How to Play the Halo Games in Chronological Order

Xbox’s flagship shooter is an intergalactic sci-fi saga with a narrative foundation that goes back in time Billions Of year. Despite its long history, most of the actual Halo games take place within his decade between the end and aftermath of the Human-Covenant War.

While the mainline Halo games present a series of storylines, several spin-offs have complicated the series’ chronology. created an overview.

This list includes all mainline Halo games and most spin-offs, such as the Halo Wars strategy game and Halo: Spartan top-down shooter. Halo Recruit, a mixed reality game; Halo: Fireteam Raven, an arcade game; and Halo 4: King of the Hill Fueled By Mountain Dew, a marketing strategy/mobile game.

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Halo games in chronological order

As with most series, there are two ways to approach Halo games. Either chronologically by release date or chronologically by story. Which one you choose is up to you. Both possible paths are outlined below, starting with the narrative timeline.

With series newcomers in mind, these brief synopsis include: mild spoiler Rough plot, setting, character introduction, etc.

1. Hello Wars (2531)

Halo Wars is the earliest set of games in the series, taking place 21 years before the start of Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo Wars is set in the early days of the Human Covenant War. This is a conflict initiated by the alien his covenant to maintain the false foundation upon which its religion was built. Halo Wars begins with the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and his Red Team of Spartan-II super-soldiers aboard the Spirit of Fire, on planets Harvest and Arcadia, as well as the Forerunner installing Shield 0459 (aka Trove).

Halo Wars is the first of two real-time strategy spin-offs. The second Halo Wars 2 (further down on this list) is set between Halo 5 and Halo Infinite.

2. Halo: Reach (2552)

Halo: Reach takes place 21 years later, in the summer of 2552. Noble Team begins the war against the Covenant on the planet Reach, his one of mankind’s most prosperous colonies. The Noble team, including playable character Noble Six, were outnumbered, but their efforts helped the ships Pillar of Autumn and Cortana escape the Reach, setting the stage for Halo: Combat Evolved.

3. Halo: Combat Evolved (2552)

Reach’s ending leads directly to Halo: Combat Evolved, Pillar of Autumn is one of seven ring-shaped worlds (or Halos) created by an ancient race of highly intelligent beings known as Forerunners, Installation 04 enter.

The Pillar carrying Cortana and John-117, known as Master Chief, is attacked by the Covenant and forced to crash-land in the ring. There, the Chief battles Covenant forces and accidentally unleashes the Flood. The Flood is an ancient species of parasite that feeds on sentient life. The Chief must find a way to contain the flood outbreak without destroying humanity.

Halo: Combat Evolved also introduces series staples such as 343 Guilty Spark, the Forerunner Monitor tasked with overseeing Installation 04. Jacob Keyes, commander of the UNSC Navy. and Avery Johnson, a highly trained UNSC Marine.

4. Halo 2 (2552)

Set shortly after the end of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 tells two stories: the story of a Covenant Sangheili named Thel ‘Vadam (aka The Arbiter), and Master Chief’s ongoing battle with the Covenant and the Flood. It’s a story.

The story takes place over the course of about a month and ends up with the Chief and the Arbiter fighting together for a common cause. This campaign introduces another Halo ring (Installation 05) and takes us to a series version of Earth under threat of a Covenant invasion. Halo 2 ends with the Chief’s legendary line, “Sir, finish this battle.”

In addition to the Arbiter, Halo 2 also features the Covenant Hierarchy (Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret) and Miranda Keyes (UNSC Naval Commander, the aforementioned Jacob Keyes and the yet-to-be-introduced Doctor Catherine Halsey.

5. Halo 3: ODST (2552)

Halo 3: ODST events run at the same time as Halo 2 events. Specifically, it starts after Halo 2’s mission Metropolis. ODST is set in New Mombasa, an important early battlefield during the Covenant invasion of Earth.

The less linear story revolves around a group of six highly trained Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) and the player controls a character known as Rookie. Rookie encounters Covenant forces in Mombasa and explores the city for scattered squad members.

Among them is Nathan Fillion’s Edward Buck, who returns in Halo 5: Guardians as a member of Fireteam Osiris.

6. Halo 3 (2552–2553)

Halo 3, the final installment in the original Halo trilogy, follows Master Chief through the final months of the Human Covenant War. The Chief and his UNSC attempt again to stop the Covenant from launching Halo her array that will wipe out all sentient life within 25,000 light years of her. Meanwhile, the Flood rains down on Earth, posing a second threat to humanity.

Our heroes deal with the threat, and Master Chief leaves us with an unforgettable farewell as he enters the freezer aboard the ship Forward Unto Dawn.

7. Halo: Spartan Assault (2554)

Halo: Spartan Assault is a spin-off game set between Halo 3 and 4. This is his one of two top-down shooters on this list, alongside sequel Halo: Spartan Strike. Spartan Assault features Spartan-IV soldiers Edward Davies and Sarah Palmer as Sangheili warlords Merg Vol.Palmer does not add much to the overall story, though he also appears in Halo 4, 5, and Infinite. not.

8. Halo 4 (2557)

Halo 4 is a pivotal game in both the ongoing narrative of the series and its development narrative. Reclaimer Saga and begins the series’ life under 343 Industries following its original developer Bungie’s Separation from Microsoft.

Halo 4 follows four years after the end of Halo 3, with Cortana waking Master Chief from cryosleep to deal with the Covenant threat. Halo 4 puts more emphasis on the relationship between the Chief and Cortana, as the latter deals with the early stages of rampage, a state in which the AI becomes dangerously unstable. Meanwhile, the duo face a new existential threat to humanity with the return of the Forerunners, led by a new foe, the Didact. Chief explores one more of his Halo rings, Installation 03.

We also get the first appearance of Dr. Catherin Halsey, creator of Cortana, and the important Forerunning known as the Librarian.

9. Halo: Spartan Strike (2557)

Halo: Spartan Strike starts at the same time as Halo 2 in 2552 and jumps to 2557. Spartan Strike’s narrative impact on the ongoing Halo saga is minimal. The story follows a group of UNSC forces battling the Covenant while tracking down Forerunner artifacts called Conduit.

10. Halo 5: Guardian (2558)

Considered the poorest of the Halo campaigns, Halo 5 shifts focus away from the series’ beloved Master Chief and commits the grave sin of favoring Fireteam Osiris, led by Jameson Locke. to UNSC leadership.

The story switches between Fireteam Osiris and Blue Team under the command of Master Chief. Blue and his team are on a unique mission to track down the power-hungry rogue Cortana.

11. Halo Wars 2 (2559)

Set between Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, Halo Wars 2 introduces the Brute Warlord Atriox, leader of the Banished and main antagonist of Halo Infinite.

Halo Wars 2 brings back the Red Team and Spirit of Fire from the first Halo Wars. The team awakens after his 28 years of frozen sleep and reaches the Ark, where they encounter Atriox and Banished. Despite the odds, the Red Team fights, seeing themselves as a shield between the outcasts and humanity. An unresolved conflict with the UNSC and Exiled continues in Halo Infinite.

12. Hello Infinite (2560)

The latest game in the series by chronological order and release date is Halo Infinite. It returns the focus to Master Chief and introduces players to the series’ first open world of Zeta Halo (Installation 07).

Infinite brings Halo Wars 2’s Banished to the mainline series, bringing another threat to the Endless, an ancient race previously imprisoned by the Forerunners. Endless is represented in his campaign for Infinite by a new character named Harbinger.

The Chief’s new allies include a UNSC pilot named Fernando Esparza and an AI replica of Cortana known as Weapon. In addition to Atrioix and Harbinger, Infinite’s lineup of villains includes Banished War Chief Escharum and Sangheili Spartan killer Jega.