No question, Halo 2 and 4. There’s just so much content packed into those games and they expose it to you very very quickly.
Halo 2 fleshes out the entirety of the covenant in like the first 5 minutes of the game. You learn about additional species, everyone’s role within the covenant, elite honor, political powers, military rankings, pecking order, etc. And again, thats only within the first 5 minutes, not even including the introduction of Gravemind and all that entails.
4 is similar. It’s much more of a slow burn rather than thrusting you into the middle of everything though. The Didact, the librarian, light forerunner culture, composers, ancient flood history, ancient humanity, prometheans, etc.
Granted, some of these topics were first established in books but then it sorta becomes the whole chicken versus the egg thought experiment. Yes, the books came out first but they also wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for the games. So I feel like it’s fair to say they “introduced” them even if it’s not *exactly* true.
I would LOVE to see another Halo game like Halo 2, with that level of worldbuilding! Unfortunately, giving us all that delicious information and answering questions we didn't even know we had doesn't fit the pattern of drip-feed, mystery box storytelling that everyone uses these days.
>4 is similar. It’s much more of a slow burn rather than thrusting you into the middle of everything though.
I'm not sure how this is true given 90% of the lore and narrative context in 4 is just dumped to you in a giant cutscene with the librarian.
People are very wrong when they say 4 requires the books to be understood. But that doesn't mean 4 has good writing (in fact, I think the actual execution of it's ideas is worse then 5's, even if 4 has much better narrative and thematic concepts then 5 does)
I wouldn’t say 90%. You’re left to ruminate on most of the things I mentioned. You’re given hints to everything before then via dialogue and terminals. She just elaborates on it all, providing some extra details and explaining the lingering questions that are setup prior. It’s the end of a build up. Here are some questions the game throws at you before chief encounters her:
Who is the Didact?
Prometheans were humans but how?
Why was the Didact imprisoned?
Just to name a few off the top of my head. She just answers these questions. It’s not like this information comes out of nowhere. The entire game before that scene helps set it up
> People are very wrong when they say 4 requires the books to be understood
I might be misremembering but isn't the whole thing with the Didact and the changes from Halo 3 not really ever explained? Don't you need to read the novels to figure out there are two of him?
I mean, nothing in the Halo 3 terminals said the Didact there liked humanity or anything.
Even if you don't know the Ur Didact and Iso Didact aren't the same person, nothing about how the Didact is characterized in Halo 4 contradicts that. It might seem out of left field, but its not overtly inconsistent.
The Halo 4 terminals also do explain/show the Didact's downfall into increasing hostility
>I mean, nothing in the Halo 3 terminals said the Didact there liked humanity or anything.
It's kind of funny, but the Halo 3 terminals and the Iris Campaign imply that Earth and humanity are a recent discovery but significant enough for the Didact to know the Librarian is there due to the small, vague hints she gives him.
The Forerunner Saga could be said to be inspired by the Halo 3 Terminals, but those books take a lot of liberties with it. Personally, I liked the idea that the Librarian didn't discover Earth until the final years of the war, because it's blind luck that humanity was discovered and preserved on the Ark.
It's pretty chilling that we could have perished alongside the rest of the Galaxy, if not for the random, cosmic coincidence of being discovered in the eleventh hour.
I mean, as I said, I agree the actual writing and execution in 4 isn't good, but the base concepts of Chief trapped alone on an alien planet with an increasingly rampant Cortana, and exploring Chief's pysche more especially as a parallels to the Prometheans being robotic, etc are all good ideas.
Crazy how halo 2’s story got even casual’s to understand the gist of all the covenants politics in 5 minutes but halo 4 left everyone who didn’t read the forerunner trilogy walking away wondering wtf just happened.
I actually just played 4 from start to finish yesterday and honestly i feel like i have a good understanding of what happened even though i havent read the books. Only this i was confused about is composers and the origin of the diadact wasnt really fleshed out.
I'd argue that while halo 4 did adequately set up the 343 trilogy, it actually regressed the universe (from the Bungie trilogy) as it contained numerous retcons and art styles changes that it wasn't even the same feel or storyline as the originals.
Somewhat of a different feel, maybe but storyline? It directly continues off of Halo 3. It’s not like 343 came in and completely went a different direction. They used some basic outlines and premises that bungie planned to use if they ever developed Halo 4. I love Halo 4, I don’t think it regressed anything. It helped introduce some very very compelling stuff.
In the original trilogy, Forerunners were meant to be ancient humans. That’s why humans can so effortlessly use forerunner technology, why Miranda was needed by Tartarus in Halo 2, and why Johnson was needed by Truth in Halo 3.
Halo 2 wasn’t what Bungie intended due to time limitations, but the Arbiter was intended to find a forerunner sarcophagus in which contained human remains, and its that truth that was meant to cause a wide schism.
Throughout Halo CE’s level the Library, Guilty Spark speaks to you as if you are Forerunner. He inquires about your choice of weaponry and armour, because he expects you to use far better. When Spark was retorted by cortana at the start of Two Betrayals he wasn’t being deceitful, he legitimately thought that Chief knew all he was talking about because he thought Chief was Forerunner. In Halo 3 he outright spells it out at the end when he says “You are Forerunner”, it’s meant to be this grand reveal.
And then… Halo 4 retcons it all and makes the Forerunner an alien species. I’m glad you are able to enjoy its story and I’m aware that 343 had made a few books elaborating on Forerunner lore shortly before, and as compelling as the stuff might be, the decisions made certainly damaged the franchise in my eyes and in the eyes of some others. I am of the mind that it really cheapens the Forerunner mystery and having retcons of such scale that have to be danced around with the Librarian implanting geas in humans to allow them to inherit Forerunner technology is, in my humble opinion, an awkward solution to a problem that did not need to exist.
> In Halo 3 he outright spells it out at the end when he says “You are Forerunner”, it’s meant to be this grand reveal.
"You are the child of my Makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... is mine!"
So, you're metaphorically Forerunner, even though you're biologically not, but this does not give him a reason to disobey you. He just wants to.
...how is that spelling out a grand reveal?
Because it's what Bungie intended, and voiced, time and time again?
Look, to be honest, I'm not going to bother arguing it. If stating factually-correct information and following it up with an opinion in regards to what it did to the lore warrants downvoting on a subreddit meant to discuss the lore of this franchise, there is nothing I can say that will convince anyone.
Ultimately, there's a reason why Halo is kind of a dead franchise now, and has been falling off since Halo 4.
> Because it's what Bungie intended, and voiced, time and time again?
They didn't though. Marty O'Donnell wanted them to be, but his co-writers and team didn't all agree. There's also people like Eric Nylund, which had his own ideas, and a lot of impact on the lore of the franchise - but zero actual creative input on the games or the bungie team, because he was a "microsoft guy" and they didn't like "corporate interference" to their ideas.
Which were an inconsistent mess of retcons with nobody actually in charge of lore. Staten, O'Donnell, and Frankie weren't writers but took on the role anyway because that's just who was available. They all had their own ideas on how things should be.
If the Halo 2 ending had been all time constraints, then they'd have opened Halo 3 with it. Perfect opportunity to tie in with the portal at voi. GS's dialogue in 1 implies it, but he's also talking to Suddenly British Cortana who claims the Rings don't actually damage the Flood cells in any way. Both of the next games contradict all 3 of those things.
The terminals for 3 say that humans and forerunners are completely separate, and with GS' full line that's the theme the game goes for. The Halo 2 possibility is fully abandoned. It's far from the only thing, we certainly don't see any Forerunner Tanks running around for example.
>Staten, O'Donnell, and Frankie weren't writers but took on the role anyway because that's just who was available.
Joseph Staten *is* a writer. He was the Lead Writer for Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 ODST, he wrote Contact Harvest and Shadow of Intent, and he worked on Halo 3 and Reach, even if he wasn't the lead anymore.
Marty O'Donell and Frankie O'Connor aren't writers, I grant you, but what you mean, Staten wasn't?
The entire forerunner reveal and allegory for Genesis set up by the original trilogy was retconned. Like since halo CE they were dropping hints with halo 3's campaign confirming it (alongside Contact Harvest written by Joe Staten) and the terminals/IRIS supporting the idea that humanity were the original forerunners who weren't uplifted by the precursors.
IRIS for example contains a section on how humanity could have been alien castaways.
https://www.halopedia.org/Terminal_(Halo_3)
Production notes where Bungie members state their intentions with 343 guilty spark's you are forerunner (it was meant to be taken literally) and explanation of the eden terminal.
Halo 3 terminals almost got completely retconned themselves too.
It's a dead horse but need to be brought up when we discuss the reclaimer trilogy.
It does weaken the source material it continues.
Halo 3 does say that the Forerunners are human. It's the endgame reveal.
Oh, are you referring to the Halo 3 Terminals and Iris Campaign? It's funny, nowhere in the Terminals or Iris Campaign are the primitive humans on Earth referred to as another species by the Librarian. She always refers to them as 'they' or 'them' or 'inhabitants' and 'denizens'.
Sure, if you were to ignore the story of the games, ignore the Iris Campaign and ignore the books and look at the Terminals purely in isolation, then yes, I'd agree that it says that the Forerunners aren't human. but when you take into account everything else, no; it just shows us that two independent groups of humans at two different stages of cultural and technological development (the forerunners and the primitive humans of Earth) are meeting each other for the first time.
In real life, we still have people living in primitive, tribal communities. They're different from me in terms of culture, lifestyle and living conditions, but they're still as human as me. And the Librarian in the Halo 3 Terminals is just as human as those primitives she discovers on Earth.
Read terminal production notes like in my comment before dismissing my point.
You're incorrect, the terminal writers had a separate idea for the forerunners than the campaign. The campaign writers intended humanity to be the descendants of forerunners (presented in that halopedia article) while terminals had the humanity as the long lost homeworld of the forerunners, that was rediscovered at the end of the flood war (also presented in the halopedia article)
Halo 3 terminals : all forerunners are human but not all humans are forerunner of that makes sense
In both cases humanity were forerunner.
The terminals don't outright say anything that says humans aren't forerunners. Just that earth and humanity were discovered at the end of the flood war by the forerunners. Hell it actually is something deep rooted in halo lore, the cortana letters which is pre halo lore had the SolCore finding indigenous human life on other planets and that idea was reused for the halo 3 terminals.
C3 saber tooth has a video where he goes much more in depth (if you ignore all the frank o connor and 343 bashin).
I'm trying to clear this weird community misconception that's all.
I'd argue that while this guy (you, I'm replying to) are being a little dramatic with your language with saying that it "regressed the universe", I think it is ridiculous people are downvoting you. The "You are Forerunner" line has been a huge retcon that many fans have been simply okay with handwaving away with the fact that Spark was going rampant. It's a pretty lazy excuse for not following somewhat already established lore.
I'm also personally fine with the Forerunner/Human divide in the following 343 media, I just eyeroll anytime I replay Halo 3 and look at terminals or get to that cutscene with Spark that lore wasn't really being followed in the upcoming games.
> The "You are Forerunner" line has been a huge retcon that many fans have been simply okay with handwaving away with the fact that Spark was going rampant. It's a pretty lazy excuse for not following somewhat already established lore.
Everyone always refers to that line - but the line is "You are the child of my Makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... is mine!"
That... says the opposite. Why does nobody ever quote the inheritor of all they left behind part? That's all but saying they're *not* the same?
Bungie themselves couldn't decide one way or another but as a finished product 3 itself is pretty firmly on the side of them being separate.
James Greisner confirmed that the intention was to be that humans were forerunner from that line.
Also Bungie wasn't divided, that's untrue, there was a mild disconnect onto HOW the forerunners and humans were related. Paul Russel confirmed that the people he knew on the terminal team still thought humans and forerunners were related, just not as direct descendants. (Funnily enough current lore is a very very very lose interpretation of this) It seems my comment got completely ignored lol.
Also you're reading too much into inheritor, like I'm the inheritor of my father's legacy, it just means i'm his descendant. Gravemind even says that a fathers sims are passed down to his sons in the game. Truth likewise says this time none of you will be left behind, because big bungie was working with the idea that humans were left behind forerunners.
They couldn't agree on how humans are Forerunner because they needed it to work with our own real-world history because, as C3 Sabertooth says in his video, Halo is Science-fiction and sci-fi asks the question: "Given what we know, what could be?"
Given what we know, humans evolved on Earth and ancient humans never travelled the stars, so how could humans be Forerunner? The Forerunners being castaways from Earth is really the best explanation, as it doesn't require too many mental gymnastics to justify.
It also feels right, like something Bungie writers would come up with; the Terminal writers took inspiration from Marathon, and it's pretty clear that the relationship between humanity and the Forerunners is meant to mirror the relationship between the S'pht and the S'pht'Kr.
...context exists and changes the meaning of words. That's how it works.
It means metaphorically you are indistinguishable from a Forerunner, particularly in means of command and he should *not* be disobeying a direct order. However, he doesn't care because he's not going to lose another ring.
None of that means you are biologically Forerunner.
You're right, context exists.
When we play the Halo games, we're in the big green armor of the Master Chief, so we learn everything as he learns. So, what do we learn, throughout all the games?
Humans are called Reclaimer, meaning we are supposed to reclaim (regain possession of) something. Humans can activate Forerunner technology with our dna and we also seem to have an instinctive understanding of how to operate this technology.
Guilty Spark also seems to mistake the Chief for the same Forerunner who activated the rings 100,000 years ago and is confused about why the Chief is ignorant of Halo's purpose. His attitude changes, however, when he accesses the POA's databanks and studies human history, which he refers to "our lost time."
On High Charity, the Chief encounters a dying Prophet of Mercy, who tells him that Truth is going to Earth, to "finish what we started. And this time, none of you, will be left behind." He means that Truth is going to the Ark to activate the rings and send all worthy believers onto the Great Journey. This is interesting, because the way he's talking, he seems to think that humans were around the last time the rings were activated and they were left behind, but this time, they'll join with the Covenant on the Great Journey.
And then, when the Chief returns to Earth, it's to discover the Portal to the Ark, located in Africa and built by the Forerunners 100,000 years ago, supposedly around the time when ancient humans migrated out of Africa.
I could include Truth's rant to Johnson about humanity being unworthy, weak and being left behind by their forefathers, but the Chief wasn't present for that, so let's ignore it for now. When the Chief enters the Flood-infected High Charity, the Gravemind says this to him: "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness, a father's sins passes to his son."
And the Chief also accesses the Terminals, where he learns about Mendicant Bias, who gives the Forerunners his chilling but epic "Welcome back to the stone age, vermin" speech. He also learns about the Librarians journey to Earth, where she discovers a group of primitive humans, whom she is careful to avoid calling another species, only referring to them as 'they' or 'them' or 'inhabitants.'
So, taking all of this into account, it's pretty clear to me that in context, Guilty Spark is literally calling the Chief a Forerunner. I should hope so, at least: if I've spent the last 25 years not understanding context or set up and payoff in stories, then I'd be pretty embarrassed, I must admit.
I'm sorry, but I can easily see an interpretation (mine) where Spark was being entirely literal with that line, where pre 343 acquisition he genuinely meant that humans were forerunners.
Definitely am a little bit lol, I just really like the genesis allegory.
I'm in the same camp, I don't care that forerunner are aliens except for the fact that the setup was the opposite back in the original trilogy.
This sub is a forerunner trilogy circlejerk I kinda expect downvotes, it's really funny considering any criticism of it gets downvoted despite being factually correct, I legit presented sources and no response from any nay sayers because they don't have anything to actually respond with so they just downvote.
Guilty spark was not rampant under the original Bungie definition. Rampancy as a term was retconned by Frank O'Connor and 343. The original bungee version of infancy was closer to the marathon version, and with more closer to you and AI gaining sentients. This can be seen in contact harvest and the Halo 3 terminals. While the 343 version is Ai get angry and such.
No it shows 343 disregarding the previously established lore to tell the story they want to tell. But in all actuality Frank O'Connor was not qualified for his position and knew jackshit about Halo lore. Like the Forerunner trilogy is a bastardization of the terminal story.
I've often said this, but I think that Halo 4 is a great sequel to the Forerunner Saga but fails as a sequel to Halo 3. As a sequel, it needs to follow up from the events of the previous game and the only thing that Halo 4 got right was that the Chief and Cortana were drifting towards an unknown planet. But everything else is wrong, imho.
Halo 3 ended with the collapse of the Covenant, Humans barely surviving the war and needing to rebuild, and the Forerunners revealed to be Humans. In Halo 4, we come under attack from a Covenant remnant led by the Elites and there's no good explanation, the UNSC somehow have the resources and industry to build this big, spanking warship that's powerful enough solo an entire Covenant battlegroup, and we meet an actual, living Forerunner who looks nothing like a Human.
So, anyone playing the games and only the games are going to be very confused. But people who've read the Forerunner Saga and loved it will love Halo 4, because it's the perfect sequel to those books. These same people hated Halo 5 because that game threw out everything that the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 set up; the way I see it, the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 don't mesh well with the story of the Original Trilogy, so it's hard to think of them as proper follow-ups.
>They used some basic outlines and premises that bungie planned to use if they ever developed Halo 4.
Personally, I think that if Bungie made Halo 4 instead of Halo Reach, it would have looked an awful lot like Destiny. It's just crazy to me how easily destiny's setting slots into the setting of Halo's post-war Universe. Think about it: the UNSC colonized the Galaxy (the Golden Age), until the Covenant came and wiped them out (the Collapse), but for a few survivors on Earth (The Last City), ready to rebuild and reclaim what they lost.
Considering Bungie's habit of recycling story ideas throughout their games, I wouldn't be surprised that whatever ideas they considered for Halo 4 were then reworked for Destiny's original story. The OG story for Destiny was going to be about recovering the Warmind Rasputin; swap out Rasputin for Mendicant Bias, and it seems to me that the best direction for Halo to go after Halo 3 would be the Chief and Cortana trying to reactivate Mendicant Bias to protect Humanity from either a new alien Civilization or a Covenant Remnant. The drama of the story could be about them knowing that Mendicant Bias betrayed the Forerunners but feeling they have no choice but to activate him because of how vulnerable Humanity is to their enemies.
Yeah, me too. I don't understand why people on this sub keep trying to make us feel ashamed for liking the things we do. The fact is, if it wasn't for Bungie and the stellar work they did on the games, then 343I wouldn't have a fanbase to make games for.
What am I being hypocritical about? I like halo Reach's art style and dislike Halo 4's. I can recognize that people can have different tastes from me without being upset about it.
complaining about how halo 4s art style changes made the game have a different feel than the original when halo reach changes almost every part about the art style just like 4 does….
I didn't make that complaint; you've got me mixed up with someone else. All I said is that I think Reach has the best art style and I didn't like Halo 4's. It was a swing and a miss for me.
Pretty much every Halo game had a different art style from each other. Halo CE is different from Halo 2, while Halo 3 is a further refinement of Halo 2's style, and yes, Halo Reach changed things too, making things more toned down and gritty.
lmao my bad dude, i get what youre saying i still just think regardless of your opinion on the art styles just because you dont like halo 4s doesnt mean you can use art style as a critique because its different than the originals
As far as the pirmary content of the game, i would agree halo 2. But if you include terminals/other hidden lore its halo 3 easily, its terminals were the basis for everything forerunner. They inspired halo 4 and the books by greg bear and kelly gay, first showed the forerunner flood war and characters like the didact, librarian, and mendicant bias, and was even the first time forerunners were revealed to be their own entire species and culture rather than being ancient humans
Halo 2 was the game to take the scifi alien a steric and take it into a whole new world of theology and politics. Halo four for sure added a lot of info but Halo 2 is undoubtedly the game that made the Halo series Halo
I think Halo 5 had the biggest potential but it felt squandered, especially in comparison to Halo 2. I just wish they would've taken the time to go into the lore instead of just flashing glimpses into our faces and then... well I think everyone know the who Locke vs Chief fight... they could've done so much more with the story telling
Definitely Halo 2 when it comes to the Bungie universe.
As for the 343 universe, it's hard to pick any of them because the universe feels so detached with each game. Halo 4 has the most background buildup of 343's new universe, but Halo 5 I'd argue is what most of the games in 343's universe are directly affected by with Halo Wars 2 and Halo Infinite feeling the affects still of Halo 5's story
Halo 2, definitely. But Halo 3 would come at a close second, as it gives us the answer to what is hidden beneath New Mombasa, which was only ever hinted at in Halo 2, the Portal to the Ark. The Halo 3 Terminals also give us a small insight into the final days of the Forerunners, as well as the final reveal at the end when Guilty Spark tells us the truth of our connection to the Forerunners.
Halo 2 fleshed out the Universe the most with its energetic world-building, but it's in Halo 3 when we finally understand the 'big picture' and all the underlying themes of the story are tied together in a neat bow.
We've reached a point where people who grew up playing games are now old enough to be working on the sequels in the same series.
While very good in many cases, this has lead to somw titles feeling... I dunno, disjointed and a little fan-fictioney.
I liked Halo 4. I loved Halos 1-3.
Halo 4 felt like okay-ish fan fiction.
Edit to add: I would have loved if Halo 4 opened with a backstory on the Didact and some interactions with the ancient Humans rather than that intro with Halsey.
Halo 4 definitely did expand the universe, but it relied too heavily on people knowing some things from the expanded media.
This left me who did read some expanded media disappointed at the execution, and left others who don't feeling like they were missing a lot and some characters and plot points were shoehorned in.
The obvious answer is Halo 2.
It's a bit cheesy and cliché but for analogy sake: it is Halo's Empire Strikes Back. CE is New Hope, takes mostly place in one major location, is pretty self contained. 2 opens up the universe and does so spectacularly. The first cutscenes alone are almost more world building than the whole of CE and H3 did combined.
It obviously couldn't do it without the foundation laid in CE. No other Halo game has achieved that same level again.
Halo 2 landed on the foundation that the first game made and built a cathedral of lore that became the backbone of the franchise. I mean it gave us so much information to chew on cause it had the ambition to explore different themes, characters, the structure of the covenant and the politics that started the war. Different worlds, alien races, expanding on the flood, I mean the game is packed to the brim with content. If the first game is a lean but fulfilling meal then the second one is an all you can eat buffet. The best of both worlds really and I love how much Halo 1 and 2 support each other in that regard. I spent many hours playing both games and I love them fondly.
Halo 2. I agree with you that H4 also introduces a lot of the newer expanded universe. I know it wasn’t part of your question, but Halo 2 did a much better job showing the universe, whereas in H4, most of what we learn about the history of the Forerunner/Flood War comes via a big exposition dump from the Librarian.
Well, objectively speaking, Halo 2. It basically added 80% of the lore as we know it. Halo CE was great, and had a few vague references, but there wasn't any deep lore behind it. Hell, Master Chief was still a Cyborg at the time >!and yes, Spartans are still vaguely Cyborgish, I know, but let's be honest, we all know that it was implied very differently in the first game!<.
But Greg Bear's Forerunner Trilogy was also a **huge** deal for Halo. And yes, the "new" Forerunner lore is actually better than the original. >!Forerunners as a separate but related to humans species is actually better in many ways.!<
As far as understanding the universe as it is, 2 showed us from 2 different perspectives and introduced the most expanded lore. Ce and 3 were more narrowly focused. 4 kinda just rewrote a lot of things 3 established but gave greater context to the universe before everything happened. I’m certain humans were forerunner like spark said.
Halo 2. Halo Reach and Halo CE were books before the first game. Halo 2 was originally Halo 2 + Halo 3 and it was only unveiled because of the sales of the first game and Microsoft pressure. Halo 2 was the first appearance of many factions and character points. And Halo 3 just rolled over the finish line with the continuation of Halo 2. You can argue Halo 4 did the same thing but the Forerunners were already established in Halo 3 and the terminals.
CE explains almost nothing about the UNSC, COvenant, Spartans, Reach, Keyes, Cortana, Chief, etc. It does almost nothing to develop the universe outside of just introducing it as a thing that exists at all.
Every other Halo game expands the universe more then CE does
CE begins In Media Res, and we learn things as the Chief does.
So, what do we learn?
We're on a human warship, being pursued by hostile aliens we're at war with (and the war seems to be going badly). You control a Cyborg Super-Soldier called the Master Chief and your mission is to protect Cortana, the POA's AI because she has knowledge of Earth's location, which we don't want the Covenant to know about. We leave the ship in an escape pod crash-land onto an artificial ring-world.
So far, so good!
We learn that the ringworld as an Earth-like environment, and its monolithic structures appear to be deserted. When we rescue Captain Keyes from the Truth and Reconciliation, we discover that the Covenant call the Ring Halo and that they believe it to be a weapon. We also learnt that Covenant architecture tends to be smooth, round and bulbous.
At the halfway point, we discover that the Ring is a containment facility for a dangerous parasitic organism called the Flood, which are capable of hijacking an intelligent lifeform's body, mutating them into a form that suits them and assimilating all their knowledge, such as how to use guns, or more importantly, how to operate and repair technology.
We encounter Guilty Spark, who calls the Chief Reclaimer and for some reason, mistakes the Chief for the same man who activated the Ring one-hundred thousand years ago. We learn that the Chief is authorized to use the Index, the key to Halo's primary weapon. And we learn from Cortana that Halo is a great doomsday weapon that will annihilate all sentient life in the Galaxy.
What else? From Guilty Spark, we learn that the Forerunners used Power Armor similar to the Chief's but called Combat Skins and they had a classification system for them.
Halo CE explains a lot, it's just hidden in the details and easily missed if you don't pay attention.
To be clear i'm not saying CE is bad or anything for not explaining that stuff, the minimalism works within the context of the story it's trying to tell
But it's just not correct to say it expands or develops the universe more then the other Halo games.
It's telling a very tight, minimalist story that's not concerned with the wider universe outside of the reveal with the flood. There's nothing wrong with that, but we should be honest about what it actually did/is doing
Fireteam Raven, obviously
No question, Halo 2 and 4. There’s just so much content packed into those games and they expose it to you very very quickly. Halo 2 fleshes out the entirety of the covenant in like the first 5 minutes of the game. You learn about additional species, everyone’s role within the covenant, elite honor, political powers, military rankings, pecking order, etc. And again, thats only within the first 5 minutes, not even including the introduction of Gravemind and all that entails. 4 is similar. It’s much more of a slow burn rather than thrusting you into the middle of everything though. The Didact, the librarian, light forerunner culture, composers, ancient flood history, ancient humanity, prometheans, etc. Granted, some of these topics were first established in books but then it sorta becomes the whole chicken versus the egg thought experiment. Yes, the books came out first but they also wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for the games. So I feel like it’s fair to say they “introduced” them even if it’s not *exactly* true.
I would LOVE to see another Halo game like Halo 2, with that level of worldbuilding! Unfortunately, giving us all that delicious information and answering questions we didn't even know we had doesn't fit the pattern of drip-feed, mystery box storytelling that everyone uses these days.
>4 is similar. It’s much more of a slow burn rather than thrusting you into the middle of everything though. I'm not sure how this is true given 90% of the lore and narrative context in 4 is just dumped to you in a giant cutscene with the librarian. People are very wrong when they say 4 requires the books to be understood. But that doesn't mean 4 has good writing (in fact, I think the actual execution of it's ideas is worse then 5's, even if 4 has much better narrative and thematic concepts then 5 does)
I wouldn’t say 90%. You’re left to ruminate on most of the things I mentioned. You’re given hints to everything before then via dialogue and terminals. She just elaborates on it all, providing some extra details and explaining the lingering questions that are setup prior. It’s the end of a build up. Here are some questions the game throws at you before chief encounters her: Who is the Didact? Prometheans were humans but how? Why was the Didact imprisoned? Just to name a few off the top of my head. She just answers these questions. It’s not like this information comes out of nowhere. The entire game before that scene helps set it up
The best part is reading Primordium and then being more confused than most when the Didact shows up.
> People are very wrong when they say 4 requires the books to be understood I might be misremembering but isn't the whole thing with the Didact and the changes from Halo 3 not really ever explained? Don't you need to read the novels to figure out there are two of him?
I mean, nothing in the Halo 3 terminals said the Didact there liked humanity or anything. Even if you don't know the Ur Didact and Iso Didact aren't the same person, nothing about how the Didact is characterized in Halo 4 contradicts that. It might seem out of left field, but its not overtly inconsistent. The Halo 4 terminals also do explain/show the Didact's downfall into increasing hostility
>I mean, nothing in the Halo 3 terminals said the Didact there liked humanity or anything. It's kind of funny, but the Halo 3 terminals and the Iris Campaign imply that Earth and humanity are a recent discovery but significant enough for the Didact to know the Librarian is there due to the small, vague hints she gives him. The Forerunner Saga could be said to be inspired by the Halo 3 Terminals, but those books take a lot of liberties with it. Personally, I liked the idea that the Librarian didn't discover Earth until the final years of the war, because it's blind luck that humanity was discovered and preserved on the Ark. It's pretty chilling that we could have perished alongside the rest of the Galaxy, if not for the random, cosmic coincidence of being discovered in the eleventh hour.
> even if 4 has much better narrative and thematic concepts then 5 does) “MaYbE I aM ThE MaChINe” Halo 4 is literally soap opera tier mellow drama.
I mean, as I said, I agree the actual writing and execution in 4 isn't good, but the base concepts of Chief trapped alone on an alien planet with an increasingly rampant Cortana, and exploring Chief's pysche more especially as a parallels to the Prometheans being robotic, etc are all good ideas.
>“MaYbE I aM ThE MaChINe” If you have to explain the theme of the story, then you've failed to tell the story properly.
Crazy how halo 2’s story got even casual’s to understand the gist of all the covenants politics in 5 minutes but halo 4 left everyone who didn’t read the forerunner trilogy walking away wondering wtf just happened.
I actually just played 4 from start to finish yesterday and honestly i feel like i have a good understanding of what happened even though i havent read the books. Only this i was confused about is composers and the origin of the diadact wasnt really fleshed out.
I'd argue that while halo 4 did adequately set up the 343 trilogy, it actually regressed the universe (from the Bungie trilogy) as it contained numerous retcons and art styles changes that it wasn't even the same feel or storyline as the originals.
Somewhat of a different feel, maybe but storyline? It directly continues off of Halo 3. It’s not like 343 came in and completely went a different direction. They used some basic outlines and premises that bungie planned to use if they ever developed Halo 4. I love Halo 4, I don’t think it regressed anything. It helped introduce some very very compelling stuff.
In the original trilogy, Forerunners were meant to be ancient humans. That’s why humans can so effortlessly use forerunner technology, why Miranda was needed by Tartarus in Halo 2, and why Johnson was needed by Truth in Halo 3. Halo 2 wasn’t what Bungie intended due to time limitations, but the Arbiter was intended to find a forerunner sarcophagus in which contained human remains, and its that truth that was meant to cause a wide schism. Throughout Halo CE’s level the Library, Guilty Spark speaks to you as if you are Forerunner. He inquires about your choice of weaponry and armour, because he expects you to use far better. When Spark was retorted by cortana at the start of Two Betrayals he wasn’t being deceitful, he legitimately thought that Chief knew all he was talking about because he thought Chief was Forerunner. In Halo 3 he outright spells it out at the end when he says “You are Forerunner”, it’s meant to be this grand reveal. And then… Halo 4 retcons it all and makes the Forerunner an alien species. I’m glad you are able to enjoy its story and I’m aware that 343 had made a few books elaborating on Forerunner lore shortly before, and as compelling as the stuff might be, the decisions made certainly damaged the franchise in my eyes and in the eyes of some others. I am of the mind that it really cheapens the Forerunner mystery and having retcons of such scale that have to be danced around with the Librarian implanting geas in humans to allow them to inherit Forerunner technology is, in my humble opinion, an awkward solution to a problem that did not need to exist.
> In Halo 3 he outright spells it out at the end when he says “You are Forerunner”, it’s meant to be this grand reveal. "You are the child of my Makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... is mine!" So, you're metaphorically Forerunner, even though you're biologically not, but this does not give him a reason to disobey you. He just wants to. ...how is that spelling out a grand reveal?
Because it's what Bungie intended, and voiced, time and time again? Look, to be honest, I'm not going to bother arguing it. If stating factually-correct information and following it up with an opinion in regards to what it did to the lore warrants downvoting on a subreddit meant to discuss the lore of this franchise, there is nothing I can say that will convince anyone. Ultimately, there's a reason why Halo is kind of a dead franchise now, and has been falling off since Halo 4.
> Because it's what Bungie intended, and voiced, time and time again? They didn't though. Marty O'Donnell wanted them to be, but his co-writers and team didn't all agree. There's also people like Eric Nylund, which had his own ideas, and a lot of impact on the lore of the franchise - but zero actual creative input on the games or the bungie team, because he was a "microsoft guy" and they didn't like "corporate interference" to their ideas. Which were an inconsistent mess of retcons with nobody actually in charge of lore. Staten, O'Donnell, and Frankie weren't writers but took on the role anyway because that's just who was available. They all had their own ideas on how things should be. If the Halo 2 ending had been all time constraints, then they'd have opened Halo 3 with it. Perfect opportunity to tie in with the portal at voi. GS's dialogue in 1 implies it, but he's also talking to Suddenly British Cortana who claims the Rings don't actually damage the Flood cells in any way. Both of the next games contradict all 3 of those things. The terminals for 3 say that humans and forerunners are completely separate, and with GS' full line that's the theme the game goes for. The Halo 2 possibility is fully abandoned. It's far from the only thing, we certainly don't see any Forerunner Tanks running around for example.
>Staten, O'Donnell, and Frankie weren't writers but took on the role anyway because that's just who was available. Joseph Staten *is* a writer. He was the Lead Writer for Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 ODST, he wrote Contact Harvest and Shadow of Intent, and he worked on Halo 3 and Reach, even if he wasn't the lead anymore. Marty O'Donell and Frankie O'Connor aren't writers, I grant you, but what you mean, Staten wasn't?
In dev commentaries he talks about having a team lead role and working on cinematics and directing. I don't think he was hired for writing initially
The entire forerunner reveal and allegory for Genesis set up by the original trilogy was retconned. Like since halo CE they were dropping hints with halo 3's campaign confirming it (alongside Contact Harvest written by Joe Staten) and the terminals/IRIS supporting the idea that humanity were the original forerunners who weren't uplifted by the precursors. IRIS for example contains a section on how humanity could have been alien castaways. https://www.halopedia.org/Terminal_(Halo_3) Production notes where Bungie members state their intentions with 343 guilty spark's you are forerunner (it was meant to be taken literally) and explanation of the eden terminal. Halo 3 terminals almost got completely retconned themselves too. It's a dead horse but need to be brought up when we discuss the reclaimer trilogy. It does weaken the source material it continues.
The same halo 3 that says forerunners weren’t humans?
Halo 3 does say that the Forerunners are human. It's the endgame reveal. Oh, are you referring to the Halo 3 Terminals and Iris Campaign? It's funny, nowhere in the Terminals or Iris Campaign are the primitive humans on Earth referred to as another species by the Librarian. She always refers to them as 'they' or 'them' or 'inhabitants' and 'denizens'. Sure, if you were to ignore the story of the games, ignore the Iris Campaign and ignore the books and look at the Terminals purely in isolation, then yes, I'd agree that it says that the Forerunners aren't human. but when you take into account everything else, no; it just shows us that two independent groups of humans at two different stages of cultural and technological development (the forerunners and the primitive humans of Earth) are meeting each other for the first time. In real life, we still have people living in primitive, tribal communities. They're different from me in terms of culture, lifestyle and living conditions, but they're still as human as me. And the Librarian in the Halo 3 Terminals is just as human as those primitives she discovers on Earth.
Read terminal production notes like in my comment before dismissing my point. You're incorrect, the terminal writers had a separate idea for the forerunners than the campaign. The campaign writers intended humanity to be the descendants of forerunners (presented in that halopedia article) while terminals had the humanity as the long lost homeworld of the forerunners, that was rediscovered at the end of the flood war (also presented in the halopedia article) Halo 3 terminals : all forerunners are human but not all humans are forerunner of that makes sense In both cases humanity were forerunner. The terminals don't outright say anything that says humans aren't forerunners. Just that earth and humanity were discovered at the end of the flood war by the forerunners. Hell it actually is something deep rooted in halo lore, the cortana letters which is pre halo lore had the SolCore finding indigenous human life on other planets and that idea was reused for the halo 3 terminals. C3 saber tooth has a video where he goes much more in depth (if you ignore all the frank o connor and 343 bashin). I'm trying to clear this weird community misconception that's all.
I'd argue that while this guy (you, I'm replying to) are being a little dramatic with your language with saying that it "regressed the universe", I think it is ridiculous people are downvoting you. The "You are Forerunner" line has been a huge retcon that many fans have been simply okay with handwaving away with the fact that Spark was going rampant. It's a pretty lazy excuse for not following somewhat already established lore. I'm also personally fine with the Forerunner/Human divide in the following 343 media, I just eyeroll anytime I replay Halo 3 and look at terminals or get to that cutscene with Spark that lore wasn't really being followed in the upcoming games.
> The "You are Forerunner" line has been a huge retcon that many fans have been simply okay with handwaving away with the fact that Spark was going rampant. It's a pretty lazy excuse for not following somewhat already established lore. Everyone always refers to that line - but the line is "You are the child of my Makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... is mine!" That... says the opposite. Why does nobody ever quote the inheritor of all they left behind part? That's all but saying they're *not* the same? Bungie themselves couldn't decide one way or another but as a finished product 3 itself is pretty firmly on the side of them being separate.
James Greisner confirmed that the intention was to be that humans were forerunner from that line. Also Bungie wasn't divided, that's untrue, there was a mild disconnect onto HOW the forerunners and humans were related. Paul Russel confirmed that the people he knew on the terminal team still thought humans and forerunners were related, just not as direct descendants. (Funnily enough current lore is a very very very lose interpretation of this) It seems my comment got completely ignored lol. Also you're reading too much into inheritor, like I'm the inheritor of my father's legacy, it just means i'm his descendant. Gravemind even says that a fathers sims are passed down to his sons in the game. Truth likewise says this time none of you will be left behind, because big bungie was working with the idea that humans were left behind forerunners.
They couldn't agree on how humans are Forerunner because they needed it to work with our own real-world history because, as C3 Sabertooth says in his video, Halo is Science-fiction and sci-fi asks the question: "Given what we know, what could be?" Given what we know, humans evolved on Earth and ancient humans never travelled the stars, so how could humans be Forerunner? The Forerunners being castaways from Earth is really the best explanation, as it doesn't require too many mental gymnastics to justify. It also feels right, like something Bungie writers would come up with; the Terminal writers took inspiration from Marathon, and it's pretty clear that the relationship between humanity and the Forerunners is meant to mirror the relationship between the S'pht and the S'pht'Kr.
Bro exactly.
I'd say the "You are Forerunner" part of the statement is the least vague. What else would Spark mean by saying that?
...context exists and changes the meaning of words. That's how it works. It means metaphorically you are indistinguishable from a Forerunner, particularly in means of command and he should *not* be disobeying a direct order. However, he doesn't care because he's not going to lose another ring. None of that means you are biologically Forerunner.
You're right, context exists. When we play the Halo games, we're in the big green armor of the Master Chief, so we learn everything as he learns. So, what do we learn, throughout all the games? Humans are called Reclaimer, meaning we are supposed to reclaim (regain possession of) something. Humans can activate Forerunner technology with our dna and we also seem to have an instinctive understanding of how to operate this technology. Guilty Spark also seems to mistake the Chief for the same Forerunner who activated the rings 100,000 years ago and is confused about why the Chief is ignorant of Halo's purpose. His attitude changes, however, when he accesses the POA's databanks and studies human history, which he refers to "our lost time." On High Charity, the Chief encounters a dying Prophet of Mercy, who tells him that Truth is going to Earth, to "finish what we started. And this time, none of you, will be left behind." He means that Truth is going to the Ark to activate the rings and send all worthy believers onto the Great Journey. This is interesting, because the way he's talking, he seems to think that humans were around the last time the rings were activated and they were left behind, but this time, they'll join with the Covenant on the Great Journey. And then, when the Chief returns to Earth, it's to discover the Portal to the Ark, located in Africa and built by the Forerunners 100,000 years ago, supposedly around the time when ancient humans migrated out of Africa. I could include Truth's rant to Johnson about humanity being unworthy, weak and being left behind by their forefathers, but the Chief wasn't present for that, so let's ignore it for now. When the Chief enters the Flood-infected High Charity, the Gravemind says this to him: "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness, a father's sins passes to his son." And the Chief also accesses the Terminals, where he learns about Mendicant Bias, who gives the Forerunners his chilling but epic "Welcome back to the stone age, vermin" speech. He also learns about the Librarians journey to Earth, where she discovers a group of primitive humans, whom she is careful to avoid calling another species, only referring to them as 'they' or 'them' or 'inhabitants.' So, taking all of this into account, it's pretty clear to me that in context, Guilty Spark is literally calling the Chief a Forerunner. I should hope so, at least: if I've spent the last 25 years not understanding context or set up and payoff in stories, then I'd be pretty embarrassed, I must admit.
I'm sorry, but I can easily see an interpretation (mine) where Spark was being entirely literal with that line, where pre 343 acquisition he genuinely meant that humans were forerunners.
Definitely am a little bit lol, I just really like the genesis allegory. I'm in the same camp, I don't care that forerunner are aliens except for the fact that the setup was the opposite back in the original trilogy. This sub is a forerunner trilogy circlejerk I kinda expect downvotes, it's really funny considering any criticism of it gets downvoted despite being factually correct, I legit presented sources and no response from any nay sayers because they don't have anything to actually respond with so they just downvote.
Guilty spark was not rampant under the original Bungie definition. Rampancy as a term was retconned by Frank O'Connor and 343. The original bungee version of infancy was closer to the marathon version, and with more closer to you and AI gaining sentients. This can be seen in contact harvest and the Halo 3 terminals. While the 343 version is Ai get angry and such.
Doesn't that just show 343 further changing mechanics to suit what kind of story they want to tell?
No it shows 343 disregarding the previously established lore to tell the story they want to tell. But in all actuality Frank O'Connor was not qualified for his position and knew jackshit about Halo lore. Like the Forerunner trilogy is a bastardization of the terminal story.
I've often said this, but I think that Halo 4 is a great sequel to the Forerunner Saga but fails as a sequel to Halo 3. As a sequel, it needs to follow up from the events of the previous game and the only thing that Halo 4 got right was that the Chief and Cortana were drifting towards an unknown planet. But everything else is wrong, imho. Halo 3 ended with the collapse of the Covenant, Humans barely surviving the war and needing to rebuild, and the Forerunners revealed to be Humans. In Halo 4, we come under attack from a Covenant remnant led by the Elites and there's no good explanation, the UNSC somehow have the resources and industry to build this big, spanking warship that's powerful enough solo an entire Covenant battlegroup, and we meet an actual, living Forerunner who looks nothing like a Human. So, anyone playing the games and only the games are going to be very confused. But people who've read the Forerunner Saga and loved it will love Halo 4, because it's the perfect sequel to those books. These same people hated Halo 5 because that game threw out everything that the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 set up; the way I see it, the Forerunner Saga and Halo 4 don't mesh well with the story of the Original Trilogy, so it's hard to think of them as proper follow-ups. >They used some basic outlines and premises that bungie planned to use if they ever developed Halo 4. Personally, I think that if Bungie made Halo 4 instead of Halo Reach, it would have looked an awful lot like Destiny. It's just crazy to me how easily destiny's setting slots into the setting of Halo's post-war Universe. Think about it: the UNSC colonized the Galaxy (the Golden Age), until the Covenant came and wiped them out (the Collapse), but for a few survivors on Earth (The Last City), ready to rebuild and reclaim what they lost. Considering Bungie's habit of recycling story ideas throughout their games, I wouldn't be surprised that whatever ideas they considered for Halo 4 were then reworked for Destiny's original story. The OG story for Destiny was going to be about recovering the Warmind Rasputin; swap out Rasputin for Mendicant Bias, and it seems to me that the best direction for Halo to go after Halo 3 would be the Chief and Cortana trying to reactivate Mendicant Bias to protect Humanity from either a new alien Civilization or a Covenant Remnant. The drama of the story could be about them knowing that Mendicant Bias betrayed the Forerunners but feeling they have no choice but to activate him because of how vulnerable Humanity is to their enemies.
wah wah mah art styles, says the halo reach fan
Halo Reach is peak Atheistic
I like all the halo game artstyles from between 2001-2010.
Yeah, me too. I don't understand why people on this sub keep trying to make us feel ashamed for liking the things we do. The fact is, if it wasn't for Bungie and the stellar work they did on the games, then 343I wouldn't have a fanbase to make games for.
Honestly, I think Halo Reach has the best art style in the series, and I feel no shame in saying so.
regardless of how u feel it is extremely hypocritical lmao
What am I being hypocritical about? I like halo Reach's art style and dislike Halo 4's. I can recognize that people can have different tastes from me without being upset about it.
complaining about how halo 4s art style changes made the game have a different feel than the original when halo reach changes almost every part about the art style just like 4 does….
I didn't make that complaint; you've got me mixed up with someone else. All I said is that I think Reach has the best art style and I didn't like Halo 4's. It was a swing and a miss for me. Pretty much every Halo game had a different art style from each other. Halo CE is different from Halo 2, while Halo 3 is a further refinement of Halo 2's style, and yes, Halo Reach changed things too, making things more toned down and gritty.
lmao my bad dude, i get what youre saying i still just think regardless of your opinion on the art styles just because you dont like halo 4s doesnt mean you can use art style as a critique because its different than the originals
4? c'mon dude 4 is when the MBA/marketing/Accounting majors took over.
Halo 2
CE, 2 and 4. Arguably ODST, for civilian things.
And Halo 3 ODST was the same area introduced in Halo 2 and later Halo 3.
Halo 2
Halo wars showed a bit more of the expanded covenant and later the banished also Forge was such a badass character
Halo 2 no doubt, the first game was isolated to the event on installation 04 and Halo 2 expanded into the full universe.
Halo 2 is simply the objectively correct answer here. It's not even a contest.
As far as the pirmary content of the game, i would agree halo 2. But if you include terminals/other hidden lore its halo 3 easily, its terminals were the basis for everything forerunner. They inspired halo 4 and the books by greg bear and kelly gay, first showed the forerunner flood war and characters like the didact, librarian, and mendicant bias, and was even the first time forerunners were revealed to be their own entire species and culture rather than being ancient humans
Halo 2 by very far
Halo 2
Probably Halo CE
Halo 2 no contest.
4 dropped way more lore
4 was built upon 2s foundation.
And 2 was built upon CE's foundation
CE started it but i think Halo 2 and 4 were biggest lore dumps
Agreed. Halo: CE was the Big Bang of the Halo Universe.
Halo 2 was the game to take the scifi alien a steric and take it into a whole new world of theology and politics. Halo four for sure added a lot of info but Halo 2 is undoubtedly the game that made the Halo series Halo
This might be controversial but I'd say halo 5, almost every mission was on a new planet, instead of 1 maybe 2 set locations
seeing how the arbiter was changing elite society post covenant was really cool to see
That doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about Halo 5 to dispute it. /s this is *mostly* a joke.
I think Halo 5 had the biggest potential but it felt squandered, especially in comparison to Halo 2. I just wish they would've taken the time to go into the lore instead of just flashing glimpses into our faces and then... well I think everyone know the who Locke vs Chief fight... they could've done so much more with the story telling
Definitely Halo 2 when it comes to the Bungie universe. As for the 343 universe, it's hard to pick any of them because the universe feels so detached with each game. Halo 4 has the most background buildup of 343's new universe, but Halo 5 I'd argue is what most of the games in 343's universe are directly affected by with Halo Wars 2 and Halo Infinite feeling the affects still of Halo 5's story
Halo 2, definitely. But Halo 3 would come at a close second, as it gives us the answer to what is hidden beneath New Mombasa, which was only ever hinted at in Halo 2, the Portal to the Ark. The Halo 3 Terminals also give us a small insight into the final days of the Forerunners, as well as the final reveal at the end when Guilty Spark tells us the truth of our connection to the Forerunners. Halo 2 fleshed out the Universe the most with its energetic world-building, but it's in Halo 3 when we finally understand the 'big picture' and all the underlying themes of the story are tied together in a neat bow.
2. reach or 4 are also good
Reach did the opposite it blew a giant whole in the lore that they had to retcon a fuck ton of stuff.
We've reached a point where people who grew up playing games are now old enough to be working on the sequels in the same series. While very good in many cases, this has lead to somw titles feeling... I dunno, disjointed and a little fan-fictioney. I liked Halo 4. I loved Halos 1-3. Halo 4 felt like okay-ish fan fiction. Edit to add: I would have loved if Halo 4 opened with a backstory on the Didact and some interactions with the ancient Humans rather than that intro with Halsey. Halo 4 definitely did expand the universe, but it relied too heavily on people knowing some things from the expanded media. This left me who did read some expanded media disappointed at the execution, and left others who don't feeling like they were missing a lot and some characters and plot points were shoehorned in.
The obvious answer is Halo 2. It's a bit cheesy and cliché but for analogy sake: it is Halo's Empire Strikes Back. CE is New Hope, takes mostly place in one major location, is pretty self contained. 2 opens up the universe and does so spectacularly. The first cutscenes alone are almost more world building than the whole of CE and H3 did combined. It obviously couldn't do it without the foundation laid in CE. No other Halo game has achieved that same level again.
Halo 2 landed on the foundation that the first game made and built a cathedral of lore that became the backbone of the franchise. I mean it gave us so much information to chew on cause it had the ambition to explore different themes, characters, the structure of the covenant and the politics that started the war. Different worlds, alien races, expanding on the flood, I mean the game is packed to the brim with content. If the first game is a lean but fulfilling meal then the second one is an all you can eat buffet. The best of both worlds really and I love how much Halo 1 and 2 support each other in that regard. I spent many hours playing both games and I love them fondly.
Spartan Assault and it's not even close
Halo 2. I agree with you that H4 also introduces a lot of the newer expanded universe. I know it wasn’t part of your question, but Halo 2 did a much better job showing the universe, whereas in H4, most of what we learn about the history of the Forerunner/Flood War comes via a big exposition dump from the Librarian.
Halo 2 no question. It built the entire universe. CE was the tip of the iceberg. Halo 2 WAS the iceberg.
I agree, it's Halo 2.
h2/h4
Halo 2. Even more so if you’re like me who didn’t read the early books and all the information you had was from the game.
Halo 2
Well, objectively speaking, Halo 2. It basically added 80% of the lore as we know it. Halo CE was great, and had a few vague references, but there wasn't any deep lore behind it. Hell, Master Chief was still a Cyborg at the time >!and yes, Spartans are still vaguely Cyborgish, I know, but let's be honest, we all know that it was implied very differently in the first game!<. But Greg Bear's Forerunner Trilogy was also a **huge** deal for Halo. And yes, the "new" Forerunner lore is actually better than the original. >!Forerunners as a separate but related to humans species is actually better in many ways.!<
Halo 2 did the most for sure.
Halo 2 no doubt.
As far as understanding the universe as it is, 2 showed us from 2 different perspectives and introduced the most expanded lore. Ce and 3 were more narrowly focused. 4 kinda just rewrote a lot of things 3 established but gave greater context to the universe before everything happened. I’m certain humans were forerunner like spark said.
Halo 2. Halo Reach and Halo CE were books before the first game. Halo 2 was originally Halo 2 + Halo 3 and it was only unveiled because of the sales of the first game and Microsoft pressure. Halo 2 was the first appearance of many factions and character points. And Halo 3 just rolled over the finish line with the continuation of Halo 2. You can argue Halo 4 did the same thing but the Forerunners were already established in Halo 3 and the terminals.
Halo 2 and Halo 4
Reach fucked it up the most.
CE. can’t develop something that doesn’t exist
CE explains almost nothing about the UNSC, COvenant, Spartans, Reach, Keyes, Cortana, Chief, etc. It does almost nothing to develop the universe outside of just introducing it as a thing that exists at all. Every other Halo game expands the universe more then CE does
CE begins In Media Res, and we learn things as the Chief does. So, what do we learn? We're on a human warship, being pursued by hostile aliens we're at war with (and the war seems to be going badly). You control a Cyborg Super-Soldier called the Master Chief and your mission is to protect Cortana, the POA's AI because she has knowledge of Earth's location, which we don't want the Covenant to know about. We leave the ship in an escape pod crash-land onto an artificial ring-world. So far, so good! We learn that the ringworld as an Earth-like environment, and its monolithic structures appear to be deserted. When we rescue Captain Keyes from the Truth and Reconciliation, we discover that the Covenant call the Ring Halo and that they believe it to be a weapon. We also learnt that Covenant architecture tends to be smooth, round and bulbous. At the halfway point, we discover that the Ring is a containment facility for a dangerous parasitic organism called the Flood, which are capable of hijacking an intelligent lifeform's body, mutating them into a form that suits them and assimilating all their knowledge, such as how to use guns, or more importantly, how to operate and repair technology. We encounter Guilty Spark, who calls the Chief Reclaimer and for some reason, mistakes the Chief for the same man who activated the Ring one-hundred thousand years ago. We learn that the Chief is authorized to use the Index, the key to Halo's primary weapon. And we learn from Cortana that Halo is a great doomsday weapon that will annihilate all sentient life in the Galaxy. What else? From Guilty Spark, we learn that the Forerunners used Power Armor similar to the Chief's but called Combat Skins and they had a classification system for them. Halo CE explains a lot, it's just hidden in the details and easily missed if you don't pay attention.
Wym CE gives us everything, Ring go boom, We good, Covenant bad, Flood very very bad, I’d say thats peak
To be clear i'm not saying CE is bad or anything for not explaining that stuff, the minimalism works within the context of the story it's trying to tell But it's just not correct to say it expands or develops the universe more then the other Halo games. It's telling a very tight, minimalist story that's not concerned with the wider universe outside of the reveal with the flood. There's nothing wrong with that, but we should be honest about what it actually did/is doing
I’m not either I was making a joke
Halo 2. I don’t take anything after reach serious.