When we first saw Halo Infinite’s gameplay demo last July, I thought that the Banished were going to completely take the spotlight as the game’s main antagonists. With Shadows of Reach and the hidden audio recording found in the latest Inside Infinite article confirming that the fight against Cortana is far from over, though, it seems like Infinite won’t be a total ‘reboot’ of the story. I know this likely disappoints some in the community, as Halo 5’s story isn’t universally beloved, but I feel like its plot threads not being thrown in the trash is a good thing for the franchise.
343 hasn’t developed very many mainline Halo games, but their track record with keeping a consistent story theme over multiple titles isn’t the best so far. Remember what happened to the Didact? Even if you don’t like Halo 4’s story, you have to admit getting sidelined to a facing sort-of-but-not-really death in a comic is a slap in the face to those who wanted to see what happened to him in the next game. Bungie’s stories were relatively straightforward, but they still managed to connect with one another without massive time skips or brushing aside important characters. Cortana may not be a favorable villain, but her story deserves to have some resolution outside of a book. 343 has the chance to prove they can build off of their previous game, and I think they absolutely should.
Nothing is getting retconned/phased-out within Halo’s canon. 343 doesn’t like to throw content out of canonity, no matter how dubious it is like I Love Bees. Their struggle with consistency stems from their internal struggles with creative direction. Originally it was said (and loosely/somewhat implied) that Halo 5 was going to have Halsey as the main antagonist and then they mentioned wanting the Ur-Didact as well in the future. And we all know where that Halo 5 went from there after shifts in creative direction. All content is canon but it doesn’t meant they can’t look the other way and lean to another direction like what they’re doing with Halo Infinite.
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> When we first saw Halo Infinite’s gameplay demo last July, I thought that the Banished were going to completely take the spotlight as the game’s main antagonists. With Shadows of Reach and the hidden audio recording found in the latest Inside Infinite article confirming that the fight against Cortana is far from over, though, it seems like Infinite won’t be a total ‘reboot’ of the story. I know this likely disappoints some in the community, as Halo 5’s story isn’t universally beloved, but I feel like its plot threads not being thrown in the trash is a good thing for the franchise.
>
> 343 hasn’t developed very many mainline Halo games, but their track record with keeping a consistent story theme over multiple titles isn’t the best so far. Remember what happened to the Didact? Even if you don’t like Halo 4’s story, you have to admit getting sidelined to a facing sort-of-but-not-really death in a comic is a slap in the face to those who wanted to see what happened to him in the next game. Bungie’s stories were relatively straightforward, but they still managed to connect with one another without massive time skips or brushing aside important characters. Cortana may not be a favorable villain, but her story deserves to have some resolution outside of a book. 343 has the chance to prove they can build off of their previous game, and I think they absolutely should.
Actually, if you search up “halo infinite” on IMDB, there is Jen Taylor(cortana’s voice) in actor section, so cortana will for sure make an appearance in halo infinite.
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> Nothing is getting retconned/phased-out within Halo’s canon.
Yeh, I know! By ‘retcon’ I mean ‘slide under the rug and hope nobody notices’. Couldn’t think of a better word to describe what I meant.
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> Actually, if you search up “halo infinite” on IMDB, there is Jen Taylor(cortana’s voice) in actor section, so cortana will for sure make an appearance in halo infinite.
Yep! The two hidden audio recordings we’ve seen over the past couple of years also confirm she’s in the game.
I think Halo Infinite will take a breath to refresh the story.
Keeping it relatively simple for the first instalment (Chief vs Banished) allows them to make a newcomer friendly reboot.
The overarching story of Cortana and the Guardians can be some background noise to keep people interested… and can then be brought forward in due course.
In all honesty, if the writing is good enough, I’m glad Halo 5 is not being retconned. Just adjust it so it makes sense in the future. Remember Halo 2 changed a lot during it’s development, in a few years I’m sure 343i will do a ViDoc on what happened with Halo 5 because the concept art looks so different from the final game.
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> > 2533274870308953;2:
> > Nothing is getting retconned/phased-out within Halo’s canon.
>
> Yeh, I know! By ‘retcon’ I mean ‘slide under the rug and hope nobody notices’. Couldn’t think of a better word to describe what I meant.
>
>
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> > Actually, if you search up “halo infinite” on IMDB, there is Jen Taylor(cortana’s voice) in actor section, so cortana will for sure make an appearance in halo infinite.
>
> Yep! The two hidden audio recordings we’ve seen over the past couple of years also confirm she’s in the game.
I mean, if you have to hunt down MP3s in a cave to truly get the full picture, it KINDA is slipping things under the rug. It’s there, but it’s probably not a coincidence that it’ll be behind audio logs.
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> > 2535464693418867;4:
> > > 2533274870308953;2:
> > > Nothing is getting retconned/phased-out within Halo’s canon.
> >
> > Yeh, I know! By ‘retcon’ I mean ‘slide under the rug and hope nobody notices’. Couldn’t think of a better word to describe what I meant.
> >
> >
> > > 2535453809720436;3:
> > > Actually, if you search up “halo infinite” on IMDB, there is Jen Taylor(cortana’s voice) in actor section, so cortana will for sure make an appearance in halo infinite.
> >
> > Yep! The two hidden audio recordings we’ve seen over the past couple of years also confirm she’s in the game.
>
> I mean, if you have to hunt down MP3s in a cave to truly get the full picture, it KINDA is slipping things under the rug. It’s there, but it’s probably not a coincidence that it’ll be behind audio logs.
That’s still a lazy way of storytelling. Halo’s terminals and logs are used to give additional context to events we already know, not to fill in the blanks of a story.
If they go doing this route, then 343 still hasn’t learned from Halo 5.
what do they honestly have to “cover” that happened in H5? The main takeaway was Cortana has risen and formed The Created…according to the Audio log in the latest update it seems that it is pretty well covered. They honestly could go anywhere with the story after the blandness that H5 was.
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> what do they honestly have to “cover” that happened in H5? The main takeaway was Cortana has risen and formed The Created…according to the Audio log in the latest update it seems that it is pretty well covered. They honestly could go anywhere with the story after the blandness that H5 was.
I agree. Cortana can easily be side-lined until the story needs her to come back.
The only thing they need to address on the way through to keep an immediate connection to H5 are all the AI’s rebelling.
There would have to be a pretty good explanation for what happened between H5 and Infinite. I’m in the camp that H5 story was not great, but considering how aggressive Cortona was, especially at the end, it would be very jarring to show up in Halo Infinite with that threat getting brushed off and treated as inconsequential.
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> I mean, if you have to hunt down MP3s in a cave to truly get the full picture, it KINDA is slipping things under the rug. It’s there, but …it’s probably not a coincidence that it’ll be behind audio logs.
The article lists Cortana as one of the two main antagonists, so no hunting down info needed. I don’t think describing her as a major enemy force right alongside the Banished is a hint her story will be locked behind audio logs.
im glad they arent but i already knew they were not going to after the ending to wars 2 and reading shadows of reach retconning it would of been a huge mess i may hate halo 5’s campaign but its a good thing they arent forgetting it
H5 doesn’t inherently ruin Halo lore, and I perceive the story to still be reparable. Not like SW: The Last Jedi, that movie ruined Star Wars. Specifically one of the fan-favorite characters in Luke. Chief is still fine in H5, and worst-case scenario you could just say that a separate Cortana is evil and the good side of Cortana is out there somewhere to find.
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> > 2533274812652989;7:
> > I mean, if you have to hunt down MP3s in a cave to truly get the full picture, it KINDA is slipping things under the rug. It’s there, but …it’s probably not a coincidence that it’ll be behind audio logs.
>
> The article lists Cortana as one of the two main antagonists, so no hunting down info needed. I don’t think describing her as a major enemy force right alongside the Banished is a hint her story will be locked behind audio logs.
And the Didact was supposed to be Chief’s first real nemesis. We saw how long that lasted. I’ll believe she has a good sized role when I see it.
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> And the Didact was supposed to be Chief’s first real nemesis. We saw how long that lasted. I’ll believe she has a good sized role when I see it.
Why would 343 build up the idea of keeping Cortana in the story if they’re just planning to sideline her? There were no hints that the Didact was going to return in Halo 5 other than rumors and concept art that resurfaced last year. That’s much different than explicitly saying “hey, Cortana is going to be one of the game’s two main antagonists” in an official article.
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> > 2533274812652989;15:
> > And the Didact was supposed to be Chief’s first real nemesis. We saw how long that lasted. I’ll believe she has a good sized role when I see it.
>
> Why would 343 build up the idea of keeping Cortana in the story if they’re just planning to sideline her? There were no hints that the Didact was going to return in Halo 5 other than rumors and concept art that resurfaced last year. That’s much different than explicitly saying “hey, Cortana is going to be one of the game’s two main antagonists” in an official article.
All we know is that she shows up in Infinite, we have no idea in what capacity. After the -Yoink- show that was Halo 5’s ad campaign and hype machine, I’m not really all that keen to accept 343’s marketing talk.
I’m personally hoping that Cortana and the Created will serve a similar role to the Flood in CE; showing up in the 3rd Act, and shaking up the flow of the story and gameplay.
From the audio in the latest update, it sounds like it could be taking place towards the beginning of the game, maybe even the first cutscene, re-establishing the conflict between Cortana and the UNSC, right before Chief gets thrown into his conflict with the Banished on Zeta Halo.
Id be happy if we get 75% of the main story being Chief vs Escharum, before Cortana shows up after learning where he is. If she turns out to be the Harbinger, perhaps revealing that the Banished are working with/under her, it could be their take on a 3rd Act twist (though we’d all see it coming at this point).
As for keeping the Created relevant during the game, I’d like to have her pop up in conversations within the main story, that give you enough context to understand what’s going on (especially if it’s a players first entry in the series), while also seeding extra info in the form of terminals and other collectables within the game.
I don’t think describing her as a major enemy force right alongside the Banished is a hint her story will be locked behind audio logs.