Before 343 Industries' (now Halo Studios) Halo Infinite — a live-service, free-to-play take on the flagship Xbox franchise — released on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC in 2021, there was Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One in 2015. In time, the game grew to become one of the most content-rich shooter titles on offer for Xbox players, though it was also infamously controversial for a number of reasons.
Indeed, while Halo 5 had an extremely robust Forge mode, a creative PvPvE mode Warzone, and plenty of multiplayer content eventually, its offerings at launch were disappointing, many disliked the gameplay for feeling derivative of competing experiences, and the continued use of Halo 4's contentious art direction changes was frowned upon by lots of series veterans. What was arguably Halo 5's biggest controversy, however, was the jarring disconnect between marketing for its story and the actual contents of its campaign.
The marketing — namely, the extremely popular Hunt the Truth audio drama from Ayzenberg Group and several trailers and TV commercials — dug into the past and motivations of series protagonist the Master Chief, strongly suggesting he'd done something traitorous. It also gave the impression that one of Halo 5's main characters, Spartan Jameson Locke, had been assigned to hunt him down. This ended up being a very effective hook for the game that got fans extremely interested in the story, but when the game actually released, players quickly came to realize that the Master Chief's actions and Locke's pursuit of him were both far, far milder than what was expected.
The discrepancy was so large that many felt they had been misled by things like Hunt the Truth. But as a new VideoGamer interview with Halo 5 lead concept artist Darren Bacon reveals, 343 Industries was just as blindsided as fans were when it saw the promotions.
"That was really frustrating for us on the dev side, because you essentially had marketing who was doing whatever they wanted, essentially," Bacon said of the marketing material. "I was listening to Hunt the Truth when it was coming out, and I was like, 'Oh, wow, okay. Oh, is this what we’re doing?' Like, 'Those guys should really play the game sometime.'"
Some have speculated over time that the disconnect between Halo 5's marketing and the final release — as well as the disorderly nature of its storytelling and issues with content offerings at launch — was the direct result of significant amounts of ideas being scrapped. However, Bacon disputes this, asserting that 343 Industries had grown overly ambitious and had tried to do too much across all of the game's various modes.
"There was so much stuff in that game. When I first joined 343 from Bungie, the thing that was the biggest shock to me was how ambitious the team was," he explained. "They were doing so much stuff. The amount of content was overwhelming. I could not believe the team was taking on so much…it was crazy. I was like, 'Dang, you guys are ambitious.'"
"They were really going after on the campaign on the Halo 5 for sure, and then on the multiplayer side, too, it was the same deal…I don’t recall there being a lot cut," he added. "I think it was more it felt, to me, it felt like you’re watching an episode of a TV series and then the show just ends and the next season never comes out."
The answer behind one of Halo's big mysteries
Nearly 10 years after the game's release in 2015, it's interesting to finally hear about what exactly went on behind the scenes to cause such a disconnect between Halo 5's pre-release promotional material and the narrative that's actually in the game. As good as Hunt the Truth was — I have fond memories of eagerly waiting for the release of each new episode every week and then listening to them on the bus ride to my high school, enraptured by the story — it's undeniable that it did set misleading expectations for Halo 5 itself.
That said, Halo 5's narrative issues can't be blamed solely on marketing; even divorced from it entirely, it's widely agreed that the campaign felt incredibly disjointed with messy pacing, confusing character developments, and an overall runtime that feels way too short. Even so, though, I'm glad we finally know why the final product was so jarringly different than what its advertisements led players to expect.
Note that Halo 5, along with every other Halo game like Halo Infinite and in the Master Chief Collection, is available to play on Microsoft's buffet-style subscription service Xbox Game Pass. Unlike Infinite and the MCC, though, it's only available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, so keep that in mind.
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