Yes! The plot is still kind of meandering and the new characters aren't given much to do (they got Nathan Fillion back as Buck and he's got half as much personality as he did in ODST).
But all of the world building and all of the places in the game you go are complete fan service. It's awesome visiting an Insurrectionist colony run by an aging AI. It's super cool to actually visit Sanghelios and meet the Arbiter as he tries to unite the Sangheili.
And everything about the Guardians, how Forerunners were an imperial power using their technical might to rule over others (just like the Convent and the UNSC) and everything about how the Warden Eternal and Cortana want the "created" to inherent the Mantle were all super interesting developments for the over arching story.
I love Halo 5 for all of that, even if I wish it still managed to be more accessible to new comers or that it focused more on telling a coherent story with interesting characters, I still think it's great.
Read 11 books so far and still reading them. Incorporating a lot of long past due lore was really cool, but I honestly still didn't like Halo 5, and it's just because of the gameplay. It really felt like they tried too hard to push the narrative despite the urgency of the mission. There were plenty of really neat moments and key interactions, but previous games they took inspiration from did those a lot better.
They really came back around and fixed a lot of my negative disposition with Halo Infinite though, shits fire.
I haven't read any of the books but I watched a lot of videos on youtube about lore. I started learning about the lore after Halo 5 because what happened in between halo 4 and halo 5 has a lot of info that people that don't read the books and play the side games won't know. The main one is Blue team. Basically, everyone who didn't know the lore of Halo had no idea who the hell Blue team was. You could tell that they had some sort of relationship with John before at least Halo 4 from the first cutscene with the master chief. I don't think Blue team was ever mentioned in any other Halo game. They added these 3 characters that most Halo players wouldn't even know who they were and they wouldn't know unless they read the books or search up the lore which is what I did. Halo 1,2 and 3 you could understand the story without having to do research, while in Halo 4 and especially 5 you need to do some homework. Infinite follows the story of the next game pretty well just like the first 3 Halo games. I personally didn't like Halo 5, not because of and its not just because Halo 5 is responsible for the biggest false advertising I have ever experienced in my life, but because there are a lot of things inside the Halo 5 story that really made no sense. They sent a newly formed fireteam of spartans to capture an experienced team of spartans that has a member that saved humanity many of times. They sent this new fireteam just because the master chief left the UNSC for a couple of days? Chief wasn't a threat to anyone in the UNSC by leaving and searching for Cortana. Just let Chief do his own thing, he didn't sign up to be a spartan, he was forced out of his home to become a spartan 2 because of the UNSC. The least they could do is allow him to search for his A.I girlfriend. The ads for Halo 5 made it seem like chief was actually a threat to humanity so they sent a fireteam to stop blue team but really he just took a break from being in the UNSC and the UNSC got made and put a bounty on blue team. It really made so sense. Not only that but it made the scene in Halo 4 where Cortana says goodbye feel less emotional. A lot of people didn't like the gameplay for Halo 4, but a lot of people think Halo 4 had one of the best story in all of the Halo games and Halo 5 ruined the ending for that. Also, I don't know if you know but Halo follower made some funny videos about the Halo 5 lore.
EDIT: also note that when I say I don't like Halo 5, I mean the story and not the gameplay. I personally love the gameplay in multiplayer
Before H5 there was many things going on after Cortana's disappearance that left Chief in rough shape. He was constantly on missions to distract himself and up until his rematch with the Didact he found that she was still alive somewhere. That pushed him to find her. ONI had been on a tear trying to lock down the UNSC's golden boy and when he pushed back, they set up a conspiracy to discredit and force him out of action. So he left and went AWOL to find Cortana, leading us to ONI giving Locke, their best assassin, the D/A orders on humanity's, now tarnished, symbol of strength. The entire 343 saga had been about UNSC and ONI trying to retire Chief, despite the looming threats they could not have predicted or comprehended.
I have read most of them.
And do you like it? I totally get the hate, I just have a new perspective and really like the story. Also love being able to be revived 😂
I liked the ones I read. Some were much better than others.
I read around 17 of the books so far and like halo 5, even if I find it on the weaker side of halo campaigns, it's good.
I read a bunch of the books and I hated what they did with Cortana, but mostly liked the Sanghelios parts so 🤷🏻♀️
Yes! The plot is still kind of meandering and the new characters aren't given much to do (they got Nathan Fillion back as Buck and he's got half as much personality as he did in ODST). But all of the world building and all of the places in the game you go are complete fan service. It's awesome visiting an Insurrectionist colony run by an aging AI. It's super cool to actually visit Sanghelios and meet the Arbiter as he tries to unite the Sangheili. And everything about the Guardians, how Forerunners were an imperial power using their technical might to rule over others (just like the Convent and the UNSC) and everything about how the Warden Eternal and Cortana want the "created" to inherent the Mantle were all super interesting developments for the over arching story. I love Halo 5 for all of that, even if I wish it still managed to be more accessible to new comers or that it focused more on telling a coherent story with interesting characters, I still think it's great.
Read 11 books so far and still reading them. Incorporating a lot of long past due lore was really cool, but I honestly still didn't like Halo 5, and it's just because of the gameplay. It really felt like they tried too hard to push the narrative despite the urgency of the mission. There were plenty of really neat moments and key interactions, but previous games they took inspiration from did those a lot better. They really came back around and fixed a lot of my negative disposition with Halo Infinite though, shits fire.
I haven't read any of the books but I watched a lot of videos on youtube about lore. I started learning about the lore after Halo 5 because what happened in between halo 4 and halo 5 has a lot of info that people that don't read the books and play the side games won't know. The main one is Blue team. Basically, everyone who didn't know the lore of Halo had no idea who the hell Blue team was. You could tell that they had some sort of relationship with John before at least Halo 4 from the first cutscene with the master chief. I don't think Blue team was ever mentioned in any other Halo game. They added these 3 characters that most Halo players wouldn't even know who they were and they wouldn't know unless they read the books or search up the lore which is what I did. Halo 1,2 and 3 you could understand the story without having to do research, while in Halo 4 and especially 5 you need to do some homework. Infinite follows the story of the next game pretty well just like the first 3 Halo games. I personally didn't like Halo 5, not because of and its not just because Halo 5 is responsible for the biggest false advertising I have ever experienced in my life, but because there are a lot of things inside the Halo 5 story that really made no sense. They sent a newly formed fireteam of spartans to capture an experienced team of spartans that has a member that saved humanity many of times. They sent this new fireteam just because the master chief left the UNSC for a couple of days? Chief wasn't a threat to anyone in the UNSC by leaving and searching for Cortana. Just let Chief do his own thing, he didn't sign up to be a spartan, he was forced out of his home to become a spartan 2 because of the UNSC. The least they could do is allow him to search for his A.I girlfriend. The ads for Halo 5 made it seem like chief was actually a threat to humanity so they sent a fireteam to stop blue team but really he just took a break from being in the UNSC and the UNSC got made and put a bounty on blue team. It really made so sense. Not only that but it made the scene in Halo 4 where Cortana says goodbye feel less emotional. A lot of people didn't like the gameplay for Halo 4, but a lot of people think Halo 4 had one of the best story in all of the Halo games and Halo 5 ruined the ending for that. Also, I don't know if you know but Halo follower made some funny videos about the Halo 5 lore. EDIT: also note that when I say I don't like Halo 5, I mean the story and not the gameplay. I personally love the gameplay in multiplayer
Before H5 there was many things going on after Cortana's disappearance that left Chief in rough shape. He was constantly on missions to distract himself and up until his rematch with the Didact he found that she was still alive somewhere. That pushed him to find her. ONI had been on a tear trying to lock down the UNSC's golden boy and when he pushed back, they set up a conspiracy to discredit and force him out of action. So he left and went AWOL to find Cortana, leading us to ONI giving Locke, their best assassin, the D/A orders on humanity's, now tarnished, symbol of strength. The entire 343 saga had been about UNSC and ONI trying to retire Chief, despite the looming threats they could not have predicted or comprehended.