Halo (video game series)

The Halo series is a popular series of video games developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft.

Video games

Halo was the most popular application for the Xbox console up until the release of its more ambitious sequel, Halo 2.

Halo: Combat Evolved

When Halo began development, it was a real time strategy game that would have been released on Apple and Windows PCs. However, during its many years of development, it changed into a third person shooter and then to a first person shooter. Halo was then converted for development for the Xbox game console. The game was released on November 15, 2001. It was later ported to both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

The story deals with the adventures of the protagonist, referred to in the game only as "Master Chief". Stranded with the rest of the crew of the human ship Pillar of Autumn, including the AI Cortana, he fights against The Covenant (an alien alliance waging a 'holy war' of sorts against humanity) while attempting to uncover the ring's secrets, which include the sinister parasitic lifeforms known as The Flood. After learning that the ring is a weapon that would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy if activated, Master Chief embarks on a mission to destroy it.

Halo ends with the Master Chief and Cortana destroying the Halo and escaping in a Longsword fighter.

Halo: Custom Edition

Halo: Custom Edition (commonly known as Halo CE) is a free stand-alone expansion for Halo: Combat Evolved (for the PC) that has the ability to load and play user-created content and maps. This version does not have the option to play in campaign mode. During an online match, players with the same user-created map can play together on it.

Halo 2

Halo 2 was released for the Xbox on November 9, 2004, generating a $125 million dollar entertainment record on its premiere day. It was recently announced that a port for Windows Vista operating system is currently in development.

The sequel features new game mechanics such as dual wielding, new vehicles and weapons, better AI, the ability to hijack vehicles, and Internet-based multiplayer via Xbox Live. It has an advanced graphics engine that utilizes normal mapping and bloom effects, helping to make it one of the best looking games on the Xbox. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match, pushing the envelope of online console gaming further. No ports to other platforms have been announced so far.

In Halo 2, Master Chief battles the Covenant on Earth and later continues the fight on a second Halo: Delta Halo. Meanwhile, the Covenant slides into civil war and a disgraced Elite commander known as the Arbiter is introduced to the series as a second playable character. In the end, the second Halo is almost fired, but the Arbiter and human Commander Miranda Keyes, with the help of Sergeant Johnson, are able to prevent this occurrence. The aborted countdown in response triggers a fail-safe protocol that allows remote firing of all the other ring-worlds from one place: The Ark. The Halo universe expands as well, with new worlds and characters being introduced, as well a deeper look at the culture and society of Covenant. The cliffhanger ending suggests that another sequel is in the works.

Halo 2 is much more ambitious than its predecessor. There is heated debate over whether the game is superior to its predecessor. Arguments are mainly directed at the multiplayer aspect of the two games, with emphasis placed on Halo 2's greatly simplified learning curve and controversial matchmaking modes.

Halo 2 For Windows Vista

Announced on 9th Feb 2006, Halo 2 is coming to pc later in the year. The game will only be compatible with Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista, a move that is likely intended to entice users to upgrade to the new Operating System. Halo 2 PC will have some new features, potentially including some sort of map-editing software like the Halo Editing Kit, released by Gearbox Software for use with Halo Custom Edition. Bungie has also commented that Halo 2's gameplay balance is finely tuned, making such additions as new weapons or vehicles less likely, although new maps are certainly expected. With the move to Windows Vista, Halo 2 for PC can be expect to have improved graphics, and to take full advantage of the modding community due to the afforementioned map editing tools.

Future Video Game Releases

Halo 3

The cliffhanger ending of Halo 2, as well as the success of the Halo franchise, makes a sequel extremely likely. It is speculated that Halo will become a trilogy, after which Bungie may be done with the series. Sources from inside both Microsoft and Bungie have made contradictory claims regarding whether Halo 3 is currently in development.

Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, was quoted as saying that Halo 3 was in development alongside Halo 2; however, this quote was recognized as a slip of the tongue and debunked before the release of Halo 2. Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, stated in a May 2005 Time Magazine interview that Halo 3 would be released in the "second wave" of Xbox 360 titles in 2006, as close to the PlayStation 3's launch as possible, to divert sales. "It's perfect," Gates said, "The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3."(Time.com article, registration required; relevant quotes on Gamespot.com). When asked shortly afterwards however, Microsoft senior vice president Robbie Bach was less definite, saying: "We haven't announced anything on what Bungie is doing or where we're going with the future of the 'Halo' franchise... With all respect to Bill, I don't run Bungie's studio, and neither does he. We'll work with the Bungie guys and let people know [when they have something to announce]".

Bungie has not denied that another Halo game is in progress, but they have not officially announced the game. However, the studio is known for being highly secretive and even occasionally misleading regarding development of their games. Bungie has recently made regular references to "our next project" in their website's weekly news updates. Though no official statements have been made regarding what that next game is, most believe it is indeed Halo 3, and that Bungie is just being coy about the project in typical Bungie fashion. Bungie has also recently stated that Sapien and Guerilla, custom-made programming tools used to build Halo and Halo 2, are being worked on.

An article in Game Informer in November 2005 reports that: "Halo developer Bungie is so paranoid about the storyline for Halo 3 leaking out that two different storylines are being worked on so that even the company's employees are in the dark as to the plot of the game."

An alternative possibility is that, following the precedent of Marathon Infinity, either an outside agency or a contractor to Bungie is developing the content of Halo 3 and using the existing engine, or possibly porting the engine to the Xbox 360. This view could explain Bungie's reluctancy to speak on their next project, as if they have indeed handed Halo 3 to a third party, the two announcements (of Bungie's next project and of Halo 3) would likely be made concurrently. Wideload Games has been suggested by fans as a potential such outside developer, reasoning that the third Marathon game was developed by a company which was, like Wideload, founded by former Bungie employees.

Soon after the Xbox 360 was unveiled in May 2005, EB Games and FYE started taking pre-orders for "Halo 3", despite having no official word from Bungie on whether they would make another Halo game. The pre-order page has since been taken down, but other retailers have followed suit.

On October 4, 2005, ivanjrn, a user at www.richeswillrust.com deployed a fake script for Halo 3. Bungie said in this news article that the script was in fact fake. Since the posting of the script, the message board has been closed down.

Possible Events for Halo 3

• The Master Chief and Truth may face off in "The Ark". In early storyboards, Master Chief and a character called "Dervish" (an early name for the Arbiter) were to both be present at the Ark.
• Sgt. Johnson, Commander Miranda Keyes, and the Arbiter escape from Delta Halo.
• Cortana has talks with the Gravemind. This will show either Gravemind's side in the war, or another hint at Cortana's rampancy.
• The outcome of Earth's biggest battle will be revealed as the Master Chief arrives hidden in Truth's ship to see Earth near the brink of defeat.
• The Master Chief deactivates halo from the Ark and the Arbiter may destroy the Gravemind, ending the Flood threat.
• The civil war between the two Covenant factions (Hunters, Elites, and Grunts vs. Prophets, Brutes, Jackals, and Drones) will reach its zenith.
• Secrets behind the origin of the Gravemind are revealed.
• Location of "The Ark" will very likely be revealed.
• The Opening cutscene for Halo 3 may take place thousands of years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Possible influences

Some fans believe Halo and Halo 2 were influenced by a number of other games and pop culture references, partially based on the game series own references to some of these pop culture icons. These include StarCraft, the Alien and Predator movies, the Marathon series, and Larry Niven's Known Space universe. No comment has been made about these possible influences by the developer and these ideas are only speculation.

Marathon

A number of weapons and plot devices seem to borrow from ideas seen in the Marathon series of first person shooters made by Bungie in the early to mid-1990s (see List of weapons in the Halo universe).

These include the concept of MJOLNIR "cyborgs," the supersoldier main character, the weapons, artificial intelligences, and even some of the alien creatures. Upon close inspection, crew members of the Pillar of the Autumn have the Marathon symbol on their uniforms, and the symbol is even embedded in the Halo logo itself. The Elites from Halo are somewhat similar (in their appearance, not their role) to Marathon's Pfhor. Hunters appear in both games filling the same roles. The Hunters from Halo, though much larger, also clearly share design elements with the Hunters from Marathon. A type of alien that was modeled for Halo 2 but later cut is nearly identical to the Drinniol from Marathon. Also, both games use uniform color to differentiate between different ranks of aliens (and crew members), with higher ranks being stronger and harder to kill. There are two multiplayer gaming options, a version of king of the hill and a game called Oddball (called "Kill the Man with the Ball" in Marathon), which are present in Marathon's multiplayer mode.

These large similarities led to early speculation that Halo took place in the same universe as Marathon, only with different time frames - however, this was later proved highly unlikely. According to both the Halo video games and books, the events in Halo coincide with the events in Marathon. However, due to technology differences (the lack of transporter technology in Halo, for one), this is impossible. On Bungie's own Marathon page, there is a Q&A which states, "Is Marathon the prequel to Halo? [...] No, Marathon is a separate story, with wholly different characters, story and gameplay." [1].

Films

Some film parallels in the games have been pointed out by various people. For instance, the Active Camouflage power-up is very similar to the type of camouflage used by the alien Predator in the Predator film series. There are notices near the Pillar of Autumn's bridge looking for a cat named Jonesy (the name of Sigourney Weaver's cat in the Alien film series). The shape of the Elites' heads is similar in shape to the creatures in the Alien filmseries and have mouth parts similar to the Predators'. The Flood Spores share a similar purpose with the Face Huggers in the Alien film series. Also, there are numerous similarities between the marines of Halo and those of Aliens. The colonial marines' dropship resembles a Pelican and the Pelican pilot Foe Hammer is based on the dropship pilot from Aliens. Finally, Halo's Sergeant Johnson is very strongly based on Aliens's Sergeant Apone - both are very enthusiastic, black, cigar-smoking squad leaders. Both characters even use the line "They're not paying us by the hour, marines!" Also in the realm of movie quotes enemies will sometimes use the line "its only a flesh wound"

A film adaptation of the game, with Peter Jackson and wife Fran Walsh as executive producers, is expected to be released in 2007 (see Gamespot.com press release).

Known Space

Ringworld is a megastructure 95 million miles in radius that resembles the Halo installations, albeit on an enormously large scale. This idea has been copied numerous times in science fiction, although normally on a larger scale than in Halo. In both Halo and Known Space, humans develop space travel on their own and later encounter a hostile and technologically superior alien civilization.

Historical and Mythological Facts

It is probable that Halo took names from world history and mythology to aptly name objects and important characters in the Halo universe. Some of these names include:

• Cortana, derived from a sword used by Edward the Confessor.
• Beowulf, a hero in the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf".
• Tartarus, a deity and a place in the greek mythological underworld.
• MJOLNIR, the ultimate weapon to slay challengers to Æsir supremacy.
• SPARTAN, an Ancient Greek warrior society.

The Culture

Alternatively, it's possible (or even likely) that "Halo" was inspired by the Orbitals featuring in The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, as they are ring-shaped megastructures that orbit stars or gas giants, rather than rotate around them. These smaller structures have the advantage of not needing additional machinery to generate a day/night cycle. Furthering this theory is the fact that the Covenant resemble in no small measure the Idiran race, religious zealots bent on eradicating The Culture, which they regard as heretical.

Other Science Fiction

Halo seems to be inspired by a number of other science fiction books, particularly Ender's Game. The Drones that appear in Halo 2 resemble the "Buggers" from Ender's Game, as in the third level they are referred to by Sgt. Johnson as "Buggers, heading over the rooftops!" There are numerous other references and links, such as the Spartan program, which closely mirrors the super soldier program from the novel. From reading Ender's Game, one would notice a plethora of other small similarities, from the fleets, down to the alien species.

Ringworld, written by Larry Niven is a likely source of inspiration, with the first introduction of self-sustaining giant ring structures into science fiction literature.

Starhammer, written by Christopher Rowley, details the story of a genetically altered man who escapes slavery by a race of blue overlords, and finds an ancient weapon that was created by an ancient race to destroy a parasitic alien life form than may have been a partial basis for the Flood.

Common culture

Halo uses a number of common plot devices, although often they are not immediately apparent.

• The main character has few lines and is accompanied by a technically adept sidekick.
• People searching for valuable objects instead release something evil.
• The main character is saved by someone who later betrays him.
• The only way to defeat an enemy is to blow up the world (or Halo, in this case). This plot device also drives the plot involving the Flood and the true purpose of the ring-worlds.

Other

Master Chief

Master Chief's true name is John, and his surname has never been revealed. His birth name was effectively erased, and so he is known by his rank of Master Chief or Spartan-117. This rank roughly corresponds to the modern rank Master Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy in the 21st century. In the Halo universe, Master Chief and the entire SPARTAN project are under the command of the United Nations Space Command Navy. Master Chief is also known as "The Demon" to the Covenant.

He was taken from his home world Eridanus II as a child and brought up in the military's Spartan II program on the planet Reach (Epsilon Eridani) (resulting in his other designation, Spartan-117) to be a super soldier. The SPARTANs were originally created to bolster the UNSC's own defenses against piracy and other jacks as part of the upgrades necessary to don the MJOLNIR armor, in addition to other measures. Bungie's own statements identify Master Chief as being a cyborg (down to dialogue from the Covenant Grunts), in addition to comparisons between Master Chief and the military cyborgs from Bungie's earlier game series Marathon. Master Chief is entirely Human in appearance, as his armor is in no way permanently attached. Despite this, he would certainly not be average by any Human measure. Candidates for the SPARTAN-II program were chosen for natural genetic superiority, and thus were naturally taller, stronger, smarter, and faster than most humans even before augmentation. Chief's genetic, chemical, and otherwise unnatural enhancements do qualify him for "cyborg" status- at least loosely.

Novels

Three licensed novels based on the Halo series have been published: Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, and Halo: First Strike. The Fall of Reach leads up to Halo: Combat Evolved, and describes how the Spartans came into being. The Flood is a novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved, while First Strike describes events that take place between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. Both the Fall of Reach and First Strike were written by Eric Nylund, while The Flood was written by William C. Dietz.

There are a number of differences between the novels and the games, most notably that there are no Spartans besides the Master Chief in the games, whereas by the end of the novel series at least 4 additional Spartans are shown to survive. Many fans had hoped more Spartans would appear in Halo 2, but this did not eventuate in the final release of the game, most likely due to balancing issues.

Bungie has confirmed that at least two novels are in development, one by Eric Nylund, the other by an unknown author. They are expected to be released sometime in 2006/early 2007.

Nonfiction Books

• Halo (Xbox and PC)
  • Halo: Prima's Official Strategy Guide by Mario De Govia, Brandon Smith, Damien Waples, Prima Development
  • Halo: Combat Evolved: Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets by Doug Radcliffe
  • The Black Art of Halo Mods by Stephen Cawood

• Halo 2
  • Halo 2: The Official Game Guide by Piggyback Interactive
  • The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques by Stephen Cawood
  • The Art of Halo by Eric S. Trautmann
  • Secrets Of Halo 2 by Greg Orlando, Russell Garbutt
  • Halo 2 Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finishing the Fight by Stephen Cawood

Fan Fiction

A large body of fan fiction based on the Halo series has been written, covering both the past and future of the setting. The sites bungie.net and halo.bungie.orgboth host collections of Halo fan fiction. Indeed, there are several works of fan fiction that run to the length of a novel or more, and are well-known among the Halo community. Fanfiction authors like Mr_Clark, Scorptank, soulguard, sir_brilliant and, AxE, garner no small amount of prestige as some of the more famous writers of the Halo community. Additionally, fanfiction.net hosts a selection of Halo-inspired fiction whose numbers, as of December 2005, had just crept over 1000.

The Haunted Apiary

The Haunted Apiary (aka I Love Bees) was an alternate reality game used to promote the release of Halo 2. The game was centred on a website at ilovebees.com, and was created by 4orty2wo Entertainment, commissioned by Microsoft and endorsed by Bungie. The URL was discovered when it was briefly flashed on an official Halo 2 trailer.

Halo Machinima

Red vs Blue, a production of Rooster Teeth, is a machinima series based on the Halo universe. Virtually all of the footage of the series is taken from Halo and Halo 2 gameplay. Red vs Blue chronicles the Civil war that supposedly ensues between differing human factions in the time between the two Bungie games, specifically the story of the men and a woman (Tex), a robotic female tank with impeccable manners(Shiela), a Spanish robotic head(Lopez), and a load of religious maniacs who worship 'The Flag' posted at both armies' outposts at Blood Gulch, a dried creek bed in the middle of nowhere. Not Halo canon, the series is largely comical in nature and can be found at RedvsBlue.com. Other machinima have been created, ranging from the like minded Fire Team Charlie to the sharply contrasting The Codex, a more serious series.

Time Magazine

Recently, the creators of Halo were listed in Time's 100 most influential figures of the past year. This is due to the reason that Halo manages to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers, and broke sales records, making gaming more mainstream entertainment.

Dead or Alive 4

A female SPARTAN character, SPARTAN-458 (Nicole), appears in the fighting game Dead or Alive 4 as an unlockable character, along with a Halo-themed environment as an unlockable stage. This is the result of a collaborative effort between Bungie and Tecmo's Team Ninja.

Nicole was born in the year 2531 in the city of New Legaspi on Mars. At six years of age she was abducted by the Office of Naval Intelligence and conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program. The SPARTAN-II program was the UNSC's highly successful military project to augment and hone perfect soldiers.

SPARTAN-458's unit was preparing for a classified mission on Nassau Station when the ONI stealth ship Apocalypso (see I Love Bees) tumbled into real-space – being carried along in the wake of a freak slipspace anomaly. The anomaly intersected Nassau Station; creating a semi-stable "bubble" in the space/time continuum on its way back to the 21st Century.

For the time being Nicole-458 is trapped in the 21st century; guarding Nassau Station's secrets with all but lethal force (she realizes killing someone in the past could have dire consequences), waiting for the "bubble" to collapse and hopefully returning her to the year 2552.

It should be noted that the Halo novels state that 150 children were selected for the SPARTAN-II program, and that only 75 were brought in because of room and funding issues. Of those, only about 35 completed the augmentation process to become fully-capable SPARTANS (the rest died or were crippled by the side effects). Since they were sequentially numbered, all SPARTAN-II soldiers should have numbers ranging from 001 to 150. There should, according to previously established canon, not be a SPARTAN-458.

Music

Two soundtracks, both composed by Martin O'Donnell, have been released based on the Halo game series. Volume 2 also has music composed and played by Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin:

• Halo Original Soundtrack

• Halo 2, Vol. 1 : Original Soundtrack

• Halo 2, Vol. 2 : Original Soundtrack (Unreleased)

Volume 2 is in the making.