Halo: Harvest (prequel video game)

Community General Discussion
1

Sgt. Johnson was one bad (shut your mouth). Hey I’m just talking about Sgt. Johnson.
Anyhow…
We all know about Sgt. Johnson and how he met his demise. Some of us have read the book: Halo Contact Harvest. Some of us would even like to see Sgt. Johnson as a playable character at least one more time other than replaying the original Halo games. So here’s my pitch to the community and 343 if they’re reading/listening:
Halo; Harvest
-Video Game
-Follows Sgt. Johnson and the story that is told in the book: Halo: Contact Harvest

  • Reintroduces Private Jenkins( Soldier from Halo CE )
  • Shows us exactly what the book did and how it all happened in the book as Campaign mode
    Game would also include:
  • Disc version and Downloadable version
  • 4 player split screen
  • Offline mode which includes Forge, Firefight, and campaign for those that don’t wanna play online
    -Online mode which includes Forge, Firefight, Multiplayer, and campaign for those that wanna play online
    -Sgt. Johnson pre-order bonus (Something Sgt. Johnson related of course)
  • Could be 3 different pre-orders like old days where the more you pay the more you get and better the package holding the game.

Thoughts or ideas that could contribute to this idea becoming a real game?

2

First I have three concerns to share, then I have some thoughts that are more complementary.

Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of retelling existing stories, because the difference in medium whether it’s a book, game, movie, or comic, necessitate some differences in how the story is portrayed, which means the finer details don’t perfectly align.

If we were to have a game “Halo: Harvest” based on the novel Contact Harvest, I’d suggest that we play as one of the Marines. Sgt Johnson is like Han Solo to the extent that neither needs their backstories filled in to justify their current coolness, and attempts to fill in more backstory can backfire and hurt the memory of the character.

There’s also the situation where there really isn’t a boss in Contact Harvest that we could fight, since we know Tartaraus survives, and is the one to kill his father. There’s no Hunters, and the majority of the enemies would be Brutes, since if I recall correctly, they didn’t have an exceptionally large complement of Grunts on their ships either at this time. Without significant changes, I don’t think it would be a particularly long game.

That said, the Marines’ training under the two Sgts would make a good lore explanation for the online pvp.
Similarly the Brutes’ attack could make for a good lore explanation of an online Firefight mode.

If the story parallels the story in the book with minimal overlap, then there’s more room for the game to tell its own story without retconning the book.

I do think a game based on Contact Harvest would be one of the shorter Halo games, so it very well could be possible on disk. However, the files for the recent games have gotten so large that the XB1 can’t read the disk fast enough to implement what it needs, necessitating the download, with the disk being used as a key to play because Microsoft doesn’t trust us to share.

4-player split-screen is completely doable, and I believe 343 is bringing it back for Halo Infinite.

I absolutely, 100% agree with Forge and Firefight being available offline! Words do not sufficiently express how disappointed I was in the decision to limit Forge to online in Halo 5.

I don’t like pre-order bonuses, especially when they’re exclusive to different locations so you can’t get them all. It’s a little better if you can eventually get them with a cheap DLC, but I understand that they’re probably here to stay because they boost opening day sales.

3

Oh man I’d love to play as Johnson, that would be so cool. He could be like Halo’s Duke Nukem, got a line for everything.

4

> 2533275031939856;3:
> Oh man I’d love to play as Johnson, that would be so cool. He could be like Halo’s Duke Nukem, got a line for everything.

Agreed.

> 2533274883501878;2:
> First I have three concerns to share, then I have some thoughts that are more complementary.
>
> Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of retelling existing stories, because the difference in medium whether it’s a book, game, movie, or comic, necessitate some differences in how the story is portrayed, which means the finer details don’t perfectly align.
>
> If we were to have a game “Halo: Harvest” based on the novel Contact Harvest, I’d suggest that we play as one of the Marines. Sgt Johnson is like Han Solo to the extent that neither needs their backstories filled in to justify their current coolness, and attempts to fill in more backstory can backfire and hurt the memory of the character.
>
> There’s also the situation where there really isn’t a boss in Contact Harvest that we could fight, since we know Tartaraus survives, and is the one to kill his father. There’s no Hunters, and the majority of the enemies would be Brutes, since if I recall correctly, they didn’t have an exceptionally large complement of Grunts on their ships either at this time. Without significant changes, I don’t think it would be a particularly long game.
>
> That said, the Marines’ training under the two Sgts would make a good lore explanation for the online pvp.
> Similarly the Brutes’ attack could make for a good lore explanation of an online Firefight mode.
>
> If the story parallels the story in the book with minimal overlap, then there’s more room for the game to tell its own story without retconning the book.
>
> I do think a game based on Contact Harvest would be one of the shorter Halo games, so it very well could be possible on disk. However, the files for the recent games have gotten so large that the XB1 can’t read the disk fast enough to implement what it needs, necessitating the download, with the disk being used as a key to play because Microsoft doesn’t trust us to share.
>
> 4-player split-screen is completely doable, and I believe 343 is bringing it back for Halo Infinite.
>
> **I absolutely, 100% agree with Forge and Firefight being available offline! Words do not sufficiently express how disappointed I was in the decision to limit Forge to online in Halo 5.**I don’t like pre-order bonuses, especially when they’re exclusive to different locations so you can’t get them all. It’s a little better if you can eventually get them with a cheap DLC, but I understand that they’re probably here to stay because they boost opening day sales.

Agree with the concerns about length. If the focus of the game is Harvest then it would either need to bridge the book then into the fight to reclaim Harvest - and could be through the eyes of a Marine (even Wallace!) or perhaps Byrne so that you’re seeing a lot of Johnson but equal. Or it should be focused much more on Johnson and follow him through some of Operation TREBUCHET into Harvest and maybe beyond.

Given the timescales we’re looking at though I doubt you should devote significant resources to any additional modes unless we’re waiting a very long time to launch it.

Perhaps one way to tell ‘episodic stories’ from the Halo universe - especially if the default lifespan of a Halo game os now much longer - would be to include a mode akin to Spartan Ops (except not trying to replace Firefight!) where little standalone episodes like this could be linked out from.

You could even have their unlocks tied to a series of collectables in the main game

5

There’s a whole five years of Harvest Campaign that has only been lighly touched on. We already know how it began, and I’d rather have a completely nee story than a retelling that will inevitably have to change certain elements and mess up the lore.

6

> 2533274883501878;2:
> First I have three concerns to share, then I have some thoughts that are more complementary.
>
> Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of retelling existing stories, because the difference in medium whether it’s a book, game, movie, or comic, necessitate some differences in how the story is portrayed, which means the finer details don’t perfectly align.
>
> If we were to have a game “Halo: Harvest” based on the novel Contact Harvest, I’d suggest that we play as one of the Marines. Sgt Johnson is like Han Solo to the extent that neither needs their backstories filled in to justify their current coolness, and attempts to fill in more backstory can backfire and hurt the memory of the character.
>
> There’s also the situation where there really isn’t a boss in Contact Harvest that we could fight, since we know Tartaraus survives, and is the one to kill his father. There’s no Hunters, and the majority of the enemies would be Brutes, since if I recall correctly, they didn’t have an exceptionally large complement of Grunts on their ships either at this time. Without significant changes, I don’t think it would be a particularly long game.
>
> That said, the Marines’ training under the two Sgts would make a good lore explanation for the online pvp.
> Similarly the Brutes’ attack could make for a good lore explanation of an online Firefight mode.
>
> If the story parallels the story in the book with minimal overlap, then there’s more room for the game to tell its own story without retconning the book.
>
> I do think a game based on Contact Harvest would be one of the shorter Halo games, so it very well could be possible on disk. However, the files for the recent games have gotten so large that the XB1 can’t read the disk fast enough to implement what it needs, necessitating the download, with the disk being used as a key to play because Microsoft doesn’t trust us to share.
>
> 4-player split-screen is completely doable, and I believe 343 is bringing it back for Halo Infinite.
>
> **I absolutely, 100% agree with Forge and Firefight being available offline! Words do not sufficiently express how disappointed I was in the decision to limit Forge to online in Halo 5.**I don’t like pre-order bonuses, especially when they’re exclusive to different locations so you can’t get them all. It’s a little better if you can eventually get them with a cheap DLC, but I understand that they’re probably here to stay because they boost opening day sales.

Maybe private Jenkins story then and have Sgt. Johnson be the Han Solo of the game as you said would work better. If they would stick to the Sgt. Johnson playable character though, I’d suggest do it chapter by chapter. If done right, 343 could expand on each chapter without hurting the lore and make a Halo 3 ODST version of a game.

> 2533274978302173;5:
> There’s a whole five years of Harvest Campaign that has only been lighly touched on. We already know how it began, and I’d rather have a completely nee story than a retelling that will inevitably have to change certain elements and mess up the lore.

I’m not sure they’d have to change lore at all. There’s enough in the book alone to expand on that it really wouldn’t hurt the lore.