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Halo 2 Developer Talks Story
An anonymous reader writes "With any luck, Halo 2 will supplement hours of fragging and warthogging with some more good sci-fi story. In an interview with Bungie's studio manager Pete Parsons talks about the larger Halo world, the influence of fan fiction and Halo novels on Halo 2, and the widespread appeal of the game." Thanks also to GameConnect for the link to their article talking about Microsoft's heavy hand when it comes to pre-orders.
Actually, Halo 2 has better graphics, a new story, and a completely new server-choosing system, in addition to all the new vehicles, weapons, and ability. It's 100% a new game.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized!
I'm sorry but any article about the story from Halo that doesn't touch upon the Marahon series(to which Halo is the spiritual successor, though not a direct sequel) really misses what could be a far more interesting discussion.
Breif history on the Marathon subject: Could be considered Bungie's first 'hit'(Yes, Pathways into Darkness may qualify to some, but since that game is in the same 'universe' as Marathon, it could be considered a prequel and we'll just lump it in with Marathon for now, okay.) The Marathon series was a first person shooter from around the same point in time as the original Doom and Doom 2. It could be considered one of the first FPS games with a significant 'plot.' At first glance the plot was an alien invasion of a colony ship, throw in some human created AI's that are helping organize the defense against the invasion. The plot was fairly intricate for the time, and at first glance wouldn't stand up to plots today(since the focus on plot has been increasing), but certainly very notable for its time.
What made Marathon interesting, was that if you looked close you'd realize there are a lot of unanswered questions. If you looked closer, you'd realize the game is littered with hidden messages and clues to fill in all those gaps. The amount of analysis and reading between the lines was in essence an entirely separate game in and of itself. The amount of effort that's gone into interpreting Marathon's story is impessive. I can't think of any other game that has a story with this kind of depth(not to say other games don't have deep stories, just no others that have depth in this particular manner). This aspect of the Marathon series is its one truly unique aspect that sets it apart, and the reason why it's a favorite of mine to this day.
An interesting comparison between Halo and Marathon that I really wish would be discussed is that a lot of the 'hidden depth' found in Marathon's plot could be attributed to how the plot was told(which was via text 'computer terminals'). I'm curious if someone who was involved in both could offer any discussion as to whether it would even be possible to form a plot similar to Marathon's using the 'cinematic' style of game that is released today... Would you have to create a game with a similar text heavy storytelling to reproduce the effect(which wouldn't fly today)? Could(with enough effort) a cinema style game actually contain that amount of misdirection and hidden clues and whatnot? Or would some 'happy medium' have to be found(the necessary plot bits are done cinematically but there are optional plot bits to be found that are text...)?
Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but somehow I feel the requirements to sell a 'modern' game will make it so we'll never see another game with a plot like Marathon. Pity.
Simmons: "Seriously though why are we out here? As far as I can tell it's just a box canyon in the middle of nowhere. No way in or out."
Simmons:"The only reason we set up a red base here is because they have a blue base over there. And the only reason they have a blue base there is because we have a red base here."
Griff:"Yeah, that's because we are fighting each other."
Simmons:"No no but I mean even if we were to pull out today and they would've come take our base, they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Woop-dee-fuckin-doo."