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This topic has moved here: Subject: Do the book storylines matter?
  • Subject: Do the book storylines matter?
Subject: Do the book storylines matter?
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Ok, I think this has been asked many times before, but do the book storylines conflict with the game storyline? So, when I'm playing Halo 3, will I be totally lost since I haven't read any of the books? Will all these other Spartens suddenly appear and start chatting to the Chief as though they have just had a cup of tea together the day before?!

Basically, what I'm asking is which storyline matters more - the book or the game?

ALSO, which came first? The book or the game?


(please forgive me ignorance of... everything. I only just got an Xbox and so only just started playing the games).

  • 07.02.2006 5:23 AM PDT
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There are three books that came out at different times and take place at different times in the storyline. The first one, 'The Fall of Reach', came out at about the same time Halo was released. It covers stuff before the Halo game. The second book, 'The Flood', came out a little while later and it covers events duruing the time when the game was going on. The third onee, 'First Strike', covers the things that happen between Halo and Halo 2. The story lines in the books and those in the games almost never conflict with one another (if ever). What happens in the games though, is pretty much stand alone. Very little of any of the games so far didn't make sense unless you had read one of the books. The books are great for learning about other stuff that happens aside from the main storylines covered in the games, and they may help clear questions that you didn't really know you ahd about the games, but I doubt that you will need to read any of the books (there's actually another one coming out and it's rumoured to be called 'The Ghosts of Coral') to be able to follow the storyline in Halo 3.

  • 07.02.2006 5:38 AM PDT
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ive never read any of the books and the games make perfect sense...pluse the games came first, and if u think about it the books are basiclly someones fan fiction was lucky enough to get published

  • 07.02.2006 5:40 AM PDT

These are the pale deaths...

you speak as if there have been many installations into teh franchise, panzer. The books matter, but when First Strike was written, bungie was much too far into the development process to change mythos around for a book to make perfect sense.

However, The Fall of Reach, and The Flood, do make perfect sense, and First Strike is almost perfectly fit in, if you can use logic to bridge a few gaps. First, the Master Chief and Sgt Johnson were not chastised for not making the x amount of random jumps before returning to earth...they brought loads of information, and a working Covenant ship.
Also, we can assume that the other spartans are in R&R, probably in some form of induced coma, because of the extensive injuries recieved (and note, please, that Plasma is a poisonous gas, and therefore is extremely detrimental to inhale. Spartan airtanks last 90 hours, and they can recycle air for 3 days. They were on reach for a week and a haf after the surface was vaporized, and the atmosphere thus poisoned.) and would probably not be expected to fight. If they did, they would obviously be in different parts of the city, fighting off different covenant forces...it is a city after all, and a big one....I would not expect the other Spartans to run into the Chief, especially since he didnt fight in the cities much, he went from a slum, to a generator complex, to a tunnel, and finally to a small portion of the industrial section of the city, before fighting off a Scarab, and leaving Earth for Delta Halo.

Thus, the stories do pertain to Halo, but not that much post CE has been written, and there isnt enoug game material to test it against.

  • 07.02.2006 5:49 AM PDT

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Posted by: Shadownet Spy
ive never read any of the books and the games make perfect sense...pluse the games came first, and if u think about it the books are basiclly someones fan fiction was lucky enough to get published




No.......... Microsofy/Bungie confronted Nylund (and Dietz) and asked them to write canon books on the game. not a fanfic.

  • 07.02.2006 6:01 AM PDT
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Read about the Forgotten Spartan I Program
Butane: To protect the world from devastation!
sir_brilliant: To unite all people within our nation!
Rainman89: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
sir_brilliant: To extend out reach to the stars above!
SpaceGhostFlyer: Jessie!
Butane: James!
sir_brilliant: Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light
Butane: Surrender now or prepare to fight
sir_brilliant: Meowth, that's right!

The books are canon. THey have yet to be integrated into the Game storyline.

  • 07.02.2006 6:06 AM PDT

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The books are official canon to the games. The Halo novels and the games are set in the same universe, following the same story. Everything the authors wrote had to be approved by Bungie.

Here's a link to a post that proves this: Link

  • 07.02.2006 6:08 AM PDT

The games aren't based on the novels, the novels are based on the games.

  • 07.02.2006 6:10 AM PDT
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Posted by: Shadownet Spy
ive never read any of the books and the games make perfect sense...pluse the games came first, and if u think about it the books are basiclly someones fan fiction was lucky enough to get published


no... read them and you would actually see you dumbass

  • 07.02.2006 7:33 AM PDT
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Fall of Reach has some affect on the game story, but none of the others do.

  • 07.02.2006 7:35 AM PDT

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Some threads will get posts before others and it is the duty of the Leadership to ensure that posts are made that best suit the public welfare.

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Posted by: Ajk141
Fall of Reach has some affect on the game story, but none of the others do.


Yes they do. First Strike - Ever wonder how the Chief got back home? We just can't assume that he went his merry way with a Longsword, can we?

  • 07.02.2006 7:45 AM PDT
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Posted by: the squee masta
Posted by: Ajk141
Fall of Reach has some affect on the game story, but none of the others do.


Yes they do. First Strike - Ever wonder how the Chief got back home? We just can't assume that he went his merry way with a Longsword, can we?


In the game it might be different. If he did it the same way in both, at least a few other Spartans would be there too.

  • 07.02.2006 7:47 AM PDT
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Posted by: Ajk141
In the game it might be different. If he did it the same way in both, at least a few other Spartans would be there too.


Other Spartans? I doesn't the Halo CE booklet say all other Spartans are dead? And I also read a post here explaining a theory which could mean "at least one Spartan aside from the MC is alive".

  • 07.02.2006 2:06 PM PDT
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Posted by: xTr1GGeR HaPPYx
The games aren't based on the novels, the novels are based on the games.


Well I'm glad someone has a brain around here.

  • 07.02.2006 2:07 PM PDT
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Posted by: Gray January
you speak as if there have been many installations into teh franchise, panzer. The books matter, but when First Strike was written, bungie was much too far into the development process to change mythos around for a book to make perfect sense.

However, The Fall of Reach, and The Flood, do make perfect sense, and First Strike is almost perfectly fit in, if you can use logic to bridge a few gaps. First, the Master Chief and Sgt Johnson were not chastised for not making the x amount of random jumps before returning to earth...they brought loads of information, and a working Covenant ship.
Also, we can assume that the other spartans are in R&R, probably in some form of induced coma, because of the extensive injuries recieved (and note, please, that Plasma is a poisonous gas, and therefore is extremely detrimental to inhale. Spartan airtanks last 90 hours, and they can recycle air for 3 days. They were on reach for a week and a haf after the surface was vaporized, and the atmosphere thus poisoned.) and would probably not be expected to fight. If they did, they would obviously be in different parts of the city, fighting off different covenant forces...it is a city after all, and a big one....I would not expect the other Spartans to run into the Chief, especially since he didnt fight in the cities much, he went from a slum, to a generator complex, to a tunnel, and finally to a small portion of the industrial section of the city, before fighting off a Scarab, and leaving Earth for Delta Halo.

Thus, the stories do pertain to Halo, but not that much post CE has been written, and there isnt enoug game material to test it against.



They never brought back the ship acculy, They left it behind to self dustrct well they went off with a damged friget witch they found floting above reach. They still brought back alot of info thow. But not a working convie ship.

[Edited on 7/2/2006]

  • 07.02.2006 2:13 PM PDT
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ok i'm getting tierd of hearing this. no you don't need to read the books, they are just there for the curious. If you want to know how MC became a SPARTAN read fall of reach. if you want to see other ppl like Keyes side of the story on the first halo read the flood and if you want to know how MC got home read First Strike.

  • 07.02.2006 2:21 PM PDT
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There are minor discrepancies between the books and the Games.

For instance in the original game it was implied that The Spartans were engineered from birth not selected at the age of six and specificly made for a single operation that was to take place 48 hours after the attack on Reach. Not created to fight a civil war 10 years before the Covenant war.

Fall of reach also stated that noone had lived to see an elite before the battle of Reach (which is unlikely because they seem to command every unit from fireteam up) and that Covs in Black armor were simply veterans not special ops. They also did some non sensical things like having spacestations powered by ground-based reactors instead of having onboard power sources and killing live soldiers as part of a training exercise for the Spartans.And supposedly someone mentioned that the Autumn had 3 shuttles instead of 4.

On the other hand certain smaller elements from the book HAVE been integrated into the games. The Drop-pod thing,the Name "seraph" for the
fighters and the name "archer" for the missile systems on In Amber Clad.

So its a tough call what is and isnt canon.

I personally dont like the Books and would rather think of the Chief as the last of his kind (because I think it makes him more Heroic). But ya know,to each his own and all that stuff.

  • 07.02.2006 3:34 PM PDT