See, the marketing campaign they put behind this game made it look like it was going to be something dark, gritty, and more personal to Master Chief’s character. The fact that the trailers showed ONI explicitly trying to convince average citizens that the Chief was a traitor and even showed footage of him apparently dead from getting a building dropped on him was enough to put me on edge. Questions automatically come from this: Why is ONI trying to paint the Chief as a threat? Is he? What caused the Chief to be labeled as a traitor in the first place? And then they posted the trailers of Locke and the Chief sparring with each other and viewing the fight from both of their perspectives, which I thought was very interesting. So more questions popped up: Who is Locke? Why is he hunting the Chief? What are Locke’s motivations?
Based on the marketing, this is the story that I envisioned to appear in Halo 5:
With the death of Cortana, the Chief is grieving and refuses to believe that she’s gone for good. In his search to find a way to bring her back, he stumbles across SOMETHING. Something huge. This “something” is about ONI, a secret that changes everything the Chief perceived to be truth. ONI catches wind of Chief’s discovery and falls into panic. If the Chief releases the information he’s found to the public and beyond, it could mean the end of ONI and the people who have fought hard to keep dark secrets under wraps. So, in accordance to the trailers, ONI tries to convince citizens that the Chief, humanity’s savior, is a traitor in order to decrease his public support and justify his arrest and possible death. Enter Spartan Locke. He’s been loyal to ONI for years and this assignment is the biggest he’ll ever get in his life. At the same time, since he’s a Spartan IV, he wants to take down the Chief to prove that he is more than capable in taking down a Spartan II and to relinquish his repressed inferiority complex. So Locke puts together Team Osiris while the Chief recruits his old Spartan II allies to create Blue Team. Osiris eventually catches up to Blue Team and they engage each other. Locke and Chief finally meet and a lengthy, brutal fight ensues. Locke’s inferiority complex comes out and his jealousy pushes him to try and kill the Chief. However, the Chief manages to overpower him and he forces Locke to hear the truth. After much convincing, Locke realizes ONI’s corruption and seeks revenge for being used as a pawn. At this point, Osiris and Blue Team combine forces and start a campaign against ONI, building an army comprised of ONI and UNSC forces as well as average citizens. With both armies at the ready, the campaign ends on a cliffhanger, the impending war left to be resolved in Halo 6.
What do you guys think? How did you envision Halo 5’s story to be?