Before you get triggered and furiously shoot me down in the replies, hear me out.
Jameson Locke is actually a VERY good character, with a very good backstory that has a great deal of potential to build him as one of the most conflicted and detailed characters in the Halo universe. Unfortunately though, his character was butchered in Halo 5. The way Brian Reed and the narrative team handled Locke, made him out to be a plank of wood acting as a boy-scout (personally I think Brian Reed should be fired for his dismal inability to write a coherent and impacting story, but that’s a discussion for another thread).
For those who don’t know Locke’s actual backstory, beyond what was shown in Halo Nightfall, here’s a quick rundown:
Born in 2529 on the planet Jericho VII, Jameson Locke was orphaned at 6 years old when the Covenant attacked and glassed the planet. He was placed into an orphanage with other children who suffered similar fates. As they grew older, Locke saw many of these people join the UNSC, eagerly after revenge against the Covenant, however, Locke still blamed the UNSC for their failure in defending his planet. Due to this, Locke believes the UNSC is incapable of protecting humanity. and he becomes a freelance tracker/assassin, who worked against the covenant.
Eventually catching the eye of ONI due to questionable allegiances and atypical behavior, he was offered a placement. Despite a dislike for the UNSC, he accepted the offer, seeking a greater purpose in life. Locke underwent vigorous ONI training and eventually becomes a section 3 acquisition specialist, being acknowledged as one of ONI’s top operatives.
A collected and forward-thinking individual, Locke is a talented soldier who takes a professional approach to combat situations. He is a proficient leader and inspires loyalty in his subordinates, even when they do not agree with his decisions. He is generally non-confrontational and willing to resolve conflicts through negotiation.
It’s also worth mentioning that despite working with ONI, he is troubled by some aspects of the organization, meaning he is liable to turn his back on them if he believes their interests are against the protection of the UNSC’s citizens.
There you have it. Here’s a link to his wiki if you want to give it a read through. Just remember, Locke isn’t a bad character by any means, he was just poorly written in his first Halo game outing, and that’s extremely unfortunate. Spartan Locke has so much potential to stand out from the crowd, as a soldier driven by a duty to protect humanity, who’s conflicted by the allegiances he had to make to do so.
As the Halo story progresses, Locke has the best potential to be the character the player can really relate to, as one who can share conflicts the players may have with pivotal characters and factions within the Halo universe. His conflict with the Chief on how to deal with the Cortana issue in Halo 6, could make for a truly deep story. Here’s to hoping. #MakeHaloGreatAgain
I think a novel (even a short story) would be an awesome way to flesh out his character even more, and give a deeper look into his backstory that we haven’t seen in-game.
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> I think a novel (even a short story) would be an awesome way to flesh out his character even more, and give a deeper look into his backstory that we haven’t seen in-game.
Honestly, I think them doing Locke’s story exclusively in the expanded material is why he’s so widely resented. Most players don’t read the expanded stuff, so most players don’t know his story. Personally i’d love to see a spin-off game about Locke’s time as an acquisition specialist with ONI, before he was a Spartan. It’d have a much more grounded vibe like ODST, and would present the players with a much more detailed and true to form version of the character. Or, they could’ve at least done terminals detailing the stories of the characters in Halo 5, which was a missed opportunity, maybe they will do something like that in Halo 6?
Agree 100% with you, Locke is a very interesting character. Unfortunately, Halo 5 handles with him very poorly, even he is being, IMO, the best character in the game.
I think the lack of personal motivation is what made his character boring in the game. We already know he is badass, he is someone who negotiates with people ( we see it in nightfall and in Halo 5), but, thanks to completely removing ONI plot from Halo 5, they lost a great opportunity to make we care more about him.
343 missed the best opportunity to begin to prepare a new character to replace Chief in the next games. Locke already has a nice armor and voice, we just need to care about him.
I agree; if they had continued the trend from the #HuntTheTruth campaign and made ONI into more of a antagonist in the game, then there would be a potentially compelling story to tell about Locke vs. ONI.
Too bad that’s not what we got.
He’s not bad just uninteresting. I think his character and Osiris in general would have been better received if they did a few spin off games like ODST with them then have them take on Blue Team in a game. A novel and/or a comic with him wouldn’t be bad. I even found Palmer to be a better character in the comics.
Locke wasn’t just poorly written in H5G, he was also bland and uninteresting in Nightfall, which was not under Brian Reed’s hand, but under Paul T. Scheuring. I really don’t find him any more interesting than Palmer, and not nearly on the level of Buck and the other members of Alpha-Nine (whose characters have been butchered in “New Blood” as well). That might be just bad luck with both writers that handled the character, but at this point, there really isn’t that much that can be salvaged. He might make a decent NPC in cutscenes one day, if a more competent story team gets their hands on him. But as a player character, that ship has sailed. There is no second chance for a first impression, and most people hate him with a passion by now, so forcing them to play as him (or even with him for that matter) ever again will seriously turn a lot of the players off.
Having read that little paragraph about his distrust in ONI, is Locke the video game version of the Halo Community with ONI being 343i? By the way, his background story definitely gives him way more likability than what I originally thought of him as. Which was a plank of wood.
I had such high hopes for him when he was announced.
I hoped he would be a character that we couldn’t fully trust. I mean hes an ONI spook, he should be completely untrust worthy and firmly in the grey area of morality.
But instead we got a straight man, a role already filled by the Chief.
How 343 have handled Locke is eerily similar to how bungie handled chief. As the OP said, they’ve written a plank of wood with a gun.
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> I had such high hopes for him when he was announced.
>
> I hoped he would be a character that we couldn’t fully trust. I mean hes an ONI spook, he should be completely untrust worthy and firmly in the grey area of morality.
>
> But instead we got a straight man, a role already filled by the Chief.
>
> How 343 have handled Locke is eerily similar to how bungie handled chief. As the OP said, they’ve written a plank of wood with a gun.
Exactly, I made a thread prior to release about how I would’ve liked him to be a shadowy, untrustworthy figure whose morals were unclear at first, but over the course of the game we learn his intentions and that he’s not really a bad guy.
Of course I got blasted by fanboys, some of which now say they prefer the freaking cardboard errand boy we got instead.
You can’t expand and explain things in books and then throw them into a game and expect people to get it. What percentage of players actually read and watch the expanded material? 10%? Less? Obviously I don’t know the exact numbers, but I would be surprised if it was anything higher than that.
Look at how Bungie treated the Arbiter and Sargent Johnson in game vs. how 343i treated Blue Team and Osiris in game. They both get proper introductions and development throughout the story, while Blue Team and Osiris and kind of just thrown into the game and you are expected to know who they are. The most popular character in Halo 5 is probably Buck and that is because he properly expanded on in ODST.
Locke and Osiris could be interesting characters, but 343i have yet to show me that they are. They tell you in the game, but nothing happens that makes you bond or care about anyone. SHOW ME. It’s cool that Locke has a back story and that he has lore based around him, but none of that matters if in game they make him a cardboard box.
I’m not really bothered by his character. What really bugs is the fact that they never mentioned when and where fireteam osiris was assembled. Who asked who you know?
Locke has been completely ruined because ‘Hunt the Truth’ and all the advertising of Halo 5 (All Hail, The Cost, TV ads, death of Master Chief, ‘the biggest hunt in gaming history’) were not true. I absolutely loved ‘Hunt the Truth’, that’s why I hate Halo 5’s Locke and its boring story.
The potential was really HUGE (Biko, questions about the Chief (traitor ?), John’s past, all this ONI stuff, anti-Chief campaign from ONI, truth about Spartan program and its origins, FERO, Midnight facility, the rebels, Ben, etc…), Locke could have been an excellent character. ONI (Locke being the bad guy) vs Chief was an interesting idea to explore on my opinion.
Instead of this, we have this ‘AI/robots VS organics’ storyline, Locke is boring (‘The biggest hunt in gaming history’ ?) and ONI is not even mentionned in the game.
Any Spartan-II is a better character than Locke now : John, Grey Team, Naomi, Red Team, Blue Team… There are so many interesting characters I want to see developped.