Posts belonging to Category The Halo World

Remember Reach. Quite a fitting phrase for Bungie’s grand finale, Halo Reach. All the hardcore Halo fans will be dismayed to know that this is the final game in the epic Halo series (well, as far as we know anyway). Halo Reach has lots of new additions compared to its predecessors’ including new maps, armour abilities and of course, a new storyline and characters. As Halo Reach is technically a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, Master Chief has not come into action yet, so you play as Noble Team, A group of genetically augmented super soldiers known as Spartans who have been sent on an unforeseeable mission to defend planet Reach. You mainly play as Noble six, an unnamed rookie who has assigned to Noble team. Halo reach also has a new game mode called firefight. Any Halo fan will have played the firefight game mode on Halo 3 ODST but this is a just a glimpse of what Reach has to offer. It is without doubt the best Halo game in the epic series.

Ign score: ‘Master piece’ 10/10

Gamespot score: Editors Choice 9.5/10

We all love the Halo games, but they can only give us so much of Halo’s elaborate story. That’s where the Halo novels come into play. The novels reach back, forward and in between the Halo games, providing an in depth look into the Halo universe. Bungie has gone through extreme measures to keep us Halo fanatics on our toes; keeping fresh and intriguing pieces to the puzzle at our fingertips. The Halo novels themselves are around 340 pages long and are relatively accurate as far as the story is concerned.

The first book, Halo: The Fall of Reach, is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. It goes all the way back to the recruiting of John-117 (Master Chief) and effectively starts the story of Halo.

The second book is titled Halo: The Flood and is a novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved and takes place in the year 2552. It’s the recollection of the events that took place in Combat Evolved.

Halo: First Strike is the third installation of the Halo novels and covers the events occurring prior to Halo 2. The book answers many questions Halo fans had including what happened to the spartans on Reach and how sargeant Johnson survived the Flood. It’s arguably the most inconsistent of the 7 novels.

The 4th Halo book, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, is a bit of a side story. It’s plot kind of jumps around from as early as 2531 to as late as 2552. It covers the widespread effort of the UNSC to develop a very large fleet of Spartan Warriors. It’s the first of the Halo Books to not include Spartan John-117, however is very well connected to the Halo story in all.

Halo: Contact Harvest is the 5th novel and takes place in 2525. It is the true beginning of the Halo story as it introduces the first contact between Covenant and Human forces. Sargeant Johnson plays the main role in the book, once again leaving Spartan hero John-117 out of the picture.

The 6th novel in the series is titled Halo: The Cole Protocol. It is the first appearance of the Gray Team and tells the in depth story of the UNSC’s initial efforts to prevent the Covenant from discovering Earth. Captain Keyes is inserted back into battle with the sole intent on protecting the location of Earth. There are several award winning authors behind the making of The Cole Protocol promising an excellent continuation of the series’ captivating nature.

The most recent of the Halo books is Halo: Evolutions. It too is a combined effort of many critically acclaimed authors. Evolutions is a compilation of many Halo stories that effectively fill in the blanks that cloud up the Halo story. It’s a rather appropriate end to the series of novels, but no word of it being the last has been heard.

The Halo book series is a great addition to the Halo experience and is recommended to everyone from the most avid fanatics to newcomers alike. It, for the most part, has been positively accepted by Halo fans and critics as a great addition to the Halo Universe.

Get yourself a copy of any of them and give them a try.

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