Bungie Explains (Internally) Controversial Halo: Reach Ending

[John Funk]

Bungie Explains (Internally) Controversial Halo: Reach Ending

The finale sequence in Halo: Reach [http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Reach-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA20M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1285186373&sr=8-1] is one of the most memorable parts of the game, but members of Bungie's dev team had to fight to put it in the game in the first place.

Okay, there's no easy way to say this, but - if it wasn't obvious enough from the headline and teaser - this news post will contain severe spoilers for the ending of Halo: Reach. In other words, if you read past the part marked "Spoilers," and you get spoiled, it's your own damn fault.

***SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT.***

One of the most surprisingly poignant moments (for me, anyway) in the entire Halo franchise was Noble Six's - that is, your own - last stand at the very end of Reach. After covering the launch of the Pillar of Autumn to set the events of Halo: Combat Evolved in motion, you are given a single objective: "Survive." It's ultimately impossible, as more and more Covenant swarm you on the now-desolate surface of a destroyed Reach, and Noble Six eventually goes down fighting.

When asked by UGO [http://www.ugo.com/games/halo-reach-bungie-talks-controversy-within-studio-over-games-ending] to explain the inspiration for the scene, creative director Marcus Lehto said that they ultimately saw the game as a "tragedy overall."

[blockquote]We wanted to tell the story of the Spartans sacrificing everything they had, and we thought it would be a cop-out if we didn't really bring it to a true ending with the Spartan that you create and that you fight with through the entire campaign and all the way to the very bitter end. If we didn't actually do the right thing to that character and bring them down with the planet ... After they had already succeeded in making sure that one thing that gave humanity any hope was actually saved, (we decided) they were going to go out all gung-ho and guns blazing.[/blockquote]

Still, said Lehto, it was hardly a unanimous decision within Bungie. "It was a crazy, controversial thing within our studio. We had a lot of people who were like, 'No, we shouldn't end it that way. We should allow the player to play on and, in their heads, keep living.' But we wanted to bring it to a close."

"[It] was one of the parts of the game that we wrestled with for months, and there were many different iterations with the ending," agreed executive producer Joe Tung. "There was a point where the ending didn't happen at all like it happened now. It was so important to us that the game ended well."

It was important, of course, because this wasn't just Bungie's farewell to Noble Six and the planet Reach - but to the studio's Halo franchise as a whole. It was important "from the perspective of Bungie saying goodbye to the entire universe," said Tung. "We spent so much time wrestling with how to end the game, and I think it ended up being such a great farewell, not just for the game, but for the entire involvement in the universe and a fitting farewell to Halo from Bungie."

"And there wasn't really anything we could do with the end, the demise, of Noble 6 because that leads into the events just prior to Halo 1," said Lehto. "It was a great way just to bring everything full circle for the franchise."

I certainly thought so, anyway.

(UGO [http://www.ugo.com/games/halo-reach-bungie-talks-controversy-within-studio-over-games-ending])

Permalink

 

[The Austin]

While I found the ending to be powerful, I still stick to my guns when I say that I think Noble 6 surviving in the end would have been a much, much better move.

I think that, if done well, it could have been a far superior ending.

 

[Irridium]

Glad they kept it in. One of the greatest moments of any game I've played.

 

[WanderingFool]

I think its the perfect ending. We all know what happens, why sugar coat it? Semi-related, thats how I would like to see Gear 3 end, as well. Basically all human players will take a final stand (preferably, as the original Delta sqaud) and fight the Locust till the end; like the vibe you got from the teaser trailer some time back.

 

[Magnalian]

No complains here about the ending, that part was awesome, but Kat's death... c'mon, could you really not think of anything better to do with that?

 

[Daemascus]

Its the Thermopylae of Halo. Thats all there is to it.

 

[RatRace123]

I thought that the ending was an extremely powerful moment, great choice by Bungie. It shows a real emotional depth that the Halo series actually kind of lacked before.

A fitting end to the studio's Halo series overall.

 

[Pandalisk]

I think they chose the right ending, if they survived Reach the entire thing would've been moot and would pale compared to the ending they chose, cant say i liked the fact they stole your last moments with a cutscene but i think the fact that it frustrated me as a good thing.

"There'll be Another Time..."

 

[Deofuta]

Spoiler

I would have preferred to due the survival part first, and THEN see the beginning of the Halo 1 scene. I feel like it would have then left with a lighter note.

Still loved it though.

 

[ffxfriek]

it would of been better had a covenant ship started glassing the area instead of the waves of enemies.

the current ending is pretty bad in my opinion, sure the planets doomed, so why let us fight for an extra five minutes?

spartans never die thats why. They are always MIA. If you read the books (highly recommend their SOOOOO MUCH BETTER then the games themselves) they state that a few times.

Bungie Explains (Internally) Controversial Halo: Reach Ending

The finale sequence in Halo: Reach [http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Reach-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA20M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1285186373&sr=8-1] is one of the most memorable parts of the game, but members of Bungie's dev team had to fight to put it in the game in the first place.

Okay, there's no easy way to say this, but - if it wasn't obvious enough from the headline and teaser - this news post will contain severe spoilers for the ending of Halo: Reach. In other words, if you read past the part marked "Spoilers," and you get spoiled, it's your own damn fault.

***SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT.***

One of the most surprisingly poignant moments (for me, anyway) in the entire Halo franchise was Noble Six's - that is, your own - last stand at the very end of Reach. After covering the launch of the Pillar of Autumn to set the events of Halo: Combat Evolved in motion, you are given a single objective: "Survive." It's ultimately impossible, as more and more Covenant swarm you on the now-desolate surface of a destroyed Reach, and Noble Six eventually goes down fighting.

When asked by UGO [http://www.ugo.com/games/halo-reach-bungie-talks-controversy-within-studio-over-games-ending] to explain the inspiration for the scene, creative director Marcus Lehto said that they ultimately saw the game as a "tragedy overall."

[blockquote]We wanted to tell the story of the Spartans sacrificing everything they had, and we thought it would be a cop-out if we didn't really bring it to a true ending with the Spartan that you create and that you fight with through the entire campaign and all the way to the very bitter end. If we didn't actually do the right thing to that character and bring them down with the planet ... After they had already succeeded in making sure that one thing that gave humanity any hope was actually saved, (we decided) they were going to go out all gung-ho and guns blazing.[/blockquote]

Still, said Lehto, it was hardly a unanimous decision within Bungie. "It was a crazy, controversial thing within our studio. We had a lot of people who were like, 'No, we shouldn't end it that way. We should allow the player to play on and, in their heads, keep living.' But we wanted to bring it to a close."

"[It] was one of the parts of the game that we wrestled with for months, and there were many different iterations with the ending," agreed executive producer Joe Tung. "There was a point where the ending didn't happen at all like it happened now. It was so important to us that the game ended well."

It was important, of course, because this wasn't just Bungie's farewell to Noble Six and the planet Reach - but to the studio's Halo franchise as a whole. It was important "from the perspective of Bungie saying goodbye to the entire universe," said Tung. "We spent so much time wrestling with how to end the game, and I think it ended up being such a great farewell, not just for the game, but for the entire involvement in the universe and a fitting farewell to Halo from Bungie."

"And there wasn't really anything we could do with the end, the demise, of Noble 6 because that leads into the events just prior to Halo 1," said Lehto. "It was a great way just to bring everything full circle for the franchise."

I certainly thought so, anyway.

(UGO [http://www.ugo.com/games/halo-reach-bungie-talks-controversy-within-studio-over-games-ending])

Permalink

Mr. Funk spartans never die!

 

[Xan Krieger]

That's gonna kill my enjoyment of reach somewhat (totally my own fault though) because I hate any fight you have to lose. It's like the following Starcraft 2 spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

the final mission in that memory crystal where you're the protoss fighting wave after wave of zerg/protoss hybrids. No way to win except to lose.)

 

[Delock]

Look, if you're reading this, you more than likely have already recieved the spoiler warning from the original post (not to mention you entered a thread talking about an ending to a game) so I don't feel like I have to put this in the spoiler box, but I'll do it if people request it.

While I think it would have made more tactical sense for your character to try and escape or something, I find myself looking back on the ending and realizing that I wouldn't want to if I were Noble 6. I had just lost all my team, missed the last ship off (or so I was told) in order to allow it to escape, lost the battle for the last hope earth had, and due to the glassing, had no hope of surviving long term. I would have probably wanted to go out guns blazing just as he did. It's also an ending that stuck with me, as in that scene, right up until I was overwelmed, I was in control, keeping myself alive. Once I was removed, I could only really watch as Noble 6 fought on (he became a character at that point rather than my avatar, but he was a character based on the sum of my actions and how I interpreted the events, much like the Wanderer from SotC) helpless to stop what was happening. The entire time, I was hoping that he made it out, and just left his helmet behind, only to get an emotional blow by the end narration.

In a sense, I'd say his death scene made him my favorite character in the Halo universe, and the one I actually felt the most emotion about. It was a great way to end a series which until this game, was merely good rather than great. As such, I think the scene worked very well.

No complains here about the ending, that part was awesome, but Kat's death... c'mon, could you really not think of anything better to do with that?

I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, but I thought it was actually appropriate. It was a scene that proved that even someone who had been on the most missions with you, and who had survived more than anyone else (look at her arm), and someone better than a lot of the cream of the crop could still be killed if they let down their guard on the battlefield. It was sudden, abrupt, and merciless in a cutscene that seemed to be just "Let's get ready for the next mission."

And I might as well hit the other deaths as well.

Jorge was a tragic one, a decision made by someone who wanted to save humanity, his home, and the woman he (probably) considered his mother. I know people have offered alternatives, but remember that they were on a timelimit for that mission, and went in with only what they had, and even that was their last resort. Then, not even a full minute passes after his death before his sacrifice was invalidated, which just added to the tragedy of the moment. Those of you who were angry with this scene, that was the point. You were supposed to ask why he had to sacrifice himself, and what it meant if it didn't do anything. Hell, that's the feeling the Battle of Reach was supposed to have.

Carter was that angered a lot of people, yet it's something the books loved. Watch the beginning of that mission again. He was going to die anyway from plasma burns, and it was a testement to his Spartan nature that he lasted that long. More than likely, he realized when the Scarab appeared that he was in his last moments and decided to make his death into something more than ANOTHER crashed pelican on Reach.

Jun's did piss me off, if only because it wasn't detailed in the game, but is almost definitely assured.

Emile's was my favorite. Here was a man pissed at the world after his entire family was killed twice (he was part of the A group that got slaughtered in the first few pages of Ghosts of Onyx, but was pulled off before it happened, if the Halo wiki is to be believed). He's pissed at Spartan II's for not training them better (hence his problems with Jorge), he's pissed with the Covenant for the war (hence why he steals from the dead), and he's just basically pissed at everything (which is why he carved a skull in his faceplate and uses close range weaponary so he can really be there when the enemy dies). And so, he dies pissed at the enemies who snuck up on him and killed him, and was so pissed, he refused to die without killing both of them (said scene involves him getting stabbed in the back, only to flip the attacker off him and stab them with a smaller knife).

 

[Rusty Bucket]

it would of been better had a covenant ship started glassing the area instead of the waves of enemies.

the current ending is pretty bad in my opinion, sure the planets doomed, so why let us fight for an extra five minutes?

So you would have preferred standing there twiddling your thumbs while giant death lasers move towards you? Sounds fun.

They let you fight for longer because that entire level is incredibly powerful. I'll paste some stuff I've previously written on the subject:
Especially the level after the credits. That was absolutely masterful. you're alone for the first time in the game, surrounded by Covenant and just given the objective; 'Survive'. At first I was excited, preparing to make the fuckers pay, and pay hard. But after a few minutes I just lost the will for it. The team is dead, the planet is broken, I'm possibly the last remaining piece of resistance on the planet. The environment is covered in thick fog, and you can see countless Covenant moving within it, as well as dropships circling overhead. The cracks started appearing in my visor and I just thought 'what's the point?' It's not going to achieve anything, we've lost. So I just charged at the nearest Elite, took him down with a left hook and then gave in. It was absolutely fantastic, and yet so simple.

If you hate it, then that's fine, it's entirely subjective. But your alternative is, frankly, objectively shit.

 

[King_Serpent]

Great ending in my opinion and the death of the spartans could actually be unexpected. (I knew they would die) Kat died in a way that seemed like what would happen in an actual battle. No bull s*#t sacrifice myself, which I thought they might do with every character. Not that it is a bad thing if one or two characters did that (and they did). Just not all of them.

 

[Jared]

It was a great ending, and well crafted!

 

[MortisLegio]

I think that you should of had the "option" to survive or die
get killed and you get the ending where you go down fighting
survive for 5 mins and you kill the elites, camera dies, and later (when it shows reach again) a hand picks up the helment

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I agree with the ending but since you knew the character you were playing was going to die to me felt anti-climactic. It was one of those weird set-up events that you still got a movie but at the same time also got to play and it felt as if the devs decided to try and go both directions and give a movie but also give gameplay which fell flat on its face. What is the point of playing when I'm going to see a movie at the end when I die? If I'm going to play till I die then there was no point to the movie right after showing me die because I lost control.

I think the main problem with Reach was that everyone knew what was going to happen and even when they did try to bring it down to a personal level it still followed the same traditional group is doomed story picking off characters one by one.

Also I still question the right after part because Captain Keynes looks a lot older in Halo: CE than in Reach. Keynes looks like a middle age man.

The strange bit, to me at least, is that it need not end that way. Had they not just left the sniper behind on the previous mission, Emile would have had someone to cover him on the gun while you cleared the pad. Presumably that would mean that at least one member of Noble team would have made it off the planet alive. Honestly, I'm not even sure what happened to the guy. He was sent to blow up some installation and both the Pelicans left and I never heard from him again. I hardly think the facilities destruction required a suicidal endeavor.

 

[Buizel91]

That would of been cool if you survived, to explore a huge area of reach and have ur own little building as your "Safe Haven".

Random weapons get placed all over the map and you can find them with limited ammo, been able to go sneaky to take out covenant camps and such, would of been rather fun...

But meh, the campaign is still awesome.