Halo: The Flood Review (4/5)

Halo: Combat Evolved was a fairly standalone game until its sequels, but at the time Bungie realised its popularity and so commisioned three tie-in novels based before, around and after the sci-fi shooter. The second of these was a direct adaptation of the game, dubbed The Flood. It's a simple yet powerful read, transforming what you do in the game itself into written text with a sublime pace and mixture of characters from both sides of the conflict. As in Combat Evolved, we get little reasoning as to why the Covenant actually have built Halo and how they intend to use it (given that they would wipe their own race out in the process), but overall this doesn't detract from an easy but emotional novel which fares better than The Fall Of Reach for gaming fiction!