My Favorite Games, Vol. 1.9 - Halo Special, Part I (12/3/09)

WARNING!!! What follows is the insane ramblings of a mad woman about the beloved Halo series. Unlike with her future series, there is a complete lack of collaboration (however, that is still only a possibility in those). This will be a five part series covering a variety of things surrounding the game. With that said…if you’re crazed enough to continue…please enjoy the insanity.

Warnings aside, though…yeah, this is going to be a synopsis of everything that I’ve dealt with that falls under the Halo license. Halo is one of my favorite series, and while I know others like it as well, the reason I like it is generally different from why others like it. Then again, I’m rather loony, so…here goes.

I first came across Halo in 2001 in a preview for the series in the May Tips and Tricks Magazine for the year. It sat alongside their writings about FFX, Azurik: Rise of Perathia, Project Gotham Racing, and, the reason I bout the issue, Shenmue 2, which if you read my wish list conclusion and had any inclination to do the math, I was deep into the middle of the first Shenmue at the time.

In November of that same year, the Microsoft Xbox came out…and I had no interest in it. No, I was still stuck in the Nintendo-Sega identity crisis that the Genesis had spurred, and was currently playing the Dreamcast and N64 as my consoles of choice. However, every great once in a while, I eat at Taco Bell.

Now, you’re probably thinking two and two don’t equal me playing Halo, but if you’ll remember, Taco Bell did a promotional giveaway partnership with Microsoft to give away Xbox’s and Project Gotham Racing before the launch of the system. Sometimes, I’m a lucky ass bitch (most times, I’m not, but when I am…I AM). So I went in with my father and I ate a taco, because that’s what you do at Taco Bell, you eat crappy imitation food…no, wait, I mean imitation Mexican food, and I was given something like this.


Not my ticket but a similar one...

Well…here’s where my extreme luck comes in…I won an Xbox. Part of me was apathetic, as I didn’t care about the black box. There was maybe one game I was interested in, and that was one that I quickly found out I shouldn’t have been (Azurik).

Then I found out about Shenmue 2’s port to the system and not being released on the Dreamcast in the U.S. I was much happier about having it then. And then I waited…oh I waited until JUNE! However, the system was pretty, the gameplay was good on Project Gotham, so I decided to try a few more games. My dad, who loved Gauntlet Legends for the N64, went ahead and bought the updated Dark Legacy, and I rented Azurik, and bought the issue of Official Xbox Magazine.

Azurik sucks, plain and simple, but the magazine came with a demo disc. Included on it was a demo collection, including Jet Set Radio Future, Dead or Alive 3, and Halo (the other two being sequels to games I’d liked I’d on the Dreamcast). With Microsoft’s label being on the Dreamcast, I came to the conclusion that they’d returned the favor and Sega’s game would be on the Xbox, and I was right in part (I was twelve, and had no idea how game companies worked yet, as I didn’t much care).

So I played the demos and enjoyed all three, Jet Set Radio Future and Dead or Alive was ok, and Halo was good for an FPS, so I decided to check it out further. I rented it for a few days, getting to the Library before having to return it, however, my initial impression didn’t support buying it, yet.

About a year and a half passed (from November ‘02 to May ‘04) before I really got interested in the series. In that span, I’d forgotten the Halo series in lieu of Shenmue 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Mario Sunshine. I’d also started playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. In this time though…my home was robbed, and all of my systems from Gameboy Pocket to Genesis to Xbox were stolen. I’ve since rebuilt most of it, but some of it’s lost forever.

My rebuild was slow, but there were games I was highly anticipating coming out. Project Ego (Fable) looked awesome, and Sonic Heroes looked exciting. And Halo 2 was coming out soon. Most of my friends hadn’t let me forget that.

Getting back on topic, that May, I came across the Halo books. These resparked my interest in the series, and is the topic of tonight’s post. I will be talking about the Eric Nylund books only, as I have not read The Cole Protocol, and Contact Harvest bored me. Finally, I’m leaving out The Flood due to it being a monetization of Halo: Combat Evolved, the topic for part II.


The First Three Books' box set

Halo: The Fall of Reach is an origin story. If you like comics like Batman: Year One, or movies like the first Spider-Man film, you’ll enjoy this book. It tells the story of the Spartan II’s, specifically, their natural leader, John. John is five years old at the beginning of the story, who is kidnapped in the night and taken to become a super soldier. Not a great idea, but it obviously worked.

John is given the code number 117, and in his training distinguishes himself as a leader above the rest, earning him the title of Master Chief Petty Officer 3^rd Class (aka, the Master Chief). It tells of his years training, the experimental procedures implemented on the kids, his, and his squad’s, first mission, the origin of Cortana and his first time wearing MJOLNIR V armor. It also begins building up the story forFirst Strike, the in-between story for the first and second game.

Halo: Reach’s story should come almost word for word from the final part of this books with it’s epilogue building into the slipspace jump that starts Combat Evolved. If not, it will be truly flawed, as there is no way this story can get better. Maybe a section can come from the prologue to First Strike, but it needs to be made into a game, too.

Speaking of First Strike, where Reach ends with the slipspace jump at the beginning of Combat Evolved, Strike begins with John taking off his helmet and making preparations for a long flight he’s not sure he can survive in the Longsword fighter. If you’ve ever looked around the starting room of Combat Evolved, you’ll notice that there are two cryo-tubes, and that the second one isn’t there when you come back in it later. This is because it was jettisoned in Keyes’ entry.

Inside of it though is fellow Spartan II, Grace, still in a medically induced coma from the events of Reach. As John ponders what to do about his predicament, Cortana scans for other life and finds the tube. They pick it up and notice that there are Covenant capital ships now floating over the remains of Halo. Also floating nearby is a seemingly dead Pelican, with the three other survivors of the dreaded ring, amongst them, Staff Sergeant Avery J. Johnson.

They quickly hash out a plan to escape the remains of the planetoid ring by stealing one of the capital ships and making there way back to Earth by way of Reach. On Reach, however, the planet is being destroyed bit by bit, save for one area. This one area, the Covenant are searching for a Forerunner artifact of great import, however, they are being impeded by the lone survivors of Reach, a handful of Spartan II’s, and Doctor Halsey, the woman who founded the program who was featured in large part in Reach and in essence throughout the entire series.

Throughout the rest of the book, these two groups get together due to Cortana’s new ability to bend space and time because of the artifact, and make there way home. Dr. Halsey sets the events of the next book, Ghosts of Onyx, up in this one as well, by taking off with Kelly (one of the Spartan II’s). It is also here that it is first made mention to that Johnson is a Spartan I, the first generation of what John is, explaining why he’s so bad ass, and why he has symptoms of “Boren’s Syndrome”, an affliction mentioned that Halsey theorizes the Flood will not feed from.

These two books go a long way to humanize John, and give him some semblance of character beyond a faceless space marine who is nigh invincible. I only wish the story was paid more attention than the multiplayer.

The third and final book I’m going to be addressing in Part I is Ghosts of Onyx. The plot for Onyx is two part. The first is that one of Halsey’s peers decided to take her work, and the work of the Spartan I project and create a Spartan III project. Kurt, a Spartan II and former member of John’s squad, fills his shoes for the most part, and is the teacher to the Spartan III‘s, a flash force that is meant only for suicide missions, which is why you don’t see them in the game, save in the multiplayer armor select, you can select their battle set up.

The second part is that the Forerunner’s created themselves a world where they could be protected from the Halo’s blasts. When the events of Halo 2 activate the Arc, this Shield World activates, manufacturing Sentinel Drones at a monumental rate. This world is the planet Onyx, where the Spartan III program is housed.

While not as compelling read as the first two, this one reinforces the idea that arose from a line Cortana said about the Forerunner technology being different, but similar. To understand, you’d have to read the first two and know all the information of the “Forerunner=Time Traveling Human” theory, which is too complex to really explain right now. Soon though.

So, that’s the three Halo books. It is because of these that I gave the Halo series a second glance, and even got my mom to play the series. It has a compelling universe and story line that is often forgotten because it started the Multiplayer FPS craze. If you don’t like the Halo series, but do like Science-Fiction of any sort, I suggest you check this out as soon as you can.

Ok, then, tell me what you think? If you’ve read the books, what did you think of them? Do I give Nylund’s work too much credit? Should I give Contact Harvest another chance? Should I even pick up The Cole Protocol?

Finally, for Part V, I will be going beyond the series itself to look at its impact on the medium, and the video game culture altogether. If you have any ideas of what should be in there (so far, Legends, Red vs. Blue, and Multiplayer craze), let me know and give a link, I‘d love to check it out.

-Sara