My favorite part of Halo 5 was that one stealth mission where Master Chief throws on his super cool cloak and sneaks through a Covenant stronghold. Remember - the one from Halo's E3 trailer in 2013?
If you don't, well – that's because it never happened. 343 pulled the old bait-and-switch on fans, giving us an entirely cloak-free Halo experience.
Halo 5 had a bizarre reveal trailer during E3, one that showed our beloved hero trekking through the desert in a bizarre, potato sack-like cloak. It probably served no purpose other than hiding his iconic armor, allowing the wind to blow the hood back at the end of the trailer – revealing Master Chief and shocking the crowd into a frenzy. And, to 343's credit, the tactic worked. People in the audience were thrilled to see Chief make a return and collectively lost their minds.
However, the scene in question never made an appearance in Halo 5. In fact, several years later, people are still mad about the damn cloak. "It's almost as if 343i scrapped the original concept they were going for and ended up with a hastily written, sub-par story that ended up disappointing everyone," reads a recent comment about the trailer. Other Halo fans were quick to agree, claiming that this was a "missed opportunity," or joking that Chief was just cold and needed to bundle up in layers.
Hell, even the action figure based on the cloaked Spartan is a missed opportunity – not only does it look even more hideous than the it did in the trailer, but it can't even stand up on its own because the cloak is too long.
All told, we should probably try to erase the whole thing from our memories. Master Chief wasn't meant to look like an 8-foot tall Jawa, and there's really no reason to crowd our heads with more nonsensical Halo lore than we need to.
Let's hope the damned cloak doesn't return for Halo Infinite – I don't think fans are ready for it to make a comeback yet.