Having completed the game, I’m now current on the Halo story all the way through the end of Halo 3 – and man, I want to talk about it. For some reason I have a much tougher time putting together the story line of games in my mind than movies – maybe because they come out years apart.
Or maybe it’s just the Halo 2 wasn’t as fun to play, so I didn’t play it through dozens of times like I did the first one – and surely will the third.
Anyway, is anyone else through it and ready to talk story?
Well, I am but I don’t think that’s who you were looking for 
edit: Removed as my question is answered in another thread. Will repost there.
Hi Chack, Have only just finished on Normal. Did you wait until the credits finished rolling? There’s an additional movie sequence that you need to be sure you have seen.
Not only that, I didn’t knoe Katee Sackoff played one of the marines!
If I have a gripe wuith the story I don’t think it was ever explained how the Arbiter and Elites joined forces with the Earth forces. I mean, we know ther was a revolt within the Covenant within Halo 2, but it was something of a surprise that by the time Halo 3 rolled around the Eleites & Humans had joined forces so completely. I think that could have been fleshed out more.
Yep, we definitely stuck around for it. It’s nice to know that they didn’t completely can the idea of further sequels – though I have to admit that while I was sitting through the credits I was thinking, “I have a lot of respect for Bungie. It takes balls to kill the Master Chief.”
But at least the 'Chief got out in style – you know, leaving everything in that whole section of the universe destroyed.
Indeed! I’m waiting for the credits to hit the web so I can pour over 'em and see who else is in there. I’d be willing to bet that there are more than a few star cameos.
Does anyone know what lines she recorded? I’d really like to listen for 'em. I wonder if maybe she did some of the “female” gender multi-player dialog. (You can select your character’s gender in setup, which the game says will let tailor what you hear – not your opponents – “when possible.” Though if you’re concerned that your enemies might not know they’ve been spanked by a woman, you could always specify pink armor for your Spartan/Elite.)
First of all, don’t feel bad. I’m still a little hazy on my Halo 2 story as I didn’t enjoy the gameplay as much as the first (or third), so I haven’t replayed it recently. But I did find a pretty good story summary over on rampancy.net to refresh my memory:
http://rampancy.net/halo2story
In Halo 2 we see the birth of the Arbiter, and we see the Covenant forces enter a civil war with the Elites (and Grunts, I think) splitting off to be replaced in their close-to-the-prophets role by Brutes. The MC and Arbiter join forces after being captured by the Gravemind – the big-ass, multi-tentacled monster that has some sort of connection to the Flood. )I do remember that at times during Halo 2 it was really difficult to remember who was on your side and who wasn’t.) We saw some co-op fighting in Halo 2 between the Elite/Grunt rebel forces and the UNSC, though we never really find out what happened back on Earth.
But to directly answer your question: it’s my understanding that the Halo Uprising four comic series was supposed to plug the gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3 – which I see now probably means explaining what happened back on Earth before the MC arrives at the beginning of Halo 3.
(Speaking of which, I’ve got to geek out for just a moment: the MC’s arrival on Earth – jumping out of a crashing Covenant ship during re-entry then surviving a more than two kilometer fall like a freakin’ meteor to wake up and kick Covenant ass – ranks just below the Galactica’s jump into the atmosphere, IMHO. Good, good stuff.)
The bad news: the comic is running behind, which means that only one is out so far. The second hits shelves October 17th. FWIW, I’ve read the first, and the story seems to be mixed between the Covenant’s capture and torture of the MC and a hotel concierge’s (and his female companion’s) exploits in escaping a Covenant-attacked Cleveland. (Really, I’m not kidding.) The first one just sets the stage, so I don’t really know much more of the story so far, but I’d totally advise picking up the comic. It’s only $4 – probably the cheapest Halo 3 item you can find other than a keychain.
I have a question, though: It seems to me that in Halo 3 we find out that the Gravemind does indeed control the Flood. Does this make sense to you?
What I got from my 1-3/4 plays through Halo 3 is that the Gravemind is some kind of collection of the “sentience” (read: mind/experiences/etc.) of all the beings that the Flood has infected. Like when beings are infected, their minds joins the Gravemind, then their infected bodies join the Gravemind’s zombie army.
Though I’m still not sure about the meaning of the information on the terminals near the end of the game, I’m starting to get the inkling that the Gravemind was part of the plan to “save” people from the rings’ extinction event – i.e. the Gravemind infects everyone through the Flood, “indexing” their minds, then hides somewhere (the “ark” maybe?) where it can survive the rings’ extinction event.
I’m still really confused, though, and I hope that we can all talk about it here a bit as everyone finishes up the game to try and figure it all out. I’m not going to sleep well until I understand this.
Ok just finished it (played it on legendary to get the extra part of the ending so it took me a bit) and I agree with all of the above. “wake me, when you need me” may not be the absolute best line to go out on but it damn sure was effective, made me want to cry… I guess will see master chief again in marathon or something to that effect. Also just wanted to say I did think that last boss battle was lame but none the less an awesome ending. Give me a bit more to collect my thoughts and I will comment some more on the ending.
On legendary – very nice. I was planning to go back and start on Heroic, but you’ve inspired me to hit in on legendary now. I’m not really the king of FPS, but I’m gonna work through it. PLEASE tell me it’s not stupid-hard like Halo 2. Can you re-spawn if one of you dies in co-op on legendary?
BTW… My favorite moment: killing Guilty Suck. I’ve frackin’ hated that little floating POS since Halo. I’ve wasted zillions of rounds pelting him through the last two games even though it did no good, and it was s-w-e-e-t to punk him in 3.
Watching the Arbiter run Truth through was almost as nice. Man, I’ve wasted almost as much ammo on those stupid holo-sermon things as I have on Guilty Suck.
Yeah, my take on the gravemind thing is that once there is a large enough number of infected flood ( a critical mass, so to speak), that is enough to give Gravemind sentience enough to expand it’s abilities. For example, it lays dormant until it’s “triggered” by enough mind power supplied by the infected.
Maybe I have it wrong, but that’s my take.
As far as the return of MC, Bungie have been very clever. We probably won’t see a Halo 3, but the door is wide open for MC to return for more dual laser rifle firing goodness. In what capacity, who knows? My .02c says he’ll turn up in another galaxy completely and needs to find his way back to Earth, Voyager style. Either that or he’ll be drifting for so long he’ll show up 200 yrs later to fac a new threat.
gaf
Last night finshed the game. Question can a movie be made of this. All of it books and all. I need more.
I was really happy with the game, Halo 2 was really cool for me as well having read the novels, which I really recomend “The Fall of Reach” it deals with Master Chiefs origin, as well as most the other Halo universe charactors. My personal feeling on why the Elites uprising wasn’t delt to much with was for a Halo: Covenant Civil War or something like that.
Did you win the lottery or finally pony up the dough for a 360? I am a Halo virgin, but have heard all the hype. My buddy and I almost got a 360 for Halo (and Fable for me).
I just caved and shelled out for a 360. And for the record, it was totally, totally worth it. 
Well, I didnt play legendary on co-op I soloed it. I played the Beta a hell of a lot so I was prepared when the actual game hit. But halo 3s legendary is not nearly as hard compared to Halo 2s Legendary(which I always ahd a problem getting past the first few levels. Which seemed stupid to me. For me there just wasn’t enough ammo towards the beginning of Halo 2. With that said, I found that Halo 3s legendary was hardest towards the very end. All those flood raining down in pods gave me never ending frustration. I finally snaped at one point, I threw the controller and sat there screaming and yelling obcenties into a pillow. Besides that, if you beat Halo 2 on Legendary you should find Halo 3s legendary to be much less prone to cause aneurysm’s.
Well got the game yesterday Oct. 1 and just beat it on normal. I would have to say I was kinda miffed that an extra bit of ending is only after you beat it on legendary but I want it so gotta do it I guess. But as far as the story of the game I was kinda surprised how many main characters they had bite it. I mean Johnson, okay, I mean he had it coming since halo (he was on the ring and lead the first team into the flood if i remember correctly). Then you have Keyes’ Daughter which really made me sad because of what happened to her dad. My main highlight was just how beautiful master chief looked whenever you picked up a stationary gun and took it around with ya. That close up 3rd person looked so good.
Anyone who is looking to do legendary co-op my Gtag is over there
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Went back and watched the extra ending after the credits and I think even if the USNC forces eventually find MC he wouldn’t really have anything to do. The Flood is gone, Elites are friendly with the USNC now, and the grunts, jackals, brutes, and hunters could of learned through this experience that the prophets were idiots. So I figure if they do retrieve him they will either just let him retire or just put him back to sleep which he does himself.
~Andrew
You could always cheat like I did and find the secret ending on Youtube.
Oh, and I didn’t even know there were terminals until someone mentioned them on the forums. I guess I really am missing a huge chunk of the story. That, and I haven’t found any skulls.
I just read the secret Legendary ending on wiki and that would be awesome if they continued the series off of what they left us with in that piece of ending. I hope to eventually beat the game on legendary myself that way I can see that piece myself but thats going to take a while.
Here’s a very funny video review of Halo 3 (Warning: Not Safe For Work, Children, or Small Animals.)
YAY its wednesday and yes that guy is awesome he releases a review of a game every wednesday and they are always funny. : )
Another Yahtzee fan! To borrow a phrase: Awesome!
I gave in and bought the sexy Halo 3 wireless headset. I just couldn’t resist. I know that its not really related to the Halo story but I just had to share.