“I could give you over forty thousand reasons why I know that sun isn't real. I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh Effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never actually know if it looks real. If it feels real.” – Cortana, Halo 4

Halo 5’s story is painfully discontinuous, with nothing to bridge the gap between Halo 4 and Halo 5 Guardians. For instance, the Janus Key, an ancient relic containing the locations of every piece of Forerunner technology in the galaxy and that was first introduced in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops, was never referenced in Guardians and has zero relevance to the story despite it being a previously critical plot device. In addition, Doctor Catherine Halsey, the founder of the Spartan II Program, was in custody for war crimes in Spartan Ops, but in Guardians all her past crimes seem to be ignored. She is almost on good terms with the Infinity. Finally, we are never given a sufficient explanation for why the Arbiter and his fleet are in the midst of a civil war, yet thrown into the Battle of Sunaion for... some reason.

This discontinuity extends from the game’s insulting neglect of past media, a common criticism directed toward the Halo Reach campaign. However, the difference between Reach and Guardians is that Reach didn’t rely on pre-established characters to tell its story. The story was instead told from the perspective of 6 new Spartans, and although 5 of them died defending their home planet, their sacrifices made Reach’s campaign a poignantly intimate and satisfying experience.

Meanwhile, Halo 5’s characters are tacked on “just because,” serving no purpose other than to please fans. There is zero explanation in-game for why the characters Kelly, Linda, Fred, Buck, and The Arbiter are relevant again. I found myself asking: when did Kelly, Linda, and Fred rendezvous with the Chief? Where did they come from? Why are they fighting together? What has The Arbiter been up to lately? Who is in control of the Prometheans? How did Buck become a Spartan IV? Of course, all of these questions are addressed in the expanded universe, but a trademark of a well-crafted, self-contained Halo story is a limited dependence on its source material. We shouldn’t need to read countless novels and comics to understand the backgrounds on these characters, because we’re more or less told everything that we need to know right up front.

Halo 5 also likes to sweep previously pivotal characters under the rug without giving the audience a reason to justify their absences. Perhaps a perfect example of this sweeping-under-the-rug of fan favorite characters, and also the worst insult to my love of Halo 4’s story, was the omission of the villainous Forerunner, Ur-Didact. The Didact was supposed to be the Darth Vader of the Halo universe—a nemesis to the Master Chief that could truly outmatch him in strength and intellect and that was to serve as the primary antagonist of the Reclaimer Saga. Moreover, Didact has appeared in an abundance of past media: the Halo 3 terminals, Halo 4 terminals, Greg Bear’s Forerunner trilogy, the Halo 4 campaign, and Halo: Escalation. At the end of Halo 4, he falls into a slipspace stream and later gets into a skirmish with Blue Team in Escalation, but in Guardians he is conspicuously absent. Why would 343 Industries spend years fleshing out such an essential character only to just write him out in a medium that few people use?

Another well-established character swept under the rug by 343’s incompetent writing staff is Jul ‘Mdama, leader of the Covenant Storm faction who had made appearances in all three Karen Traviss novels, the Halo 4 terminals, Spartan Ops, and Halo: Escalation. However, Jul is haphazardly killed in the first mission of Guardians. The writers couldn’t have waited to kill Jul later on in the campaign? It’s almost as if they thought to themselves, “We ran out of material for this character. Let’s just kill him off in the first mission so that we never have to worry about him again.” And with Jul out of the picture, it’s unclear who has assumed leadership of the Covenant, or why the Covenant is still fighting us. In previous games, Covenant species were led by the three Prophets and brainwashed into harvesting the amenities of Forerunner technology and eventually lighting the Halo rings, but in Halo 5 they are only around just so that we have something else to shoot.

And herein lies the second tragedy of Halo 5: it's on a path that leads to nowhere.

This is a problem that could have a calamitous impact on Halo 6 and beyond. In retrospect, Halo 4 was much more character-driven and emotionally charged story than previous entries, exploring Master Chief’s human side and his relationship with Cortana as her mind deteriorated. For the first time ever, Chief was a dynamic character who was readily capable of experiencing complex emotions that we’re all familiar with. We came to understand that, indeed, there was a person living inside this suit.

But Halo 5 never advances this story arc as it pulls a complete 180 on the story that was told in Halo 4. It never explores the grief and depression that Chief suffered through after Cortana’s sacrifice. It never makes you empathize with him. And even if 343 had continued the story of Master Chief discovering his humanity, there simply isn’t enough time to do so in Halo 5 because a disproportionate amount of the campaign is spent playing as Locke; you play as Locke for 12 mission and play as the Chief for only 3. What a huge slap-in-the-face to fans of this iconic character, and an insult to the symbol of the Halo franchise.

Further, the emotional substance and aurora of permanence of Cortana’s sacrifice is erased, invalidated, and wiped clean in Halo 5 because she has magically come back to life via a Forerunner network called, "The Domain," which you would have no clue about unless you read the books. I no longer shed a tear when Chief and Cortana part ways in the final moments of Halo 4’s campaign because I know that she’s going to be just fine.

Stick around for Part 3, where I discuss Cortana’s return in more detail and where Halo 5 went wrong down the line.