Just as a casual thought I had the other day, how would people feel about a game adaption of the short story Mona Lisa from Halo Evolutions? I’m in no way saying, “343i should absolutely make it!” or anything like that, just proposing a thought to amuse.
Oh yes, and if you haven’t read the story, potential spoilers ahead.
The Mona Lisa was easily my favourite of the short stories, with Headhunters and Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian coming close behind. I feel it could work as it’s own game because of how it deals with the Flood. It just reminded me of the first time I encountered them in Halo CE which left me thinking, “Holy crap what the hell is that!” where instead of outright confronting them from the start (such as in Halo 3 where by now the initial fear of them has worn off) you’re instead treated to gruesome clues about what lays ahead, the general panic in the air which has your trigger finger twitching because you don’t know what’s around the corner.
Rather then a full game I wouldn’t mind seeing it as just a single level DLC, or even better as an Xbox Arcade game download done separately from any mainstream game. I imagine it just covering the main points,
A cutscene introducing the mission and main characters, ending with landing on the Mona Lisa.
Story advances with in-game dialogue, basically Lopez, Foucault or Rebecca giving you orders until you find evidence of something clearly gone wrong (such as the unarmed Elites cowering and disfigured bodies.)
The level could be broken into two parts, the first having the main objective as “get to the main control room” and learning of the Flood on the way here.
At some point I would want to see Henry and Rimmer introduced, even if it’s just as an Easter Egg. Hell to top it off Henry’s cricket bat could be made usable, like a re-skinned Energy Sword. Like the golf club (Halo 3, Reach) is just a re-skinned gravity hammer.
The second half is basically, ‘escape’ where it becomes a full on survival mode, simply running from the Flood horde (still passing story points like destroying the Proto-Gravemind in the engine room) until the end where you are left at the escape pod.
Final cutscene follows where your fate is left ambiguous like Lopez and Henry’s in the novel.
As for finding out plot points which occur outside of the Mona Lisa a Terminal-like system could be implemented, where you find small radio recordings between ONI and UNSC members revealing the Mona Lisa’s true purpose.
And for who the main character you play as, I’m really tempted to just say Lopez as she’s the one who survives until the very end, unless people are open to the idea of character switching between main events such as Lopez and Benti’s groups. Gameplay-wise, just keep it the same FPS-setting like every other Halo game.
Again, just a causal idea I had. No need to start a flame war about how, “it can’t possibly happen” or anything along those lines.
I like the idea of little DLC campaigns but Mona Lisa just has a few flood encounters and some naked elite encounters. It was a damn good story but I can’t see it being much of a playable DLC.
> It would be a fun DLC or at least a short cheaper game. Cause in no way would I pay $60 for it. If it was at a reasonable price I would totaly buy it.
Haha yeah, I probably wouldn’t pay that much either. $40 maximum, but only if it was damn good and supported more features. Then again I also mean $40 Australian, because here we have to pay over $100 for the Halo games. Halo 4 is already set at $108.
Personally I’m against the idea of any books or videos getting turned into games. I’d rather see them with original stories. That’s something I liked about Reach, they didn’t just go for a straight novel adaptation, they gave us a new story.
> > It would be a fun DLC or at least a short cheaper game. Cause in no way would I pay $60 for it. If it was at a reasonable price I would totaly buy it.
>
> Haha yeah, I probably wouldn’t pay that much either. $40 maximum, but only if it was damn good and supported more features. Then again I also mean $40 Australian, because here we have to pay over $100 for the Halo games. Halo 4 is already set at $108.
Thats so lame how overcharged you guys are. I feel bad for you :(.
> > > It would be a fun DLC or at least a short cheaper game. Cause in no way would I pay $60 for it. If it was at a reasonable price I would totaly buy it.
> >
> > Haha yeah, I probably wouldn’t pay that much either. $40 maximum, but only if it was damn good and supported more features. Then again I also mean $40 Australian, because here we have to pay over $100 for the Halo games. Halo 4 is already set at $108.
>
> Thats so lame how overcharged you guys are. I feel bad for you :(.
It’s not so bad, I mean there’s always Ebay and Amazon.com!
> Personally I’m against the idea of any books or videos getting turned into games. I’d rather see them with original stories. That’s something I liked about Reach, they didn’t just go for a straight novel adaptation, they gave us a new story.
That’s fair enough, I can see why some people would prefer brand new to adaptions. Mona Lisa is just a great example of the Flood being scary to me. Even if it was a completely new story, I just want them to frighten me again rather then making me think, “Oh, the Flood. Okay just ran at me from the front, that’s cool. No surprises?”
Like in Halo CE before even seeing the Flood, you walk into that hallway whose walls are just coated with blood, that was freaky.
> > > > It would be a fun DLC or at least a short cheaper game. Cause in no way would I pay $60 for it. If it was at a reasonable price I would totaly buy it.
> > >
> > > Haha yeah, I probably wouldn’t pay that much either. $40 maximum, but only if it was damn good and supported more features. Then again I also mean $40 Australian, because here we have to pay over $100 for the Halo games. Halo 4 is already set at $108.
> >
> > Thats so lame how overcharged you guys are. I feel bad for you :(.
>
> It’s not so bad, I mean there’s always Ebay and Amazon.com!
> > > > > It would be a fun DLC or at least a short cheaper game. Cause in no way would I pay $60 for it. If it was at a reasonable price I would totaly buy it.
> > > >
> > > > Haha yeah, I probably wouldn’t pay that much either. $40 maximum, but only if it was damn good and supported more features. Then again I also mean $40 Australian, because here we have to pay over $100 for the Halo games. Halo 4 is already set at $108.
> > >
> > > Thats so lame how overcharged you guys are. I feel bad for you :(.
> >
> > It’s not so bad, I mean there’s always Ebay and Amazon.com!
>
> True…tho how is shipping cost?
Not that much surprisingly, I mean if I wanted it within the next couple of days it’d be like $20 extra, but if I’m happy to wait (which is pretty much always) only around $5.
It would, but I wonder how that’d work. Maybe if they had multiplayer the game continued when you died, only whoever you’re playing co-op with would then be attacked by your infected body.
At the very least if you play as Benti at the game’s final cutscene you could see yourself be infected there.
I really like this idea, I’m thinking that for projects in between the new Halo trilogys they can have like little DLCs for the most recent game (or an Arcade Game) that goes into a a book, I for one would love to play the ODST version of the book “The Flood” and if I do remember correctly I would love to be the spartans in the begining of First strike that are on reach.
There were a lot of short stories that could be great games. It reminds me that Halo hasn’t done an open world game yet. I think 343 could make a super good open world! And it’s super great that, even if they can’t make a game for everything, they have novels to fill in and expand the empty spaces!
