14 DAY TRIAL // I have no clear recollection of the Halo story. I actually don't need one to remember that I thoroughly enjoyed all the games in the series. I played the first one on the PC (and I still think that a mouse and keyboard setup is superior to any console controller even for single player shooters) and the second and third one on the Xbox 360. I also played and enjoyed ODST, the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper-focused standalone launched in 2009. I will probably also play and love the single player of Reach when it comes in the fall.
With Bungie signing a ten-year deal with publisher Activision linked with a new videogame franchise, the big question is whether the team that put together Halo is able to make lightning strike twice and deliver an initial game as powerful as the first appearance of Master Chief.
Then there's the small matter of actually following up with at least two other installments that can innovate while pushing a narrative forward. And a case can be made that Bungie has precious few places to set a new franchise in.
The company will probably move away from the futuristic space that provided the background for the adventures of Master Chief and fantasy settings never made sense for first person shooters. For some time, the military shooter market will be quite saturated, with Battlefield competing with Medal of Honor and Call of Duty alongside some more outside titles. Rockstar must be working on GTA V, so the urban action adventure scene is also pretty much cornered in terms of blockbusters.
A job announcement on the Bungie website mentioned branching narrative and complex stories so it could be that it is actually preparing to put together a series focusing more on the replay value and on the ways firefights can play out than on a epic story drawn out over a series of games. As long as the shooting mechanics stay solid and has quite a bit of space to experiment, Bungie will benefit from the love of those who played Halo.