Hello there everyone, it’s been a long time since I’ve browsed the Halo forums but with Halo 5 on the horizon, I’ve been getting back into the community. Been reading Halo novels again, as a matter of fact. The reason why I’m coming back is because I wanted to talk about Halo 5 with all of you. Now, this may seem odd, but I have a few concerns about Halo 5 from a story perspective that I wanted to talk about with others.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for Halo 5: Guardians and will be playing it day one. Yet, as a big Halo fan like all of you, I wanted to discuss 343 Industries’ approach to the lore and how it ties into their games. I do a video editorial series on YouTube called Core Ideas and would like to know your opinions on the latest subject. Whether you agree or highly disagree, I’d like for us to talk about this and get to know one another.
I hope you all enjoy it and see if a discussion can be had.
Okay, not to sound rude. But it’s one thing to make a thread to engage in a legit discussion, but its another to start a thread in order to sell yourself and your ideas via ‘youtube.’
I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
It’s not rude at all because, in essence, that is what I’m doing. That sounds highly sleazy and I hope I do not come off that way but I do admit when I’m in the wrong or anything of the sort.
I made the video for legit discussion, both on YouTube and anywhere else where the discussion can be had because I do legitimately want to talk about this. So while, yes, you’re right, please understand that I do want a discussion. I wouldn’t be posting here if I didn’t want to talk about it.
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> I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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> > I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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Pretty much, but I can easily understand that it may be difficult to keep of with the lore. How many Halo novels have come out this year alone? Three? Plus Halo Escalation.
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> I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
I understand that because I’m a Metal Gear Solid fan. Seeing people ask ‘Will I be confused if I buy MGSV without playing the previous games’ somewhat baffles me at times because it’s the fifth installment. You wouldn’t jump into Rocky Balboa without seeing the previous Rocky movies would you?
However, as I stated, the issue to me isn’t rather that the game is late in the series but rather that novels and comics are now used as backstories for important characters/events. I wouldn’t have an issue with someone being confused in Halo 3 because, well, it’s the third game. However, I would understand someone confused at Buck being a Spartan in Halo 5, who hasn’t read, say, Buck’s new book.
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> > > I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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> Pretty much, but I can easily understand that it may be difficult to keep of with the lore. How many Halo novels have come out this year alone? Three? Plus Halo Escalation.
Exactly; not everyone has the time to keep up, especially if certain aspects of said novels are influencing important characters/events in Halo 5: Guardians. Though, I do understand that at this point, it is tough to really make a connecting universe without some confusion along the way.
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> > I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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> I understand that because I’m a Metal Gear Solid fan. Seeing people ask ‘Will I be confused if I buy MGSV without playing the previous games’ somewhat baffles me at times because it’s the fifth installment. You wouldn’t jump into Rocky Balboa without seeing the previous Rocky movies would you?
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> However, as I stated, the issue to me isn’t rather that the game is late in the series but rather that novels and comics are now used as backstories for important characters/events. I wouldn’t have an issue with someone being confused in Halo 3 because, well, it’s the third game. However, I would understand someone confused at Buck being a Spartan in Halo 5, who hasn’t read, say, Buck’s new book.
Maybe, but most people at least know Buck and so I doubt it would be too hard to just accept that since H3: ODST he became a Spartan-IV. Even Bungie seemed to imply if he were any better he’d be a Spartan, seems like a real natural fit. I’d be more concerned with characters like Tanaka and Vale, but with a game that has over 11 missions (not 11, but more than just to be clear), I’d say we’ll have time to get to know them.
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> > > I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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> > I understand that because I’m a Metal Gear Solid fan. Seeing people ask ‘Will I be confused if I buy MGSV without playing the previous games’ somewhat baffles me at times because it’s the fifth installment. You wouldn’t jump into Rocky Balboa without seeing the previous Rocky movies would you?
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> > However, as I stated, the issue to me isn’t rather that the game is late in the series but rather that novels and comics are now used as backstories for important characters/events. I wouldn’t have an issue with someone being confused in Halo 3 because, well, it’s the third game. However, I would understand someone confused at Buck being a Spartan in Halo 5, who hasn’t read, say, Buck’s new book.
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> Maybe, but most people at least know Buck and so I doubt it would be too hard to just accept that since H3: ODST he became a Spartan-IV. Even Bungie seemed to imply if he were any better he’d be a Spartan, seems like a real natural fit. I’d be more concerned with characters like Tanaka and Vale, but with a game that has over 11 missions (not 11, but more than just to be clear), I’d say we’ll have time to get to know them.
Yeah, I remember that insert of his and getting excited at the notion of seeing Buck as a Spartan. Now he’s here and it looks glorious. Though I fully agree about Tanaka and Vale; I’m hoping they allow their characters to be introduced gradually. Having each character’s traits come out through actions, not words. My fear is they’ll do it as some large exposition dump near the start of the game, to fill people in.
Totally agree, OP. I don’t want to read the books. And I’m pretty sure most people who play the games don’t read the books. That’s why I didn’t care too much for Halo 4’s story; there were many aspects that weren’t made clear. I understood CE - 3, AND Reach perfectly fine. And they were awesome campaigns.
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> Totally agree, OP. I don’t want to read the books. And I’m pretty sure most people who play the games don’t read the books. That’s why I didn’t care too much for Halo 4’s story; there were many aspects that weren’t made clear. I understood CE - 3, AND Reach perfectly fine. And they were awesome campaigns.
And that’s completely within your right. If you don’t feel like reading the novels, then more power to you.
Yet that’s pretty much my point. How is it fair for those who don’t care or don’t have time to read the novels to be told “read the book” or “look it up on the wiki”?
That’s not to say the universe shouldn’t be connected but it’s a tough act to balance.
Characters will flesh themselves out to a suitable degree I would imagine over the course of this game and subsequent ones. It’s the climate (or some other world for the current state of the universe that enables the events of the games) though that I would imagine would cause most confusion as this keeps up.
Without considering details from any external media, Halo 4 didn’t even remotely go into how the Covenant was still a seemingly major antagonistic force for the UNSC after coming off of Halo 3. The matter was quickly deflected by the line “a lot can happen in five years” and the matter was never brought up again. Forerunner elements as well are extremely rushed even when considering the terminals there was little to go on when it came to the Didact’s appearance, motivations, and “death” (an issue that will be interesting to see 343i tackle for future installments for those who don’t read Escalation).
Ultimately it wasn’t an absolute necessity to know external media to go through the plot of Halo 4.
Halo 5 on the other hand might be a different story. Immediately right from the gate there’s the issue of Spartan Ops. For people who’ve played the games, the last piece of story content will be the ending bit of Halsey being in Jul’s hand with both sides possessing a piece of the Janus Key. Emphasis was placed on the importance of this Absolute Record and seemingly a race is on to find it before the other.
For players that boot up Halo 5 Guardians, we know from the opening cutscene that the game will begin with a daring rescue Op to retrieve Halsey from Jul. The significant difference is that players who’ve read Escalations know that the entire Absolute Record arc is in the process of being solved now. By the time Guardians’ starts up that bit is over. Players who have not read Escalations will likely think with good reason that extracting Halsey is the near immediate next step after the events of Spartan Ops.
So it will be curious to see how 343i tries to weave in that narrative bit if at all to catch players up. And of course, for those who already know, the problem is how much time is 343i going to go over what would be redundant information for us in the audience. Luckily I suppose with Osiris being fresh to the crew of the Infinity it would make perfect story sense to fill the characters in on events that have since transpired, but it’s going to be a balancing act when considering other universe elements like Hunt the Truth and of course Blue Team for those not in the know. It’s probably the biggest negative to having all media with each other in a narrative sense.
Worse case scenario going forward would be something like Gears of War 3 that just doesn’t bother trying to catch players up at all and merely assumes everyone had read the books to understand character interactions, the entire existence and evolution of the primary lambent threat, and supporting characters who arrive out of the blue to provide assistance without any hint of callback or significance for non-readers.
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> > I’m sympathetic to the people who don’t want the expanded universe to impact the core game’s story too much, but we are at the fifth main game in the series at this point, so I think it is a bit too late. The Halo story is so much bigger now that trying to keep everything self-contained is pretty much impossible.
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Don’t kill Master Chief
Don’t force Multiplayer to carry the burden of being in-line with Lore.
If you abide by these two rules, you might have 99 problems, but this aint 1…17? (sigh…sorry)