8 Halo - The Silent Cartographer
There's a war being fought on Halo and it's in the opening stretch of The Silent Cartographer, as your dropship peels in across a glassy sea and golden beach already studded with Covenant defenses, that you really feel it.
Above: Halo 's Silent Cartographer beach landing drops you straight in at the deep end under a hail of plasma fire
You scramble out of the ship on to the sand ("Touchdown!") with plasma fire searing around you, have a moment to snatch a glance up at Halo's ring stretching away into the atmosphere, and then soldiers - your soldiers - are shouting and firing and scrambling for cover and dying. Sometimes they'll give an awed whoop that Master Chief is here to turn the tide of the battle, and now it's not just war - it's a war that you're going to win for them.
When you've fought your way from cover point to cover point, ambush by ambush, to the end of the beach and an airlifted-in Warthog jeep, you jump into the driver's seat with the marines you've kept alive through the beachhead and feel like a true war hero. And the best part is that you can go back and do it all again - and it won't play out the same way.
Above: Halo 's Silent Cartographer beach landing drops you straight in at the deep end under a hail of plasma fire
You scramble out of the ship on to the sand ("Touchdown!") with plasma fire searing around you, have a moment to snatch a glance up at Halo's ring stretching away into the atmosphere, and then soldiers - your soldiers - are shouting and firing and scrambling for cover and dying. Sometimes they'll give an awed whoop that Master Chief is here to turn the tide of the battle, and now it's not just war - it's a war that you're going to win for them.
When you've fought your way from cover point to cover point, ambush by ambush, to the end of the beach and an airlifted-in Warthog jeep, you jump into the driver's seat with the marines you've kept alive through the beachhead and feel like a true war hero. And the best part is that you can go back and do it all again - and it won't play out the same way.
