So I finished the Halo 5 Campaign a week ago and I saw something inexcusable… LAZY WRITING TO MAKE THE GAME END QUICK WITH NO STORY FOLLOWED BY THE TRAILERS. Im sorry for my loud attitude but its true. This campaign was possibly the worst campaigns in Halo History. Allow me to explain
If you remember the first few Live Action trailers before Halo 5’s release, you will remember that the Chief vs. Locke story was going on in the trailers. When I get the game, Im just disappointed there is no relation to the trailers at all. I was ready to see what would happen if a new Spartan squad went up against the Master Chief and Blue Team, and what do i get? one short fight between Locke and Chief. Sure it is a badass fight but thats only one part that I liked about the game’s Campaign, and the part where you run down the side of a Guardian.
So onto the real game, You need lots of prior knowledge to know who anyone is in the game or why they are important. If you jumped into Halo at Halo 4, you are out of luck for being caught up if you refused to play the last few games or didn’t read some of the comics. 343i pretty much said “Hey, lets make some new characters that will somewhat fight the Master Chief but not really. Lets add this redhead who can speak Sanghelii, this tough chick from the outer colonies that was in only about 3 Halo Escalation comics, this old ODST favorite from an older game that also got his own novel, and this ONI officer who will be the new protagonist of the game and we can make them into the Spartan team that combats Blue Team.” ok i am a little pissed off, about how much prior knowledge you need for the game, but Halo 4 did not have that mistake as much. You could be introduced to new characters easily, however it would have been better with prior knowledge. the classic Halo trilogy did not need a backstory to understand anything, playing the game was enough to let you know who was who and why you fight. Now Halo 5 drops characters as if we already should have known them. There are plot holes to most of the people who didn’t do the extra homework of doing background research of the Halo Series. (To compare to anything, I played Dead Space 3 when it was released, and I understood who everyone was right off the bat. Then I played the games backwards and I felt better about knowing who everyone was. Halo 5 did the wrong thing where you don’t know anyone at all if you just joined in, and you don’t know why a Halo Ring is important in the game.)
I know people who noticed this are as pissed as I am when i say “WE NEED MORE BLUE TEAM!!!” but there are only 3 missions where Blue Team gets to play. Ever since Halo Legends I’ve wanted to see what would happen if they reached the gaming screen and they were epic when they did. Just seeing all of Blue Team’s intro Scene just made me realize it was the kind of team that requires no flashy show to be proclaimed awesome. its a shame they were only around for 3 missions. 343i could have exchanged those “interactive cutscene” missions for some Blue Team Action. the events of those missions could have been seen in a cutscene but no, the game makes us play them so we are forced to play as Spartan Team Osiris. They only did this so that we might care about Osiris a little more but the only 2 who deserve any recognition are Spartan Locke and Buck (Because hes Buck. 'nuff said).
Finally the lack luster ending. What is that? you made Cortana the supreme ruler of the universe and now what? (I think they exceeded their budget while trying to make it longer, and ended up cutting it shorter to save money). we see the Chief and Locke reunite with the Arbiter, Palmer and Halsey, but nothing else after. And after the legendary ending, we are presented with just a Halo Ring… What the hell 343i? the story of the Halo Rings are done, what is the point of going back to a new Halo ring. The Halos are now nothing more than flood containment facilities that will never be activated to kill every sentient being in existence that UNSC Infinity was designated to find, research and protect so I see no reason why the Master Chief needs to go back to Halo. Maybe it was just there because no halo game is complete without one of the Halo Rings, but something appearing in the end credits scene is always important for the next game, and I do not want to go back to another Halo. No offense but the Halo rings have gotten old really fast, and I want no more rings. I wont mind going to another shield world. Hell, send us to the Flood infected Forerunner Homeworld for all I care (potential Domain origin where it can be destroyed), I just dont want to go back to another Halo Ring.
As my final Review, this was one of the shortest campaigns ever. I want more. I advise 343i make Campaign DLC, with more Blue Team. I dont see why not, I’d love having the chance to be Blue Team more often. so as my review, this campaign has a 5/10 compared to Halo 2 and 3 which have made it to 10/10 and 9/10 respectively. I don’t hate Halo (In fact I love this game), but i do hate the H5 campaign. It could have been so much better if it followed it’s advertising