So I just finished listening to the bombcast and from listening to the guys there's quite a few plot holes and a whole lot of background people need to know in order to make some sense of this game. I enjoy the Halo as much as the next guy but I'm not big into the fiction of the game. I only read one book, The Fall of Reach, and I never bothered with anything else.

Personally I think it very condescending from 343 to think that everyone that plays halo also read all the extra fiction. I hope that they do what MGS4 did and provide a sort of encyclopedia app so people can check that out without spending time looking it up on the wiki pages.

So I ask you guys who are big into halo. What do I need to read in order to make Halo 4 make any sort of sense.

Thanks.

Actually, nobody is required to read anything to really get what's happening in Halo 4, let alone all the extended fiction. You need to know certain things about the Halo universe to have some context for the events of Halo 4 but it's all stuff you can pick up in the games. If you've already read all of The Fall of Reach then you have a pretty good idea what's going on in the Halo universe. I'd say the only thing that really matters that much for you now is catching up on what happened in Halo 3. If you really want reading the synopses of Halo 1 and 2 couldn't hurt either.

I though th

Dammit, mobile. I figured the biggest question is why the Covenant are around. The rest isn't anything terrible. If anything, the terminals will fill in any holes.

@Gamer_152: Didn't the bomb crew say something that Didact was mentioned or something in the books or whatever? Same goes for the reason why the Brutes are missing but my reasoning for that is the whole Covenant civil war that occurred is the reason why they're missing.

@csl316: I haven't played the game yet but my understanding is that those guys are like the leftover Japanese in the pacific islands who didn't get the memo that the war is over.

@Colourful_Hippie: Yeah, but the whole thing with the Brutes isn't that big a part of the narrative and the Didact makes sense as a character within himself in the game. As is usually the case with extended fiction, if people want all the answers or an extra layer of depth and context added to things, that stuff is there from them, but from what I can tell nobody needs to start mining the extended fiction to really understand what happens in Halo 4's story.

you never need to read video game books.

@Bell_End said:

you never need to read video game books.

Fall of Reach was actually pretty good. I tried reading the nest book in the series but lost interest in it.

@Colourful_Hippie: The Didact is actually mentioned in the halo 3 terminal logs. The whole thing is a conversation between the Didact and the Librarian.

@Bell_End said:

you never need to read video game books.

I found Fall of Reach to be an enjoyable book to read, the rest I have no interest in.

http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-ca/intel/primer

@mordukai: This, this and this.

Once you realize that there is a history between the humans and Foreruner civilizations... the whole thing makes a lot more sense. In short, Humanity was running from Flood. Humanity stumbled into a war with Foreruners and lost--Foreruners neutered them into caveman tribal state with the Didact at the helm (he's a bit bitter about that war). Forerunners see that Humanity was actually running from the Flood. They are losing, so the Didact decides to pull the trigger--killing off Forerunner life while hiding away.

Throughout most of the struggle, there was a bit of a fight between the Librarian and Didact. Librarian wanted to save humanity while the Didact wanted to destroy them.

With that knowledge, you can go back to this video and it all makes sense.

@Gamer_152 said:

@Colourful_Hippie: As is usually the case with extended fiction, if people want all the answers or an extra layer of depth and context added to things, that stuff is there from them, but from what I can tell nobody needs to start mining the extended fiction to really understand what happens in Halo 4's story.

I think the problem is that Halo 4 does not provide enough context to get by. You don't need to know about the Librarian and Didact's relationship, or the inner workings of the Composer, but what you do need to know is the context that justifies what your villain is doing and why. For that reason, Halo 4's narrative is too dependent on it's extended universe stuff.

The funny thing is, 343 had a panel recently wherein they went through the creative process of building an extended universe and elaborated on their big ol' initiative. One of the major take-aways that they urged all aspiring game developers to do is to set up a core narrative (Halo 4) and to make sure that the core narrative is not dependent on the extended narratives: something that they ultimately failed to do. Here's to hoping that they realize this for the eventual release of Halo 5.

@project343: That was helpful, dude! Thanks!

if you really want to read the books, read halo cryptum and halo primordium and halo glasslands (yes big halo nerd here)

as for why we are fighting the covenant, i believe its because a faction of the covenant splitted off after halo 3 because they were all like FUCK NO when arbiter took over as leader of the covenant and seeked out the didact as they believe in their alien religion he is a god

I think the GB crew are just the type of people that want to know every little detail. Personally I appreciate when a story leaves the reader/player in the dark about certain things.

Terminals

@mordukai:

After you beat the game, or maybe even before you might want to watch this, it will give you what you need to know, it is the terminal videos from Halo 4, it sets up what is going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76rnDdsIF4