The Problems with Halo 5's Campaign

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Halo 5 has one of the worst halo campaigns ever. To be advertised as the “big scale” game, and what we got was a linear and stale halo campaign. Seriosly Halo CE had much more creative missions than this game! The False Marketing didn’t help the story either, but we will talk about that later.

The Main Problem with Halo 5’s Story

  • Story/Narrative/Marketing -
    The Story in halo 5 is awful… AWFUL! Idk what 343 was thinking but there are like 10 cutscenes that only take 1 minute long each. Halo 5 also couldn’t develop that story or its characters. Why is it that the marketing had more development for Locke than the actual game did? Seriously… If you make a game with a main character DEVELOP HIM IN THE GAME! Also, another bad part of halo 5 is the false marketing… Especially since the hunt the truth and the commercials presented a better and more interesting story than what we got! Cliffhanger ending that halo 5 didn’t deserve. Bad overall story

  • Mission Design -

The is equally as important as what I stated above. Halo 5 has the worst mission design in the series. Linear and Dry. Every mission is get from a to b. Every mission is a straight line with no twists or diversity. Silent Cartographer is a great example of how you should do a couple of missions! Halo 5’s poor mission design makes the games campaign very boring and makes me want to quit after just two missions.

Now Halo 4 had great story and an ok missions design, why did 343 go away from that story!? Halo 5 has the worst of both. Now I will rank the Campaigns from 1-5 only to give 343 an idea of what I personally think make halo campaigns halo campaigns.

  1. Halo 5
  2. Halo 2 ( tied with 4 )
  3. Halo 4 ( tied with 2 )
  4. Halo 3
  5. Halo CE
2

Pretty much any halo game’s mission was to get from a to b…

3

> 2533274973957410;2:
> Pretty much any halo game’s mission was to get from a to b…

I think of Halo from CE, Silent Cartographer, Assault on Control Room, Two Betrayals, and Maw.
i think of Outskirts, metropolis, regret, Qurantine Zone, uprising, and great journey.
I think of Crows nest, Tsavo highway, storm, Ark, Covenant, and even Halo.
i think of Requiem, Forerunner, Infinity, Reclaimer, and midnight.

All of these missions are more like a to b to c to d. Every mission isn’t the same bland, boring mission like halo 5. They offer different assets in each mission for example.
In the mission the covenant: you first storm the covenant, then you drive a warthog, then you go indoors, then you get hornet, then you go indoors, then you drive scorpion, then you fight two scarabs, then you kill truth.

Diversity!
That’s all we can ask for in a halo mission and halo 1-4 mastered this. Halo 2 and 4 were the weaker of the the 4 but they were close. Halo 5 I think of Enemy Lines. We kill few guys ,get ghost , kill few guys, go on kraken, blow up. kraken, and then eliminate a few Prometheans. The problem is that the kraken isn’t an enemy , it’s a platform that moves into place and just sits there. Seriously, the kraken itself doesn’t do anything so therefore a good try at diversity fails because the stupid kraken isn’t different at all. It offers the same experience a phaeton would attacking a building.

hopefully this makes since

4

the biggest disapointment for me was lack of any escelation contribution and most of all juls death

5

> 2533274862773120;4:
> the biggest disapointment for me was lack of any escelation contribution and most of all juls death

Yea that was rough

6

At some point I’m going to sit down and do a full rant on the h5 campaign story and how it could have been made better with minor changes.

7

After battling/chasing Jul m’dama throughout the whole of spartan ops series one, to see him dispatched in the opening cut scene was very disappointing.

I agree that the campaign didn’t feel right to me, I didn’t even complete it initially and left to play Destiny/fallout which is pretty much unheard of for me when it comes to Halo games. I think it was the promethean soldiers that I didn’t like - their speech and the silly teleport thing they do. They reminded me of prototype transformers from the movie.

I have since returned after infection was released and finally completed the campaign and must say I actually enjoyed it. I really like being able to command my fireteam of AI characters - it’s a great addition I hope they keep for future titles.

I agree the level design was too linear though.

8

> 2533274880633045;6:
> At some point I’m going to sit down and do a full rant on the h5 campaign story and how it could have been made better with minor changes.

Oh no, there need to be major changes to salvage this game’s campaign.

9

I’m not going to try and say Halo 5 had a great campaign, especially not it’s story.

But Halo 4’s Campaign was hated at launch too. You spent your time running from Darth Voldemart, and then suddenly attack his ship, and beat him in a final QTE battle that doesn’t even kill him because you used a random grenade.

The beginning and the end were really the only important parts of Halo 4.

As for linear, Halo CE was basically a corridor shooter. Most of your time was spent through shooting into repetitive rooms and hallways, and other times driving through hallways. Silent Cartographer tells you to go in a giant circle around the island, but it only feels big because if you already knew where to go, you could just go there and skip half the mission. And then you spend the second half of the game going through the first half backwards**.** I mean in Keyes, you start the level in the room right next to him, but you had to spend your time going all over the place in a circle just to get to the room right next to you to make the level longer.

I really don’t see how people look at Halo and say its open world or something, when the entire series follows a story from going to point A to point B. All you can really do is skip part of it to make it shorter.

If anything, Halo 5 tried to make it less linear at certain parts. When you land on Meridian and had to fight the Prometheans, you can choose to fight on your own, help the soldiers and activate the auto-turrets, or blow the generator and head straight to town with your own justified reasoning. And more importantly, Sloan remembers this later on.

10

> 2533274833081329;9:
> I’m not going to try and say Halo 5 had a great campaign, especially not it’s story.
>
> But Halo 4’s Campaign was hated at launch too. You spent your time running from Darth Voldemart, and then suddenly attack his ship, and beat him in a final QTE battle that doesn’t even kill him because you used a random grenade.
>
> The beginning and the end were really the only important parts of Halo 4.
>
> As for linear, Halo CE was basically a corridor shooter. Most of your time was spent through shooting into repetitive rooms and hallways, and other times driving through hallways. Silent Cartographer tells you to go in a giant circle around the island, but it only feels big because if you already knew where to go, you could just go there and skip half the mission. And then you spend the second half of the game going through the first half backwards**.** I mean in Keyes, you start the level in the room right next to him, but you had to spend your time going all over the place in a circle just to get to the room right next to you to make the level longer.
>
> I really don’t see how people look at Halo and say its open world or something, when the entire series follows a story from going to point A to point B. All you can really do is skip part of it to make it shorter.
>
> If anything, Halo 5 tried to make it less linear at certain parts. When you land on Meridian and had to fight the Prometheans, you can choose to fight on your own, help the soldiers and activate the auto-turrets, or blow the generator and head straight to town with your own justified reasoning. And more importantly, Sloan remembers this later on.

Lol. Compared to Halo 5 the most linear mission in Halo CE is just as linear as the least linear mission in halo 5. Plus the environments aren’t diverse or special. Thanks for leaving that out on CE. In CE and 3, every area had diversity to it or something that made it stand out. The most diverse mission in halo 5 is swords of Sanghelios

11

> 2533274973957410;2:
> Pretty much any halo game’s mission was to get from a to b…

Unless the only halo game you’ve played was 4, this isnt very correct. Halo CE-3 are far from point A to B in terms of linear. They have massive depth in the sandboxes that make up their campaign missions and plenty of weapons and vehicles to go through as you wish. Something that was forgotten in 4 and to a lesser extent 5. Halo 3, Reach and the MCC even had a scoring system for you to play around with to make the campaign like an arcade. But 5’s garbage story does take it’s toll on the campaign’s replay value.

12

> 2533274860927598;10:
> > 2533274833081329;9:
> > I’m not going to try and say Halo 5 had a great campaign, especially not it’s story.
> >
> > But Halo 4’s Campaign was hated at launch too. You spent your time running from Darth Voldemart, and then suddenly attack his ship, and beat him in a final QTE battle that doesn’t even kill him because you used a random grenade.
> >
> > The beginning and the end were really the only important parts of Halo 4.
> >
> > As for linear, Halo CE was basically a corridor shooter. Most of your time was spent through shooting into repetitive rooms and hallways, and other times driving through hallways. Silent Cartographer tells you to go in a giant circle around the island, but it only feels big because if you already knew where to go, you could just go there and skip half the mission. And then you spend the second half of the game going through the first half backwards**.** I mean in Keyes, you start the level in the room right next to him, but you had to spend your time going all over the place in a circle just to get to the room right next to you to make the level longer.
> >
> > I really don’t see how people look at Halo and say its open world or something, when the entire series follows a story from going to point A to point B. All you can really do is skip part of it to make it shorter.
> >
> > If anything, Halo 5 tried to make it less linear at certain parts. When you land on Meridian and had to fight the Prometheans, you can choose to fight on your own, help the soldiers and activate the auto-turrets, or blow the generator and head straight to town with your own justified reasoning. And more importantly, Sloan remembers this later on.
>
>
> Lol. Compared to Halo 5 the most linear mission in Halo CE is just as linear as the least linear mission in halo 5. Plus the environments aren’t diverse or special. Thanks for leaving that out on CE. In CE and 3, every area had diversity to it or something that made it stand out. The most diverse mission in halo 5 is swords of Sanghelios

The only level in CE I feel actually stood out would be Assault on the Control Room, but that loses its grandeur because you go back through it backwards on Two Betrayals

Pillar of Autumn - Well it’s a ship on fire. There’s really nothing else to it, but it looked great because it introduced you to the Covenant. But it was still extremely linear. The only choice you have is which small path you take to the exit.

Halo - A level that looks amazing on the surface, but a lot of the same after the initial feeling. Outside where it’s all green, inside where it’s all gray. At least this gives the choice of which order to save everyone and how many are saved, which results in different dialogue.

T&R - Obligatory “stealth” mission. Really the only choice you have is how many people you wake up and which 50 foot path you take to the ship. After that, the best you can do is find a way to skip floors to the objective.

Silent Cartographer - You run around in circles on an island to press buttons and leave. The only choice you have is whether you go to the building and get locked out, or go to the other building and shut it down first (which you needed prior knowledge of first, since it pushes you to the former)

AOTCR - You’re still going from objective to objective, but at least here it changes from open to close combat a bunch of times with a decent selection of vehicles.

343GS - You go in a building and get out. The only non-linear part is how lost you may or may not get.

Library - Lol this level isn’t linear? You’re running through the same hallway like 8 times no matter what. It’s not linear, it’s slightly curved. If we didn’t have fall damage, we could probably end this level in 10 seconds

Two Betrayals - AOTCR backwards. At least it still has a decent selection.

Keyes - T&R forwards and backwards. Even worse because you spawn right next to him, but have to run all over the place due to artificial lengthening of the mission.

Maw - At least the Pillar has you go in other places with an Armory Room, I guess that gives the “main boss fight” some choice

13

> 2533274833081329;12:
> > 2533274860927598;10:
> > > 2533274833081329;9:
> > > I’m not going to try and say Halo 5 had a great campaign, especially not it’s story.
> > >
> > > But Halo 4’s Campaign was hated at launch too. You spent your time running from Darth Voldemart, and then suddenly attack his ship, and beat him in a final QTE battle that doesn’t even kill him because you used a random grenade.
> > >
> > > The beginning and the end were really the only important parts of Halo 4.
> > >
> > > As for linear, Halo CE was basically a corridor shooter. Most of your time was spent through shooting into repetitive rooms and hallways, and other times driving through hallways. Silent Cartographer tells you to go in a giant circle around the island, but it only feels big because if you already knew where to go, you could just go there and skip half the mission. And then you spend the second half of the game going through the first half backwards**.** I mean in Keyes, you start the level in the room right next to him, but you had to spend your time going all over the place in a circle just to get to the room right next to you to make the level longer.
> > >
> > > I really don’t see how people look at Halo and say its open world or something, when the entire series follows a story from going to point A to point B. All you can really do is skip part of it to make it shorter.
> > >
> > > If anything, Halo 5 tried to make it less linear at certain parts. When you land on Meridian and had to fight the Prometheans, you can choose to fight on your own, help the soldiers and activate the auto-turrets, or blow the generator and head straight to town with your own justified reasoning. And more importantly, Sloan remembers this later on.
> >
> >
> > Lol. Compared to Halo 5 the most linear mission in Halo CE is just as linear as the least linear mission in halo 5. Plus the environments aren’t diverse or special. Thanks for leaving that out on CE. In CE and 3, every area had diversity to it or something that made it stand out. The most diverse mission in halo 5 is swords of Sanghelios
>
>
> The only level in CE I feel actually stood out would be Assault on the Control Room, but that loses its grandeur because you go back through it backwards on Two Betrayals
>
> Pillar of Autumn - Well it’s a ship on fire. There’s really nothing else to it, but it looked great because it introduced you to the Covenant. But it was still extremely linear. The only choice you have is which small path you take to the exit.
>
> Halo - A level that looks amazing on the surface, but a lot of the same after the initial feeling. Outside where it’s all green, inside where it’s all gray. At least this gives the choice of which order to save everyone and how many are saved, which results in different dialogue.
>
> T&R - Obligatory “stealth” mission. Really the only choice you have is how many people you wake up and which 50 foot path you take to the ship. After that, the best you can do is find a way to skip floors to the objective.
>
> Silent Cartographer - You run around in circles on an island to press buttons and leave. The only choice you have is whether you go to the building and get locked out, or go to the other building and shut it down first (which you needed prior knowledge of first, since it pushes you to the former)
>
> AOTCR - You’re still going from objective to objective, but at least here it changes from open to close combat a bunch of times with a decent selection of vehicles.
>
> 343GS - You go in a building and get out. The only non-linear part is how lost you may or may not get.
>
> Library - Lol this level isn’t linear? You’re running through the same hallway like 8 times no matter what. It’s not linear, it’s slightly curved. If we didn’t have fall damage, we could probably end this level in 10 seconds
>
> Two Betrayals - AOTCR backwards. At least it still has a decent selection.
>
> Keyes - T&R forwards and backwards. Even worse because you spawn right next to him, but have to run all over the place due to artificial lengthening of the mission.
>
> Maw - At least the Pillar has you go in other places with an Armory Room, I guess that gives the “main boss fight” some choice

Ok. I’m not trying to say Halo should be Open World. But what you are saying is Herecy towards halo’s campaign. What I’m trying to say is Halo CE is the most diverse and the most exciting halo campaign. Also, the reason they had to double the missions areas like Keyes and TR, AoTc and TB, PA and M, missions like that all had to be made because of the lack of resources. If it were employees or texhnology we don’t know but they have stated that before that they needed to double the mission area. Halo 5 is linear just like library. I think of the mission The Breaking, the mission is LITTERALLY A STRAIGHT LINE. Like seriously a straight line. The library was less linear than that mission actually. The breaking was more diverse though so I’m not saying it was a better mission by any stretch. However, Almsot every mission in Halo 5 follows this mission formula

Intro Room–>Small Room–>Medium Room–>cutscene–>medium room–>large room–> end of mission.

it feels like every mission is just a series of challenge rooms. That’s another thing. Halo CE and 2 missions especially, all the areas felt natural. In halo 5 the areas are made to look like fighting arenas. I think of The first mission and especially the breaking. But the both have weopons stocks right next to cover, hardly anything looks or feels natural. Pillar of Autumn actually felt like a ship. Halo felt like an unexplored ring world. TR felt like a covenant ship. SC felt like an unexplored island. and so on. The only offender of this was Library ( of course ).

Unfortunately I just play on MCC nowadays because I actually can enjoy 5 campaigns.

14

Doubling the mission areas is a design choice and a sacrifice they had to make for whatever reason. Unfortunately, to me, that doesn’t really forgive the campaign.

The Breaking, I only somewhat mind to be in a straight line because the whole mission takes place in Genesis’s “inner sanctum” (?), unlike the outside where it look more like a world forged by Builders (but not necessarily a Halo ring) with things crash landing due to the guardians.

But I’d still rather take a challenging straight line than spawning right next to or right above the mission objective but can’t get to it.

Like I said, not saying Halo 5 is great like any means, but it at least tried to give choices in what you do.

15

> 2533274833081329;14:
> Doubling the mission areas is a design choice and a sacrifice they had to make for whatever reason. Unfortunately, to me, that doesn’t really forgive the campaign.
>
> The Breaking, I only somewhat mind to be in a straight line because the whole mission takes place in Genesis’s “inner sanctum” (?), unlike the outside where it look more like a world forged by Builders (but not necessarily a Halo ring) with things crash landing due to the guardians.
>
> But I’d still rather take a challenging straight line than spawning right next to or right above the mission objective but can’t get to it.
>
> Like I said, not saying Halo 5 is great like any means, but it at least tried to give choices in what you do.

To each their own I guess

16

All I’m saying…

Level design, flaws and all, would have been more bearable if the actual story didn’t suck a big fat Tartarus’ Gavel. More plot holes than Batman V. Superman.