Halo 5 developer recalls the “frustrating” marketing that completely misrepresented the series’ most-hated entry

Halo 5: Guardians is the most controversial entry in Xbox’s long-running FPS series, not just due to its messy campaign, but also because of the game’s marketing. After its reveal in 2013, Microsoft pitched the game to fans as a darker entry in the series where players couldn’t trust the series’ iconic Master Chief. While a cool concept, this wasn’t actually what developer 343 Industries was cooking up.

In an interview with VideoGamer, Halo 5 lead concept artist Darren Bacon explained that the marketing for Halo 5: Guardians was incredibly “frustrating” for the team working on the game. While there were a bunch of scrapped concepts for the game during development, the game’s marketing team simply made up their own concept for what the game would be.

“That was really frustrating for us on the dev side,” Bacon explained on an upcoming episode of the VideoGamer Podcast. “Because you essentially had marketing who was doing whatever they wanted, essentially.”

One of the biggest offenders for the Halo 5: Guardians marketing run was Hunt the Truth, a really strong audio drama that was designed to cast “a shadow on humanity’s greatest hero”. Created by marketing company Ayzenberg Group and not 343 Industries, the game’s developers were finding out about the misleading-but-entertaining campaign at the same time as fans.

“I was listening to Hunt the Truth when it was coming out,” Bacon told VideoGamer. “And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, okay. Oh, is this what we’re doing?’ Like, those guys should really play the game sometime’.”

Since the release of Halo 5: Guardians, many online rumours have claimed that Hunt the Truth, the game’s initial E3 reveal of Master Chief wearing a poncho in the desert and other marketing videos were related to cut concepts from the game’s campaign which are said to have led to the game’s final, disjointed campaign.

“I don’t recall there being a lot cut. 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.”

HALO 5 GUARDIANS LEAD CONCEPT ARTIST DARREN BACON

Bacon explains that the real issue wasn’t a frequent culling of campaign ideas, but just how many ideas the team had for all areas of the game. Alongside a cutting-edge campaign that had to hit 60fps with four-player online multiplayer, the team wanted to create dozens of weapons, new enemy types, a massively-expanded Forge mode, the new Warzone mode, the new Breakout mode, more advanced movement tech, and more. At the end of the day, it was just too much.

“There was so much stuff in that game,” the Halo 5 artist said. “When I first joined 343 from Bungie, the thing that was the biggest shock to me was how ambitious the team was. 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,” he continued. “And then on the multiplayer side, too, it was the same deal… I don’t recall there being a lot cut. 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.”

Halo 5: Guardians’ campaign is messy despite a few neat set pieces, so much so that recent novels like Halo: Epitaph have served as powerful band-aids to patch the story up. While 343 did have a lot of dropped ideas very early on in development, the majority of the game’s campaign didn’t actually change as much as many fans have claimed.

For more original content on VideoGamer, read our interview with original Oblivion designer Bruce Nesmith’s views on the new Oblivion Remaster. Additionally, check out what the developer wants to see from a Fallout 3 Remaster, which is allegedly in development at the time of writing.