So, Bonnie Ross has effectively given us the answer to why everything set up by Halo 4 and developed in its peripheral fiction was tossed out the airlock for Halo 5.
“When you look at how the overall [Star Wars] portfolio is managed, there is a lot, a lot of stuff out there. And not all of it is on canon,” Ross says. “It’s been very important for us to have a more curated, connected story.”
She admits that 343 Industries can get carried away in this regard. In recent years, the Halo games have become overwrought with storylines, and an expectation that players have studied the lore from the expanded universe. At some point, the series’ purity of gameplay, backed by simple but cohesive plot lines, got lost.
“The learning we’re looking at right now is, How do we be a little bit more purist about the stories we tell in our games, and how do we make sure that we use our consumer products and all our novels and everything to tell the richer, deeper story?” Ross says. “Fans have definitely given us the feedback that we’ve had a little bit too much story out there.” [x]
It’s the Halo 2-3 situation all over again, where fans complained that the story was “too complex”, so the sequel cut out all of those elements deemed extraneous to the core audience’s understanding - like Thel being a protagonist, because sympathising with a complex alien character is just too much to ask of your general audience compared to a faceless, stoic, one-liner spouting spayss muhreen.
The Ur-Didact, Jul, all these characters who 343 spent years building up in the novels to set the stage for their involvement in the games, well, 343 has deemed them all to be part of the problem. That’s why they’ve been kicked out the door. 343 thinks you can’t tell a “simple but cohesive” story with the sheer wealth of backstory their characters have, so they’ve been thrown away altogether.
Being “more purist” about their storytelling is evidently why Halo is now written like a bad comic book series coupled with Game of Thrones. Why a much more recognisable and marketable character like Cortana is standing in the place of the Ur-Didact. Why 343 have gone straight to scraping the bottom of the barrel for major storylines like ‘AI uprising’ rather than the more complex drama with the factions that have actually been established and developed beyond just the games.
So, y’know, thanks a lot to everyone who whinged about Halo 4′s story being too complicated. 343 listened to you and Halo 5 was the result.
Thanks a fucking bunch.
