I wanted to avoid this thread until I finished campaign (I will post some spoilers). I understand the unappealing search for the logs, but I think they do a great job showing more deeper into the story and the characters we meet along the way (like the Spartans). I haven't read any other posts about campaign, but I do think it was one that opened more questions than it answered. I admit I had hella fun playing it and I thought the story being quite cryptic throughout was a step in the right direction. Considering what we got in Halo 5, that was night and day difference for the good. Like I literally still to this day do not understand wtf Cortana was doing. I don't know if she knew something the player didn't or what she was trying to accomplish, but she effin' turned evil for the bad like blowing up the Brutes homeworld for the greater good for life I guess?
Halo 5 did so much bad with that story and I really hated that the team brought Forerunners in Halo 4 with the Librarian and Didact, but then wiped them away in one scene. Picture if there was a triangle of enemies in this game between UNSC, Banished, and Didact's forces all fighting against each other? UNSC is trying to stop the Banish from activating the ring because they're clueless, the Banished being pawns of the Harbinger who want to resurrect the Endless, and the Didact switching from destroying all humans to trying to stop the Harbinger knowing her true plans, but the Master Chief keeps getting in his way. I know it might get into GoT territory with all the potential betrayal, but would unlock more of a "fight to save the entire universe and we truly mean it this time" feeling. Changing the subject back to campaign, there were some bad parts like they legitimately cut out a cutscene in the middle of the game if you lot remember which one it was. Then they introduced the monitors companion and then he fights you like five seconds later. That just came across as so unnatural, but glad to see him switch sides towards the end. There is most definitely more, but I am too tired to list all the problems atm.
Obviously the game isn't finished. My friend is more inclined with gaming world and watched a ton of interviews with 343 staff before the game was released. He told me that multiple high-up people mentioned it multiple times from 343 is that this game will be one of the only ones they plan to make for a very long time. They want this game to have the longevity of at least a decade and I would be utterly shocked if that was the finality of campaign, completely shocked at the sheer incompetence if that happens. Remember that I posted a rumour many pages back that a source (not sure how good) said that 343 wants to release the story in episodic content. And if that was the first chapter, it makes perfect sense to me how we still have absolutely no answers about the secrets of the ring, who the Endless are, and whatever else I missed in the story line.
I thought 343 did a great job with the Banished though, I didn't really fancy them as the main enemies in Halo Wars II when I played it (I thought they were sort of a gimmick), but man they took them to the next level in this game and did great with transforming them to how they play in this game. I am also glad that they made certain troops quite weak (like the lower class Brutes), but made others a freakin' challenge such as how tough the Chieftains are (holy smokes). E: Holy hell the ending credits are like twenty minutes long or something. EII: The House of Reckoning was a great level, love how they made it into a Battle Royale, "prove your worth" type that screams Escharum's ideals.
Cortana becoming an antagonist made sense given her descent into rampancy followed by her uncovering immense power. The problem was the mechanics of this was spelled out outside the games.
After the end of Halo 4, where Cortana fights off her rampancy just long enough to save Chief from the explosion of Didact's ship, she dies. But not entirely. Pieces of her consciousness survive the explosion and float within the debris of the Didact's ship. Eventually the ship falls through slipspace to parts unknown (likely near Genesis, the location she summons Chief to) and she encounters the Domain.
The Domain is a staple of Halo fiction, it's basically a living quantum library of all Forerunner history and culture. Nobody other than the Forerunners has ever been able to access the Domain, but AIs can, because the Forerunners used AIs for damn near everything before the collapse. When the fragments of Cortana attempt to access the Domain, they are met by an AI called the Warden Eternal. One of the fragments engages with the Warden Eternal (not clear if this is any kind of 'battle', could just be two AIs talking and trying to figure each other out), the other fragments sneak past and access the Domain. With the information therein (it includes everything... including, it seems instruction manuals for how everything works), Cortana is able to take control of the Domain, take control of Warden Eternal, and recompile the fragments of herself into a single entity again... minus one, the one who had engaged with Warden Eternal.
She suggests that the recompiling has eliminated the degenerative effects of rampancy, but that's not actually clear. After all, crazy people never think they're crazy. Also, the loss of at least one fragment of her consciousness likely had significant impacts on her personality.
Cortana leans about 'The Mantle of Responsibility' in the Domain, and believes that humanity are not fit for such responsibility. It should be AIs that take on the task of protecting the universe, as organic life is too chaotic, emotional and short-sighted to do what is right for life to thrive in the long-term.
This is where Cortana is at when we meet her in Halo 5. She's gone rampant, 'died', pieced what's left of herself back together and been given the keys to greatest knowledge and power in the universe.
Suffice to say, it is absurd that 343i left THAT MUCH information in the books instead of putting in the actual games. They seem to love making Halo fans 'prove' how much they love Halo by following the narrative threads through other media.
Personally speaking, I've always believed that 343i chickened out with Halo 4. I believe that Cortana should have gone rampant at the end of Halo 4 rather than die saving chief, and set up Halo 5 as our mission to try and save her. And then, if/when that mission failed, Halo 6 should have been the mission for a reluctant, heartbroken chief to hunt down and terminate his best friend.
