As Chief, the player needs something to anchor them into the story, and that happens to be Cortana." Despite mixed opinions of Halo 4s campaign as a whole, Cortana and her story was often considered a strong point of the game. IGN called Halo 4 "really Cortana's story", as saving the galaxy is of lesser importance to the Master Chief than saving Cortana, and Cortana's humanity is ultimately the game's focus. The Daily Telegraphs Tom Hoggins agreed, calling Cortana "the flickering blue heart of the game's plot", and Hoggins and reviewers for The Globe and Mail and Eurogamer singled out the character's writing and performance as high points of the game's campaign. Justin Clouse wrote that the interactions between Chief and Cortana as the latter loses her hold on sanity were "perhaps the best it's ever been". Complexs review praised the use of motion capture for Cortana, as they were given "new life" and new depth from the technology and performance. David Their wrote that the choice for Cortana to return in Halo 5 and turn her into an antagonist provided the game "with a well earned sense of drive" and that her appearance in Halo 5 gave players another side of the character to see. "There's something unknowable about Cortana in her new role as AI God, but we've spent enough time with her throughout the series that we stick with her through the reinvention." Similarly, Patrick Dane of Bleeding Cool defended the game's divisive campaign and Cortana's turn to antagonist as an "inspired choice", driving a wedge between the most important character relationship in the games. Conversely, Matt Peckham felt that the plot twist of Cortana's actions "feels strangely underwhelming", while Ars Technica and Kotaku considered Cortana's return, and her plans to use alien technology to remake the galaxy, unbelievable and unearned. Responding to criticism that 343 had turned Cortana "evil", franchise director Frank O'Connor said, "my question back to them is, 'What makes you say they’re evil?' Certainly a lot of our younger players are going to struggle with that subtlety, that nuance, because they’re expecting Darth Vader." References External links The Cortana Letters Cortana's profile at Halowaypoint.com Cortana’s profile at halopedia.org Halo (franchise) characters Anthropomorphic video game characters Artificial intelligence characters in video games Female characters in video games Fictional artificial intelligences Fictional gynoids Microsoft protagonists Video game characters introduced in 2001 Video game sidekicks