Was the Halo trilogy confusing?

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    As a conversation starter, here's a snarky article that actually substantiates hating on Kotaku a bit.

    I'd like to ask everyone—and if I sound condescending it's because I feel a bit condescending about this—was the story of the Halo trilogy really all that confusing? Reach, 4, 5, and all the novels are their own beast, so let's not venture there, but Halo 1/2/3 just struck me as, respectively, a simple scifi story with a twist, the same story expanded with a dash of parallelism thrown in, and the conclusion to that story which got a bit sad at the end. Nonetheless I always hear people complaining about how Halo's story became really convoluted and esoteric. I really really really don't get how anyone could think that so, uh... does anyone think that?

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    Not really... I believe it is just a really really good space story! That said, I have read mosts of the books and played the games, But I think over all it got some amazing characters and twists! But yes.. I am a real sucker for the Lore in Halo.

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    Nah I think the games were pretty heads on, nothing confusing really.

    @Lotias said in Was the Halo trilogy confusing?:


    Same here, the Halo trilogy is probably the best game trilogy I've experienced.

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    @BabyfartsMcgeezaks said in Was the Halo trilogy confusing?:


    Even if I haven't played any of the games for over a year, I still watch videos from the games and daydream about the universe! Once Ive finished my Warcraft book, I might even start over with the Halo books again! Starting with the Forerunner trilogy!

  • I can't speak to the books as I have not read them, but I have played all the games, and 1-3 was a consistent through-line of a story. One was simple: You crash on a ring and while looking for a way off and fighting the Covenant, you gotta blow the thing up to prevent the two major problems on it. Two, while a little disjointing with the back and forth of perspective and the fact there was a sentient disgusting monstrosity on a Halo ring, was easy enough to follow along. Three was simpler than two as you fought and chased a prophet until you realize, "Oh crap, we gotta blow that thing up too."

    So no. The main three games are not complicated.

  • I would say these days, the entirety of the Halo Universe is pretty complicated, but the games and stories themselves are pretty simple. Having read very little of the expanded universe books and comics, I can say I've never felt confused about much in the way of Halo's story. 4 and 5 have some weird stuff to them, but the first trilogy is very straight forward.

  • The books are actually a lot better than the games in terms of story. The first game had a very straightforward story and a pretty good one too. I liked the idea of giving us the perspective of the "enemy" in Halo 2 but the story was pretty nonsensical in my opinion. The game was too short to fit all the ideas they had for the story within it. Or they just didn't use the time they had very effectively. Didn't care enough to play Halo 3 all the way through but from the little I played it was just boring.

  • The Halo Trilogy was pretty straightforward, and even up to Reach I felt like I had a good handle on the plot of the series having only cursory knowledge of the expanded universe (I read the first couple of books). The idea that Halo's story became needlessly convoluted and tied into expanded universe baggage is one-hundred percent a result of 343i's interpretation of the series.

  • @oceangrunge That's weird, because I definitely heard the same sentiment from back before Halo 4 came out.

  • The newer games are pretty convoluted, but halos 1-3 are very straight forward and self contained. Even some of the side stories like reach and ODST are good and straight forward as well.

    Halo 4 was kind of a mess though. It pulled way too much from the expanded universe, and even if you were caught up it was still had to follow. Halo 5 was much better in that regard, but even it gets a little too big for its own good.