Online Gaming - Halo

Halo 1, 2 and 3

Halo was first released on 15th November 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox.  Sales for these particular games have become so popular that it has proved to be a financial success for the Xbox with it’s sequel Halo 2 coming in at a close second in popularity.  The Halo trilogy has been hailed as the real success story for the Xbox and without the Halo series; the Xbox console might not have proved to be so popular.

The first instalment in the Halo trilogy is called Halo: Combat Evolved or is known simply as Halo by fans.  All 3 Halo games are science fiction first person shooter games and are set in the Halo universe.  The games focus on the use of handheld weapons and are extremely realistic from their first person perspective.  As a first person game, players have the ability to look up, down or side to side thus providing peripheral vision.  The series of games follows the events of the war between future humanity and the collection of alien races known as the Covenant. 

The plot of the entire Halo trilogy is based on Earth becoming overpopulated and with the invention of superluminal travel; humans have migrated to other planets.  One of the main planets in the plant Reach which is responsible for building starships and is the centre of scientific and military action.  During a military exercise name Spartan-II Project on Reach, an army of cyborg super-soldiers was created and this Spartan group of soldier give hope to humanity when war is declared.  However, the alien races that is known as the Covenant launch a holy war against the humans and the soldiers of the Spartan group fight against the Covenant but to no avail as there simply isn’t enough soldiers to fight the Covenant.  At the loss of the battle, Spartan II solders were selected to have amendments made to their make up; however, Covenant forces destroy the force before they are able to have any changes made to them.  One starship survived, the Pillar of Autumn and it’s this starship that hopes to take the enemy away from Earth.

The game really starts to take off when this starship encounters a ring shapes space station known as the “Halo” by the Covenant.  The Captain of the ship, Jacob Keyes has to crash land the Autumn and is captured by the Covenant.  The Cortana of the ship escapes and has to try and reach Captain Keyes to gain authority from him in relation to the destruction of the Autumn.

Halo 2 was released for the Xbox on 9th November 2004 and is fully compatible with Xbox Live unlike Halo.  This has enabled an estimated four billion players to participate in the game worldwide.  Halo 2 has increased technical functions and incorporates new weapons, vehicles and multiplayer maps to its storyline.  The game starts at the end of the previous Halo and the player takes on the roles of the Master Chief and the Arbiter.  Halo 2 features 14 various human and alien weapons.  The player can only carry two weapons at a time and players should consider their choice of weapon carefully as each weapons has different benefits.  One of the main characters in Halo 2 is Master Chief John-117 who is one of the surviving super soldiers of Spartan II.  The Master Chief is assisted by a female artificial being called Cortana.  The multiplayer option of Halo 2 allows players to variety of gameplay according to the selected playlist.

Halo 3 is the eagerly awaited last game in the trilogy and is believed to be the last in the Halo series.  Halo 3 is believed to pick up from Halo 2 where New Mombassa has been destroyed and pieces of the broken lift are shown in the background.  Through this area, the Master Chief appears and transmissions are heard from Cortana.  It is thought that Halo 3 will have weapons from the original Halo and that the Master Chief’s armour has been upgraded.  There is no official release date for Halo 3 yet, however it will sometime in 2007.