Halo 5 Positive Campaign Overview

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

So I finally beat the Halo 5 campaign alone on Legendary and I wanted to give my personal views on the campaign. WARNING: Spoilers are ahead! You have been warned!

First off, I just wanted to say that I’m not really sure why there is so much negativity surrounding the campaign. In terms of story, I think it’s right around that of Halo 4 which was my favorite one to date. I’m not sure which one I like better, because they are both so good. First, I will address most of the issues people had and then I will give my own opinion on the campaign. BTW, these are actual replies I have seen from around Halo Waypoint. I am not making these up.

  • “The campaign is too short. I beat it in 5 hours.” Unless you are a speed runner or playing on easy difficulty, there is no way you can beat Halo 5 in 5 hours. I played the campaign solo on Legendary and beat it in 15 hours. Pretty lengthy campaign if you play on the higher difficulties and take it all in. - “I hate the ending. Why did it have to end like that?” What’s so bad about the ending? Locke finds Chief and brings him back. Cortana is now rampant and threatening humanity. Pretty simple, yet effective ending because we are now anticipating Halo 6. Halo 5 was supposed to be a set up for Halo 6. Of course it’s going to have a cliffhanger! May I remind you that Halo 2 did the same thing, but of course since that’s “classic” Halo, people will push that aside and still praise it. - “Why does 343 hate Cortana? First they kill her, then they make her evil?!” Cortana was never killed. If she was, she wouldn’t be here in Halo 5. 343 just made us think that she was dead which I think was a pretty smart idea. Plus, you don’t know that she will stay evil. Did we think that she was coming back in Halo 5? Well I sure didn’t. I thought she was dead, but guess what? Plot twist! Who’s to say that the same thing can’t happen in Halo 6? And for what it is, I actually like that Cortana is evil because that builds another story. One where I hope that Chief will save her or maybe she will actually sacrifice herself for him if it came down to that. Again, there are so many possibilities that we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in Halo 6. - “I hate the story because Master Chief is only playable in 3 missions! You can’t have Halo without Master Chief!” Am I the only one that is actually OK with this? Even though Master Chief was only in three missions, I felt that those three missions were enough to tell us his side of the story and what he was doing. I mean, when you think about it, Chief was basically looking for Cortana. It’s kinda hard to make a full campaign about just that especially when they don’t go very many places. Before Halo 5 came out, I didn’t think that I would like Agent Locke. I knew that he was hunting Master Chief, but I thought his mission was going to involve killing him. Thankfully that didn’t happen and it turns out that Agent Locke was a really awesome character with amazing potential. Just give it a chance guys. - “Why is Blue Team helping Master Chief? That was never explained.” It actually was explained in the game. It goes along the lines of this: Vale asks Agent Locke in game, “I can understand why Master Chief would not follow orders from Infinity, but why Blue Team?” After a little bit more dialog Vale then says, “They’re family.” and Agent Locke replies with, “Exactly.” I know at some point between Halo 4 and Halo 5, Master Chief asked Blue Team to help him find Cortana. Blue Team is helping Master Chief because they are family and family sticks together no matter what. They are trying to find out what Cortana is up to and if need be, put an end to it. There’s your explanation. - “There is no character development on either side.” Read the books for Blue Team. All of their background was already available so they don’t need to have character development in the game. As for Locke’s team, there will be plenty of time for improvement of their characters as I’m sure they will be in Halo 6. It’s kinda like Master Chief in Halo: CE. We didn’t really know much about him, but as time went on, we learned more and more about him. Plus, the books helped out with his personality. Same thing can be applied to Fireteam Osiris. This is their first game. Give it some time. 343 will bring their characters out more. - “Since there is no split-screen, I will not play Halo 5.” This is the most controversial topic I have ever seen for Halo 5. I personally don’t care that split-scree isn’t here anymore. Of course, I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say this. Times are changing. Less and less people are playing couch co-op and more and more of them are buying their own consoles and TVs. You can be mad that 343 didn’t put split-screen in, but not playing Halo 5 because split-screen isn’t there is a huge mistake. Halo 5’s campaign is too good to miss and I honestly wish people would just give it a try.That’s all I can think of. Now, for my little addition to the campaign.

I personally loved the story and I was so engaged in it from beginning to end. The gameplay was absolutely amazing and Halo 5 was absolutely gorgeous! Being able to revive your teammates is something that I’ve never thought about before, but it’s a great addition to Halo! Since I was playing on Legendary, it was nice to be revived instead of constantly dying over and over again. The environments perfectly fit the new Spartan abilities and it was so enjoyable to use them in the campaign. Playing alongside the Elites again was amazing and I was so happy that the Arbiter was a part of this story! I hope that he continues into Halo 6 to fight alongside Locke and Chief. Also, most of the weapons were improved which I thought was really great!

I didn’t know how the Warden Eternal was going to play into this story, but once he became Cortana’s personal bodyguard, I thought that he was going to be a heavily involved character. And indeed he was. There have been some notorious boss fights in Halo, but my favorite is definitely the Warden Eternal. I cannot get enough of his voice. It’s so powerful, just like he is! I love it! Fighting him was the most challenging, fun (but also annoying), and rewarding boss fight that I’ve ever come across in Halo, especially in mission 14 where you have to fight 3 incarnations of him! This is the kind of boss fight I was looking for and I hope that 343 continues to make amazing bosses like the Warden Eternal.

Finally, the biggest plot twist ever, Cortana herself. I knew that she would play a major role in the campaign, but I thought she would only appear as flashbacks. However, when Master Chief said she was on Meridian, I thought, “Wait, she’s alive?! But, how?!” And then when she explained to John that she was cured of rampancy, I was filled with joy! I thought that things were going to be just great! But guess what? Plot twist! I couldn’t believe that Cortana’s plans were against that of what Master Chief stood for. I was heartbroken, but at the same time, I was hoping for redemption. While Cortana may be the antagonist now, that doesn’t mean she will stay that way and that’s all I can hope for in Halo 6.

Because of that insane plot twist, the new and amazing gameplay, the challenging and fun boss fights, the new and awesome characters, and the length of the campaign, Halo 5, to me, stands out as one of the greatest Halo campaigns to date. I loved every single minute of it and I look forward to continuing the story with Halo 6!

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I agree the campaign was amazing. I’ll admit I was abit torn early in the game when there was like 4 missions on Meridian and they all looked the same plus one was just walking around talking to npcs, that made me nervous because I like every level in a halo game to stand on its own and have a different environment and feel.

I got over all that once I just accepted it worked for story purposes and once Cortana showed up and -Yoink!- got crazy I was just mind blown. The last few levels were like epic battles of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS, Halo has never been so intense.

Also the cutscenes in this game were done beautifully.

3

I loved every minute of the campaign. Pure gold. Running through it on Legendary now!

4

EH NO NO NO the same boss 5 times was -Yoink-. It’s not even that it’s the same boss, it’s that you do the same -Yoink- each time to kill him. It would’ve been acceptable if they’d become gradually more difficult with more mechanics, with the warden physically evolving over the batttles. Rather than same one 3 times, then two, then 3. Felt lazy for that to be the evolution. Just copy and paste the warden over here.

5

China doesn’t even know the definition of the wall now. JK, interesting read, I agreed with most of what you said. I found the campaign enjoyable, especially because of its level design.

6

I agree with just about everything you said OP. I can’t wait to get home tonight play it some more.

7

Anyone who hates the Campaign probably hasn’t cracked a single damn book.
Well damn put OP. Well DAMN put.

8

I agree with you I literally just finished solo legendary by myself. I loved the store I just wish they explained some things a little better like the relationship between Blue Team. I don’t hate Lock, I hope they do more to explain him in the next one. And I did like the ending but a cliffhanger like that will kill me for a few years before we can see what happend. I really do enjoy the game, why can people just le it be a more modern halo its trying new things which is not bad.

9

I loved the campaign but I was expecting Chief vs Locke due to the Halo 5 ads. It dosent matter I still had fun.

10

> 2533274907200114;7:
> Anyone who hates the Campaign probably hasn’t cracked a single damn book.
> Well damn put OP. Well DAMN put.

I bought halo 5 the video game. Not, I bought halo 5 go read the books to understand halo 5. Does Mario brothers have books, does sonic the hedge hog have books? No. The game is there to provide the story for you.
Here let me spend another 60 bucks on books so I can spend another 60 bucks on a game.

11

The only Halo story to surpass it, IMO, is the one and only…Halo: Combat Evolved.

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> 2533274820876978;10:
> > 2533274907200114;7:
> > Anyone who hates the Campaign probably hasn’t cracked a single damn book.
> > Well damn put OP. Well DAMN put.
>
>
> I bought halo 5 the video game. Not, I bought halo 5 go read the books to understand halo 5. Does Mario brothers have books, does sonic the hedge hog have books? No. The game is there to provide the story for you.
> Here let me spend another 60 bucks on books so I can spend another 60 bucks on a game.

Mario and Sonic are both “casual” games. Halo is a “competitive” game. Halo has a whole universe of lore, and there is no story in Mario/Sonic.

13

Glad to see that most people agree with me! I was just so tired of seeing all the hate towards the story so I decided to step in and give it some praise.

14

I think it’s an amazing campaign. Can’t wait to get some 4 player co-op legendary plays.

15

I agree with you, but here are 2 or 3 things I would like to add.

  1. 15 hours is pretty long I guess. I completed legendary coop in 7-8 hours. Solo usually doesn’t take more than 1-2 hours additionally. But 7-8 coop or 8-10 solo is still way enough for a halo game so I agree.
  2. You take the ending too shallow I think. I guess something more is coming… I don’t believe it’s just as easy as saying cortana goes rampant. I somehow believe she thinks she’s doing the right thing and opens a path for a way greater thread by accident… At least that’s what I believe.
    A little theory crafting: what If 343 Guilty Spark copied some of his code into cortanas and tries to make her activate the halo rings or makes her go to another ring, so he can spread himself like a virus and posses another Ancilla… ? He could have manipulated her thinking while she was weak due to the madness. And maybe he cured the madness, or he actually was the madness and cortana was meant to live longer… It would be cray cray if Halsey tells Chief that Cortana was designed to last longer and she wasn’t supposed to get the madness in the first place.

Overall, I had quite a good time with the campaign, except a few flaws. But all in all, it really was pretty good.

16
  • Beat it in seven and a half on heroic first time. Felt like a decent length but I didn’t feel I achieved much, so it felt short on story. - The whole “hunt chief” plot aspect was way over hyped, there were only two encounters; the first time locke and chief met they had a little brawl and the second time they met they were both cool with each other.
    The whole premise of Cortana coming back, while it can be argued is bad or good, literally just nullified any emotional resonance Halo 4 held with me, the sole reason I give any credit to Halo 4’s plot is because they dealt with the death or Cortana so perfectly, they nailed it. Now she is back “because reasons” and so Halo 4 can now be summed up with “Cortana nearly died but bazinga, she didn’t really”. Halo 5 is NOT meant to be “a set up for halo 6”, just as halo 4 was not meant to be a set up for halo 5. Each game should be able to stand on it’s own, with it’s own important plot developments.
    And don’t bring Halo 2 into this, bungie admitted they messed up on that with a massive explaination about how they were so far behind on schedule they had no choice but to leave that god awful ending in. I doubt 343 will ever give a reason for the Master Chief Collections mess, and I doubt they will really address anyones issues with any of their plots. - Yeah, great, except they could have used Halo 5 to much better effect by building the Chief’s character, showing the aftermath of him losing Cortana. They set chief up at the end of Halo 4 to have this massive personal struggle summed up with Cortana telling him he isn’t a machine. That entire plot line has been scrapped in favour of ‘Cortana is back so chief go find her’. Chief wasn’t given any character progression what so ever, and that annoys the hell out of me because there was so much posibility after the end halo H4! - Hell, I would go as far to say chief was irrelevant to Halo 5. You could skip the blue team missions and the game would play out exactly the same, heck, if chief didnt even go after Cortana, the same events would still unfold. That is why it is annoying, because this is the first game where chief had no impact on the plot at all. - Indeed the whole blue team thing has been explained outside of the games, but for the same reason Destinys plot sucked massively because you had to look on bungies website for grimoire cards, which no one did, halo 5 falls short because they didn’t explain blue team other than that one line about them being family. I feel sorry for the 90% of people who buy halo 5 and will have no idea about the blue team back story. - Again, If you want to talk about Halo’s lore, then yes, characters are fleshed out, but you have to look at halo 5 as an individual product, and the one the majority of people will interact with, so no, stop using “because books” as an excuse. - I have to give you this one, couch gaming with friends is long gone. It is a shame they shoe-horned in Osiris and Blue team into the game though just so you can do co-op online and not have cloned characters to play as. Seriously, the game could have been done exactly the same without supporting characters. Unlike Reach, the other characters actually play no part what so ever.I’d give Halo 5 a 5/10 for plot. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, it was okay. The only reason I complain is because 343i had this amazing set up at the end of Halo 4 where they could have done so much better than what they did.
    Shoutout to 343 for good map design though, and making the promo knight more of a challenge, one have to actually think about.
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> 2533275033882106;12:
> > 2533274820876978;10:
> > > 2533274907200114;7:
> > > Anyone who hates the Campaign probably hasn’t cracked a single damn book.
> > > Well damn put OP. Well DAMN put.
> >
> >
> > I bought halo 5 the video game. Not, I bought halo 5 go read the books to understand halo 5. Does Mario brothers have books, does sonic the hedge hog have books? No. The game is there to provide the story for you.
> > Here let me spend another 60 bucks on books so I can spend another 60 bucks on a game.
>
>
> Mario and Sonic are both “casual” games. Halo is a “competitive” game. Halo has a whole universe of lore, and there is no story in Mario/Sonic.

There’s a reason why competitive gamers a.k.a ‘gamers’ are detested by the general public. Besides, if a game can’t be melded to be whatever experience you want to make it because developers didn’t have everyone in mind, then it’s truly not a modern game.

18

100% agreed, just finished the campaign and I am shaking. My heart was pounding when I was trying to reach the communications relay.

People said the story was too hollow… How? Fair enough the first few missions with Osiris before they landed on the Guardian, but you can’t disagree that the last few missions were brilliant. All previous Halo’s weren’t that deep either, especially CE and 3 in my opinion. The books have always added the depth where the games have failed to do so.

However I do really think they shouldn’t have killed Jul 'Mdama.

19

SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

  1. I agree the campaign length was perfectly great. There’s still a ton of easter eggs to find the campaign didn’t drag to me either. HOWEVER, using “Intel”, particularly this much of it…is a total cop-out. Put intel in there by all means but don’t put 100 pieces in there and expect me not to get bored of them.

  2. The ending is pretty bad. It’s not that it’s a cliffhanger…it’s that it’s ambiguous. Is Cortana still rampant even though she said she cured rampancy? Is she a shard of Cortana that split in Halo 4s ending? I have no clue what she is or what’s happening and it’s because they’re playing too loose with what an AI is and how it functions. Halsey should have been able to explain what was going on to chief in the ending or SOMETHING for clarity.

  3. I don’t have this qualm. I don’t think they hate Cortana…I just think they’re butchering her story. Her idea of militant force to control humans is uncharacteristic of her personality over the books I DID read plus the games.

  4. This is COMPLETELY a legitimate criticism. Blue team is what I’ve wanted to play since the fall of reach. To see them play three missions where they end up getting trapped by an AI is a complete mockery of the story/universe so far. PLUS Lock and his fireteam are SO one-dimensional. I don’t care about them at all. They’re boring and insipid and even Buck is completely wasted in this game by being relegated to one-liners and funny throw-offs.

  5. Yes. It is explained why Blue Team is helping Chief on his personal AWOL mission. But where was Blue team before being stationed on infinity? What did they do during the halo crisis? What did they do after? That probably would have actually been a good story AND a fun game.

  6. It’s insulting to me as a consumer to put the story in a book that I have to go out and also buy in addition to the game to understand the story. Plus Fall of Reach is the ONLY book I’ve truly enjoyed reading. Fall of Reach is one of my favorite books ever. NONE of the games have done justice to the universe the way that book did. Ghosts of Onyx was painful to get through, I don’t even remember Harvest, and I walked away from Cole Protocol LONG before finishing.

  7. I don’t have this complaint. I personally haven’t played split screen since 2002. My eyes are bad and it’s hard enough to need glasses without cutting my screen in 1/2 or 1/3.

20

OP, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessments. I’ve been a Halo nut since 2001, exploring all the expanded lore and always competing each campaign Legendary Solo. This is by far my favorite campaign as it begins to deal with John’s internal moral dilemma’s. I have some crazy theories about where they go next and I am thoroughly excited.