The Chief Turns 25: An Ode to Halo's Past, and Visions of its Future

November 15, 2001 was a day that changed the gaming world forever.

Software giant Microsoft entered the gaming console business with their shiny black box which they dubbed the "Xbox", a powerful device meant to usher in a new era of gaming.

Not only was it more powerful than their competitor's offerings with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's new GameCube, but Microsoft also sought to attract more mature audiences rather than continue the child-focused branding many associated with console gaming.

From its massive controller to its impressive specs and edgy marketing, Microsoft had a clear vision, but most importantly, it had a killer app to hammer the point home - Halo.

Halo: Combat Evolved wasn't just a videogame, it was a revelation that turned the new Xbox into a serious contender right out of the gate and made it a must-have for an entire generation of boys and young men.

First-person shooters have always been popular with the PC crowd, but when it came to consoles, they simply didn't work - the controls on a gamepad were simply too clunky and awkward, leaving any serious gamer to stick with a mouse and keyboard to play such titles.

Even though there were a few "exceptions" that were regarded as great even despite the gamepad woes (like Nintendo 64's Goldeneye, which still garners plenty of fond memories for gamers, yet that doesn't change the fact it still handled like crap on the N64 controller), FPS games just weren't meant for consoles.

That is, until Bungie showed the world how to do it (with the help of the Xbox's asymmetrical thumbstick layout).

The Seattle-based developer of the famed Marathon and Myth series in the old Macintosh gaming scene, Bungie had initially set the early computer gaming world on fire at the MacWorld Conference in 1999 by showing off the simply titled Halo as a real-time strategy and third-person shooter hybrid set on a beautiful alien world. The game was announced officially as a future Mac and PC title, long before "Xbox" was even in the public's lexicon.

Less than a year later, Microsoft would swoop in to purchase Bungie outright and in doing so changed the course of history - Halo would now be exclusive to their upcoming gaming console.

During that time, the development of the game we all know and love famously took quite a few twists and turns - originally a top-down real-time strategy game, Bungie had created driving mechanics for the "Warthog" that the team found so fun, it increasingly became the focus, turning the RTS game into a third-person shooter hybrid.

As they continued to pull the camera closer to the action, they eventually decided to transition the game into an FPS, though the third-person camera was kept for driving sequences - thus the Halo we all know and love was born.

It was certainly a risk, especially given other FPS games had always struggled on gamepads, but Microsoft's staggered analog sticks proved to be the ultimate pairing and when Halo: Combat Evolved hit store shelves alongside the Xbox, it was immediately apparent that Bungie had crafted a masterpiece.

Not only did they translate an FPS to a controller perfectly, they managed to make it feel natural, with smooth and responsive shooting mechanics whether you were firing a familiar-but-futuristic assault rifle, a dual-tubed rocket launcher, or more unique alien weapons like a plasma-spewing pistol or a gun that fires pink crystal shards which follow their targets.

The vast ring-world that was Halo had a unique, militaristic sci-fi/fantasy art style that paired with bleeding-edge graphics to create something awe-inspiring - and who could possibly forget the timeless, otherworldly soundtrack that Marty O'Donnell crafted?

The game was a phenomenon and it even included an extensive multiplayer suite long before online console gaming was a thing. Couch co-op ruled the day back then, and as such up to four players could play together on a single Xbox - but that was just the start.

LAN parties were what Halo really fuelled - thanks to Microsoft's forward-thinking in including an Ethernet port despite not having any internet services available, multiple Xbox consoles could be linked together to create a local network, with up to 16 people playing across four Xboxes.

Halo was so fun that groups of friends would haul over not only their consoles and controllers, but their heavy television sets (long before "flatscreens" were a thing, this was the day of hefty CRT boxes) to their buddies' houses so they could experience the glory that was Halo's arena multiplayer.

Just a year later, Microsoft would launch Xbox Live, the world's first broadband online console service that would eliminate the need for LAN parties going forward - but Halo: Combat Evolved was already out, and in a time before post-launch patches were a thing, this meant the LAN parties would continue for those hardcore Halo gamers.

As I was just seven years old when it came out, I missed the launch of the original Halo - it wasn't until two years later that the game was ported to PC that I discovered the wonderful world that Bungie had crafted.

My sister and I had an original PlayStation back then, and while I enjoyed playing a game of Frogger or Disney's Hercules now and then, I wasn't much of a gamer at the time.

Discovering a website that offered free games as well as demos for various paid titles on my family's Dell computer one night, I was drawn to the site's featured demo: it was for a game called Halo: Combat Evolved.

I hit the download button and started the lengthy process (our Telus internet was pitifully slow back then, even for a so-called "broadband" connection) - once it was installed, it soon proved worth the wait.

Storming the beach on The Silent Cartographer for the first time was a life-changing moment for 9-year-old me.

Despite the game running on low settings given our family computer wasn't exactly meant for gaming (the version I played was decidedly less colorful than most), I was nevertheless floored by the incredible graphics and the vast alien world.

Given PC connectivity, there was also no need for LAN parties, and the demo included one map to play multiplayer on - the world-famous Blood Gulch.

I was absolutely addicted, between fragging random people on the internet and replaying The Silent Cartographer over and over, I sunk more time into that demo than most people do at full-time jobs.

Eventually I convinced my parents to buy me the full game from our local EB Games (the Canadian version of GameStop), and it was even better than I imagined.

It took me quite some time to play through (that damn Library tortured me) but I enjoyed every minute of it.

The multiplayer took over my life, so much so that my parents would have to force me off the computer when I'd regularly go over the amount of time they had said I was allowed to play, and I'd hog the family PC when my sister wanted to use it because just one more game.

They simply didn't understand - Halo called out to me, demanding to be played.

When trailers for Halo 2 lit up gaming sites and Master Chief's updated Mark VI armour graced gaming magazine covers, I was as pumped as could be, until I found out that it wouldn't be launching on PC.

By that time I had a PlayStation 2 instead of an Xbox, which I did play but not nearly as much as I still played Halo on that old Dell desktop.

Instead I had to make do by watching YouTube videos (I must have watched the Halo 2 E3 2003 demo a million times) and dreaming of what it would be like.

As the game's release drew closer, I decided that I would save any money I received for my birthdays and holidays so that eventually I could buy myself an Xbox and a copy of Halo 2.

Then, when Halo 2 finally hit store shelves, it seemed that it took over the entire world.

For the first time I was actually excited for my mom to watch the news since every channel featured a segment on the new game that shattered records not only for videogames, but for the entertainment industry as a whole.

Halo 2 raked in a then-record $125 million on its very first day on sale.

Within a month, it had sold over 5 million copies worth over $250 million.

Keep in mind that it set those records when there were only roughly 15 million Xboxes sold in the entire world (PS2 had sold over 70 million consoles by then), and the game was not available on any other platform.

Halo 2 was all over the news and every gaming site and magazine was raving about how the most anticipated sequel in gaming history had not only delivered, but exceeded expectations.

I may not have had an Xbox yet, but that Christmas was still Halo-dominated - I received the Halo 2 original soundtrack which I listened to religiously (it's still incredible by the way), several of the now-classic Halo novels, a Master Chief figure, and a badass Spartan figure which featured a white-with-blue-highlights colour scheme and dual SMGs (when I did eventually get Halo 2, I copied that figure's colour scheme for my own in-game Spartan).

As awesome as those gifts were (I still have them by the way), they just made me want to play Halo 2 even more.

Not long after, I asked my parents if I could trade in my PlayStation 2 and all my games, as I was sure that, combined with the money I had saved, the trade-in value would be enough to cover a shiny new Xbox and Halo 2 - though we didn't have any online tools to give us actual trade-in values back then, I did my best to estimate what they could be worth and was sure giving a bunch of games along with a console would be enough. Poor, naive, 10-year-old me.

After convincing them my mind was made up and it was the right decision, another trip to our local EB Games ensued.

I traded in a box filled with a PlayStation 2, controllers, and a bunch of games, positively giddy that I was mere moments away from getting my hands on Halo 2.

But after all the trade-in values were calculated...I fell short. The consoles they had at the time came bundled with MechAssault 2, which while it was a cool game I would have liked playing, I wished for nothing except Halo, so the sales associate allowed us to trade that in for credit as well before I had technically bought it, but even with that it still wasn't quite enough.

I had enough to pay for the console itself and taxes, but not enough to also get a copy of Halo 2, even a used copy (which they were still selling for $50, only 10 bucks off a new copy).

I was devastated - so close, yet so far. My miniature self was absolutely heartbroken, and I probably had a look of pure despair over my sad little face - but then dear ol' dad came to the rescue. He pulled out his wallet and covered the difference, and just like that I was back on cloud nine.

After getting everything hooked up to our massive CRT TV in the living room, it was finally time to play.

Despite all the hype and my sky-high expectations, Halo 2 still managed to blow my mind - the graphical leap (especially for me since I was used to playing the original Halo on a PC at its very lowest settings) was dumbfounding. Playing it on the classic S-controller felt perfect and as natural as walking; I was in heaven, mowing down Covie bastards with dual SMG's aboard Cairo Station.

I kept playing through the campaign over and over, because unfortunately, unlike on PC, multiplayer wasn't free on consoles and instead cost $50 a year for an Xbox Live subscription.

I did however soon find a way to work around that with the long-since defunct XBConnect Service, which essentially was a program that allowed players over the internet to connect to lobbies by spoofing a LAN party. It was usually laggy as hell but hey, it was free and damn was it fun when it did actually work.

For my 11th birthday I got a year of Xbox Live so I could experience Halo 2's multiplayer in all its glory, complete with a good ol' chat headset so I could listen to the early days of trash talking over the internet.

Matchmaking, partying up with a squad to make friends with people thousands of miles away, finally achieving the coveted level 50 in ranked Team Slayer; it was an absolute blast.

Later on, I would get an Xbox 360 (my sister got an old used car for her birthday so she could learn to drive, and given the larger expense, they got me a 360 to be "fair"...I may have gotten hosed in retrospect given her gift cost a whole lot more, but you certainly wouldn't hear me complaining) and would play games like Call of Duty 2 and NHL (I'm Canadian, eh) with my buddies from school, but even then Halo 2 still regularly got playtime thanks to it being backward compatible.

Gears of War then set a new bar late in 2006 with its truly "next-gen" experience and became a staple, with me and my friends popping heads and stomping faces through the night during winter and spring breaks and of course during summer vacation - who doesn't miss having two months off every summer to play videogames?

Then came Halo 3.

To put into perspective how big the game was, millions of people literally bought a $60 game (myself included) called Crackdown just to get a code to enter the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, which featured three maps to play a few modes on and ran for three weeks (it was extended to 25 days total after having initial server issues thanks to the massive demand).

Now, Crackdown was a surprisingly fun game that had released a demo showing why it was worth a buy on its own, but I'd be lying if I said the beta code wasn't my main reason for getting the game rather than renting it or waiting for a sale.

And it was totally worth it.

I, and millions of others, played the hell out of High Ground, Snowbound, and Valhalla for those 3+ weeks the beta lasted for. It was once again a leap forward not only for the franchise, but for gaming as a whole.

Once the beta servers closed, the wait for the full release was excruciating.

It would be the first Halo game I'd get to play at launch as I pre-ordered the Limited Edition from the local Blockbuster for my birthday.

Despite having a game launch of biblical proportions, my evil parents made me go to school on September 25, 2007, but I sure as shit wasn't going to wait a few hours after that for my dad to get home so I could pick up my copy - no, I enlisted my late grandmother to pick me up from school and take me to Blockbuster to get my hands on it, then drop me off at home so I could play it as soon as I possibly could (thanks grandma).

In addition to the disc and manual (remember when all games had those?), the Limited Edition also came with a bonus disc packed with goodies like gamer pics, 360 dashboard themes, and behind-the-scenes featurettes, alongside a hard-cover book detailing the species of the Covenant and a cool poster all within a special steel-book case.

When I popped in that disc to boot up the campaign however, once again my mind was blown.

Back in those days, Bungie just couldn't miss.

In addition to the lengthy campaign that was a beautiful end to the epic trilogy which had online co-op for the first time (meaning me and my buddies could play through the story together), and an expanded multiplayer suite with an epic sandbox, was Forge - an easy-to-use tool for gamers to create their own maps and modes and share them with the world.

While map editors had a long history on PC games, consoles were a different matter, and using such tools was typically very involved - here, Bungie had crafted an entire mode that could craft full, high-quality maps and unique game types which anyone with a controller could easily understand and create with.

You could even edit the maps with other players at the same time, and test them out with the tap of a button.

Forge became a fun mode to play in and of itself by hopping into a session with friends and screwing around with the tools, whether you were messing up your buddy's attempt at crafting a traffic-cone monument or coming together to help flesh out one of your friend's visions for the perfect battleground.

The social features of Halo 3 really propelled the game into its own community entirely, and I still fondly remember playing custom games well into the wee hours of the morning with my buddies, giggling my ass off during a game of Duck Hunt or Grifball or trying to stay atop a tower in Jenga.

It was still my most played game two years later when the spinoff Halo 3: ODST launched, which brought with it a campaign focused not on the iconic Master Chief but on an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper as he explores the ruined city of New Mombasa and pieces together what happened to his missing squadmates.

It was a more somber, quieter take on the Halo universe that had a brilliant atmosphere; by the end of the campaign the more intimate tone had given way to a more classic Halo experience, but it's hard to argue that's a bad thing.

With it also came Firefight, which was effectively Bungie's version of Gears of War 2's iconic Horde mode, in which players took on waves of AI combatants to see how long they could survive.

The spinoff didn't have its own PvP multiplayer component, instead including Halo 3's multiplayer with the game for anyone who didn't already own Halo 3, but given that the community was still thriving thanks to additional map packs and Forge, the new campaign and the addition of the Firefight mode was more than enough to tide fans over until the next mainline Halo title arrived.

That would come in 2010, in what would serve as a bittersweet release given that it was to be the last Halo game developed by Bungie.

Halo: Reach was a prequel focusing on the planet which had once served as humanity's military hub and the most important planet besides Earth to the United Nations Space Command (UNSC).

Reach, as all Halo fans already knew (especially if they read the superb The Fall of Reach novel by Eric Nylund), fell just before the events of the original Halo: Combat Evolved and was turned into a molten ball of glass by the Covenant in the process.

The Master Chief was the last surviving Spartan-II (well, technically not, but for the gaming universe's sake) after most of them perished in a daring last stand as they fought to defend the overwhelmed planet to the end.

As such, we already knew how it ended - previous Halo games had even sported "Remember Reach" propaganda posters used to bolster soldiers' resolve - Reach would fall no matter what players did, and surely all the characters in the game would die along with it.

Yet that didn't stop Bungie from really making it hurt.

Reach's campaign was an epic tale filled with heroics and sacrifice, and it ended with one of the most memorable final missions in gaming history.

It was a beautiful send-off from the studio that had created the beloved Halo universe.

Though Bungie had officially split from Microsoft in 2007 shortly after Halo 3 released and became an independent studio, they still had contracts to develop the games that would become Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, after which they would turn their attention to a new IP (that IP would become Destiny, which did very well alongside its sequel, until its live-service role eventually fizzled).

With Microsoft retaining the rights to the Halo IP while Bungie moved on, they formed a new studio called 343 Industries to continue the franchise - after Halo: Reach shipped, Bungie completed their transition away from Halo, though some of its staff went to 343 Industries instead of carrying on at Bungie.

Many regard 343's taking over of the franchise as when things went downhill, but the story is a bit more complex than that.

And, to be fair, 343 Industries never put out a bad game - in fact, there's greatness to be found in every one of their releases, even the maligned Campaign Evolved, as my brutally honest review still points out. Every one of their releases however, was a mixed bag for Halo fans.

While Bungie's Reach had a great campaign, its transition to incorporate loadouts (plus things like the stupid armor-lock ability) and more stiff mechanics compared to its predecessor left its multiplayer and overall gameplay feeling inferior to what came before, and arguably paved the way for the gameplay style that came next, though its Forge and Firefight modes were still awesome.

Just a year after Reach came out, 343 released their first project, a remaster of the original game called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

It did have a cool mechanic which allowed players to toggle between the original graphics and the newly revamped visuals in real-time to show the difference in visuals, and the remastered soundtrack was definitely cool - unfortunately though, the updated graphics weren't up to par with other new games at the time and the developers did not stay true to the original art style, with the new version losing a lot of the original's visual identity in the process.

It wasn't exactly a great remaster, and given it didn't fix some of the issues from the first title that was then a decade old (like the infamous Library level) and even introduced new bugs that weren't in the original, it was hardly the quality such a classic game deserved, particularly one that was so crucial to the survival of an entire brand.

Most of the development on that remaster however came from Saber Interactive rather than 343 Industries, with 343's first real crack at the next installment in the series coming in 2012 with Halo 4.

With the new studio at the helm, Halo 4 saw quite a different art style that went down a more hardcore sci-fi path (which its story also took). To say that many didn't like the new art direction would be an understatement, but while the difference in art style can be jarring (particularly if you play the game right after completing Halo 3, which Halo 4's directly continues), the game's graphics were some of the best of its era even if you don't like the style they used.

The story itself, which focused on Master Chief's relationship with an increasingly rampant Cortana, was a high note - the gameplay, while being good by itself, doubled down on the path that Reach had already started on and effectively made Halo more like Call of Duty, which was something that Microsoft executives had apparently pushed for given CoD's success.

The environments looked great, but the actual level design didn't meet Halo-era Bungie's level of quality, and the new enemies in particular were just not as as fun to fight either.

It was still a good campaign overall; multiplayer was by far the biggest letdown however, as Halo 4's multiplayer suite was simply not up to par.

Weak maps and its lesser gameplay caused the community to drop off quickly as fans went back to playing Halo Reach and even Halo 3 rather than the new game.

343 took a chance with a "Spartan Ops" mode which effectively replaced Firefight, offering weekly co-op missions for up to four players to experience that provided story updates as well as new levels to play through.

While it sounded pretty cool on paper, in practice it was a bland, repetitive, and uninspired mode that felt more like grinding filler than something anyone would want to replay.

Next came The Master Chief Collection, which was truly an awesome package that included upscaled and framerate-enhanced versions of the original trilogy and Halo 4 for the new Xbox One console as well as PC, including their full multiplayer suites with a matchmaking system that combined all of the games into a single menu.

It was an amazing collection and also released with the excellent Halo 2: Anniversary, a remaster of the iconic game which stayed true to the original but with a shiny new coat of paint (and some astounding cutscenes by Blur Studios), albeit it only had a handful of Halo 2's maps and modes for its multiplayer offering. That omission was forgiveable however since the full, original Halo 2 multiplayer suite without the enhanced graphics was still included in the collection.

Like any 343 release however, it too was a mixed bag - at launch, while the campaigns were perfectly preserved and improved with upscaling and higher framerates (and as mentioned the fully remastered version of Halo 2 was great), the multiplayer component was utterly broken.

On paper having all of these games' multiplayer suites in one launcher, being able to play a match of Team Slayer in Halo 3 then jumping into a match of CTF in Halo: Combat Evolved seamlessly - it was a dream. Thanks to countless server issues, instability, matchmaking problems, and more, it became more of a nightmare.

Over time however, those problems were fully ironed out, and the MCC became arguably the greatest collection for a gaming franchise ever made, with Halo Reach and Halo 3: ODST later being added to the collection and even new customization options for the various games being unlockable through "seasons" with content additions still being added for years.

Even today, more than a decade after release, you can still find it being played by thousands of Halo fans at any given time and it truly is a remarkable release - if only 343 had done a bit more testing on their servers before they put it out in the wild.

With Halo 5: Guardians, 343 did listen to many of the complaints from Halo 4, and while they doubled down on the divisive art style and increasingly non-Halo gameplay additions, Halo 5's multiplayer offering was still excellent.

On its own, Halo 5's PvP suite was really superb and if it had a different title, I still believe it would be highly regarded today, as it was genuinely a very fun and polished FPS game and offered a ton of content.

It also featured a steady stream of updates that 343 deserves credit for, as they actually did a great job with adding maps and modes along with other content drops during a time when many other developers were struggling to maintain their attempts at pushing "live service" games.

The problem was it ventured further down a path that didn't feel much like Halo, eschewing the more deliberate pace it was known for with a super-charged version that looked more like an entirely different sci-fi universe and even implementing near-hero shooter abilities like Ground Pound. This further divided the community as many longed for the style that the Bungie games provided, even if Halo 5 was great in its own way.

Rather than an updated version of the failed Spartan Ops, Halo 5 also launched a new mode called Warzone (not to be confused with Call of Duty: Warzone) which actually took a concept that was originally planned by Bungie for Halo 2 but cut due to time constraints.

Warzone was a PvPvE mode where two teams of 12 players battled against each other as well as AI-controlled factions such as the Covenant or Prometheans, with teams scoring points by capturing and holding bases, eliminating enemy Spartans, or taking out AI bosses on one the mode's expansive battlegrounds.

Not only that, but each match had its own progression system using "REQ Cards", which could be used either before spawning or at REQ Stations found in bases; these cards offered both loadouts that can be used for the rest of the match (such as spawning with a custom Battle Rifle) or one-time use cards which grant power weapons, vehicles, and equipment like an Overshield or Active Camo.

Despite it including "loot boxes" in the form of REQ Packs that contained an assortment of cards, the system gave out more than enough packs for free through simply playing the game and it was not only a profitable system for Microsoft, but a fair and well-implemented one that managed not to piss off players. Considering the overall hatred for microtransactions that permeated gaming at the time given their implementation in other titles, that was quite a feat.

Unfortunately, Halo 5's multiplayer excellence was betrayed by an extremely weak campaign.

Thanks to its convoluted and disappointing storyline which fell flat, poor level design and boss fights, Guardian's campaign was a massive disappointment made even worse by an astoundingly bad PR campaign.

The marketing department seemed completely detached from the actual developers and tried to push a story of the Master Chief being a "rogue agent" that needed to be hunted down, setting up some epic Spartan-on-Spartan combat with Agent Locke, yet the game really offered nothing of the sort.

Not only that, but the story had various missions where players follow Locke's story instead of the Chief's, attempting to do what Bungie did with Halo 2 and the Arbiter, yet Locke was simply nowhere near as good a character and proved it was an unwise fit.

The confrontation between the Chief and Locke that the story (and particularly the marketing) built toward ended up with a wildly underwhelming, cringey, laughably bad cutscene that (up until the recent Halo: Campaign Evolved) stood out as by far the worst cutscene in Halo history.

If 343 could have simply matched up the campaign's quality to its multiplayer, or vice-versa in Halo 4's case, they would have found a lot more success, but it seemed they just couldn't strike that balance.

Following Halo 5: Guardians, 343 took an extended absence as they worked on a highly ambitious sequel dubbed Halo: Infinite which would come with a brand new engine.

Infinite was intended to serve as a platform that would have a persistent multiplayer offering with frequent updates and content drops, along with lengthy campaign expansions as time went on, with 343 boldly claiming it would be the platform for the next ten years of Halo.

Its campaign was also set to be the first open-world game in the franchise, with developers aiming for a Zelda: Breath of the Wild-sized world.

Their ambition however far exceeded the capabilities of the increasingly mis-managed studio.

While they boasted about creating a new "Slipspace" engine for Infinite, in reality they were simply building on the dated Blam! engine which they had been using and expanding since Bungie first crafted it way back in 1997, prior to developing the original Halo Combat Evolved.

343 took the engine following Bungie's work on Reach and had been building on it ever since, with Infinite being no different - the "Slipspace" engine therefore was purely a name change, a marketing gimmick much like their own later name change from 343 Industries to Halo Studios.

Their insistence on using the same engine would prove disastrous in the long run, and was predicted by various programmers who worked with the engine directly, as they had apparently begged the studio to switch to Unreal Engine since the Blam! engine was not designed for an open world game whatsoever and they knew it would take a ludicrous amount of work to change.

With these concerns, 343 decided to hold a studio-wide vote to determine which engine they'd use which led to them keeping the old one, despite many of the people voting (like designers for instance) not actually having to work on the underlying engine.

As problems with the engine inevitably popped up and competing ideas fought for prominence in direction, Infinite became stuck in development hell until original Halo trilogy vet Joseph Staten was brought in to right the ship.

In one year Staten managed to cobble together a cohesive (and actually pretty great) story out of 343's work and save what was a terribly mismanaged project from utter failure, though Staten would later leave the studio in 2023.

When it finally launched in 2021, it offered an excellent campaign and great foundations for multiplayer.

Infinite eschewed the divisive art style that 343 had been using and instead offered a sensible evolution of the original trilogy's design that was pretty universally liked by fans, and its "soft reboot" story offered a ton of potential for future story expansions.

While the game's open world elements were cool, it had nowhere near Breath of the Wild-expansiveness, with only one true biome being included rather than the varied environments that were planned and hoped for, but it was still implemented well and the game still featured plenty of linear sections that were more like classic Halo.

In fact, when it first released, Halo Infinite was seen as a triumph by many, myself included, a game that was able to recapture the magic of the classics.

With 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard and Battlefield 2042 both disappointing fans and selling poorly, Halo Infinite delivered a great return to form and was perfectly positioned to come out on top - little did players know that 343 had already fumbled the ball in one of the worst self-imposed failures in gaming.

The problem Infinite faced at launch was how many features and modes were missing - it had no co-op for its campaign whatsoever despite many of its levels clearly being designed with co-op in mind, particularly given the new open world elements; it had no Firefight/Warzone or other PvE equivalent; it had no Forge to speak of; and the multiplayer suite had a very small pool of maps and modes to choose from.

Its multiplayer suite was also made free-to-play, which many celebrated, however that made the proposition of actually buying the game a bit backward, as they were charging the price of a fully featured game for a campaign mode only with no co-op (either splitscreen or online) and it didn't even have a theater mode (though theater mode worked for multiplayer).

Now, with its multiplayer embracing a free-to-play model, one would think a steady stream of maps would be coming to make up for the small offering at launch, and given how well 343 did with Halo 5 in this regard, many gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Infinite - it took months for a single map and/or mode to be released at a time, with very little content being added to the game for the first year after launch.

You see, while on the outside the game appeared polished and played well (which was particularly impressive for the Xbox One version, though Microsoft's decision to include the game for the old console seems like a massive waste of resources and likely didn't help development in making it work well on such dated specs), the game was effectively held together by duct tape and prayers.

The clusterfuck that was Infinite's development may have cobbled together into a great game, but the engine was effectively slapped together and barely holding on, meaning any changes or even the addition of new content was an agonizingly slow process as the developers had to go back to properly re-code everything.

Campaign co-op and Forge, something that was expected at launch especially for a game that took six years to make, weren't out until a full year after launch, despite modders having added playable co-op to their own builds (albeit not without glitches, but this was a few people programming in their spare time versus a full studio with hundreds of dedicated employees) in mere weeks.

Granted, the Forge mode that was added was incredibly powerful and impressive, and added a ton of content for dedicated Halo fans over the coming years, but the damage had already been done by that point - too many people had moved on and simply didn't return, at least not in numbers that Microsoft had hoped for.

Even after Forge was out, it took 343 ages to add community-made maps into playlists for the majority of players to experience despite most of the work already being done for free by players, and the dream of single-player expansions to add to Zeta Halo's sandbox soon died along with the tiny playerbase.

343 had the right ideas and (eventually) delivered a solid product, but their glaring mismanagement and inefficiency outright fumbled what was set up to have been a crucial touchdown.

What happened after that fumble was the implosion of a AAA studio.

Many of the higher-ups who had made plenty of questionable or downright-retarded decisions over the years, such as Frank O'Connor and Kiki Wolfkill, were finally axed, giving fans hope that things could turn around.

In late 2024, 343 then announced it was rebranding to Halo Studios and was transitioning to using Unreal Engine for all development going forward; although this was many years too late, it was a step in a positive direction at least, and a sign that at least they should be able to put out content at a more steady clip than one game every five years.

Their mismanagement and inefficiency however was now on a whole new level.

Earlier this year, we finally got something from 343 Industries - err, Halo Studios - Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the original game built in the Unreal Engine.

It may have looked good and mostly played well, but the lack of any multiplayer was an omission that was baffling to many (especially given that the first game had already been remade more than a decade prior, and that also didn't include multiplayer).

It was however a "proof of concept" so-to-speak that 343 could deliver the Halo experience in a new engine, and given Microsoft's plans for multi-platform launches at the time, it was also the first Halo title to ever release on PlayStation, which they certainly hoped would boost sales.

The problem was, once again, the original game which started it all and effectively made the Xbox a viable product in the first place, was given a lackluster, asset-swapped remake complete with new bugs and no multiplayer, though this time it also came with three new missions that were a straight up insult to the franchise.

My thorough review highlights the amateurish downgrades in voice-acting direction, cinematography, enemy AI, and even writing changes that plague the campaign, as well as the atrocious, woke, and sloppy new prequel missions that, besides looking pretty, are everything wrong with modern AAA game design.

The game not only underperformed as a result, but proved to be the final nail in 343 Industries' coffin - under new management, Microsoft decided to shutter "Halo Studios" and instead tap Activision to form a new studio that will carry on the Halo franchise going forward.

As more info came out in the aftermath, the extent of 343/Halo Studio's woeful mismanagement was exposed.

In the last five years, besides fixing up things in Halo Infinite, the only product the studio put out was a lazy, slapped together remake of the original Halo's campaign, which heavily re-uses assets from prior releases and is a downgrade in many ways from a twenty-five year old game.

Originally the remake was pitched to include cut content from the first game's storied development, which would have been great (the modding community already restored much of this content in recent years on PC, though not with modern graphics and polish of course, and none of that is playable on consoles) and helped justify such a release for fans, yet instead, the final product included nothing of the sort and instead added a few new missions which were straight up pitiful.

They had planned to do similar remakes of Halo 2 and Halo 3 going forward, however if they were anything like Campaign Evolved, it's better they didn't get the chance to stain the legacy of those legendary titles.

When they were shuttered however, they had no other game in active development.

Claims that they had some "wonderful" and ambitious ideas in the pipeline of course made the rounds, yet those were effectively just ideas on a board that were not even close to production yet, and as became evident in the last few years, the folks at 343/Halo Studios clearly never heeded Cortana's advice - "Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it".

Along with early plans for the Halo 2 and 3 remakes, as well as a campaign-only, "quick" release which would adapt Eric Nylund's classic First Strike novel into a game, they were also pitching ideas for the next mainline game - yet all of those projects were in pre-production phases, meaning any significant Halo title was still years from release

Not only that, but in the last 5 years, they had no multiplayer offering in development for the Halo franchise, and hadn't even begun production on one - to say the management was out of touch with the community and the franchise would be a massive understatement.

This was a studio with hundreds of developers along with multiple support studios to lend them a hand, and yet they have almost nothing to show for it - it became quite clear (as it has with various other AAA studios in recent times) that many in the studio were effectively sitting around and collecting a paycheck rather than actually doing anything productive, and if there was ever a studio that deserved to be shut down, it was 343 Industries.

Time will tell if Activision will do a better job, but at least Activision has a proven track record of getting games out in a timely manner and those games being fully-featured at launch, which is something 343 hadn't delivered in over a decade.

Though there are plenty of rumours, no one knows what direction Activision will take for its upcoming Halo game, and given they're forming a new studio to handle development as we speak, we're likely a few years away from seeing gameplay let alone a release date.

The biggest question right now comes down to whether Activision will be doing a full reboot of the franchise or if they'll be picking up the story after the events of Halo 3 and tossing out 343's lore.

There's also the possibility they continue from the end of Halo Infinite, though the rumours thus far have been either a full reboot or keeping only Bungie's story as cannon.

The way I see it, Activision has several viable paths forward, though 343/Halo Studios has left them in a bit of a bind.

The one thing that shouldn't be debatable - regardless of the direction Activision takes - is that Steve Downes and Jen Taylor are irreplacable.

They are the voices of Master Chief and Cortana and should remain so as long as they live and are willing to voice them. Given both roles don't require their physical models and can be mo-capped by others, there's zero reason to change them and only downsides.

The Full Reboot

This has a very real chance of happening - shifting an IP to new creators often comes with a full reboot where the new stewards reshape the story as they see fit.

With a franchise as beloved as Halo however, and with an original trilogy as iconic as it is (which still holds up remarkably well today), this is a very tough hill to climb for Activision.

It's also made worse by the fact 343's last act was to release another remake of the original game - doing a full reboot to retell the story from the start would be met with plenty of groans as a result, and while Activision would undoubtedly include multiplayer (and potentially Forge, Firefight, or other modes that weren't in the original), the campaign would be held up to the original game and thus would need to really knock it out of the park in order to be perceived in a positive light.

If Activision simply does a retelling of the original game, then people would be pissed off they waited for a third iteration of the exact same story; yet if they wander too far off that path, they run the risk of alienating the hardcore fan base or failing to live up to the original's quality.

There is a strong possibility this is what we get regardless, and it is possible they can pull it off, but given AAA developer's track records lately this would seem to be a tall task when there are much safer options available.

The Bungie Continuation

Arguably the safest and (in my opinion) the best option is to continue the story where Halo 3 left off and keep only the Bungie games as cannon.

While some will certainly be upset, and I'm not saying that 343 didn't include some great content both in their games and novels over the years, but this route gives Activision a lot more room to tell their own story without trying to navigate a convoluted narrative that is largely from books rather than the games people have been playing for decades.

One of the biggest points of contention amongst longtime Halo fans is that Bungie's leads (at least their proper writing leads, not the likes of Frank O'Connor) had intended the Forerunners to be revealed as ancient humans with various hints toward this in the original trilogy, while 343 Industries (spearheaded by the likes of the afforementioned O'Connor) instead had them being entirely separate.

343's push into harder sci-fi territory (which was also paired with a more traditionally futuristic sci-fi art style that conflicted with Bungie's) was simply not nearly as popular with fans and while books like the Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear might have been interesting reads, the shift into more fantastical, hard sci-fi storytelling and explaining every little detail rather than the military-focused and more simplistic approach that Bungie took simply didn't resonate nearly as well.

With the Chief stuck in cryosleep while Cortana's remaining life ticks away in the middle of space, Halo 3 leaves the perfect setup to continue the story with plenty of room for the creators to steer it in a direction they desire; it's also a story that the vast majority of the Halo fanbase is intimately familiar with, something that can't be said about 343's story arc.

In addition, Activision can learn from 343's mistakes and the community's response to that direction in order to craft a sequel to Bungie's trilogy that's more true to the original vision of the series, while still being able to put their own spin on it.

They can also take elements that worked from 343's stories (such as Cortana's descent into rampancy, Atriox and the Banished faction, etc.) and incorporate them into their titles without being bound to it.

In fact, if I'm Activision, I'm making plans for branching series very similar to what they've done with Call of Duty (Modern Warfare, Black Ops, etc.) - the main branch continues with their version of Halo 4 and keeps the number going, but others could include an FPS version of Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 where players take control of Jerome and Red Team during the Spirit of Fire's saga with the Banished, while another could focus on the ODST's as either a direct continuation of Halo 3: ODST or follow a different squad as a spiritual successor - and there are plenty more possibilities in that vein.

This approach preserves the legendary trilogy without trying to replace it, as that would be an extremely risky proposition, while still allowing plenty of leeway for the new creators to craft their own tales going forward.

The Dream

My vision of Activision remaking Halo 2 in its entirety (including cut content, from the famous E3 2003 demo level to the infamous third act which was scrapped entirely due to time constraints) to get familiar with the franchise and give them more time to flesh out their story for the next mainline entry appears to be dead in the water, but if Activision is ambitious, there's another possibility on the horizon.

Regardless of which direction Activision takes, it would appear they're set on putting out a fully-featured release that includes multiplayer (which is a no brainer, but once again reiterates how 343 is retarded for not including multiplayer in a remake of Halo: CE not once, but twice), a Firefight or other PvE mode, and Forge at launch.

Hopefully their version of gameplay is more akin to Halo 2 and 3's or even Infinite's rather than Reach and 4/5's, and they establish a polished, confident base for the franchise going forward, but at least they have the right priorities in terms of features.

In my ideal vision of Halo's future however, the next game would include an arena multiplayer suite alongside its campaign that foregoes microtransactions entirely and instead focuses (or at least the vast majority of the focus) on unlocks through pure gameplay achievements and/or even some sort of currency that's earned purely by playing the game and can't be bought.

Instead, I'd shift the monetized segment to an expanded version of Halo 5's Warzone (though they need to rename it given Call of Duty's mode shares the same name and is very different), with two large teams duking it out on expansive maps alongside AI factions.

As each match progresses, not only do more powerful weapons, vehicles, and other unlocks become available, but more powerful units do too similar to Star Wars Battlefront, with players starting out as plain Marines, then ODSTs, then Spartans, and finally "Hero" units like the Master Chief.

Oh, and there'd be different factions to play as - one team can be the UNSC, another the Covenant, starting off as Grunts or Jackals, then unlocking Elites, then Brutes, and finally big units like Hunters or Zealots or Brute Chieftains, etc.

Monetization can be similar to Halo 5's which was already well-received and profitable, but with all the different units to play as, there'd be way more customization opportunities which would work perfectly for a free-to-play model.

Similar to Call of Duty's Warzone, this mode would be a standalone free-to-play offering separate from the paid game and would be updated when new Halo titles come out whether players buy the paid game or stick with the free mode.

This would also keep the longtime fanbase happy because Halo's classic arena multiplayer would be untouched by microtransactions and the like, while still allowing for a mode which embraces that type of content which would keep money flowing into their coffers.

Once Activision's Halo game is out, they will hopefully have a very strong foundation for its gameplay and mechanics from which to build off of - and that's when they can embrace the potential that many saw with Halo Infinite and what fans wanted to try to make themselves with the powerful tools Forge provided.

I've already spoken at length in my 20 Years of Gears article about how Microsoft should be focusing on using AAA releases not as end points, but as foundations for large campaign expansions that aren't included in any tier of Game Pass and instead just get discounted or add extra digital goodies for Game Pass members, this way they can monetize big-budget games properly without removing Day One Access from their subscription model.

Something similar would be perfect for Halo, and Halo Infinite's plans for using the game as a hub for new campaigns (ignore their execution) were right on the money for monetizing a AAA game through Game Pass.

Spinoffs like the afforementioned ODST sequel/successor or an FPS version of Halo Wars could easily be turned into campaign expansions rather than full-blown mainline titles, and throw in some skins, weapons, vehicles etc. into the multiplayer sandbox to coincide with that campaign's release.

But there's even more potential there.

As we already covered, another remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved wouldn't make sense on its own, but what about a remake of the entire trilogy, released all at once?

The original Halo: Combat Evolved has already seen two remakes and both failed to do the original justice; Halo 2 on the other hand had an excellent remaster in Halo 2 Anniversary; Halo 3 meanwhile has never seen a remake or facelift.

If Activision is continuing on from Halo 3, which I and it seems most longtime Halo fans are hoping for, it has the perfect opportunity to deliver what fans have been wanting and make a shitload of money in the process.

Rather than farming out remakes to a smaller studios like 343 was fond of doing, or making a small team within the new development house handle it, have the entire team focus on crafting one ultimate package that remakes the entire original trilogy.

Rather than clearly delineating the three titles, have it be one seamless package, all built using the foundations and engine they already have in place when their new entry in the franchise comes out - or better yet, focus on this trilogy first and use that as the platform, then release their version of Halo 4 after.

It would be the perfect way for the team to get intimately familiar with the franchise, deliver something that fans would eat up if it's done well, and give them ample time to get their story for their first truly new game polished before it's in full development.

If they go the route of releasing their new entry first and then adding the harmonized trilogy, the development focus would be almost entirely on adding content rather than updating or tweaking the engine, implementing gameplay mechanics, etc. as most of that work would already be done.

If they go the preferred route of retelling the original trilogy first, the budget will effectively be similar (perhaps slightly larger) to one for a new entry since what time they'd save by not having to design the levels, most of the story, dialogue, etc. that is the typical bonus for a remake will be eaten up by the fact they're doing three game's worth of campaigns instead of one.

You'd play through the campaign without being kicked to the menu in between titles to start the next, and it would be altered to feel like one, extra-long campaign - each game's story would be faithfully retold but with the updated gameplay mechanics and graphics of Activision's new game, as if it was all released at once, but with some cut content incorporated (such as Halo 2's missing third act which would blur the line between Halo 2 and 3 and would also help to make it flow as one campaign) as well as some sections fixed up (such as The Library, which 343 did manage to improve with their Campaign Evolved version).

Then when it comes to multiplayer, rather than three separate games, it'd just be one multiplayer suite with the same gameplay and mechanics, just with an extra-large sandbox since it'd have weapons and vehicles and such from all the games, alongside remade maps from all three of the original games.

Forge would likewise be the same across all three "games" and wouldn't be any different from developing the mode for a new entry.

While it may be a colossal undertaking, if they managed to pull it off it would be a massive hit and well worth the effort, and if they went that route first, it would put them in perfect position to redo Halo 4 in their own vision to form one cohesive, seamless saga going forward.

The next Halo game would then be the foundation not only for the future, but to honour Halo's past as well, with the revamped trilogy forming a kind of re-imagined Master Chief Collection on steroids that can be built on over time.

Whether they go this route with potential remakes or not, rather than looking at their Halo title as just a game, as all developers should be doing nowadays given AAA costs, they should look at it as a platform - one that can be added to each year with significant expansions without having to redo or reinvent everything each time.

Will it happen?

Probably not.

But perhaps someone important at Activision will stumble across this one day and say, "now that's a damn good idea, let's make a shitload of money and make the fans happy".

If there's one thing Halo has taught me over the years, it's that there's always hope.