Halo it's Past, Present, and Future

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

WARNING: Essay coming through

Let me start off by saying I love Halo I love how it brings the community together, it’s amazing storyline, and its amazing gameplay. That is after all why I am here; thats why most of us are here on these forums we all share one thing in common no matter how different we are from each other and that is the love for this game. We are all here because we want this game to live on and succeed. With all the being said here goes nothing…

So? What intrigued us to pick up an xbox and pick up this franchise in the first place? Well for one I would say most of us are FPS fans but thats a given. There are two main things I believe brought most of us to Halo.
The very first and original thing that brought many of us here was the weird mystique, curious,and adventurous feeling within the campaign. What do I mean by this you might say. When I refer to mystique I am talking about its original and unraveling universe as we traverse through its gorgeous landscapes in a snowy canyon, or a chaotic earth. The Pillar of Autumn (The level) set the tone for the game. This level introduced us to wondrous new creatures ranging from a menacing looking octopus headed creature all the way to a pitiful and laughable midget monster. At first we had no clue wtf was happening we just knew mean aliens were attacking our ship, it seemed like Halo was gonna be just another generic sci-fi video game with putrid storytelling (I’m looking at you DOOM). But then we see that these aliens interact, they speak back, they laugh at you when you fail, and they even taunt you (Even the little guys). That alone added a whole new level of interaction.

Once we finish that first level we feel accomplished, we just escaped an exploding ship all while looking like a badass. But then the moment the blew most of our minds was Halo (Again, the level). As soon as you gained movement of your green super soldier you walk out of the pod and you see a HUGE open world with amazing scenery and at that moment you knew****this game wasn’t -Yoinking!- around. As you progress through out the levels you tend to get pulled in by the story, you’re curious were you will head next, or what the next level will look like, or where the story would unfold, and what new enemies will you encounter. There were so many things that would make you keep on playing over and over and over. There were twists and turns everywhere such as meeting the flood, finding the meaning of the Halos, **PLAYING AS THE “BAD GUY”**AKA the Arbiter/Covenant (like seriously what other games let you do that at the time?), seeing the destruction of the Covenant (The Great Schism), finding bigfoot (brutes), and much much more. There were many rewarding experiences and places to explore. And then all of this came to a sudden and abrupt halt.

Why you might ask? Well the answer is simple,343i. Before you start pelting me with rocks let me say I love many features that 343 has added and I love how they tend to interact more with their community than bungie, but I will say that this they RUINED THE CAMPAIGN. They made this amazing story into a pile of garbage (To put it lightly).

First off why does master chief talk so much? Fans of H4 and H5 campaigns say that he is learning what its like to be human…like seriously wtf is this twilight? We want action and plot twists not some inner being drama stuff. I can see how this is plausible but this part of the story line does not fit Halo or the master chief what so ever. I mean yeah he had to get over the death of Cortana but then again he has seen many, many others he truly cared about die or go missing. What makes this A.I so special, and again this does not fall on the same track as previous iterations of the game.

My main issue with this game is that all the mystique and adventurous feeling is gone. I am not sure if this is just because I am already used to the game or what, but it seems that many people’s interest with the story seemed to die off with H4. One of the things I believed caused this was the prometheans. Remember how I said the covenant were so cool and amazing…yeah well none of that applies to the prometheans. These guys provide no personality what so ever, all they do is just blurt random noises from time to time and they all look very…boring and plain. They have nothing going for them compared to the covenant or the flood, or hell even the sentinels. Also why did they all of a sudden start appearing? Am I missing something or what. They just literally came out of the blue for no apparent reason. Not once were they ever mentioned in the books or campaign. (Or so I think). And even then again even if they were only mentioned in the books how come they never gave a backstory to them in the games? They just stated that they were composed humans/forerunners and that they were protecting the didact. Which brings me to my next point.

THEY NEVER MENTION WHY THEY WERE PROTECTING HIM AND WHO THE DIDACT IS AND WHY HE HATED HUMANS! When I need to look at the books to fill in some plot holes then you know something is very wrong. This had never happened with Halo, previously a random person could just pop in the game and have a basic grasp of what is going on even if they never played CE, or 2. I was completely lost in H4, I had little to no clue why we were doing certain objectives, and I only finished the campaign for the sake of finishing it. This game provided little to no enjoyment and had no haloesque feel to it. I especially hated the fact that we were so constricted within the levels. There was no call for exploration, invisible boundaries were everywhere and there was basically a set and stone path that everyone took. We went from rooftop hopping in big cities to being constricted everywhere you went, the exploration was dead.

Although H5 did improve on the story in some areas it still suffers from many major flaws of H4, such as a still containing a confusing story (I still have no clue what the hell the domain is since it a weird concept to grasp), or still having the same boring enemies. Also H5 was a huge let down to many of us mainly due to the false advertising that was showed to consumers. I even remember thinking that Halo was back on track and 343 learned from their mistakes, I though 343’s H5 would rival Bungies H2 in terms of story but nope, instead we got another confusing and lackluster story.

I believe 343 needs to play the original trilogy several times until they understand what made those games so amazing and top notch. Either that or get a new lead writer because this guy ruined the campaign. I wish for a better future in terms campaign and hopefully we will get one, but only time will tell.

Well that took a lot more writing then I thought it would…I guess next time I can discuss the second reason why I believe Halo is dwindling.

Please let me know what you guys think. What brought you into Halo and why? Do you think Halo is fine as it is? Where could it improve campaign wise? Let me know in the comments below.

2

First of all, I like Chief talking more. He is no longer a reserved and pg rated Duke Nukem spewing cheesy one-liners.

Have to agree about the Prometheans being lame. Also the fact that fans that didn’t read the Forerunner trilogy by Greg Bear were likely confused by H4 plot. But to be fair, that happened since day 1 of Halo. The first Halo item released to the wild was Fall of Reach, which was the backstory for the game.

Thanks for writing this it was fun to read. You might want to edit some paragraph breaks in there. :wink:

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> 2533274803493024;2:
> First of all, I like Chief talking more. He is no longer a reserved and pg rated Duke Nukem spewing cheesy one-liners.
>
> Have to agree about the Prometheans being lame. Also the fact that fans that didn’t read the Forerunner trilogy by Greg Bear were likely confused by H4 plot. But to be fair, that happened since day 1 of Halo. The first Halo item released to the wild was Fall of Reach, which was the backstory for the game.
>
> Thanks for writing this it was fun to read. You might want to edit some paragraph breaks in there. :wink:

I see why some people like him talking more. Even I think he should lighten up some times but there are many times were he says unnecessary things or he talks for to long. I don’t know it just feels unnatural. I know most people would agree about the prometheans so Im glad you do to. And yes many of us never read the books I still havent read any of the books I just look on halopedia for answers. FInally yes there was a backstory to Halo CE although it didn’t provide any vital information to the campaign. I still understood who the covenant were, who the flood was, etc.

Also thanks for taking your time to read it, I’m glad you enjoyed it. :slight_smile:

(Btw Duke Nukem is great :smiley:)

4

It is interesting to see someone putting forth criticisms against the Campaign for once.

First, agree with your statement about getting over the death of Cortana. I find all this focus on Cortana to just be stupid, but I put the blame on Bungie for starting that trend. The focus should’ve remained on the Covenant and the Flood, not on the troubles of a sassy sidekick.

I don’t like Prometheans. Aside from being uninteresting to fight they’re just…not even remotely what I imagined Forerunner machinery to look like. How do you make the leap from Sentinels to Skeletal Robots? Kind of ties in with all the various art style changes as well, Forerunners in the new trilogy feel completely unrelated to the ones depicted in the old trilogy. I again have to ask how you make the leap from ancient and foreboding structures to floating Tron buildings. I guess by sprinting and hovering.

Eh, Chief still doesn’t talk all that much. I don’t think they ruined him by giving him a few bits of actual dialogue. It’s actually kind of amusing to hear his Ce dialogue out of context.

> The first Halo item released to the wild was Fall of Reach, which was the backstory for the game.

I didn’t need to read Fall of Reach to understand what was going on in Halo Ce. The PoA was being chased by the Covenant, a force described in the manual as a genocidal collective of aliens, and had to make an emergency crash landing.

With Halo 4…little is explained that needs to be explained.

5

> 2533274819302824;4:
> It is interesting to see someone putting forth criticisms against the Campaign for once.
>
> First, agree with your statement about getting over the death of Cortana. I find all this focus on Cortana to just be stupid, but I put the blame on Bungie for starting that trend. The focus should’ve remained on the Covenant and the Flood, not on the troubles of a sassy sidekick.
>
> I don’t like Prometheans. Aside from being uninteresting to fight they’re just…not even remotely what I imagined Forerunner machinery to look like. How do you make the leap from Sentinels to Skeletal Robots? Kind of ties in with all the various art style changes as well, Forerunners in the new trilogy feel completely unrelated to the ones depicted in the old trilogy. I again have to ask how you make the leap from ancient and foreboding structures to floating Tron buildings. I guess by sprinting and hovering.
>
> Eh, Chief still doesn’t talk all that much. I don’t think they ruined him by giving him a few bits of actual dialogue. It’s actually kind of amusing to hear his Ce dialogue out of context.
>
>
>
>
> > The first Halo item released to the wild was Fall of Reach, which was the backstory for the game.
>
>
> I didn’t need to read Fall of Reach to understand what was going on in Halo Ce. The PoA was being chased by the Covenant, a force described in the manual as a genocidal collective of aliens, and had to make an emergency crash landing.
>
> With Halo 4…little is explained that needs to be explained.

Yeah I really hate the direction the story is going also, I have no clue why they just veered off path from the covenant and Halos, although it seems we are gonna be back on a Halo.

YES! I forgot to mention that the depiction of the prometheans looks nothing like the depiction of the forerunners architecture. I hate how the forerunners have changed so drastically in art design. They went from a few flying construction workers with lasers to a full fledged robotic army. They sentinels do not resemble the prometheans what so ever, in art or gameplay design! And again yes these forerunners do feel like completely new forerunners compared to the previous versions, I 100% agree with that statement.

Again I understand some people dont mind chief talking a bit more, it’s just a pet peeve of mine.

Im glad to be bringing out some of the issues within this game, because currently it is not in a good state and I feel as if this game will be gone if nothing changes. Hopefully you enjoyed my “essay” and thanks for taking your time to read it! :slight_smile:

6

There is no more drama, no more continuing John’s story, no more Spartan ops Jul madama, no Janus Key, no Dr halsey vengeance on the UNSC, no more STORY because of Brian -Yoinking!- Reed.

Halo 4, the story was going to be awesome, the next 72 hours comic would of been a FANTASTIC Halo 5, but no
Brian Reed: “hey guys what if CORTANA is the bad guy? And a whole AI vs Us thing?”
343: " OOOOO let’s -Yoink- everyone with misadvertising too!

7

> 2533275050532363;6:
> There is no more drama, no more continuing John’s story, no more Spartan ops Jul madama, no Janus Key, no Dr halsey vengeance on the UNSC, no more STORY because of Brian -Yoinking!- Reed.
>
> Halo 4, the story was going to be awesome, the next 72 hours comic would of been a FANTASTIC Halo 5, but no
> Brian Reed: “hey guys what if CORTANA is the bad guy? And a whole AI vs Us thing?”
> 343: " OOOOO let’s -Yoink- everyone with misadvertising too!

We all feel your pain, it stings :,(

8

> 2533274867266391;7:
> > 2533275050532363;6:
> > There is no more drama, no more continuing John’s story, no more Spartan ops Jul madama, no Janus Key, no Dr halsey vengeance on the UNSC, no more STORY because of Brian -Yoinking!- Reed.
> >
> > Halo 4, the story was going to be awesome, the next 72 hours comic would of been a FANTASTIC Halo 5, but no
> > Brian Reed: “hey guys what if CORTANA is the bad guy? And a whole AI vs Us thing?”
> > 343: " OOOOO let’s -Yoink- everyone with misadvertising too!
>
>
> We all feel your pain, it stings :,(

The pain is too much :’(

9

> 2533275050532363;6:
> There is no more drama, no more continuing John’s story, no more Spartan ops Jul madama, no Janus Key, no Dr halsey vengeance on the UNSC, no more STORY because of Brian -Yoinking!- Reed.
>
> Halo 4, the story was going to be awesome, the next 72 hours comic would of been a FANTASTIC Halo 5, but no
> Brian Reed: “hey guys what if CORTANA is the bad guy? And a whole AI vs Us thing?”
> 343: " OOOOO let’s -Yoink- everyone with misadvertising too!

In all seriousness though I think something happened backstage that caused the story to be so misleading. There were rumors that Dr.Halsey was gonna be the antagonist and it did seem that way looking at spartan ops ending. Still though that does not excuse this pitiful campaign

10

I got into it because my friends and I would play Halo 2 split screen for hours

11

> 2533274861813747;10:
> I got into it because my friends and I would play Halo 2 split screen for hours

Ahh the joys of split screen…you know what I’m gonna play some h5 split sc…oh wait, nvm :frowning:

12

> First off why does master chief talk so much? Fans of H4 and H5 campaigns say that he is learning what its like to be human…like seriously wtf is this twilight? We want action and plot twists not some inner being drama stuff. I can see how this is plausible but this part of the story line does not fit Halo or the master chief what so ever. I mean yeah he had to get over the death of Cortana but then again he has seen many, many others he truly cared about die or go missing. What makes this A.I so special, and again this does not fall on the same track as previous iterations of the game.

Completely agree here. The Master Chief, to me, was an action hero. Halo was an action game about the events that were happening around these characters and we got to experience it through the eyes of the Master Chief.

Then all of a sudden it turns into some kind of soap opera. Master Chief suddenly has feelings, and Cortana loves him, and there’s pointless, forced drama where there shouldn’t be. The Forerunners suddenly hate humans, humanity suddenly had a huge civilization that rivaled the Forerunners in the past. None of what 343 has done makes any sense. The only link between Halo 3 and 4 was when Master Chief wakes up on the Forward Unto Dawn. After that? Nothing that happens makes any sense with the rest of the story.

Then Halo 5 happens and it also has not relation to the game before it. We go from Master Chief staring out the window on the Infinty, pondering life or whatever, then taking his suit off, to a bunch of random Spartans jumping out of a Pelican mowing down hordes of Covenant. The only recognizable one there being Buck.

343 needs to get better at consistent story telling.

Edit- And to add to this, the Human-Covenant war lasted over 20 years. Humanity was pushed to near extinction in that time. Yet, only four years later, they have brand new ships and fleets, hundreds of Spartans rampaging about, and now they’re out trying to cause trouble again with the races that nearly wiped them out the last time. You’d think humanity would be more focused on rebuilding and trying to make peace or at the very least lay low for a while. But nope, they’re out trying to antagonize the rest of galaxy just a few years after nearly being stamped out of existence.

13

> 2533274814289862;12:
> > First off why does master chief talk so much? Fans of H4 and H5 campaigns say that he is learning what its like to be human…like seriously wtf is this twilight? We want action and plot twists not some inner being drama stuff. I can see how this is plausible but this part of the story line does not fit Halo or the master chief what so ever. I mean yeah he had to get over the death of Cortana but then again he has seen many, many others he truly cared about die or go missing. What makes this A.I so special, and again this does not fall on the same track as previous iterations of the game.
>
>
> Completely agree here. The Master Chief, to me, was and action hero. Halo was an action game about the events that were happening around these character and we got to experience it through the eyes of the Master Chief.
>
> Then all of a sudden it turns into some kind of soap opera. Master Chief suddenly has feelings, and Cortana loves him, and there’s pointless, forced drama where there shouldn’t be. The Forerunners suddenly hate humans, humanity suddenly had a huge civilization that rivaled the Forerunners in the past. None of what 343 has done makes any sense. The only link between Halo 3 and 4 was when Master Chief wakes up on the Forward Unto Dawn. After that? Nothing that happens makes any sense with the rest of the story.
>
> Then Halo 5 happens and it also has not relation to the game before it. We go from Master Chief staring out the window on the Infinty, pondering life or whatever, then taking his suit off, to a bunch of random Spartans jumping out of a Pelican mowing down hordes of Covenant. The only recognizable one there being Buck.
>
> 343 needs to get better at consistent story telling.

I’m surprised that the Forerunners were even alive considering that in CE, it is strongly hinted that they were extinct and that all their technology was accessible to reclaimers. That did not make sense. Why would the Forerunners hate humanity but program the Monitors to allow humanity to activate forerunner technology?

14

> 2533274939018653;8:
> > 2533274867266391;7:
> > > 2533275050532363;6:
> > > There is no more drama, no more continuing John’s story, no more Spartan ops Jul madama, no Janus Key, no Dr halsey vengeance on the UNSC, no more STORY because of Brian -Yoinking!- Reed.
> > >
> > > Halo 4, the story was going to be awesome, the next 72 hours comic would of been a FANTASTIC Halo 5, but no
> > > Brian Reed: “hey guys what if CORTANA is the bad guy? And a whole AI vs Us thing?”
> > > 343: " OOOOO let’s -Yoink- everyone with misadvertising too!
> >
> >
> > We all feel your pain, it stings :,(
>
>
> The pain is too much :’(

I know what you mean, but I’m not sure the witch hunt for Brian Reed is entirely as deserved as it is. He seems to be a scapegoat for the community to pursue. While he was the head of the narrative staff, I’m sure Microsoft and 343 execs dictate the larger parts of the story. He basically tries to adapt it to video game format and make it interesting.

I don’t know, I just feel like he gets a lot of flak he may not deserve.

15

> 2535453138108435;13:
> > 2533274814289862;12:
> > > First off why does master chief talk so much? Fans of H4 and H5 campaigns say that he is learning what its like to be human…like seriously wtf is this twilight? We want action and plot twists not some inner being drama stuff. I can see how this is plausible but this part of the story line does not fit Halo or the master chief what so ever. I mean yeah he had to get over the death of Cortana but then again he has seen many, many others he truly cared about die or go missing. What makes this A.I so special, and again this does not fall on the same track as previous iterations of the game.
> >
> >
> > Completely agree here. The Master Chief, to me, was and action hero. Halo was an action game about the events that were happening around these character and we got to experience it through the eyes of the Master Chief.
> >
> > Then all of a sudden it turns into some kind of soap opera. Master Chief suddenly has feelings, and Cortana loves him, and there’s pointless, forced drama where there shouldn’t be. The Forerunners suddenly hate humans, humanity suddenly had a huge civilization that rivaled the Forerunners in the past. None of what 343 has done makes any sense. The only link between Halo 3 and 4 was when Master Chief wakes up on the Forward Unto Dawn. After that? Nothing that happens makes any sense with the rest of the story.
> >
> > Then Halo 5 happens and it also has not relation to the game before it. We go from Master Chief staring out the window on the Infinty, pondering life or whatever, then taking his suit off, to a bunch of random Spartans jumping out of a Pelican mowing down hordes of Covenant. The only recognizable one there being Buck.
> >
> > 343 needs to get better at consistent story telling.
>
>
> I’m surprised that the Forerunners were even alive considering that in CE, it is strongly hinted that they were extinct and that all their technology was accessible to reclaimers. That did not make sense. Why would the Forerunners hate humanity but program the Monitors to allow humanity to activate forerunner technology?

Yeah, throughout the original trilogy, I got the feeling that the Forerunnersun liked humanity and saw them as special, which is why they left us to reclaim all of their technology. The Forerunners had a really great mysterious feel to them, and 343 went and ruined it.

Then we have the Precursors, who are apparently timeless beings who’ve existed forever and have God-like abilities and technology. I meam, sure, Halo is sci-fi and isn’t supposed to be realistic, but it was always at least grounded in reality. Even the Forerunner and Covenant technology seemed somewhat possible with their in-universe explanations. The Precursors are literally Gods. They take the down-to-earth sci-fi of Halo and turn it into to some outlandish fantasy world. They have no place in Halo.

16

> 2533274814289862;12:
> > First off why does master chief talk so much? Fans of H4 and H5 campaigns say that he is learning what its like to be human…like seriously wtf is this twilight? We want action and plot twists not some inner being drama stuff. I can see how this is plausible but this part of the story line does not fit Halo or the master chief what so ever. I mean yeah he had to get over the death of Cortana but then again he has seen many, many others he truly cared about die or go missing. What makes this A.I so special, and again this does not fall on the same track as previous iterations of the game.
>
>
> Completely agree here. The Master Chief, to me, was an action hero. Halo was an action game about the events that were happening around these characters and we got to experience it through the eyes of the Master Chief.
>
> Then all of a sudden it turns into some kind of soap opera. Master Chief suddenly has feelings, and Cortana loves him, and there’s pointless, forced drama where there shouldn’t be. The Forerunners suddenly hate humans, humanity suddenly had a huge civilization that rivaled the Forerunners in the past. None of what 343 has done makes any sense. The only link between Halo 3 and 4 was when Master Chief wakes up on the Forward Unto Dawn. After that? Nothing that happens makes any sense with the rest of the story.

Exactly the direction that 343 took makes no sense! I hate it and Im sure many others would say the same. Im gonna be honest in saying that I am not excited for the campaign in H6, that is the first time this has happened. I am truly disappointed with Halo and its future in story telling. I really hope something miraculous happens and 343/microsoft change their story line but…that’s likely not gonna happen. I guess we’ll see.

17

It has come to the point where I pretty much need to pull a Disney with Halo’s canon and make 2 seperate canons: 343 canon and Bungie canon. I like the Bungie canon better, because other than some inconsistencies between the books and the games, the story was pretty easy to understand and was fairly consistent. 343’s canon just seems not only inconsistent with Bungie canon, but also with itself, and while I like a few things about the 343 canon (stuff leading up to Halo 4, the Halo 4 campaign story, and some of the recent books), the rest of it just seems like they are making stuff up as they go along and are throwing -Yoink- at the fan hoping it sticks.

18

> 2533274912467533;17:
> It has come to the point where I pretty much need to pull a Disney with Halo’s canon and make 2 seperate canons: 343 canon and Bungie canon. I like the Bungie canon better, because other than some inconsistencies between the books and the games, the story was pretty easy to understand and was fairly consistent. 343’s canon just seems not only inconsistent with Bungie canon, but also with itself, and while I like a few things about the 343 canon (stuff leading up to Halo 4, the Halo 4 campaign story, and some of the recent books), the rest of it just seems like they are making stuff up as they go along and are throwing -Yoink- at the fan hoping it sticks.

^
l
l
l

19

The only thing I like as far as 343’s decision making is making the Master Chief a character rather than a player. Perhaps for 3 straight games he was a simple action hero, but the cracks began to form in Halo 3 and personally I think it was always going to go this way. You give the guy a few games where all he does is blow stuff up and perform impossible feats, make his name legend, then bit by bit reveal the man behind the legend. If there’s any method of storytelling that makes the audience have untold respect for the character, they totally nailed it, at least with me.

The decision to make forerunners an enemy of humans was a weird one, but it provided them with a HUUUUGE opportunity to make Halo one of the most intricate sci-fi stories in history. Unfortunately, I don’t think 343 has the chops to make use of that opportunity, hence why 4 and 5’s story is more confusing than anything. I need to write a halo 6 story treatment or something so at least someone can see the route they could have taken

20

Also I thought I remember reading that at one time it was intended that Forerunners WERE Ancient humans, but that they never got around to making that really known in the games.