With yet another tease of the Master Chief and a slowly deteriorating Cortana drifting in space aboard wrecked UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn, we are then quickly thrust back with the group of cadets training at the Corbulo military academy. Unbeknownst to them, both an alien race and the super solider John-117 are on a collision course with their planet and the story’s protagonist, Thomas Laskey.
The first episode of Microsoft’s web series debuted last week, and like this entry, hints at bigger things to come while telling a far more intimate story. Impressive still are the production values and nods to the Halo video games that for once are integrated organically into the film and not added in a lame attempt to appease the fanboys.
There isn’t a great deal going on in this second episode, especially after having already introduced us all to the main characters and their motivations. That being said, if this episode’s cliff-hanger ending – one that really has very low stakes when it’s all said and done – can make me want to immediately continue watching, Forward Unto Dawn must be doing something right.
Three more instalments are set to debut leading up to the release of Halo 4 on November 6 so we can expect the more intense, alien-fuelled action to ramp up any time now. And with the brief skirmishes we’ve seen so far, the full-fledged battles presented in the trailer promise to be, at the very least, exceedingly well choreographed and grittily executed.
The Forward Unto Dawn series as a whole is set in 2525, 20 years before the events of Halo 4 and follows the aforementioned Cadet Laskey and his fellow trainees, priming to battle human insurrectionists but instead cross paths with a far more sinister foe and a legendary warrior.
Episode three will debut online Friday, October 19th.
