Campaign

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The campaign menu in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Campaign is the single player aspect of the Halo games. In each game, the player participates in various episodes of the Halo storyline. The most recurrent character that players control is John-117, the Master Chief, although roughly half of the Halo games focus on other characters and stories. The events of the Halo campaigns focus on the confrontation between humanity and the Covenant, and also feature prominent interventions by other factions such as the Flood or the Forerunners.

Campaign levels usually consist of missions in which the player kills enemies while going through the level's areas and completing given objectives, where the story is established with cutscenes and in-game dialogues. Cooperative play is available in most but not all games, but the number of players can vary. Different difficulty options (Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary) and gameplay modifiers (skulls, scoring) also exist. The additional Spartan Ops mode in Halo 4 is loosely based on a campaign and continues the game's story.

Most Halo games are first-person shooters where the player controls a single character. The Halo Wars series are real-time strategy games, in which the player can take control of dozens of troops and units at a time. Halo: Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike are top-down isometric shooters.

Campaigns

Halo: Combat Evolved

"While the Covenant had us locked up in here, I overheard the guards talking about this ring world. They call it... Halo."

— Captain Jacob Keyes after being rescued by Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.

Campaign promotional image for Halo: Combat Evolved.

Main articles: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

In Halo: Combat Evolved, the player takes control of the Master Chief. Co-op play allows a second player (also playing the Master Chief) to join in split-screen or system link. In Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the second player can join via Xbox Live. There are ten levels, which can be played on four difficulties. Anniversary also adds Terminals, Skulls, and the possibility to switch between old and new graphics.

The campaign is set in September 2552, as the UNSC is embroiled in the twenty-eighth year of a genocidal war started by the alien hegemony known as the Covenant. The plot revolves around the crew of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, a ship that has escaped the catastrophic Battle of Reach, only to stumble upon Installation 04, a Halo ringworld in uncharted space, something the Covenant believe will act as a gateway to Godhood. The Covenant attempt to destroy the Autumn, but fail, allowing survivors to reach the ring. With the Covenant in pursuit, the Master Chief, alongside his AI companion Cortana, gathers the human survivors and engages the enemy on the surface of Halo, recovering the Autumn's Capitan, Jacob Keyes, while trying to uncover the ring's origin and true purpose. However, the Flood, an all consuming parasite, are revealed after breaking containment and begin spreading across the ring. Attempting to stop the spread of the Flood, the monitor of the ring tries to convince Chief to fire the Halo to kill the flood. However, as they reach the Halo's Control Room, Cortana reveals that Halo is a superweapon designed to prevent the spread of the Flood, capable of destroying every sentient lifeform in the galaxy if activated. Learning this, Chief and Cortana set out to destroy the ring, with Chief detonating the Autumn's Fusion reactor to destroy Halo, with him and Cortana narrowly escaping the ringworld's destruction.

Halo 2

Thel 'Vadamee: "I will continue my campaign against the humans!"

High Prophet of Truth: "No. You will not."

— Thel 'Vadamee's campaign in Halo 2 was focused against Heretics, the Flood, and eventually the Covenant.

Campaign promotional art for Halo 2.

Main articles: Halo 2, Halo 2: Anniversary

In Halo 2, the player alternates between control of the Master Chief and the Arbiter. Co-op allows a second player to join the game in split-screen or system link (or via Xbox Live in Halo 2: Anniversary). Both players control the same character around whom the level focuses (ie: two Master Chiefs, or two Arbiters). There are fifteen levels (an introductory cutscene, a tutorial and thirteen full-fledged missions), playable on four different difficulties, and there are Skulls as gameplay modifiers. Halo 2: Anniversary adds Terminals and additional Skulls along with the possibility to switch between old and new graphics.

The campaign is set in October 2552, with The Master Chief having returned to Earth after the destruction of Installation 04, aboard Cairo Station. Meanwhile, aboard the Covenant's holy city, High Charity, the Covenant commander who failed to protect Halo is branded a heretic. The Covenant finally discover and attack Earth, prompting the Chief to defend the Cairo and the city of Mombasa, Kenya. Meanwhile, the deposed Elite, Thel 'Vadamee becomes the Arbiter and is sent by the Hierarchs to quell a rebellion against the Covenant, retrieving the monitor of the destroyed Halo. On Earth, the UNSC In Amber Clad, with the Chief aboard, pursues the ship of the Prophet of Regret, only to arrive at a new Halo ring, Installation 05. The Chief sets out to kill the Covenant Prophet, and successfully does so, while the Arbiter is sent to retrieve the activation index to secure Halo's activation, before being backstabbed by Tartarus, Chieftain of the Jiralhanae. Both end in the clutches of the Gravemind, the Flood's central intelligence, who orders them to stop the ring's activation. The Covenant fall into a civil war as the Hierarchs order the Brutes to betray the Elites. The Arbiter manages to defeat Tartarus by forming an alliance with the humans. Meanwhile, the Master Chief is forced to abandon Cortana on High Charity, as it is being infested by the Flood, and chases after the last Covenant Hierarch, the Prophet of Truth, who departs to Earth.

Halo 3

Lord Hood: "What we should do Commander, is understand - clearly - that this is humanity's final stand - here - at Earth. We go, we risk everything; every last man, woman and child. If we stand our ground, we might just have a chance."

Thel 'Vadam: "No. If your construct is wrong, then the Flood has already won."

— Humanity and the Sangheili plan their operation against the Covenant and the Flood.

The four characters playable in co-op in the Halo 3 campaign.

Main article: Halo 3

In Halo 3, the player takes control of the John-117. Co-op allows two players in split-screen, and up to four players in system link or Xbox Live. The second, third, and fourth players respectively take control of the Thel 'Vadam, N'tho 'Sraom and Usze 'Taham. It is one of only two Halo games in which the co-op mode has a canonical explanation. There are ten levels playable (an introductory cutscene and nine playable missions). The player can find Terminals and Skulls, and change the game's difficulty either with the four traditional difficulties or with the Skulls. It is also the first game to introduce campaign s