Xbox Isn't Confident Enough To Tell Worthwhile Gears Or Halo Stories

I Don't Trust Xbox With Gears Or Halo, And Neither Should You

Xbox has played me for a fool so many times over the years. As someone who has followed franchises like Gears of War and Halo since their inception, I’ve naturally become invested in the stories they have to tell, regardless of how generic they might be. I care about characters like Master Chief, Cortana, Marcus Fenix, and Kait Diaz and the stakes of each mission they embark upon.

The fact I ever became this invested is proof that the developers did a great job and set the stage for a final showdown destined to go down in history. But in the case of Gears 5 and Halo’s Reclaimer trilogy, that time never came. For some reason or another, such tales were left behind in favour of a reboot or remake that had a better chance of capturing fresh audiences gripped by the power of nostalgia instead of pursuing pastures new. It truly sucks, and speaks to a wider problem in triple-A gaming that companies are afraid to take risks.

What’s old is new again, even if it means betraying what it means to create and tell stories in the first place. I can’t be alone in feeling this way after following brand-new trilogies for half a decade only to be told none of it matters anymore. If this happened in film or television, there would be mass outrage, but in this medium we seem to move on to the next big thing far too quickly. So, if you’ll humour me, let’s look back briefly on what could have been.

Halo 6 Could Have Been The Best Game In The Series

Say what you will about 343 Industries’ inconsistent tenure with the Halo series, but I shall always admire how it sought to expand upon the world Bungie left them with rather than just repeat past victories. It felt like Master Chief’s story was over at the end of Halo 3, but when tasked with bringing him back, the studio fleshed out this relentless space marine into a human being with emotions, flaws, and loved ones he cared about. Even if that care was for an artificial intelligence reaching the end of its already short lifespan.

It dove deeper into the lore of the universe with the introduction of The Didact, a Forerunner warrior whose history goes harder than anything we’d ever seen before. Interesting human characters are also introduced, while Master Chief and Cortana’s relationship is put under the microscope more than ever. What it means to be a Spartan, a human, and to fight to survive is explored alongside a new world-ending threat.

Yes, some of it was clumsy, and many of the new inclusions betrayed what it meant to be a classic Halo adventure, but you’d be a fool not to believe that 343 Industries was preparing for one hell of a climax at the end of Guardians. Cortana was going loopy, had control of the rings, and our team of struggling heroes had reunited for one last stand.

But by the time Halo Infinite came around, we were told humanity had lost off-screen as Chief was left to pick up the pieces. This game — which was very much intended as a reboot of sorts — went on to tell another new story with more new heroes to care about and villains to despise. And it did so spectacularly and perhaps with more emotion than Halo had ever seen before.

I cared a lot about the evolving relationship between Chief and The Weapon, an all-new AI designed to lock down Cortana and save the galaxy. This was a success, but that didn’t stop Covenant and Forerunner forces alike from beating humanity and forcing them to retreat.

Infinite then becomes a relatively small-scale story of loss and grief, alongside Master Chief figuring out the person he’s capable of being now that there is nothing left to fight for. He must say goodbye to not only Cortana, but decades of service to mankind which has done nothing but abuse him. It’s profoundly melancholic, with just three main characters giving the script all the time it needs to land with appropriate impact.

You put the effort into making Halo matter again, perhaps more than it ever had, only to pull the rug from under us and reboot the universe all over again. I have no idea where it’s going after Campaign Evolved, but I know not to trust Xbox when it comes to finishing stories it has set up with such tremendous effect anymore. Infinite ended with the promise of future threats waiting just around the corner as Chief and The Weapon prepared to take them on, but this’ll never come to pass, and we know it. So why bother caring in the first place?

What Exactly Happened To Gears of War 6?

The second Gears of War trilogy was already starting from a pretty safe place. It saw the return of familiar faces like Marcus Fenix, Cole, and Baird, who were used as a reason for us to care about newcomers Kait Diaz, J.D Fenix, and Del Walker. The plot is pretty much about how The Locust have come back, and it is up to a new generation of heroes to stop them.

But rather than making J.D the main character, the trilogy instead pivots to Kait Diaz and the fact that her lineage may be more closely linked to The Locust than we thought. Gears 5 spends so much time fleshing out this mystery and making us care about each twist and turn before ending on a cliffhanger and a major character death to set up the next game.

Gears followed the same trajectory as Halo, with it spending half a decade giving us a new trilogy with interesting new characters and stakes only to leave it all behind in favour of a reboot/remake. E-Day looks excellent, and I’m excited to see how it fleshes out the events before the first game with a greater focus on survival horror, but it wasn’t worth throwing out so much work just to capture a wider audience. It betrays the work of the developers who I am willing to bet cared about this story as much as I did only a handful of years ago.

Halo and Gears will subsist for years to come, but I refuse to let myself get swept up in the emotions of their stories and characters again because I know they’ll just be taken away from me long before the climax. I understand that games take a long time to make and trying to keep an audience entertained for close to a decade is difficult work, but if you are simply going to chicken out on reaching the end, then don’t bother starting in the first place.