- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: Kahnb
First off, apologies if this is a repeat of an old question. I haven't found it covered in my (admittedly limited) scan of the forum, so...
At one time I read about a link between the Marathon and Halo storylines, as hinted at by the appearance of the Marathon logo on the bridge of Halo's Pillar of Autumn and its Captain's chest insignia.
Beyond that, though, I haven't seen or read anything. Has there been anything else?
The Marathon logo shows up enough to almost be considered consistent. Aside from appearing on the side of the Pillar of Autumn and on Captain Keyes Uniform, it also shows up in the shape of the Control Room, and in the Halo logo itself. Look closely at the center of the Halo logo and you'll see it.
As for the connection between storylines: originally the Halo and Marathon storylines were supposed to cross and take place in the same universe. There is a huge gap in the Marathin story that Bungie was going to fill in with Halo. As the game developed though, it kind of branched out into its own thing, but they still are very similar. In Marathon, the governmental body is the U.E.S.C., and in Halo it's the U.N.S.C. They have the same logo (which explains why it appears on Keyes' unifrom and on the side of the Pillar of Autumn. Even the characters you play as while in the game are very similar. In Marathon, you play as a security officer who wears MJOLNIR Mark IV armor (at least, I think that's what it is). In Halo, the Master Chief wears MJOLNIR Mark V, and for halo 2 gets upgraded to Mark VI. Some weapons for the two games are similar in several ways too. For example, the fusion pistol in Marathon works almost identically to the plasma pistol in Halo, and the rocket launchers in both games have the SPNKR designation and fire two rcokets before needing to be reloaded.
By the time Halo was released, Bungie pretty much insisted that it existed in its own universe separate from Marathon, but the two worlds are so similar that its very obvious that they both evolved from the same basic ideas.
I hope that helps to clear up some confustion, and if any other Bungie zealots who know more about this than I do can help to suppliment (or correct) some of my information, that would be great.