How Fireteam Osiris could have been improved

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

This is just my opinion. But after frequenting these forums for many months, now, I have finally figured out what could have made Fireteam Osiris’ presence in Halo 5: Guardians more acceptable. And, of course, this opinion of mine is completely hypothetical, as the die has already been cast, unfortunately.

As it stands, Buck is the only character of Osiris that game-only fans of Halo can recognize (ODST has been out long enough, now, for most to get a chance to play it). The rest (Locke, Vale, and Tanaka) were all introduced either in books, comics, or, in Locke’s case, the miniseries “Nightfall”. Anyone who didn’t read/watch these sources therefore knew nothing about them - though even the casual-est of fans would have seen the Halo 5 trailers on TV (several aired on my local channels via plug-in antenna), and therefore would recognize Locke as being important to the story (even if that story ended up having almost nothing to do with the trailers and promos).

Based on the forums and several blogs on the internet, I’ve seen that reception of Fireteam Osiris was mixed, ranging from flat-out dislike to admiration. For me, they felt rather random. They had impact on the story, yes (assassinating Jul 'Mdama, assisting Thel 'Vadam’s fight, rescuing Blue Team from the Cryptum), but in a perfect (Halo) world, those actions could easily have been all done by Blue Team - familiar characters would receive better reception and acceptance than relative newcomers to the franchise. Instead, those actions are given to Osiris, with Blue Team having practically no purpose whatsoever (relatively speaking. Especially with only three full levels dedicated to them).

So this is what I wish could have happened: Either a) have Osiris ditched entirely for Halo 5, and instead have the Master Chief, Fred, Linda, and Kelly dominate the narrative; b) keep the story in place, but give more levels and purpose to Blue Team, so there’s a better balance; or…

C) …have Halo 5 be preceded by a spin-off game, much like Halo 3: ODST, where Fireteam Osiris gets their own game. It could have been called Halo 5: Osiris, with Halo 5 itself having no sub-title, so that it’s evident that one is a spin-off and the other is the main, numbered title game in the series. In this hypothetical game, game-only fans of Halo would be properly introduced to Fireteam Osiris and get to know the characters properly. This could work within the already established EU books, taking place at some point before Halo 5 but after the events of the books and such where Locke, Tanaka, and Vale had been introduced. Then, when they come into Halo 5 (no subtitle), everyone would have proper knowledge about them.

Of course, it would have been preferable if Halo 5 had been a proper sequel to Halo 4 - as it stands, Halo 4 and 5 both feel unrelated, like their own standalone Halo games, with no real logical connection between the two. But, alas, we have what we have. Even if we still got the shoddy story of H5, I wish that at least 343i/Microsoft had made a game just for Osiris that would have been released before H5.

What do the rest of you think about these ideas? It’s all just hypothetical, as I mentioned at the start. One can dream, though!

2

C). I thought this too if Halo 5 didn’t have Blue Team because it was purely to see Chief in a different light with zero promise to play chief this game, but he would have a full game in the near future, Halo 5:Guardians might have been EXTREMELY well received story wise (as some healthy changes to blue team’s role would have been made too to make that happen).

I dont one see it happening, but remember the “Official/Unofficial story” trailers? What if there was a Halo 5: The Unofficial Story that was Blue Team focused, but with some Osiris and basically back filled the many areas of opportunities that were missed that kept the campaign from being absolutely on par with all the other previous campaigns. The current Halo 5 is the story the UNSC gets to hear…but what actually transpired is much darker story, very much like the one we saw in the trailers. Maybe even it could help refuel the fires of the anti-ONI build up.
Just my idea though.

3

Remove Tanaka.

4

> 2533274903052473;2:
> C). I thought this too if Halo 5 didn’t have Blue Team because it was purely to see Chief in a different light with zero promise to play chief this game, but he would have a full game in the near future, Halo 5:Guardians might have been EXTREMELY well received story wise (as some healthy changes to blue team’s role would have been made too to make that happen).
>
> I dont one see it happening, but remember the “Official/Unofficial story” trailers? What if there was a Halo 5: The Unofficial Story that was Blue Team focused, but with some Osiris and basically back filled the many areas of opportunities that were missed that kept the campaign from being absolutely on par with all the other previous campaigns. The current Halo 5 is the story the UNSC gets to hear…but what actually transpired is much darker story, very much like the one we saw in the trailers. Maybe even it could help refuel the fires of the anti-ONI build up.
> Just my idea though.

Interesting! Yeah, that would definitely get to show what Blue Team was really doing during the Osiris missions. Because in H5:G they only get three levels worth of activity, which seems rather spotty considering all that Osiris gets to do (though the Sanghelios arc is stretched over two-to-three levels, so I’d only really count those as a single ‘action’).

5

Everytime I read Osiris, I always think about the spartan company rather than fireteam osiris, the spartan company is more relevant to halo imo lmao

6

I think FireTeam Osiris should’ve had more internal conflict, example; While Buck is technically subordinate to Locke, if he would’ve questioned their motives or hos orders. Like Buck regards the Chief with the utmost respect, while Locke see’s him as “just another target”. His admiration of the Chief could conflict with his orders to stop him or arrest him. While Vale could side with Locke, and Tanaka with Buck, the team could go through changes, growing with each impasse and question of direction.

7

> 2533274815543309;6:
> I think FireTeam Osiris should’ve had more internal conflict, example; While Buck is technically subordinate to Locke, if he would’ve questioned their motives or hos orders. Like Buck regards the Chief with the utmost respect, while Locke see’s him as “just another target”. His admiration of the Chief could conflict with his orders to stop him or arrest him. While Vale could side with Locke, and Tanaka with Buck, the team could go through changes, growing with each impasse and question of direction.

Yes, those are the dynamics that would have made things a bit more interesting. Sure, Blue Team may not have the same conflict within their group, due to their closeness and all, but a lot of potential for good questions and so forth was really wasted.

8

For Halo 6, it’d be cool if the game had a more open structure. Play as Chief for the whole thing, but able to pick your three team mates from Blue Team or Osiris and others. In co-op, the other players could chose their characters.

Halo 5’s problem is that we never really see them have the room to grow and develope. All the character work is just on the nose dialogue. Locke should have been struggling with leadership after Nightfall and the ONI-esque task of hunting Chief, Tanaka could have grown a lot during the Meridian section and Vale could have been a sort of optimistic foil to Tanaka and Locke who becomes disenfranchised and Buck could have just been a wise -Yoink- calling ONI on their -Yoink-.

And a lot of that was actually there, hidden between the lines. The campaign just ended up compressed to the point where there simply wasn’t room for the characters.

9

> 2533274842918190;8:
> For Halo 6, it’d be cool if the game had a more open structure. Play as Chief for the whole thing, but able to pick your three team mates from Blue Team or Osiris and others. In co-op, the other players could chose their characters.
>
> Halo 5’s problem is that we never really see them have the room to grow and develope. All the character work is just on the nose dialogue. Locke should have been struggling with leadership after Nightfall and the ONI-esque task of hunting Chief, Tanaka could have grown a lot during the Meridian section and Vale could have been a sort of optimistic foil to Tanaka and Locke who becomes disenfranchised and Buck could have just been a wise -Yoink- calling ONI on their -Yoink-.
>
> And a lot of that was actually there, hidden between the lines. The campaign just ended up compressed to the point where there simply wasn’t room for the characters.

There are too many characters, if you remove one, lets say kelly, then what? the story of halo 5 goes on as it would with her

10

> 2533274842918190;8:
> For Halo 6, it’d be cool if the game had a more open structure. Play as Chief for the whole thing, but able to pick your three team mates from Blue Team or Osiris and others. In co-op, the other players could chose their characters.
>
> Halo 5’s problem is that we never really see them have the room to grow and develope. All the character work is just on the nose dialogue. Locke should have been struggling with leadership after Nightfall and the ONI-esque task of hunting Chief, Tanaka could have grown a lot during the Meridian section and Vale could have been a sort of optimistic foil to Tanaka and Locke who becomes disenfranchised and Buck could have just been a wise -Yoink- calling ONI on their -Yoink-.
>
> And a lot of that was actually there, hidden between the lines. The campaign just ended up compressed to the point where there simply wasn’t room for the characters.

And this is why I wish there had at least been a separate spin-off game specifically for Osiris, before H5, so that we could actually get to know them (for those of us who haven’t read the books/comics or watched “Nightfall”). And if only H5 had been more Master Chief/Blue Team-centric…

11

I agree that the focus should have been MORE on Blue Team, but not entirely. The missions with Master Chief and Blue Team 99% of the time are more important

12

> 2533274942042829;9:
> > 2533274842918190;8:
> > For Halo 6, it’d be cool if the game had a more open structure. Play as Chief for the whole thing, but able to pick your three team mates from Blue Team or Osiris and others. In co-op, the other players could chose their characters.
> >
> > Halo 5’s problem is that we never really see them have the room to grow and develope. All the character work is just on the nose dialogue. Locke should have been struggling with leadership after Nightfall and the ONI-esque task of hunting Chief, Tanaka could have grown a lot during the Meridian section and Vale could have been a sort of optimistic foil to Tanaka and Locke who becomes disenfranchised and Buck could have just been a wise -Yoink- calling ONI on their -Yoink-.
> >
> > And a lot of that was actually there, hidden between the lines. The campaign just ended up compressed to the point where there simply wasn’t room for the characters.
>
>
> There are too many characters, if you remove one, lets say kelly, then what? the story of halo 5 goes on as it would with her

Really you could remove everyone but Locke and the story would play out the same.

13

Honestly I actually did enjoy Osiris much more than I expected to going into the game. They were one of the bright points of the campaign to me, which stood out because there sure weren’t many, in my view. They were among the few things in the story that pleasantly surprised me. They actually had personality and were fun to hang out with, as opposed to Blue Team who have a ton of personality in the books but for some reason were intentionally made about as interesting as a stump in their first in-game appearance.

I think the backlash over the 80/20 mission distribution and the lack of Blue Team face time would have been greatly diminished if they just called this game “Halo: Guardians” and made it a spinoff title in the tradition of ODST and Reach.

14

Only half of Osiris are good characters: Buck is a f**king badass as ever and, as a big fan of the Halo mythos, I find Vale’s knowledge of Sangheili culture fascinating (nice a*s too LOL). However, Locke is boring as hell and Tanaka is a complete non-event; if she’s meant to have survived the glassing of a Human colony by the Covenant then why didn’t 343 do anything interesting with it??? All the Sangheilios stuff throughout the middle third of the campaign straight away makes Vale worthwhile, but Tanaka has no reason to exist.

15

I don’t get this complaint or need for players to have back stories to accept characters. If you actually listened to what was being said in H5 you would have heard a bit of back stories about all of them… no it’s not entire biographies or anything but they did talk about their past. The problem is most gamers don’t pay attention and need it spoon fed to them. I think it really should fall on the gamers to expand to books, comics and movies if they want to find out more. One thing is for sure 343 tells a lot more about characters and back stories in game than bungie ever did.

16

> 2533274961806222;13:
> Honestly I actually did enjoy Osiris much more than I expected to going into the game. They were one of the bright points of the campaign to me, which stood out because there sure weren’t many, in my view. They were among the few things in the story that pleasantly surprised me. They actually had personality and were fun to hang out with, as opposed to Blue Team who have a ton of personality in the books but for some reason were intentionally made about as interesting as a stump in their first in-game appearance.
>
> I think the backlash over the 80/20 mission distribution and the lack of Blue Team face time would have been greatly diminished if they just called this game “Halo: Guardians” and made it a spinoff title in the tradition of ODST and Reach.

In regards to your final sentence above, I completely agree. It felt so disconnected from Halo 4 that Halo 5 really feels like a spin-off game and not a real sequel.

Also, yes, Blue Team was heavily underutilized, which is the greatest crime than can be committed against main characters. They may as well not have even been in the story, and Master Chief could have easily done everything by himself, like he has done numerous times in the past games.

17

Fire team Osiris did not need to exist at all. What they should have done is replace them with Alpha-Nine. It would be far better for a story as these are charectors we already know and care about. Veronica could have been the leader, then buck, then Romeo, then Dutch. It would have made for an interesting contrast between them and blue team.

Veronica could have kept Alpha nine in the dark about who they were hunting and then when they finally discover it is chief it could have caused all kinds interesting story telling. Buck and Veronica’s relationship could be at stake, Alpha nine could be torn apart by the fact they are hunting the man who saved the galaxy, thye could be scared knowing they could be killed, i mean that would be far more interesting then these new stupid characters like Tanaka and Locke

18

> 2533274816788253;15:
> I don’t get this complaint or need for players to have back stories to accept characters. If you actually listened to what was being said in H5 you would have heard a bit of back stories about all of them… no it’s not entire biographies or anything but they did talk about their past. The problem is most gamers don’t pay attention and need it spoon fed to them. I think it really should fall on the gamers to expand to books, comics and movies if they want to find out more. One thing is for sure 343 tells a lot more about characters and back stories in game than bungie ever did.

But that is the problem: A video game series shouldn’t need important information given via other media, information that is important to figuring out what the hell is even happening in the main-title game. I actually like how most of Bungie’s EU material was, yes, important to varying degrees, but it didn’t affect the games. They existed within the lore and the greater story, yes, but were available for people who did want to learn extra, behind-the-scenes types of stories.

As I said in my original post, I believe that when a franchise gets this far, with five numbered sequels, I expect new characters and events to be handled differently than, say, the very first movie/game/episode. You can’t just plop in three (Buck should be known by Halo gamers by this point, with how long ago ODST came out) new characters without giving a good reason to care about them. I’m not saying that a whole biography should be given about each character in the game. I just wish that Locke, Vale, and Tanaka were handled better in-game, for people who have zero idea who they are. There could have been a few more cut-scenes, or the ones that existed could have been longer. Or the in-game dialogue could have been triggered without having to linger around long, or wander to a very specific location. No, I do not see this as “spoon-feeding” at all. Spoon-feeding would be someone giving a big speech in the game essentially telling you everything about the character. What I suggest is that the backgrounds and development of the new characters could have been revealed in a better way the player. You can learn a lot about a character by dialogue with others, how they interact, etc. Sure, this existed in Guardians to a degree, but it still felt like a weak attempt. I still don’t know why I should care about anyone other than Buck in Osiris.

And if I want to read a Halo novel or comic, or watch something, I will pick and choose what I want to read and watch - I won’t blindly pick up something just because someone tells me it’s “important”. Hell, most of the EU material for Halo is extremely uninteresting to me - I don’t care about many of the new characters or their exploits. Right now, only Forerunner saga, Shadow of Intent, and Broken Circle look interesting to me. Probably because I now have what I call “Spartan fatigue”.

And that’s my opinion.

19

> 2533274845527107;17:
> Fire team Osiris did not need to exist at all. What they should have done is replace them with Alpha-Nine. It would be far better for a story as these are charectors we already know and care about. Veronica could have been the leader, then buck, then Romeo, then Dutch. It would have made for an interesting contrast between them and blue team.
>
> Veronica could have kept Alpha nine in the dark about who they were hunting and then when they finally discover it is chief it could have caused all kinds interesting story telling. Buck and Veronica’s relationship could be at stake, Alpha nine could be torn apart by the fact they are hunting the man who saved the galaxy, thye could be scared knowing they could be killed, i mean that would be far more interesting then these new stupid characters like Tanaka and Locke

All those points are what I feel is missing entirely from Halo 5. You don’t get any of those kinds of dynamics. Sure, I believe Fred voices concern in “Blue Team” when Chief declares his intent to go to Meridian, but in the end, the whole team is unanimous in their decision; no conflict, just “Yeah, okay, let’s go do it, Chief!”. Then the Infinity crew seem concerned about Chief going “AWOL” but, again, nothing comes of it. Even Osiris shows little to no internal conflict, and after the brief tussle between Chief and Locke, things cool down for the rest of the game - no “great hunt” or labels of treason. Even the Master Chief ends up showing very little conflict about Cortana, not to any degree that we would expect to see after what happened in Halo 4. It’s all just wasted opportunity.

20

> 2533274887950450;19:
> > 2533274845527107;17:
> > Fire team Osiris did not need to exist at all. What they should have done is replace them with Alpha-Nine. It would be far better for a story as these are charectors we already know and care about. Veronica could have been the leader, then buck, then Romeo, then Dutch. It would have made for an interesting contrast between them and blue team.
> >
> > Veronica could have kept Alpha nine in the dark about who they were hunting and then when they finally discover it is chief it could have caused all kinds interesting story telling. Buck and Veronica’s relationship could be at stake, Alpha nine could be torn apart by the fact they are hunting the man who saved the galaxy, thye could be scared knowing they could be killed, i mean that would be far more interesting then these new stupid characters like Tanaka and Locke
>
>
> All those points are what I feel is missing entirely from Halo 5. You don’t get any of those kinds of dynamics. Sure, I believe Fred voices concern in “Blue Team” when Chief declares his intent to go to Meridian, but in the end, the whole team is unanimous in their decision; no conflict, just “Yeah, okay, let’s go do it, Chief!”. Then the Infinity crew seem concerned about Chief going “AWOL” but, again, nothing comes of it. Even Osiris shows little to no internal conflict, and after the brief tussle between Chief and Locke, things cool down for the rest of the game - no “great hunt” or labels of treason. Even the Master Chief ends up showing very little conflict about Cortana, not to any degree that we would expect to see after what happened in Halo 4. It’s all just wasted opportunity.

Haparius coined it well. Halo 5 had a big problem with lots of “cold tea” elements. Many great plot points were introduced…that then were simply left out on the counter and had nothing else done with them. I think we can all agree that Halo 5 just came out about 6-9 months too soon. Heck, I would have been hold with a hold over game like Reach or ODST (awesome games by the way) between Halo 4 and 5 while it finished. Not starting a conspiracy theory or anything but with HW2 coming out 2017 then H6 2018 do you think Microsoft is pushing 343i to have a new game out every year for greater profitability?