Revered by many as the single greatest video game series, Halo is a franchise with a strong legacy of deeply impacting gamers. Through the Master Chief’s gold visor, players have been invited time and again to cross slipspace onto the surface of Forerunner installations. Whether fighting off the Covenant, pushing back the Flood, or suppressing the Prometheans, there are always more stories to be told in the Halo universe. Even now, there are lingering cliffhangers awaiting their resolutions.
Hot off the heels of Halo Wars 2, this science fiction franchise’s fans eagerly anticipate 343 Industries’ next anticipated announcement: that of the untitled Halo 6. Within this lull, it is important to review the rich history of the games. One of the best ways to do this is to rank them based upon the key tent poles of the games. This list was selected factoring in story, game modes, combat, and the 30-seconds of fun philosophy coined by Bungie while developing the original game. Despite being a prominent part of the series, the expanded transmedia lore explored in the novels, graphic novels, and films that add onto telling the story of the games are in no way considered in this ranked list. That means that, despite Halo 5: Guardians’ choice to begin by resolving a thread from Halo: Escalation this list will only factor in the game by itself.
Of course, if you consider yourself a Halo fan, you will already have a ranked list of your own. This is ours.
14 Halo: Spartan Strike
With the second of two isometric mobile games, Halo: Spartan Strike is a twin-stick shooter following a parallel narrative from the attack on New Mombasa to the end of Halo 4. This is meant to give a side story to artificially expand the universe. As these elements never come up in the game itself and features a faceless protagonist, there is little reason to invest time into playing this game. This is not to say the game is bad, but its existence is a mute point in terms of the galactic narrative. It features highlighted environments from the second to fourth mainline Halo games and is, thus, a difficult justification to purchase or play when the main entries are readily available.
13 Halo: Spartan Assault
Being a slightly more human experience this time around, Halo: Spartan Assault follows Spartans Edward Davis and Sarah Palmer battling a splinter faction of Covenant who ignored the 2552 cease-fire. Due to the character connection to Halo 4 via Sarah Palmer, this story is presented as a unique backstory for her. Because we see her as a very by the book and fierce commander in both the fourth game and its Spartan Ops mode, Spartan Assault allows players to see the full range of Palmer’s capabilities. Being a twin-stick shooter, the game offers a great deal of freedom for creative solutions to closing enemies. With that said, the overall impression of the game is mixed due to the arcade-like scores that are stacked up for each successive kill. The arcade scores undermine the strong character-based narrative, making this among the more decisive games in the Halo franchise.
12 Halo 5: Guardians
Perhaps the most difficult game to place on this list, Halo 5: Guardians had many players left with understandably high expectations. The ending of Halo 4 with the death of Cortana shook the Halo community to its core. The fact that the fifth entry eagerly backpedals that belief left many fans out in the cold. The lack of originality in the campaign’s story was striking, as was the disgraceful swap to playing as Spartan Locke for 80% of the campaign. Furthermore, the complete lack of split-screen in both campaign and multiplayer virtually left the game with zero re-play incentive. Some fans even abandoned the series outright. It is clear that most of 343 Industries expansive resources were on polishing the lackluster multiplayer of the fourth game and adding in micro-transactions. The multiplayer in Halo 5 is easily the game’s best feature and sole reason to continue playing it in 2017.
11 Halo Wars
RTS games on consoles have always been hit and miss. With a few hiccups here and there, they have been average at best. Until Halo Wars came along that is. This game, set in the early years of the Human-Covenant war is a convoluted mess of a story that has severe pacing issues. With that being said, it served as a decent game in its execution of bringing the Halo universe to an RTS, featuring a level of freedom for base-building and strategic customization that allowed for quick decision-making and extensive planning. The campaign, as polished as its cinematics are, never quite delivered the focus or epic scale brought on by the original battlefields of the first-person adventures. The multiplayer, however, was an amazing cat and mouse affair of resources and base building, easily the highlight of the Halo Wars experience.
10 The Halo Board Game
Being among the most successful video game franchises of all time, Halo has also grown to envelop physical games as well. Some are direct re-treads of classics such as Halo: Fleet Battle, Halo: Risk, Halo: Tacdex, Halo: Monopoly, and BANG! Halo Edition to name only a few. That said, there is one game that is wholly original in its design: Halo: Interactive Strategy Game. It features a three-dimensional modular board allowing for different maps to be loosely re-created to guidelines or players may create their own. The game features elements and game modes for single player, multiplayer, and even capture the flag and slayer modes. The included DVD allows for enhanced gameplay for an exclusive campaign mode and the three difficulty modes. The only drawback is: it leaves you wishing you were just playing the other games instead.
9 Halo: Combat Evolved – Anniversary
The original Halo: Combat Evolved may have set a standard for excellence on the original Xbox, but the transition to the 360 was a little rougher. Much of the criticism here has to do with the handling of the game’s multiplayer. The campaign’s updated graphics and the remarkable use of the back button to contrast 2001’s capabilities to 2011’s are breathtaking. The fact that the game’s new coat of paint and terminals added to the already incredible game is a nice balance. That said, the complete absence of this treatment or touch-ups to the original multiplayer maps is quite troublesome. Instead, the fan favourite maps of both the original and Halo 2 were brought into the Halo: Reach engine, making the whole experience unbalanced and undermined as a way to cross-promote new maps that were eventually released for Reach anyway.
8 Halo 2 – Anniversary (The Master Chief Collection)
When Halo 2 came out, it was the shining example of excellence on the Xbox. When Halo 2 – Anniversary came out, though impressive, it was marred by the technical frustrations and limitations of The Master Chief Collection, an amalgamation of the first four Halo games with broken multiplayer matchmaking. The promise was incredible: updates 60fps gameplay across every game and fluid matchmaking across all four Halo game maps. Halo 2 – Anniversary is technically an aesthetically pleasing game with amazing cutscenes by Blur Studios. It features a solid foundation by running off its original game engine with graphics updated for its tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, the existence of the Master Chief Collection’s broken launch-state made many optimistic players pass on this otherwise superb re-touching of a classic game.
7 Halo Wars 2
Halo Wars 2 is a direct sequel to the original Halo Wars, but quickly brings the timeline up to speed with the current time period that saw the end of Halo 5: Guardians. The UNSC Spirit of Fire ends up orbiting the Ark from Halo 3 and must face off against a new, strategic foe. This idea is much more focused than the original game and that of Halo 5: Guardians in its campaign, which is delivered at a succinct and satisfying pace. The missions are varied and constantly force you to second guess your every decision. Creative Assembly did the work this time and it clearly shows a lot of love. Even the multiplayer has been enhanced with the new card-based Blitz mode and the expanded leader powers in the matchmaking. It is an excellent package, delivering on the promise of an exceptional console RTS to the Xbox brand.
6 Halo 4
When 343 Industries took over the mantle of responsibility of curating the continued chapters of the Halo universe, they decided to pick things off from the Legendary ending of Halo 3, which saw the Master Chief heading closer to a Forerunner planet. In Halo 4, the planet is a Shield-World called Requiem and the primary mission of the Chief is to escape it and return to Earth. For all the good that the game did, it also overused a lot of ideas of Spartan Equipment from Halo: Reach and thus, the multiplayer quickly lost its user-base, with a preference being on either Reach or 3. The standout features that rank Halo 4 so high on this list lie in the inclusion of the expanded story of Spartan Ops and the incredible character development offered to both Cortana and the Chief.
5 Halo 3: ODST
The game picks up shortly after the In Amber Clad pursues the Prophet of Truth via slipspace in the opening hours of Halo 2. As the Rookie, players are tasked with searching for their squad of ODSTs in the haunting streets of New Mombasa at night in the midst of a Covenant invasion. Upon finding clues specific to each squad mate, players are able to play a campaign level that tells that member’s story, only for them all to reunite at the end. The Mombasa streets acted as a pseudo hub world for most of the game and are crafted to keep players on their toes as they listen to the soothing undertones of a saxophone. With the addition of the Gears of War Hoard-inspired Firefight mode and the complete map collection from Halo 3 on the original 360-disc release, Halo 3: ODST is an excellent game.
4 Halo: Combat Evolved
The game that started it all. Halo: Combat Evolved was coined the ‘killer app’ for the Xbox and it’s easy to see why: a strong console FPS with an epic campaign and highly addictive multiplayer. The story centres on an ancient forerunner artifact being discovered in the middle of the Human-Covenant war. What’s more – within this spatial habitat ring, houses a biological parasite that has one purpose in life: to feed. As it turns out, the Halo ring is also a super weapon capable of extinguishing all life in the galaxy. Players were introduced to the Master Chief, Cortana, Sergeant Johnson, the Pillar of Autumn, the Flood, and amazing split-screen multiplayer with a variety of game-types. The most notable is slayer, in which players are pitted against each other to see how many kills they can get either against everyone in either free-for-all or in teams.
3 Halo: Reach
After the release of Halo 3: ODST, Bungie owed one more Halo game to Microsoft before they could amicably part ways with the company to work on Destiny, their new IP. What they decided to do was a prequel to the original focusing on a new team of Spartans who are faced with the final days of the planet Reach. The final mission actually leads right into the opening of the original Halo, making the story of Bungie come full-circle. Players could create their own Spartan in the campaign that carried over to the multiplayer, with more and more customizable designs unlocked in player-progression. The Firefight game mode from ODST returned as did the Theatre and Forge and, for the first time, armour abilities were added, allowing versatility for differing styles of play.
2 Halo 2
After the stellar release of Halo: Combat Evolved, Bungie wanted to make something bold that reinvented the wheel. Pursuant to the launch of the Xbox’s Live service, Halo 2 arrived on the scene with the most played matchmaking on the system. It was heralded as the champion of console multiplayer at the time of its release and is still revered to this day. To top it all off, the campaign took players to Earth, another Halo array and introduced the Arbiter as a playable character to flesh out the Covenant side of the conflict. Despite having one of the most annoying cliffhangers of all time, the replayability of the campaign and the stellar multiplayer solidified Halo 2 as among the best the series has to offer.
1 Halo 3
The crowning achievement of the Halo franchise, Halo 3, marked a major milestone for not only for the Master Chief, but also for the Xbox brand. In 2007, millions of devoted fans flocked stores to get their hands on this remarkable game so they could finish the fight. This game closed out the narrative, which began in Halo: Combat Evolved. It updated the weapons, brought back the Assault Rifle and refined the online multiplayer from the previous title. Halo 3 also added new features including a Forge mode for players to edit maps and a Theatre mode to watch re-plays of Multiplayer games, saving clips and screenshots. To top it all off, the Halo multiplayer has never been better for its weapon tuning and matchmaking. This truly is the ultimate Halo experience and, if you haven’t yet, the game is still readily available.