This is something that has been bugging me for a year since Halo 5 was launched. From what it looked like from the E3 2013 teaser, the Halo: MCC trailer, the Halo: 2 Anniversary bookend cutscenes, and lastly the excellent Hunt The Truth marketing campaign, I was expecting Halo 5 to be one of the most darkest Halo stories in the entire game series. We had Master Chief in a cloak with a cracked visor on a desert world (obviously Sanghelios) and Locke getting info on the Chief from the Arbiter himself. Also, from what it looked like in the marketing campaign, I thought that the Chief was ACTUALLY gonna go rogue! Instead, we had a meh story. What happened? I need to know!
Latenightgaming i think talked about this before. You should check his channel to hear more about the original story.
I doubt it was any one specific thing. I think poor planning might explain a lot of it though. 343 is said to have a general idea of where the story is going, but those key details seem to be done as they go along. Not a good strategy.
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> Latenightgaming i think talked about this before. You should check his channel to hear more about the original story.
Cool. Thank u.
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> I doubt it was any one specific thing. I think poor planning might explain a lot of it though. 343 is said to have a general idea of where the story is going, but those key details seem to be done as they go along. Not a good strategy.
Thanks to 343, the cutscenes in Halo 2 Anniversary with Locke and the trailer for the MCC seem pointless now. That pisses me off because I liked those cutscenes and the trailer! They hinted at the Arbiter’s return and it ACTUALLY seemed like Locke was gonna hunt down the Chief with secret orders to bring him in dead or alive. Now I’m mad. 343 better not -Yoink- up Halo 6. It needs a solid, dark, cohesive storyline that delivers! We don’t want another Halo 5!
I think their choice in lead writer couldn’t pull off the story they were going for so they just threw something together that was a bit easier to pull off.
From my guess what every happened to Destiny. There seemed to be a big story stacked up but likely someone higher on the chain didn’t like it and told everyone to change it.
343i might of essentially had a bunch of puzzle pieces and we’re told to make a different image then what was on the box.
From the sources that I’ve read, the original campaign got cut. I only vaguely remember, but it was originally supposed to be some kind of huge open world type deal where you’re Locke and you could select different worlds to go look for Chief kind of like a Destiny vibe. I haven’t read it in several months so I know I’m missing stuff or might not be completely correct.
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> From the sources that I’ve read, the original campaign got cut. I only vaguely remember, but it was originally supposed to be some kind of huge open world type deal or something like that. I haven’t read it in several months so I know I’m missing stuff.
Yeah I remember reading something about this as well. I don’t think Halo would really work as an open world game. they attempted it in ODST but even then when it came to the actual missions it was linear. which to me there is nothing wrong with Halo’s linear format. that was just another change they didn’t need. levels can be designed so they don’t have a linear feel, such as The Ark In H3.
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> I think their choice in lead writer couldn’t pull off the story they were going for so they just threw something together that was a bit easier to pull off.
Reed’s the current lead writer isn’t he? I don’t recall very many positive things being said about his past works in the Halo series, but I also doubt it was any one particular thing lying at the root of the drastic shift from what we were shown before and what we got.
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> > From the sources that I’ve read, the original campaign got cut. I only vaguely remember, but it was originally supposed to be some kind of huge open world type deal or something like that. I haven’t read it in several months so I know I’m missing stuff.
>
> Yeah I remember reading something about this as well. I don’t think Halo would really work as an open world game. they attempted it in ODST but even then when it came to the actual missions it was linear. which to me there is nothing wrong with Halo’s linear format. that was just another change they didn’t need. levels can be designed so they don’t have a linear feel, such as The Ark In H3.
I think an open world Halo could work. Not literally an open world, but something like Borderlands 2, where you have large areas you can travel, talk to people, drive vehicles and fight enemies in different environments. You also have a “safe house” that could be Infinity.
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> I think their choice in lead writer couldn’t pull off the story they were going for so they just threw something together that was a bit easier to pull off.
To be honest, I don’t think you can single handedly blame Brian Reed.
I mean, from the look of things, it seemed they had something planned very different to what we seen in H5 and for some reason started to change things about the story somewhere down the line.
For some reason I can’t shake the feeling that Brian Reed had a potentially good story and 343 and MS started to change things. The reason for this is because there’s just too many inconsistencies. I understand marketing and the actual product tends to be different, but I just don’t see how they could be soo off base.
It could just be the lead writer, but in my opinion there is no way you could write a story that bad. I refuse to believe it. There must be another reason than just the main writer sucked… there’s got to be… right?
They decided to not hunt the truth, and instead, make a bunch of forerunner stuff that never happened, now the gameplay is amazing, to me, at least/
I just hope they take this as a learning experience. Halo 4 had - for the most part - a fairly solid story, but for many it fell short in multiplayer aspect. For Halo 5 they tried their hardest to rectify the multiplayer part, but then the story fell apart. Hopefully for Halo 6, they’ll find that sweet balance.
Yeah, the whole Chief with a cape thing had a bit of a Man With No Name vibe about it. Shame we didn’t see that look in Halo 5
I always assumed that the cut scene took place somewhere right before the conclusion of Halo 6 while H5 was just part 1 of H6 in the same way that H2 is the part 1 of H3, and Halos CE and 4 were full stand alone installments to the story. Star Wars did the same thing. I think 343 was showing us a flash forward of what’s to come in the conclusion. I think Locke and Chief still have a big fight yet to be seen.
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> I always assumed that the cut scene took place somewhere right before the conclusion of Halo 6 while H5 was just part 1 of H6 in the same way that H2 is the part 1 of H3, and Halos CE and 4 were full stand alone installments to the story. Star Wars did the same thing. I think 343 was showing us a flash forward of what’s to come in the conclusion. I think Locke and Chief still have a big fight yet to be seen.
Even so, Halo 5 was lacking in more ways than one in the story department, even saying it’s a Part 1 or such doesn’t really change too much. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m cautiously optimistic here. Hopeful, but cautious. Even if Halo 6 ends up having an amazing story, there’ll still be that bitter taste in my mouth from Halo 5 not being as wonderful as it could have been 
From what I’ve heard from across the community there’s two major reasons for the terrible story. The first reason is smaller then the second but it’s still worth mentioning. 343i apparently spent close to two years working mainly on refining and fixing the engine to make it more usable basically. The second reason is the main cause for the terrible campaign. 9 months (or somewhere around there) before release Microsoft ordered complete story rewrites the do 2 things. 1 wipe everything set up by halo 4 from existence and 2 include Cortana. Most likely all the marketing including Hunt The Truth was developed to represent the original story. It’s a shame really as the original story looked to be one of the best halo stories.
Why is the story bad? Simple.
Cortana was dead at the end of H4, and she’s alive in H5.
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> Why is the story bad? Simple.
>
> Cortana was dead at the end of H4, and she’s alive in H5.
That’s just one of the many bad parts though, not the sole defining reason.