Halo 5 ended with a cliffhanger, but so did Halo 2. Yet somehow, Halo 2 felt a lot more like a complete story. I mean, it isn’t a complete story, but hey, you managed to stopped the activation of Delta Halo and form an allegiance between humans and Elites. You accomplished something. You don’t seem to get that feeling with Halo 5.
What happens in Halo 5? You find out Cortana has become an antagonist… then the game ends. What do you accomplish? Is anything resolved? You found the Chief. So what? You played as the Chief for half the game anyway. It’s not that big of a deal. You know what was a big deal? …or at least should have been? The battle of Sunaion.
Sure. This “Covenant Remnant” was nothing in comparison with the Covenant Empire of the twenty-seven year Human-Covenant War, but they were no less of an antagonist faction in 343’s games as the original Covenant was in Bungie’s. The battle of Sunaion was the Covenant Remnant’s defeat. It should have been a major plot point. It should have given us a sense of accomplishment. It was the one major problem in the current story that was resolved; the defeat of Jul Mdama’s forces. This battle was the D-day of the war with 'Mdama’s Storm Covenant. It was a fun level in a new environment. The battle itself was actually pretty sweet, but it did not feel like as big a part of the story as it should have. I know the story is meant to revolve around the Guardians, but Bungie’s Halo Trilogy was about the Halo rings. That doesn’t mean we focus on one aspect of a story and let everything else come off as unimportant. We need that sense of resolution, even with the cliffhanger. We need to feel like we’ve accomplished something along the way.
Spartan Locke found the Master Chief. Since we constantly see things from the point of view of the Chief, this hunt doesn’t really feel like the conflict it would otherwise. There is no true rivalry there. The characters both play an equal part as protagonists. The main conflict seems to be Cortana’s betrayal. However, despite this, the game ends just as Cortana shows herself in her new form. It’s like the story begins but then ends abruptly before it starts to flow. It feels like a twist that should have been saved for the final chapters after the resolution to set us up for the next game. The only reason it doesn’t feel like this is because there was no resolution in the game.
The battle of Sunaion should have felt like the climax of the Covenant Remnant story arc. Why didn’t it? It was the Storm Covenant (all that was left of the Covenant Empire), it was their final stronghold. Well, look back at when the original Covenant was defeated. We had some awesome fights on the Ark, but they weren’t what symbolised the end of the alien empire. One major event represented the defeat of the Covenant. It was the death of the Prophet of Truth. To me, killing Jul 'Mdama in the first level of Halo 5 is the equivalent of killing the Prophet of Truth in the first level of Halo 3. Its just wrong. It makes the rest of the game seem less epic than it should be.
Really, Jul 'Mdama should have played more of a role in Halo 4, rather than just a cameo in the Terminals and then not fully appearing until Spartan Ops. He could have been the Truth of the new saga. The Gravemind, Guilty Spark, Halo itself, there were other problems going on, but they were all related and it didn’t take anything way from Truth. It should have been the same here. 'Mdama wanted to release the Didact just as Truth wanted to unleash Halo. Many people didn’t even watch Spartan Ops, and it seems 343i is relying way too much on the expanded lore. (Yes, by the way. I did in fact read the Bravo Kilo trilogy, but many people did not.) His appearance in Halo 4 would have given us time to learn who he was, see that he was our enemy, the leader behind the entire Covenant faction we were fighting. This is how we met Truth in Halo 2. In Halo 5 they should have kept him alive, built up towards a final showdown. Keep him as a main antagonist until his death towards the end of the story arc. Jul 'Mdama was the head of the Covenant Remnant. Killing him should have been the end of the Covenant. Personally, I think he should have either been killed by the Arbiter at Sunaion or killed by the player in a Tartarus/Sesa 'Refumee boss battle at Sunaion.
I haven’t really structured this post at all. Just spilled out my thoughts as fast as my fingers can type, which happen to be much slower than my mind can think, but hopefully I made some sense. If you read it I’d like to hear your thoughts. Do you disagree with me? Do you have anything to add?
All this said, I still really enjoyed Halo 5’s campaign.
I believe it’s as simple as, 343 decided they to sacrifice the potential sub-plot of Jul to create the story of Halo 5, particularly the new interesting sanghelli civil war plot line.
I completely agree. Especially with the Halo 2 cliffhanger still feeling like a complete game but Halo 5 doesn’t. It is so weird because in all the other main games master chief saves humanity but he doesn’t do that in this game.
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> I believe it’s as simple as, 343 decided they to sacrifice the potential sub-plot of Jul to create the story of Halo 5, particularly the new interesting sanghelli civil war plot line.
It made the story too simple, too basic, too bland. More importantly though, Jul 'Mdama played a massive part in the civil war. He was the reason the Covenant was on Sangheilios. He was the reason the Covenant Remnant existed. He was in fact Thel 'Vadam’s main enemy after the Human-Covenant War. That Sangheili Civil War is all the more reason Jul should have survived the beginning of the game. He was the Elite that should have been leading the Covenant against the Sangheili (and Spartan VI) invaders.
just gonna leave this here.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/db05ce78845f4120b062c50816008e5d/topics/cortana-and-precursor-plans-spoilers/ec67050a-e8ce-495f-ae70-c4ab5f701d2b/posts
> 2757114414746787;5:
> just gonna leave this here.
> https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/db05ce78845f4120b062c50816008e5d/topics/cortana-and-precursor-plans-spoilers/ec67050a-e8ce-495f-ae70-c4ab5f701d2b/posts
Does that post even mention 'Mdama once? This isn’t how forums work. Write a relevant comment to the thread you are reading. You don’t just post links to other threads with no explanation.
> 2533274962272239;3:
> I completely agree. Especially with the Halo 2 cliffhanger still feeling like a complete game but Halo 5 doesn’t. It is so weird because in all the other main games master chief saves humanity but he doesn’t do that in this game.
I’m not defending the odd choices in the story of this campaign, just trying to make sense of them, so here two big takeaways I got from it:
Jul: Throughout the Kilo-5 books, Spartan Ops, and Escalation, he was built up as this complex, interesting, capable antagonist. We also needed a fireteam to go after Blue Team. Blue Team is the best of the best. How do you qualify someone to take on such a task? By having them take out the universe’s most wanted villain in the first mission. I think the thought behind it was, “do you have any doubts about Locke? Well, he took out Mdama with a knife in less than 2 minutes in the first mission. Still have doubts?” Did it work? Not really. Maybe a little.
Chief: I think this was another way to humanize his character. He saved humanity in CE, H2, H3, and H4. Now in H5, humanity, represented by Osiris, gets to save him. Did it work? I think so. I didn’t have a problem with it. It was nice for the UNSC to return the favor for once. It wasn’t killing Jul that made me not doubt Locke, it was him saving Master Chief.
And as someone who had to wait three years between Halo 2 and Halo 3, I gotta say, Halo 5’s ending didn’t leave me feeling as annoyed as Halo 2’s. And that’s either because it was done better, or because the story didn’t make me care as much as Halo 2, I haven’t really figured that out yet.
SPOILER ALERT
Unless you read the Halo books you wouldn’t know too much about Jul unfortunately. I don’t understand why 343 was so quick to get rid of Jul and destroy the Covenant (game wise) knowing that not everyone may read the books. Books that are meant to fill in gaps (years in Halo) about what Blue team has been up to, how Buck became a Spartan, and how the Didact had survived in Halo 4 and was killed later by Blue team.
Jul definitely feels like a wasted character now after being killed off in the first mission. It almost felt like clean up service whenever I was fighting the Covenant Remnant on Sanghelios knowing they weren’t really a threat to the player and even the SOS. If 343 shown us the pure power of Jul’s Covenant then I personally would have felt like I had accomplished something at the Battle of Sunion.
> 2572815322848618;8:
> SPOILER ALERT
> Unless you read the Halo books you wouldn’t know too much about Jul unfortunately. I don’t understand why 343 was so quick to get rid of Jul and destroy the Covenant (game wise) knowing that not everyone may read the books. Books that are meant to fill in gaps (years in Halo) about what Blue team has been up to, how Buck became a Spartan, and how the Didact had survived in Halo 4 and was killed later by Blue team.
I’ve been reading the books since before the release of Halo 3, but I feel like they’re starting to get over-the-top. I mean, most of the Reclaimer Saga seems to be in the Escalation comics rather than games themselves.
> 2533274883669557;7:
> > 2533274962272239;3:
> > I completely agree. Especially with the Halo 2 cliffhanger still feeling like a complete game but Halo 5 doesn’t. It is so weird because in all the other main games master chief saves humanity but he doesn’t do that in this game.
>
>
> I’m not defending the odd choices in the story of this campaign, just trying to make sense of them, so here two big takeaways I got from it:
>
> Jul: Throughout the Kilo-5 books, Spartan Ops, and Escalation, he was built up as this complex, interesting, capable antagonist. We also needed a fireteam to go after Blue Team. Blue Team is the best of the best. How do you qualify someone to take on such a task? By having them take out the universe’s most wanted villain in the first mission. I think the thought behind it was, “do you have any doubts about Locke? Well, he took out Mdama with a knife in less than 2 minutes in the first mission. Still have doubts?” Did it work? Not really. Maybe a little.
>
> Chief: I think this was another way to humanize his character. He saved humanity in CE, H2, H3, and H4. Now in H5, humanity, represented by Osiris, gets to save him. Did it work? I think so. I didn’t have a problem with it. It was nice for the UNSC to return the favor for once. It wasn’t killing Jul that made me not doubt Locke, it was him saving Master Chief.
>
> And as someone who had to wait three years between Halo 2 and Halo 3, I gotta say, Halo 5’s ending didn’t leave me feeling as annoyed as Halo 2’s. And that’s either because it was done better, or because the story didn’t make me care as much as Halo 2, I haven’t really figured that out yet.
Interesting point about the death of Jul. It’s definitely a good explanation, but I still disagree with it happening so early in the game. I’m not sure how I feel about your other points.
He probably got killed so early as a meta dis against Spartan Ops.
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> He probably got killed so early as a meta dis against Spartan Ops.
What’s that? Something about Agent Maine?
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> > 2757114414746787;5:
> > just gonna leave this here.
> > https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/db05ce78845f4120b062c50816008e5d/topics/cortana-and-precursor-plans-spoilers/ec67050a-e8ce-495f-ae70-c4ab5f701d2b/posts
>
>
> Does that post even mention 'Mdama once? This isn’t how forums work. Write a relevant comment to the thread you are reading. You don’t just post links to other threads with no explanation.
are you new to the internet?
and was that thread not pretty amazing?
also “What happens in Halo 5? You find out Cortana has become an antagonist… then the game ends. What do you accomplish? Is anything resolved? You found the Chief. So what?”
insert thread
Maybe he was killed so fast to show how effective Osiris is? Dunno
> 2757114414746787;14:
> > 2535415876049274;6:
> > > 2757114414746787;5:
> > > just gonna leave this here.
> > > https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/db05ce78845f4120b062c50816008e5d/topics/cortana-and-precursor-plans-spoilers/ec67050a-e8ce-495f-ae70-c4ab5f701d2b/posts
> >
> >
> > Does that post even mention 'Mdama once? This isn’t how forums work. Write a relevant comment to the thread you are reading. You don’t just post links to other threads with no explanation.
>
>
> are you new to the internet?
> and was that thread not pretty amazing?
>
> also “What happens in Halo 5? You find out Cortana has become an antagonist… then the game ends. What do you accomplish? Is anything resolved? You found the Chief. So what?”
>
> insert thread
Is anyone able to translate this?
> 2572815322848618;8:
> SPOILER ALERT
> Unless you read the Halo books you wouldn’t know too much about Jul unfortunately. I don’t understand why 343 was so quick to get rid of Jul and destroy the Covenant (game wise) knowing that not everyone may read the books. Books that are meant to fill in gaps (years in Halo) about what Blue team has been up to, how Buck became a Spartan, and how the Didact had survived in Halo 4 and was killed later by Blue team.
Which book does the Didact fight Blue Team in? I’m currently about 1/3 the way through Mortal Dictata and wondering which book to grab next.
I believe that 343i killed off Jul in the first mission so that the Prometheans can take top billing yet again. Which leads me to another point, Jul was the main villain in the comics and if you haven’t read them then you think that Jul is just another “prophet”.
> 2533274803354583;17:
> > 2572815322848618;8:
> > SPOILER ALERT
> > Unless you read the Halo books you wouldn’t know too much about Jul unfortunately. I don’t understand why 343 was so quick to get rid of Jul and destroy the Covenant (game wise) knowing that not everyone may read the books. Books that are meant to fill in gaps (years in Halo) about what Blue team has been up to, how Buck became a Spartan, and how the Didact had survived in Halo 4 and was killed later by Blue team.
>
>
> Which book does the Didact fight Blue Team in? I’m currently about 1/3 the way through Mortal Dictata and wondering which book to grab next.
In the Escalation series The Next 72 Hours, picking up right after Halo 4’s ending.
Jul should have at least been boss fight right at the first mission. Killi g him with that new 343 weapon was just stupid.
New weapon = cut scene