History of Halo (1990 - 2022) | Documentary

this video is brought to you in part by amd welcome back everyone i'm nick930 and today i want to share with you the complete history of one of gaming's most iconic series halo you are here because you were chosen our enemies are getting smarter and more numerous every day what i am about to show you will help turn the tide of war are you ready hello master chief i'm cortana what is this place they call it halo chief gear up we're taking this fight to the surface the covenant found something something horrible and now they're afraid greetings i am 343 guilty spot your prophets are making a big mistake do not waste my time with talk team earth is all we have left we trust cortana that much sir yes sir master chief am i telling you what you're doing on that ship finishing this fight [Music] [Music] the following pc gameplay footage was captured using an amd ryzen 9 processor and the halo infinite limited edition amd radeon rx 6900 xt graphics card delivering the ultimate halo gameplay experience if you're looking to upgrade your pc build soon click the link below for the best amd gaming hardware available on the market halo is a science fiction first person shooter series created by bungie studios continued by 343 industries and published by microsoft in most of these games players assume the role of a faceless super soldier referred to as the master chief who along with his ai companion cortana finds himself battling a large assortment of alien foes to safeguard all of humanity the series is one of the most successful properties across the industry having topped the sales charts for decades thanks to its highly refined gun play epic space opera narrative and highly competitive multiplayer in fact the series has been so successful that many credit halo for almost single-handedly jump starting the xbox brand which has just recently celebrated its 20th anniversary so what about this decade spanning game property has kept fans hooked for all these years and how has it changed during that time in order to stay relevant well to answer that let's first begin by taking a look at how the series creators got their start all the way back in the early 1990s the story of bungie and their hugely influential 5 billion halo franchise begins with this no you're not looking at pong though it is close this is knopp a pong clone created specifically to run on macintosh computers back in the year 1990 its programmer alex aropian had long been fascinated with the computer gaming industry and after earning a degree in mathematics at the university of chicago he established his own game development studio called bungie the meaning of which remains a closely guarded secret under this new banner alex published his second game operation desert storm that managed to sell a little over 2 500 copies enough to justify a minor expansion to his own operation he then sought out his old classmate jason jones another macintosh game programmer who at the time had been putting the final touches on his own game a multiplayer-centric top-down rpg called minotaur with alex's help minotaur managed to churn a respectable profit and jason agreed to stay on as a full-time partner at bungie meanwhile down in louisiana a legendary team of programmers at the newly formed id software had just released their groundbreaking wolfenstein 3d laying the groundwork for the first person shooter genre as we know it with pandora's box having now been opened jason knew that for their next game they would need a first person shooter of their own he spent months piecing together a functional 3d graphics engine with generated wireframe shapes being used to simulate maze-like hallways he then applied full motion texture mapping to the surfaces and populated the halls with unique enemy types designed by his friend and graphic designer colin brent the result was 1993's pathways into darkness a game that not only delivered a wolfenstein 3d experience to the often overlooked mac player base but also integrated a few of its own unique mechanics as well like a working inventory system save checkpoints and an rpg style text log pathways was a major win for bungie with positive marks from several mac-based game reviewers and over 20 000 sales via their mail-in distribution model with its success both jason and alex agreed to purchase an office space in an old converted mission on south halstead street of chicago according to an ex-bungie employee it was a disgusting office but the two young developers were just happy to finally be out of their one bedroom apartment that they had been working out of before and they can now focus on their next big project their first thought was to follow up pathways with a direct sequel improving the pacing and artificial intelligence that many felt hampered the enjoyment of the original but after an underwhelming debut of this work at the mac world trade show jason and newcomer ryan martell decided to start from scratch and construct a new engine that would allow for a more complex rendering solution by 93 id software had raised the bar once more with the legendary doom that utilizes an advanced rendering technique called binary space partitioning allowing for increased verticality and more complex level designs bungie's own engine however utilizes a much more resource intensive portal-based rendering where each adjacent polygon and line is rendered relative to any other connected polygon on top of this bungie's programmers also incorporated the first official implementation of free look in a first person shooter game allowing players to not just look left and right but also up and down adding an entire new dimension to player control and combat alongside these technical innovations bungie also wanted to provide context to their science fiction shoot-'em-up and hired greg kirkpatrick to handle the game's narrative direction who then placed numerous computer terminals throughout each environment that would circumvent the need for direct dialogue or cinematics to help carry the plot by 1994 more faces had joined the bungie team including art and graphics designer j reginald de jour who contributed greatly to the project's unique style and network programmer elaine roy responsible for getting the game's competitive multiplayer up and running in august of that same year bungie demonstrated the improvements they had made at mac world the response was hugely positive with large crowds around their booth and a high demand for pre-order forms it was clear then that they had struck gold and in the months that followed bungie released their breakaway hit marathon exclusively for the mac os marathon is a science fiction first person shooter that shares a lot in common with id software's doom from the year before in it players take on the role of a security officer who's tasked with repelling an alien attack on a space station using an arsenal of powerful weapons but unlike doom there's a bit more of a focus on the narrative side of things with a player receiving frequent communications by the ship's onboard ai who helps guide them through the station marathon was a monumental success for the team at bungie with next generation magazine highly recommending it for fans of doom style maze crawlers and it went on to sell nearly 200 000 copies within the next few years but even more importantly marathon had helped establish some of the hallmarks of the bungie brand including their signature sock by style their dedication to providing a compelling narrative and even many similar enemy types weapons and logos that would ultimately be incorporated in their later work eager to chase that success bungie spent the course of the next couple years expanding on the marathon universe releasing two more entries that brought along with them a fully cooperative campaign expanded competitive multiplayer and a few minor under the hood improvements to the engine the series quickly dominated the mac gaming scene and even managed to breach into the pc market with some windows ports a few years later allowing it to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of doom with the success of its marathon trilogy bungie were geared to press forward with yet another highly innovative first person shooter experience one that would push the envelope further than ever before with a fully rendered 3d environment and faster paced gunplay but as they entered into early production id software had already beaten them to the punch with early previews of the upcoming quake dominating conversation so rather than trying to compete directly bungie scrapped plans for their next shooter in favor of a clever twist on the real-time strategy format where players would focus exclusively on maintaining their soldiers in combat without a need to micromanage resources and economies the game titled myth the fallen lords was a very different beast from bungie's past games with an isometric viewpoint and an emphasis on more medieval fantasy themes but even still fans and critics loved it and sales quickly topped 350 000 earning the studio roughly 12 million dollars in profit a number that unsurprisingly peaked the interest of eager publishers across the industry with yet another respectable win under bungie's belt the studio was ready for another expansion using their myth revenue they moved out of their crack house adjacent nightmare office and into a slightly better building on ontario street they also opened a second office in san jose california aptly named bungie west who would spend the next few years working on an anime inspired action game called oni the chicago office on the other hand had already launched into production on a sequel to myth hopeful that they could implement features that they didn't have time to squeeze into the original it was during development of the sequel that a pair of veteran bungee developers jason jones and artist marcus leto initiated work on a new side project one that would eventually transform both bungie and the gaming industry forever in its earliest form this project given several temporary names like armor monkey nuts and later blam shared a lot in common with myth it was a top-down real-time tactical game with an emphasis on controlling different military units across uneven terrain but instead of knights elves and warlocks blam took another crack at a sci-fi setting with scores of space marines battling an army of crustacean-based alien creatures both armed with a variety of conventional firearms and vehicles as jason toiled away with the game's engine marcus spent the day-to-day crafting characters and breaking animations to them taking inspiration from classic sci-fi films like aliens and to a lesser extent starship troopers which had only just released that same year as work progressed members of the core bungee team started to take interest martin o'donnell who at the time was contracted to compose the music and sound for myth 2 was excited by the prospect of this new sci-fi game and in an interview with vice waypoint recalls being disappointed that the early plan for the game was so similar to that of myth wishing it gave players a more hands-on approach to the action but marty wasn't the only one who felt this way after a fourth team member charlie go joined up with the blam team and began revamping the vehicle's physics the developers quickly realized how much more fun the game would be if the player could directly control the vehicles themselves jason then rigged up a third person control scheme to some of the soldiers and within weeks the project had fully transitioned from a sci-fi rts into a 4v4 third-person sandbox arena with state-of-the-art visual effects and physics by 1998 the game's setting and overarching theme had finally been established with a massive skybox of a ring world being used as the backdrop to the environment and more creative designs for weapons and creatures replacing the horseshoe crabs and humvees from before this shift in style was due largely in part to conceptual artist xi kae wang who contributed greatly to not just the many alien creatures and vehicles but also to the design of one of gaming's most iconic characters using leto's prototyped character model shikai drafted a number of preliminary sketches of the game's lead protagonist often taking inspiration from various animes and manga styles marcus then adapted these designs into the engine itself and after bulking them up with more tank-like properties they finally landed on the one and only master chief a similar approach was taken with the other assets in the game with shikai contributing an iconic style to the world and shaping this around feedback offered by the rest of the team with work now rapidly progressing it became clear that bungie had something really special in their hands and after myth 2's development finally wrapped towards the end of the year the main focus for the studio had shifted entirely to blam only this name was never meant to stay forever and after weeks of debate the studio collectively agreed to name their ambitious new space themed shooter halo now backed by the full force of the bungie team halo's production costs mounted myth 2 while a decent sequel had unfortunately printed with a crippling bug costing the company over 800 thousand dollars to address and with the san jose office having their own bout of technical difficulties halo had become bungie's last hope with this in mind newly hired executive vp peter tamt reached out to none other than co-founder and ceo of apple steve jobs who was so impressed with the game that he gave bungie a prime spot in the mac world keynote event this was a huge opportunity but the only problem was the mac version of the game was not fully functional yet most of the work they had been doing with halo was for the pc at the time so with only two weeks left before the big show jones and the rest of the programmers on hand were forced to rapidly piece together the mac part of the title it was an arduous task but ultimately fruitful with a fully functional demo ready for careful ai scripting but with time now running out they couldn't get the sound working in time recognizing the importance of having at least something audible during the show martin o'donnell suggested the seemingly impossible task of putting together a full orchestral score in the final weekend leading up to the event with only the words ancient mysterious and epic to help guide him when coming up with the melody martin used the popular beatles song yesterday and reworked it using a dorian scale he then tied that to a gregorian chant ultimately culminating in one of gaming's most iconic musical scores after sharing the tune with his friend at total audio michael salvatari the pair worked together to record the rest of the theme and promptly delivered the finish track to bungie in new york a few days later i'm very happy to welcome on the stage jason jones who is the co-founder of bungie and the halo project lead halo is the name of this game and we're gonna see for the first time haley finally the day of the big show had arrived halo was officially revealed with an anticipated release date of early 2000 the demo looked extremely promising with seamless transitions from indoor to outdoor environments beautiful lighting effects and realistic physics but work on the game was far from over and despite a strong endorsement from the legendary steve jobs bungie was nearly broke by the start of the new millennium to keep them afloat bungie entered into a deal with take two interactive who at the time were aggressively pursuing practically every talented game developer but even with the additional revenue that this deal provided the studio wasn't making enough to stay above water so they reached out to microsoft for a potential full acquisition what they didn't know at the time was that microsoft was preparing their first foray into the console gaming space and were in the process of bulking up their planned 2001 launch catalog so after negotiating a deal with take two interactive microsoft fully acquired bungie in early 2000 for roughly 30 million dollars and along with it the halo property in the meantime bungie had their work cut out for them not only did they need to formulate a cohesive narrative experience to go along with their sandbox but now they would need to take everything that they had built and make it function properly for a console this meant greatly limiting the scale of their planned open world environment requiring sections to be broken up into distinctive levels and also greatly simplified the control scheme so that it would play comfortably with a gamepad in the months that followed bungie invited various game outlets to their offices to show off the game's progress with in-depth demonstrations of the revolutionary vehicle physics and gorgeous open-ended level designs but it wasn't until e3 2000 that gamers everywhere would be blindsided by the news that not only had microsoft acquired bungie but halo was no longer going to target a mac release as previously indicated many long time bungie fans felt betrayed accusing bungie of having sold out but the rage would inevitably prove to be premature as halo would indeed still find its way to both pc and mac platforms just not right away following news of the acquisition the bungie headquarters were relocated once again this time in a much nicer office in washington state right in the heart of microsoft's redmond campus it was here that haywa would finally begin to more closely resemble what we all know it as today with huge trees and rivers dotting several large canyon-like environments master chief had gone from being a grunt to a fully realized protagonist and writer joseph staton invested excruciatingly long work weeks just to ensure that the game's script and story was done properly it was around the same time that jason jones made the difficult decision to change the game into a first person shooter citing technical difficulties with the third person camera as the deciding factor but this would of course turn out to be a blessing in disguise as the new first person viewpoint would work hand in hand with the revolutionary new control scheme an innovation that would transform the genre forever by the final year all hands were on deck for the big crunch halo was set to be the xbox's most important launch title and would ultimately decide the fate of both microsoft's first console and bungie itself to ensure the team met their goals several planned features were inevitably cut including the ambient life forms in each level and several different weapons and vehicles there were even discussions to cut the game's split screen multiplayer right up until the final weeks of development but after building some smaller arenas the team agreed that it would be worth including finally after years and years of design changes and a near collapse of the studio itself jason jones and marcus leto's experimental side project had finally been completed and in november of 2001 bungie released the legendary halo combat evolved exclusively for microsoft's new xbox halo takes place in the distant future with the human race having discovered the secret to interplanetary travel and using it to colonize planets all throughout the galaxy but after a religious alien collective known as the covenant are made aware of this they declare a holy war against humanity and begin to systematically exterminate any human-made colonies they can find combat evolved story picks up shortly after the destruction of the colony on reach with one of the few surviving unsc shuttles the pillar of autumn having just narrowly escaped through slip space emerging light years away adjacent to a mysterious ring installation with the covenant still in pursuit the autumn's commanding officer captain keys orders the ship into a combat alert status and begins preparations for an emergency landing on the ring surface the player assumes the role of master chief an augmented super soldier or spartan whose advanced exo suit and exceptional combat skills make him one of humanity's most powerful weapons as the autumn braces for an imminent covenant attack chief is woken from his cryonic suspension an order to safeguard the ship's onboard artificial intelligence cortana whose data banks contain critical information that can potentially churn the tides of war using a lifeboat chief and cortana jettison away from the autumn and crash land on the surface of the ring it's here where most of the game takes place as players check across large open-ended environments battle covenant forces and uncover the secrets of the mysterious ring also known as halo the story is delivered almost exclusively through dialogue exchanges between chief and cortana the latter of whom serves as the player's guide to the alien structure chief himself doesn't speak too often echoing the style of many hero protagonists in the late 1990s budget cortana on the other hand fills the void left by chief's stoic personality providing frequent communication directly through his helmet often talking with command about relevant mission objectives and steering chief in the right direction to get the job done and it's this back and forth dynamic that forms the backbone of halo's narrative style keeping the player informed while also subtly building on the relationship between its two contrasting personalities and with the help of the occasional traditional cutscene and light comedic relief players are greeted with an fps campaign experience that was unlike anything else at the time especially on consoles this extends to the gameplay as well halo at its core is a first person shooter where the goal in each level is often to punch through large battalions of covenant soldiers using any weapons or vehicles on hand but unlike most shooters released around this time halo limits the player to only two weapons at any given moment this not only makes weapon toggling much simpler but it also makes players think more carefully about which weapons they grab off the ground as each gun is intentionally balanced to handle well against some enemies and poorly on others take the assault rifle for example it houses a hefty 60 round magazine tracked in real time by an integrated display on top of the barrel and can fire around 15 rounds a second making it ideal for tearing through large groups of enemies however its conventional 762 caliber bullets are little match for the covenant's energy shields and when fired from medium to long distances the assault rifle loses all practicality then there's the powerful magnum that may feature a much smaller magazine and lower rate of fire but it packs an incredible punch and can be used effectively to down even the most powerful enemies other weapons include a pump shotgun a sniper rifle and the devastating rocket launcher all of which play a critical role in dealing with the game's many different enemies and those are just the humans weapons players can also wield a collection of alien weapons as well most of which can be used in tandem with the human arsenal to first drain an enemy's shield and then finish them off once the shield has been disabled adding to this is the ability to seamlessly transition from gunplay into melee attacks and toss grenades all without having to swap to any dedicated weapons it may seem like a novel feature now but this was not at all a common control scheme for a shooter game but with halo the combat is more smooth and fluid allowing players to melt through an enemy shield and smack them with the butt of their gun all without needing to let off of the trigger speaking of shields the player is also equipped with a protective energy shield of their own that will automatically recharge whenever the player is out of combat [Music] if the player receives enough damage to break the shield then their limited health bar will begin to deplete which can then only be replenished by locating health packs throughout the environment by blending a traditional health system with this new regeneration mechanic halo ensures that players are always given a fair chance against the enemy which is important considering halo offers a wide range of different alien threats for starters there's the grunts small weak and cowardly creatures that serve mostly as cannon fodder the jackals whose energy shields protect most incoming fire the sang healy or elites who are each equipped with their own personal energy shield plasma rifles and sometimes a deadly one-hit energy sword that when coupled with a built-in cloaking device can make short work of players not paying attention and last but not least there's the lumbering hunters that come equipped with an explosive fuel rod cannon and bulletproof armor plating forcing players to dodge melee attacks and target a weak spot on their back but the covenant aren't the only threat working on this installation and players will need to keep on their toes as they explore the ring's darkest secrets and use any weapons at their disposal to try and stay alive when outdoors players can commandeer a number of different vehicles to help traverse the game's more expansive environments usually accompanied by friendly ai who will gladly ride shotgun or man the turrets to help defend against enemy attack the most iconic of these vehicles is the warthog that could be whipped around corners at high speeds and launched off of ramps in spectacular fashion there's the speedy covenant ghost with front mounted energy cannons perfect for strafing large groups of enemies for players looking for the less subtle approach there's the powerhouse scorpion main battle tank with full auto machine guns and an auto loading high velocity cannon and finally there's the banshee that could be used to fly across the landscape and launch deadly air-to-ground attacks to make things a bit more difficult the enemy can also make use of these vehicles including a few enemy specific variants like the wraith tank and transport drop that can deliver enemy combatants onto the field within seconds when considering all these gameplay mechanics together halo delivers exactly what it sets out to do the sandbox bungie created allows for endless possibilities with wide open vehicle-centric battlefields seamlessly funneling players into tight infantry-focused corridors and every weapon enemy and vehicle is carefully balanced to counteract one another all this is then amplified further thanks to halo's built-in multiplayer features halo's campaign can be played entirely via split screen cooperative play with a second player spawning in as a clone of master chief fully capable of interacting with everything including secondary seats on vehicles though it's the game's competitive multiplayer that undoubtedly steals the show with players battling it out across 13 different locations and bloody arena-style death matches a majority of halo's multiplayer locations are built in a traditional arena format with weapon pickups and power-ups spread out in a confined space and lots of vantage points and secret routes to make use of but for players looking for an even more intense experience halo on the original xbox also features the ability to link together multiple consoles over a local network with up to 16 players all fighting within the same match this was a highly uncommon feature for a console game in 2001 and before long halo became all anyone wanted to play with players booting up slayer matches on blood gulch and obliterating each other with tanks sniper rifles and the occasional slight nudge with a warthog halo combat evolved was met with an overwhelmingly positive response with outlets awarding it near perfect scores across the board many praised the game for its brilliant gameplay mechanics marveling at its intuitive controls and addictive multiplayer others praised the game for its rich story and noted the excellent voice actor performances of jen taylor's cortana and steve downes master chief though some did take issue with the design of halo's campaign missions pointing out repetitive level designs that only serve to pad out the game's length others took issue with the game's multiplayer claiming that alternate game modes outside of the fan favorite slayer felt phoned in and some of the weapons mainly the magnum weren't balanced properly but even with those few complaints halo mania couldn't be stopped the sales were modest at first but they would stay persistent with every xbox console sold throughout the year being paired with a copy of the game before long halo had become a cultural icon dominating living room televisions across the world and because of its largely intuitive design it would inevitably transform the first person shooter forever convincing developers everywhere that the console space was more than viable for the genre [Music] however despite all the success not everyone was pleased with the release many members of bungie were disappointed with all the content they were forced to cut major sections of the campaign were removed and replaced with clumsy dialogue to help tie together the story several weapons and vehicles were also scrapped and would inevitably reappear in later entries but most disappointing of all was the lack of an integrated online multiplayer component that due to time constraints couldn't be included in the final game meanwhile bungie's die hard mac and pc fan base were growing increasingly impatient feeling betrayed as halo dominated headlines for the better part of two years but bungie remained true to their word as the game would inevitably arrive for both computer platforms only instead of being handled by bungie directly the responsibility was shifted to two separate studios that specialized in building ports the first was a windows pc port created by gearbox software who had just wrapped up work on a pc release of the popular tony hawks pro skater 3. using leftover code from halo's xbox development gearbox pieced together a relatively stable build of the game in the fall of 2003 but despite looking and playing like halo on the surface fans noted a few differences few of which were positive bump mapping for example is almost non-existent with the effect only appearing when illuminated by the player's flashlight energy shields like those held by the jackals also behave improperly and fail to change color when damaged like in the original and there's even some inconsistencies in the gameplay including a slower rate of fire for the magnum and reduced scope zoom for the sniper rifle on the bright side the pc port of halo does at least offer an expansion to the game's multiplayer introducing six more large-scale maps and a few cut weapons and vehicles but most importantly it also included a fully functional online multipart component which would make this inherently flawed port the basis for all future re-releases moving forward following a well-deserved month-long break the redmond offices gradually awoke from their own cryonic suspension ready to work on their next big project and with early reviews and fan response being overwhelmingly positive a sequel to their sci-fi epic became the obvious next step for many the prospect of making a sequel was welcomed as there were a lot of ideas left over from before that can now be fully realized but for others like bungie founder alex cerropion halo success made it clear that bungie's future would forever be tied to the halo series and so he left to form a new studio shortly after with alex now gone a power vacuum had opened in the studio and tensions between various department heads over the direction of the story would result in a severe lack of progress early on lead writer joseph staton in particular had huge ambitions for the future of halo he wanted massive intergalactic battles and interwoven storylines transforming the narrative into more of a space opera but others argued that satan's ambitions were unrealistic and would require way too much time and effort to execute meanwhile the future of the series's multiplayer content had also been a topic of debate as many wanted to ditch the head-to-head death matches and re-attempt the large-scale war zone from halo's prototype days but max hoberman stressed that this would be a mistake and that the small-scale arena combat was the reason that the original was so successful the team eventually agreed and allowed both max and a tiny group of artists and programmers to lead efforts on the game's multiplayer starting with direct integration of microsoft's new xbox live functionality while this was being worked on the rest of the studio were at a standstill with staton's vision for the story being what it was the engine would need to be completely broken apart and built back up again this would allow for three times the amount of detail in each scene along with the integration of havoc physics for ragdolls and explosions they even pushed to have real-time dynamic lighting effects and stencil shadows though these would inevitably prove to be too demanding and they were forced to revert back to less complex light probes and shadow maps later on by 2003 development for the sequel had slowed even further as project lead jason jones decided to turn his attention to some of bungie's other projects this left gameplay designers paul bertone and jamie griesmer to lead development for the game's campaign a role that jaime admits was overwhelming at the time due to his lack of prior leadership experience he eventually brought on a slew of new talent to the team who'd assist in sculpting the campaign's many unique level environments while artists and designers worked with hoberman's multiplayer mode as this was the only way to test new gameplay features while the engine was being developed but it wasn't until the e3 demo that things started to turn around with halo being as successful as it was microsoft went all in to ensure that halo 2 would have a big presence at their show and with the expectations having never been higher the team at bungie prepared months in advance to deliver a show stopper as early as february 2003 development for halo 2 focused almost exclusively on this demo with the narrative and animation team working on planned cinematics while level artists and gameplay designers pieced together the playable space the goal was to not just impress audiences at the show but to renew interest within bungie itself and build a more solid foundation to help the game cross the finish line when the game was finally shown off the response to it was immensely positive the game looked gorgeous so much so that many in attendance accused bungie of cheating and using pre-rendered gameplay sequences but these rumors were quickly shot down after bungie invited critics to try the demo out for themselves following this first gameplay reveal the attitude in the bungie offices shifted dramatically all other bungee projects in production were cancelled and the developers were folded back into a singular halo development team it was a highly productive collaborative effort but along with it came one of the absolute worst development crunches in the series's history by the summer of 2003 the only real progress that had been made was on that e3 demo and the rest of the missions in production were so disjointed that they found themselves essentially starting from scratch unsurprisingly microsoft were not at all happy with this restart when production began microsoft were hopeful that halo 2's turnaround would be within a single year making it the perfect release to accompany the launch of xbox live and when it became clear this wasn't feasible they then anticipated a holiday 2003 release and even pushed to have bungie launch the game before it was ready but head of microsoft's gaming division at the time ed freeze intervened threatening to quit if bungie wasn't given the time that they needed and as a result the development was extended by another year but even this year extension wasn't exactly the miracle that halo 2 needed even with the full force of the studio all working together staton's epic space opera proved too great a task to squeeze into the sequel alone forcing bungie to cut the entirety of the game's third act and replace it with an unsatisfying cliffhanger instead it was a decision that completely demoralized the team making the final crunch leading to the release even more challenging but in the end bungie's passion for the game and their fan base encouraged them to press on and in the fall of 2004 bunchy released their highly anticipated sequel halo 2 exclusively for the xbox halo 2 takes place shortly after the events of combat evolved with master chief having destroyed halo and along with it the threat of a mass galactic extinction after successfully escaping from the ring chief returns to earth where he's awarded for his services to humanity but during the ceremony a fleet of covenant warships launched a surprise attack on earth in an apparent retaliatory strike and chief along with the unsc spring into action after an assault on the earth city of new mambasa a covenant capital ship piloted by one of the covenant's leaders the prophet of regret opens a slip-space portal to escape but not before chief and a platoon of marines are able to follow him through it arriving light years away next to another halo ring like the first game a sizable amount of master chief's adventure takes place on the surface of this mysterious ring with chief and cortana working together to uncover its secrets and stop the prophet from destroying all of humanity but unlike the first game master chief's adventure is only half of the experience the other half explores the covenant war from the perspective of a sangheili soldier referred to as the arbiter the arbiter was once the supreme commander of one of the covenant's galactic fleets tasked with protecting the sacred ring from the first game but after the ring is destroyed he stripped of his rank and branded a heretic and is forced to do the prophet's bidding as their arbiter by introducing this character halo 2 gives players the opportunity to better understand the motivation behind the covenant adding more nuance and complexity to the various enemy types that players gunned down so carelessly before the story also touches on the threat of religious extremism and the importance of independent thought and conflates that with the reoccurring themes from before like sacrifice and nobility it's a far more meaningful and ambitious plot as it expands on the game's universe while also fleshing out relationships between characters like chief and cortana but its big cliffhanger ending in place of its cut third act is impossible to ignore and takes away from an otherwise solid story master chief you mind telling me what you're doing on that ship sir finishing this fight thankfully as with the original game the story is only really a supplemental aspect of the experience as halo 2's gameplay remains its biggest draw all the core mechanics from before remain intact like the two weapon limit health regeneration and the overall sandbox nature of each mission though this sandbox is a bit more limited due to the design of the level environments themselves levels are often more linear in their structure funneling players through narrow paths with little room to explore off to the side by doing this halo 2 can emphasize its scripted cinematic moments with things like large starships explosions and enemy ambushes being used to further immerse the player this also ensures a more consistent pace throughout the course of the game and is supplemented by things like aerial supply drops that help to cut down on the need to search for replacement weapons and ammo speaking of weapons halo 2 sees a sizeable update to its arsenal many fan favorites make a return like the shotgun sniper rifle rocket launcher needler and plasma rifles but interestingly the iconic full auto assault rifle from combat evolved has been removed and is replaced by a new scoped burst fire battle rifle instead to help fill the void of the full auto assault rifle halo 2 does introduce a more compact smg that seems to serve mostly the same purpose delivering a high rate of fire but with limited range along with this players are also given a host of new covenant weapons to play around with including the type 51 covenant carbine the type 50 covenant sniper and the deadly energy sword that can one hit most enemies with a devastating forward slash then of course we can't forget one of halo 2's most defining new features the ability to dual wheel when holding any of the game's one-handed weapons players are now given the option to grab another weapon using their free hand each weapon is controlled separately using the corresponding triggers and the weapons can also be mixed and matched to take advantage of their unique associated properties when venturing across the larger level environments halo 2 offers more of the same in terms of its vehicles all the classics return like the warthog ghost scorpion wraith and banshee and of course there's a few new additions as well like a rocket firing warthog and a covenant equivalent called the spectre all of which can now be broken apart piece by piece and permanently destroyed thanks to the improved physics system players can even hijack enemy vehicles now which can be used to knock enemies out of their seats or toss grenades into the hatch of a tank this along with features like dual wielding make the master chief feel even more powerful than before though they're also faced with more deadly enemies this time around like drones that will fly in large packs and shoot at the player from the sky and the brutes that aren't protected by energy shields but make up for this with a remarkably high threshold for pain and will regularly charge at the player when entering into a berserk state the horrific flood faction also make the return and have seen a few enhancements of their own as the smaller infection form can now revive defeated enemies that will either attack the player on foot or make use of any hijacked vehicles they can find overall halo 2's campaign demonstrates a much larger scope than what players experienced before with more mission variety weapons and enemies along with a ton of quality of life improvements to the gameplay and story delivery though just like the original it's the multiplayer that remains the game's star attraction halo 1's multiplayer had completely changed the game for console shooters mixing intuitive controls with a near flawless balance of weapons and vehicles and halo 2 adds to this further thanks to even tighter multiplayer map designs better game modes and customization options to let players play their own way but more importantly halo 2 is also the first console entry to the series to include online multiplayer via xbox live that thanks to the series's overwhelming popularity quickly grew to dominate the live community this is assisted by the brilliant party system built into the game though it's players who are friends over xbox live easily group up together and then matchmake using an older form of skill-based matchmaking without the need to use tedious ip addresses or server browsers effectively setting a new precedent for the online gaming scene when all said and done halo 2 was yet another monumental success for bungie in the first 24 hours alone halo 2 shattered records selling more than any other video game in history and it would eventually top off at around 6 million sales in just the united states alone adding to this was a wave of positive reviews all praising the game for sticking to its guns and delivering an even more engaging cinematic story some did take issue with the length of the campaign and were particularly concerned by its abrupt ending but most felt it wasn't enough to detract from the enjoyment of the gameplay design and praised the game for its revolutionary online multiplayer component halo 2 further solidified the series's legendary status in the industry though despite its overwhelming success its exceptionally challenging development had taken its toll on the studio responsible and as a result bungie's relationship with microsoft grew increasingly more strained triggering many to reconsider their collaborative efforts moving forward months after development had ceased on halo 2 the redmond offices slowly started to spring back to life again and discussions about the future of the series and the studio inevitably led to a renegotiation with their publisher in the end microsoft agreed to let bungie reclaim their independent status but in return microsoft would retain full ownership of the halo property and bungie would need to create at least three more games before any of this could happen bungie accepted the offer and soon after full production began on master chief's third epic adventure but this time things would be handled much differently they would not allow for another insane crunch like before and hired nearly 100 more artists and programmers to assist with the production leadership concerns were also addressed early on with paul bertone heading the direction of the campaign while max hoberman returned to lead the multiplayer team but as this was the big finale for the halo trilogy the question of how it would all end remained a fierce topic of debate there were several pitches for the story some less practical than others but it was eventually martin o'donnell's pitch that reigns supreme with nine distinctive plot points about various characters deaths and key scenes being used as the basis for the storyboard once the story had been locked down production proceeded much more smoothly the team were careful this time to set realistic goals and made much more efficient use of the resources on hand this allowed the team more time to focus on polishing up the gameplay design tightening up the gunplay adding in a new scoring system and overhauling aspects from past halo games that they felt weren't living up to their potential while this happened graphic designers overhauled the engine once more this time to accommodate the much more powerful xbox 360 console allowing for more impressive lighting and shadowing effects along with a big push for increased draw distances necessary for facilitating the game's larger than life scale the game was later revealed with a brief real-time cinematic at microsoft's e3 showcase in 2006 with master chief looking out across a vast crater as covenant forces flew overhead the fanbase were ecstatic though they would need to wait another year before they could finally finish the fight then after a little under three years of development production had completed and halo 3 released worldwide exclusively for the xbox 360. cable 3's campaign kicks off right after the cliffhanger in halo 2 with master chief rocketing back to earth after having teamed up with the arbiter to stop the delta halo from firing along the way chief was forced to leave cortana behind at the covenant's holy city high charity which had just been overrun by the flood and its powerful leader the grave mind guilt-ridden the chief arrives on earth and immediately seeks out the gateway to the ark a sort of operational control center for the halo array that the covenant plan on using to remotely trigger each ring and bring about total annihilation he eventually links up with both the unsc and a group of covenant separatists loyal to the arbiter who proceed towards a massive crater formed by the slip space rupture that occurs towards the start of halo 2. after fighting with the covenant forces around the outskirts of new mambasa chief and his allies eventually use the massive slip space portal formed by the crater to travel to the ark where the battle intensifies further following the arrival of the flood-infested high charity it's here where the story comes to an end as human covenant the flood and the ancient forerunners robotic sentinels led by returning on-again off-again antagonist 343 guilty spark all battle it out for control of the halo array using every weapon and vehicle at their disposal and at the center of it all is the master chief who's willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill his promise and come back for the stranded cortana it's a satisfying conclusion to the bungie saga providing a plethora of fan service all while wrapping up lingering plot threads and it does so while also leaving enough room for more adventures in the future as for the gameplay design halo 3 sees several changes to its core mechanics delivering the series into the next generation right away the biggest standout feature of halo 3 is the rework to its ui elements adding a new heads-up display graphic at the top and bottom of the screen in an effort to more properly immerse the player into the role of master chief along with this halo 3 sees further modification to the way the player's health behaves with fall damage having been removed entirely enabling players to make more liberal use of environmental verticality standout features from halo 2 like dual wielding and vehicle hijacking make their return and are accompanied by new mechanics like being able to tear mounted turrets off of their platforms and special abilities tied to new pickups called equipment these abilities include a protective bubble shield to block incoming fire a gravity lift to boost the player into the air active camouflage explosive mines shield draining devices and much more these new devices are then supplemented with yet another expansion to the player's weapon arsenal including the return of the full auto assault rifle several brute weapons like the spiker mauler and gravity hammer and most deadly of all the spartan laser that after a lengthy charge up can decimate even the most powerful enemies the game's vehicles have also seen a few notable additions including the intimidating brute chopper and prowler a human atv called the mongoose additional variants of the iconic warthog and the first pilotable human air vehicle the hornet though as always the enemies have been reinforced as well and will utilize new tactics on the field to test the player guns for example will now be enraged when you kill their leader and will attempt to kamikaze the player with plasma grenades and because the brutes have replaced the elites in the covenant's army they're now equipped with classic energy shields along with the other combat abilities introduced in halo 2. even more impressive are the changes made to the flood that now come in several more forms than they did in the past including ranged wall crawling types ambushers and fleshy tanks all of which require unique tactics to overcome it's without a doubt a more realized take on the classic halo sandbox expanding upon all the lessons learned previously while still injecting new life into the flow of the gameplay and it's for this reason that halo 3's gameplay remains one of the most beloved by the series's fan base this also extends to the game's multiplayer that builds upon the excellent design of halo 2's xbox live integration with a ton of new online specific features like a player ranking progression system expanded character customization and the ability to skip maps in session lobbies giving players slightly more control over what they play next as for the maps themselves halo 3 doesn't feature quite as many maps as its predecessors but it does have a few standouts like the guardian and the pit both of which have become some of the most beloved multiplayer arenas in the series history halo 3 also introduces the first iteration of the fan favorite forge mode allowing players to not just design custom game modes to play but also modify the maps themselves with the ability to change spawn locations for players weapons and vehicles along with a few dynamic objects for the even more creative types halo 3 also introduces theater mode to the series enabling players to replay campaign missions or multiplayer matches using different camera angles with this players can now capture more cinematic footage of their gameplay experiences a godsend for early content creators like those responsible for the hugely popular red verse blue halo web series by and large halo 3 is considered by many to be a masterpiece it's the culmination of nearly a decade's worth of bungie's greatest ideas and concepts flawlessly executed in a way that appealed to both fans and newcomers alike reviews for the game emphasize the satisfying conclusion to the narrative while also praising the game's great pacing its gun play and its technical prowess others complimented bungie for its robust multiplayer suite delivering everything that fans loved about halo split screen and online components and further adding to them with great quality of life improvements along with all these great reviews halo 3 also set additional sales records blowing past its predecessor with more than 8 million copies sold in fact it was so successful it managed to beat out an already stacked holiday lineup including assassin's creed uncharted bioshock and the juggernaut call of duty 4 modern warfare however while halo 3 did manage to outsell call of duty 4 on the worldwide market it's important to note here that the call of duty series was not far behind and its growing popularity among audiences would inevitably impact every other shooter around it including the halo series itself during the creation of the first three halo games the halo series had also begun to expand independently from its creators as early as 2000 microsoft saw significant promise in the universe that bungie had created and tasked the then 36 year old american writer eric nylen to begin a series of halo-based novels to embellish on the events surrounding those in the video game series the books while well received by critics sold slowly at first but as the video game franchise rose in popularity their sales numbers would grow tenfold making it a viable merchandising opportunity halo mania had officially begun and microsoft were not content to stop there they also sought to build around the core game series with supplemental titles produced by their various in-house developers like the creators of age of empires ensemble studios shortly after work on their age of mythology expansion titans had been completed ensemble began experimenting with the potential to bring the real-time strategy genre to consoles this was of course not an easy task as rts games typically require dozens of hotkeys on a computer keyboard to efficiently spot between different units and resource management systems but the developers were convinced that by making use of radial sub-menus the genre could find a new home on the xbox and so they spent the remainder of 2004 modifying their age of mythology engine to test their theory once this early phase proved successful they then got in touch with microsoft who agreed to back production under one condition it would need to be based in the halo universe excited to work on the halo property ensembl poured through all the available reference material to properly reconstruct the likeness of halo's many iconic elements and modified them slightly to help them properly stand out from the new isometric viewpoint they then ran numerous play tests with both halo and rts fans and carefully shaped the experience around pleasing them both after roughly two years of development ensemble were finally ready to show the world what they had been up to and officially revealed halo wars at the tail end of xbox's x06 trade show in barcelona the response was mixed at best fans at this time were more excited for information about halo 3 than anything else but it was at least an interesting development as the halo series had now begun to expand beyond bungie studio and into other studios owned by microsoft but halo wars was still far from finished ensemble would spend several more years in production with over 100 employees brought on to assist by the time work had completed development would end up costing tens of millions of dollars going well beyond the allocated budget and forcing microsoft to reconsider their in-house development strategy moving forward finally in february of 2003 ensemble studios released their long-awaited real-time strategy game halo wars exclusively for the xbox 360. halo wars is a prequel to the main halo saga that expands on the events of the human covenant war prior to the fall of reach the story centers around a unsc marine named john forge who along with the rest of his unit are tasked with securing key targets on the human planetary colony of harvest amidst a covenant invasion aside from some light background information on the arbiter and what he was doing prior to the events of the halo trilogy halo wars does very little to expand on the previously established lore it's an entirely new story and focuses almost exclusively on the adventures of this unit of unsc soldiers with little to no mention of halo mainstays like master chief cortana johnson or keys which makes sense considering halo wars takes place well before any of those characters were relevant meanwhile the gameplay of halo wars offers a wildly different experience from traditional halo titles due to its new real-time strategy design using only a gamepad players need to control groups of soldiers from an isometric viewpoint as they order attacks on covenant positions using a variety of weapons and vehicles just like the mainline first person titles halo wars is built around a rock paper scissor mentality where each unit type is strong against one enemy but weak against another aircraft for example are effective against ground vehicles which in turn can easily overwhelm infantry but infantry are strong against aircraft meaning a strong mix of all three is usually a winning formula halo wars also requires players to manage the logistics of their military forces by building fortifications and bases using acquired supply resources once these are built players can then spawn additional units onto the field or research various upgrades and enhancements to improve their army's effectiveness the bulk of the gameplay experience is built around the game's story driven campaign mode with a steady increase to the size and complexity of enemy forces challenging players to more carefully balance tactical combat and resource management though there's also options to play the game cooperatively and competitively using xbox live features that at this point have become synonymous with the ip overall despite a mixed response to the game's reveal halo wars was met with familiar praise from audiences and critics audiences loved the new real-time strategy design and complimented ensemble for nailing the field of controls an especially difficult task considering the genre's typical control scheme but the praise wasn't quite unanimous many especially hardcore rts fans felt that halo wars was a shallow imitation of the genre with overly simplified resource management robbing the game of any necessary complexity others complained about the short play time and expressed disappointment that there were no flood or covenant campaigns to accompany the brief human campaign and the lower than anticipated sales numbers only made things worse halo wars long and costly development cycle and its thin profit margins inevitably proved fatal to this classic rts development studio with bungie set to become fully independent in the coming years microsoft needed a new in-house studio to replace them and to help fund it they were forced to shut down ensemble studios leaving the future of both halo wars and the age of empire series uncertain back in 2005 a third halo project unrelated to halo 3 and halo wars entered into an early production phase but unlike the other two projects this one never quite got off the ground dreamed up by none other than acclaimed director writer and producer of the lord of the rings film trilogy peter jackson halo chronicles was intended to be a more immersive cinematic experience that boarded the lines between film and video game after a few months both bungie and jackson's new game development studio wingnut interactive prototyped some early concepts where the player would play as a much more vulnerable marine who throughout the course of the game would slowly be augmented with special alien abilities before ultimately becoming a human bullet it was a promising project but not nearly as promising as what was underway over in new zealand even before combat evolved had hit store shelves microsoft were looking at ways to get the master chief onto the silver screen and with halo 1 and 2 being as big as they were a major motion picture seemed like a no-brainer so they tapped peter jackson to produce while academy award winner guillermo del toro signed on to direct and soon after production began on what could have potentially been the most expensive video game film of the new millennium but as props were being made and sets started to take shape things started to fall apart del toro decided to step away and was replaced by the then rookie director neil blancamp then both 20th century fox and universal who were set to collaborate on the production and distribution front failed to reach an agreement and they both cleaned their hands of the project shortly after without a producer the prospect of a halo film was forever shelved though because so many high quality props had already been made bomb camp did get some use out of them and repurpose many of the weapons and vehicles for a halo 3 live-action trailer and his first major motion picture district 9. meanwhile as plans fell apart for this live-action halo the accompanying halo chronicles video game would eventually be canceled as well and peter jackson would refocus his attention back on his film career following the release of halo 3 in 2007 microsoft requested that bungie create a downloadable expansion for the game hoping to prolong its upward sales direction moving into the next fiscal year writer joe staton and designer paul bertone would take the lead on this task but requested that the expansion stand apart from the main campaign in some way and that it also fulfilled the agreed upon three project minimum in order to achieve their independence microsoft agreed and bungie got to work brainstorming ideas they decided early on to recycle some of the concepts explored with wingnut's halo chronicles mainly the idea of featuring standard infantry as opposed to a hulking super soldier like master chief this idea was then expanded to feature a full squadron of soldiers and was set against the backdrop of a noir theme supplemented further by the likes of dante's inferno in the film serenity because there was little money to be made with this project only a handful of bungie staff agreed to sign on and assist while a bulk of the studio went on to help jason jones who had finally returned and was working on a little side project called destiny but this didn't discourage staten or bertone they were genuinely having fun coming up with this creative take on the halo property and even aimed to feature a fully interconnected open world environment something that had become increasingly more popular over the past few years but because of their timing and financial limitations they later settled on a mix of traditional linear levels broken up by more open-ended stealth-oriented sections instead a compromise that ended up providing much better pacing by mid-2009 the project was nearing completion and was significantly more ambitious than microsoft could have anticipated so much so that they pushed to have the game delayed to the holiday season instead and have it released as its own standalone title bungie were unsurprisingly frustrated by this development they were exceedingly proud of what they had accomplished and were excited to see the positive reception to the large amount of content for a reasonable 30 dollar price point but now microsoft was pushing their meeker expansion as a full aaa experience and audiences would no doubt tear them apart for what was essentially an asset flip so in the final months leading up to its release bungie incorporated a number of features that would help extend the game's replayability including new narrative vlogs hidden throughout the city and a prototyped cooperative mode called firefight that designer tim williams had been toying around with the resulting game was 2009's halo 3 odst that was released as a standalone title for the xbox 360. odst despite being directly associated with halo 3 actually takes place during the events of halo 2 right after the profit of regret's ship makes it slip space jump and devastates the city of new mombasa the player takes control of a squad of unsc special forces sent in to repel the covenant invaders but when the slipspace event sends their drop pods off course the unit is separated and are forced to regroup in the middle of a war zone in a major departure from previous halo titles odst offers a much less linear story approach the game begins following a silent protagonist referred to as the rookie who was knocked unconscious for several hours before awakening in a dilapidated city center surrounded by covenant after sneaking past enemy patrols the rookie then unearths clues about his squad members whereabouts triggering flashbacks that the player experiences firsthand it's in these flashbacks where some of the most exciting moments in odst take place as players guide the other squad members through intense firefights across the city usually with a very specific scenario to complement that soldier's particular skill set mickey for example is the team's explosive expert so his flashback involves barreling through the center of the city in a scorpion tank romeo on the other hand is a squad's sharpshooter so his sequence offers more long-range engagements to make use of his sniper rifle and in between each of these missions the player returns back to the original rookie which helps to break up the pacing in a way never before seen in the series it's a solid narrative choice through and through exploring individual characters in a more meaningful way though it doesn't necessarily add much to the overarching halo narrative either aside from explaining how the humans learned of the covenant's plans moving into halo 3. as for the gameplay odst plays mostly the same as halo 3. with most of the same controls and mechanics but because players aren't controlling the legendary spartan this time around the abilities have been scaled down to represent this dual wielding for example is no longer possible and fall damage has been reintroduced forcing players to think more practically about how they engage hostiles to compensate for this handicap odst soldiers are equipped with a sophisticated threat visor that can be triggered at any time to highlight nearby enemies in red allies in green or objectives in yellow providing the perfect tool to navigate in the game's many dark environments odst also offers one of the more open-ended urban environments in the series as players can explore a large central hub area when they're playing as the rookie and uncover clues find weapons and unlock bonus story content players can even use their new silenced smg to carefully navigate the streets undetected providing slightly more variety to the combat the multiplayer is also a very large departure from the traditional formula while it does offer a slight expansion to the base halo 3 multiplayer experience a bulk of odst's multiplayer is intentionally built around cooperative play with the return of its cooperative campaign options from before and a new wave-based survival mode called firefight overall despite the last minute controversial pricing change halo 3 odst was received very positively the game scored high marks from every major outlet as many complimented bungie for trying something different for a change other praise was directed towards their solid writing and campaign pacing and were impressed by the way it carried itself without having to rely on series mainstays like chief or cortana but the most positively received aspect of odst was undoubtedly its new firefight mode that provided hours of additional content as players experimented with different strategies to face off against waves of enemies the sales were also hugely impressive as the game managed to top the charts for several consecutive weeks greatly exceeding expectations again and now the halo 3 chapter could finally come to a close as bungie set their sights on their final halo project by 2009 bungie had officially become an independent studio again work was already underway on the first independent project led by jason jones and they would no longer be considered as part of xbox's first party family of developers but they weren't done with the halo series quite yet the deal they had struck with microsoft required that they release one more entry which would help facilitate a transitionary period as microsoft pieced together a replacement studio so as jason jones and his team moved to a new office in bellaview to continue work on destiny veteran art director marcus leto took command and served as creative director for what would be bungie's last hurrah in the world of halo but getting started would be difficult as the morale was considerably low the team were not only exhausted after halo 3 but frustrated by the fact that they were contractually obligated to make another and many left to work on destiny instead but some especially those who had only just signed on with bungie recently were ready to give this last halo project their all and began to draft up storyboards and scripts like with odsd the idea for this fourth mainline entry internally referred to at the time as halo 4 was to expand on the halo universe they didn't want to rehash another master chief cortana adventure and they certainly didn't want to undermine the satisfying ending that they had established in halo 3. so they went in the opposite direction and opted to create a prequel story finally giving players a chance to experience the fall of reach firsthand now that a baseline for a story had been established the tech team got to work overhauling the halo 3 engine completely reworking the animation rigs and effectively starting from scratch it was a long and tedious process but the end result was a significantly improved presentation and production quickly picked up moving into its final few years finally after about three years of full development bungie's final halo title had been completed and they released halo reach exclusively for the xbox 360. reach tells the story of noble squad a team of spartan 3 commandos who were caught up in major events preceding the original halo trilogy the player assumes the role of a rookie squad member callsign noble6 who accompanies his team of battle-hardened commandos as they investigate communication interruptions on the human colony reach but upon reaching their objective they discovered that a covenant invasion force has arrived and a battle for the fate of the planet begins shortly after it's a relatively straightforward plot based on its core premise alone but it's carried significantly by the quality of the noble squad characters themselves and the heroic sacrifices that they make along the way squad members include the no-nonsense squad leader carter tech and communications specialist cat the deadly but reserved sharpshooter june heavy weapons expert george and emile the snarky badass with a cool helmet against all odds this team of hardened spartan warriors band together to defend humanity's most strategically important colony while also delivering a mission-critical piece of intel necessary to turn the tide of the war it's arguably one of the most innovative and emotionally driven narratives in the entire halo series taking heavy inspiration from the likes of classic films like 7 samurai and the magnificent 7 and it features without a doubt the most impactful ending of any other entry in the series to date this is then coupled with some solid gameplay mechanics as well as expected halo reach plays like any other halo game the controls are more or less identical and the action revolves heavily around first person combat using a mix of human and alien weaponry but a lot of the more drastic departures in design from halo 3 onward have been backpedaled to a degree the heads-up display for example isn't quite as obtrusive maintaining its slight angled appearance but scrapping the transparent borders used to simulate the character's helmet and while the equipment mechanics do make a return they've been modified into armor abilities many of which function more or less the same but now players can blast into the air with a jet pack lock their armor to block incoming damage and probably most controversial of all the ability to sprint a typical feature by today's standards but one that would inevitably result in more stretched out map lanes on average speaking of which halo reach sees a return to form in regards to its level designs most of the single player missions offer large open spaces to explore often with multiple objectives that the player can tackle in any order that they like missions are still split up into individual levels but it certainly feels less claustrophobic than say halo 2 or 3. as for the weapons reach sees a number of new weapons added to the arsenal including the dmr the plasma repeater the needle rifle and several different types of grenade launchers but of course it wouldn't be a halo game without vehicles of which halo reach has plenty including all the old favorites and some new additions including a variant of the ghost called the revenant an aerial gunship known as the falcon and in at least one instance a space fighter called the saber that could be used to engage in an epic space battle outside of the planet's atmosphere another big change to the game is its artificial intelligence ai has been progressively improving with each iteration but reach marks a point in the series where ai both allied and enemy seem to behave even more fluidly enemies appear to have more carefully scripted animations tied to them and will react fluidly to situations friendly ai will similarly seek cover and support the player when possible adding a new dynamic to the gun play not seen in the original trilogy other noteworthy changes include new melee takedown animations several different on-rail turret sequences and an updated version of the cooperative survival firefight mode halo's beloved competitive multiplayer also returns with eight maps at launch several unique game modes and a return of the fan favorite forge mode but reach also seeks to change up the classic formula a good amount with the introduction of a more modern loadout spawn system by doing this players now spawn into the match with a preset configuration of weapons and armor abilities giving them a chance to defend themselves more practically against any surviving players on the map it's a much more modern take on a competitive shooter though it also marks a major step away from traditional arena combat no doubt influenced by the popularity of the now unstoppable call of duty series halo reach was yet another home run for bungie what many skeptics assumed would be a hastily thrown together prequel cash grab turned out to be one of the strongest halo entries to date review scores were overwhelmingly positive giving it near perfect scores some praised it for its well-written story while others took note of the game's polished gameplay and improved visuals the fans were similarly pleased particularly with the game's rich multiplayer content though there were some that felt the series may be drifting into the mindset of other traditional shooter formulas and feared the popularity of the call of duty series may have finally begun to influence the design of halo this fear was then compounded by the fact that 2010's call of duty black ops had managed to outsell the once unstoppable halo series but this didn't necessarily indicate a failure on bungie's part either reach was still a major financial success and with bungie having officially fulfilled their end of the deal they could finally after 10 long years leave the halo series behind throughout the course of halo reach's development microsoft had already been hard at work sourcing bungie's replacement they knew that with bungie gone somebody would have to pick up the slack and to ensure that things were done right they decided to build a dedicated halo development studio from the ground up given the name 343 industries this studio started off small at first with only about nine developers drawing out concepts for the series's future once they landed on something that they agreed with they then sought to greatly expand their workforce to make it happen this included talent from all across the industry including frank o'connor who due to logistical complications and his passion for the halo series decided against working for bungie ex-multiplayer lead max hoberman also assisted though did so mostly through consultation and contractual work via his own development studio certain affinity providing 343 with some valuable experience while also helping develop some post-launch content for halo reach once these expansions were finished 343 then reached out to a small florida-based game developer called saber interactive and tasked them with putting together a remake of the original halo game excited by the prospect of working on such a legendary title saber accepted and had one of their subsidiaries in st petersburg handle the project but when this russian office received the necessary original assets from 343 they were given the source code for gearbox's pc port instead along with all the bugs and imperfections that came along with it they then took these original environments characters and cutscenes and completely overhauled them using a hybrid of both the halo reach engine and their own in-house saber 3d which they then modified to allow for a seamless transition between their remastered visuals and the original graphics most of the multipart content was then handled by certain affinity who already had experience remaking classic arenas thanks to the last halo reach map pack then after only about a year of development 343 had their first finished product in their hands and released halo anniversary for the xbox roughly 10 years after the original game because it borrows almost entirely from that original game halo anniversary is pretty much the exact same title everything from the story the missions the multiplayer and even the feel the gameplay is near identical though the visuals add a brand new next generation flare to the experience with gorgeous vibrant colors and special effects adding an extra layer to this decade old classic but aside from some pretty visuals this is still a game from 2001 under the surface repackaged and sold to fans 10 years later and reviews were quick to point this out [Applause] many complained that the game had not aged well especially the often repetitive single-player campaign others went deeper and called out 343 or rather saber interactive for not fixing the underlying issues that plagued the original pc release some even felt that the improved visuals actually robbed the game of its original vision and replaced areas that were intended to be dark and dreary with uncharacteristically bright vibrant eye candy however most fans weren't as critical they appreciated the remaster finding it an enjoyable trip down memory lane and praised the developers for its brilliant ability to swap between graphics instantly with the tap of a button it was a love letter to fans who had stuck with the series now for over 10 years but more importantly it served as a much needed buffer providing 343 with the extra time needed to deliver their first original halo entry development for the fourth mainline halo title occurred alongside the production of halo anniversary the goal was to deliver a continuation of master chief and cortana's story but also expand upon it on a more personal level while also introducing a new threat that players had never experienced before it was a risky move as halo fans have become very particular about what constituted a halo experience thanks to bungie's high level of consistency with each game but the developers at 343 were not deterred as they saw themselves as dedicated halo fans themselves frank o'connor was particularly involved as he already had experience with halo's lore working with bungie on past projects and coordinated with newcomer kiki wolfgail to help formulate the main narrative meanwhile ryan payton an ex-metal gear solid developer brought his experience working under the legendary hideo kojima into the fold and incorporated a unique style into the design of the game world enemies and vehicles that would be wholly unique from past halo games but as things started to deviate a bit too drastically 343 pumped the brakes they were afraid the direction that ryan wanted to take the game was too ambitious and would be too great a risk for the studio's first original entry so to try and reel things in they bumped ryan down from creative director to narrative director and had producer josh holmes take his place a decision that frustrated ryan so much that he opted to leave 343 shortly after with holmes now in charge the project underwent a major shift in its direction he wanted the game to be more modern like its contemporaries with faster pacing and more streamlined combat all integrated into familiar large-scale linear environments he also sought to bring out a more mature essence into the story toning down the comedic relief and focusing on a more personal relationship between chief and cortana brought out further with more advanced motion and facial capture technology the visuals reflected this new direction as well as everything was designed to appear more realistic and grounded a divisive move but one that helped to establish the studio's own distinctive style as production continued the staff size grew immensely from its starting eight writers up to nearly 200 different developers and over 100 additional contractors assisting throughout development by the end halo 4 cost microsoft over 40 million dollars to put together making it one of the series's most expensive titles to date and in the fall of 2012 343 industries debuted their first original entry halo 4 exclusively for the xbox 360. halo 4 picks up four and a half years after the events of halo 3 with master chief having frozen himself in a cryopod onboard the remains of a unsc frigate a drift in space after a mysterious digital pulse scan begins to emanate around the remains of the ship chief's long time ai companion cortana wakes him up and the pair soon discover that they've drifted straight into a rogue covenant armada orbiting a mysterious planet called requiem after a brief encounter with the covenant chief and cortana are then pulled into requiem's atmosphere by a powerful gravitational well and crash land on the planet's surface cortana then reveals to chief that she's suffering from a deteriorating state called rampancy where her cognitive abilities are increasing at such an accelerated rate that she'll eventually think herself to death chief desperate to save his friend sets out to find a way off the planet but while trying to hail a nearby unsc ship called the infinity he mistakenly releases an ancient forerunner prisoner called the didact who seeks to restore the forerunner race back to their former glory by eliminating all of humanity now faced with this new threat chief cortana and the survivors of the unsc infinity wage war against the didact and is ai based promethean soldiers in a final showdown to prove which species is truly worthy of ruling the galaxy it's a much more intimate and emotional storyline that seeks to greatly expand on halo's lore with its official introduction of the forerunner species but its pacing is also inconsistent with what we've seen in the past raising the stakes to levels that seem to exceed those of the entire halo trilogy prior only for it to all end abruptly with an unsatisfying finale on the other hand halo 4 does maintain many of the series's core attributes when it comes to its gameplay design as always the game is broken up into distinctive levels each offering unique environments populated by increasingly more challenging configurations of enemies and plenty of weapons and vehicles to beat them down with the all-important sandbox still makes up the backbone of that experience as well though there have been quite a few changes to modernize it for one halo 4 is the first entry to fully adopt a dedicated sprint key into the player's traversal options meaning there's no longer a requirement to use a separate gadget or suit ability like in the past this means a faster pace to each combat encounter and an even greater emphasis on long combat lanes seen predominantly in the game's many forerunner structures halo 4 also sees the introduction of a new faction called the prometheans a collective of biomechanical ai constructs that make up a bulk of the game's enemies among the prometheans are the nimble crawlers lightly armored dog-like creatures that often attack in packs the watchers that appear as flying dual rotor drones capable of reviving their allies and most deadly of all the knights that are armed to the teeth with powerful arm blades a full auto energy weapon and the ability to dash and teleport making them a formidable foe to counter this new promethean threat halo 4 offers a wide range of weapons including most of the standard human and covenant weapons from before and a new set of promethean weapons like the bolt shot the scatter gun binary rifle and the suppressor suit abilities make a return as well like active camo personal shields and the jet pack though there's also some new additions like promethean vision that can be used to highlight enemies through walls and an automated sentry turret that will suppress any nearby enemies the vehicles on the other hand haven't seen quite as many additions in fact there are slightly fewer of them most of the human and covenant vehicles from the original trilogy are available like warthogs ghosts banshees and tanks but none of the brute vehicles return due to the faction's absence and prometheans don't appear to make use of any vehicles themselves limiting them mainly to infantry based encounters but even still there are a few new additions to the player's garage here including a few new aerial vehicles and most notable of all the mantis a powerful bipedal tank armed with machine guns missile launchers and a close range stomp maneuver that will devastate enemies nearby moving on we have halo force multiplayer offerings that seek to modernize the classic formula even further with customizable player loadouts more fleshed out player progression systems and new in-match rewards called ordinance drops that bear a heavy resemblance to the call of duty series's kill streaks with these additions and the inclusion of a universal sprint key combatant halo force multiplier is much faster than it was in previous titles and the design of the game's maps seemed to reflect this as well as lanes on average seem much longer than the maps in halo reach in addition to the game's default 13 maps and the 9 available through dlc halo 4 also sees some big improvements to the forge mode allowing for much better looking user-made maps thanks to the included lighting generator and higher quality level assets cooperative options return as well allowing teams of four players to play through the campaign together however the popular survival mode firefight has been dropped in favor of the new objective-based spartan ops this is essentially a separate cooperative campaign to help expand on the other spartans that appear briefly in the single player the mode is broken up into several different episodes that were made available with a staggered release schedule and require an active xbox live membership to access these additions along with the multitude of alterations made to the map design philosophy weapon balancing and the physics systems provide a very different halo multiplier experience and while these changes may be polished and functional they unsurprisingly led to a very divisive response from the series fan base critically halo 4 received glowing reviews journalists praised the game for its cinematic presentation and complimented the voice actors for delivering their best performances in the series to date many also noted halo 4's gorgeous visuals that were leaps and bounds ahead of the past entries despite sharing the same xbox 360 target platform but others were critical of the game's departure from the series's core tenants primarily in regards to its handling of its multiplier a few even knocked the game for its soundtrack disappointed that the series iconic theme song had been downplayed so much and felt composer neil davidge's new direction was more complementary than additive effectively robbing the game of one of the series's most iconic aspects but even with those concerns have 4 still saw financial success early on within just the first day 343 managed to sell a record of over 3.5 million copies making it one of the strongest initial sales records for a microsoft produced game but as other competing titles started to release including treyarch's call of duty black ops 2 recurring player numbers in halo's multiplier steadily declined further demonstrating that public interest in the decade-long franchise may have already peaked near the end of halo force development its creative director josh holmes was asked to head the development for a sequel but holmes declined the role feeling he had already left his mark on the series from a creative standpoint and suggested timothy longo jr instead tim had extensive experience in the gaming industry in the 90s he worked with lucas arts to build several classic star wars titles and during the 2000s he was fundamental in turning the tomb raider series around after crystal dynamics assumed creative control so with this extensive track record he became the obvious choice to carry on the iconic halo series and immediately looked at ways to improve with a sequel but this would take time and 343 interactive decided that they would need another buffer title to maintain interest in the property and had saber interactive piece together yet another remaster this time for halo 2. production for the halo 2 remaster was a much smoother process the graphic engine and technology was already set up from before and so they were able to recycle a number of visual effects right from the get-go however they also learned from the mistakes made in the past and ensured that they maintained the original aesthetic of each character and environment as closely as possible and only embellished when absolutely necessary they even had x halo 2 developer max hoberman come back to assist in nailing the look and feel of the multiplayer while this was being done blur studio was contracted to provide brand new high quality cinematics for the game's campaign providing a massively improved presentation for some of the most iconic scenes in the series by 2014 production on halo 2 anniversary had progressed exceptionally well it was meeting all of its deadlines and they were ready for a surprise reveal to accompany tim longo's main line entry but with the new generation of consoles just around the corner 343 interactive decided to take things a step further and not just provide players with a halo 2 remaster but the entire collection all optimized to play on the xbox one it would be the perfect way to ease newcomers into the franchise a necessity considering the story they planned to tell with halo 5. and so in november of 2014 343 in collaboration with sabre certain affinity and blur released the ambitious halo the master chief collection exclusively for the xbox one the master chief collection is exactly what it sounds like each and every game in the saga featuring master chief all updated to play on higher resolution displays with better performance and a plethora of customization options everything from each of the four games has been retained including the campaigns the cooperative modes and every single multiplayer map including 6 remakes from halo 2. it's without a doubt the ultimate love letter for fans or at least that's what it seemed like the master chief collection was widely panned upon its release not because of the content it provided but because of its widespread instability the game was played with issues some even occurring in areas of the original titles that never had issues before the most problematic of all was the botched multiplayer matchmaking that made it near impossible to play online it was a disaster with some even claiming it to be the biggest botched launch in years but rather than packing up and moving on 343 interactive decided to own up to the mistakes made and worked tirelessly to fix it over the course of the next several years since then the game has been cleaned up considerably and has even been made available on the pc platform letting pc gamers finally continue the story from where they left off way back in 2007 when halo 2 released for vista alongside this release the master chief collection has been bulked up further with other titles in the series like halo 3 odst and halo reach only further adding to its value they even managed to fix some of the mistakes that gearbox made all the way back when combat evolved released on the pc though some issues in regards to bump mapping do still persist all things considered the master chief collection has become the ultimate package for halo fans and one of the only ways to play many of the classics online as several of the original titles have since had their online services shut down working a bittersweet end to one of xbox's very first online multiplayer experiences as development for the mainline console entries continued franchise director frank o'connor looked at ways to expand halo's reach into the rising mobile gaming market and contracted the netherlands based vanguard games to put together an isometric twin stick shooter which would later become 2013's halo spartan assault in spartan assault players assume the role of two spartan 4 commandos edward davis and halo 4's sarah palmer as they participate in combat missions prior to the events of halo 4. the game is played entirely from a top-down perspective with players using either touch screen or traditional twin stick controls to gun down swarms of enemies like many mobile games players are rewarded with a star ranking based on their performance and each of the 30-some available missions are short enough to allow for rapid play sessions when on the go critically spartan assault was received quite well upon its initial release as many claimed that its high quality visuals and core gameplay mechanics raised the bar for the mobile gaming scene though once the title was later ported to other platforms like the xbox and pc the sentiment towards the game it's a shallow experience with very little to add in terms of both story and gameplay though because it was relatively cheap to make 343 decided that it was worthwhile to make a sequel and coordinated with vanguard once more to make 2015's halo spartan strike spartan strike is more or less the same as its predecessor the story this time follows two unnamed spartans the first during the battle of new mambasa and the second closer to the events of halo 4 as they both seek to stop the covenant from acquiring access to a powerful 4runner teleportation technology the gameplay utilizes the same twin stick combat design though there are a few worthwhile additions missing from spartan assault like a drivable warthog and several additional player power-ups to make missions more enjoyable but even still spartan strike was met with a similar mixed response so much so that 343 abandoned the prospect of delivering a consul port of the game like they had with spartan assault meanwhile back at 343 the core of the development staff were focused almost exclusively on production for the next mainline entry to the franchise as it was set to be the single most ambitious entry to the halo series to date every aspect of the game was set to be expanded upon including a big shake up to the multiplayer design and a massively risky new direction for the story that was purpose built to intrigue the fan base as the narrative team pieced together this new story designers worked to revitalize the series's aging formula and structured the gameplay heavily around a new system of persistent player abilities aimed to enhance player mobility and control many of the changes made were done so to appeal to halo's professional league who were called in frequently to test maps and modes ahead of public testing an invaluable tool to ensure the longevity of the online multiplayer additionally the studio sought to improve the game's cooperative offerings and specifically built the main campaign around having multiple players including distinctive character roles combat balancing and an overhaul to the general user experience design the project was officially showcased at microsoft's presentation at e3 2013 with a cinematic video much in the same vein as halo 3's big announcement audiences were excited especially considering its announcement was accompanied by the reveal of the master chief collection and in the fall of 2015 343 industries released their hotly anticipated next entry to the series halo 5 guardians exclusively for the xbox one halo 5 takes place less than a year after halo 4 with chief having reunited with his old squad of spartan 2 commandos blue team as they continue their fight against the last remnants of the company but after receiving a message from the previously thought to be deceased cortana chief and the rest of blue team go awol causing a separate group of spartans fire team osiris to hunt them down the player assumes the role of both master chief and series newcomer jameson locke throughout the course of the campaign as the missions alternate between both fire teams to help tell the two sides of the story but as with most hero vs hero style narratives a true enemy inevitably makes themselves known forcing the two teams to work together to safeguard the galaxy it's a risky story approach much in the same way halo 2 was over 10 years ago though the unusual retcon for a certain character and the seemingly uncharacteristic behavior of others made the pill difficult to swallow making guardians one of the most divisive entries in the series halo 5's gameplay has also seen some very big changes while the core of the sandbox still remains very much intact the increased emphasis on cooperative play makes for a very different campaign experience for one players are now consistently supported by a squad of ai or player controlled spartans which can provide covering fire and even revive the player if they're downed in combat the ux design has similarly been reworked making weapon pickups glow in the environment and kill markers appear over defeated enemies interacting with vehicles and switches is also accompanied by a press and hold command now likely done to simplify network syncing between players in the session though all these tweaks are minor when compared to the new spartan abilities unlike the suit abilities from the past spartan abilities are persistent and available to all players at any given time this includes being able to clamber up ledges evade to the side with thrusters slide along the ground bash forward or through walls and crash into enemies from above using a devastating ground pound halo 5 also introduces the smartwink aim system meaning every weapon in the game now has at least some form of enhanced zoom effect when considering all of these new abilities halo 5's combat is without a doubt some of the most realized and flushed out in the series with plenty of options for practically any encounter however the additions to other aspects of the game aren't quite as ambitious the weapon arsenal for example is made up mainly of older weapons from past games with the only worthwhile addition being the unsc hydra rocket launcher meanwhile the only new additions to the drivable vehicles are a couple of close air support units like the wasp along with a few new variants of the warthog tanks and the mech the enemies similarly haven't changed much this time around but the prometheans are now reinforced by a new soldier type that serves as one of the more common infantry units in the game players will also need to contend with a new boss type called the warden that will periodically appear throughout the campaign to offer a stiff challenge at key points in the narrative though even when considering these changes halo 5 really doesn't come off feeling too different from its predecessor however its multiplayer offerings do help to balance this out a bit with the addition of two wildly different new game modes the first is called warzone an evolution of the series's large-scale big team battle in it players battle it out in massive 24 player skirmishes with either side getting a large number of weapons and vehicles to choose between the goal is to destroy the enemy team's core housed within their primary deployment area but to access this teams must first conquer areas in the center of the map usually defended by neutral ai defenders adding a sort of pve twist to the action this mode was later updated to include options for eight player cooperative firefights as well making smart use of pre-existing map designs to appeal to fans of the classic survival mode for players that still prefer more competitive arena action halo 5 offers several smaller scale 4v4 maps built specifically to take advantage of all the new spartan abilities and finally there's a hugely improved forge mode with over a thousand more available level assets to make use of wider template spaces to build on and vastly improved tool sets to make building quality looking levels easier than ever overall halo 5 was met with mostly positive reception journalists awarded the game with high scores thanks to its much smoother player traversal and robust multiplayer features others praised the game for appealing to fans of cooperative play an often overlooked aspect that has remained integral to the halo franchise since its inception but the game's story wasn't received nearly as well many were disappointed that the rogue master chief subplot wasn't used to its full potential while others took fault with the game's abrupt ending but the fanbase were even more critical as they felt the series had officially lost its identity and lacked the spirit of many of the bungee era titles and so with both halo 5's mixed reception and the master chief collection's plethora of bugs halo was for the first time in an extremely precarious position so much so that many changes would have to be made moving forward now faced with declining interest in the once great halo 343 industries sat down and reconsidered the direction that they were taking in regards to both the narrative and the overall gameplay style halo 5 while still a massive financial success had dealt a serious blow to fan confidence in the studio responsible and many were doubtful that any halo game from this new reclaimer saga would ever capture the magic of bungie's original trilogy so understandably 343 tried to figure out why what part of those old bungee games had they failed to carry forward what part of the prometheans the chief cortana plot or the multiplayer were fans not connecting with as the bulk of the development team at 343 proceeded with post launch content for halo 5. the narrative leads went back through the series's long history and tried to piece together the puzzle and acknowledged the most common concerns voiced by the community to help guide them they ultimately decided that the entire rogue cortana bit that they had been trying to establish was just not working the logic behind her uncharacteristic churn was technically there but fans just weren't having it so they decided to sideline the plot and turn their attention towards a new offshoot of the covenant called the banished by doing this 343 would be able to greatly simplify the story returning players to a classic human versus alien war set against the backdrop of an ancient mysterious ring world but this would also mean that their originally planned halo 6 would need to be dropped entirely resulting in one of the longest hiatuses in the series history but halo fans wouldn't be ignored entirely along with the mobile titles detailed previously 343 also coordinated with creators of the total war series creative assembly in creating a sequel to the real-time strategy game halo wars all built around the new story direction intended for the next mainline installment development for the sequel began as early as 2014 as the team worked on planning out an ambitious war campaign along the surface of the massive ark as creative assembly familiarized themselves with the old phoenix engine 343 contracted blower studio once again to provide cinematics for the campaign who then reciprocated with several high-fidelity motion capture sequences then after roughly three years of full development production for the sequel had been completed and creative assembly in association with 343 industries released havel wars 2 for both xbox one and windows pc halo wars 2 kicks off nearly three decades of the events of the original halo wars with the unsc spirit of fire emerging out of slip space directly over the ark from halo 3. completely unaware of the outcome of the human covenant war captain cutter orders a recon team to investigate the forerunner installation only to learn that a human research team previously on the surface has been overrun by a splinter faction of the covenant called the banished commanded by the savage warmaster atriax the banished have built up a formidable military force and plan on using the ark to repair the halo array and take control of the galaxy the player assumes control of the spirit of fire's ground support units and conduct several aggressive sabotage operations in an effort to disrupt the banished stranglehold on the installation despite having little to do with halo 4 or 5 halo wars 2 is a significant part of the series's overarching story as it establishes a new primary antagonist and helps to redirect the series back to its origins however it doesn't entirely dismiss halo 5's events either made evident by the inclusion of the game's post-credits scene when it comes to gameplay halo wars 2 builds off of what ensemble had established with the original halo wars the entire game can be played with a gamepad though the controls have been refined further thanks to helpful double tap commands and a press and hold function to select smaller groups of units the resource management has also been reworked as power is now considered a finite resource that must be gradually earned alongside supplies either by locating caches of power cells building generators near bases or by capturing new power nodes spread out across the map halo wars 2 also introduces new mini bases to the fold which can be used to either acquire additional resources or set up a forward operating base to spawn reinforcements and attack enemy positions more rapidly most units from the previous game return like the various infantry types warthogs tanks artillery and close air support though players can now spawn teams of snipers heavy support aircraft and a reworked version of the bipedal mechanized cyclops that play a much more persistent role throughout the game as for the enemies halo wars 2 only features the newer banished faction combining elements of the covenant with additional brute units like jet troopers choppers and mobile artillery units called blisterbacks occasionally players will even need to face off against more powerful boss types called warlords that will make use of unique attacks like grapples and aoe bombardments to help deal with these new threats halo wars 2 sees a big revision to its leadership system giving players access to 10 powerful abilities per liter rather than just one like before these abilities include things like healing domes to replenish unit health odst drop pods and turrets to quickly reinforce units on the field and even a powerful airstrike to decimate the front line with these systems in place players have more options to make use of providing a more engaging and enjoyable gameplay experience and that's just the single player campaign evil wars 2 also greatly improves on the sub series multiplayer offerings as well and offers several new game modes like the conquest inspired blitz and an rts twist on the classic firefight cooperative survival mode alongside a returning cooperative campaign as well creative assembly also released two paid expansions for the game the latter of which allows players to play as the banished as they wage war against the escaped flood from the ruins of high charity overall the game was met with decent reviews as many praised halo wars 2 for its gorgeous visual design polished mechanics and engaging narrative but many complaints waged against the original game resurfaced as some felt halo wars rts mechanics were too simple and didn't fully commit to the concept others took issue with the short campaign length and added that the story failed to come to a satisfying conclusion despite all of its solid additions halo wars 2 ultimately performed worse than its predecessor the game only managed to sell a little over 2 million copies about 400 000 less than the original game but despite its meager sales and its critical reception the game still served its purpose and provided 343 industries with the time that they needed to focus on their biggest contribution to the halo franchise yet early development for 343's third mainline entry began back in 2015 with franchise directors and writers redirecting the series following the outcry over halo 5. they ultimately decided to ditch the rogue cortana plot almost entirely and refocus their attention towards a more classic adventure story instead much like the style of the original halo games then it hit them why not take that original concept and reimagine it as an open world game instead almost like what marcus leto and jason jones had initially tried to do all those years ago this eventually blossomed into a massive undertaking with hundreds of environmental artists designers and programmers sculpting a massive playable space taking cues from other popular open world games like far cry and breath of the wild to help them better realize this new direction they largely overhauled their pre-existing game engine into the newer slipspace engine which would allow for much greater draw distances object model complexity and variety taylor made for the next generation of console gaming the project was later revealed three years later at e3 2018 with an in-engine cinematic teaser demonstrating the beautiful visuals dynamic wildlife and classically inspired atmosphere things seem to finally be heading in the right direction but unfortunately development was not proceeding as smoothly as it seemed production for this new entry was plagued with problems from buggy outdated code baked into the newer engine to overly ambitious deadlines to make matters worse the studio suffered from a number of creative differences between various development sectors signaling a lack of effective leadership at one point 343 even considered cutting over two-thirds of the open world they had planned as this would be the only way to meet the release of the xbox series x then in 2020 another variable was introduced to the already messy development of the game and staff were forced to quickly adapt to remote work a process that greatly slowed development and limited leadership's ability to oversee progress being made then in july of 2020 all these developmental woes eventually came to a head with 343's infamous premiere of halo infinite's gameplay critics were quick to pick apart the demo pointing out lackluster environments and outdated character model designs this was the first real taste of xbox's next generation and unfortunately for microsoft halo fans were not impressed so immediately following the reveal microsoft decided to reconsider their stance on the game's release date realizing that a premature release would do more damage than good they even asked halo veteran joe staton to assume creative control of the project a move that would greatly help in getting things back on track with his help the open world was expanded outward again with more dynamic elements from past games being reintroduced like marines that would automatically follow the player meanwhile the art department greatly overhauled the visuals adding considerably more detail to every facet of the presentation though due to time many plan features would need to be delayed post-release including mainstays like the cooperative campaign finally after nearly six years of development two of which were done in the midst of a global pandemic production for the final halo title so far had been completed and 343 industries released the long-awaited halo infinite for xbox one series x and the windows pc halo infinite takes place shortly after the events in halo wars 2 with the unsc stuck in a two-front war against the rogue cortana and her created alongside the newly emerged banished led by atriox after the infinity comes under siege by banished forces master chief tries to help but is ultimately defeated at the hands of atriax himself and subsequently thrown out into the void of space six months after this battle chief is saved by a lone human survivor in a vital who explains that the human race has been defeated but chief ever determined proclaims that there's still a chance to set things right and travels to a nearby partially damaged ring installation called zeta halo it's here where chief discovers a new ai companion referred to as the weapon who was designed as a sort of countermeasure to cortana now unsure of her purpose the weapon agrees to tag along with chief and the two set out across zeta halo to rally any surviving unsc forces and fight back against the banished it's a much simpler story this time around focusing almost exclusively on master chief and his relationship with his ai friend though the addition of the pilot also adds a fresh new human element to the story as well which is used frequently to reinforce the core theme of hope throughout the course of the adventure like the story the gameplay also sees a significant return to form for the series the combat is more grounded pitting the player in the occasional small squad of marines against overwhelming alien odds with only a limited use of scripted cinematic events by doing this the game relies almost exclusively on its sandbox to maintain its excitement a choice that's reinforced by the adaptation of a new large-scale open world environment zeta halo or at least the small section of zeta halo available in the game is easily one of the largest playable areas ever featured in the franchise and this isn't just an empty space either a bulk of the environment is controlled by banished forces that will patrol various forests and roads or occupy strategically important military installations like outposts or forward operating bases if the player is feeling bold they can choose to capture one of these locations rewarding them with a fast travel point access to weapon refills and information on other nearby activities alongside capturing enemy positions players can also rescue stranded squads of unsc soldiers eliminate powerful high value targets or uncover secret collectibles hidden all throughout the game completing these objectives also rewards the player with powerful new weapons and vehicles to call in a necessity for dealing with the more heavily fortified positions later on alongside these open world activities is of course the main campaign itself with dedicated missions that feel more fleshed out and expansive taking cues from classic halo games by funneling players through complex 4runner structures command ships and alien fortresses though these sections are made even more interesting thanks to some great new traversal and combat mechanics the first is the grapple shot a retractable grapple hook that can be used to latch onto any solid surface and pull the player forward this can be used to easily zip around the environment greatly expanding the verticality of the action and can even be used to grab objects from a distance which can then be redirected and thrown back at nearby enemies along with the grapple shot there's the threat sensor that can id enemies hidden behind walls the drop wall that will produce a one-way energy shield the returning thruster pack and further improvements to the player's shields all these abilities can be further upgraded via a new upgrade tree in the player's menus using any discovered spartan course hidden in the environment again incentivizing exploration and those are just the core gameplay changes pavel infinite also sees a plethora of new weapons to play around with too including a new full-auto commando rifle a burst fire covenant weapon called the pulse carbine a couple shock-based weapons like the shock rifle and disruptor both of which can arc electricity between targets and several other new brute weapons like the ravager grenade launcher and the deadly skewer there's even a few new and returning 4runner weapons to experiment with that will literally melt the competition as for the vehicles infinite sees a lot of old classics make the return like the brute chopper and transport warthogs though there's several other vehicles introduced over the years that didn't make the cut and infinite fails to deliver anything new to take their place either but even still the vehicles that are provided offer more than enough variety for transportation to explore infinite's wide-reaching forest valleys and when combined with the new dynamic day night cycle it's easily one of the most immersive campaigns in the series yet infinite's multiplayer also aims to bring the halo experience back to its roots delivering more traditional arena-style combat based more heavily on the classic sandboxes of old even more surprisingly the entire multiplayer suite has been made available to play for free on both xbox and pc meaning literally anyone with a compatible platform can jump in on the fun because of this havel infinite managed to accumulate a massive player base in its early months achieving a record-breaking 20 million concurrent players however because this free to play model relies so heavily on utilizing microtransactions to generate persistent revenue the game's included cosmetic options have been heavily criticized as even the most basic cosmetic pieces either require a tedious grind or a disproportionate monetary cost for players not interested in character customization though halo infinite's multiplayer has also suffered from a slow rollout of post-launch content with only a handful of maps to play on and very few game modes to make matters worse infinite is also one of the first games in nearly a decade to not offer any sort of forge or theater mode options not to mention the series this mainstay cooperative campaign option that's still yet to be incorporated because of these major omissions havel infinite has seen a significant decline in popularity moving into the new year early reception for the game was glowing with reviews praising the campaign's fantastic return to form players were even content with the game's multiplayer early on as they were happy with the highly polished gameplay and built-in cross-play support but with the player base dropping off at such an accelerated rate 343 will need to deliver significantly with her upcoming season 2 to help stem the bleeding especially when considering halo infinite is set to be the series foundation moving forward halo is quite possibly one of the most influential video game series in the history of the medium what started as a series of small experiments in the back room of an old chicago studio has gone on to become an absolute behemoth in the industry dominating holiday sales and spawning countless other supplementary media including books mobile games arcade cabinet shooters and most recently a paramount plus exclusive live action series but its most lasting legacy will forever be how it managed to change gaming itself prior to halo the shooter genre was not considered viable with a controller with golden eye and perfect dark being one of the very few exceptions but halo changed all of that and catapulted the genre to new heights no doubt giving rise to hundreds of other massively popular games that we enjoyed today not only that but halo is mostly responsible for the success of microsoft's xbox which by itself has contributed greatly to the media with a plethora of talented game developers and studios all across the globe but most important of all halo has brought friends and family together for decades thanks to its rich narrative its beloved multiplayer offerings and its larger than life characters and it'll no doubt continue to be one of the most iconic video game experiences of all time but what do you guys think which halo game was your favorite and where do you think the series should go next let me know in the comment section i also want to take a moment to give a special shout out to my supporters on patreon whose support has helped immensely in making this video thank you so much for your continued support if you enjoy the work that i do here and want to see more documentaries like this please consider joining the growing list of patreon supporters where you can get early access to new projects behind the scenes content shout outs and access to our private discord to chat and play games your support is hugely appreciated and of course don't forget to like and subscribe for more content posted every week you're still watching it's over

Channel: Nick930

Views: 714,517

Keywords: Halo, Master Chief, Halo Infinite, Season 2, History of, Bungie, 343, 343i, 343 Industries, Microsoft, Xbox, Jason Jones, Marcus Lehto, Alex Seropian, Jaime Greismer, Martin O Donnel, Joseph Staten, AMD, AMDGaming, Cortana, Sergeant, Johnson, Arbiter, Prophets, Gravemind, Spartan, Halsey, Keyes, Guilty Spark, Flood, Covenant, UNSC, ODST, Shooter, FPS, Game, Video Game, Action, Review of Every, Retrospective, Analysis, Trailer, Development, Summary, Full, Fan, Favorite, Best, Professional, History of Halo, Nick930

Id: tEvGIeZ5gl8

Length: 129min 17sec (7757 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/popo129]

I still remember when I first saw a Halo game. Had a family friend who had the first two and he let me borrow them since he knew I was interested. He ended up buying Halo 3 for me on Christmas and having played all three was just fun.

Playing all three with friends last year was fun. Halo 2 was torture though actually, since we did it in Legendary. Basically if someone dies, we have to restart where in 1 and 3 it was just a player would need to be out of a battle so the player can safely respawn. I still have no clue how we did it and I have no idea how anyone did it alone in Legendary since it was pretty hard with a friend and I even.

[u/Kimosabae]

I remember when Combat Evolved/XBOX released, I had less than zero interest in anything Microsoft was doing. I, like a lot of people at the time, had already written them off as another bullet point in a long list of failed attempts at entering a market they just didn't understand.

My cousin called me and told me that he bought an XBOX. I laughed at him and told him what a waste of money that was. But he invited me to come check out Halo, so figured I might as well.

He showed me the opening of Silent Cartographer. As soon as I saw the Marines hoping off the Pelican, and running around the beach, with minds of their own - I was stunned.

I literally got up and ran to the store to buy an Xbox that day.

[u/Timmar92]

Man I wish I liked shooters more, Half-life 2 is one of the best games I've ever played and no other shooter even comes close and except for a select few like titanfall 2 and the singleplayer in call of duty modern warfare I always find them very lacking.