Where do I start?!

Community Halo Universe
1

I’m a bit of an oddity when it comes to what you’d expect of the typical Halo fan. My first game was Halo 3, but I was 12 at the time I played it, I didn’t have Xbox Live and just played through the campaign once for a bit of fun, shooting action and that was that. Then when I was older I played Halo 4 and did loads of MP because the game was fun and felt great to play with friends, but never took in the campaign or other aspects (I figured I couldn’t really get invested in a story that had 3 previous entries i’d never played).

Until recently, I hadn’t played the Halo campaigns but thanks to MCC I have now and I have some thoughts. Prepare yourselves for some hot takes (not necessarily opinions, more ignorance on my part I guess) and please put aside the nostalgia goggles for a second and bare in mind i’m genuinely interested in learning more and want to understand how!

The lore for this universe seems massive and forever expansive, but I don’t understand where is best to start!? If i’m totally honest I don’t feel like the games as a standalone entity do a great job of fleshing out characters, the worlds, and what each of these factions, events and jargon all mean. I’ve played through some of the campaigns a couple of times now because of my interest in delving deeper (and generally I just find them fun to play) but nothing’s sticking or doing a good job of grabbing me in. I like Chief, he looks and sounds like a badass, but I couldn’t for a second tell you why I should be invested in him as a character and the events taking place, as well as supporting characters, they all just feel like they’re there to serve a purpose and not to “belong”. Upon a first play through it all feels like a by the books “good guy stops the bad aliens from destroying the world” trope. Loads of jargon being thrown around that I don’t feel I would understand unless I actively search out this information, which makes the experience of playing the games feel rather disjointed.

The game I connected with most was Reach, I felt it built the world and events up nicely enough to where I could engage with what was going on, but again I didn’t particularly feel like I had enough face time with the characters outside of the chit chat dialogue in between firefights to feel invested in the emotional scenes as the campaign progresses (although saying that, Noble 6, yourself, having to fight for his life at the end is a pretty ominous and emotionally charged moment).

Am I a lost cause? Is there a good starting point with a book, comic, web posts, content creator series etc that would help me gain some insight into the various aspects of Halo Lore and feel more invested? I’ve purchased Fall of Reach and am yet to read it but that seems the most logical starting point based on the timeline of events, am I correct in this?

I’m very sorry to anyone who feels personally attacked by what your eyes have just read and I realise i’m playing with fire here! Please understand i’m just looking for some guidance and would love to be invested, be in the loop and throwing around theories just as much as everyone else on Waypoint, and any help you can provide will be much appreciated!

2

Fall of Reach novel is the most logical starting point. It was the first piece of Halo fiction released to the public, and as such was designed to introduce the characters and world to people. Halo CE directly follows the events of Fall of Reach, but is largely self contained narratively; Bungie had a different philosophy about story-telling. Many (if not most) Halo players started with CE rather than Fall of Reach. While the game Halo Reach takes place before the events of CE, I personally don’t find it a good starting point, as I think the context surrounding the events of Reach built up across Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 ODST set the stage for the game. Halo Reach doesn’t really go to in depth on the personalities of Noble Team, and I think in some ways relies on the player’s previous experience with Spartans in the series (aka Master Chief) to explain their mannerisms.

You’re not alone in your opinion on Chief. Bungie purposefully designed Chief in the games to be a vessel for the player to experience the events of the games, and as such left the character largely devoid of emotion or responses to the things going on around him. I didn’t really become vested in Chief as a character until Halo 4, where we actually see him react to things going on around him and express personal attachment to the things he was doing. Some people, especially fans of the original trilogy, prefer Chief as more of a “blank slate” character, while others (like me) prefer him to be his own character. It’s down to personal preference, and you should never be worried about conforming to the popular opinion.

At the end of the day, enjoyment is largely a gut feeling. If you didn’t fall in love with the story and characters of Halo, there is probably no explanation that could sway you to change your gut feeling. People could talk to you about how cool Chief is all day long, but if you don’t feel it in your gut, then it simply means the character didn’t resonate with you. I’m not saying you should give up trying to learn more about Halo in hopes you find something to latch onto so that you connect with it more, but don’t feel bad if you don’t end up getting as attached to Halo as other people on these forums.

3

> 2533274817408735;2:
> Fall of Reach novel is the most logical starting point. It was the first piece of Halo fiction released to the public, and as such was designed to introduce the characters and world to people. Halo CE directly follows the events of Fall of Reach, but is largely self contained narratively; Bungie had a different philosophy about story-telling. Many (if not most) Halo players started with CE rather than Fall of Reach. While the game Halo Reach takes place before the events of CE, I personally don’t find it a good starting point, as I think the context surrounding the events of Reach built up across Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 ODST set the stage for the game. Halo Reach doesn’t really go to in depth on the personalities of Noble Team, and I think in some ways relies on the player’s previous experience with Spartans in the series (aka Master Chief) to explain their mannerisms.
>
> You’re not alone in your opinion on Chief. Bungie purposefully designed Chief in the games to be a vessel for the player to experience the events of the games, and as such left the character largely devoid of emotion or responses to the things going on around him. I didn’t really become vested in Chief as a character until Halo 4, where we actually see him react to things going on around him and express personal attachment to the things he was doing. Some people, especially fans of the original trilogy, prefer Chief as more of a “blank slate” character, while others (like me) prefer him to be his own character. It’s down to personal preference, and you should never be worried about conforming to the popular opinion.
>
> At the end of the day, enjoyment is largely a gut feeling. If you didn’t fall in love with the story and characters of Halo, there is probably no explanation that could sway you to change your gut feeling. People could talk to you about how cool Chief is all day long, but if you don’t feel it in your gut, then it simply means the character didn’t resonate with you. I’m not saying you should give up trying to learn more about Halo in hopes you find something to latch onto so that you connect with it more, but don’t feel bad if you don’t end up getting as attached to Halo as other people on these forums.

I’m always going to have some level of attachment to Halo, i’ve met and made so many friends through the franchise that my passion for it is rather unique in a way that no other series has been for me. It’s always tough when the conversation of Halo lore is brought up though as I have to somehow explain that despite my love for the games in one sense, that being the multiplayer aspect, the rest has never really drawn me in as much as i’d have liked.

My problem with the campaigns is there doesn’t seem to be a natural point of entry or learning curve leaning you into all the information. You’d expect that to be CE, but like you mention it’s largely it’s own thing and doesn’t seem to try much in the way of teaching you about the world and the characters. I’m definitely of the opinion that i’d prefer him to be his own character, and I suppose going into the games with that expectation does explain why they didn’t work for me.

I own Fall of Reach so I won’t let it go to waste, i’ll give that a read and see what I think. Like I say i’ll always have a passion for the franchise but I feel like it’s for rather different reasons than a large majority of the fanbase, not that that’s a bad thing. Thanks for the well thought out response, added a bit more context and made me feel a little better about my differing mindset haha!

4

> 2533274884115374;3:
> I’m always going to have some level of attachment to Halo, i’ve met and made so many friends through the franchise that my passion for it is rather unique in a way that no other series has been for me. It’s always tough when the conversation of Halo lore is brought up though as I have to somehow explain that despite my love for the games in one sense, that being the multiplayer aspect, the rest has never really drawn me in as much as i’d have liked.
>
> My problem with the campaigns is there doesn’t seem to be a natural point of entry or learning curve leaning you into all the information. You’d expect that to be CE, but like you mention it’s largely it’s own thing and doesn’t seem to try much in the way of teaching you about the world and the characters. I’m definitely of the opinion that i’d prefer him to be his own character, and I suppose going into the games with that expectation does explain why they didn’t work for me.
>
> I own Fall of Reach so I won’t let it go to waste, i’ll give that a read and see what I think. Like I say i’ll always have a passion for the franchise but I feel like it’s for rather different reasons than a large majority of the fanbase, not that that’s a bad thing. Thanks for the well thought out response, added a bit more context and made me feel a little better about my differing mindset haha!

There is a lot of lore to Halo and the games barely scratch the surface of the total universe. I’ve largely been able to enjoy Halo just through the games and looking up extra information on the lore as I need, using resources like Halopedia. I tend to consider “order of release” the most natural way of consuming fiction, so I think Fall of Reach probably is the most logical starting point. But there is alot of stuff that comes after Fall of Reach that Fall of Reach doesn’t even really go into. Like Spartan-IIIs, for instance. And don’t even get me started on Forerunner history.

I would say the most accessible form of getting into the universe is still the games, and the MCC has the benefit of having added terminals to Halo CE and Halo 2 (if you haven’t found and viewed those terminals, I recommend you do). Halo 3 and 4 also have terminals. These terminals were, for many players, the first foray into the expanded fiction Halo has to offer beyond the story of the games. I especially found the Halo 3 terminals to be fun to find and view.

5

I started with CE when I was 8, but it wasn’t until 2007 when 3 came out, and I jumped on to Bungie’s forums to find people talking about all these characters I didn’t know about.

I simply picked up the books in release order and started there.

6

I love halo​:heart::heart::heart:

7

Role-Play at roleplayerguild.com. Sometimes enlightenment needs you to create your U.N.S.C. quest. Xbox is widely borning Halo, matchmaking is a good median to lore if you can. The fall of reach book trilogy is the beginning though. “the fall of reach”, before its reach fight Sierra-1-1-7 journeys after the covenant to the ringworld Halo ( there is the 2nd book " the flood", which is the first halo game too “Halo: Combat Evolved”), the 3rd book is " first strike" and that’s the M.C.P.O. Sierra-1-1-7 returning to planet Reach to thwart the covenant, retribute spartan2s and get us Earthlings amped to slay covenant with battle rifles because Halo 2 then proved to us we’d-figure-it-out from here!

8

Fall of Reach was where I started.