SPOILERS!
If you haven’t beaten Halo 5 yet, don’t read this thread. You have been warned.
I love Halo. it’s easily my favorite game franchise. The story is superb. But Halo 5 really messes with well, everything. First off, I went to the midnight launch, waited for the game to install for an hour, and then marathon’d the campaign for the next six hours. It was a super short game, but it was really fun/entertaining. BUT! There are a few things we need to desperately talk about. Luckily I made a list of “sins” as I was playing through Halo 5. Why? Because I played Halo 4 (and I’m not necessarily a fan of Halo 4, but that’s another discussion for another time).
Anyways, here are the notes I took of the campaign and my general thoughts on them.
(In no particular order)
-
Master Chief (sort of) abandoning the UNSC way too easily. Seriously 343i, you could have done a much better job at this. Everything started too quickly and abruptly. It really needed to be expanded out more. Master Chief had a dream or vision or whatever the hell that was, then knows that Cortana is on Meridian because magic. UNSC calls him back and says that Locke’s team will handle it and Master Chief says “lol nope” and basically runs off. That’s how this game starts. That’s how “the greatest hunt in gaming history” began. How lame. Poor execution, as simple as that.
-
(This one is just me being a picky Halo nerd.) Hunters travel/fight in pairs of two. Your first encounter with the Hunters had them in a group of 3. It should have been 2, 4 ,6, etc.
-
The Dominion was (obviously) thrown into Halo 5’s plot just to bring back Cortana. It’s apparently some kind of Forerunner space magic that makes AIs live forever. Well okay fine, the only problem is that the Dominion isn’t covered in any Halo related material ever (games, books, etc. included) up until Halo 5.
-
Cortana essentially being “Queen of the Promethians/Forerunners.” I cannot even begin to describe how stupid this is. Basically once Cortana cures her rampancy by using space magic, she finds the Forerunner world of Genesis, and the Promethians instantly decide to help her and basically make her their ruler, because plot or some -Yoink- like that. That would never happen (even though it did, gggrrr). Why? Okay, let’s take a crash course in human-Forerunner relations. In a nutshell, the Ur-Didact (not the Iso-Didact) hated the humans because the Mantle of Responsibility was supposed to be passed to them and he thought the Forerunners should remain the keepers of the Mantle forever. Ur-Didact had a device known as the Composer which was used to convert organic (afaik mostly human) lives into machine-esque beings that would follow his commands (aka the Promethians). Blah blah blah stuff happened and Ur-Didact was locked up until Halo 4. So since those Promoethians were basically his personal army, he almost 99.99% made them despise the humans. Therefore the Promethians would never follow a human or something of human origin.
-
Cortana turning kind of evil just cause. Her plan is to bring galactic peace. Cool, eh? Nah man, it’s peace through fear (aka giant robots, essentially, known as Guardians) and anybody who dares opposes this “peace” would die, because that’s how the Forerunners did it. Okay, why? Why do this Cortana? Not once has Cortana ever been this way in any sort of Halo media, and now all of sudden she’s gone crazyish. Please 343i, if you’re going to change the story of Halo around, DO IT WELL -Yoink!-.
-
Cortana trying to give the Mantle of Responsibility to AIs. Get over yourself girl, the Precursors said it was for the humans. Plus it just made for a kinda lame plot.
-
Master Chief was kind of shoved aside this game in favor of Spartan Locke. Personally I have no problem with there being a new playable main character, but I really would have loved for them to have equal screen time. Halo 5 was really focused on Spartan Locke and not so much on the Chief, even though he is the main protagonist.
And ya that’s pretty much it. So if you’ve beaten the game, I’d like to know your thoughts and would love to discuss these seven points.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> SPOILERS!
>
> 3) The Dominion was (obviously) thrown into Halo 5’s plot just to bring back Cortana. It’s apparently some kind of Forerunner space magic that makes AIs live forever. Well okay fine, the only problem is that the Dominion isn’t covered in any Halo related material ever (games, books, etc. included) up until Halo 5.
Nope, the Domain has been in Halo since Cryptum back in 2011, check your facts.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> 1) Master Chief (sort of) abandoning the UNSC way too easily.
He didn’t abandon the UNSC, he simply reasigned himself. He has been doing this since Halo: Escalation and he wasn’t going to let some other team “deal” with Cortana because she means a lot to him. He also didn’t side with her after he discovered her motivations.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> The Dominion was (obviously) thrown into Halo 5’s plot just to bring back Cortana.
Um… it’s the Domain and yes it has.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> Cortana essentially being “Queen of the Promethians/Forerunners.”
That’s not how any of this works. The Promethean Knights and Soldiers are just machines that will follow anyone who controls them. See the Librarian taking control of them in the Halo 4 Terminals, The Ur-Didact taking back control of then in Halo 4 and then Jul 'Mdama using them in Spartan Ops. Cortana and the Warden simply took control for themselves in Halo 5. This is addressed at the beginning of the game when the Knights under 'Mdama’s command turn against him. They were never programmed to hate humans.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> Cortana turning kind of evil just cause.
She most likely “turned evil” because of the Gravemind’s logic plague.
> 2533274829755103;1:
> Cortana trying to give the Mantle of Responsibility to AIs
The Precursor did not give humans the Mantle. Humans are only next in line to be tested and whether or not they will fail has yet to be decided. Cortana is simply reinterpreting the definition of Reclaimer to fit her corrupted views. It wouldn’t be the first time someone reinterpreted a law or religious text to justify their own actions.
> 2533274793749599;3:
> > 2533274829755103;1:
> > 1) Master Chief (sort of) abandoning the UNSC way too easily.
>
>
> He didn’t abandon the UNSC, he simply reasigned himself. He has been doing this since Halo: Escalation and he wasn’t going to let some other team “deal” with Cortana because she means a lot to him. He also didn’t side with her after he discovered her motivations.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274829755103;1:
> > The Dominion was (obviously) thrown into Halo 5’s plot just to bring back Cortana.
>
>
> Um… it’s the Domain and yes it has.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274829755103;1:
> > Cortana essentially being “Queen of the Promethians/Forerunners.”
>
>
> That’s not how any of this works. The Promethean Knights and Soldiers are just machines that will follow anyone who controls them. See the Librarian taking control of them in the Halo 4 Terminals, The Ur-Didact taking back control of then in Halo 4 and then Jul 'Mdama using them in Spartan Ops. Cortana and the Warden simply took control for themselves in Halo 5. This is adressed at the beginning of the game when the Knights under 'Mdama’s command turn against him. They were never programmed to hate humans.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274829755103;1:
> > Cortana turning kind of evil just cause.
>
>
> She most likely “turned evil” because of the Gravemind’s logic plague.
>
>
>
>
> > 2533274829755103;1:
> > Cortana trying to give the Mantle of Responsibility to AIs
>
>
> The Precursor did not give humans the Mantle. Humans are only next in line to be tested and whether or not they will fail has been decided. Cortana is simply reinterpreting the definition of Reclaimer to fit her corrupted views. It wouldn’t be the first time someone reinterpreted a law or religious text to justify their own actions.
Them counter argument’s are probably correct but stuff like Cortana turning evil should have been explained better.
1- Since 4 117 has been ignoring orders on the drop of a hat. Palmer even had a line in 5 saying that no one tells 117 what to do. So it’s clear that 343 now has 117 doing what he wants.
One thing that i am slightly confused about is who was the team dealing with Cortana. It wasnt Osiris. Osiris was prepped to deal with 117 so there has to be another team prepped to deal with Cortana. Cause right now we have Infinity suddenly dropping the Cortana mission because Chief went awol? Why?
2- Your team must’ve killed one quick. I think all Hunters were in pairs.
4- The Warden allowed her to do this. Do we know who the Warden is?
5- 343 really hates Halsey and this was the last nail on that coffin. Even Halsey saw that her copy brain would go too far if given the chance. And the copy brain now has the chance. Halsey went too far with the spartans and now the copy brain is going too far.
6- Warden. It seems they hacked it. Maybe the Warden IS the Domain?
7- When Vale pointed out that even Arbiter gave him props i was like… really? Most of the game is with Locke you dont need to throw everything to make people like him. I was also hoping for a 50/50. They should’ve brought back Spartan Ops and used that to promote Locke rather than just throw him as the main guy of the game.
Aren’t hunter pairs a result of colonies merely getting too big for a single suit of armor? There’s no rule there can’t be 3 (or that they didn’t lose 1 in some prior engagement).
I liked the story a direction I never thought it would go in, though it did feel like we were suppose to see things from chief’s perspective at time like on meridian, and I am annoyed that theres no forerunners no didact digital or alive no librarian, no 343 looking for the librarian. I did like the theme of AI’s coming to power but man when the flood return I hope for big battles with covenant ( or atleast covenant species) forerunners. humans and Ai’s
I thought it was awful. Mdama killed in mission one. Chief abandoning the UNSC way too easily. Blue Team not trying to talk him out of it. The Warden Eternal. Cortana being alive, and evil. The only good part was Exuberant Witness.
The writer behind it also wrote Halo 4’s Spartan Ops. That means he’s had two attempts at writing Halo, and failed on both of them. 343 need to bring back the man who wrote Halo 4’s campaign, or use the man who wrote Hunt the Truth.
Using an outsider like Osiris was a neat little concept but it wasn’t really developed to my liking. I like that you learn a wee bit about them when Cortana tries to mess with them in level 15 but I wanted a little more.
Cortana…well, I see her as traumatised from rampancy / falling through the slip space. It’s a really big WTF moment and it needed a bit more meat on the bones but there you have it. 343 NEED to find a writer that will give these moments room to breathe. It felt a lot like of the story was rushed to move from beat to beat and rarely did it let the scene breathe.
> Hunters travel/fight in pairs of two. Your first encounter with the Hunters had them in a group of 3.
played it solo legendary. There was only 2.
Remember, if your playing co-op, difficulty scales
> Cortana essentially being "Queen of the Promethians/Forerunners.
She is the Creation of Forerunner technology and a living human brain. She is the 1st entity to access the Domain in over a 100,000 years when the connection was lost when the halo rings fired. With this. Wouldn’t be to hard
> Cortana turning kind of evil just cause.
totally didn’t notice the signs in Halo 4 huh.
Not only that. She isn’t the Cortana you saw die in Halo 4. Remember, she split herself into a 100 different copies. This Cortana isn’t the only who said, “Welcome Home John”
> Cortana trying to give the Mantle of Responsibility to AIs.
She sees that AI are the best ones responsible to guide the Mantle.
Even the AI in Halo: Last Light was planning to do what Cortana was going to do. And she was a Forerunner AI
> 2533274831420277;8:
> I thought it was awful. Mdama killed in mission one. Chief abandoning the UNSC way too easily. Blue Team not trying to talk him out of it. The Warden Eternal. Cortana being alive, and evil. The only good part was Exuberant Witness.
>
> The writer behind it also wrote Halo 4’s Spartan Ops. That means he’s had two attempts at writing Halo, and failed on both of them. 343 need to bring back the man who wrote Halo 4’s campaign, or use the man who wrote Hunt the Truth.
Mdama is a D-lister in the pantheon of Halo enemies.
Chief did not abandon the UNSC. He showed initiative. He was right in that there was no one better to investigate than him.
Blue is are HIS family. In a choice between the UNSC or 117, they will chose John all the time.
Warden Eternal, imho, is the real puppet master here… He empowered Cortana. He has an agenda.
Cortana’s morality is not so black or white. She is doing what the Forerunners used to do… Crack a few eggs to make an omelet.
