narrative truth and reconciliation
“We stand together, brothers to the end. We are his will. We are his legacy. We are The Banished.”
It’s finally been revealed. We’re fighting the Banished in Halo Infinite!
The Brutes are back! Here’s why they’re the perfect antagonist for the next movement of the Master Chief’s odyssey…
Read More Why the Banished are the PERFECT antagonists for Halo Infinite“She is stubborn, brilliant as a nova, dark as a singularity.”
The forces of antagonism in the Halo universe are among some of the most memorable (and quotable) in gaming.
From the soft-spoken machinations of the Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, to Atriox crushing some of the most powerful symbols of the series in his fist – these are characters you don’t soon forget.
Halo 4, however, rather spectacularly buries the lede here. It has become clear that the greatest threat faced not only by humanity, but the galaxy itself, is not an all-consuming parasite, or an army of warmongering mercenaries, or even the Didact himself…
It’s the Librarian.
Read More Why the Librarian is Halo’s greatest antagonistShunned by their creators, enslaved by the Covenant, tortured and experimented on by the Banished… the Huragok just can’t seem to catch a break.
However, these seemingly unassuming victims had an unexpected plan they hoped to fulfil as the Human-Covenant war came to its inevitable conclusion.
A plan that – had it succeeded – would have changed everything.
Read More The Huragok Master Plan to Fire Halo (Yes, Really…)Here’s a suitably obscure but important lore topic to kick off my first post of 2015. The San’Shyuum, better known to the wider audience as ‘the Prophets’, are one of the most important parts of the Halo story in ways that I don’t think we even fully understand yet. From their ancient alliance with humanity […]
Read More The Reclaimer Saga and the San’ShyuumAnd so, we reach the beginning of the final act of Halo 4’s story. This is where the characters hit their lowest point, where all seems lost for our protagonists and their goals. At the end of the previous mission, just as it seemed like they were about to succeed, John and Cortana failed to […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – ComposerI can give you over forty thousand reasons why I know this game is awesome. I know it because the story’s thematic resonance is disproportionate to its suggested size, I know it because its character arcs are more emotional than that of the common shooter. But for all that, I’ll never actually know just how […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – ShutdownSo here we are, at the half-way point of this little project. So far, we’ve covered what has primarily been the build-up in the narrative, the setting of the stage for that point in the plot where the stakes get raised higher than ever and the direction of the story becomes clear. Reclaimer is that […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – ReclaimerOnto act two of Halo 4’s story which serves as the rising action in the plot, introducing us to and developing a series of critical thematic elements surrounding humanity, our history, and setting the stage for the rest of the Reclaimer Saga by continuing to build on the concept of the Mantle which is, as […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – InfinityOnto the third mission of the campaign, titled Forerunner. This marks the end of the first of Halo 4’s three acts in the story, the set-up where we’re introduced to the characters, their relationships, the world they live in, the disruption of the status quo, and so on. The end of the first act typically […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – ForerunnerRoll on, Requiem! One of my favourite missions in the entire series, it has to be said, which further means that I have a lot to say about it. Requiem opens with a bang – literally. Following directly on from the disastrous events of Dawn, the Master Chief finds himself in the midst of a series […]
Read More Halo 4, Level-by-Level Analysis – Requiem