Story focused. I'm no multiplayer expert

The game's story is undoubtedly a mess but I think there were some things (emphasis on some) people critisise that IMO aren't that warranted.

so go on shoot

I stopped caring about Halo 5 a few weeks past launch...

Cortana complaining about living under the threat of death when
A: Everyone lives under
B: She potentially killed millions (then got offended when John asked what that number was)

>cortana complains about ai's being slaves while using an army of humans turned into ai slaves

It's been a while, but off the top of my head:

-Generic 'scary AI' plot
-Ads that essentially lied about the scope and story
-Weird gun sound effects that make them sound like airsoft guns (carrying over from Halo 4)
-Req system (skins aren't content)
-The game is basically just a vehicle for exposition; the actions of Blue Team and Osiris are completely inconsequential; nothing is accomplished
-Ignores new characters established in 4 for an entirely new cast, and does nothing with any of them

It's just a dumb, empty game.

Forerunners will probably get a huge nerf because there are like what, 3000 Guardians that need to be defeated

Cortana complaining about living under the threat of death when
A: Everyone lives under
B: She potentially killed millions (then got offended when John asked what that number was)

That's actually a very good point that I hadn't actually thought of or seen anybody else address for that matter. I guess the point of it was more about the guaranteed unpleasant death at either the hands of rampancy or termination. As for b, I guess that has to do with Cortana seeing what she's doing as part of the grater good and the big picture, but when it comes down to it you are correct. her whole argument starts to fall apart rather easily, and even comes of as hypocritical.
It's also interesting how the one AI to not only manually disable her own termination code is the one making this statement.

Forerunners will probably get a huge nerf because there are like what, 3000 Guardians that need to be defeated

Mass Effect 3 ending confirmed.

https://haruspis.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/halo-5-level-by-level-analysis-osiris/#more-5390

Read all of these ^ and then try to defend

I actually like the campaign from a gameplay standpoint

But things like Cortana being upset that AI are enslaved, then using an army of enslaved Humans from Ancient Humanity, New Phoenix and Ivanoff station is fucking retarded

Halo is dead

Pharah is dead

Quote from: BaconShelf on June 11, 2016, 07:13:58 PM

https://haruspis.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/halo-5-level-by-level-analysis-osiris/#more-5390

Read all of these ^ and then try to defend

Ive actually been meaning to read through this so thanks for linking it.

He finished it yesterday so it's good for a binge read.

Nothing built up by the Forerunner Saga, Halo 4 or Escalation is followed up on.
Didact is sidelined.
The Warden Eternal is a dreadful character.
Cortana's behaviour is completely out-of-character, and we know that she isn't rampant.
Blue Team and Osiris don't contribute much to the story, Blue Team especially.
John and Locke have barely any interaction. There's nothing personal at stake between them like what was suggested in the game's marketing. Their confrontation is way too early in the story and amounts to two drunks having a brawl because Locke told Chief he was going to do what Chief was doing? Osiris do nothing during the fight.
Osiris need to find a Constructor that will activate a Guardian that was going to activate anyway??
Cortana kills millions if not billions of innocent people and we're expected to understand and empathise with her motives?

1) I do believe Halo 5's story is probably leading up to the Precursor's test of humanity for the Mantle, but the fact that there isnt at all any clear or definitive connection to those materials is definitely  terrible storytelling. Even the handling of the domain left us with no answers and more question than anything.

2) Indeed, although Reed has confirmed he's still around which gives some credence to the speculation that he could have a hand in the events of Halo 5

3) Completely disagree there. The Warden is one of the few charachters that actually got fleshed our properly even if he is somewhat of a Didact Jr. His motivations and actions are all clear and make relative sense.

4) Cortana's behavior is strange indeed, although i'd hesitate to say that it's story breaking or anything.  Clearly the Warden has convinced her somehow of this cocept of the Mantle that she is following and that she should in a way re establish a forerunner like empire. We don't actually know enough about the exchange between them that lead to this to say Cortana is out of her mind or anything.

5) Agree with the next few points although Chief fighting Locke was John sort of snapping at the possibility of someone coming between him and finding Cortana. He was thinking more emotionally than rationally at the time. And I honestly don't agree with the criticism of the fight scene itself. Neither of them really intended on killing the other and I'm personally not sure how else the combat choreography would have played out on that small platform especially not including all of the armor abilities and what not.. Everything else though, I totally agree with.

6) I doubt anyone felt like waiting for an outside force to trigger the Guardians activation at god konws what point in the future

7) Good thing you at least understand what  it was 343 was trying to do with that. I think the whole "Means to an end/ greater good" concept is worthy of its own discussion.  But I do want to leave the though that what she's doing isnt anything new, The forerunners created the Halo array and killed everyone in the galaxy to sercure a better future. ONI for years have been abandoning people to die in the billions in order to protect humanity as a spesies. They even wanted to wipe out the Sangheli. The Spartan program was on a far smaller scale but hundereds of children died as pawns for the war.  I wont make any attempt to say these were either right or wrong but with a history like that it's hard to say what Cortana is doing might not seem that unprecedented.

It just felt like a campaign that cut a lot of corners.  It seemed like it had an idea worth exploring, and was hyped up like crazy in the ads, but was super anticlimactic.  The whole story felt like a bunch of missed opportunities, where characters could have been really valuable, but were rather just a bunch of set-pieces progressing through a series of chores without question or emotion.

On top of that, and this is just a personal gripe, I'm not a huge fan of how much more in-your-face the whole "chosen hero of the entire universe" tone is.  I liked being a military badass, where people were like "holy shit...a Mark V", rather than "OMG ITS SPACE JESUS, THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN SAVE US".

-The story direction is dumb (why kill off a character only to bring them back 2 cutscenes later?)
-Severe discrepancy between campaign trailers and actual story
-Vehicles are still cannon fodder for small arms weapons (not to the same extent as Reach and 4, but still pretty bad)
-DMR cert is literally the equivalent of Reach Warrant Officer in terms of grinding time
>Dynamic Spawns