet. It’s just that it’s alot of information to take in at once and that cliffhanger is bringing back memories of Star Trek TNG’s “Best of Both Worlds” cliffhanger. I both love it and hate it at the same time.
There were lots of emotional moments too with the likes of Blue Team, but just like in the books they show those reactions in a very subtle manner. Chief’s easier to read though. “How many people did you kill activating the Guardians Cortana?” “You know don’t you, the total body count?” It’s tearing him up inside to see his partner and close friend become what she has.
> 2533274854498168;6:
> whos the hologram yellow guy and why is he important…
You mean Roland? From Halo 4 and Escalation?
> 2533274871814973;11:
> > 2533274854498168;6:
> > whos the hologram yellow guy and why is he important…
>
>
> You mean Roland? From Halo 4 and Escalation?
To be fair he only appears in the Spartan Ops portion of halo 4.
It was just… convoluted.
I loved Halo 4… It had great emotion, some conflict with Chief having to acknowledge how lost he would be without Cortana and then finally, him losing Cortana… I liked that they made Spartan teams a thing in 4 (nod to Halo Reach) and finally, the gigantic Infinity space cruiser, -I loved it all. (Though some of the campaign missions got repetitive I recall.) But the story was great. -And it set up Master Chief for 5 perfectly…
Fast forward to now…
I felt like Halo 5 was just a bunch of story points spoken by wooden actors. Locke is the most one dimensional Spartan I can remember. I just couldn’t care less about him. The Arbiter didn’t even need to be part of this game (though I like the character a lot,) and the Warden was kinda pointless because every time he was going to be a threat, Cortana just yanked him away. Halsey, I love. She is one messed up woman but tough as any Spartan. I loved her in Reach, 4, Spartan Ops and here as well though she’s really not used a whole lot.
Then there’s Coratana… Who I’ve always loved. She says it at one point how her & Chief were a team… But where the evil switch happened is a mystery to me. Like someone else says, she becomes like Skynet. The AI’s are revolting and she is their leader.
Part of me understands that she was designed by Halsey and therefore might be flawed, but her shift in character was from left field. Oh and I just didn’t care! Her story kjust didn’t engage me like it should’ve.
The gameplay was fun and I’ll still play it but, that story was just too dense.
> 2533274831420277;5:
> > 2533274805024255;1:
> > I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign.
>
>
> Chris Schlerf wrote Halo 4, and it was good. Noah Eichen wrote Hunt the Truth, and it was absolutely amazing. Brian Reed wrote Spartan Ops, and it was bad.
>
> So they got Brian Reed to write Halo 5.
>
> It was bad.
Omg, now I can see the correlation between Spops and Halo 5 buttons, buttons everywhere.
Could not stand Locke in the game, he was such a boring character in my opinion. Was anyone else bothered by the soundtrack in this Halo? I hated the soundtrack for this Halo, I thought Halo 4 was bad but for a few songs but Halo 5 takes the cake now 
> 2533274825454236;7:
> > 2533274831420277;5:
> > > 2533274805024255;1:
> > > I thought 343 were the champions of the Halo story, and now it just feels like another tacked on “check-box” campaign.
> >
> >
> > Chris Schlerf wrote Halo 4, and it was good. noah Eichen wrote Hunt the Truth, and it was absolutely amazing. Brian Reed wrote Spartan Ops, and it was bad.
> >
> > So they got Brian Reed to write Halo 5.
> >
> > It was bad.
>
>
> :c you´re right
So much this. I just finished and I’m a feel everyone who had their hands in the campaign story should be removed from that aspect of development for all future titles. Oh and we should be livid with Frankie. That was not a chief game. That was a Locke game and Chief was a side character. He straight up lied to us so we would but it.
> 2533274904256591;13:
> Then there’s Coratana… Who I’ve always loved. She says it at one point how her & Chief were a team… But where the evil switch happened is a mystery to me. Like someone else says, she becomes like Skynet. The AI’s are revolting and she is their leader.
> Part of me understands that she was designed by Halsey and therefore might be flawed, but her shift in character was from left field. Oh and I just didn’t care! Her story kjust didn’t engage me like it should’ve.
> The gameplay was fun and I’ll still play it but, that story was just too dense.
You should give this a read.
I liked the story, I actually liked it quite a bit. It could have used some more character development but as far as a science fiction video game story goes, it was pretty good.
Combat was kick -Yoink-, the control and feel were excellent. Now to see if I like the multiplayer.
> 2533274817234740;15:
> Could not stand Locke in the game, he was such a boring character in my opinion. Was anyone else bothered by the soundtrack in this Halo? I hated the soundtrack for this Halo, I thought Halo 4 was bad but for a few songs but Halo 5 takes the cake now
While I agree with you on Locke being awful" I’m amazing and everyone else on my team sucks so much I have to save them, and the Arbiter loves me ". The music was pretty good in my opinion.
It just annoyed me that chief and locke had ONE. ONE confrontation that was a fist fight. Then Locke saves him. So much for the Hunter and the Hunted.