Why Halo's integration of it's extended universe is...not good.

 I am all for including extended universe fiction into video game story lines, let me preface this piece by stating that. When done right, you can add such little, great details into a game that, for those who have seek out the novels, comics, etc, they have great call backs for their efforts. A Series like World of Warcraft is a great examples of this, with it adding more context for future game expansions. Now, what including extended universe fiction into your games shouldn't do, is hide very important story beats and background behind novels. After a recent play through of the Halo series I am doing with a good friend, specifically Halo 4, and having seen 343 Industries attempt to mix the Halo novels in with the already existing canon they were building in the fourth entry of the series, I feel what and how they are doing it is just...

Well, let's be honest, it isn't good. It's convoluted, and leaves a huge mass hole of confusion in the middle of the games plot, literally a few missions before the end, introducing an insanely important plot point that should not have half of it's background described in only a novel. A background, I will add, is very important to understanding the big reveal in the game. In this short little opinion essay, I will make a quick discussion on how Halo failed it's extended universe integration, and give a suggestion on how they could improve. So, in this post I will be going into a big plot point of Halo 4, and perhaps a bit about the Forerunner trilogy of books as well. Halo spoilers ahead! 

(image credit; Halo Waypoint)

Near the ending of Halo 4, there is a scene where Master Chief is a shown a vision by a forerunner character called the Librarian. Keep in mind, no point in the video games has this character been discussed or even seen. Here, the Librarian explains to Chief about how in order to defeat the Flood, an alien parasitic species, she went behind the villain of the game, the Didact's back, to implant some genetic coding into certain humans, allowing their genetic code to accelerate and allow them to among other things, evolve past their normal human coding and survive something called the Composer, a weapon that is meant to eliminate the Flood, that is being used by the Didact, the games villain. 

Now, for those who don't know Halo lore, you would think this is a huge plot point. The implications it speaks of, that it isn't just Spartans that are the genetically altered people. If I took anything from that, it's that normal people, even ODSTs, normal soldiers, can have these genes that have been altered long before from the Forerunners. A major point, that 343 chooses to hide behind a trilogy of books titled "Forerunner saga.", a series that follows the Didact and the Librarian, both characters that appear in Halo 4, and a couple other characters that are not even named in the game itself, as it follows the first wipe of all life from the galaxy. An event that has been discussed in the Halo games, and something that has seemingly driven the plots (as seen as the main plot for Chief has seemingly been to stop the Halo Rings from firing). But the main plot taken from the books, is the fact that everything the human race has done, has been set up by the forerunners. Discovering our tech, everything from AIs to the Spartans themselves. Has all been set up by them. Which, one could say is a huge reveal for a series that has gone as long as Halo has.

Now, I know little to nothing about Halo lore. I know basically the same as everyone else does, as someone who only looks at Halo on the surface. But even so, as I watched the cut scene that glossed over the entire plot point, and then asked the person I was playing with 'what the fuck was that?' and he responded with 'oh, this is when they started pulling book lore.' I did what anyone else did. I looked up the book, interested for a moment to know the backstory and what Halo was trying to lead me to. Extended universe, obviously. But when I learned the fact that it was in a trilogy of books, and not one, and the fact that this was a huge plot thread that was hidden in that book trilogy...well, you could say my decision not to read it was because of laziness (as we all obviously have time to read now), and honestly that isn't it. 

Personally, the reason I didn't dive into this and buy the books and just, shove my head into the Halo ocean, is because I was ticked. Angry that 343 had decided to bring in a plot point that was brought up a in a series that, honestly, did a lot of people read? A point that, if it was important as they made it seem, why have it only be skirted over in a CGI cut scene? Then be told then you have to search out a book to get the full backstory? 

Listen I hate to say this, and I hate to be the person who bares this, but that's not good storytelling. That is locking a detail of a major story behind having to buy and put time into another medium. For the dedicated fans, that's great. They most likely will, and get the most out of it. But for those players who only pay attention to surface lore, they will be probably confused all the way through. Wondering why this feels so out of place, what it's supposed to mean, etc. 

(image credit me.me)

Now, what can 343 in the future do to fix this? Well, an easy thing to say is to remove huge plot points from ancillary novels and leave their books, while still canon, only including side stories. Small thing that can be referenced in small bits of game, to give as a small gift to those who follow your canon and side stories. But also, if you do choose to still add canon into your side content 343 (as if they are even listening???) then I highly suggest you do the following, in nice little list form! 

1. Add a disclaimer when you announce a new, say, novel. "This is the official prequel to Halo 25!" or "This follows character X, who appears in the upcoming Halo 32!" In order to give context, so people know a broad idea of what the book is covering 
2. And oh boy, this is the biggest one that no one is going to see coming, but JUST DON'T DO IT. Now, stay with me here as yes, I did mention this in the earlier paragraph. But, it's a simple fix, and other titles have done it to an amazing degree. Put it in collectible files, hide it behind character dialogue or even just put it as a side quest since it looks like Infinite is doing that, which is an amazing first start. The side quest thing, I swear I cannot tell the future of Halo.

As I end this rant, and I'm so sorry it came to this, the topic of story in games is extremely important to me. I believe gaming should be something everybody can get into, and that also works in the story aspect. Make games accessible when it comes to the story is an easier said then done task, but when done correctly, you can make a world lush and full of great story and details. And yes, that does mean you can add ancillary details and things from books and novels. 

Just do right, please? 

I mean if your still here how about getting 343 to add Buck into more things? please? I KNOW YOUR LISTENING.  

UPDATE; wanted to thank a good bro Mak for helping me with the plot questions I had. Can confirm I was so mad I forgot some of the plot talked about in the scene! Thanks for the help, my dude. 

If my younger self could see my favorite character of all time acknowledge his PTSD...

Other then my in-forever-hiatus hard look at Silent Hill and Hellblade, this is probably the most personal blog post I am ever writing here. And it won't be horrifically long (oh god, I hope not) but it's totally something I need to talk about. During quarantine, I have spent a lot of my free time (when not going deep into World of Warcraft or barreling through the Halo titles with a friend) reading. A hobby I fell off of, in part due to the hole of comics I had subscribed too but never got a chance to read, but it has been a good hot while since I have read an actual novel. 

As I write this, I don't remember the last book I read before my recent finish. I believe it was the biography on the band TOOL's eclectic lead singer James Maynard Keenan (a book I highly recommend, and also add that band on the rather large list of topics I want to write about) but I am a deep sucker for fantasy books. Mostly hard, violent fantasy. The kind of books that don't give a shit if you like the premise or not, it just knows you want to watch people wield magic and swords (and sometimes guns) to just fucking kill people in gruesome ways. And that's the type I love with all of my heart. Even as a rather young kid, I fell in love with this genre, especially with it holding some of the most well written worlds I have ever seen. 

Enter thirteen year old me. As a child, I frequented Barnes and Nobel with friends, spending hours in the starbucks that was attached to the bookstore and spending rather fewer hours (let's be honest, the employees probably hated us) digging through the shelves to find the next big thing. I grabbed a book titled "Kill the Dead", which I later found out was a sequel to a dark fantasy series named "Sandman Slim.", a series that told the story of James Stark, a magic-user that got in with the wrong people and later clawed his way out of hell to get revenge. 


((image credit; Amazon))

I. Ate. That. Shit. Up.

Reading the book I had picked up, I told myself I'd buy the first one if I liked it alot. Well, queue me sitting on the floor of a family member's upstairs room as the rest of my family watched the superbowl, head in a book, having my parents remind me to eat. I fucking loved it, and fell in love with the dark, fantasy ridden LA that author Richard Kadrey had created, and I am proud to say Stark was my first book crush (move over Edward Cullen, Peeta. God, Stark would totally gut them with no issue) and I loved his take-no-shit attitude and foul mouth, while he cleaved his way through LA's seedy fantastical underbelly and stopping a zombie apocalypse. I love the characters he met along the way, Candy (a vampire called a Jade) being one of my favorites, and his bartender buddy Carlos, running his rather old school Hawaiian bar. (which honestly, I want to exist)

I write about this, because I recently finally got caught up and finished the most recent book, "Hollywood Dead". It felt like jumping back on the saddle again, returning back to a book series I considered a home to me, with characters I missed and new ones I was having a blast reading about. But something happened near the end of the book that literally made me do a 180 in the best way possible. 

"I should call Allegra and talk to her about PTSD stuff. But no yoga or soy burgers."(Kadrey, 343)

As many people know (or may not know, whoa), I was diagnosed with Childhood Medical Trauma PTSD a few years ago, having gone undiagnosed for years. As a kid, I fought back a lot of the emotions, and it released itself as anger and emotional issues. I always knew I was different, that something was wrong, but I didn't do much about it until I was around eighteen, and later as an early twenty-something. But even as a kid, I knew something was wrong. I gravitated towards characters I connected too, and they were normally ones that had been through traumatic ordeals. I never knew why, but I appreciated knowing that someone else, even if not real, knew how I was feeling, even if I didn't have a name for it.

And all through my literary career, I always wondered why I connected to Stark. He was stoic, angry, covered in scars and probably smelt of gunpowder, blood, and leather. He wielded magic and a blade that could cut anything into pieces. How the hell was I, a thirteen year old nerd, going to see myself in him? Simple. He had gone through the absolute traumatic experience of knowing the people he associated with killed his girlfriend, and locked him in hell, dealing with years of torment and agony. He had gone through his own traumatic experience, and like me, his emotions seemed to be stinted because of it. He rarely let people close, and it was like he only had one mode on; survival. 

My therapist explained to me (after hours and days of hearing my life, which lets be honest, was probably as boring as it can come) about the flight or fight mode in humans. And that, in people like me with PTSD and other mental health disorders, our mode is always turned to fight. While I am not like Stark, though god I wish I was, I am constantly tense, worried, and jumpy. (I cannot begin to explain the amount of times I have screamed when a coworker has casually walked up behind me, or a firework has made me cry because I didn't see it coming) And in Kadrey's writings, there is multiple times Stark jumps at people, instantly aims his weapons, or only knows to speak using violence. 

Reading the recent novel and seeing Stark finally accept the chance he can get help for his PTSD hit something in me. Honestly, I can say it hit that little part of me is still that thirteen year old, angry at nothing in particular because that was all I knew. If I could see Stark accept his own mental health issues, being the manly man he is (I giggle as I type), why couldn't I reach out for help earlier then I did? Of course, it's always a 'what-if' in these situations, but I do entertain the thought. Seeing a character I looked up to as much as I did Stark finally realizing he needed the help and was willing to entertain it. 

As I finish this, I have to smile as I have the book next to me. I doubt Richard Kadrey will see this, but if he does, thank you sir. And I hope I get to see how Stark reaches out for help, as I'm sure I'll be able to still find my parallels as well.