WEBVTT - The Halo Story 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:09.160 It's ready. Are you didn't touch? With technology? With tech 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:17.720 Stuff from how stuff flix dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.599 and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.640 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.759 Sitting across me, as usual, is the person who just 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:34.479 accused me of being too energetic, Senior writer Jonathan Strickland program. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.800 I just blew out everyone's ears. Yeah, yeah, she did, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.840 Sorry about that. So today we're going to talk about 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.160 something we've actually had requests about this for ages. We've 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.080 had people ask us about Halo and the games of Halo, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:52.239 and all my notes are about Beyonce. Is that a 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.680 problem you can see your Halo? Yeah, that is a 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.360 problem in more ways than one. But we'll talk about 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.880 that after the show. So we want to talk about 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.200 the games of Halo and sort of the development the 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.160 story of Halo, if you will, because to talk about 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.679 the technology that's within Halo is kind of silly in 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.679 a way because the games are set in the twenty 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.400 sixth century, and as it turns out, the technology of 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.080 the twenty six century is different from the technology we 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.440 have today. In order to explain how things would work, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.640 we'd have to make stuff up. Well, we've talked about 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.000 the tartists, yes, and we had to make stuff up. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.080 Uh So, not entirely. We're gonna talk about kind of 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.880 the development of these games and when, where they came from, 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.679 and how they evolved over time. Uh So, let's let's 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.920 cast our minds back to the mid nineties. Actually, if 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.080 you don't mind, I'd like to go back just a 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.399 hair further. Oh all right, you go round on the 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:49.680 head just just a little. I will follow you wherever 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.840 you may go. Um, there's a song in there. Somewhere 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.320 there is a mountain two high. A couple of a 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:01.880 couple of guys, Alexander's Seropian and uh Jason Jones. Um 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:07.920 basically got together. They had both been working on writing software. Um. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:13.760 In fact, Alexander came up with the amazing game, which 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:19.560 was a clone of Pong called knop Ah. So what 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.040 did you play a ball that had knock paddles back 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.000 and forth? Um? Well, I don't know. I actually haven't 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.960 seen stuff. But they essentially they got together. They wanted 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.000 to do this. Uh for well, let let me start 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.320 by saying this all of all of you out there 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.360 who have a project, and I'm speaking to myself also 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.880 in addition, UM, who have a project and you want 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.800 to do it, not because you want to become the 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:51.800 next billionaire, but mostly because you can, and you just 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.320 trying to get motivated to see what happens if you 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.519 can do it, but you just haven't gotten there yet. Listen, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.359 you know, to the story of of Jason and Alexander. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:06.440 Not Jason Alexander. That's different, UM, because they essentially started 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.800 writing these programs because they wanted to see if they 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.680 could do it. And at least according to the information 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:16.200 I dug up on the Bungee website, UM, because what 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.840 what they essentially did was they started writing software and 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.320 they wanted to see if they could sell it. And 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.240 they were selling, you know, a couple of thousand copies 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.840 copies of their early games like Minotaur, UM. And then 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.600 you know, they they basically made it through the early 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:37.000 nineties and started Bungee, this software company that was making 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.840 games primarily for the Macintosh simply because um, that was 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.760 the operating system they knew well more than any other really, UM. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.520 And they they started growing bigger and bigger, and they 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.400 were one of many UH Macintosh game developers in the 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.120 early to mid nineties. Um, but you know, they they 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.640 moved up. As as Jonathan was get ready to say 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.080 before I interrupted him so harshly. Um, you know they 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.480 with every game they released, they were gradually more successful. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.840 And Uh. But one of the things is that they 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.760 wanted to create games that had something more to them 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.719 than just uh, straight gameplay. They wanted to have a 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.520 story and a narrative that went along with it exactly. 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.200 And and in the mid nineties, Bungee, which was called 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.000 Bungee Software Products Corporation at the time, began to work 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.720 on a series of games called Marathon. It's called the 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:38.560 Marathon Trilogy. There's Marathon, Marathon to Durandall, and Marathon Infinity, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:44.200 which were released in nine respectively. And Uh. These games 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:48.920 set up a science fiction, futuristic world. They were first 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.400 person shooter games. They were for the Mac platform, so 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.400 therefore the mac os and UH you took the role 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.279 of a character who was aboard at least in the 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.880 first game, you were board a colony ship called Marathon. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.280 And Uh. There were certain themes that were created in 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.720 this game that would later end up re emerging in 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.400 the Halo series, So having a first person shooter having 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.440 to be a science fiction setting. Uh. There were aliens 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.679 in the games, and of course in the Halo series 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.520 there aliens. Will talk about them in a minute, Uh. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:27.159 They It also created the idea and this is not 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.320 unique of course to games that Bungees created, but it 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:36.040 created the idea of a an ancient civilization that's responsible 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:41.960 for some incredibly sophisticated technology that has since been lost. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.360 Everybody else, like you occasionally come across a remnant of 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.040 it and you think, wow, this must be really amazing 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.840 and maybe this can still work in some capacity, but 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.599 you have very little understanding of it. That was sort 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.800 of established in these games. Also, another important element that 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.279 ended up playing a big role in various parts of 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.960 Halo is the idea of artificial intelligence. So you have 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:13.159 these these personalities, these AI personalities that are individuals. You know, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:18.760 they have a sense of identity and personality. Um. And 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:25.120 the idea of an AI going rampant, rampantcy rampantcy is 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:30.120 in the Marathon universe and also somewhat in the Halo universe. 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:36.279 This idea that an AI can become not only self 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:41.560 aware but self actualized, like it can start to behave 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.280 on its own, and it starts to lose coherence insanity 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.839 over time, so that it actually starts to break down, 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.279 and it can become a dangerous thing. This this AI 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:59.640 can become destructive, and it can become resentful of its creators, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:05.080 of the whatever physical construct it inhabits. And these are 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.760 ideas that also carry over into the Halo Universe to 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.080 some extent. We haven't seen a lot of it in 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.080 the direct Halo games, but a lot of it has 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.280 come out in the various novels, um and other tie 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.560 ins to the Halo universe, including one that I'll talk 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:24.240 about briefly, Uh, the Red Versus Blue series. You know, 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.640 we had the creator of that series, Bernie Burns, We 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.440 had him on our show not too long ago to 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.320 talk about the development of Red Versus Blue. Well, Red 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.720 Versus Blue also continues this idea of rampancy and AI. Uh. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.360 It becomes a very central part of the story in 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.280 Red Versus Blue. So they sort of took that same 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.360 sort that same idea and adapted it for their story. Now, 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.280 keep in mind, the Red Versus Blue universe and the 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:55.080 Halo universe are kind of uh like cousins. You know, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.600 the Red versus Blue universe does not directly tie into 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.960 the story of Halo. They just kind of splits splits off, 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.240 sort of like the Evil Goatee version of Spock and uh. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.920 The Marathon Games took place in the twenty eight and 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:15.720 twenty ninth centuries, so it actually, from the perspective of Halo, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:21.480 takes place in the future. Right. Anyway, the Marathon Universe 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.160 and the Halo universe are a kind of spiritual cousins, 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.480 but not directly related. So the the things that happened 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.360 in Halo are not necessarily things that will take place 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.559 in the history of the Marathon Universe. It's just meant 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.640 to Like, some of the ideas that came up in 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.880 Marathon also came up in Halo. So the Marathon games 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.040 come out for the Mac in the nineties and in 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.960 nine one other element I meant to mention, all three 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.920 of those games had very important story elements. What you 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.000 were talking about, this idea of creating a story. They 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.240 had very important story elements that would be told to 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.760 the player through the use of terminals that had these 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:06.319 Ai personalities inhabiting them, and you would get missions through 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.480 the terminals, you would also get more information about the 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.720 world and the mythology that was being built around this 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.880 whole game system or a series of games rather and 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.040 UH and Bungee was very proud of that, and it 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.360 was again a very central part of this game, and 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.679 it kind of set it apart from other first person shooters, 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:25.920 which when you get boiled down to it, a lot 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.120 of first person shooters essentially boiled down to You're a 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.640 dude in a place with a lot of bad guys, 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:33.920 you got a gun, try to get to the other 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.760 side of the map, like that's the that's the extent 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.440 of the story for a lot of these games, and 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.959 Bungee wanted to make something a little more deep and complex. Well, 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:51.840 Bungee announced the successor to the Marathon series in a way, 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.439 again the spiritual successor, and this was the Halo game UH. 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.840 In fact, originally it was thought of as just a 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.920 standalone game Halo what would eventually become Halo Combat evolved 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:09.080 and the first unveiling of this was it wasn't early 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.679 an official unveiling, but they held closed door sessions at 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.240 E three and where they would invite certain people to 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.280 come back and see the game that was in development, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.240 and at this time it was in development for the Mac. Yeah. 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:26.640 One of the things that that Bungee did, um well 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.600 Marathon really established him is one of the leaders in 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.360 Mac game development, and um you know talking about that 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:37.920 in the mid nineties is basically establishing yourself among a 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.960 small handful of other developers really, um because gaming for 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:43.880 the Mac at that time was just not that strong. 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.839 Speaking as a Mac user of that time, yeah, their 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.559 their entire videos online from that era that are devoted 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:56.760 to you know, the the laments of the Mac gamer. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:01.480 well there um uh Bungee and Blizzard both were very 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.679 devoted to the Mac and UH Marathon was something of 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.440 a appointed pride in a way for a lot of 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.400 my friends who um, you know, there were there were games. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.160 There were gamers in the Windows side who were interested 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.440 in playing and they couldn't because they had a PC. 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.520 Well they did port. Um they began to port the 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:28.600 UH Marathon series over two windows. Um and you know 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.720 they became a Bungee became a more um, well rounded developer. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.960 They started releasing things for Windows and Mac. But um 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.080 uh you know, they had a series of others like 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.280 myth the Myth series. One into UM, which was you know, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.760 sort of a strategy type game you weren't playing as 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.920 a as a third player, the third person game UM, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.080 and then UH and then Only, which was sort of 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.240 a third person shooter. I am actually wearing my on 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.400 E T shirt which I got in Mac World. UH. 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:05.160 And they when they announced Halo at Macworld, which was 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.080 which was earlier in the year than E three, which 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:10.640 I think is kind of important to point out for 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.559 the timeline of this UM. The fans were excited because 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.040 here was this you know, it was planned for the Mac. 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.680 They were really excited about playing this brand new game. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.200 If if you were around back when they released Halo 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.199 or you know, we're starting to promote Halo UM. They 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.680 were going to release it for multiple platforms UM, Windows, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.319 PC and UH and Mac and UM at least one 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.160 console if I remember correctly. And the thing is, you 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.200 know this it started generating buzz at Macworld, It picked 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.320 up at E three well heck, I mean Steve Jobs 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.560 himself came out during the keynote from Macworld and he 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.400 talked about this game. And again this was a way 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.280 to show how the Mac could be a great platform 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.040 for games. And so he was pointing this out as 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.160 an example, and uh, yeah, I got a great reaction 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.480 when people saw what the demo for this, this game, 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.920 which you know, in in compared to what eventually came out, 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.280 was fairly primitive, although it's still look great. Well. Then 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:15.160 in two thousand, everything changes because Microsoft acquired Bungee in 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.240 that year, and uh, the development of Halo switches from 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.960 primarily being a Mac game to being an Xbox title, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.199 one of the launch titles for the Xbox System. And 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.760 I read that the Bungee executives at the time, we're 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:37.040 really you know, considering this carefully when Microsoft came to 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:40.680 them with this acquisition deal, because they had a couple 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.680 of different pathways open to them. Remaining independent would have 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.079 been uh probably the I think everyone would have preferred 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.960 that the most, except for the fact that it's uncertain 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.559 when you're an independent company and you don't have that 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.040 that benefit of a larger parent company to help get 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.880 you through tough time times. You know, you you stand 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.200 or fall based upon how your products do, and the 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.800 success of one product is not necessarily guarantee necessarily guaranteed 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.200 the success of the next product. However, they were also 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.079 worried about selling to a company that would just want 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.440 to turn them into a production company, that all it 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.160 did was port games from other platforms to the Mac 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.160 and that would be all they would do. They didn't 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.920 want that to happen. But then when Microsoft came to them, 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.640 they saw Microsoft as a company that was getting very 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.440 very interested and very serious about games, and they felt 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.960 that that was a good match for their their work culture, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.000 and so they did make that deal with Microsoft. And 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.720 so that's when Halo switched from being primarily a mac 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.600 os game to an Xbox game, although it elso came 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.680 out for PC um and it was in on November 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:56.640 two thousand one when Halo Combat Evolved released for the 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:02.600 Xbox m man I was. I was an Xbox owner, 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.800 early Xbox owner, and Halo was one of the games 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.840 that I played throughout the entire time that I had 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.480 that Xbox. I mean, i've I was a hardcore Halo fan, 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.800 and I loved playing the the the campaign, even the 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.880 infamous Library level, which I will talk about in a second. 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.560 And uh I also loved hooking up the Xbox to 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.480 other Xboxes and playing in land parties against other players, 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.920 which was a preview of what was to come once 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.800 Xbox Live launched and people were able to play online 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.000 against each other and call each other names that I 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.560 didn't even know could exist until I got online and 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.920 heard a twelve year old called them out to me. Um, 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.280 yeah there are Um. This really through the gaming world 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.280 into a bit of a tizzy. UM. You know, Bungee 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.400 had made some some deals. They had a partnership with 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.120 Take two. Uh you know them from the Grand Theft 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.480 Auto series. Um and uh you know this was right 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.280 about the time Only was supposed to have been released. Um. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.200 Take two ended up with the rights to owny and 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:15.960 and published it. Um and Uh, Bungee did shift primarily 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.520 to developing for the Xbox, although um, the Windows and 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:23.920 later the Mac got their copies eventually. UM. Uh so 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:25.520 you know, but this was this was a bit of 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.400 a major shift. Uh. The PlayStation two, by the way, 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.840 never did see its version of Halo. I wonder why. 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.160 You can't imagine why. Um, but yeah, this was this 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.560 was kind of a big deal. UM. I understand too 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.560 that Activision was courting Bungee as well, but Microsoft ended 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.760 up on top. Um and then it was released with 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:50.800 I don't know some minor you know, praise. Yeah. So, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.440 if you are one of the few people out there 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.280 who has no idea what the storyline of Halo is 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.120 all about, I'll kind of boil it down for you. 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.960 And keep in mind, this story has been fleshed out 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.919 quite a bit with supplemental material in the form of novels, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:12.879 comic books, um and and other media as well. But 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.800 if you were to just take the content that's in 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.760 the games themselves and string it together chronologically based upon 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.520 the release of the games, this is how the story unfolds. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.000 So the game opens up, Halo Combat Involved opens up 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:33.720 with this massive spaceship coming out of what it's called 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:38.960 slipstream space, and it's essentially like warp drive. You're working 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.280 space around so that you can travel faster than light. Uh. 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.119 It is in an era where faster than light travel 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.840 is is uh not only you know, not only something 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.600 we can do, but something that's fairly common in human 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.680 space travels at this point, and you and the overpopulation 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.119 problems of Earth have gotten to the point where the 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.760 colonization of other plants was a necessity. And one of 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.800 the plants that that humans colonized was called Reach, and 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:12.080 on Reach, you had this massive human colony which covers 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.680 most of the planet. But twenty years before the opening 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.720 of the game, the humans came into contact with a 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:24.560 confederation of alien races called the Covenant. The Covenant have 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:32.480 this very uh hierarchical religious view of the galaxy, and 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.439 they think of humans as being evil and they need 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.159 to be wiped out, their unclean creatures that have to 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.240 be destroyed. And so there's this massive battle that took 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.800 place on Reach before the events of Halo open, and 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.080 the ship that your character is on the Pillar of 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.880 Autumn has just escaped Reach into slipstream space. It comes 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.600 out of slipstream space, and no one's really sure where 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:01.280 they are because they just had to make a getaway 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.480 as fast as possible and they couldn't really plan it out. 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:10.000 So your character is known as John H. John one seventeen. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.200 You're never really given a full identity for your character, 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.280 and he's mostly known by his H, his designation of 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.960 master Chief, his Master Chief petty Officer um. And he 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.720 is a spartan, which is a super soldier, a cybernetic, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:31.920 biologically engineered soldier who is stronger, faster, more capable than 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.960 your typical soldier. Is also has the ability to store 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:41.800 and artificially intelligent UH personality within his armor, so he 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.280 can carry around with him in AI that can further 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:50.680 augment his abilities. He's incrogenic sleep at the beginning and 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:55.800 has woken up when the ship comes out of slipstream 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.720 space and it is right in front of this enormous 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:04.080 ring shaped space station. And the space station is huge. 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:08.400 It's ten thousand kilometers in diameter, and UH it's so 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.639 large that there are ecosystems that have developed upon the surface, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.479 both surfaces, the inner and outer ring of this space station, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.480 and on Most of the stuff in the space station, 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.280 of course, is on the interior of the ring, the 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.440 inside the rings guts, but there's all this other stuff 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.960 that's on the outside. And meanwhile, the Covenant guys are 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:32.240 right hot on the tail of the Pillar of Autumn. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.000 So Master Chiefs UH purpose in the first game is 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:44.000 really to protect the artificial intelligent UH construct called Cortana, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.359 and to protect the location of the Earth so that 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:49.520 the Covenant don't figure out where the Earth is, and 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.720 also to figure out what the heck this ring thing is, 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.840 because no one seems to know, and the Covenant they 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.760 don't know, but they it's something in their legends that 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.760 they think that this is a tool they're supposed to 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.879 use in order to reach their religious enlightenment to go 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.600 on the Great Journey. And it turns out that the 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.720 Ring is something that was built by this ancient race 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.400 of aliens that were very, very advanced called the Forerunners. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.560 So again that's pulling that same sort of idea that 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:22.640 they developed a marathon and employing it in Halo. And 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:24.680 as the game progresses, I mean, there's gonna be lots 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:26.439 of spoilers in this, but if you haven't played the 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:28.680 first Halo game, then I don't know why you're listening 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:33.560 to this episode. Uh, the on that Ring, they discover 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.720 that there is a race of parasitic aliens called the Flood, 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:42.600 which can infect other races, sentient races and take them over. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:47.159 And uh, you discover throughout the story that the Halo 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:51.040 devices themselves are actually a weapon, a defense system designed 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.800 by the Forerunners to wipe out the Flood. The way 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.720 they do this is they flood the entire galaxy and 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.880 energy that kills any sentient creature. So, in other words, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:02.879 you kill off the Flood by killing off the food supply. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.320 Here's The problem is that humans are technically essentient creatures, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:08.880 so if they were to actually turn on this device, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.960 they would wipe themselves out. So then on top of 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.400 everything else, Master Chief needs to try and destroy this 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.280 Halo device to make sure that the Covenant doesn't turn 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:23.080 it on and kill everybody, and as you play the game, 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.600 you end up being able to do that. Uh. You 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:28.800 do have this one level called the Library, which is 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:32.520 filled mostly with the flood but also some covenant, which 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.879 goes on forever and has essentially the same hallway like 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.760 five times. It's crazy, especially if you're playing on the 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:43.160 harder difficulties. It was one of those levels that gamers 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.159 often would sort of complain about because they felt that 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:48.880 one it was really repetitive, and two it was really 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:53.520 really difficult, and three it was incredibly long, So it 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.560 had all those things going for it. Oh, and the 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.560 armor you wear, I love the name of the armor 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:04.360 you wear, the Older Mark five. The Older or Mew 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:08.959 Mew is of course the name of Four's Mighty hammer. 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:12.040 So there are a lot of things like that in 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:16.119 the game, where different chips and UH and and equipment 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:19.439 have these cool names to it and um in the 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.600 game you have the human based weapons, which are all 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:24.720 sort of things like you know, battle rifles, so they're 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:28.880 kind of like machine guns, things like that, pistols, sniper rifles. Uh. 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:30.720 Then you have the Covenant weapons, which are all these 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.000 sort of energy based weapons, and the two have very 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:38.040 different abilities and they're useful in different situations, and that 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:41.960 kind of set the basic premise of the Halo series. 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.720 And again, there was a lot more story going on 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.000 than you would necessarily first notice if you were just 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.040 playing the game through as a first person shooter and 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:54.359 you weren't really paying attention to that, And that story 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:56.560 ended up getting fleshed out quite a bit by the 0:23:56.600 --> 0:24:01.560 other materials. So that's the that's the basis for the 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:03.600 first game, and and the end of the first game, 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:08.840 assuming you succeed, you destroy the Halo structure, and then 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:12.000 you uh you are the only really the only person 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:16.000 to escape, while one of two depending upon how you 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:20.520 look at it, and you make your way back to uh, 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.239 the Earth to figure out what the heck is going on. 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:28.160 So that game ended up being really, really, really popular. 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:32.679 It was not meant to be the first of a 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.480 series of games. It was kind of a self contained 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:40.800 story However, with the game like this, with with it 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:44.280 being such a hit, and it being owned by Microsoft, 0:24:44.480 --> 0:24:47.480 which had such high expectations for the Xbox and this title, 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:54.120