I’ve heard this idea from some and like and wanna see what you guys think. Halo 4 brought in much from the novels; including the Didact, Librarian, mentioning the Mantle, and other things. I argue that the game does a pretty good job explaining what these things are, though I understand those who only playing the games being confused. It was done well, but not perfect. Then Halo 5 came out and it was an absolute mess. This was the game where it was filled with stuff from the EU that didn’t explain what/who characters, locations, and things are. With Halo Infinite, they’re calling it a ‘spiritual reboot’. It’s a sequel that established fans will feel satisfied. It’s also gonna be an entry level installment that new players can come into and understand. Grim has said that the games and EU will stay in their own ‘swimlanes’. This likely means that the EU won’t cross into the games much, and if they do I think 343 will make it clear what’s going on. This leads me to this idea, an Expanded or Extended Edition of the plot of Halo Infinite. I would have where you can play the game and understand everything going on and feel satisfy when you complete it. With the Expanded Edition, I would have it be like what The Flood is to Halo: CE. That is that the book tells the same plot as the game but expands on things. Characters are fleshed out further, get more perspectives, and have even more scenes. This would allow other EU and other deep lore easter eggs and connections. Like I said, I would have it where anyone can play the game without reading the book, but this will be extra for those who want to know more. What do you think? Let’s discuss and have fun!
There is a reason why the other games were not made into novels. The Flood has to be one of the worst retellings of the original game story (even worse than Fireteam Raven). As for Halo 4 it was another example of bad storytelling within game, now I am not that big on narratology but if I were going to take something from the show business that would be show, don’t tell, but for the game business it would be better to take it a step further and that would be to do, don’t show. The reason why the first Halo game had such a good story because the entire story arc was contained in the game. Everything that there was needed to know about was inside the game you didn’t have to go see some outside source material to explain things. Sure there was an instruction booklet to give you a little more back story but you understand, the humans are running away from the covenant, they have to keep the location of earth away from them, they came across some weird ringworld, even the introduction of the flood was contained in that story.
Where the novel The Flood failed to do was tell us things we have already done but it doesn’t’ capture the same experience as playing the games. You get that there might have been more UNSC pockets around the ringworld, but after the release of the flood it was more apparent that those have likely been consumed. Two Betrayals gave you that woefull feeling that you were own your own from here on out (at least your enemies were distracted to the point they can no longer just focus on killing you).
If you want to see a good example of retelling a story that we played and expanding on it, go take a look at SPV3. That does a way better job on expanding the story of Halo more so than The Flood or even Fire Team Raven has ever done so.
I like the idea, but it really would have to be done right!!
I really enjoyed The Flood, but I can‘t say I’d like to see another novel of the same style. There were some instances where the novel and the game had some discrepancies and that made me question both versions of the same story.
Instead, I’d like to see a novel like First Strike. It was set before Halo 2 and filled the gap between the events of CE and H2. However, it wasn’t a necessary read to fully grasp what was happening in H2. Similarly, a novel could be set between the events of H5 and HI which could tell an independent story.