The Storytelling of Halo: Combat Evolved | An Essay

Halo. One of the most influential franchises in gaming. A franchise that’s spawned books, movies, and a TV show. The series, clearly, has a universe that fans are invested in, a world they want to experience past merely the games. Building as dedicated a fanbase, and having such an influence on the FPS genre, isn’t something that most games can claim.

And, it all started with Halo: Combat Evolved, released back in 2001. It’s the game that laid the foundation for the rest of the franchise. The first games in series always interest me, because there is an increased pressure on them. If the first game doesn’t inspire players, then they aren’t going to show up for the sequel.

In this retrospective, we’ll be critiquing Halo: Combat Evolved, and how it pulls the player into its world through a mix of direct narrative, and dynamic narrative created by gameplay. We’ll see how Halo: CE serves as the perfect introduction to a franchise, by making the player care about its world.

My name is Calvin B. Fisher, and I do retrospectives and longform game critiques. I'm also the author of the Northfield Saga, a post-apocalyptic science fiction series set in a gas-infested wasteland. Mark Northfield faces death or the sacrifice of his soul, when he is blackmailed into an assassination mission. What he doesn't know is that his target holds the key to saving the world.
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