Halo Campaigns

Community Halo Universe
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I’ve been a fan of Halo since CE but mainly the multiplayer. This is a newer account of mine since MCC but I’ve put in tons of time in multiplayer on pretty much every game.

With that being said, I’ve only fully ever played through the CE campaign and parts of the second and I loved it but tbh, I get bored of non multiplayer games fast minus the Souls series. I am getting ready to play through all the campaigns so I understand the lore at a deeper level but my question is with Halo 5 really. Is there anyone out there who likes the H5 campaign? I have yet to see one positive YouTube video or even comment that indicates anyone liking it.

Is h5 something I have to play through to be caught up completely with Lore? I also love reading when I have the time and bought the books and I can be completely wrong about this but after reading 2 chapters of the first one, the writing seemed a little poor to me. Again, I didn’t give it a fair chance so I intend to do so but I really thought it might be time I actually understand the lore of the game I love the most. I’m unsure if reading the books pertains to the main story or if it’s all kind of just side stuff.

Anyone who has played through all the games and possibly read the books, is it needed to go through all of that to enjoy the story? Also, is it worth it…?

Again, please excuse the lack of knowledge I have behind some aspects of all of this.

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The campaign for Halo 5 is a… well… I wouldn’t say it’s the worst story ever written, but it’s definitely not the best Halo story we’ve ever had. I mean, I somewhat like it. If you want to be caught up on the lore, then I think it’s worth a play through. Do it on Normal or Easy if you don’t want to go insane from the revive system. Locations are gorgeous, and a few are fun to fight through, but the actual narrative is bland. It has it’s moments, don’t get me wrong, definitely were aspects of the story I enjoyed. Just needed more fine-tuning and some of the “Halo-story-magic” to be good/great. I’m actually about to start a new play through as well. I’m a little fuzzy on the story, so I figure I should get caught up.

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Halo 5 is alright. It definitely has some Halo moments, most commonly when the “Halo music” starts playing it makes it more enjoyable. The opening cutscenes for both teams is pretty badass, some missions give suspense, tension and mystery as well as providing an okay story overall. The multiplayer of Halo 5 is probably the best aspect of Halo 5 whereas the story of Halo 4 would be the stronger story written by 343i. I felt that due to the changes they made by removing the classic artsyle and music that Halo hasn’t felt the same, but with Infinite the hype is building and from what we’ve seen, those elements seem to be coming back.

From a lore perspective you definitely need to play Halo 5 so you can tie up the whole story as I assume Infinite will be expanding upon Halo 5, although it is to be enjoyable for new comers but to have a complete understanding of Halo that’s what I’d advise. You would probably want to do a bit of reading on Halopedia (the go to Halo lore site for those prominent in the lore such as myself) on the Battles in the post-Human-Covenant War era to be able to make a lot more connections. I feel like Halo 5 will be more enjoyable if you do read on Halopedia the things I suggested and they’re actually enjoyable to read too, especially if you want to know as much about the expanded world as possible. Hell I got hooked on Halopedia after doing a quick search and after about a month of reading I’m now well expertised in the Human-Covenant War conflicts as well as the battles that took place post-Human-Covenant War. My main area of expertise however is with the Spartan-III program but now I’m rambling so I’m gonna stop there.

EDIT: I recommend listening to Halo music while reading Halopedia if that is something you are considering, just makes the experience much more better. You can find playlists of Halo music on Spotify if you’re stuck for finding a place.

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Thanks, guys!

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Halo 5 is complete garbage. It had a completely deceiving marketing campaign and is focused primarily around a squad of new characters that no one really likes (the game’s ‘best’ missions are focused on them, but even those pale in comparison to the blockbuster missions in the previous games). The story is entirely generic, was written by a guy who clearly didn’t understand Halo at all (he’s luckily been fired since Halo 5 was received so poorly) and the gameplay is so simplistic and basic (made even more so by AI teammates).

It is a terrible game that was an insult to the Halo franchise. I would honestly tell you even more, but I guess you probably don’t want spoilers (plus the moderators are under orders to snuff out overly negative posts about Halo and 343i).

So the plus sides of Halo 5…Um…

Well, the opening cinematic is well done, I suppose. Has decent enough graphics though not much change over Halo 4, the Elite-centric missions near the middle of the game are good (not great, but good)…

Overall, it is my sincerest hope that 343i chooses to recognized that they messed up and, much like JJ Abrams trying to fix the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy after Ruin Johnson lit it on fire and shoved it into a dumpster and then sent it rolling down a hill into a sewage plant, 343i does the best thing for the franchise and retcons or otherwise just /fixes/ everything Halo 5 got wrong about Halo and takes it back to the style of the original games plus Reach.

Halo Wars is also another section of the franchise that has withered under 343i’s anemic leadership of the franchise. IT started off strong with the first game, giving us a look into the timeline that we hadn’t seen before, the early days of the Human-Covenant War, and then the sequel was just a shallow story that was largely built as a platform to sell you DLC and microtransactions.

The Expanded Universe isn’t all that great either. They took the universe so far away from it’s military science fiction roots and tried to make the franchise into something that it is NOT. The Forerunner books are silly space magic nonsense with BigFancyWords™ tossed into stuff with the /worst/ character names ever. Dumb plot lines that only /weaken/ the narrative (especially where Ancient Humanity is concerned) and a bunch of low quality novels by budget authors who don’t know what they’re doing or the subject matter. Not to mention Karen Travissty’s agenda novels and the character assassination arc against Doctor Halsey.

You want to read the books, here’s the list of the ones that matter most.

Contact Harvest: The story of Humanity’s first contact with the Covenant on Harvest, where it all began. Written by Joe Staten, the guy that wrote the story for the original games.

Fall of Reach: The origins of the Spartan-IIs (Master Chief) and their development into supersoldiers across the course of their lives. Written by Eric Nylund.
First Strike: The story that takes place between Halo 1 and Halo 2 and focuses on how the Chief got back to Earth from Alpha Halo. Also written by Nylund.
Ghosts of Onyx: The story that created the Spartan-IIIs, their development, and what was happening to the remaining Spartan IIs during the events of Halo 2-3.

And also I really, really hope that Halo Infinite isn’t a Games as a Service always online shooter. We have enough of those, that particular market is unstable because gamers are finally using their brains and voting with their wallets, and my Internet is so terrible and slow that I can’t do any sort of online gaming at all so it becomes a non-purchase for me.