I thought the crux of the story was something about Chief being a wanted man and Locke having a grudge against him? There's a bit a couple missions in where Locke says to Buck that he's "not the only one here for a reason" (or something), implying there's a personal vendetta?

Also I remember the marketing materials for this being like 'The Chief killed innocents, he must be brought down', but Locke's only really chasing him because he insisted on going to that planet with Cortana on?

I'm a bit lost tbh haha, any help on what the story was supposed to be about (other than Cortana going crazy) would be most appreciated!!

Oh and also, when you fight the Warden, did anyone else do a behind-the-back knife animation kill? I did on the first bout, but then every time after I couldn't seem to trigger it!

That part of the marketing is ONI propaganda.

Yeah the marketing made it seem like it was gonna lead up to a Chief vs. Locke showdown.

You mean it doesn't? That's rather unfortunate.

There is absolutely a Chief vs. Locke showdown. It just isn't the finale. It functions in service to a larger plot.

@historyinrust: It doesn't stand up to how the marketing portrays it at ALL. Remember the trailer where one of them was dying on the ground with a big fucking hole in their chest and the other one comes up to finish the job with a bullet? I'd barely call what they had in the game a showdown. More like a scuffle.

Cool.

Yeah the marketing sells a completely different story then what you get. Reminds me of how the marketing for Halo 2 was all about fighting on earth, and then that was like 2 missions. In fact the way this game ends is a lot like Halo 2 as well...

Holy shit, guys this is just Halo 2!

@shalashaskauk666: I was under the impression that the line of him saying something like "you're not the only one here because of the Chief" was meant to imply that Locke knows the Master Chief is revered by a lot of soldiers and is in fact an inspiration for many, including Locke himself, in becoming spartans. It's not a personal vendetta, it's actually the exact opposite - Locke is given an order, and despite not liking it he is a soldier first and is going to go through with it no matter the consequences.

Halo has really great marketing and really awful marketing, all at the same time. This is the same thing that happened with Halo 3. The marketing had some really powerful images, that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the actual game. Remember the diorama stuff? All of the Locke vs. Chief stuff reminds me of that. Takes a minor, minuscule detail about the overall plot and makes the game seem like something it isn't.

This game's story, in a word, sucks. And this is coming from someone who has enjoyed the stories of all of the Halo games, even 4 to an extent. It's got a Halo 2 sized cliffhanger on top of all that, without all of the great worldbuilding that Halo 2 had. And there was so much they could have done with it, too.

Cortana assumes the Mantle of Responsibility (which is just the philosophy that the most advanced beings are obligated to guide/"take care of" everything else) because she has surpassed humanity...I think? Humanity is essentially still a bunch of fuck ups according to the forerunners so we're considered unworthy. Something like that. In any case, she gathers up the rest of the A.I. (again because A.I.s are considered to be more advanced than humanity itself) to essentially create a totalitarian galaxy. She leads Chief to her because she wants to convince him that her way is the correct way and possibly because she loves him and/or considers all of Blue Team family. Chief is obviously not buying into it and tries to get answers out of Cortana...until he does get answers out of Cortana but it's too late by then.

Also, Locke is there...to do shit, but ultimately to rescue chief. Also also, there's something about a constructor...which is essentially 343's replacement for Guilty Spark, but their replacement isn't as cool as Guilty Spark. Then Halsey gets reunited with Chief to go finish the fight...with Locke...and the rest of the other Spartans that the story clearly does not give a fuck about.

I agree that the marketing straight up fucking lied.

I agree that this story...was not good. edit3: Or rather, it was an extremely interesting story presented extremely poorly.

edit: Also, fuck the Warden fights.

edit2: This has nothing to do with anything, but running down the side of that Forerunner building was pretty dope wasn't it?

The plot is just a rehash of Battlestar Galactica.

As someone who has yet to play Halo 4 or 5; did 343 actually write Oni into their fiction?

@monetarydread: It's been part of the fiction for a while. I know it's been mentioned in Reach and in the past Halo games (I think it was also in 3 and ODST).

I figure this is as good a place as any to say this but did anyone else for half a second think of the ending of the conduit 2 when blue team steps out of the big orb at the end?

Im actually glad the marketing was all misdirection because that story they were telling seemed fucking boring and the fight when they do meet was the dumbest part of the game. The later stuff is the more interesting stuff but it takes so long to get there. You're doing literally nothing for about 7 missions in the middle. While it was fun to play through and see the Arbiter that all should have been like 1 or 2 levels at most. It feels like the game ended right when it was about to get good. Also, both Fireteams are underdeveloped. Osiris has some cool characters(not buck) that you barely get to know anything about.

Also, the Cortana redesign is atrocious. Like, its worse than Edi in Mass Effect 3.

@mems1224: I feel like you could be talking about Halo 4 here.

Well, the level design is miles ahead of 4 but this is definitely a campaign designed for co-op. It still has the cheese factor that 4 had in some cutscenes and dialogue.

This marketing is deception on the level of Batman: Arkham Origins. Remember that one?
"You are Batman! You are new to being the vigilante and now you are going to face all these dangerous assassins out to kill you! Bane and Black Mask are the two bads you're going to face and Deathstroke is going to be the biggest threat!"

but back to Halo, I agree that this game is pretty deceptive...narratively. I would also argue that its on the same level as Halo 4 in terms of pacing. I still hold to the opinion that Halo: Reach is the last great Halo game made. Halo 5 proves to me that Microsoft needs to move on and find a new franchise to latch onto.

It would've been way more compelling if they had made Cortana less confrontational and antagonistic in her approach to achieve world (universal?) peace. Instead of having the player feel conflicted about fighting against her, we just have the whole "AI is evil, must stop it at all cost".

I agree wholeheartedly with Reach being the last, and possibly greatest imo, Halo.

I have some major issues with the game which can be listed in no particular order

1. Like who exactly is team Osiris? I mean we know the names Locke and Buck but I've never heard of Vale and Tanaka.
2. Why the hell are Locke and Buck spartans now?
3. How many years have passed since Halo 4 to now?
4. How come Team Osiris is just jumping into battle at the beginning? And why isn't Master Chief taking care of something that important?
5. Why are Locke and the Arbiter somewhat buddies now? I know Locke tried to kill him when he was in Oni but why the reconciliation?
6. Why doesn't Roland believe in Cortana's utopia?

This game would have been better serving the needs of the marketing ads. Have two separate campaigns the hunt and the truth? The hunt is Locke's campaign and the Truth is Chief's campaign. Make it so you have to play both to get the "real" or true ending.

I will say this was the hardest legendary solo campaign by far and I haven't jumped into the multiplayer yet but I'm sure it's more halo. Overall disappointed in the campaign but not nearly as bummed as I was with Batman's campaign.

@zirilius: I agree about the legendary difficulty. The jump from Heroic to Legendary is massive this time around.

@gaspower: @monetarydread: It's worth noting that ONI in Halo is some sort of military branch. It has nothing to do with Bungie's early PS2 game.

@sammo21: The hardest part that come to mind are the three warden fight at the end of mission 14.

Man what a pain that was and not even remotely fun. Three enemies that can one shot you from any spot on the map and charge you is no fun.

Yeah, it would have been better if she didn't come off as an extremist. It would have made it far more interesting.

@zirilius: 1. I believe Vale was introduced in the book Hunters in the Dark and Tanaka was in the comic. Vale actually seems like a cool character and it's a shame they don't go deeper.

2. Buck becomes a Spartan in the book New Blood. He only accepted because they let what was left of his squad become Spartans too.

3. Its been a little over a year since Halo 4

4.I'm guessing it's because Locke's specialty is tracking and assassinations.

5. Well, Locke does save the Arbiters life when you reach him in game. They were about to get overrun

6. No idea what's up with Roland.

I can't wait 'till Halo 6 where we find out that that Cortana is somehow not actually the "real" Cortana.

@steadying: Hell, I went through most of Halo 5 thinking Cortana was working for the Didact. Glad that wasn't the deal...though I'm pretty sure the Warden was.

All in all I thought the story was ok. Had way more Halo 2 tropes then it should have, which is kinda ironic. I am excited for Halo 6 though, I want to see the implications of the Legendary ending scene, it seems like it's a big deal for the universe.

@steadying: well, it sounds like she was warped by the flood just like the didact was. She even quotes the didact from halo 4 epilogue during the last chief mission

"Our strength shall serve as a luminous sun, toward which all intelligence may blossom. And the impervious shelter beneath which you will prosper."

I don't think we're done with the flood....

I just wish 343 would stop offloading important story beats to books or other media. It's quite perplexing that someone who played every Halo game up until this point has to wonder who the fuck all these characters and what the fuck is even going on when starting Halo 5. Halo 4 had the same problem. I mean, it's fine to publish books to expand the universe as long as they don't contain major story elements. Mass Effect had books and comics which gave you a bit more information about the universe or characters, yet it was entirely possible to understand the story if you didn't read them

@mems1224: @revan_nl:

I have to say referencing that stuff in books is an incredibly bad. I remember hating in it in Halo 4 and its even worse now. I know adding another mission or two about Locke recruiting the other Spartans for Team Osiris would have been a ton of work but there it would have been a more natural bridge then what they have now.

I don't know why I got my hopes up with 343's story telling. Halo 4 wasn't anywhere close to the story telling bungie had even with the Giant Mind Controlling plant fiasco of Halo 2. I mean the Nightfall was just as bad.

I mean, Bungie never explained the origins of Noble team or went deep into their backstories. They didn't even bother to let us know what happened to Jun. I like that 343 incorporates the expanded universe into the games because Bungie never cared or bothered to. The overall story still makes sense in Halo 5 even without knowing much of the backstory. While its cool that there is so much for fans of the books and comics in the game I do agree that 343 does a horrible job of explaining it to people who aren't invested in it. Hell, at this point they should just put a Mass Effect 3 style codex into the damn games.

I enjoyed Eric Nylund's Halo novels, they are a fair bit better than most video game tie-in fiction and they really help flesh out the universe. I was always a bit bummed that Bungie always treated Master Chief like he was the last remaining Spartan-II when there were a few others that survived The Fall of Reach. In the books the Spartan-II briefly rejoin Master Chief between Halo and Halo 2 and then basically split off on their own adventures with Dr Halsey while Chief is finishing the fight. It's up to Bungie what they want to include and ignore in their stories but I thought it was a missed opportunity.

So I was happy to see Linda, Fred and Kelly show up in Halo 5, makes sense for them to be back together. 343 Industries does kinda just drop you into the action. I don't necessarily think a recruiting montage would have helped but yeah if you're jumping from Halo 4 to Halo 5 you don't get a lot of context, especially when the other Spartan-II's decided to follow Master Chief's treasonous action to ignore his commanding officer and go after Cortana. There is a bit of dialog after that from Osiris team talking about Blue team being together for a long time (30 years) and that they would follow Master Chief anywhere but yeah it is not a lot of context. There is also a bunch of exposition and character development dialog that only gets triggered if you hold back for a bit and are not rushing towards the next objective, especially in the non-combat levels but Battlefield Bad Company 2 also did that, the best dialog in that game is triggered by standing around checkpoints and if you rush forward the plot is way drier than the first game which feels like bad design.

Halo 5's story does mirror Halo 2 quite a bit in structure due to its two protagonists and it's cliffhanger ending but it's not as bad as I remember Halo 2 being at the time. Halo 2 is a crappy boss fight, followed by a setup for the Halo rings awaiting activation and then Chief on his way to earth with Cortana staying behind, you don't get any closure whatsoever. Halo 2's ending is weird because Bungie had to cut the entire 3rd act, you were supposed to go back to Earth and finish the fight in that game but they ran out of time. In contrast I feel that 343 probably had something resembling this ending planned out since Halo 4. The issue with Halo 5 is that they stretched the Cortana plot too thin. It feels like if they wanted to they could have had the Cortana twist happen much earlier on in the plot and had much more going on in the later parts of the game. At least there is a little bit of resolution, we find out about Cortana, Locke saves Master Chief, Master Chief and Dr Halsey are finally reunited, it's not great but it's something.

The writing for Cortana in mission 15 and beyond is so atrociously bad. It's just the most generic sounding "I'm an antagonist now, so I'm going to taunt you and say mean things" voice direction they could have gone for. The final scream she does after Locke destroys the relay is so bad, she might as well be saying: "Curse you humans! Argh!". The credit roll was like a blast from the past from Halo 2, just sitting there and feeling incredibly sour about the whole thing. Good thing the multiplayer is fantastic.

I think I would place this game's campaign a bit below Halo 2, they are about equal story wise (and cliffhanger wise), but Halo 2 had more "epic" moments. Online play is incredible though.

@bigboss1911: I think Halo 2 was worse because after Earth the level design is horrible. All the arbitor levels are bad and that cliffhanger was about 100 times worse. Plus, this at least feels like it does endend unlike Halo 2.

What I don't get is why Cortana is a space dictator now. It feels like a plot development that's motivated purely by necessity, rather than a natural outgrowth of the character.

@encephalon: well, she wasn't in the most rational state of mind after 4. She's copied herself over and over in both covenant and forerunner systems as well as being tortured by the gravemind.

You don't need to know exactly who Team Osiris are, same as Noble Team's origins didn't matter for the overall story of Reach. You learn more about them if you listen to the dialogue and pick of the datapads.

The same goes for Blue Team. If you've read the books (specifically Fall of Reach) you already know who they are, but even if you didn't, Osiris have more than one conversation about their history together.

The books don't matter. Chief went from being the last known Spartan in Halos 1 to 4 to now having his three childhood buddies with him and never being alone - all without any real explanation. Overall, the campaign's story feels unfinished, clumsy, and childish. Cortana going evil came out of nowhere and "AI taking over in a sci-fi story" has been done to death, plus it doesn't feel like Halo. I'm not sure how crap like this gets approved on such a big project. Chief fighting brutes on a few planets would've been fine, we don't need to save the galaxy in each game. The marketing straight up lied, since Locke and MC are never enemies and in the first trailer they have MC wearing a torn cloak like he's tired/alone, but you're never alone in the game. Bungie should've just stayed with the series - it's not like Destiny is all that different. They could've done a Halo spin-off series where Destiny's Guardians are Spartan IVs.

They never explicitly say that Chief is the last Spartan in any of the games do they? I can't remember.

Bungie leaving Halo left both worse off. Bungie is a horrible shell of the once great developer it used to be and Halo has gotten really weird. I loved having Blue team in the game because thats what I've wanted since Halo CE but Im still not sold on the story. That said, the multiplayer is the best its been since Halo 2 IMO. The movement and control you have now feels amazing.

He's been believed to be the last living Spartan this whole time and then 3 from his childhood are hanging around with no explanation. If they explained it in the books that still doesn't matter here. Bungie seems idiotic for wanting to go make one space FPS with a big company to go make another space FPS with a big company. I don't like Destiny, but 343 has yet to make a great or even all that good Halo game. Bungie leaving and 343 being formed probably split and hurt both teams.

MC was never believed to be the last living Spartan-II, let alone Spartan period. The books made that clear, and the games never even addressed the question. MC is considered to be the greatest among all of the Spartan-II's, but a handful of them were always still alive.

One thing I will agree on, is that Halo 5 should have explained what Blue Team were doing on Infinity with the MC again all of a sudden. As far as I recall, there wasn't a word about it.

Halo 5 is half of a story, which makes it disappointing until Halo 6 comes out. At that point I''ll judge whether it's a *good* story or not.

Halo 5 is the Halo 2 of this new trilogy.

@scotto: If I recall correctly it is in fact stated in the instruction manual of Halo: Comba Evolved that Master Chief is the last of the Spartan II project after the fall of Reach

@revan_nl: That's probably correct because the original game's manual had story info in it and was in color. It wasn'r just a black and white sleeve with warnings all over it about the controller.

The Fall of Reach book (original) also stated 117 was the last Spartan of any type.

So I just realized I own the original game with manual. Here is a pic i just took. John is the last Spartan-II as of 2552.

http://i68.tinypic.com/161htgi.jpg

I think my biggest problem with the game was that in this game we fought against the same boss 4 or 5 times. There was very little variation in the boss fights (it always boiled down to hitting the bosses backside). It would have been better to have had 1 or 2 major fights with the warden and then some fights with other bosses.

Not that disappointed with a cliffhanger ending although I would have liked to see an actual confrontation between chief and locke. The conflict between those two basically vanished by the end of Halo 5 with the appearance of the new threat in the form of Cortana. Also a couple of the missions were basically walkthrough mission with a few lines of dialogue.

This has been retconned so many different times since this point that you'd might as well forget that manual text ever existed.

The Fall of Reach book (original) also stated 117 was the last Spartan of any type.

Also, this is not true.