Halo 4 Review

[DugMachine]

Shame to hear about the music. The music in the previous games was amazing and made the games so much better in my opinion.

 

[Blue Jay]

Fuck I just watched the IGN review and now i'm pumped. It's going to be good baby!

 

[Korten12]

You shouldn't have to read any book.

Thing is though, Halo is a franchise, not just a game series, like someone also said on this forum, 343i is essentially Halo's LucasArts. Halo has too big of a universe to ignore it, and 343i knows that.

You can understand the story fine without reading, but many references will go over your head.

And.... 10k POSTS!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

It took me 3 years and 4 months to reach it but I finally did!

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

 

[Korten12]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Third book comes out next year most likely, and the third book of the Forerunner Saga comes out March next year.

Most likely the next Kilo-Five book will give a bit more insight to the events before Halo 4 or maybe even after between Halo 4 and 5.

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

 

[Korten12]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Although there is one last thing for the Didact based on the Silentium Amazon description, but that may or may not be considered spoilers. Depending on the nature of Halo 4's story and what they reveal.

 

[Krantos]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.

See, but I wouldn't necessarily call that a good thing.

Don't get me wrong, I think cross media experiences are a cool idea, but you shouldn't need to have read the books to get the most out of a game. And vice versa.

Take the Avengers movie for example. Watching all the movies that lead up to it helps you have background on it, but isn't required for enjoying it. I know several people who saw the Avengers first, liked it, then went back and watched the preceding films.

That,I think is the best way to handle cross media experiences. The player/reader/audience/etc can start anywhere, get an enjoyable experience, and be compelled by that to go back and experience the ones they missed.

Requiring someone to have read a book to enjoy a game just leads to people not doing either. It's the reason I could never get into comics. I'd find a series I liked, but then they'd cross it over with another series and I'd have to read snippets from that series to understand what was going one/see the conclusion, but then I'd have to read more of that series to understand what was going on there, etc., etc.

Good rule of thumb, the higher the barrier for entry into a story/game/etc., the more likely people are just going to say the hell with it.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

Well anyone who knows the first thing about Halo knows who Halsey is and the hand she played in the backstory of the SPARTANS, I know that Mendez was the one who trained them, and I'm pretty sure that ONI is having Kilo-five running around the Elite empire, doing everything they can to keep the civil war in a stalemate.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

I would so jump on this game if they ever released it on PC, that Forge World feature alone would be worth the price. If there is one thing that I love about PC gaming is how some developers support modding and player created content. Being able to create custom maps has kept me playing games long after their release (I'm looking at you Crysis).

I am excited for this game and I haven't played a Halo game since it was on the original Xbox, but from what I have seen and read about it...it looks awesome.

never understood it being a MS IP, yet only the first one making it to PC. a missed opportunity there

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

Well anyone who knows the first thing about Halo knows who Halsey is and the hand she played in the backstory of the SPARTANS, I know that Mendez was the one who trained them, and I'm pretty sure that ONI is having Kilo-five running around the Elite empire, doing everything they can to keep the civil war in a stalemate.

Mendez also helped train the SPARTAN 3s.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

Well anyone who knows the first thing about Halo knows who Halsey is and the hand she played in the backstory of the SPARTANS, I know that Mendez was the one who trained them, and I'm pretty sure that ONI is having Kilo-five running around the Elite empire, doing everything they can to keep the civil war in a stalemate.

Mendez also helped train the SPARTAN 3s.

Yeah, sometimes tells me that after I watch Forward unto Dawn I'll be fine. When does the last part come out?

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

Well anyone who knows the first thing about Halo knows who Halsey is and the hand she played in the backstory of the SPARTANS, I know that Mendez was the one who trained them, and I'm pretty sure that ONI is having Kilo-five running around the Elite empire, doing everything they can to keep the civil war in a stalemate.

Mendez also helped train the SPARTAN 3s.

Yeah, sometimes tells me that after I watch Forward unto Dawn I'll be fine. When does the last part come out?

The second of November.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.

It's hard to say what you'll need to know without having played the game. Just make sure you know the important stuff about what happened after the war ended (which you seem to have a handle on), and have some knowledge about the relevant characters and factions. They probably won't go too much into the deeper Forerunner stuff, just make sure you know know the broad strokes of it and you shouldn't be too confused.

I'm reading up on the Thursday war now and I think I have a grasp on things. Could you please PM me a summary of what happens in the Forerunner trilogy.

On another note, I also looked around...uh...Microsoft knows that in order for something to be a trilogy it needs to have THREE of something right? How come the Kilo-Five trilogy only has two books?

The Forerunner books aren't exactly easy to summarise, since not a great deal happens and it's hard to boil down to the important parts. Halopedia can almost certainly give you a better analysis than I can. Just make sure you know what the Didact and Librarian are and you should be set. Also, to be honest, the Forerunner books weren't great. They were a bit boring, and learning about the Forerunners isn't as interesting as it could have been. The Kilo Five books are pretty good though, and probably more important than the Forerunner ones.

The Diadect is the commander of the Promethans and the one who fired the Halo array. The Libarian is the one who built the ark and the portal on Earth, they were lovers and the Libarian had to strand herself on Earth and destroy her keyships in order to get the Diadect to fire the Halo array. She greatly respected Humanity and wanted to archive all races in the galaxy on the Ark where they would be safe Am I missing anything important?

I should think that'll be enough to understand what's going on in Halo 4, that's basically everything we've seen of those characters.

Ok, it seems like I'm all set for Halo 4...oh right, gotta watch Forward unto Dawn, I hear it's rather good.

Don't get me wrong, you'd be better off having read the books yourself, but this is as good as we're going to get without reading them or knowing what's actually in the game. It could still turn out that you're expected to know Halsey and Mendez's backstory, or know what ONI is planning with Kilo 5, but oh well.

Well anyone who knows the first thing about Halo knows who Halsey is and the hand she played in the backstory of the SPARTANS, I know that Mendez was the one who trained them, and I'm pretty sure that ONI is having Kilo-five running around the Elite empire, doing everything they can to keep the civil war in a stalemate.

Mendez also helped train the SPARTAN 3s.

Yeah, sometimes tells me that after I watch Forward unto Dawn I'll be fine. When does the last part come out?

The second of November.

Ok, I'll check it out. On a side note, Spartan Ops and war games are just kinda glazed over, I kinda hope they get the ME3 treatment and get their own review

 

[Blue Jay]

The way that multiplayer seems to work and how it has its own cutscenes etc makes me wonder if there's a way to enjoy it offline...Are there bot matches or, am I screwed if I want to look around on that second disc without subscribing to XBLG?

Either way, I'll be waiting for this one to drop to $20 or so.

In the IGN review he mentions to play the multiplayer Spartan Ops with the cutscenes you have to have a gold account, sorry.