Hello everyone, I noticed a lot of opinions about Halo 5 and I felt like throwing mine in (I promise not to be negative)
Personally I’ve played Halo since it was first released on the xbox when I was a kid, over the years I got into the expanded universe and read all of the books, except the comics and “Fall of Reach”. Sometimes just for -Yoink- and giggles I’ll play through the entire Halo universe from start to finish chronologically factoring in all the books, when they take place in between games and during games, along with the video content such as the Halo 3 trailer or Forward Unto Dawn (this is done over a very expanded period, not in one day and I really need to be feeling it for awhile, don’t judge me).
When I played Halo 5, I have to admit I was a trifle worried about Jameson Locke but I ended up liking him. The Smart Scope bothered me originally, but then when I got to use it I realized it functioned like the normal zoom of Halo titles passed, it was just on every gun instead. The fact that it automatically kicked you out of it when you got shot reminded me of Bungie Halos, so they were definitely respecting mechanics there. On the aspect of the story I’ve personally been enjoying 343’s Halo stories. Were they perfect? Of course they weren’t. Were they terrible? I wouldn’t say that either, in my opinion they were different. I liked the more human-esque stories in Halo 4 because I got a nice fill of the action heavy stories in the original Halo’s, and Halo is the only shooter I’ve seen willing to experiment with character to large extents, something other shooters such as Call of Duty are too terrified of doing. I felt like Halo’s story in the present day has evolved beyond the confines of video game story telling, and it focusing on universe expansion and character development. Halo 5’s story I enjoyed, (I won’t write a spoiler here) but the certain someone turning out to be a villain was not too much of a surprise, I halfway saw it coming. Locke grew on me over time and the interaction with the Fireteam was something I enjoyed, although the mechanics for healing could better, namely my whole team running to save me when the Warden kills me and all of them failing is something that could have used a minor tweak. Originally I was off about the story, it didn’t grab my interest too much in the early levels but as it progressed I got quite into it.
When the final finale happened my immediate thought was “that’s not good!” When the planets and ships started going dark I was really thinking “that’s really not good!” When I saw the secret Legendary Ending I thoughts “that is extremely really not good!” Seeing Blue Team in a game, my thought was “it’s about time”. I know some people griped about them not developing much, but they developed plenty in the novels, there wasn’t much left for them to develop as, which was why I could accept it. I was also very happy that Dr. Halsey had more screen time, as one of my favourite characters in the Halo series I’ve often wanted her featured more prominently in a game.The major cliffhanger ending I had the same reaction to it as I did with Halo 2, a mixture of enjoyment, annoyance, anticipation, and a want to play it again to see if I missed any details that could hint at the next game. I saw this game as the ‘bridge’ game between Halo 4 and 6, just like Halo 2 bridged Halo 1 and 3. The game is evolving, as a good game should. If they pumped out an all action game then I’d say it was too much of a copy off of Halo 3. The new Forerunner enemies were a different fight than the Covenant, which I appreciated. They didn’t feel like robot flood, like in Halo 4. I personally played the campaign twice in a row (again not in 1 day) and I really enjoyed it, and this is coming from someone who needs to have a good story in a game or I won’t play it.
I haven’t gotten online yet, it’s on my list when I have a minute, but I’m looking forward to it. I always enjoyed tearing things up in previous Halos and the new mechanics in Halo 5 such as the thruster are pretty interesting new additions. For the aiming issue, personally I haven’t noticed too much of a difference from previous games, yes it’s a bit harder, but I’m not dieing with my controller. Truthfully I skipped the beta as at the time I was way to busy to have a chance to play it, so for me this is my 1st time going in on the aim and it’s not giving me a problem. Just wanted to share some positivity. It was not a perfect game, nothing ever is, but I liked it quite a bit. Was it my favourite Halo installment? No, not quite. Would I play it again? Absolutely I would!
Halo 5’s story was not good at all imo. What more did we learn about the forerunners/humans/the mantle/where the Didact ended up etc? Nothing. There was pretty much no story involving the Forerunners or anything. What we got feels like it’s just holding the main focus and plot of the Halo’s universe back and prevented it from developing into a deeper story. An evil Cortana who was the antagonist? What? Why was this not about revealing more about the relations between The Forerunners and Humanity? Where was all this “Hunt the Truth” stuff in the game? Where was this big “Revelation” about Chief? All we got was a cinematic of Chief and Locke throwing a few punches and then they kinda made up at the end. The whole thing was just a waste of time and did nothing to help the Halo story as whole from going further and progressing into a more deeper story and revealing more about the main aspects of the Halo universe. A pointless story imo.
Sorry. Double post.
It happens. Personally, I suppose I’d agree with you that there wasn’t much in terms of further Forerunner revelations, although Halo 4 had quite a bit. They did talk a bit more about how The Mantle worked, acknowledging the Forerunner trilogy and they touched lightly on the Domain. Cortana as evil is definitely a new direction relative to the Halo universe, and I fell Chief will have a choice to make in the next game. I’m wondering what else they could reveal about the Forerunners, though. I’ll acknowledge what you said the Chief/Locke relationship wasn’t that big of a revelation, but it can still be expanded on. Locke will probably want Chief to kill Cortana, somehow I hope Chief doesn’t decide to do it, I hope he feels more of a divide, kill her for the good of humanity, or risk saving her.
The marketing for this game was extremely falsified and 343 needs to fire their marketing guy, or at least own up that they’ve changed the story so drastically that they ran out of time and effed up.
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> It happens. Personally, I suppose I’d agree with you that there wasn’t much in terms of further Forerunner revelations, although Halo 4 had quite a bit. They did talk a bit more about how The Mantle worked, acknowledging the Forerunner trilogy and they touched lightly on the Domain. Cortana as evil is definitely a new direction relative to the Halo universe, and I fell Chief will have a choice to make in the next game. I’m wondering what else they could reveal about the Forerunners, though. I’ll acknowledge what you said the Chief/Locke relationship wasn’t that big of a revelation, but it can still be expanded on. Locke will probably want Chief to kill Cortana, somehow I hope Chief doesn’t decide to do it, I hope he feels more of a divide, kill her for the good of humanity, or risk saving her.
That’s the problem though. After all the Mystery that shrouded the Halo universe, Halo 3’s ending finally shifted over to the Forerunner side of things. Then Halo 4 introduces the Forerunners and get’s the ball rolling on and starts telling the story of the Forerunners, Humanity, the War etc. I get it the books explain the Forerunners, humanity and the war they had. But is that all it’s going to be, just history? The history of these events needs to be relevant and needs to help shape the developmend of where the story Arc is heading in the present day. I mean it’s what Halo has been building up to since day one. Halo 4 left questions of where the Didact went. Who was he talking to and what is he planning to do. But Halo 5 did nothing to move that forward. Was he even mentioned? There’s plenty to reveal about the Forerunners, like I said, the Didact. Who was he talking to at the end? What is he planning? We also had an ancient and highly advanced civilization. When is that going a main topic in the game? How is that going to go down with present day humanity?
As far as the games go we need to start getting on with the MAIN plot of the Halo universe. The story is becoming a mess imo. What’s the main focus now? It should not be that much about Cortana. I understand she was one of the main characters, she was Master Chiefs only friend, she was/is an iconic character etc. But it needs to be scaled down in order to make room for where the story really should be heading.
Hmm, I suppose I see what you mean but when reading the expanding lore and playing through all the Halo games I’m not quite sure what else 343 could further expand on in terms of ‘major revelations of the Forerunners’. Unless they expanded on The Mantle some more, which they easily could in Halo 6 when it comes along in a few years. I feel like the history is relevant in how Halo 4 bridged the way into Halo 5, we already know that humanity has an heirship from the Forerunners, even the Precursors, maybe in Halo 6 or further in the saga there will be some epic human-forerunner war for final control of The Mantle. The Librarian did mention in Halo 4 that the Forerunners were looking to bridge the way between organic and digital worlds, which would explain why individuals such as Warden Eternal even exist. I’ll agree with you The Didact was only mentioned a few times, although in the Escalation series you find out what happened to the Didact. Even if you don’t read it, however, you can easily write him off in Halo 4 as he died when he fell into the Slipspace rift, as it’s unlikely even a Forerunner could survive the rigors of slipspace (otherwise they wouldn’t have used ships in the Forerunner trilogy).
In escalation it is revealed what became of him and you get more closure on his final fate. As for the Forerunners as a whole, we know The Didact went rogue from his people and the Iso-Didact took the remainder of the Forerunner civilization and fled the galaxy. Perhaps there may be a Forerunner civil war? Either way at present we are dealing with Forerunner rogues, not Forerunner civilization according to the Forerunner trilogy. I still think Cortana as a villain will be great to see because she’s not alone anymore. Now she has nigh ALL of the UNSC AIs with her and the humans are extremely reliant on their AIs and technology, this reminds me somewhat of when the Forerunner’s own AIs were falling victim to the Logic Plague by the Flood during the Forerunner-Flood war. I honestly feel like Halo 5 was the buildup and Halo 6/future games will address our future questions. I didn’t feel like the plot was disjointed and rushed, having played games that were extremely rushed I didn’t get this feeling.
I know some folks griped about the need to have gone into the expanded universe. As an avid reader, I really appreciated the expanded universe playing a role. Something that always drove me bat -Yoink- crazy with Bungie Halos, and other games series that also do expanded universe, was when the books were written stated they ‘bridge the gap’ but then the next game out and out ignores what was written in the book, not even mentioning it in passing. I’m more of a fan of big epic stories that span multiple games/platforms rather than single write off stories between games, but that’s just me…