Xbox has announced a new and official 25th anniversary release for Halo that features the origin story of Spartan John-117, aka Master Chief, the iconic protagonist of the first-person sci-fi series. More specifically, Xbox has annonced a new release of Halo: The Fall of Reach. If this name sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Back in 2001, author Eric Nylund and Xbox released a book with this same name. Now, 25 years later, it’s not being re-released in book form, but as an audio drama.
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According to a new announcement from Xbox, a new full cast audio drama version of The Fall of Reach is currently in production with Tim Dadabo as the narrator. Of course, Steve Downes has reprised his role as Master Chief, while Jen Taylor has reprised her role as Cortana/Dr Halsey. Right now, there is no word of a release date, but pre-orders are live, which in turn has revealed the drama’s $29.99 asking price.
Master Chief’s Origin Story
For those unfamiliar with Halo: The Fall of the Reach, it is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. In it, we get the origin story of Master Chief. The back drop is the twenty-sixth century where humanity has expanded deep into space, colonizing various planets along the way. That said, this galactic empire is proving difficult to manage, with colonial insurrections on the verge of turning into interplanetary war. Dr. Halsey has been working on a top-secret program to bring peace to the empire, involving 75 children, including a six-year-old boy named John. And this program succeeds.
What Halsey doesn’t know is that this boy John will grow up to be the only hope against human extinction at a much larger and looming threat: the Covenant. Those who have read the book will know it is some of the best narrative material in the series, and required reading for all hardcore Halo fans, or at least Halo fans playing for the single-player campaigns rather than just the multiplayer.
Interestingly, this announcement comes on the back of another from Xbox involving Halo, which is the announcement of Halo: Fireteam Noble, a new novel in the Halo series that will connect to Halo: Reach.
Despite wavering popularity in the series since 343 Industries — now known as Halo Studios — took over from Bungie starting with Halo 4, Xbox continues to invest in the multi-media element of the series, which has been present from the start, heavily. And this is great news for fans of the sci-fi first-person shooter who are worried it may no longer be a major focus of Xbox.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the video game conversations happening over on the ComicBook Forum.
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