I’m going to write a long, part-anecdotal, part-opinion essay length last ditch effort to try to see if the Halo community was still there and if 343 and everyone else could all work together to keep Halo alive. I’ve read some posts that are similar and I know that there is a good chance they might be seen. The series has been heading in a direction that despite opposition from every side I do not believe anyone is truly content with (even 343’s artists). So with my psychology hat on, I’ve seen a lot of attempts by the new (or rather current) Halo community to try to justify things not because they’re fine with them, but because they’re worried that Halo will cease to be if too many chances or changes are made.
That’s a different topic though. There’s a bit that’s campaign oriented, but since I’ve accepted the fact that Halo may become a campaign-only series for people like me as it changes to fit the desires of a newer audience, it’ll be separate.
Halo has been a long saga, and unlike others, its new owners decided to keep its EU. It is a franchise that has had a huge impact on modern sci-fi. Outside games, it has impacted films, literature, music, popular culture, sound design, I have even seen anime that has been influenced by it. It quite literally is the Star Wars of video games - before Mass Effect, before Destiny, et al. The only other work of video game sci-fi from the same era that had this much of an effect is Half-Life, which stands beside Halo among the most engrossing and in-depth shooter games.
But what makes Halo special isn’t in every game influenced by it, and I’m afraid it’s not in Guardians as far as I can tell. I’ll save the input regarding multiplayer and business for that other thread. This is about the future of Halo’s story:
Bungie wrote something great. Then they wrote themselves into a corner. Staten/Nylund wrote things that were great, telling us MORE. Then they wrote themselves into a corner. Bear sort of began in this corner and did what he could to get out of it, and we’re still there. This is what concerns me.
If you followed the series closely, you knew that Halo 4 was still Bungie’s story. It was considered before they went with a prequel, and concept artwork of many things including a promethean exist. Not all of this info is available to the public, but just like the artwork of the portal at Voi in a development video for Halo 2, just like Destiny being first officially teased in ODST, Bungie wrote a lot, only getting to show a small amount of all it in their games. 343 were the ones to take the idea and story behind Halo 4 and flesh it out. Give it an image, give it a tone, give it a sound. Portray how it all went down. I’m sure they took some liberties but per the end of Halo 3 they were pretty faithful (if you’d paid enough attention to the subtleties in that game which include the alternate terminal text on Legendary). There’s parts of Halo 4’s campaign I don’t like and pretty much all of it had to do with identity and writing, but I enjoyed Halo 4. It continued the story without ruining it. It felt like Halo mechanically and the tone was close enough and acceptable given it was a new setting. It was a good game. It was a breath of fresh air after Reach and it told me that the series was in good hands. Unfortunately, that faith started chipping away massively back in November and continues to persist which is why I think feedback is important.
Now it’s Halo 5. A new tale has to be told and it has to live up to a certain caliber. The end of Halo 4 made it clear to me that it was likely time for an all out Human-Promethean war. That was back then. I have no control over writing but I do want to see the series go in a good direction in the end. They have a handful of good plot lines that would provide a lot of integrity for the story but I just don’t see them taking them. I see them doing something far less interesting because it’d be less likely to alienate players who don’t care about story and would yield higher sales. I have examples that I’ve always been tossing around my head and a few others that are incomplete. Maybe you guys would resonate with these, maybe not:
The first is that which I imagined before anything regarding Halo 5 was announced and we know that it won’t happen. It’d be before we go back to the Chief. The game begins on Sanghelios and you are Thel. He’s in chambers or something, sleeping maybe. Rtas or someone else close to him comes and enters and tells him that it’s time to go. This would play out a little like the Halo 2 armory bit. You walk with him to an elevator that eventually gives way to open air outside and then you see it. Thousands and thousands outside yelling, shoving, protesting, fighting. It’s chaos. The Sangheili are in a state of civil war and Thel is coming to address the masses as he has a position of power but isn’t trusted by many. This would be the beginning of the game and the Arbiter campaign, which would eventually tie together with where the UNSC is doing when a greater threat emerges. We’d get to see more of the world and it’d be cool, but it’d probably come at the cost of those who were annoyed by Thel’s missions in Halo 2. People who don’t care about ambition - unfortunately at least half the sales.
There’s another example I really wanted to see happen and I may just see his return at least. I made a thread long ago called “A Demon inside a demon”. The idea is that instead of bringing back Cortana or something, Chief’s new “assistant” would be the Gravemind once it returns. The Didact is still alive. AT LAST! His true enemy has emerged once again. Let’s say defeating them requires some sort of assistance of a reclaimer though. The Gravemind, obsessed with vengeance, teams up with the Chief. Doesn’t really give him an option. They keep each other in check though. Spark is alive and has a new body, holding what was left of him in place in what could be called a head. It’s mobile and has more weaponry than his Ancilla shell, I’m talking some badass class 19 combat exoskeleton. His identity kept hidden and up to the player to find out. I’ve had this idea that he serves the Didact’s forces but only as a front. That somehow in the end he gains control, played his masters, and he has to be stopped. Your original and one true antagonist. A final battle would give perfect use to a form of the original HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL power armor (http://www.halopedia.org/images/1/11/1771884-gallery.png). I have been waiting to see that thing appear before Halo 4 came out. Instead of a smashing ability like the Mantis, it would have jump jets or something.
Finally, there’s the newer idea I’m not so sure about and don’t have story elements to support, but I always feel like the Precursors were once truly something beautiful. Imprisoned, corrupted, but still poetic. That if they could only undo what had happened before the Forerunner they would return to form. Peaceful beings of light, multiple in form but all one singular entity. Former creators of worlds and life that’d fade away content…not even angry at the Forerunner anymore.
That’s just an idea and I’m not writing the story as much as I’d want to. I just want to see it end magnificently. I hope they set up the final act well with Guardians and if it’s just a bunch of Chief and Locke stuff, that’ll be disappointing. Anyways, I had to condense this so if it reads awkward, that’s why.
And 343 - have terminals be text this time again, alright? 