Should Halo 5's story be re-written?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Halo 5 has the worst story in a Halo game, hands-down. If you want a complete breakdown of everything the campaign and the story did wrong, check out The Act Man’s videos on YouTube… he does an excellent job of explaining the whole sordid mess.

But the bottom line is that Halo 5: Guardians completely destroyed whatever 343 Industries accomplished with Halo 4 campaign, and also ruined one of the most iconic characters in gaming with Cortana; bringing her back to life and making her the villain was the worst decision they could’ve made, and it made her sacrifice in Halo 4 meaningless… not to mention the false advertising and all that “Hunt the Truth” nonsense that never made it into the game.

I really don’t see how 343i can possibly salvage this in Halo 6, and honestly… I’d rather they not even try. Because I do not think there is any way they can pull it off. They screwed up that badly.

Having said that, I pose to you a question; should Halo 5’s story be completely re-written?

I think they should remove the campaign from Halo 5 entirely. De-canonize it, remove it, and make a free DLC update with a new campaign based on what was advertised in “Hunt the Truth”. Create a story that actually makes sense, and builds on the conclusion of Halo 4. Let us play as both Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris in equal measure; like how the missions were split between the Arbiter and the Chief in Halo 2. DO NOT BRING CORTANA BACK TO LIFE. Let her stay dead. Make her death mean something. Flesh out the different members of Blue Team and Osiris, make us care about these characters like we cared about Noble Team in Halo: Reach and Buck’s squad in Halo 3: ODST.

Introduce some of the new REQ items and gameplay elements that have been added to the game since launch, like the Wasp, Phaeton Helios, Anti-Air Wraith, Hannibal vehicles, classic weapons like the Halo 2 Battle Rifle, Tactical Magnum, Halo 2 Beam Rifle, Grenade Launcher, and Sentinel Beam. Add skulls from Halo: Anniversary like Bandana, Malfunction, Recession, and Grunt Funeral so we can better enjoy these new additions.

I think Halo 6 should be put on hold until everything wrong with Halo 5: Guardians has been fixed, starting with the story. I do not want to see 343 Industries continue the current story arc. What do you think?

2

As much as I’d love to see Halo 5’s current story rewritten, I doubt it’ll happen. Especially not via a DLC - paid or otherwise - being the thing that retells it. At the best I feel they’ll just have some short stories, novels, and etc to try and stitch things back together. Far as I’m concerned the damage is already done, and we’ll just have to live with it.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have been so irked with Halo 5’s story if what we got was what they had been advertising. Hunt the Truth and the MCC cutscenes and all the advertising campaigns leading up to this promised us so much more, and then we got a near-total rewrite instead. That’s what hits me the most here.

That being said, they might drop or rewrite some of H5 for H6, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing any of that in the Halo 5 generation. At least not in console-form.

3

No, cuz it’s not going to happen. Do you know how much time gets out into a whole campaign? Not to mention most of 343s staff has moved into other projects and they’d see no point in going back. I completely agree that h5s campaign is awful, first “bad” campaign if halo to me. Failed execution, dropped h4s setup, bad character development, ect ect. They could just retcon h5 and just make up something instead cuz you’re not going to see 343 put in the effort to fix the campaign that they’ve ignored talking about since launch, they’ve already left it behind. All we can hope for is 343 make it right in h6, and that I worry about cuz the same dip -Yoink- that did 5s story is also doing h6.

fyi: it’s going overboard on you wanting all the req weapons, kind of defeats the purpose of a challenge.

4

It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.

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> 2533274863544717;4:
> It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.

Given they still don’t have a clear way to explain how and why Cortana accessed the Domain and is loopy, I’m not holding my breath.

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> 2533274812652989;5:
> > 2533274863544717;4:
> > It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.
>
> Given they still don’t have a clear way to explain how and why Cortana accessed the Domain and is loopy, I’m not holding my breath.

I hope you’re wrong. Although, you would know better than most. I have read some of your explanations about the campaign. Your opinion on the subject is more informed than mine. All I can do is hope.

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> 2533274863544717;6:
> > 2533274812652989;5:
> > > 2533274863544717;4:
> > > It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.
> >
> > Given they still don’t have a clear way to explain how and why Cortana accessed the Domain and is loopy, I’m not holding my breath.
>
> I hope you’re wrong. Although, you would know better than most. I have read some of your explanations about the campaign. Your opinion on the subject is more informed than mine. All I can do is hope.

Well, you can accept the Catalog and Halo 5 account that a part of the Mantle’s Approach initiated an emergency slipspace jump before its destruction and went to Genesis where Cortana found the Domain. Or the Genesis Universe article entry’s account here on Waypoint that said her “sacrifice” forced her matrix into the Domain. Or the Tales from Slipspace account that has Cortana floating in space, following the light, and finding the Domain, all without nary a mention of the Didact’s ship or Genesis.

Take yer pick.

8

> 2533274834952794;1:
> What do you think?

A complete re-work is not a viable option, I am afraid that 343 are just going to have to spend the next few years salvaging the narrative from the wreckage of Halo 5’s campaign.

I agree with your opinion of the story, and I wish it could just be retconned out of existence, but that’s not how you are meant to handle such an established franchise (even if it would be better off).

That said, I believe that the power of writing can achieve the impossible, and make the best of this terrible situation. I just hope 343 has a writer that can do it.

We will watch and wait.

Edit: Words are hard.

9

I’ve said this several times in response to threads asking for Halo 5 to be de-canonized or retconned out of the franchise:

I’d prefer they not. It may just be my personal opinion, but I feel that attempting to pretend that it never happened is probably one of the laziest things they could do.

In addition to that, as I said in one of I DR HALSEY I’s threads, if we were to inquire about what happened between the advertisements and the final product, 343 would likely end up using the excuse that “it’s non-canon, and therefore not relevant” to avoid answering anything if it were retconned out of existence.

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> 2533274863544717;4:
> It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.

Exactly this… people really need to get over it already. It’s a year old now. Getting even older hearing “watch act man’s video” … ummm no I don’t need an angry youtuber opinion I can form my own.

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> 2533274816788253;10:
> > 2533274863544717;4:
> > It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.
>
> Exactly this… people really need to get over it already. It’s a year old now. Getting even older hearing “watch act man’s video” … ummm no I don’t need an angry youtuber opinion I can form my own.

I feel people will get over it when 343 shows they’ve actually learned something from the feedback rather than deflecting it or giving generic “we’re listening” statements.

12

I have a feeling they will end the Halo 5 stuff in outside media like they did the Halo 4 stuff. I heard that Halo Wars 2 will impact Halo 6 and I have a feeling as much as Halo 5 wasn’t liked it may impact Halo 6 A LOT. Which may not be the worse move they could make. I mean is any one really interested in fighting the warden again in another Halo campaign?

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> 2533274812652989;11:
> > 2533274816788253;10:
> > > 2533274863544717;4:
> > > It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.
> >
> > Exactly this… people really need to get over it already. It’s a year old now. Getting even older hearing “watch act man’s video” … ummm no I don’t need an angry youtuber opinion I can form my own.
>
> I feel people will get over it when 343 shows they’ve actually learned something from the feedback rather than deflecting it or giving generic “we’re listening” statements.

Well the direction the Halo 5 multiplayer took they seem to listen IMO… there isn’t anything they can do about the campaign. It is what it is at this point. They already said there wouldn’t be any campaign dlc, as there never has been in Halo anyways. So all we can do story wise is wait to see what Halo Wars 2 unfolds.

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> 2533274816788253;13:
> > 2533274812652989;11:
> > > 2533274816788253;10:
> > > > 2533274863544717;4:
> > > > It doesn’t seem possible. We have to accept where they’ve taken us, and hope that they can bring it back in Halo 6.
> > >
> > > Exactly this… people really need to get over it already. It’s a year old now. Getting even older hearing “watch act man’s video” … ummm no I don’t need an angry youtuber opinion I can form my own.
> >
> > I feel people will get over it when 343 shows they’ve actually learned something from the feedback rather than deflecting it or giving generic “we’re listening” statements.
>
> Well the direction the Halo 5 multiplayer took they seem to listen IMO… there isn’t anything they can do about the campaign. It is what it is at this point. They already said there wouldn’t be any campaign dlc, as there never has been in Halo anyways. So all we can do story wise is wait to see what Halo Wars 2 unfolds.

They can discuss it and mention some of the specific feedback they have been given. They did this with Halo 4 and have done so with Halo 5’s multiplayer as you mentioned. Halo Wars 2 will definitely be something to look out for.

15

What’s done is done.

16

I still can’t believe how bad the H5 story was. I’ve loved every Halo story, including H4. I’ve at least liked all of the 19 main Halo novels. Halo 5 is truly a black sheep in an otherwise amazing universe that had never let me down before.

I do think Halo 6 can be great, but I am still confused with the direction and terrible writing / character development in Halo 5. I just truly don’t understand who called the shots.

17

It already happened. Rewrite is not going to make any difference. We’ve already seen it.

18

We need a campaign refresh. We probally would of thought the campaign was awesome if we had the grunt goblin in it. Except the story obviously.

At least a campaign gameplay refresh would be cool if we couldn’t touch the story. I found it super boring which is weird considering I’m a big fan of Halos.

I was mainly bored cause of no abilities or equipment pick ups in it. It could of really used a lot of the reqs as well like imagine missions with the wasp, grenade launcher, air wraith, and Hannibal variants.

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> 2533274962122285;18:
> We need a campaign refresh. We probally would of thought the campaign was awesome if we had the grunt goblin in it. Except the story obviously.
>
> At least a campaign gameplay refresh would be cool if we couldn’t touch the story. I found it super boring which is weird considering I’m a big fan of Halos.
>
> I was mainly bored cause of no abilities or equipment pick ups in it. It could of really used a lot of the reqs as well like imagine missions with the wasp, grenade launcher, air wraith, and Hannibal variants.

A minor patch could be nice. For example, the Warden was embarrassingly overdone. Cutscenes with him are okay, I guess, but the boss fight is just pathetic. And I feel like I fought 100 of him.

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> 2533274804898926;16:
> I still can’t believe how bad the H5 story was. I’ve loved every Halo story, including H4. I’ve at least liked all of the 19 main Halo novels. Halo 5 is truly a black sheep in an otherwise amazing universe that had never let me down before.
>
> I do think Halo 6 can be great, but I am still confused with the direction and terrible writing / character development in Halo 5. I just truly don’t understand who called the shots.

I don’t get the “no character development complaint”. When has Halo ever had that? I feel H5 got that part right in a way. Some in outside media and some in game. Sure it wasn’t whole character biographies but information is there. For example Locke was in Nightfall and you saw how he always concentrates on the mission no matter what, also at the end of the game Cortana talks about how Locke was also a hitman for ONI. Locke talks about how Blue Team is close because they grew up in the Spartan program. Buck was an ODST and the book New Blood. There were other tidbits in the game about the other Spartans as well.