...What Exactly is Halo?

Some people don't know how Halo works. Yeah, I know, it's strange isn't it? How do you explain something like the Halo series?

We start by asking them to listen to this as they read the post:

The Basics of Halo

Who are you?

Spartan 117. The Master Chief. A Lean Green Killing Machine. You get to play as the last Spartan, who may or may not have a crush on a computer program called Cortana. You fight for the good of Earth and All Her Colonies, and talk in a deep voice radiating awesome.

...Unless you're playing Halo Reach, which is set BEFORE all the other Halo games, in a time when Spartans were as common as rabbits, where you get to play as Noble Six in a team of six soldiers on a dieing world.

...Or if you play Halo 3:ODST, where you play as an ODST, an Orbital-Drop-Shock-Trooper. Basically you're a sort-of-super-soldier who falls from the sky in a neat little pod to fight aliens.

...There are times when you get to play as Elites too.

Why am I killing Aliens?

Despite Halo being a sci-fi game, it doesn't start with the old Alines-Invade-Earth. Instead, the aliens invade a far off planet called Harvest, which had a human colony on it. There was some politics involved, and the Prophets apparently argued on wether or not to befriend the human race. They eventually decided that the humans blocked the Path and then tried to kill us all.

Prophets? Path? What is this?

Well Halo is a story of a Holy War. The first aliens are the Covenant. Various species (from small Grunts wearing triangular methane tanks on their back to looming suits of blue armour encasing worm colonies known as Hunters) all follow the laws of the Prophets, who claim to know the Path. The path leads god knows where, some say it makes everyone into a god, some say it takes them to paradise. Their religion is based on their understanding of artifacts left behind by the Forerunners (we'll get to those later).

There is also The Flood to contend with. Parasitic mushrooms of death which infect human and alien corpses alike to feed the Gravemind (imagine the plant from The Little Shop Of Horrors. Make it 10 times bigger, make it a fungus, and let it speak in doomy rhyme.) Everyone fights the Flood, and the Flood fights everyone.

Why is it called Halo?

Long ago there were some funky dudes called Forerunners. They had elaborate technologies and lived a Godlike existence. Then some evil fungus came along and ruined everything. The dreaded Flood spread from planet to planet in a way only diabolical mushrooms can. After fighting the Flood for centuries some dumb idiot said "Hey, if the Flood eats living things, all we need to do is cut of its feeding supply by KILLING EVERYBODY!"

A decision was reached, and the Forerunners made clones of all the animals on all the planets and put them in space pods to be launched on the detonation of the super weapons. Then they spread the gigantic super weapons all over space, so the Flood couldn't exist ANYWHERE. What did these super weapons look like? Giant metal rings larger than planets. The Halo Rings.

Once the forerunners spread everything out and got the repopulation plan ready, they went to the Arc and detonated all of the Halo Rings, killing themselves, all organic life and the Flood.

Their computer programs, Halos, ancient structures and other things were left behind. The Covenant find these things and think "Huh, these rings will bring about a Great Cleansing... Sounds like what we need for our eternal pilgrimage!" or "Hey, a floating computer thingy... Must be an Oracle!" and it is these misconceptions that make them want to kill humans, and indeed all existing life.

The Games:

Halo, or Halo 1, or Halo Combat Evolved is the first time the humans find a Halo Ring. There's a shiny version of this ancient game which has been made recently.

Halo 2 is the game where you see the Covenant's side of the story through the eyes of The Arbiter (drools) on certain missions, and where the Elites break apart from the Covenant. It's also mankind's first encounter with the Flood.

Halo 3 is the grand finale to the trilogy, The Arbiter and The Chief start off on an epic journey to the place where the Halo rings began to silence the Flood and Coventant once and for all.

Halo 3 ODST: Script writers go to town to tug at your heartstrings with interwoven story plots about the heroic ODSTs.

Halo Reach: Prequel. And epic 'who can die the most tragically' competition, with fantastic multiplayer.

Halo 4: Coming soon!

Dark Dragon