Before the Half-Life 2 episodes or Siren: Blood Curse introduced the concept of downloadable episodic content to the masses, Ritual Entertainment released the first of a planned nine downloadable chapters for SiN Episodes. While releasing games through Valve’s Steam system in 2006 was both fairly pioneering and ambitious, it might have been wise if they’d waited to see the sales figures before proclaiming to everyone and their mother that they’d be making a further eight instalments.

How it was set up for a sequel
After defeating a giant mutant with Colonel John R. Blade, the leader of HardCORPS (no sniggering), you board a helicopter before being ‘treated’ to a preview of the next chapter that, peskily, they’d never get down to making. You never get to bring the hurt to Elexis Sinclaire - the main baddie the Colonel is obsessed with - and you never really get to learn about her mutagenic ‘U4’ drug. Oh well…

Will we ever get closure?
Is ‘no’ a strong enough word? How about ‘no effing way with a cherry on top’. The developers have already admitted on a podcast that most of the Ritual team who made the game has been disbanded - mainly because SiN’s sales were poor and, you know, it was utter pap. Still, they might have got the formula right if they’d been allowed another eight cracks at it.

Whoa, easy there. Before you say ‘ZOMG it’s only been out a year’ and ‘of course they’ll make Halo 4, noob!’, lets just look at the facts. Bungie have categorically stated that ODST will be the last project they’re involved with that's connected to the original trilogy, which suggests they're drawing a line under the entire story from the original games and pursuing a new narrative that may not resolve the questions posed at the end of the third title.

How it was set up for a sequel
Unless you were too cack-handed to finish the game on Legendary difficulty - and got the 'easy' ending with 117 carved on the memorial - you will have witnessed the true trilogy climax, showing Master Chief and Cortana floating towards an unknown structure in an uncharted area of space. A hugely ambiguous conclusion. If you were taking Scarab-sized creative liberties, you could argue that Chief muttering ‘Wake me when you need me’ perfectly sums up the Spartan’s unwavering commitment to the next fight, which is really what the trilogy was about. But really, there are still so many unanswered questions. What is the structure? Is it a Halo-esque weapon? Are the Forerunners involved? Only a sequel can give us the answers.

Will we ever get closure?
Probably. But while commercial pressures will pretty much ensure that we get Halo 4 in some form, it may not be a direct continuation of the last game. While a Chief-less game might not make the money men happy, it’s quite possible Bungie might want to deviate from the monosyllabic space marine in order to distinguish any new projects from their previous work. And that could mean we'll never discover the meaning of Halo 3's 'Legendary' ending.

Dec 18, 2008

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