There have been a few games in the Halo Series that have not included the iconic Master Chief, notably Halo Reach and Halo ODST. While these were not bad games they lacked something that kept gamers captivated in the main trilogy. Could the Halo series truly go on without the John-117? Not for just one game, but for the entire series? According to a recent Times Magazine interview with Halo 4's creative director Josh Holmes says, Halo could continue without the Chief.
"I think the most important character for Halo is the universe itself," Holmes said. "I think any great story revolves around great characters that are basically relatable to us as human beings. I think Chief is definitely a character that people can relate to, and that people have come to know and love, and hopefully they'll experience him in a different way in Halo 4 in the continuation of his saga."
Holmes went on to say that the Halo universe is a compelling place for people because of its size, scope and ability to tell multiple narratives about different characters.
"I look at it like this: Is there a world where Halo continues without Master Chief? Absolutely," Holmes said. "I think there are stories waiting to be told across the universe that are compelling. It just comes down to having characters that people care about and mysteries that warrant exploration. Right now we're telling the story of the Master Chief and that's something I think people will hopefully care a great deal about, but I don't see why you can't have another character exist in the Halo universe that's equally as interesting and appealing."
Holmes also discussed how the influence of Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Greg Bear, who wrote a new Halo trilogy of novels based on the Forerunners.
"When you bring someone like Greg Bear into your universe, there has to be a trust and a partnership, where you're handing over the keys to him to some extent," Holmes said. "You want to empower him to bring his craft to bear, and you know, bring new ideas to the table. That's part of the reason to work with someone as accomplished as Greg."
He later elaborated on the partnership between Bear and the developer saying it was mutually beneficial during the development process for both the game and novels.
"So as we were going through the planning process for Halo 4, there were a lot of thing where we would say to Greg, 'Hey, this is what we're doing with the story for Halo 4, can you take that into account in the fiction you're writing?' And he would say 'Absolutely, that's awesome, because that's going to help me with this character in this moment, and I can set that up and that leads me a bit in this direction.' He'd be showing us early manuscripts from his work and we'd be looking at that and going, 'We could take this element and bring that into our game.'"
"Halo 4 is a work of art, but ultimately what we wanted to do was prove to Halo fans that we've stayed true to the franchise," Ross told GameSpot. "The universe forms the foundation of the franchise and it means a lot to people. It's our first time taking the keys to the car and we don't want to mess it up."
Halo 4 will release worldwide on Tuesday Nov. 6 with the exclusion of Japan where the game will be released on Nov. 8.
The first official Halo 4 launch trailer was produced by "Fight Club" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," director David Fincher and was directed by visual effects craftsman Tim Miller. You can check out the 'Scanned' trailer below.