If you could rewrite H5's story, what would it be

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

So for a lot of people Halo 5’s campaign was a real hit or miss. So I’m curious If you guys got the chance to be the head writer for Halo 5’s campaign, what direction would you guys have taken the story? What would the campaign be about?

I’ll start.

I would have had the main focus being Chief going around the galaxy awakening the guardians for some unknown reason. In the process of awakening these guardians there has been major causalities on dozens of colony’s. Being responsible for the destruction of so many colony’s the UNSC labels Chief a traitor. Locke + Osiris has been dispatched to hunt Chief down and bring him in.

Add some fluff in between the hunt like having Locke chase chief on at least 2-3 different planets. The first planet Osiris and Blue have a brief run in with osiris but Blue ultimately gets away. Second planet Chief and Locke should have a fight like how they did in Halo 5. but not as slow and not making it like ramming two tonka trucks into each other. Something similar to RvB’s Freelancers fight scenes. Just make it lore accurate.

third planet will be sangheilios. Word is chief is heading there to get another guardian. Locke is sent early (try to beat chief there) and get involved in the civil war going on between the Swords of Sangheilios and the covenant remnant led by Jul Mdama using the same plot premise that they need The Arbiter’s help to reach the city of sunion to reach the Guardian first. Chief reaches the guardian first and beings the awakening process, then enters the warden eternal (think back to the E3 demo where Locke was tracking Chief on Sangheilios and the Warden showed up). Osiris saves Locke, and they get on the guardian last minute before the guardian enters slipspace.

Osiris finds themselves on Genesis, and they see dozens of Guardians in the backdrop (just like in that blue team mission). Throw in some fluff in the genesis missions and get to the point where they find Chief and learn the truth.

The truth being that Cortana or maybe mendicant bias (Can’t figure out which one to choose), has learned through the precursor domain (the domain is precursor, not forerunner) that the flood is returning (or some other threat such as the didact) and the guardians are the only hope for everyone’s survival and the Chief had no choicen to awaken the guardians.

That’s my idea. Granted there’s a bit missing and needs more fluff and details but you get the gist of it.

2

I’d add more cowbell.

3

Cortana would be changed out with the digitized Ur-Didact (I think the story would just make more sense with him in the baddie seat). I think that change would be all I’d really make aside from giving Blue Team more missions to flesh them out. Adapting the Next 72 Hour story arc from Halo: Escalations would be a good start.

4

> 2533274812652989;3:
> Cortana would be changed out with the digitized Ur-Didact (I think the story would just make more sense with him in the baddie seat). I think that change would be all I’d really make aside from giving Blue Team more missions to flesh them out. Adapting the Next 72 Hour story arc from Halo: Escalations would be a good start.

Yes, definitely. One of my biggest gripes with the campaign is how underdeveloped and under-used blue team was. They didn’t really contribute to the story in anyway, if you removed them from the plot nothing would have changed. They were kind of portrayed as generic spartans throughout most of the story. Guess it goes along with Frankie’s statement about how blue never had particularly strong personalities.

I like the idea of having the didact being the primary antagonist, and like you said it does make more sense if he was the villain.

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> > 2533274812652989;3:
> > Cortana would be changed out with the digitized Ur-Didact (I think the story would just make more sense with him in the baddie seat). I think that change would be all I’d really make aside from giving Blue Team more missions to flesh them out. Adapting the Next 72 Hour story arc from Halo: Escalations would be a good start.
>
>
> Yes, definitely. One of my biggest gripes with the campaign is how underdeveloped and under-used blue team was. They didn’t really contribute to the story in anyway, if you removed them from the plot nothing would have changed. They were kind of portrayed as generic spartans throughout most of the story. Guess it goes along with Frankie’s statement about how blue never had particularly strong personalities.
>
> I like the idea of having the didact being the primary antagonist, and like you said it does make more sense if he was the villain.

Ah yes, because the woman who flipped off a Sentinel and was known to make jokes about bad situations (Kelly) and the man who made a joke about “riding on top next time” with a detective as she slide down a mountain on his paralyzed armor-clad body don’t have personalities. I don’t know where he got that idea, I honestly don’t.

6

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> I’d add more cowbell.

Yes! But not to much cowbell.

7

It would fit closer to what was advertized. Chief would have some dealings with the prometheans preparing to fight the precursors. Locke would be outside analysis of the chief and be somewhat antagonistic or protagonist. Oh and Jul would still die and Arby win getting the covies out of the “things to shoot” catigory once and for all. The grey area moral comes from if the player believes the oni motive for locke to stop chief or not. With chief looking to fight what appears to be an imaginary enemy. Oh and no cortana.

8

3 Campaigns that better show Hunt The Truth (with timestamps)

Osiris Campaign

  • Mission 1 begins at normal, but instead of killing Jul, he gets away. - Chief goes AWOL, Osiris finds information, All that stuff. The point is, we’re HUNTING THE TRUTH. - The whole Arbiter thing, Arbiter kills Jul here instead of some random Elite. - Osiris doesn’t publically know about Cortana till near the end where they find Exuberant Witness (because we don’t know about Cortana) - Campaign ends here.Blue Campaign

  • Space Mission go as normal. Cortana is maybe alive. - We have a mission of Blue Team on Meridian. - Basically follow Blue Team to the Locke vs Chief fight. Now we’re BEING HUNTED AND WE’RE HUNTING OUR OWN TRUTH. - Blue Team finds Cortana, yadda yadda. - Campaign ends when Blue Team is captured.Epilogue:

  • Osiris saving Blue Team and end of Campaign.Outside of Jul dying a bit later, nothing really changes except for the layout of the Campaign.

9

Rather than focusing the story around cliches of AI vs. organics, I’d instead focus on a different cliche… evil clones. Just imagine it, Master Chief goes AWOL and the only man who can stop him is Mister Chief. But who really is real for realsies? #huntthetruth

In addition, I would also make a spinoff story for the Nintendo 3DS. It would be a sci-fi cooking game starring upstart barista Master Chef and his wacky pals at Corbulo Cooking Academy. It would have a romantic comedy subplot and would be titled Halo 5: Gourdians. #gruntythirst

10

Other than adding more Blue team missions I would have made the campaign more true to the original advertising. Locke hunting down chief vigorously and actually confronting him more than just once while we actually got to see and experience the dramatics of the destruction of cities and what not by the Guardians that were activated. I would have also added a few different bosses or sub bosses to fight other than just warden eternal over and over and over. A few more missions with the arbiter as a companion too, as that was one of my favorite missions.

11

non of this AWOL nonsense. 80% levels will be Master Chief. Cortana is antagonist but later is revealed that it wasn’t actually her making the moves and THE REAL protagonist emerges and both cheif and cortana would have massive motivation to take them out together “just like old times” and maybe chief could “…shoot his way out, mix things up”. The campaign would be long and drug out but filled with plenty “30 seconds of fun” Spartan locke needs to go back to not existing and buck needs to be the one following chief, FOLLOWING CHIEF, not acting like hes going to capture him but just being a detective to figure out what chief is up to. Fire team osiris and blue team would go bye bye as it makes no sense that either of those teams are suddenly united in superbadassdom. Warden eternal only gets fought twice and the second fight u have to use a never before seen foreruner super weapon to make him double over in which case he can only be killed as you double him then assassinate, his imminent implosion destroys the weapon as it is sucked into his death vortex. A boss fight between buck and chief with chief being the boss and Buck being the controllable character. Buck only confronts chief out of a misscommunication that is settled a couple levels later. Buck give a valiant desperate effort but chief easily shows whose boss and leaves after permanently damaging bucks suit so buck has to go get repairs and finds out the misscommunication while getting the suit fixed up. Finally two levels is Chief and Cortana fighting the real protagonist. Though separated cortana must now eliminate her separated rampant personalites and chief subdues main protagonist and with some vehicular help from buck is able to finish the δάσκαλος.
. and sorry but some kind of exsplosion or computer virus thingy is going to destroy all the guardians because as the δάσκαλος and many others have said, Humanity is not ready to handle the responsibility of the mantle. Thanks for the read guys. Hope you enjoy. Message me if you would like a more in depth view on this from either a story stand point or gameplay. Thx.
-Like a raging bender(get it?) “I’m back baby”

12

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> > > 2533274812652989;3:
> > > Cortana would be changed out with the digitized Ur-Didact (I think the story would just make more sense with him in the baddie seat). I think that change would be all I’d really make aside from giving Blue Team more missions to flesh them out. Adapting the Next 72 Hour story arc from Halo: Escalations would be a good start.
> >
> >
> > Yes, definitely. One of my biggest gripes with the campaign is how underdeveloped and under-used blue team was. They didn’t really contribute to the story in anyway, if you removed them from the plot nothing would have changed. They were kind of portrayed as generic spartans throughout most of the story. Guess it goes along with Frankie’s statement about how blue never had particularly strong personalities.
> >
> > I like the idea of having the didact being the primary antagonist, and like you said it does make more sense if he was the villain.
>
>
> Ah yes, because the woman who flipped off a Sentinel and was known to make jokes about bad situations (Kelly) and the man who made a joke about “riding on top next time” with a detective as she slide down a mountain on his paralyzed armor-clad body don’t have personalities. I don’t know where he got that idea, I honestly don’t.

I don’t either. Pretty much anyone who has even read one of the books involving Blue team would know they’re all unique and individual characters who do have strong personalities. Maybe that statement is just his way of defending the choices they’ve made, this does go along with his statement about fans who didn’t like Cortana in Halo 5.

13

There’s one thing that bugs me. Halo 5 doesn’t even have the slightest bit of relevance to Halo 4.

Halo 4 ended with the Didact talking about how the reclamation had begun. So…what if it had? The UEG now possesses the complete Janus key and thus the whereabouts of many dormant Forerunner machines. ONI starts to spin false-flag events, justifying subjugation of human and alien worlds alike by using the newly discovered Forerunner Guardians. Chief discovers their deceit, and goes rogue on a mission to warn worlds such as Sanghelios and Meridian of their impending doom. Thus he’s labeled a traitor by the ONI controlled media.

In comes Locke, tasked with hunting down and assassinating the Chief. He’s brainwashed, disappointed in the Chief and full of hate. The two don’t enter some lame -Yoink-, cliche fight though. Rather, the entire game through Locke’s perspective is him tracking down the Chief alone, and along the way discovering things about ONI and beginning to question his mission. Yeah, I guess Halo 2 already did that, but it’s a plot device I happen to like.

14

Primarily I would have replaced Cortana with the Didact as the main villain and cut out any of the AI stuff. Bringing back Cortana completely diminished the ending of Halo 4, didn’t make much sense, and didn’t really “fit” with what was being set up.

Assuming I couldn’t do a complete re-do of the campaign and had to work with existing resources, here is how I would change it. First, when Osiris rescues Halsey, Jul’ would escape and go back to Sanghelios. Chief would still see Cortana and go AWOL, but this would happen before the Guardians start rising. The UNSC and Osiris would not know about Cortana and would see Chief going rouge and jumping on the first Guardian and think he is responsible. The fight at the Meridian Guardian would still happen, but I would add a mission for Blue team on Meridian to give them a bit more screen time. Osiris would still go to Sanghelios, but this would be expanded a bit to include a show down between Arbiter and Jul’. When Osiris meets up with Blue team on Genesis, there would be another throw down (rather than Locke suddenly being Chiefs best bud), preferably something epic where it takes all of Osiris to take down Chief by himself. Once Chief is subdued, he would explain his side of the story, and the player, playing as Locke, could either decide to trust him or arrest him. If you trust Chief, you could chose to play as him in the final mission. In the final mission you learn that the Didact was impersonating Cortana to draw out Chief and get his revenge, and he is behind the Guardians rising and intends to reclaim the Mantle for the Forerunners. Maybe as a final fight, you have to blow up some random generators to prevent Didact from getting a new physical body (like Cortana apparently got), at least then you would have accomplished something by games end.

So yeah, basically the same thing with a few story points removed or switched around is the best I can come up with right now.

15

> 2533274812652989;3:
> Cortana would be changed out with the digitized Ur-Didact (I think the story would just make more sense with him in the baddie seat). I think that change would be all I’d really make aside from giving Blue Team more missions to flesh them out. Adapting the Next 72 Hour story arc from Halo: Escalations would be a good start.

16

Hey if anyone wants ill write a short E-book about my version of halo 5. I’ll sell the first chapter for 50 bucks and then ill release the other 7 chapters in FREE DLC packages each month.

17

Mostly, I’d add a first act to get both some character development and to raise the tensions and I’d add a final act.

The first mission would be Osyris saving Halsey, and Jul getting away- without Cortana or anything. Then we get a confrontation between Halsey and Osman, where Halsey says she’ll need her for what’s coming.

Begins with a dream John has of Cortana. Then… a proper introduction to Blue Team, taking time with each character. It’d have Blue Team reclaim some ONI installation (perhaps the same one from the Campaign, I don’t know) and save the scientist inside from the Covenant. Blue Team figure out ONI was developing some infectious food planned to spread on Sanghelios (from The Thursday War). Chief ends up aiming a gun at the scientist and having to decide whether to pull the trigger.

Then Osyris are sent to assassinate a Insurrectionost leader, undercover at first (we get to see the colony a bit and the civillians clash with the UNSC), some stealth, snipers. Locke ends up killing the man even after a pretty compelling speach against the UNSC.

Another Blue Team mission, they abducted the scientist and hold him as a prisoner rather than a guest. Kelly and John talk about following orders, and how Chief is walking on a rope. They reach the nearest colony to drop off the scientist and find a hole in the ground (Guardian damage). This is the first Promethean mission, with some mystery/horror elements. In the end he sees Cortana. And that’s when Chief disappears.

Then we go back to Locke for the Meridian missions, with Halsey in play, pretty much the same as the game is now. All Chief’s Genesis missioms come back to back right after, with Cortana’s motives revealed right away (Chief believes he can still save her) and her morphing into the digital Didact and locking him in a Cryptum in the end. Then back to Locke on Sanghelios (except with Jul Mdama as the big bad, and a badass Arbiter vs Jul duel with Halsey ending up killing Jul from behind or something), and him getting to Genesis to free the Chief. They end up fighting again, and this time Locke wins and locks Chief’s armor.

This is where it gets interesting… Osyris take Blue Team to ONI in the Midnight Facility, and Osman decides to have them killed for activating the Guardian on Meridian and going rogue. Locke goes to talk to Chief before the execution and Chief convinces him it’s the Didact behind everything, not him and not Cortana, and that they have to stop him from exiting the Domain. Locke is convinced and Osyris bust Blue Team out of Midnight, (the second mission in the game with human enemies) they take a prowler and jump to some Forerunner Domain Installation, where all the Guardians are waiting, and the Didact successfully exits the Domain, takes control of the Guardians (they become orange) and kills Locke. Then we end in a similar cliffhanger to Halo 5.

ETA: at some point the Didact would show the Chief that the Mantle is the only way to have peace, that he’s seen how ugly humanity gets and the civil war of the Sangheili and even the Insurrection are all proof.

18

I would’ve just made the whole introduction to the characters and situation more compelling and interesting. Teasing everyone with Hunt the Truth for what we got wasn’t fair.

19

I’d flip around the script and would of had 12 missions for Blue team and 3 for Osiris.
A Rampant Cortana in the Domain would essentially be doing the same thing just without the AI rebellion and taking the mantle -yoink-.
Essentially Rampant Cortana would be doing a Andrew Ryan / Dr. Breen impersonation till some point in Halo 6.
Then the Forerunners, Flood, and Ancient Humans would show up and start destroying each other and everything else in the way.
That would slightly redeemed Rampant Cortana’s character since her intentions were to defend against the return of the Forerunners, Flood, and Ancient Humans.

20

PLEASE READ!!!
This is gonna sound crazy but it is what it is.
Let’s just say the first mission never happened with Osiris and Halsey and jul mdama. I know noble 6 is canonically dead but if 343 had found a way to bring him/her back with like a mission later on in the campaign where there is a distress call from Reach (Halsey is still MIA)and Osiris is sent there to investigate. On reach Locke could’ve gotten killed as a big surprise and then Osiris, who are determined to finish the mission for him, find an older noble six defending Halsey from a bunch of jul mdamas covenant and Promethean Warriors. It turns out the distress call was from Halsey who was requesting assistance. Osiris back up noble six and eventually push the covenant and prometheans back. While doing this they find jul mdama and a short battle ensues. Mdama is defeated and seeing 6’s combat prowess, Osiris make him their new leader.
Then we would’ve had two hyper lethal Spartans going at eachother, the only two hyper lethal Spartans. It would’ve been so much cooler as the hunter and hunted were both battle hardened Spartans who were equally skilled. Instead of having Locke who we always knew was going to get beat by chief.
thanks heaps for reading and reply with your thoughts.