[Editor’s note: SephirothX talks aboutHalo‘s expanded universe for hisMonthly Musingpiece. –CTZ]
The debate on whereHalorates in the pantheon of ‘all time greats’, both in terms of all of videogames and in first person shooters. is constantly ongoing. Here at Destructoid there seems to be no exception, although from my experiences, it seems to slide more towards the discredit of theHaloseries. Most flack towards theHalotrilogy, from my experiences, comes from its lack of a deep storyline primarily in the second and third installments of the game. When looking specifically at the three games in theHalotrilogy, I would see a strong foundation for these claims and I, to a point, would actually agree with the lack of story in the games.
I continue playingHalo 3simply because I enjoy the pick up and play nature of its multiplayer. But when I first picked up my copies of bothHalo 2andHalo 3, I jumped head first into the single player because I cared about theHaloUniverse. What made me give a damn about the characters and the war between humanity and the covenant?
I cared because of the expanded universe in theHalonovels. More after the break.
My first play through of the campaign of the originalHalo: Combat Evolvedwas a fun experience, though I didn’t get into the story. For the most part I simply thought the game pulled a huge chunk of ideas from the James Cameron filmAliens(Sgt. Johnson, the nearly identical Space Marine armor, the whole sequence with the Marines prepping for combat, etc) and small bits ofStarship Troopersthrown in too (but I think Bungie would prefur to say they copiedAliens, becauseStarship Trooperssucks). The single only real highlight from the firstHalo’sstory was the introduction of The Flood; which in my opinion was the best moment in the entire series and was one of the most perfectly executed sequences in gaming. But after everything was said and doneHalo 1had a stable and overall good story, but it wasn’t anything great or something to write home about.
In between the release ofHalo: Combat Evolvedand the rushed shit fest that wasHalo 2, Bungie and Microsoft released the first three of theHalonovels, respectfully penned by Eric Nylund and William C. Dietz. Now I for the record am not a huge fan of book reading, I blame this on high school for making me read shit books I didn’t care about. The only book I seriously got into during high school wasEnder’s Gameand that was partially due to my traditional interest in the science-fiction genre.
When I first sawHalo: The Fall of Reachon bookshelves, I approached it with a hesitant kind of joy. The joy obviously stemmed from my enjoyment of science fiction and since I felt the game pulled heavily from Aliens, a movie I hold high on my list of favorites, I figured this would be up my alley. My hesitancy stemmed from this book potentially being a waste of time that was simply meant as marketing for the game. But alas, I snagged a copy ofFall of Reachand took it with me on a family trip that weekend figuring I’d use it as a good way to at least kill time during the road trip. In a strange twist of fate, the book ended up becoming my entire weekend. I simply couldn’t put the book down for some reason and found myself getting deep into everything that the book threw at me. I actually cared about the characters and the things they went through. I was intrigued by the origin of John and the other Spartans and the neo-Wolverine augmentations they went through to become the super soldiers. It was interesting to find out about the origin and kind of AI that Cortana was, how her synaptic networks were from the creator of the Spartan project and how she would become so advanced that she would eventuallythinkherself to death.Fall of Reachshowed how divided humanity itself was before the Covenant arrived, that the MJOLNIR armor could crush the arm of a normal human, how there was opposition to the original Spartan project from other military officials, and gave us the first witty remarks back and forth from Master Chief and Cortana.
Ultimately the fate of everyone inFall of Reachis known if you played the game, which acts as kind of a downer yet adds a bit of tragedy knowing that a lot of Master Chief’s friends will face doom. However, as other books came out based inHalo’suniverse, great moments kept popping up left and right that continued to make me care about the characters that appear and do not appear within the novels.Halo: The Floodhit shelves about a year and a half later, and it is probably the weakest book of the original three to be released. This is probably just due to the fact that this book covers the same time frame as the first game, so a lot of the storyline is going to be a ‘been there done that’ to people who had played the game. Despite this the book had definite strong points primarily when it focused onto some of the supporting cast. The stories revolving around the Alpha Base team, Private Jenkins’ struggle to end his own life after being infected by The Flood, and Captain Keyes’ struggle to at least keep the mental side of his humanity in tact while being assimilated by the Flood all add levels of depth that were absent from the game.
Upon finishing the first two books I went back and played through the first campaign again, and everything felt like a completely fresh and different experience. This time through I actually found myselfcaringabout the characters and a larger portion of the events within the game. Everything simply seemed to make sense a little bit more for me and at the same time it had me craving for more in that kind ofStar Wars-esk kind of way.
WhileFall of Reachestablished the foundation and back story to a lot of theHaloUniverse, it’sHalo: First Strikethat added the most to the immediateHaloUniverse since the videogame sequels were still in development, as well as Eric Nylund returning to the universe. The book picked up were the game and the bookThe Floodleft off as Master Chief finds other survivors from the destruction ofHalo. Over the course ofFirst Strikewe find out just how Sgt. Johnson survived being infected by the Flood, and how Master Chief has to choose between following protocol and following ‘what’s right’ in regards to Johnson’s fate. Master Chief is hinted as having an innate fear of the Flood as memories of them fromHaloseem to haunt him. Some Spartans once thought dead turned out to be alive either floating amongst the debris in cryo-tubes aroundHaloor deep underground on the planet Reach as well.
First Strikeset the stage for the initial Covenant invasion of Earth, which as we know is the foundation forHalo 2’sopening, as well hinted towards the origin of The Arbiter. It was in this installment of theHaloExpanded Universe that we got introduced to the Brutes, who first appeared inHalo 2, and Engineers, who made their first appearance inHalo Wars. The destructive power of the Brutes was quickly established as a pack of them almost take out Master Chief and a small Spartan team on a mission to destroy a Covenant shipyard.
I have a love/hate relationship with theHaloExpanded Universe. I love it because the novelized contributions to the universe just seem tomake sensein terms of feeling like continuations of the videogames. Everything within its universe retroactively made me appreciate the originalHalogame and every little event that happened during it. They’re obviously not anything that’s going to be required in high school curriculums but they are great reads and definitely pull you into the universe that isHalo, the best comparison I can make for the feel and pull of theHaloexpanded universe is by comparing it to theStar WarsorStar Trekexpanded universes.
I “hate” theHalouniverse because the one major downside is how the actualHalogames seemingly neglect the rest of the universe. After finishingFirst Strike, I was, needless to say, pumped forHalo 2. I hoped we’d get some badass battles with a few other Spartans alongside sinceFirst Strikeestablished that other Spartans were still alive, see Master Chief show signs of fear seeing the Flood return, and even possibly witness Cortana show signs of her self-demise. However, the sequels make no connections to the rest of theHaloUniverse what so ever. The only passing references to the books that we get come in subtle ways; Sgt. Johnson simply replies “it’s classified” when asked how he survivedHalo, a few of Cortana’s broken transmissions inHalo 3as well as Cortana’s opening monologue pull fromFall of Reacha little bit, Engineers don’t appear until the prequel gameHalo Wars, and beyond that seemingly everything else is omitted from the game’s story.
Why do I get sucked into theHaloexpanded universe? I’m kind of a sci-fi nerd with a creative spirit and, oddly enough, the original game having a good but not great story created the urge to find out more, creating a perfect storm in my mind. And after discovering that the first few novels in this universe were actually good I simply couldn’t escape the pull of it anymore.Halo’sexpanded universe itself made me give a damn about the characters in the games and the overall story that isHalo, something that rarely happens for me when it comes to things such as media based on videogames.
