Dear Everyone taking the time to peruse this letter.

Well, the end is almost nigh isn’t it? The wait until the September release of HALO: REACH is the twilight of Bungie’s involvement in all things HALO, which shall indeed be the passing of an epoch in gaming. But in Microsoft’s wisdom (writ with genuine appreciation and not to be regarded sarcastically) you have set up 343 studios to take over all things HALO.

Believe me, I am but one man breathing a long, thankful sigh of relief that the HALO franchise won’t disappear with Bungie dropping the reins. And believe me again that I am just one among many.

HALO is my new STAR WARS. I grew up with the Star Wars movies ingrained in the culture. I grew up watching Luke Skywalker, wanting to BE Luke Skywalker. Sadly, the closest I could get was a five-inch tall plastic figurine, or a flimsy plastic lightsaber which always paled significantly compared the what I saw in the movies. And no amount of imagination in the world could make the plastic in my hands resemble the awe I felt watching the Star Wars movies.

Then, a few years later as I enter young adulthood, along comes HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED on my nice, shiny new Xbox, and it BLOWS. ME. AWAY. A genuine, immersive space opera, painted on a broader canvas than any computer game had a right to. It grabbed me by the throat and threw me in the pit with the Covenant, before it ripped the ground from beneath my feet and dragged me into the hell of the Flood—a complete 180 I never saw coming. Here we have a computer game with a massive scope, not one but two antagonistic races—One: a brutal theologically compelled Covenant of technologically superior alien races; the other: A parasitic force of nature, not out for merely mankind’s destruction, but the assimilation and destruction off ALL races in the galaxy. Masterstroke on masterstroke.

And yet more: We are placed in the shoes of a genetically enhanced supersoldier; we view the war through his eyes; we pull the damn trigger. WE ARE HIM. Suddenly all those childhood memories of almost static Star Wars figures and flimsy lightsabers seem quaint. Even amusing. Hell, who wants to be Luke Skywalker any more? I AM MASTER CHIEF! And dammit, I’ve got a job to get done. I ain’t no farm boy; I ain’t got no daddy issues. I ain’t got no fear of the dark side; what I’ve got is a battlefield, a really big f**kin’ gun, and a few hundred thousand aliens I gotta exterminate. I’m gonna spit nails and breath fire; I’m gonna crush my enemies beneath my bootheels; And I’m gonna tear ‘em up through two other sequels! I WILL OVERCOME. And in the end… I’ll save mankind. Hell.. I’ll save all sentient life…

Yet here we leave Master Chief Petty Officer John 117: floating in space, frozen in a suspension pod in the chewed up wreck of a UNSC warship that never made it back home after the Battle of the Ark.

Never Mind! Here, look! Here comes HALO WARS! Yay!

Well.. it’s OK, I suppose. Not the same thrills and spills though.. Oh, but wait again.. Here comes HALO 3: ODST. Yay!!

Er.. no.. No Yay. What the hell..!? Suddenly I’ve gone from the saviour of humanity to a grunt lost in a bombed out city looking for his squad. Not a Halo in sight. Not even so much as a single Flood spore. Sorry folks.. I’m feeling kinda sidelined here… Up in space the Chief’s kicking ass, down here I’m back to looking for health packs and single wielding weapons. Well… that was a disappointing experience, to say the least.

Still, HALO: REACH might just reignite my passions for… wait, No Chief again!? WTF!?

Histrionics aside, I guess what I’m trying to say is this:

MICROSOFT

&

343 INDUSTRIES

The continuation of the HALO franchise is something I am grateful for, I really am. HALO sparked my adult imagination like Star Wars did for me in my childhood. But HALO as a franchise is weaker without it’s greatest asset: MASTER CHIEF.

Can you really imagine a Tomb Raider game without Lara Croft?
A Sonic game without the eponymous hedgehog?
Legend of Zelda without Link?

IN HALO YOU CREATED A FRANCHISE.

IN MASTER CHIEF YOU CREATED AN ICON

Like the titular figure from an altogether different media, from an altogether different time, I’ll rest my letter with these few iconic words:

Please, Sir, I want some more…

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, regards

Gamertag: BETAFETT