Why does everyone hate the campaign so much?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Let’s get things out of the way regarding my Halo experience: I am maybe a fan for around 2 years now (if you can call it that, I started with Halo 3, then played 4 and then Reach a little bit), so I’m not going to assume my knowledge on Halo is supreme.

A while ago I bought the Master Chief Collection and finished every single campaign with my girlfriend from Halo 1 to 4, not counting Halo ODST and Reach, which I finished by myself right afterwards.

I enjoyed every game to bits, especially Halo 2 and 3, which really had awesome moments and the games just felt right as First person shooters. Halo 4 wasn’t bad, it had too many Prometheans though, and I enjoy fighting Covenant far more.

Now last week I got Halo 5 Limited Edition, and after reading hate comment after hate comment on how terrible the campaign is, how atrocious the gameplay is, how terrible this and that is. So obviously I prepared myself for a volley of disappointment, having loved the previous games so much, I had a box of tissues next to me in case tears of disappointment was to fall.

And then… nothing. I absolutely saw nothing wrong with the campaign. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how badly I wanted to be an “OG Halo fan” I couldn’t bring myself to hate the game. I enjoyed every bit of it. The campaign, the events leading up to the finale, it all adds ingredients which is to be an ultimate and continuous experience for the Halo franchise.

Let me address some matters that people complained about, and what I think of it myself:

1: Weak story.

When did any Halo game ever have a brilliant story in the games? Sure, the lore, the backgrounds of certain characters is all well and good, but so far I am yet to see ANY Halo game dethrone a game like, let’s say for argument’s sake Alan Wake, as the king of storytelling. Halo 5’s story felt like something I would expect from Halo 5.

2: Locke is a bad character.

On this point I can more or less agree, Locke is no Nathan Drake or Marcus Fenix, I couldn’t care less what happened to him as a character. In fact I couldn’t help smiling when Chief beat the crap out of him.

3: Gameplay

So the one that confuses me the most that some people complained about is the gameplay. Why exactly? When I play Halo 5, I see a game that finally evolved into something truly modern, it has its own unique signature gameplay mechanics that I hope will stay in the franchise for years to come.

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed Halo 5, and please note this is merely my opinion. I just don’t know why people will post messages like “I’m f&**^&ing selling my xbox Halo is dead” etc. It’s becoming a dank meme at this point.

2

Personally me I am on the side that thinks halo 3 should have been the ending and no more with chief. After 4 I really don’t care about the lore but hey its still entertaining

3

> 2533274843260367;2:
> Personally me I am on the side that thinks halo 3 should have been the ending and no more with chief. After 4 I really don’t care about the lore but hey its still entertaining

That’s why the games are there, to entertain us. People get butthurt too quickly

4

I liked h5s story but it does have problems.

  1. 343 didnt learn from the mistake that was daidact and again you had to get outside media to understand the antagonist’ s motives.

  2. wasn’t simple. Non halo fans need to be able to understand it. 343 could have done this through in game dialogue as well as fleshing out the 8 person cast. But they chose not to. Instead if we didn’t get the introduction to the cast through the media leading up to h5 we weren’t going to know anything about who we’re playing with. That’s why buck was such a suprise to non halo fans.

  3. hunt the truth had a good story. The disconnect as well as the lack of introduction to the current timeline threw people off.

343 can tell a story but they can’t figure out how to get that into a game.

5

> 2533274870591903;4:
> I liked h5s story but it does have problems.
>
> 1) 343 didnt learn from the mistake that was daidact and again you had to get outside media to understand the antagonist’ s motives.
>
> 2) wasn’t simple. Non halo fans need to be able to understand it. 343 could have done this through in game dialogue as well as fleshing out the 8 person cast. But they chose not to. Instead if we didn’t get the introduction to the cast through the media leading up to h5 we weren’t going to know anything about who we’re playing with. That’s why buck was such a suprise to non halo fans.
>
> 3) hunt the truth had a good story. The disconnect as well as the lack of introduction to the current timeline threw people off.
>
> 343 can tell a story but they can’t figure out how to get that into a game.

All fair points. Well, I’m going to jump into the game again this time on Legendary, and then proceed with the MP

6

It’s different for people who have been around the franchise I’d say for 6 or more years compared to 2 or 3 like you.Story wise they basically ditched the emotional and great character developed campaign they had in halo 4 and randomly brought back cortana for no reason and made her and her faction seem like skynet.They killed off Jul mdama in a damn cutscene after all that development they poured into his character and master chief and blue team who have never been in a game together get 3 out of the 12 playable campaign missions.
That’s just for starters…

7

And they recycled 1 enemy as a boss that u fight on 3 different occasions and 7 bodies overall it’s not even fun it’s frustrating

8

I didn’t hate the campaign, but it was not the best imo.

9

It was the marketing. The PR team basically made up their own story and hyped it to unreachable levels.

I mean the campaign probably is the worst halo campaign but its not bad when compared to other FPS games. Good even, nice expansive levels, beautiful surroundings, plenty of vehicle sections and a nice amount of secret areas. But the PR invented this epic quest hunting down MC, piecing together the truth culminating in an epic showdown of epicness. Instead we got a slight squabble followed by instant random BFF moment.

10

> 2535426468195212;3:
> > 2533274843260367;2:
> > Personally me I am on the side that thinks halo 3 should have been the ending and no more with chief. After 4 I really don’t care about the lore but hey its still entertaining
>
>
> That’s why the games are there, to entertain us. People get butthurt too quickly

So if it doesn’t fall into my tastes and I find the campaign both in terms of gameplay and story dissapointing, I’m butthurt?

OT:

The campaign faceplanted on many different aspects.

First and foremost there’s the story.
i343 had apparenly built up a longer story arc seeing as they even prior to Halo 4 said to have planned the story to the ending of Halo 6, and had ideas of a following trilogy. Also stating that Halo 5 would be the darkest of the Halo games in the current trilogy, and the previously released Halo games. Fair enough.

At the ending of Halo 4 we see the Didace fall into a slipspace portal.
Cortana dies with a heartbreaking farewell (to some, it we “meh” to me).
Chief is left “hollow” and alone, but as we all remember his evolution was accelerated and his vital signs were off the charts, or however Cortana expressed it.
At the ending of SpOps Halsey is with Jul with one half of the Janus key which was said to show all Forerunner artifacts in the galaxy at some Library, and Halsey has Oni after her.

The Janus key arc is resolved in a Comic and doesn’t lead anywhere, pretty much literally.
The Didact is composed / contained.
The end of Halo 4 is retconned to allow Cortana’s survival, may I remind you that the Didact went to Installation 03 while the ship ended up at Genesis, or parts of it.

Start of Halo 5, we see Chief touching the back of his helmet, and for all we know he could have just brushed some grease of it. However it was probably some sort of “I miss Cortana” moment. The Blue team ponder his mental state and then they’re off never to think about some “heavy” stuff anymore, in the three missions we play them as. Chiefs accelerated evolution is never brought up at all either, like he wore it off or got “cured”.

Ah, Osiris retrieves Halsey and kills Jul in a small cutscene, a Character that could have been a great second antagonist, or be forced to help humans to save his own skin given the many events in the comics.
Halsey being hunted is all forgotten and she’s the good doctor again with answers to everything. Here we could have some subplot because I’m sure Locke overhears things he shouldn’t hear, but that’s also forgotten. He’s off to hunting down and bringing the Chief back.

Quite a few filler missions later, both walk around and talk and actual missions, we have the first confrontation between the two protagonists, Chief and Locke. They slap each other while Blue team goes to Genesis and Osiris watches, probably faces like some Bird houses. Their mission is to bring Chief in, the Legendary soldier, but they just stand there letting Locke take the hits. For the record, this would have been an ample opportunity to show off Chief’s hand to hand skills, taking on the whole of Osiris alone. If he ever was that good. Either way, they slap each other and Chief leaves without the rest of Osiris bothering. Only to have more filler missions on how to get to the Chief.

We also encounter the Warden, a thrown in character of quite some significance that we have never heard of, not even in the books, that I can recall.
He has one mind and a million bodies, and i343 takes this quite literally so we fight him some six times, and at the end we fight many of him at the same time. No variations whatsoever to his tactics, attacks or weaknesses, it’s the exact same boss every single time.

Then for the gameplay:

Perhaps it’s my fault, but I expected a little more from the AI when they said that Cloud Computing would handle some parts of it.
However, they’re made bullet sponges with the most forward tactics of them all. Move forward, if shot duck. Follow attacker. Or, if outside of range, just stand there when getting shot. I don’t recall how many knights I mowed down while far out of range from them. The soldiers were of course concerned and looked in my direction but they generally just ran circles, like they were in panic, or didn’t know what to do.

Friendly AI, not even Kat from Reach could compete with this AI.
If you were down behind cover and they actually decided to come revive you, they wouldn’t take cover and in the process get killed themselves.
Sometimes they’d decide to use their CQC weapons when they had snipers, on long ranges, and when you ordered them to attack something while they had long range weapons, they would often run out into the open with their trusty close range weapons out.

Among other things…

But sure, I didn’t like it because it didn’t live up to my expectations so I’m probably butthurt.

11

> 2533274795123910;10:
> > 2535426468195212;3:
> > > 2533274843260367;2:
> > > Personally me I am on the side that thinks halo 3 should have been the ending and no more with chief. After 4 I really don’t care about the lore but hey its still entertaining
> >
> >
> > That’s why the games are there, to entertain us. People get butthurt too quickly
>
>
> So if it doesn’t fall into my tastes and I find the campaign both in terms of gameplay and story dissapointing, I’m butthurt?
>
> OT:
>
> The campaign faceplanted on many different aspects.
>
> First and foremost there’s the story.
> i343 had apparenly built up a longer story arc seeing as they even prior to Halo 4 said to have planned the story to the ending of Halo 6, and had ideas of a following trilogy. Also stating that Halo 5 would be the darkest of the Halo games in the current trilogy, and the previously released Halo games. Fair enough.
>
> At the ending of Halo 4 we see the Didace fall into a slipspace portal.
> Cortana dies with a heartbreaking farewell (to some, it we “meh” to me).
> Chief is left “hollow” and alone, but as we all remember his evolution was accelerated and his vital signs were off the charts, or however Cortana expressed it.
> At the ending of SpOps Halsey is with Jul with one half of the Janus key which was said to show all Forerunner artifacts in the galaxy at some Library, and Halsey has Oni after her.
>
> The Janus key arc is resolved in a Comic and doesn’t lead anywhere, pretty much literally.
> The Didact is composed / contained.
> The end of Halo 4 is retconned to allow Cortana’s survival, may I remind you that the Didact went to Installation 03 while the ship ended up at Genesis, or parts of it.
>
> Start of Halo 5, we see Chief touching the back of his helmet, and for all we know he could have just brushed some grease of it. However it was probably some sort of “I miss Cortana” moment. The Blue team ponder his mental state and then they’re off never to think about some “heavy” stuff anymore, in the three missions we play them as. Chiefs accelerated evolution is never brought up at all either, like he wore it off or got “cured”.
>
> Ah, Osiris retrieves Halsey and kills Jul in a small cutscene, a Character that could have been a great second antagonist, or be forced to help humans to save his own skin given the many events in the comics.
> Halsey being hunted is all forgotten and she’s the good doctor again with answers to everything. Here we could have some subplot because I’m sure Locke overhears things he shouldn’t hear, but that’s also forgotten. He’s off to hunting down and bringing the Chief back.
>
> Quite a few filler missions later, both walk around and talk and actual missions, we have the first confrontation between the two protagonists, Chief and Locke. They slap each other while Blue team goes to Genesis and Osiris watches, probably faces like some Bird houses. Their mission is to bring Chief in, the Legendary soldier, but they just stand there letting Locke take the hits. For the record, this would have been an ample opportunity to show off Chief’s hand to hand skills, taking on the whole of Osiris alone. If he ever was that good. Either way, they slap each other and Chief leaves without the rest of Osiris bothering. Only to have more filler missions on how to get to the Chief.
>
> We also encounter the Warden, a thrown in character of quite some significance that we have never heard of, not even in the books, that I can recall.
> He has one mind and a million bodies, and i343 takes this quite literally so we fight him some six times, and at the end we fight many of him at the same time. No variations whatsoever to his tactics, attacks or weaknesses, it’s the exact same boss every single time.
>
> Then for the gameplay:
>
> Perhaps it’s my fault, but I expected a little more from the AI when they said that Cloud Computing would handle some parts of it.
> However, they’re made bullet sponges with the most forward tactics of them all. Move forward, if shot duck. Follow attacker. Or, if outside of range, just stand there when getting shot. I don’t recall how many knights I mowed down while far out of range from them. The soldiers were of course concerned and looked in my direction but they generally just ran circles, like they were in panic, or didn’t know what to do.
>
> Friendly AI, not even Kat from Reach could compete with this AI.
> If you were down behind cover and they actually decided to come revive you, they wouldn’t take cover and in the process get killed themselves.
> Sometimes they’d decide to use their CQC weapons when they had snipers, on long ranges, and when you ordered them to attack something while they had long range weapons, they would often run out into the open with their trusty close range weapons out.
>
> Among other things…
>
> But sure, I didn’t like it because it didn’t live up to my expectations so I’m probably butthurt.

You’re entitled to your own opinion, and I respect that. I just wanted to know WHY the game got all the hate. Because in my opinion it doesn’t deserve it. Sure, the game NEEDS criticism, without that we will never get improvement, but I hardly think it deserves to be called the worst in the series. It has its own redeeming qualities.

But after all this, let’s hope 343 takes the hatred into consideration and make a Halo that pleases the old fans too, because I will still buy it and probably enjoy it. Because at the end of the day, at least it isn’t Duke Nukem Forever or Infinite Warfare.

12

I mostly enjoy it if I don’t think of it as a Halo experience. I have lots of Halo games to play now and it looks like the Chief will be retired soon so I’m happy to move on after the next one. Chief is a large part to why I personally enjoy the experience

13

> 2533274870286221;12:
> I mostly enjoy it if I don’t think of it as a Halo experience. I have lots of Halo games to play now and it looks like the Chief will be retired soon so I’m happy to move on after the next one. Chief is a large part to why I personally enjoy the experience

I agree, the Chief is awesome. But there’s so much to the Halo Universe, 343 just needs a good writer and director for the Halo games.

14

MCC does no represent Bungie it, caters to 343i!

You have played the 343i’s version of halo, these versions are dumbed down versions of halo with added new gen graphics and the name Anniversary. Multiplayer in MCC is a complete alien compared to the original early halo games, jump height and game speed has been compromised to fit 343i’s needs (sprint). If you haven’t lived through the dinosaur era, you will never know what it is like; MCC is just an altered simulation.

I have played the original halo1 and 2 when they were out, these games were epic. The anniversary editions used upgraded graphics but altered the cut scenes a bit. Mcc is sort of like remaking the Jaws movie but not using the original director; the Jaws movie (halo) is now in HD but the Flow of the movie is directed to upset fans of the original movie. So now in Halo 5 we find out Jaws is really actually a robot; disapointing original fans while new fans are perfectly fine with the sad story in halo 5’s campaign.

15

While I did enjoy the campaign and I do believe it gets more hate than it deserves the main thing I hated was the recycled warden fight and that they offed Jul in a simple cut scene. Why fight they warden so many times when Jul should and could have been at least one boss fight. The other reasons which I can get over but others can’t seem to get over is that the campaign didn’t match up with ANY of the hunt the truth build up. They knew where chief was and they knew why he went there. Also that they brought back Cortana when she supposedly died at the end of H4, even though her exact words to chief was she wasn’t going with him this time… so to me that didn’t mean dead and left the door open for her survival… another reason is most don’t like this direction of the created vs the creators so to speak. The AIs turning against mankind… too cliche I guess. Another reason.is chief only got three missions in the game. Which was lame imo…

16

The false marketing was a bummer

17

> 2533274816788253;15:
> While I did enjoy the campaign and I do believe it gets more hate than it deserves the main thing I hated was the recycled warden fight and that they offed Jul in a simple cut scene. Why fight they warden so many times when Jul should and could have been at least one boss fight. The other reasons which I can get over but others can’t seem to get over is that the campaign didn’t match up with ANY of the hunt the truth build up. They knew where chief was and they knew why he went there. Also that they brought back Cortana when she supposedly died at the end of H4, even though her exact words to chief was she wasn’t going with him this time… so to me that didn’t mean dead and left the door open for her survival… another reason is most don’t like this direction of the created vs the creators so to speak. The AIs turning against mankind… too cliche I guess.

yes. The original halo’s catered to the fans, that is why brilliant Halos1,2,3 will be permanent history. Im not sure who 343i is catering their halo to, this will probably make short history.

18

The story was falsely advertised. Remember these trailers? This “Hunt the Truth” storyline looks much more interesting, and got players excited for H5, but the actual story is completely different. This sort of underhand marketing tactic annoys people, and is one of the main reasons for the backlash.

19

> 2742370487399500;18:
> The story was falsely advertised. Remember these trailers? This “Hunt the Truth” storyline looks much more interesting, and got players excited for H5, but the actual story is completely different. This sort of underhand marketing tactic annoys people, and is one of the main reasons for the backlash.

Hunt the truth! when is that game coming out? or was it supposed to be in halo5 campaign?

20

I love Halo 5 and so far it’s my favorite of the series. Everything seems to work perfectly. I won’t lie, being a die hard halo fan, I dived deep into the EU and knew the backstory going into Halo 5 and wasn’t lost.

So because of this background knowledge my opinions of the campaign is largely sewed compared to the general mass. Compared to Halo 4, I agree the story was pretty weak. You went from the bland story telling of Halo 1-3 to a campaign that had deep emotions and actually caused me to really feel for chief and Cortana that only the books were able to do.

But what they had in overall story, side banter between team members, and the exotic environments you went to. I actually enjoyed the story. Yes they had a few plot holes because 343I did the same mistake that Bungie did in Halo 2 and grabbed for more they could chew, but made the mistake of cutting content in the middle instead of at the end and making another game off the cut content (halo3) or possibly Campaign DLC.

Pacing wise, I have to say halo 5 was the best. I don’t think there was one level where I was like, Can we just hurry up and skip this level already. (The 2nd half of CE, Arbiter Flood levels in Halo 2, Every damn moment Cotana or the Gravemind ruin the pacing of a level with their damn transmissions in Halo 3)

To me, Halo 5 had none of these moments. Every fight and level was fun to run through, beginning to end. And the added bonus, it was the 1st campaign that actually focused on CO-OP play. Which totally changes how the missions play compared when you do it solo.