"Halo: Reach is not Halo 4 for us," says executive producer Joseph Tung, who was originally the multiplayer producer on Halo 3. "It's not a continuation of Master Chief's story, nor the start of a new trilogy. For us it's a completely standalone game." Gone are the bright greens, luminescent blues, neon purples and phosphorescent colors. rose. The little Grunt aliens don't shout jokes or do anything silly. Don't expect the Bungie Gregorian Choir to be in charge of singing the all-too-familiar theme during the title sequence. It's grittier, moodier, and far more alien than any previous title in the series. Master Chief is busy kicking the Covenant in other parts of the galaxy and has no time for you. GETTING TO THE ORIGINS With Halo 3 complete, Bungie, a company that started with just 3 programmers, an artist, and a level designer, has split and is now 130 people strong. development team into two groups. One group worked on Halo 3: ODST, while the other began working on a project that would eventually become Reach. Led by creative director Marcus Lehto, originally the art director on Halo 1 through 3, the team brainstormed ideas until they managed to craft a prequel set before the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved. According to Lehto, "Reach, as a fictional planet, was just a great candidate to play with. It's such a rich world, surrounded by such fantastic fiction." The planet of Reach, before its destruction, saw the massacre of over 700 million people by the fanatical invading alien force known as the Covenant, as detailed in the prequel novel The Fall Of Reach. With Master Chief off-world at the start of the game, the stpry introduces a new team of Spartan super soldiers. The six-man Nobel Team is a group of Sp...... middle of paper...... covers the same lore area, Reach is not the game version of the book The Fall Of Reach. Instead, it fleshes it out, taking place during and after the events of the book, from a different perspective (since you don't play as Master Chief). Written by science fiction author Eric Nylund, The Fall Of Reach is the official prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, chronicling the events leading up to Evolved and explaining the origins of the Master Chief. Boxout: 353 Industries While Bungie continues to make Halo games, the franchise itself is now overseen and published by a subdivision created by Microsoft called 343 Industries. This subdivision is also responsible for the recent collection of anime/CG shorts Halo: Legends, the comics, and all tertiary products, such as the upcoming animated television series based on the machinima comedy shorts, Red vs. Blue..