I briefly talked about this in a previous thread of mine about how there are large discrepancies between New Mombasa in Halo 2/Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo 3:ODST and the Halo Reach multiplayer map Breakneck. This has been eating away at me far more than I care to admit.
So after thinking about the issues way too long I think I have finally found a way to stitch everything together to make it all fit with both versions of the city being canon, just seen at vastly different angles.
First and foremost I made a -Yoink- MS paint map of New Mombasa to help visualize this. The red circle is the city center, this is where most of Halo 3:ODST takes place and where the distinctive sleek, narrow skyscrapers are. The blue circles are where the Halo 2 mission “Outskirts” takes place. The orange circle is where the Halo 2 mission “Metropolis” takes place. The purple and green circles I shall get to later.
First lets address the key points and the common issues people point out.
Q: In Halo 2 we see the orbital elevator in the middle of the city while in ODST its off to the side on its own island!
A: Actually its not in the middle of the city in Halo 2! We simply see it through the city. Almost all that we see of New Mombasa in Halo 2 is from the western side of it, Master Chief never actually went into the city center like Alpha Nine did and as such when you boot up Halo 2 you’ll always been looking at the space elevator through the city since the elevator is located on the opposite side of it as Master Chief.
Q: What about the various times we see buildings and skyscrapers directly around the elevator? Surely it must be in the middle of the city then!
A: Not quite. Look at my crap MS paint map of NM again, notice how the elevator is situated on its own island? I propose that all the buildings we see around the elevator are on the island itself and not part of the city proper.
Island seen in H2A
Island in H2A again
Island seen in Spartan Strike(Probably seen looking eastwards towards Old Mombasa with New Mombasa behind the camera)
Island in Spartan Strike again
Island seen in Stonetown
Island seen in ODST
Notice how in each instance the elevator is seen only with a small number of buildings around it? Not the size nor amount you would see if it was in the middle of the city itself. The only odd one out here is ODST, however this I will have to simply chalk up to artistic licence. In the grand scheme of things the exact placement of every building and the exact shape of the island itself is rather minor.
Q: What about the Solemn Penance? In Halo 2 we see the ship next to the elevator which would put it at the north-east side of the city while in ODST we see Dutch battle the Covenant at its old LZ located in the Uplift Nature Reserve which is on the south-west side of the city, making the images in Halo 2 such as this or this impossible.
A: My proposal is the Solemn Penance actually had multiple LZs. Think about it, a CAS-class assault carrier is a massive ship, filled with many, MANY troops to deploy, especially with troops to deploy throughout an entire city, so its not only possible but probable that the ship would have dropped off troops in a few locations. The Corpral we hear in the ODST mission “Uplift Reserve” said “…its old LZ” not its only LZ. Go back to my crap MS paint map one more time, this is where the purple and green circles come in. The purple circle is the location of the LZ we see in ODST, the green circle is where we see the Solemn Penance in Halo 2/Halo 2 Anniversary. Most likely the ship dropped off troops in the nature reserve then moved and dropped off others on the other side of the city before it jumped out.
Q: What about the large bridge Master Chief crosses in Halo 2? If its at the north side of the city with Chief heading east why do we see the elevator straight on?
A: I actually accounted for that in my map up there! The bridge must then be facing south-east rather than directly east, this would put the elevator directly “in front” of the Chief when he is crossing the bridge!
I think this solves pretty much every discrepancy between the two depictions of the city. While I would have liked if Halo 2 Anniversary had solved these issues more directly I don’t think its canon breaking like I once thought and after way too much brain rattling and screenshot taking I think I’m finally done and everything can fit nicely together.
Now can we get a 343i employee to come in here and tell me I’m right so I can finally sleep and not have this eating away at my soul? @_@
