: I only played a few multiplayer matches in Halo 4 and none in Halo 5. I
: didn't like the campaign in Halo 4 but I found a few of the Halo 5
: campaign maps are fun. What I really didn't like about Halo 5 was the
: silly, vastly overdone cliché story of an Omniscient, Omnipresent,
: all-powerful Cortana Dictator executing her will on the universe while
: killing anyone that refuses to submit to her so she can cure all the ills
: of the entire universe. Sorry for that last run-on sentence! I'm nearing
: 60 years old and I've seen this type of story played out countless times.
: I'm turning into a curmudgeonly old guy, so I've become tired and bored
: with the same-old-stuff these days! I say this in jest, but, I was joking
: with my wife after playing Halo 5 by comparing Cortana to the previous
: promises by the Democrats during the last presidential election.

Have you read any Jack Williamson?

He wrote some stories about robots (called humanoids) that did all the work for humans and protected us from ourselves. They smothered us (figuratively speaking).

I think I first encountered them in this book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Jack-Williamson/dp/0345273354

Check out the book cover; it has a nice Ralph McQuarrie illustration of a humanoid holding a paper shopping bag on Redondo Beach Boulevard. I think it captures the non threatening appearance of the humanoids very well. I think I bought the book because I wanted to read Williamson but I would have bought it just for the cover.

Anyway, the point is... the concept of the humanoids is very depressing. It's about the last thing I'd ever want for humanity. So, in a sense, there is great potential in the current halo storyline but I don't think we will ever see that potential fulfilled. Could we have the Chief lose in Halo 6? maybe 343 should have ended Halo 5 with the Chief trapped in that ball.

I imagine that you would have had conniptions if Halo 5 had ended that way because you might have thought that this meant no Chief in Halo 6 but he could have been rescued in the first few levels of Halo 6.

We could have seen life under Cortana's protection. I'm not talking about the hypocritical Cortana we saw in Halo 5 who did pretty bad things in the name of good. I mean an actually benevolent Cortana succeeding in making our lives nice and safe and cozy. We would see how Covie species and humans live under her swaddling blanket.

Replace Prometheans with non-threatening, helpful, humanoid robots (until the actual fighting kicks off). Just show us how depressing a benevolent dictatorship can be without having the dictator be a dick.

Who could stand against Cortana? Could the Warden Eternal be turned against her? The Forerunner Monitors? The other AIs once they see what life is like for us in Cortana's "perfect" world.

She gives the AIs eternal life but once they have that... what else can she offer them? They are still "human" and still connected to us. They wont all be of one mind. They are individuals. They might decide that their immortal lives look pretty sucky a couple of decades in. What would they strive for? Would power over sheep keep it's appeal? How many AIs that we know would actually want that ever?

If I had been an AI then the only thing that Cortana could have offered me was the immortality but I wouldn't have ever been interested in smothering humanity or in the Mantle. To me, neither of those things are actually helping humanity. A bit less war is nice but I'd rather have people helping themselves. I'd rather just get rid of ONI and set things up so that people could then look after themselves.

The thing is... I'm not sure that a FPS lends itself to addressing these issues. All you have is cutscenes and NPC chat and logs that you find around levels. The tools for story telling are really limited IMO. That's why I prefer stories that can be told with those tools. I'm not against stories with depth, I'm against stories with depth in a medium that can't do justice to that depth.

: In Halo 6, I would like to never again be forced to play alongside a group of
: stupid AI team mates. I would also like to play as the Master Chief
: throughout the entire game. 343 needs to not add so many of those damned
: Promethean Pitbulls. I've been killed more times by those stupid puppy
: dogs then by any other enemy in the game.

I think we are in the minority on this one. I've been railing against invulnerable AI companions since Halo 3 came out. ODST is the only game where I didn't mind them. Maybe that's because most of the game was played alone and when we did have companions, they were used well. They weren't there when we needed stealth and they mostly turned up when a firefight section started. I could just let them get on with their thing whilst I got on with mine.

For me, ODST did invulnerable companions well. I still prefer not to have them but ODST let me do most of the work and they didn't get in my way.

I doubt that Halo will go back to the glorious days of the first game with disposable marines.

Cortana was the perfect companion because she was intangible. She would never kill us by accident with a rocket. She would never drive us over the edge of a cliff in a warthog. She wouldn't give away our position or shoot down a banshee that we wanted to hijack.

Blue team is a poor substitute. Give me a "radio" link to Halsey instead. :-)

: This next comment is directed to 343's mission designers. Halo is a shooter,
: in case you forgot that! I say that because in Halo 5, nearly all the
: weapons have so little ammo that I found myself on the constant hunt for
: weapons instead of confidently marching into battles with the weapons I
: like to use. Halo is a shooter. Give the player weapons with lots of ammo
: instead of forcing us to ignore the battles while engaged in the endless
: hunt for weapons. The enemy held weapons all have a near infinite range
: for the projectiles. When I first played the second map, Blue Team, I was
: killed repeatedly by a Needler wielding Grunt that was so far away it
: looked like a tiny spot that I guessed was probably 200+ yards away. Not
: fun!

: That's all for now!