I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Halo: Escalation comics; particularly “The Next 72 Hours” arc that comprises the events immediately following Halo 4. In finding out about these events, it got me to thinking: would the events in that story arc have made a more interesting plot for the next Halo game than what we got?
This arc seemed like it had a lot of things that went on, important things. While none of these ultimately pertain to the story we got in Guardians, I feel like it would have been a very gratifying sequel to Halo 4. If they had taken the basic events of the comic, surely they could have stretched them out to make a very engaging 8 hour campaign. When I read about the comics, it feels like they took a typical Halo game and compacted it into a short story. I haven’t read the comics, but I’ve read their events. Halo 5: Guardians’ story seems to have nothing to do with Halo 4, and I question whether this is where they planned to take the story all along. Did they plan a trilogy? When Halo 4 was made and released, did they make their story decisions knowing the next game would revolve around the Guardians and Cortana’s involvement with them? I’ve heard that they changed writers in between the games. So did they already have a direction for Halo 5, and they stayed true to it, or did they throw previous storyboards out the window and start from scratch.
I’m saying, as a basic storyboard - or the basis of a story - would it not have been more interesting and Halo-esque to use Escalation rather than what we got? Think about it. It could’ve had elements entirely different than what we got in the comics - added elements of course. But the basics could be the same: a spartan team goes missing on installation 03. Blue team hunts for answers. It is discovered that the didact survived Halo 4, and is pursuing doomsday weapons to destroy humanity with. (doesn’t have to be composers, if that seems like it would be stale or gimmicky) but the idea of this all revolving around basic elements of a halo game is very exciting to me. It could’ve included the Arbiter and his rebellion, even.
Is this a plot that would’ve suited the halo sequel? or is it just such an action and lore-packed epilogue directly tied to the events of Halo 4, that it should’ve been its own game (or hell, even a movie or episodic series, a la Nightfall. I would’ve much rather had a series based on this than Nightfall.)
Tell me what you guys think. Any suggestions as to what this alternate Halo 5 would have in terms of other plot elements, characters, locations, etc. would make an interesting debate and discussion. Or if you think that idea wouldnt be anywhere near as good as what we got.
PS maybe i should make a separate forum topic, but also curious what you guys think about the whole cross game continuity issue. Do you think Halo 5’s story was planned from the getgo during Halo 4’s development, so it was all an elaborate plot, or did they “wing it” story-wise, and basically throw out whatever they had planned for a sequel when they initially developed Halo 4. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I sure hope it was all a cohesive plan, but somethng tells me it might not have been. Were halo games ever planned in advance? Or was it all on the spot development. I’ve heard people who think Bungie had stories for the next half-dozen Halo games at one point or another. Maybe just as contingencies, as it seems they intended to end it with Halo 3 but left it open for a possible expansion at a later point. Maybe they wanted to have plans in case they wanted to keep doing the universe, or maybe it was Publisher oversight by Microsoft, to make sure they had room for another studio to take the reigns. Am I rambling? =P