Halo Online

Halo Online was to be a multiplayer-focused Halo game developed by Saber Interactive and Innova Systems in collaboration with 343 Industries. It was officially announced in March 25, 2015, with a closed Alpha test that started on April 21, 2015 in Russia only. On December 28, 2015, a closed Beta test was suspended and on August 24, 2016, cancellation of the game in its current form was announced.

Synopsis
Halo Online takes place shortly after the events of Halo 3 around January 28, 2555. The game is set on a secret UNSC space installation called Anvil, where SPARTAN-IV and Sangheili soldiers train together in simulated war exercises to sharpen their battle skills and test experimental technology.

Gameplay
Halo Online will include "classic weapons and vehicles" from the Halo franchise, including the Hornet and the energy sword. Several new weapons will also be implemented into the game. Fan favorite multiplayer maps will return, along with several new maps—one of which is set in a Russian town. Halo Online is optimized for keyboard and mouse controls. Online matches can currently handle up to sixteen players, with four players being required for a match.

Players will be able to customize their loadouts, including armor, weapons and abilities. There are several variants of each weapon available for modification. Each weapon features variants with increased damage, accuracy, and rate of fire. Unlike most of Halo games, players will not be able to change their armor pieces individually, only as a whole set.

Similar to Halo 5: Guardians there is an ending animation for a match. Though in Halo Online it features only the top three players rather than the entire team.

Professions
In Halo Online three professions are available to the player: Assault, Sharpshooter, and Tactical. These professions dictate the player's starting equipment, such as primary weapon and armor

Original Maps

 * Diamondback
 * Edge
 * Icebox
 * Reactor

Halo 3 Maps

 * Bridge
 * Closed Area
 * Elevation
 * Guardian
 * Hangar
 * Refuge
 * Riverworld
 * Sandtrap

Armor permutations
There are two player models which players can choose from, the standard SPARTAN model or an Elite model. Each model has several armor sets. Each armor set have different effects on gameplay, such as an increased motion tracker range or melee damage boost.

Development
Halo Online was powered by a highly modified version of the Halo 3 engine, optimized for smooth performance on lower-end PCs.

Closed Alpha
On April 6, 2015 the Halo Online closed Alpha test started, and a special armor was given to people who played on that day during the Alpha to signify they were there day one. The Closed Alpha's servers were only active for small hours during the day. All players' stats and progress, were wiped after the closed alpha finished on September 11, 2015

Closed Beta
On September 30, 2015 the closed beta started, and on December 28, 2015, the closed Beta test was suspended. The developers said that they encountered serious problems during the development of Halo Online, and with 343 Industries' counsel they decided to suspend testing and "send the game to a serious revision" for several months. Because of that, for people who bought the exclusive premium Beta tester kits, there was a compensation offer.

Unreleased updates
On October 9, 2015 a developer took an image of an upcoming update that had the user in an Armory on Anvil Station.

Future testing
On March 24, 2016 it was announced that testing will resume, and that an exact date, and detailed information about development will be announced on the official Halo Online VK account at a later date.

2015 build scrapped
On August 24, 2016 Innova Systems announced that Microsoft Studios still had not made a decision on the project's fate, and the game would never be released in its current form, making the project's fate uncertain. Therefore the publisher is shutting down the game's website and the page on social network vk.com. The community manager of Halo Online stated that "such project most likely won't ever exist at all, but only time will show", answering the question if the game is suspended indefinitely.

Announce trailer
An announcement trailer was revealed in March 26, 2015 on YouTube, showing the first in-game gameplay of Halo: Online, displaying the return of some weapons of Halo 3 and the introduction of new armors.

Press Conference (March 26th 2015)
On March 26, 2015 a press conference about Halo Online happened. At this press conference there were holographic pyramids with several renders of Halo Online content were in them.

Story Trailer
An story trailer was released around December 29, 2015 on the official Halo Online site. The trailer went though the story elements leading up to the training the Spartans and Elites on Anvil Station on January 28, 2555. The story trailer can be found here.

El Dewrito
ElDewrito is a localization mod of Halo Online for North America. The 0.6.0 update was released on April 20, 2018 with a 0.6.1 Security Patch released on June 22, 2018. However, because ElDewrito uses the source code of Halo Online (commonly known as ms23), Microsoft asked the developers of the mod to take down all links to ms23 (though it can be found elsewhere). As of Summer 2018, the game can still be run and the ElDewrito mod files can be downloaded, just not the ms23 download. The mod is peer to peer (p2p), it cannot be shutdown. The current legal standing is unknown. All information regarding ElDewrito can be found on the offical subreddit.