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HALO the Game Series
HALO was originally created and developed by Bungie, but is now currently managed by 343 Industries (a part of Microsoft’s XBox Game Studios). HALO was released in 2001 with it’s first game, HALO: Combat Evolved alongside it’s novel, The Fall of Reach. HALO Infinite is the latest of the main games in the series, and was released in 2021 as a free-to-play beta, then the campaign was released later that year.
There are currently eleven HALO games in total … but wait, there’s more! The main games are:
- HALO: Combat Evolved (2001)
- HALO 2 (2004)
- HALO 3 (2007)
- HALO 3: ODST (2009)
- HALO: Reach (2010)
- HALO 4 (2010)
- HALO: Spartan Assault (2013)
- HALO: The Master Chief Collection (2014)
- HALO 5: Guardians (2015)
- HALO Wars 2 (2017)
- HALO: Infinite (2021)
The spin-offs, remasters, and mobile games are:
- HALO 3: ODST (spin-off)
- HALO: Reach (spin-off)
- HALO: Spartan Assault (mobile)
- HALO: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition (remaster)
- HALO: Forward Unto Dawn (live action web series)
HALO is one of my favorite games, so when the series was announced, I knew I was definitely going to have to watch it – and that’s exactly what I did.
HALO the TV Series
The first episode of the first season of HALO was by far one of the most violent shows I’ve seen. That’s not a bad thing, it was just surprising. And if I’m being honest, I liked the first episode because it was a great leeway into the next episode and the rest of the show.
The first season was gave you insight to Silver team, some of their story, some of Chief’s story, and we get introduced to some of the main characters that we’ll need to know: Catherine Halsey, Admiral Margaret Parangosky, Miranda Keyes, Kwan Ha, Cortana, Soren-066, Laera, Kessler, and many others. You can even feel a connection to some of the characters and what they go through in their journey, in the series.
The one character, that I feel is completely out of place though, is Makee. She’s not in the games or the books, and I haven’t been able to figure out her purpose in the tv series. As a matter of fact, Makee is a new character brought to life in the tv series, in the very first episode (Contact), and is seen during the opening parts of the show talking to the ‘Prophet of Mercy’ about The Demon (Master Chief), concerning the artifact that he took while on the planet Madrigal. Her presence just seems like something the writers threw in there as a last minute thing, sort of like a ‘love interest’ for Master Chief, only sort of, not really. Besides, we all know what happens to anyone that the main character, of any show, falls in love with … they die.
Season two of HALO has pulled everything together, and is more streamlined. The battle scenes are quite impressive, Makee is still doing her shifty business (if you know, you know – I’m not going to spoil it), Master Chief is still brooding and badass, and we’re all still waiting to find out if Cortana is going to be returned to Chief. As you can see, I’m doing my best to not put up any spoilers, which is hard not to do because I’d love to talk all about the show and what’s going on. But that will have to wait until a later date.
Will there be a season 3? From what I’ve read, it’s possible. I’ve also read that, even though nothing is set in stone, there will be more seasons because HALO is a big series and there’s more of it to explore. Season 3, though, probably won’t be ready until 2026. I suppose you can’t rush awesomeness.
HALO the Novels
I’ll have to be totally honest here, I didn’t even know there were HALO novels and that they coincided with the games. I just recently read about them and thought about how cool they were. So, if you’re interested in the novels, they are:
- HALO: Fall of Reach
- HALO: Contact Harvest
- HALO: The Cole Protocol
- HALO: The Silent Storm
- HALO: Oblivion
- HALO: Battleborn
- HALO: Meridian Divide
- HALO: The Flood
- HALO: First Strike
- HALO: Ghost of Onyx
- HALO: Broken Circle
- HALO: Hunters in the Dark
- HALO: Glasslands
- HALO: The Thursday War
- HALO: Mortal Dictata
- HALO: New Blood
- HALO: Last Light
- HALO: Retribution
- HALO: Envoy
- HALO: Legacy of Onyx
- HALO: Smoke and Shadow
- HALO: Renegades
- HALO: Bad Blood
- HALO: Shadows of Reach
- HALO: Evolutions
- HALO: Fractures
- HALO: Cryptum
- HALO: Primordium
- HALO: Silentium
One day, when I have my ADD in check, I may get the books and sit down and read them. But my brain runs a million miles a minute and that makes it difficult to sit and read a book, and even write articles … but I manage.
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- Pablo Schreiber (Master Chief): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Bentley Kalu (Vannak-134): IMDB
- Natasha Culzac (Riz-028): IMDB
- Kate Kennedy (Kai-125): IMDB
- Bokeem Woodbine (Soren-066): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Danny Sapani (Capt. Jacob Keyes): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Natascha McElhone (Dr. Catherine Halsey): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Yerin Ha (Kwan Ha): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Jen Taylor (Cortana S1-2): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Shabana Azmi (Admiral Margaret Parangosky): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Cristina Rodlo (Talia Perez): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Fiona O’Shaughnessy (Laera): IMDB/Wikipedia
- Tylan Bailer (Kessler): IMDB
- Joseph Morgan (James Ackerson) – IMDB/Wikipedia
- Charlie Murphy (Makee): IMDB
The image on the top of this page comes from Wallpaper Access.