Jay Marcase

You can't have a boss fight with a guy who can throw you across the room without even touching you.

Del Rio was an idiot though because he disregarded the two hugest intel resources the UNSC has: Master Chief and Cortana. Master Chief's record speaks for itself and for Del Rio to simply override the Master Chief without a second thought shows his arrogance and his inability to listen to his feet on the ground. I can understand wanting to leave and it is a good idea...but what if that idea really put the Earth at risk? What if the guy that saved the entire human race several times over was telling the truth? That's the issue.

I don't think we'll get another AI which will play a role in H5 being much darker. They won't just say "you're all alone" you'll feel it because Cortana is not around.

Honestly I came in here ready to shoot you down but all the points you made were so valid and explain exactly how I feel. Eventhough I loved the story, the missions were so dry with all the "push this button" and "hit those three actuators" crap...it's just cheap fluff used to make the game feel longer. In my opinion, one of the biggest issues with Halo is that the actual gameplay and story are too detached, meaning, you get a cutscene that sets the tone for the next round of shooting, rinse, repeat. Eventhough people here hate the game, I think Call of Duty's campaigns have mastered how to tell a story (even if it's crappy) during actual gameplay. You're driving and bombs are dropping, freeways blowing up, you're in a car you hop out neutralize targets, your vehicle gets hit with a missile, you end up walking to the destination, get the macguffin, hop in a helicopter, you man the aerial gun, take the macguffin to bravo point, you get back in the chopper, bravo blows up, and etc. As you play, the story is told to you, if this was Halo you would have watched a cutscene of all of the above and then Cortana would have told you "activate the cannons to fight off the enemy". Then you proceed with the same tired run and gun to get to the actuator and once you get there Cortana says "the actuator is down we need to hit the emergencies generators on the other side of the map and there's three of them". Sometimes I think "can you muh****in call someone and tell to turn on the backup generator please?" Lastly, I also wanna know wtf the didact sat on his ass half of the game...dude was just floating in that energy beam and finally comes out at the end...it doesnt make any sense.

I agree with you 100% but we have to remember that this is one piece of a larger story that will be told over 3 games. This is not the "each game is a different story in the same universe" approach that Bungie took.

The Reclaimer Saga was written as one entire story so even-though things don't make sense now...they will when Halo 5 comes out. It's kinda like Forward Unto Dawn...it's one movie but chopped into pieces and released once a week.

The story was written as a trilogy from the very beginning so just consider this first entry as a stopping point in an already written saga. The ending may be sad and I find it strange myself but I think they have something planned that'll make all this make sense. Maybe they needed her to be gone because the initial part of Halo 5 will be extremely dark and the absence of Cortana will help convey the fact that Chief is all alone in his mission. We'll see...I think she'll be back sooner or later. They need to put her in a human body so she can make love to Chief...when she rubbed his chest plate it got kinda steamy.

It feels and plays just like Halo...at least how Halo should feel 11 years after the original. It is time for the game to evolve and I'm glad 343 has begun to grow it into something bigger. Only thing I didn't like is the fact that the missions are the typical Halo "press this actuator, now press these three, and then press three more". I definitely think 343 needs to get more creative with the missions.

I think they did excellent...stay in the past with Halo 2 and 3.

Considering the fact that almost every review mentioned that Halo 4's story is a hot mess I would have to state that the OP's confusion is justified. I'm deep into Halo and read anything I can in the universe but still the story was a little bit shaky and confusing. I think it was a lot better than other Halo's but I think it can and will be better in Halo 5.