Multiplayer

There is more information available on this subject at Multiplayer on the English Wikipedia.

Players in Halo 5: Guardians fighting on the map Dispatch.

"Two men enter. The better man leaves. The lesser man is respawning. And that's Halo."

— Luke Smith

Multiplayer is a feature of a video game allowing more than one person to play a game at the same time in a non-campaign setting. Multiplayer can be conducted using split-screen (with the exception of Halo 5: Guardians), System Link, or online. In the Halo games, multiplayer has been regarded as a core element of the game's design and an important part of the success of the Halo franchise.

Since Halo 4, multiplayer has been integrated into the Halo series canon as a Spartan training simulation known as War Games.

Background

Multiplayer matches in Halo tend to focus on the completion of an objective, with the objective in question being determined by the gametype being used. Players use weapons, equipment, and vehicles to advance toward the objective while inhibiting their opponents' progress. These items are commonly used, as one might expect, to score kills. Scoring kills can be helpful even in non-deathmatch games, as a killed opponent will often respawn away from their objective and without their preferred weapons.

In more recent games in the series (from Halo 3 onwards), modes of play are accessed through lobbies. While in lobbies, players can organize themselves into groups called 'parties'. Each party has one party leader, who controls the lobby that the party will play in and the settings that they will use. Party leaders can leave the party open (allowing other players to join at any time) or restrict it to an invite-only status (other players must be invited by members of the party in order to join). They can also promote another player in the party to the party leader.

Though some Halo games with support for online multiplayer have used (user-established) dedicated servers, most games in the franchise rely on a distributed networking model. In such a model, the players' consoles connect to each other directly, with one console acting as a server.

As is the case with virtually every competitive activity in human society, people have tried to cheat while playing Halo. Numerous arguably-unfair practices, such as camping, team-killing, and the Noob Combo, are used for the same reason. A multiplayer map can take as many as sixteen players.

Profiles

Each Halo first-person shooter allows players to create profiles, which are used to store information about players. Halo profiles store both a player's game settings and some customized visual details to distinguish the player. In Halo games made for Xbox Live, profiles are bound to gamertags; all gameplay is conducted with a profile, and players without gamertags are granted temporary profiles for the duration of their session.

The profile creator in Halo: Combat Evolved was very basic. Players had the ability to create a unique name, customize their armor color, and change the game controls and settings. Halo PC's settings were more intricate, including various sound and video settings as well as the ability to create custom control schemes (as opposed to picking preset control schemes).

With the addition of online multiplayer through Xbox LIVE, the profile creator in Halo 2 was redesigned and altered. Halo 2 introduced additional armor colors and the ability for a player to use two colors for their armor. Major additions included the ability to play as a Sangheili in multiplayer and the additions were notable for allowing players to identify teammates at a glance—a sharp contrast to the unmarked waypoints shown in Halo: Combat Evolved.

The updated profile creator in Halo 3 kept those settings and added more. Players could create a Service Tag consisting of a letter and two numbers; Service Tags are now shown over waypoints instead of Emblems. Additional Emblem designs, colors, and features were added. Bungie also added a gender option, which changes the player's voice. The most notable addition, however, was the armor permutations, which allows players to change the models used for their helmets, shoulders, and chestplates.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Multiplayer action in Halo: Combat Evolved on Chiron TL-34: two Blue Team players attack a Red Team player.

The multiplayer component of the Halo: Combat Evolved Xbox version was limited to split-screen and System Link play. Five core gametypes existed: Slayer, Oddball, Capture The Flag, King of the Hill, and Race. Various stock variants with altered settings existed, and players could create their own.

Though the game did not support online multiplayer, network tunneling programs, such as XBConnect and XLink Kai, could be used to coerce the game into running online. However, the game tends to freeze and stutter while it works to keep things synchronized—today's internet connection speeds come nowhere close to the 100 megabit connection that the game expects.

Halo PC

The PC version supports online multiplayer, and can run games with custom gametypes and up to sixteen players. Six additional maps were also added to the game: Danger Canyon, Death Island, Gephyrophobia, Ice Fields, Infinity, and Timberland. Two additional weapons—the Flamethrower and the Fuel Rod Gun—became usable in the PC version as well.

Players can host both listen servers and dedicated servers. A server browser, provided by GameSpy, comes with the game, though players can also use a LAN browser to find servers. (Alternatively, the IP address or domain name of a server can be accessed directly.) Unfortunately, the game lacks any kind of stat tracking, standardized rules, banlists, or cheat detection past what server administrators provide; this complicates competitive organization and the prevention of cheating and griefing.

Halo Custom Edition

Halo Custom Edition, a multiplayer-only expansion of Halo PC, allowed players to run user-created maps and gametypes online. Such maps could be created using the Halo Editing Kit. Amongst these maps were a number of Halo 2-based maps, such as Zanzibar and Coagulation. In addition, there are a vast number of non-canon maps set in Halo-inspired locations using only Halo assets, as well as many other maps which incorporate custom weapons, vehicles, locations, and player models.

Halo 2

Multiplayer action in Halo 2 on Tombstone: An ongoing Free-For-All battle.

"They say all good things must come to an end. Well, we say that totally sucks! Thanks for treating our old gal right for all these years. And thanks a million for playing. <3,"

— Bungie's farewell message

Halo 2's multiplayer functionality was completely redesigned to work with Xbox Live. Matchmaking allowed players to search for games in a variety of different playlists, such as Team Objective, Team Doubles, and Rumble Pit; players could find each other quickly, relatively anonymously, and without having to sort through their friends list. Players could also create and host their own Custom Games, and could invite other players to join them. The lobby system was also introduced; each form of multiplayer was given a lobby, so that players in a party could stick together after a match.

Putting Microsoft's Trueskill system to use, Bungie employed a ranking system that displayed a level (1-50) based on how well a player played in a particular playlist. Rankings were for individual playlists, and players who would continually win games in a certain playlist would rank up in that playlist. Bungie also split their multiplayer component into two major categories; ranked and un-ranked. While the ranked playlists offered players a chance to display skill, the un-ranked playlists were more social and relaxed, and allowed guests.

Halo 2 introduced the concept of awarding medals to players for various accomplishments during a match,