I would like to start this off saying I’ve been a huge fan of Halo since I first played CE Anniversary on my 360 back in middle school. 343’s Era was my starting point for the franchise. As much flak as they have gotten throughout the years for what they have done with Bungies work I can’t day with good heart that they were making bad games, just questionable choices. 4’s story brought a tear to my eye and the multi-player left many bottles of Mountain Dew and Dorito bags strewn across the floor for that ever so glorious double xp. Halo 5 wasn’t exactly the sequel I expected but nonetheless the faster more movement heavy flow of it’s multi-player was addicting to say the least.
Then, the wait came. I knew a Halo game would have to drop eventually right? 3 years pass. I think, no way we only get 1 Halo game for the Next, now current, gen titles. 2 more years. The Xbox One is soon to be last gen and still no real confirmation for a new Halo. 1 more year my og release Xbox One fries from years of strain as any console would. All those long nights of Netflix running in the background took their toll. That same year we see the first trailer for Halo Infinite.
I think, no way! I have to get another console asap. However, life and even worse the pandemic happens and I’m out of work and school. My Switch that I got for Christmas kept me close company during this time and with news of Halo Infinite slowly coming down the stream I even expected Master Chief to make it into Smash.
The game gets delayed and I’m not even mad, just happy 343 is taking their precious time and giving themselves the time they need to make their new installment the best it can be and watching the beta from afar confirmed it for me. This would be what brings Halo back to the masses. Ftp multi-player, open world campaign, G R A P P L I N G H O O O K NOSCOPE! It felt unreal all the news coming in for this game, it would truly be the next generation of Halo.
Today it dropped. And due to many circumstances I can’t join my fellow Spartans on the battle field. 3 years ago I was diagnosed with a Liver disease called PSC. It is a condition not common for young men my age that pretty much guarantees I’ll need a transplant within 10 to 15 years. I go to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida from my home in South Carolina 2 times a year to get tested and probed to look for any changes i
that may indicate my condition worsening.
While I am not in critical condition by any means I began to look at my life through a lens of only having 15 , now 12 years to live. A liver transplant has a 60 to 70 percent mortality rate, and that goes down if I’m unable to be at the Mayo Clinic when I need it. Those are some scary odds to fight against. I asked myself a few times in the beggining what’s the point of doing anything if my life could be over before I even get the chance to really begin.
Then one day during the Quarantine I saw a video an realized something. Noble Six was somewhere between 19-22 in Halo Reach. I had always expected him to be older like 30, but I was young when I played so age didn’t really click since it’s never explicitly mentioned. 19, I was that old when I found out about my disease. This Spartan, called Hyper Lethal on the battlefield amongst literal Gods of War and Demonesque Alien hordes, was still a freaking kid in many people’s eyes. This kid fought tooth and nail, lost his brother’s and sisters in arms, and stood his ground his to final breath just to give Humanity the fighting chance they needed to survive the greatest threat they’d ever faced.
How could anyone that age be so determined, so driven, so steadfast in the belief that his fight would make any difference in the end. How could this kid know that he was the last thing standing between Humanity and extinction, and still beat the odds? How could he see his final comrade get taken, realize he had no other choice but to stay behind, and still have the strength to do what had to be done. How could he do all of that without the players prior knowledge that everything turns out okay in the end. Why couldn’t I be half as brave?
I still don’t have any way of playing Halo Infinite. As much as I’d live to grapple a wasp to hijack or test out the new Skewer on a mongoose, I can’t. There are things out there I have to do and a new console isn’t my top priority. My family, my friends, and myself are at the top of the charts for this. I can’t focus on the fact I can’t play this game I’ve been expecting for so long. I have to focus on making my life a story so great that people can look up to it. I may not have much time to do it, but I’ll make it count. An one day if I’m take from this world too soon, I hope people have something like this to say about me:
“Our victory — your victory — was so close, I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor — all burned and turned to glass. Everything… except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild.”
Thanks for the memories 343. Thanks for the memories UncensoredGT (an old buddy I used to play with before all this). And most importantly thanks to all the other Spartans who hopped in my warthog, slayed zombie hordes with me in infection, even the ones who betrayed me for the sniper rifle(I get it, they should really spawn 2 on the map and I would kinda hog it)
And If I do end up being able to play Halo Infinite and I see you on the battlefield, well, let’s just say you better pray we’re on the same team.
Oh yeah the point of this post, tommorrow I turn 23! This will be my first birthday without getting/playing a Halo game. Feels so weird not getting a game as a present from my parents, they always knew the series meant a lot to me growing up but I could never ask them to buy me a whole console for it now that I’m an adult.
