Weekly Update 85
A dark, long cave. That was the metaphor I used when I first started querying agents. I mentioned how I needed to be patient as I traversed a long dark period of no response. I imagined myself in a small boat slowly being propelled by the current. Similar to the end of Beau is Afraid. I love that movie.
I still have no agent. And yet, I continue down this cave. Because I know it is not really a cave, but a tunnel.
Halo Reach was the last game in the Halo franchise by video game developer Bungie. Bungie is best known for Halo, Myth, Marathon, and their latest hit Destiny. I have been a fan of Bungie since I started playing video games, and I started with Reach, their last Halo.
It is very interesting that I started there. Reach is, to its core, a goodbye letter. It takes place before the events of the first game Halo: Combat Evolved and has several returning characters and references that set up where they are when the franchise starts. The tone of the campaign is dower with scene after scene of Humanity losing against the Covenant and the deaths of Noble Team; an elite squad of Spartans tasked with saving the planet Reach… they do not succeed.
When I was a kid, I knew I wanted to play Halo. I grew up seeing the famous image of Master Chief at GameStop and I loved him. I created a superhero based solely off his armor. It wasn’t until I got my first Xbox that I had the opportunity to play one, and the most recent one was Reach. It was rated “M for Mature” due to blood and violence. At the time there was no way my dad would have let me get an “M” rated game. I had to plead and beg. I told him the blood was alien blood, so it was more fantastical and not real than other “M” rated games. After weeks he let me get it, and I think my mom is the one who bought it for me. I remember playing the game at her house and I was hooked.
I was so new to video games I had no idea what a “save” was, so I played the first three missions on repeat, slightly annoyed I had to play the campaign in one setting. My Xbox Live friends explained I could save my progress and load whenever I wanted.
These memories hit me like a truck recently, and I can’t say why. This weekend I decided to boot up the Master Chief Collection and replay Reach. I did it all in one sitting, on easy mode. No skulls. It was… humbling. I never got the story as a kid. How could I when I only experienced the first two hours? Years later it finally made sense. The weight of it all made sense.
Bungie decided to move on after Halo 3 and started to plan their next intellectual property: Destiny. They knew Halo would stay a Microsoft product and made Reach a goodbye letter. Halo was handed to 343 Industries, and time shows how they have nearly destroyed the franchise. The best thing 343 did was remaster the first two Halos and sell them along with Halo 3 and Reach in one bundle called the Master Chief Collection. Halo is not what it used to be. But Reach is just as the same as when I was ten years old and didn’t know what “saving” was.
I am going to play through all of the Halos again (though I admit I never finished 2 or 3). I don’t have the words to describe how I feel, so I will simply say I am having a fun time.
Ok, time to get back to it. I will see you all next week.
