Most games have a backstory, some semblance of canonical lore that molds whatever tale its writers are trying to tell. Halo 4 is no different. When 343 Industries produces the first post Bungie installment of the series, it’ll have the job of encapsulating over one billion years of Halo history: the lives of characters, the reign of civilizations, the creation of life — the universe — itself.
One billion years. It’s a head-spinning amount of time. Fortunately, the next issue of Xbox World Magazine has constructed the ultimate compendium of Halo knowledge, for anyone looking to brush up on the basics before suiting up with Master Chief yet again.
The expansive timeline (reprinted through CVG) weighs in at a heavy 4,000 words, so you might want to set aside more than a lunch break before devouring it. But it covers everything, from the Precursors’ seeding of the Milky Way to the galactic saga of humans and Forerunners, to the war between The Covenant and humanity that comprises each video game in the series (starting, chronologically, with Halo Wars and ending after the events of Halo 3). Perhaps most importantly, however, it offers insight into how 343 Industries is honoring the Halo cosmology — and how the carving of the timeline in stone could shape the game we play this November.
The fact is pointed out that when Bungie was making Halo, the canon was treated as, well, adaptable, with the developer editing as they saw fit to accommodate their new creations. Works contributed with the Microsoft seal of approval in the form of books, comics, and animated films were sometimes given the royal runaround when it came time to turn out a new game; look no further than Eric Nyland’s Fall of Reach novel, published 9 years ahead of Halo: Reach’s 2010 debut.
Bungie's early Forerunner concept art
With 343 having no intention to rift the script, the challenge lies in reconciling plans for new armor designs and weapons (Chief does, after all, resume action after a lengthy post-Halo 3 cryosleep sporting new duds), customizable multiplayer loadouts (some having originated in the Reach prequel), and new vehicle technologies with the new story tropes of Halo 4 – the game furthest along in the chronological pecking order.
It’s a tall task considering 343 is on record desiring “dramatic innovations” for Halo, and the ability to construct the next trilogy with its own vision. However, everything we’ve seen since last month’s Halo 4 information barrage – even including the aforementioned, more controversial elements – is culled directly out of points that make sense within the timeline. Fans of one of the last decade’s landmark series should rest easy knowing that wherever 343 decides to take Master Chief and his 900 pounds of armor, it’s intrinsically tied to a stunningly rich legacy.
Ranters, how do think 343 will use the backstory of the Halo series to explain Halo 4′s next chapter?
Halo 4 releases exclusively for the Xbox 360 on November 6, 2012.
-
Follow me @Brian_Sipple
Source: Xbox World Magazine [via CVG]
GR Giveaway: Win a Superhero-Sized Trip to San Diego This July! [Update: MORE Prizes!] 
Microsoft: Banned Players Lose Access to Purchased Xbox One Games [UPDATED] 
Microsoft Officially Backpedals on Xbox One DRM Policies 
Xbox One Policies ‘Alienated Entire Military’; Entertainment Research Forecasts Trouble 
Loading ...
I didn’t know the forerunners were geth…
I didn’t know Mass Effect preceded Halo…
Jim’s gotcha Dan. Halo came out before ME, so you should be saying I didn’t know Geth looked like Forerunners.
Yes, Halo did precede Mass Effect. But Mass Effect preceded was around before this specific piece of concept art was created. So yes, this design does resemble the Geth and not the other way around.
redact “preceded”
That was my first thought as well. It looks just like a Geth. Although less mechanical.
An art steal? Oh, no! For a concept art!? Granted. But look into the back story of Halo, the Forerunner, and the Precursors, and tell me who stole from who.
What I’m trying to say is that the Prothians are a 6 year plus rip off of the Forerunner, and the Reapers are the the same aged ripoff of the Flood, except made with lesser technology. Unity in mind and body anyone?
The only newish content in Mass Effect are the Vorcha’s inner biology. Not their body type by any stretch of the imagination, but their inner workings, yes.
What about the changes to the lore in Reach?
343 will do an awesome job with Halo 4. Fans seem to keep overreacting to new info, but once they play the game I think all fears will be settled.
Well that’s good, there won’t be any of the stupid s*** that Reach included.
Seriously, Bungie shat all over their established canon with Reach. Good to see 343 will NOT be damaging that.
What did they do that you didn’t think was in canon? I’ve read all the books and it seemed right…
Mainly the fact that Halsey didn’t know about the Spartan Three’s for awhile, most of the Spartan III’s were young kids, not middle aged adults, The Pillar never landed on Reach, etc. There are a lot of continuity issues with Reach.
There really aren’t any issues. See here:
Halsey already knew about the Spartan IIIs. The last thing that we saw of Halsey in “The Fall of Reach” is her looking into Ackerson’s files, then she went to a big meeting. The next thing that we see is in “The First Strike” where she seems to know about them. It probably happened between there somewhere.
The S3 program was started a long time before the battle of Reach, so they could have been older. Also, They don’t account for every batch of S3s. They only account for Ackerson’s S3s, which were 20 somethings at the time. Don’t forget, S3s were taken between the ages of 3-14. Noble team bay have been the best because of their understanding of what they were taught, due to their older age group.
The Pillar of Autumn was refitted on Reach. It received it’s final refitting, and ordnance at the space station. It makes sense.
The only issues that I see are with the dates, and times. The space battle of Reach in the book only took about 2 hours. The space, and ground battles in the game took about 5 weeks. But even these issues can be explained. The Spartan IIs were being recalled from the line of duty, and then getting their spiffy new Mjolnir V armor. They couldn’t have been deployed to fight the unknown threat that turned out to be the Covenant’s advanced strike force, and was kept top secret. Very quickly into “Halo: Reach” there are Covenant glassing the planet. That was the actual invasion that took out the navy in 2 hours.
The fact that there was early Covenant activity on the planet even goes on to explain why they took such extreme measures to quickly asses MC’s skill to work with the new armor, and with Cortana. This Covenant strike force was sent about 5 weeks early because massing a fleet the size of the Covenant’s fleet in the books is difficult. The fact that they didn’t detect the Covenant strike force in the games until they saw it with their own eyes is even more proof that they could have been there the whole time in the novel, but Master Chief, the primary perspective character, didn’t know about it.
There really aren’t any issues that can’t be explained by circumstance, and limited perspective characters.
I hope this helped.