The Halo series is to gaming what Star Wars is to cinema – an indelible piece of history that transformed the industrie’s imagination and created a worldwide following. Undoubtedly Microsofts most precious gaming IP, Halo has been credited for making first person shooters relevant to gaming consoles, whereas beforehand the genre was largely restricted to PC games. At its core, the Halo games, which include four main entries alongside numerous spin-offs, are first person shooters which pit a specialized human combatant against a horde of alien antagonists. However the larger story is complex and powerful and its scope and power has drawn comparison to Virgils Aeniad. It concerns an ongoing war between a theocracy of allied Alien races called the Covenant and humanity. This struggle is framed against an older conflict between aliens called the Forerunners, primogenitors of the Covenant races, and a deadly parasitic species called The Flood, whose onslaught was unstoppable. After centuries of war the Forerunners, in bid to prevent all life being overrun by the Flood, built giant torus megaweapons in space called the Halo arrays (fans of Larry Niven’s Ringworld take note!). These weapons when activated would destroy all life in the galaxy after which life would be reseeded via Panspermia reseeding. Desperate and on the brink of defeat, the Forerunners activated the Halo array and disappeared.

Players take on a the role of a specialized human super soldier known alternatively as The Master Chief or John-117 (or a concatenated version of the two). These super soldiers, called Spartans, where developed specifically to put down a civil war between human colonies, however they quickly become a prime weapon for use against the Covenant, who have deemed mankind heretics and consequently launched a war against humanity with the intent of complete genocide. The plot progresses through the titles with numerous developments including a rebel force of aliens joining forces with humanity, and appearances of the the Flood.

Now the fifth installment in the series is set for release – Halo 5: Guardians. With its predecessor Halo 4 being released in 2012, the excitement regarding this game is tangible. Halo 5 introduces a new gameplay dynamic with the introduction of fireteams – groups of soldier working in concert – and the main plot of the story will be driven by the progress of two principal teams: Blue Team and Fire Team Osiris which are led by the Master Chief and  a character called Spartan Locke respectively. The story is set to take place in numerous locations including the homeworld of the Covenant species called the Sangheilli. Early previews have only praised the Halo 5, saying that it is a remarkable improvement on its predecessor.

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