Bungie’s latest (and last) game in the Halo franchise, Halo: Reach, is a prequel to the events of the first Halo: Combat Evolved. It wasn’t always set up to be that way, however, and Bungie considered a game following up on the events of Halo 3.
“Even before the idea to build a game based around Reach came about, a lot of other concepts were explored, up to and including a proper Halo 4, where Master Chief was going to wake up from cryo-sleep and we were going to tell that story,” said Bungie community director Brian Jarrard. “It just wasn’t as interesting to the team to just pick up where that left off and all the baggage that came with it.”
Halo: Reach, which will detail the events that will lead up to the Covenant pursuing the USNC Pillar of Autumn, will not see Master Chief factor in at all. “I think it was a little bit liberating. Hearing the guys talk about working through the trilogy and the obligation of keeping the themes moving forward and tying them up systematically,” described Jarrard. “And ODST was also kinda nice ’cause they could do something different, something separate, and it’s totally self-contained. I definitely think that, for Reach, a lot of the same attitude carried over. We don’t want to open up a whole bunch of doors that we’re not going to close. By the end of this, it’s all going to come to a nice, neat finish, and if people want to then go play the Halo trilogy, I think they’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on, but it’s not required at all.”
Source: MTV
