Summary
The video game industry has seen its fair share of expansive Sci-Fi universes, but few have been quite as prolific asHalo. Debuting all the way back in 2001 withHalo: Combat Evolved, theHaloseries immediately made a name for itself not just for its stellar FPS gameplay and world design, but also for its engrossing narrative and enticing world-building. ThoughHalo: Combat Evolvedcan be completed in under 10 hours, it’s abundantly clear from the get-go that there’s much more to theHalouniverse than first meets the eye.
Over the course of the next two decades,Halowould continue to flesh out its universe via a few different avenues. WhileHalo’s five mainline sequels and its handful of spin-off games all added new characters and pivotal moments for the franchise’s overarching timeline, it’s actuallyHalo’s vast library of novels and comics that have explored its galaxy the most, and it’s these novels that should act as the basis for the future ofHalo’s video game output.
Halo’s Future Should Look to Times Before Combat Evolved
Halo’s Past Has Already Been Well-Explored
The very firstHalogame takes place in the year 2552, and the rest of the mainline series takes place in the decade that follows. In thecanonicalHalotimeline, the vast majority of the series takes place towards the end of the Great Human-Covenant War, and the most recent 343-led entries take place during a period of time known as the Reclaimer Era. While these periods are undoubtedly the most iconic in the franchise, there’s a lot more story toHalo’s universe, with much of it taking place beforeHalo: Combat Evolved.
When it comes to exploring theHalouniverse’s past, just twoHalogames have tried to fill in those gaps, withHalo Reachtaking place days beforeCombat Evolved, andHalo Warstaking place 21 years before it. While these games do a decent job of fleshing out theHuman-Covenant War’s factionsand major events, they still only scratch the surface of theHalotimeline. For more of an extensive look atHalo’s past, fans need to turn to the novels.
There are currently over30 novels set in theHalofranchise, and each one goes a long way in fleshing out the surprisingly intricate Sci-Fi universe. The first set ofHalonovels, most of which were written by Eric Nylund, actually established a good portion of theHalouniverse that’s since been used as the basis for the rest of theHalogame series, such as the Fall of Reach, the Spartan-III program, and the events that take place betweenHalo: Combat EvolvedandHalo 2.
While many ofHalo’s most popular novels focus on the start of the Human-Covenant War, its early years, and the period following its end, there are also a handful of popularHalonovels that dive deep into the universe’s past.Greg Bear’sForerunnerSagais the perfect example of this. Over the course of three books, theForerunner Sagamanages to flesh out almost 150,000 years of lore, detailing the rise and inevitable fall of the Forerunners, their war with humanity, and their eventual firing of the Halo Array.
Future Halo Games Should Adapt These Stories
TheHalouniverse is so much bigger than many fans realize, and it’s about time theHalogames started capitalizing on all of that untapped lore. While it might be a tad confusing to base a wholeHalogame around the ancient Forerunners, there’s still a ton of material surrounding the start of the Great Human-Covenant War that could be adapted into a video game, withJoseph Staten’s ownContact Harvest- a novel that details the very first encounter between humanity and the Covenant - being a great place to start.
