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| Not in Reach.... |
Sunday, September 19
Saturday, September 18
The Plot of Halo Reach Game
Now that Halo Reach is out and has been all week, I'm happy to start blogging more about in game things (rather than simply speculate) such as providing details of the whereabouts of the data pads, and now the actual plot of Reach.
Beware major spoilers below!
Setting: The Planet Reach
Reach takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting during the year 2552, shortly before the events of the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved
. Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), have been waging a long war against a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. By the events of Reach, almost all of humanity's interstellar colonies have fallen. Reach itself is an Earthlike colony that serves as the UNSC's main military hub. In addition to the military presence, the colony is home to over 700 million civilians. Other than Earth, Reach is effectively the last bastion of mankind.
The Main Characters
The Reach game follows the actions of Noble Team, a UNSC special operations unit composed of elite supersoldiers known as Spartans. Players assume the role of an unnamed new addition to the team, identified by the call sign Noble 6, the so called Lone Wolf.
Noble Team's leader is Carter-A259, a no-nonsense soldier. His second-in-command, Kat-B320, has a bionic arm; together, Carter and Kat are the only two remaining original members of Noble Team. The other members include heavy weapons specialist Jorge-052, Emile-A239, and sniper marksman Jun-A266.
The Plot of Halo: Reach
Following an opening camera shot of a soldier's helmet lying lost on the ground, the game begins with Noble 6 joining the rest of Noble Team on a mission. The military sends the Spartans to discover why a relay station went offline, suspecting damage done by insurgents. Instead of human rebels, Noble Team discovers the Covenant. After evacuating trapped soldiers, Noble Team forces their way into the relay and informs command that the Covenant are on Reach.
Following an opening camera shot of a soldier's helmet lying lost on the ground, the game begins with Noble 6 joining the rest of Noble Team on a mission. The military sends the Spartans to discover why a relay station went offline, suspecting damage done by insurgents. Instead of human rebels, Noble Team discovers the Covenant. After evacuating trapped soldiers, Noble Team forces their way into the relay and informs command that the Covenant are on Reach.
Soon after, Noble team is deployed to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) installation, Sword Base, to defend the research there; the scientist Catherine Halsey tells the team before leaving that the Covenant at the relay were searching for important information.
As the Covenant arrive on the planet in force, the members of Noble team undertake missions such as assaulting a Covenant ground base and removing fortified Covenant defenses. Spartan Jorge nobly sacrifices himself when he manually detonates a slipspace engine bomb to destroy a Covenant super carrier. Kat is killed by a sniper while the team defends the city of New Alexandria.
Recalled to Sword Base, Halsey shows Noble Team an ancient Forerunner artifact that she believes is key to winning the war. Noble 6, Carter, and Emile are entrusted with taking the artificial intelligence Cortana and the information she carries to the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn. Noble 6, Emile, and Carter take a Pelican transport to the Autumn while Jun protects Dr Halsey in another. Jun appears to be only member of Team Noble to survive.
Nearing the Pillar of Autumn, Carter tries to shake off Covenant air forces while having Noble 6 and Emile bring Cortana in from ground level. A Covenant Scarab vehicle encounters Noble 6 and Emile along the way but Carter crashes his ship into it to buy more time. Arriving at the Autumn's docking bay, the remaining two Spartans along with other soldiers defend a landing pad for Autumn captain Jacob Keyes to secure Cortana.
As the Covenant arrive on the planet in force, the members of Noble team undertake missions such as assaulting a Covenant ground base and removing fortified Covenant defenses. Spartan Jorge nobly sacrifices himself when he manually detonates a slipspace engine bomb to destroy a Covenant super carrier. Kat is killed by a sniper while the team defends the city of New Alexandria.
Recalled to Sword Base, Halsey shows Noble Team an ancient Forerunner artifact that she believes is key to winning the war. Noble 6, Carter, and Emile are entrusted with taking the artificial intelligence Cortana and the information she carries to the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn. Noble 6, Emile, and Carter take a Pelican transport to the Autumn while Jun protects Dr Halsey in another. Jun appears to be only member of Team Noble to survive.
Nearing the Pillar of Autumn, Carter tries to shake off Covenant air forces while having Noble 6 and Emile bring Cortana in from ground level. A Covenant Scarab vehicle encounters Noble 6 and Emile along the way but Carter crashes his ship into it to buy more time. Arriving at the Autumn's docking bay, the remaining two Spartans along with other soldiers defend a landing pad for Autumn captain Jacob Keyes to secure Cortana.
Emile, manning a MAC gun against air forces, gets stabbed by Elites. Noble 6 opts to remain behind and defend the Autumn with the MAC gun as it escapes Reach, thus sparking the discovery of the Forerunner installation Halo and setting the stage for Halo: Combat Evolved.
The game thus ends and the credits roll. As is customary for Halo games, one should stay to the end as the following then unexpectedly happens:
Back on the planet Reach, Noble 6 attempts to survive against the converging Covenant forces, knowing their fate is inevitable. The Covenant eventually gets the upper hand and Noble 6 finally falls. The final image is a shot of a soldier's helmet which we now know to be 6's. Thus the opening shot of the game, becomes the final image albeit, some time has passed.
Back on the planet Reach, Noble 6 attempts to survive against the converging Covenant forces, knowing their fate is inevitable. The Covenant eventually gets the upper hand and Noble 6 finally falls. The final image is a shot of a soldier's helmet which we now know to be 6's. Thus the opening shot of the game, becomes the final image albeit, some time has passed.
A narration by Halsey after the war against the Covenant explains that without Noble Team's sacrifice, final victory would not have been possible, and now rebuilding can begin. I presume that this voice over is set after the events of Halo 3 and thus we know that Dr Halsey survived the entire war.
Want the plot of the novel of Fall of Reach?
Monday, November 9
What is the plot for Halo Reach's Campaign?
A screen shot from the Halo: Reach Trailer
What is the plot for Halo Reach's Campaign mode?
Well Bungie is not saying a word about Reach's plot. They never do. They give hints. For Halo 3, it was clear the Master Chief was there to finish the fight. How, we didn't know. All we knew of the plot was that the Covenant had finally found Earth and homed in on found some kind of mysterious artifact located around New Mombassa - many assumed it was the Ark - but no, Bungie was just foxing with the plot. Bless.
Halo: Reach is a little bit different. Bungie hasn't yet given any hints regarding the plot but we know its a prequel so we know where in the Halo timeline it takes place - and lucky for us, there's a novel called the Fall of Reach which is Halo canon, so we can get a indication of what the plot might be.
In essence, the Covenant find the Planet Reach, which is humankind's bastion for all things military and a main point of operation for the United Nations Space Command (it's kind of like Star Trek's Federation) - the Covenant are looking for something that will help them complete their 'spiritual journey'. To get to it, they have to take out the humans.
On a hiding to nothing, the Master Chief sends a group of Spartans to help the battle (i.e. on a campaign!) and defend some cannons which are being used to repel the Covenant onslaught. It would be safe to assume that the game's campaign plot would have something for your character to do in this vein.
The recent leaker of the campaign pictures suggested that the first three levels of the game went like this.
First Level: Find the crashed Spartans
Second Level: Provide cover support for a Spartan who is hacking 3 cannons to provide some kind of cover (which ties in with the Reach novel somewhat)
Third Level: A sniper based level where you attempt to rescue some scientists.
This should be taken with a large grain of salt - this could simply be internet tripe. Don't take it to heart. And even if it was true, Bungie could change anything.
A key element of the Fall of Reach is the end which sets up the events of the original Xbox game, Halo: Combat Evolved. Spartan John 117 and Cortana are aboard the Pillar of Autumn ship, but most of the other Spartans are presumed killed in action as the Covenant do their 'glass the planet thing'.
The AI construct Cortana initiates a slipspace course based on the glyphs intercepted by the Covenant during the battle, the course plotted takes them to a massive ringworld known as we all call Halo, thus neatly preparing the stage for the events of, Halo: Combat Evolved.
It's my pick that this is such a signifcant plot development that it just has to be referenced in a major way in the campaign plot of the Halo: Reach xbox game.
Of course, Bungie could simply choose to tell an untold story that only losely follows the stories! Fan's might be a bit irked though....
What do you think? What is likely to happen on the Reach?
