Halo Zero

Halo Zero, originally called Halo: Blood Covenant, was a fan-made 2D platformer-shooter PC game created by Dobermann. The game was loosely based on the Battle of Reach, before Halo: Combat Evolved took place. The game was not endorsed by Microsoft or Bungie, and thus, is considered non-canon. During the summer of 2004, just before the release of Halo 2, screenshots of the relatively unknown Halo Zero were sent around the Internet ostensibly as proof of an upcoming Halo game for the Game Boy Advance.

Plot
Apparently set during the Battle of Reach, the Master Chief fights his way through waves of Covenant forces invading the Complex. At the end he is picked up by a Pelican, but later shot down. After wandering through a forest, he finds a Warthog. At the end of the ride he gets out and stops a Covenant bomb from destroying a generator. Once the bomb is disarmed, Vice Admiral Whitcomb sends the Chief a transmission saying he's a prisoner on a Covenant ship. Once the Admiral is rescued, the Master Chief goes to a "castle" and saves Sergeant Johnson, who stole an artifact. Together, Johnson and the Chief fight against the Covenant forces until a Pelican arrives to pick them up, carrying them to safety.

Throughout the game all characters call the Covenant "Covenants", and according to the game the Covenant ship was "Truth and Reconciliation".

Strangely enough, at the beginning of the game, it says "Bungie" like it would for any other game, but Halo Zero was not made by Bungie. This may have been done to create the feeling that it was a regular Halo game.

Gameplay
The game had a Campaign mode and Multiplayer mode. Campaign mode had five difficulty settings, Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic. Mythic difficulty would be unlocked by finishing the game in all other difficulties.

The keyboard arrow keys were used for movement, and the mouse acted as a free look, while the left mouse button and the right mouse button shot and threw grenades, respectively. All other functions such as Melee, Switch Weapon and Jump were subject to be changed by the user, but the mouse controls were unchangeable.

Multiplayer maps were based off of existing Halo Multiplayer maps such as Zanzibar and Blood Gulch.

Weapons
UNSC Weaponry
 * M6D Pistol
 * MA5B Assault Rifle
 * M90 Shotgun
 * S2 AM Sniper Rifle
 * M19 SSM Rocket Launcher
 * Frag Grenade

Covenant Weaponry
 * Plasma Pistol
 * Plasma Rifle
 * Needler
 * Energy Sword (unlocked after Mythic difficulty is beaten, dropped by Zealot Elites)
 * Plasma Grenade

Enemies

 * Minor Grunts
 * Major Grunts
 * Jackals
 * Minor Elites
 * Major Elites
 * Zealot Elites
 * Hunters
 * Banshees

System Requirements

 * 1GHZ Processor
 * 256MB of RAM
 * 22MB free disk space
 * A keyboard and mouse
 * A high speed Internet connection

Developmental Notes
Notably, the game had many bugs, and had many misleading concepts, such as the fact that the game didn't shoot where the cursor pointed, but where the Master Chief was aiming, and that headshots didn't do more damage than body shots. Many problems in collision detection occurred as well, such as Jackals being hard to hit due to their shield absorbing the first hit they take (unless hit by a rocket), making a melee attack the most efficient way to take them out.

On May 31, 2009, the official site and therefor server of Halo Zero was deactivated due to a lack of money to continue to keep the site running. The final game version was 1.8.6.3. It is still possible to download Halo Zero, just from different sites.

Halo Zero Level Editor
The Halo Zero Level Editor was a program that allowed the user to create and edit levels compatible with Halo Zero. But it still did not fix the many bugs in the game and the level editor was reported to be rather glitchy.

Halo Zero 2
Halo Zero 2 was a planned but never completed sequel, apparently incorporating some of Halo 2 ' s new features, such as the Battle Rifle and the SMGs. The project was cancelled due to the bandwidth costs of maintaining the game site and having no funds to pay it.