Halo is a science fiction video game series created by Bungie Studios. The Halo trilogy centers around Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-117, John, or simply "Master Chief", a human super-soldier equipped with technologically-advanced battle armor, and his Construct AI companion, Cortana. The video games, particularly Halo: Combat Evolved, have been praised as being the best, and most influential, first-person shooters on a game console, with Halo being the Microsoft Xbox's "killer app". This has led to the term "Halo killer" being used to describe console games that aspire to be better than Halo.^[1]

Beginning with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, the franchise has since expanded to several other games, five novels, a graphic novel, and numerous other licensed products, such as action figures. The cultural impact of the Halo series has been compared to that of the Star Wars franchise by Brian Bendis,^[2] with those who enjoy the series being dubbed the "Halo Nation".^[3] The final game in the original trilogy, Halo 3, is due to be released on September 25 2007 in the US.

Halo: Combat Evolved is a Science Fiction first person shooter that takes place on a mysterious planet-like construct referred to as 'Halo'. It was the first Halo video game and was released as an exclusive Xbox title on November 15 2001.^[4] Some time before the game's story begins, the Covenant, a collection of alien species committed to the destruction of the human race, launch an assault on the home of human military production, Reach,destroying it.^[5] A single starship, the Pillar of Autumn, survives the alien onslaught, carrying one of the last known SPARTAN-II supersoldiers - the "Master Chief". The ship initiates a random jump to Slipspace, hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth. Following coordinates chosen by the on board Al named Cortana, the Autumn unexpectedly discovers Halo.^[5] The player assumes the role of the Master Chief and descends to the ring's surface to fight the Covenant and discover Halo's secrets. Halo received critical acclaim upon its release, including being ranked the fourteenth best game ever by IGN.^[6]

Halo: Custom Edition, abbreviated Halo CE, is a free stand-alone expansion for Halo: Combat Evolved by Bungie Studios, which was ported to the PC by Gearbox Software. Halo CE was released by Gearbox as an unsupported add-on, which requires the original game. To prevent confusion between Halo Custom Edition and Halo: Combat Evolved (which can both be expressed as Halo CE) the original version of Halo (Combat Evolved) is referred to as Halo PC.

Halo: Custom Edition's goal is to provide custom content to Halo, without the use of modifying maps by hacking/meta editing, as done on Halo PC and Xbox. Users have the option to download the Halo Editing Kit, which was used by Bungie to develop Halo. With it comes plugins for 3ds Max, Tool, Sapien, and Guerilla. With the combination of creativity and time, a playable map can be developed, which can then be shared online, and played online with up to 16 different players. Since Halo: Custom Edition is made almost exclusively for user-modding, it was created for online games only, meaning, by default, there is no displayed single-player campaign mode.

However, certain maps (such as Area 53) were created and modified to include opponents with AI, allowing the player to either play a single-player game by him/herself, or over the internet or personal network, where other players can join and help fight. Also, players can download single-player missions that have been ported from the original Halo PC, allowing players to access the console and use "devmode" with the original Halo campaigns. The console is also required to run these maps, unless the user has downloaded a replacement UI map (basically, the main menu) that supports a single-player option, to replace the original Halo:CE UI, which did not include a single-player menu.

The addition of old video game related maps have also become very popular subjects in the game introducing characters and objects from the Mario, Sonic, Metroid, and Starfox games, as well as many other games. A notable released creation includes the recreation of Hyrule Field from The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time.

In addition to a multitude of mapping options, Halo CE features the ability to add original weapons, vehicles, player models, and textures, among other things. There have been innumerable ships and vehicles made, and even more custom weapons. There have also been efforts to manipulate the capabilities of the game engine itself to do unprecedented things, such as having customizable player camera positions, and multiplayer-syncing ingame scenery, the two player-held weapons being visible (a la Halo 3), and functioning portable gravity lifts and turrets. However, its capabilities are still limited, and there have been many obstacles including the replication of Halo 2's dual wielding and vehicle boarding features.

The Halo Editing Kit, abbreviated HEK, is a downloadable editing kit that allows players to create maps for or even modify the game Halo, allowing user-created or modified weapons/vehicles/player models to appear in-game. New models or maps require 3ds Max (or Gmax), which are not included with the HEK.

Halo 2 is the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, released for the Xbox on November 9, 2004 in two different editions. The standard Halo 2 edition has traditional Xbox packaging and a single disc with the single-player and multiplayer components, and the Collector's Edition has a specially designed aluminium case, along with an additional bonus DVD, extra booklet and slightly different user manual (written from the perspective of the Covenant military as opposed to the standard edition which was from humanity's perspective). The game's sales generated US$125 million on its premiere day, making it the fastest selling United States media product in history. The game has sold over 7 million copies worldwide since release.

The story features more twists than its predecessor, introducing new major characters. Halo 2 features new vehicles and weapons, and improved artificial intelligence, as well as new game mechanics like dual wielding and the ability to hijack vehicles. The game has a reworked, more advanced graphics engine than the original, utilizing normal mapping and bloom effects. The game also features the Havok physics engine which extends its physics capabilities. Unlike its predecessor, the game fully supports online multiplayer via Xbox Live and held the top spot for the most played game on Xbox Live until the release of Gears of War. It also still holds the record for the longest streak as the number 1 played game on Xbox Live. It also has Bungie.net integration and rankings and tracking of every online match. Halo 2 supports the same local area network and split-screen multiplayer components found in Halo: Combat Evolved.

A PC port for the Windows Vista operating system is also available, by an internal team composed of both Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios called Hired Gun. Two new multiplayer maps are included with Halo 2 Vista that are not available for the Xbox version. Like Halo 1 PC, Halo 2 Vista features support for custom created content and includes an updated version of the Halo Editing Kit from Halo Custom Edition.

Halo 3, the third game in the Xbox science fiction franchise Halo, is a first-person shooter under development by Bungie Studios for the Xbox 360 and is expected to "set a new high water mark" for next-generation games.^[7] An official announcement on the developers' website states that Halo 3 will end the current story arc of the Halo trilogy. A beta test of the multi-player component of the game began on May 16, 2007, and ended on June 11, 2007.^[8] The final version of the game is due to be released on September 25, 2007 in the US and on the following day in Europe. Halo 3 is also expected to surpass the sales of Halo 2 and become the fastest selling game in the USA. Bungie stated that the game has already received over 5,000,000 pre-orders. Microsoft and Bungie Game Studios also hope to surpass Halo 2 in Xbox Live usage.

Halo Wars is a real time strategy game for the Xbox 360 exclusively and it takes place in the time before Halo: Combat Evolved, thus not part of the Halo Trilogy. Its developer, Ensemble Studios, stated in the FAQ that Halo Wars is "created for the Xbox 360 from the ground up." This means it should not have the control issues many other console titles had when porting games of a similar genre. It was first seen at X06, where a pre-rendered trailer was shown. In E3 2007, a montage of gameplay clips featuring many aspects of Halo Wars was revealed.

An untitled Halo project was announced on September 27, 2006 at X06, to be co-written, co-designed and co-produced by Peter Jackson, with his recently-formed Wingnut Interactive.^[9] Jackson will create a "media experience" set in the Halo universe, in partnership with Bungie Studios. It was later revealed that it would in fact be a 'New trilogy' of Halo games, not one.^[10] It also has been confirmed that it will be episodic.

The Halo universe has five times been adapted into novel form, with two more in the works. Larry Niven (author of Ringworld) was originally approached to write the novelization, but declined due to unfamiliarity with the universe.^[11] The first adaption was Halo: The Fall of Reach—a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, written by Eric Nylund and published during October 2001.^[12] The novel was reportedly finished in seven weeks,^[12] eventually becoming a Publishers Weekly bestseller with nearly two hundred thousand copies sold.^[13] The second novel, entitled Halo: The Flood, served as an adaptation of Halo: Combat Evolved. Written by William C. Dietz, this novel also attained the Publishers Weekly bestsellers list during May 2003.^[14]

Eric Nylund returned to write the third novel, Halo: First Strike, a sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, or, more accurately, a prequel to Halo 2. It was published in December 2003,^[15] after being written in a period of sixteen weeks.^[13] A fourth novel, entitled Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, written again by Eric Nylund was published on October 31, 2006.^[16] making The New York Times bestsellers list. The Halo universe was adapted into the graphic novel format in the Halo Graphic Novel, a collection of four short stories, released during July 2006.^[17] It was written and illustrated by well-known graphic novelists Lee Hammock, Jay Faerber, Tsutomu Nihei, Brett Lewis, Simon Bisley, Ed Lee and Jean Giraud. Bungie Studios considers the Halo novels as canon.^[18] Bungie has also announced at least two more Halo books on the way both to be published by TOR, one of which may be about Grey Team, who were sent on a mission far outside the confines of UNSC space, and have been missing for over a year as of 2552, which was told in Ghost Of Onyx (page 221), Eric Nylund has admitted he is interested in telling their story.

Joseph Staten announced that he is writing a book that revolves around the events during 2525, the initial contact with the Covenant. The book, entitled Halo: Contact Harvest, is told from the perspective of young Sergeant Avery Johnson, and is said to be on shelves by Fall 2007.

At the New York Comic-Con 2007, Marvel Comics announced they will be working on "Halo ongoing series" with Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.^[19]

Also are smaller Halo comics like the Halo Story developed on an extra Bungie website. Other adaptations of the sprites used in this comic can be seen all over the internet such as on the profile of Minisplits at RoosterTeeth.com who has earned over 1,000 profile views thus far thanks to his comics.

Numerous action figures and vehicles based on Halo have been produced by Joyride Studios and includes, among others, the Master Chief. Bungie's new action figures for Halo 3 will be produced by McFarlane. Also, Bungie has teamed up with the makers of Action Cliks to make Halo Action Cliks figures.

An upcoming film adaption of the series. The script for the movie was to be written by Alex Garland,^[20] though writer D.B. Weiss, author of Lucky Wander Boy is currently set to rewrite it, using elements of the Garland draft.^{[citation needed]} The movie was to be developed and released by Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox, under the creative oversight of Microsoft, but there have been complications with the distributors, and it is subject to change.^[21] Peter Jackson will be the executive producer.^[22] The movie is expected to release 2009, due to difficulties in selecting a director for the project.^[23] The director has since been revealed as Neill Blomkamp.^[23]

Recently the project has been postponed at the agreement of both Jackson and Microsoft.^[24] However, production was halted due to financing problems in October 2006.^[25]

I Love Bees (aka The Haunted Apiary, in some circles) was an alternate reality game used to promote the release of Halo 2. The game was centered 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 in an official Halo 2 trailer.

As a highly popular video game with a large and active fan base, the Halo games have been host to a wide array of video productions. These include many videos from the emerging entertainment medium of Machinima. Virtually all footage is taken from Halo and Halo 2 game play. Most are set outside Halo canon, though some are based on Fan Fiction closely relating to the official Canon.

The most notable of these is the comedy series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, created by Rooster Teeth Productions, a series that parodies the Halo universe. It has achieved an unparalleled level of success in Halo machinima, and attracts some non-Halo fans as well. The series ended on June 28, 2007.

Other machinima series—ranging from Fire Team Charlie, another comedy, to The Codex, a space opera more closely tied to Halo canon, as well as the in-game interview show This Spartan Life—have also been created.

Three soundtracks, all composed by Martin O'Donnell, have been released based on the Halo game series.

• Halo Original Soundtrack
• Halo 2, Vol. 1: Original Soundtrack
• Halo 2, Vol. 2: Original Soundtrack

• Marathon Trilogy

• Bungie Studios
• halo.bungie.org, Halo fansite
• Halo3Forum.com, Halo forum