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Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 5:19am
5
Getting into Halo's Story
Hey all, I have the Master Chief Collection, and I was wondering what Halo game I should play to get the most lore/story coming off of the Amazon Season 2?

I don't want to start with the original if I don't have too. I am looking for something that is story intensive and also graphically decent by today's standards. I also don't mind reading up on lore gaps.
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Originally posted by countgrey:
To be clear, Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 are all tied together because they're direct continuations of an ongoing story. While you've mentioned you don't like how Halo CE feels (it hasn't aged well), it arguably contains the most central lore of the entire series. As such, you may want to watch a Halo CE cutscenes video on YouTube - you'll still get the lore but you'll be able to avoid having to play CE. Honestly speaking, skipping Halo CE is like skipping Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and going right into the 2nd or 3rd part of the series - you'll just be left with lots of questions about what's going on, why do things matter, who is so-and-so and why are they important, etc.

Halo Reach is a prequel, and feels a lot like a more modern game. It's a lot like the movie Rogue One in that it covers some important events, but doesn't actually contain the core lore of the main story. It is also a partial retcon of the novel The Fall of Reach which was released a couple weeks before Halo CE was to help explain some of the lore/backstory of the game.

Halo ODST is essentially a standalone game that overlaps with the timing of Halo 2 and Halo 3. The narrative style is very different from the other Halo games, and some of the mechanics differ too, but the differences make it interesting to many Halo fans.

Halo 4, being the newest of the games in the MCC, is actually one I would argue against playing if you want relevant lore. Part of why Halo 4 is disliked by many fans (aside from the generic feel of it and other mechanics and level design issues) is that it requires a lot of extra lore that isn't present in the game in order for you to understand everything that's going on. Remember, the Halo franchise includes books and comic books, and some of those are basically required reading if you want to know what the heck is happening in Halo 4. To help with that, the developers added a ton of "Terminals" that trigger lore cutscenes in the remastered version of Halo CE (released in late 2011) to help explain some of the lore in Halo 4 (released in late 2012).

As for the Halo games that aren't part of the MCC, Halo 5 was when the developers made a lot of dubious escalating choices about the lore (even more dubious than the choices made in Halo 4). Halo Wars 1 & 2 as well as Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike all have relevant bits of lore, but they don't matter nearly as much as Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite is seen as an attempt to kind of sweep Halo 4 & 5 under the rug, or at least make us focus back on Master Chief again.

Apart from all of the Halo games, the TV show explicitly takes place in an alternate timeline that overlaps that of the various Halo games. So far, Season 1 and 2 overlap with the in-universe timing of Halo Reach and Halo CE. The showrunners have very specifically stated that they borrow various characters from the original franchise, but they've also made some decisions that just don't match with what the established lore is. Again, the TV show is an alt-universe version of the original Halo franchise, with established characters and events being rewritten to further the plot of the TV show, and only loosely resembles the original Halo franchise and lore. You're welcome to play the Halo games, but don't be surprised if what you find out doesn't line up with the TV show.

In the end, your best bet is to watch a YouTube video of all of the cutscenes from Halo CE, or read a summary of it. Like I said earlier, it covers the most critical lore. Then read a few summaries about the other Halo games and you'll understand the core lore of the franchise. If you really want to play a MCC game but refuse to play Halo CE, then play Halo Reach or Halo ODST: they both are modern enough not to feel terrible, and they're relatively self-contained in terms of story, so they're pretty easy to follow.
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Showing 1-15 of 56 comments
Joe Mar 22, 2024 @ 5:37am 
Ok, this might be heavily opinionated and what I know so far.

Treat Amazon's story as a standalone rather than something strictly connected to the lore and story. It's something content wise, but it's not really your strongest source for the lore.

According to its Executive producer "the series is a standalone story that takes place within its own "Silver Timeline" that is separate from and inspired by the core canon and lore of the transmedia franchise rather than a continuation, adaptation, prequel, or sequel". (Quote taken from wikipedia.)

If you want the general lore and not John's lore (according to what I've read), Halopedia is your best source for the general story and go for the novel section first. Want more about John's story, you have to play the games unless you wanna read the rest in the wiki.

Halo Reach's ending is the start of Halo 1 so you may or may not play it. I recommend playing it since I had a fun time with the story but in the end is up to you. Halo ODST from what I remember is also a standalone since like Reach, it focuses from the point of view of your protagonist, "Rookie" while in Reach it's focused on the Noble Team's point of view.

You can also go for the novels but I'm not sure if that's what you're going for.
Last edited by Joe; Mar 22, 2024 @ 5:38am
#1
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 6:43am 
Originally posted by Joe:
Ok, this might be heavily opinionated and what I know so far.

Treat Amazon's story as a standalone rather than something strictly connected to the lore and story. It's something content wise, but it's not really your strongest source for the lore.

According to its Executive producer "the series is a standalone story that takes place within its own "Silver Timeline" that is separate from and inspired by the core canon and lore of the transmedia franchise rather than a continuation, adaptation, prequel, or sequel". (Quote taken from wikipedia.)

If you want the general lore and not John's lore (according to what I've read), Halopedia is your best source for the general story and go for the novel section first. Want more about John's story, you have to play the games unless you wanna read the rest in the wiki.

Halo Reach's ending is the start of Halo 1 so you may or may not play it. I recommend playing it since I had a fun time with the story but in the end is up to you. Halo ODST from what I remember is also a standalone since like Reach, it focuses from the point of view of your protagonist, "Rookie" while in Reach it's focused on the Noble Team's point of view.

You can also go for the novels but I'm not sure if that's what you're going for.

Basically, I want to know which halo game places the most emphasis on story, narrative and lore. I will play that one and fill my lore gaps from a fansite.
#2
DuneToa Mar 22, 2024 @ 7:13am 
Originally posted by Flushing:
Originally posted by Joe:
Ok, this might be heavily opinionated and what I know so far.

Treat Amazon's story as a standalone rather than something strictly connected to the lore and story. It's something content wise, but it's not really your strongest source for the lore.

According to its Executive producer "the series is a standalone story that takes place within its own "Silver Timeline" that is separate from and inspired by the core canon and lore of the transmedia franchise rather than a continuation, adaptation, prequel, or sequel". (Quote taken from wikipedia.)

If you want the general lore and not John's lore (according to what I've read), Halopedia is your best source for the general story and go for the novel section first. Want more about John's story, you have to play the games unless you wanna read the rest in the wiki.

Halo Reach's ending is the start of Halo 1 so you may or may not play it. I recommend playing it since I had a fun time with the story but in the end is up to you. Halo ODST from what I remember is also a standalone since like Reach, it focuses from the point of view of your protagonist, "Rookie" while in Reach it's focused on the Noble Team's point of view.

You can also go for the novels but I'm not sure if that's what you're going for.

Basically, I want to know which halo game places the most emphasis on story, narrative and lore. I will play that one and fill my lore gaps from a fansite.
Based on what others have said, Reach and ODST have the most general lore. I've enjoyed Reach, and it's a good starting point for both the games and the story.
#3
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 7:28am 
Originally posted by DuneToa:
Originally posted by Flushing:

Basically, I want to know which halo game places the most emphasis on story, narrative and lore. I will play that one and fill my lore gaps from a fansite.
Based on what others have said, Reach and ODST have the most general lore. I've enjoyed Reach, and it's a good starting point for both the games and the story.

What are the full names of those titles?

Thank you
#4
rcf5089 Mar 22, 2024 @ 8:20am 
The game with most emphasis on story is Halo 2, but I wouldn't start there. Either start with Reach or the original, Halo CE, or you can read the books. Fall of Reach is where you would start with the books, then read the flood. The book "Halo: The Flood" is a direct novelization of the original game.

In terms of Lore there is a lot that has been changed since 343i took over so depending on where you look you will get different takes that are contradictory. If all you are interested in is the show then neither the books nor games can really help you, as the show is doing its own thing and only loosely based on the source material.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to play Halo CE? Level design gets a bit cookie cutter but game play is solid.
#5
Falleax (Banned) Mar 22, 2024 @ 8:36am 
2
First of all, stop watching the Halo show because it's fan fiction trash that doesn't have anything to do with Halo's actual story.
Secondly, just play the games in release order, don't worry about graphics because the art styles for the classic Halo games look great.
#6
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 9:38am 
Originally posted by rcf5089:
The game with most emphasis on story is Halo 2, but I wouldn't start there. Either start with Reach or the original, Halo CE, or you can read the books. Fall of Reach is where you would start with the books, then read the flood. The book "Halo: The Flood" is a direct novelization of the original game.

In terms of Lore there is a lot that has been changed since 343i took over so depending on where you look you will get different takes that are contradictory. If all you are interested in is the show then neither the books nor games can really help you, as the show is doing its own thing and only loosely based on the source material.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to play Halo CE? Level design gets a bit cookie cutter but game play is solid.

If you're talking about Halo 1, I just couldn't get over how dated the graphics looked.
#7
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 9:41am 
Originally posted by Falleax:
First of all, stop watching the Halo show because it's fan fiction trash that doesn't have anything to do with Halo's actual story.
Secondly, just play the games in release order, don't worry about graphics because the art styles for the classic Halo games look great.

I disagree. I tried the first Halo game and the graphics are extremely dated.

I don't need anything in chronological order, just a Halo game with good story that doesn't look dated from an objective standpoint.
#8
rcf5089 Mar 22, 2024 @ 9:50am 
Originally posted by Flushing:
Originally posted by rcf5089:

...

Is there a particular reason you don't want to play Halo CE? Level design gets a bit cookie cutter but game play is solid.

If you're talking about Halo 1, I just couldn't get over how dated the graphics looked.

Yeah graphics are either really old or just inappropriate. They really need to do an anniversary Take 2 for CE. The older graphics despite having lower polygon count have a better art design, new graphics color pallet and lighting are just way off.

Did you try playing with the original graphics or the new updated version? I wonder if switching between them would help, or if you already tried that I am not sure how to help you other than saying to either read the books or get past the old graphics. Fortunately Halo 2 Anniversary did a much better job with the remaster.
Last edited by rcf5089; Mar 22, 2024 @ 10:17am
#9
Falleax (Banned) Mar 22, 2024 @ 9:50am 
Originally posted by Flushing:
Originally posted by Falleax:
First of all, stop watching the Halo show because it's fan fiction trash that doesn't have anything to do with Halo's actual story.
Secondly, just play the games in release order, don't worry about graphics because the art styles for the classic Halo games look great.

I disagree. I tried the first Halo game and the graphics are extremely dated.

I don't need anything in chronological order, just a Halo game with good story that doesn't look dated from an objective standpoint.
If you can't appreciate a game because of it's graphics you really shouldn't be playing games, limiting yourself so heavily is bad for you. Plus you need to play the games in release order to appreciate the story because otherwise you're not going to know what's going on, you wouldn't read the third book in a series and skip the first two, would you?
#10
Midas Mar 22, 2024 @ 10:07am 
Originally posted by Flushing:
Originally posted by rcf5089:
The game with most emphasis on story is Halo 2, but I wouldn't start there. Either start with Reach or the original, Halo CE, or you can read the books. Fall of Reach is where you would start with the books, then read the flood. The book "Halo: The Flood" is a direct novelization of the original game.

In terms of Lore there is a lot that has been changed since 343i took over so depending on where you look you will get different takes that are contradictory. If all you are interested in is the show then neither the books nor games can really help you, as the show is doing its own thing and only loosely based on the source material.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to play Halo CE? Level design gets a bit cookie cutter but game play is solid.

If you're talking about Halo 1, I just couldn't get over how dated the graphics looked.

You know they redid the graphics for CE right? They basically brought 1 and 2 up to a bit past 3 in terms of graphics.
#11
Joe Mar 22, 2024 @ 10:46am 
Originally posted by Flushing:
Originally posted by Joe:
Ok, this might be heavily opinionated and what I know so far.

Treat Amazon's story as a standalone rather than something strictly connected to the lore and story. It's something content wise, but it's not really your strongest source for the lore.

According to its Executive producer "the series is a standalone story that takes place within its own "Silver Timeline" that is separate from and inspired by the core canon and lore of the transmedia franchise rather than a continuation, adaptation, prequel, or sequel". (Quote taken from wikipedia.)

If you want the general lore and not John's lore (according to what I've read), Halopedia is your best source for the general story and go for the novel section first. Want more about John's story, you have to play the games unless you wanna read the rest in the wiki.

Halo Reach's ending is the start of Halo 1 so you may or may not play it. I recommend playing it since I had a fun time with the story but in the end is up to you. Halo ODST from what I remember is also a standalone since like Reach, it focuses from the point of view of your protagonist, "Rookie" while in Reach it's focused on the Noble Team's point of view.

You can also go for the novels but I'm not sure if that's what you're going for.

Basically, I want to know which halo game places the most emphasis on story, narrative and lore. I will play that one and fill my lore gaps from a fansite.

If it's the general lore then I would suggest you play Reach first. From my point of view, Reach is a good staging point for the lore buildup of the series. But seeing as you dislike the dated graphics then it's best for you to skip CE and just get yourself up to speed via the fansite you're talking about and Halopedia. Halo 2 seems to have decent enough graphic quality wise for you to be able to tolerate so it's generally good to play it and 3 and above looks good enough.

I'm not too sure about ODST but it may still impart enough lore for you to enjoy.

Halo Wars might also be a good game to play if you want to learn more but only if you're interested in playing RTS games.

But all in all, you can really just read throughout the Halo wiki for more lore since the games can only cover so much in the point of view of the main character. But this is be really being biased now I said it earlier and I'll say it again since I really like it. Reach is a good place to start.
#12
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 12:07pm 
Originally posted by Falleax:
Originally posted by Flushing:

I disagree. I tried the first Halo game and the graphics are extremely dated.

I don't need anything in chronological order, just a Halo game with good story that doesn't look dated from an objective standpoint.
If you can't appreciate a game because of it's graphics you really shouldn't be playing games, limiting yourself so heavily is bad for you. Plus you need to play the games in release order to appreciate the story because otherwise you're not going to know what's going on, you wouldn't read the third book in a series and skip the first two, would you?

I am sure that I would have fond memories if I played Halo 1 back in the early 2000s, but No, I would not be able to enjoy it at those levels of graphics if I played it for the first time today.

I did try Halo 1 from Halo MCE and it looked like look warm diarrhea and the gameplay was very still for an fps.

Particularly since I have been playing Halo Infinite and would have that as my baseline comparison.
Last edited by Flushing; Mar 22, 2024 @ 12:15pm
#13
Derek aka Derek Mar 22, 2024 @ 1:02pm 
I've seen a bit of that show and i'd recommend you play reach, 4, and 5. Those games match the quality of that show.
#14
Flushing Mar 22, 2024 @ 1:03pm 
Originally posted by Derek aka Derek:
I've seen a bit of that show and i'd recommend you play reach, 4, and 5. Those games match the quality of that show.

Thank you.
#15
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Date Posted: Mar 22, 2024 @ 5:19am
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