Easily one of the most recognizable titles in video game history, Halo was the franchise that spawned the success of Microsoft’s Xbox and forever changed online gaming for millions of gamers, making it accessible to console players and offering a deep story that has been explored through books, movies, and shows.
As most fans of the game are aware, the game’s main narrative follows the legendary Master Chief in his plight against an evil collective of alien races known as the Covenant to try and save the human race from extinction as a parasitic enemy known as The Flood also steps in to consume anything in its path.
It is a twisted story that has gone on for almost two decades, and with the looming release of Halo 6 being just around the corner, it is clear that it is not going to end anytime soon and fans are eager to get more Master Chief action.
Even after original developers, Bungie decided to call it quits after the historic Halo 3 by following it up with the prequel Halo: Reach, Microsoft Studios saw too much to gain and continued the franchise and maintaining its legacy by expanding the universe even further.
But in between these releases, there have been a few golden nuggets of information that fans probably do not know about, and these little tidbits are dark enough to make you completely rethink the way you look at the franchise and bring the expertly written story to light.
15 Killing Innocent
Halo 3: ODST was an important spin-off for most fans of the series and helped bring the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers to a deserving light, as they had an integral role in fending off the Covenant forces during an attack on Earth. So as the player steps into the shoes of the main protagonist named “The Rookie,” it is part of their mission to obey the commands of their generals and kill any other alien forces that are left. Too bad for the gentle creatures known as “Engineers” as they are targeted for enslavement by the Covenant and even being killed by the ODSTs. This might not be a huge secret to players who get to the end of the game, but it is still something that Bungie probably does not want you to remember too fondly.
14 ODST's Are What???
If one was to translate the small Chinese characters that appear on the fearsome Orbital Drop Shock trooper unit’s government mandated outfit they would find that the literal translation would be “bad-a**” but another translation of the cultured language would reveal that they are actually “a**-holes”. This seems like a very inappropriate title for these valiant soldiers that risked life and limb to sacrifice themselves for the sake of humanity, but once one sees the amount of animosity this group of soldiers holds makes it more logical to how they got this demeaning title. Some fans will be shocked to how these beloved characters are seen by the rest of their peers, but these troopers still deserve the respect of all gamers because of their undoubtedly heroic efforts.
13 Torture.. Oh The Torture
Master Chief is a single solitary force of human technology and was bred to be so n the part of the researchers that were a part of the SPARTAN program that saw many applicants go through the grueling process of being a Spartan. These super soldiers are a big part of what saved humanity, but it came with a very dark price. When the Covenant had the humans in a corner, their last resort was to kidnap them and train them to be the best soldiers possible. However, what you probably did not know, was that this included (and was definitely not limited to) physically torturing them through rigorous training exercises that pushed them to their limits. And as some of the Spartans died during training, it left only a select number to take the helm of this heavy burden.
12 Performance Enhancing Drugs?
While on the subject of medically augmented soldiers that fought for the survival of humanity, one has to look at the legendary ODST troopers and look in awe as they valiantly battled Covenant forces. But one of the dark secrets of these highly-trained soldiers is that they are pumped to the brim with performance enhancing drugs just to allow them to survive the impact of the pods that drop them from the atmosphere. Soldiers like The Rookie and Edward Buck that were introduced in Halo: 3 ODST were subjected to the training that they consented to, but it came with a heavy price as they filled their bodies with drugs just to be able to survive their initial deployment, which is not exactly as professionally mandated as you might think.
11 Master Chief: Murderer?
Something definitely not known by most fans is the fact that Master Chief John 117 has murdered other members of the beloved Marines and even severely wounded another in a brawl that he took part in before his deployment. As part of a strange test by ONI, the group responsible for the Spartan program, John was instigated in some way to fight the members of the 101st Shock Trooper division and actually killed several of his supposed brethren in Halo: The Fall of Reach. As the book entails, a young and impressionable Master Chief got into a deadly scuffle with the ODST members and went as far as to kill them just to prove his point of dominance. Since his other decorated military exploits have nullified this dark past, it is still important that the gamers know just how imperfect this supposed super soldier is.
10 What Cure?
Sergeant Avery Johnson has been a mainstay in the Halo franchise since the first installment Halo: Combat Evolved and has become a fan favorite for his valiant bravery and almost strange sense of survival. Well, the reason for his badass nature is not just a coincidence, as he was actually a part of the Spartan I project that saw the best soldiers go under a top-secret program that basically gave experimental enhancements to these soldiers. One of these would go on to be why Johnson can survive the flood, as he is immune. What some people do not know, however, is that Master Chief was well aware of this and purposely stopped an autopsy that would have killed Sgt. Johnson in favor of making a cure for the galaxy-wide infection that could have saved millions of lives. Not exactly heroic on the part of the soldier, is it?
9 A Terrible Way To Go
The Flood is an almost unstoppable force that infects any living organism and makes it a part of a hive-mind known as Gravemind. This is already a terrible way to go, considering that the humans that get infected are literally morphed into a disgusting creature filled with puss and gross tentacles that come out. Most fans probably think that when one is being infected that their brain goes dead and they lose consciousness. This could not be further from the truth as the book The Flood uncovered that when one is being transformed the infected mind slowly deteriorates as the Gravemind takes away all the memories one at a time. What makes this disturbing is knowing that the player killed a lot of these unfortunate souls without knowing that they were completely aware.
8 Sad But True
In Halo, gamers have been accustomed to destroying a plethora of alien races in an attempt to keep humanity alive, but what they might not know is that there is a sinister method of employing one of the toughest Covenant groups. This would be the large Hunters, known by lore fans as Mgalekgolo, or just Lekgolo, the fearful sub-bosses that appear as threatening enemies that can withstand an amazing amount of damage and form together to make the huge spider-like tanks called Scarabs. It would appear as if the Hunters are not just a single being, but rather a group of smaller worm-like creatures that have been bred and groomed to serve the Covenant and offer their lives up for combat. This is even more disturbing when the player sees these poor organisms squirm out of their armor after being shot in Halo 3 and Halo 5.
7 Not So Intelligent Ancestors
As most fans know, the mythological Forerunners are a huge part of the canonical story of Halo and serve as a background to the franchise’s main narrative. Serving as a historically important race of advanced civilization that fought to combat the parasitic Flood, these intelligent creatures were apparently not intelligent enough to avoid mass extinction. See, as the Forerunners eliminated the threat, they still thought it was wise to house a specimen of this deadly disease for the sake of science. While this is commendable, it is equally idiotic as anybody with a brain could piece together that keeping an extremely infectious disease would result in disaster. This becomes increasingly sinister as the gamers realize that the supposed super-intelligent race of Forerunners secretly caused a future war of galactic proportions.
6 Questionable Methods
Most of the fans of this massive franchise will be shocked to hear that their beloved protagonist Master Chief was a part of a program that knowingly captured human beings and trained them to kill against their will. The SPARTAN 3 program was held by the ONI government corporation to help provide the failing human Army with a team of unstoppable operatives that would risk anything to ensure the survival of their race. Unfortunately, this entailed the capturing of innocent orphans that were unknowingly made available to the United Nations States Command as they found this to be their best option to combat the Covenant. What makes this extremely disturbing is that the player probably has no idea that the exact method of saving humanity was caused by one of the most inhumane methods of training and has changed the way Halo has been looked at.
5 Too Hot For TV
While not directly aimed at advertising the Halo franchise, this saucy advert was a controversial commercial that apparently ruffled a few feathers in the right places so that it was banned from the air. Seemingly drawing from the popular multiplayer aspect of Halo, this commercial was just too hot for TV as it depicted a real-life death match in a populated mall with real people aiming their fingers at each other. It is not clear as to why this was banned, but it was definitely a nod to the open style of multiplayer that Halo revolutionized and most keen-eyed fans will realize this upon a simple viewing. It certainly does not take a genius to realize that this Xbox 360 commercial was meant to represent the growing multiplayer world that Halo helped evolve, and it is clear that it is simulating a game of Free-For-All.
4 A Trapped Human
343 Guilty Spark is a small guide that tends to the grounds of Installation 04, which is where the original Halo took place as Master Chief ignited the ring to defeat the Flood and Covenant in one swoop. This charismatic character known as “The Librarian” is actually the trapped consciousness of the human known as Chakas, an intelligent ancestor that was mortally wounded during the ancient Forerunner’s battle with the Flood. What makes this even more disturbing is that 343 seems to know Master Chief, which makes it all the stranger when the player is forced to kill 343 Guilty Spark at the dramatic conclusion of Halo 3. It was sad to see such an important part of the Forerunner’s great history fall into a spiral that made him obsessed with killing all organic matter.
3 Huge Fail
Some might consider this to be far from ‘dark,’ but it is certainly an unfortunate moment in Halo history when it comes to the reputation that this massive franchise has garnered. Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed District 9 was a thrilling science fiction drama that centered on a human being that is slowly turning into an alien. The film was intense, and the aliens were strikingly similar to the Elite Sanghellis that players were familiar with through the game, and this was not a mistake by any means. Before the film had entered production, it was thought to be the Halo film that fans had dreamed of, but the studio executives at QED International and WingNut Films thought that the film was not going to be successful and eventually scrapped the project.
2 Master Chief Has A Dark Secret
During the events of Halo 4, Master Chief is greeted by an ancient being known as The Librarian that tells him he is actually the product of Forerunner technology and was prophesized to save the world from a great evil. This makes the unrealistic nature of his survival actually believable as he is seemingly invincible from all danger, and with a conversation from Halo: Combat Evolved between Guilty Spark and Chief suggesting that they have met before, there is an undeniable evidence that Chief is the product of Forerunner technology and his consciousness is an imprinted mind from one of them. This is further expanded upon in the E3 trailer for Halo 5 when the side protagonist The Arbiter says to Spartan Locke that “the seeds of the future are sewn into his past” when referring to the Chief.
1 Cortana Is Crazy
While most fans have come to realize how Cortana is not as good as the initial trilogy would make her out to be, but what they might not know is that she was engineered by design to kill all living matter. Taking the “Mantle of Responsibility” that the Forerunners created, this means that she is tasked with essentially ending all life that refuses to fall under her power. This ties in with the background of Master Chief’s prophesized life, as Cortana was created alongside in conjunction with him so that they can decide the fate of the universe. Unfortunately for humanity, Cortana has her own agenda that differs from Chief’s and she has embraced the following that she has garnered and is now on route to create a new Covenant and restart the galactic war for power in the upcoming Halo 6.