Trivia / Halo 5: Guardians

• Ascended Fanon: The idea that a Hunter will become more aggressive if the other half of their pair is killed was a common Urban Legend of Zelda in previous games, but was never actually the case. This game finally implements that behavior as a mechanic.
• Creator Backlash: Early notes for Halo Infinite indicated a general dissatisfaction with the way this game turned out, particularly the visual design and how the campaign story turned out (specifically the reduced role of Master Chief), which could also be attributed to fan response. In turn, development of the sequel was extended to iron out those problems and revamp the series.
• Follow the Leader: The Spartan Abilities like the Thruster Pack, Ground Pound, Clamber, Slide, Charge, Smart-Link (aim down sight), and Stabilizer (hover) makes the game seem like it is following the trend of Titanfall, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Destiny. The truth is that Halo games have a much longer development cycle and some of those features were likely in play before information on those other games were known, and most have some history in the franchise already:
  • In the case of the Spartan Ability Booster, it is a mixture between the Thruster Pack Armor Ability from Halo 4 and the Evade Armor Ability from Halo: Reach. It provides a burst of velocity like the former, but is viewed in first-person and usable as a dodging tool like the latter^note And unlike the above games it doesn't provide any inherent vertical lift, being limited to strafing and gaining distance on jumps.
  • Charge is more or less a weakened Thruster Pack from Halo 4. Although it deals damage, it can only provide forward momentum, greatly limiting its uses when evading.
  • The Smart-Link is more a cosmetic adjustment that maintains the Halo flavor (movement speed is not impaired, bullet spread is decreased, taking damage immediately knocks you out of zooming).
  • Like the Charge, the Stabilizer also behaves like a weakened Armor Ability, in this case being the Jetpack. It maintains the player's current height and slows their descent, but it doesn't provide any sort of lift.
  • On the other hand, putting scoping on the left trigger and enabling it with any gun smacks heavily of an "aim-down-sights" feature, and the game's versus mode also features character call-outs ("GRENADE OUT," etc.). Both of these things are brand spanking new to the series, but are already present in most other shooters.
• No Port For You: Guardians has the dubious distinction of being the only Halo installment to not be ported to PC^note Even Halo Infinite got a PC release, either via The Master Chief Collection or individually. 343 Industries even stated that they have no plans to port the game any time soon.
• Orphaned Reference: Much of the Foreshadowing for Cortana's Face–Heel Turn was cut from the dialogue of Halo 4. Had those lines remained, there would have been a much more gradual build-up for Cortana's feelings regarding the underutilization of AI and their treatment by humanity.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • The concept of the Guardians originated from Halo 3, which had a cut level called Guardian Forest where Chief would arm the Ark's defenses to assist the Separatist fleet against Truth's fleet and would inspire the multiplayer map Guardian. In that level Guardian(s) would show up along the lines of a super-Sentinel (which altered from being either Scarab-like or Hunter-like in size and difficulty), and with some glitching/modding you can see the intended design in the multiplayer map Epitaph. This game reimagines them as enormous war machines the size of battleships.
  • The idea of Cortana executing a Zeroth Law Rebellion after coming into contact with Forerunner technology was planned all the way back in the very first game; Cortana suddenly becoming much more abrasive and dismissive towards Master Chief after she's uploaded to the computer inside Installation 04's control room was a remnant of this idea.
• The Other Marty: Mike Colter did performance capture and some vocal work for the game ^note Sound recording is often used in motion capture to provide a baseline scratch track before the proper vocal studio recording, but due to a scheduling conflict, Colter was replaced with Ike Amadi.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Fireteam Osiris was originally going to have Gabriel Thorne in its lineup, and he can be seen on the cover of The Art of Halo 5: Guardians. However, Thorne's actor Ethan Peck had scheduling issues, and he ended up being replaced with Edward Buck after Nathan Fillion agreed to reprise his role.
  • There are some hints from early trailers and gameplay footage that the missions on Sanghelios were to originally have taken place before Meridian in the story.
  • Concept art reveals that there were early plans to include ODSTs and UNSC guard dogs.
  • A "no combat" level set aboard the UNSC Infinity was planned at some point, but cut.
  • Another noteworthy cut level is "Tsunami Station", which ultimately evolved into the final game's "Battle of Sunaion". At this stage of development, "Tsunami Station" was to be split in two, with each half focusing on Fireteam Osiris and Blue Team; the final level just focuses on the former. A Banshee combat section was also cut from this mission.
• Halo 5 is the first FPS in the series where Recurring Extra SGT. Marcus P. Stacker doesn't make an appearance, due to Pete Stacker's involvement in a voice actor's strike at the time. It's also the first Halo game where (living) Marines are completely absent during the campaign (even Reach, which featured Army troopers, had actual Marines appearing in the final level).