Forum:5 ways to prepare for Halo: MCC

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This is in no particular order, but just a few things I quickly thought of that might bring newcomers to the Halo franchise up to speed. This list is composed primarily around the Master Chief and his story.

1. Halo: Reach

"From the beginning, you know the end."

— Game tagline

A prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, the game takes place during the Fall of Reach and follows the story of Noble Team and their exploits during the Covenant invasion. You take on the role of Noble 6, a Spartan-III commando, "deemed nearly equal in ability to the famous [Master Chief], and served just as essential a role in securing humanity's victory in the Human-Covenant War." The discovery of Halo wouldn't have been possible, in part, without the actions of Noble Six.

2. Halo: The Fall of Reach

"Legends are not simply born...they are willed into existence... This is the story of John, Spartan-117...the Master Chief, and of the battles that brought humanity face to face with its possible extinction."

— Summary excerpt

A literary prequel to the first Halo game. It was written by Eric Nylund and published on October 30th, 2001. It reveals the origins of the Master Chief, known as John-117, and his career as a Spartan-II super-soldier during the Human-Covenant War. Unless you're a speed-reader who might finish this whole novel in under 2 weeks, then most might want to consider reading only the first couple sections of the book titled "Reveille" and "Boot" to see how the Master Chief and other Spartans came to be. If you want to read about the events just before the first Halo then Section V will be just as good, which mostly follows the battle from the Master Chief's perspective up until the first cutscene of Combat Evolved.

3. Halo: Fall of Reach

The comic book adaptation of the first Halo novel published by Marvel Comics. This twelve-issue series provides graphical representations of the Halo universe as described from Nylund's book. It is divided in three parts with four issues each, all detailing the events from the book with a few alterations.

If I had to choose, I recommend reading all four issues of Invasion, the last story-arc of the comic series, which describes the events leading up to Halo: Combat Evolved.

4. Halo: First Strike

"After destroying the first Halo, Master Chief and Cortana attempt to voyage back home among a myriad of deadly Covenant attacks..."

— Summary excerpt

Another book written by Eric Nylund, First Strike is the sequel to the first Halo book, The Fall of Reach. If you're planning on jumping right into Halo 2 Anniversary then this book will describe the events that took place between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. This book will also tell you how Master Chief made it back to Earth and how Sgt. Johnson survived his encounter from the Flood on Installation 04.

5. Halo: Uprising

"The Eisner Award-winning team of superscribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist extraordinaire Alex Maleev unleash an epic story of mankind's struggle against the alien threat of the Covenant. Picking up from the conclusion of blockbuster video game Halo 2, the must-read issue reveals how the Master Chief, while on board a hostile ship headed towards Earth, is battling against Covenant forces! Intertwined with Master Chief's interstellar one-man-war is the saga of a great American city's rebellion and downfall, two desperate lives' collision and shared fate, and the Covenant's hunt for an ancient relic of untold power and value."

— Official Summary - Issue 1

A limited time, four-issue comic series, also published by Marvel, tells the story of Ruwan Ackerson during the Covenant invasion of Earth. It also tells the story of the Master Chief, detailing his mission aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought that had left High Charity towards the end of Halo 2. The Chief's subsequent drop at the end of the last issue of the comic can be seen in the opening cutscene of Halo 3.

By Killjax, November 2nd, 2014