Who better to define the military sci-fi genre than Master Chief and his adventures throughout the Halo franchise? Thanks to his iconic SPARTAN physiology and MJOLNIR Power Armor, the masked protagonist can tear through any Earthbound threat. However, sequels and spinoff media would quickly show that there’s more to Halo and Master Chief than just whipping out firearms against the Covenant.
In fact, lore lovers will appreciate Halo’s deep take on military fiction and sci-fi concepts, from weaponry to the eponymous Halo. However, Halo creators from Bungie might want to clarify some glaring inconsistencies in the lore before hoping to make another entry in the franchise.
9 The Vast Unified Earth Government's Colony Numbers
It's thanks to the "Contact Harvest" novel that players got a glimpse of life in one of the Unified Earth Government's many colony planets outside of Halo games. This novel details the first contact between the Covenant and humanity in Harvest, an Outer Colony planet. It also elaborated on some of the events prior to the beginning of the Human-Covenant War.
The novel states that humanity has 17 planetary colonies, with some of them being outposts or smaller settlements. Author Joseph Staten wanted to be vague to give the games room to expand on these elements. However, future games seem to ignore this entirely, as they've stated the United Earth Government already has a considerable presence across 800 worlds.
8 The Confusing History Of Neutral Interfacing
In the "Halo: Blood Line" comics, Victor-101 manages to interface with the smart AI Iona. Through this mechanism, the smart AI managed to help his memories resurface, which then suggests he received said Spartan neural interface to allow such things to take place. Since the comics took place before the Fall of Reach, this suggests that Victor-101 received the upgrade earlier in the series.
This factoid seems inconsistent with the Fall of Reach timeline. The games reveal that John-117 is the first Spartan to ever receive the neural interface on August 29, 2552, a day before the end of the Fall of Reach. This inconsistency in the story means either Victor-101 received the upgrade first but was never announced, or his version of a neural interface was different from Master Chief's.
7 The Unidentified — But Also Identified — Halo Ring
It was in Halo: Combat Evolved that players (and the rest of the UNSC) got their first glimpse of the eponymous Halo ring. Back when the UNSC Pillar of Autumn discovered the technological marvel, they had no name for the structure yet. That is, until players look at the main viewscreen of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, which already labels the yet-unidentified structure as "Halo." In "The Flood" novel, Cortana also refers to the structure as "Halo" while escaping the Pillar of Autumn with Master Chief.
As fans recall, the name of the structure will only be discovered levels later during "The Truth and Reconciliation," but devs didn't fix this continuity error, even in the Combat Evolved Anniversary iteration of the game. This can be forgiven as an honest mistake. But as a series that prides a lot of its plot development "in gameplay," this error can definitely ruin immersion.
6 The Coincidental Covenant Presence In Installation 04
Fans get a first taste of Covenant combat in Combat Evolved as soon as they arrive in the Halo structure. As per "The Flood" novel, the Covenant themselves are surprised to see a human ship near Installation 04, and even treat their arrival as a coincidence or by following one of their ships.
However, this is countered with events of Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and the 2010 reissue of the same novel. In it, the Covenant actually found Installation 04 by following the Pillar of Autumn in its slipspace jump from Reach. The Covenant simply reached Installation 04 in advance, and as such managed to wait for the Pillar of Autumn as it navigated to the other side. While "The Flood" is generally treated as non-canon, readers of the novels may still find this discrepancy detrimental to immersion.
5 The Covenant May Or May Not Hate Human Weapons
In "The Fall of Reach" novel, John-117 emphasized the Covenant's hatred of human weaponry. Master Chief noted that a Covenant Jackal would rather fight in melee than pick up a nearby human assault rifle. While this tendency may reflect throughout in Covenant species, it isn't the case for most Covenants in the game.
For instance, the Kig-Yar actually run away when faced in melee combat. Moreover, being opportunistic mercenaries instead of faithful to the Covenant religion, the Kig-Yar's potential refusal to use any available weapon seems out of character Grunts and Elites in Halo: Reach would often use human weapons. Lastly, even Thel 'Vadamee's letter to Prophet of Truth encouraged its Covenant crew to use human weapons if necessary.
4 Lucy-B091 And That Lethal Slap
In the "Glasslands" novel, a young Lucy-B091 lashes out at Dr. Catherine Halsey and strikes her in the face. The novel describes the force as strong enough to leave her hand "throbbing," and Halsey only suffers a slight nosebleed. However, fans aware of the true strength of a Spartan-III like Lucy-B091 would know that her punch should have killed Dr. Halsey.
Spartan-IIIs were designed to be as strong as three "normal" soldiers already capable of facing a Covenant alien toe-to-toe. Considering Lucy-B091's keen natural strength and the additional strength augmented by the SPI armor, the aging Dr. Halsey should have died as the result of that slap.
3 The Port Stanley And Its Nuclear Stealth Issue
In "The Thursday War" novel, the clandestine Kilo-Five team is tasked to infiltrate Covenant Sangheili homeworld Sanghelios to stop an impending war between humanity and the Covenant. As a last resort measure, their dropship UNSC Port Stanley carried a large arsenal of nuclear weapons as it stealthily approached the Covenant planet. Under normal circumstances, though, Sanghelios would've already detected Port Stanley due to its cargo.
In the "Ghosts of Onyx" novel, ships carrying nuclear weapons couldn't possibly get into stealth as the plutonium in the weapons would make them easily detectable during slipspace transition. Granted, Port Stanley already received Forerunner technology, so such stealth bypass might be possible. However, seeing as this isn't mentioned in the book, how Port Stanley and its nuclear weapons bypassed Sanghelios stealth is still questionable.
2 The Intestinal Parasite Insult
It's revealed in "The Thursday War" novel that the Sangheili use the word "nishum" as a derogatory term for humans. In their language, the term meant "intestinal parasite." This came about as Sangheili's interactions with humans come in the form of combat, where most humans wear thick body armor. In turn, they may have mistaken humans as creatures with exoskeletons and, after observing dead bodies, mistook unarmored humans as parasites.
However, it can be noted that the Sangheili also wear thicker and more cumbersome armor. Due to this clothing habit, it seems strange that the Sangheili think of human body armor as natural exoskeleton instead of regular armor. This problem is seemingly fixed with random dialogue in Halo 5: Guardians, in which two Sangheili use "nishum" as a regular insult.
1 Master Chief's Waking In UNSC Infinity
Halo 4 shows that while the UNSC Infinity did receive Cortana's distress signal from shield-world Requiem, it was already near the vicinity of the installation. It's only implied that UNSC Infinity had to travel close to Requiem after an incident happened back in Installation 03. The "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn" film tells a different story, as the UNSC Infinity received Cortana's distress signal light-years away. This prompted the crew to get into cryo-sleep to get there.
Even Master Chief's waking sequence appears different in the two media. In Halo 4, Cortana only hesitates to wake up Master Chief before doing so. However, the film shows Cortana undergoing violent emotional shifts throughout the travel towards Requiem. It's only near the shield-world that Cortana calms down and awakens Master Chief. Interestingly, this latter depiction more accurately shows Cortana undergoing Rampancy.
Halo Infinite is set to launch in the Holiday season of 2021 on PC, XB1, and Xbox Series X/S.