Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Is Halo Wars part of the Halo saga?
Strong sales of the games led to the franchise's expansion to other media; there are multiple best-selling novels, graphic novels, and other licensed products. Halo Wars took the franchise into new video game genre territory, as a real-time strategy game, while the rest of the games in the series are first-person shooters. Beyond the original trilogy, Bungie developed the expansion Halo 3: ODST, and a prequel, Halo: Reach, their last project for the franchise. A high-definition remake of the first game, entitled Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, was released on November 15, 2011, ten years after the release of the original. A new installment in a second series of games, Halo 4, was released on November 6, 2012. Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a remastered compilation of the four primary Halo titles, was released for the Xbox One on November 11, 2014.[13] In October 2015, Halo 5: Guardians was released. In February 2017, Halo Wars 2 was released. In June 2018, the next main installment of the Halo series was announced as Halo Infinite.
The third part of the Reclaimer Saga, Halo Infinite, was announced during E3 2018.[51] Halo: Infinite will shift its focus back on to the Master Chief and will take place after the events of Halo 5: Guardians.[52]
The Flood also make appearances in the video game spinoffs "Halo Wars" and "Halo Wars 2". In "Halo Wars", they are encountered infesting a Forerunner installation and ultimately annihilated by the actions of the crew of the humans ship "Spirit of Fire". In the "Halo Wars 2" expansion "Awakening the Nightmare", the alien faction known as the Banished accidentally release the Flood while salvaging the wreck of "High Charity". The Flood also serve as enemies in the game's cooperative "Firefight" mode. The Flood also appear in cooperative play in "".
Development of "Halo Wars 2" began in 2014 when "Halo" franchise developer 343 Industries approached development studio Creative Assembly about collaborating on a project. Creative Assembly were chosen for their years of experience in developing RTS games. 343 Industries wanted to integrate the story of "Halo Wars 2" more closely with the ongoing storyline of the "Halo" series, leading them to set the game 28 years after the original "Halo Wars" to fit the story in the current timeline of the franchise. The game was announced in 2015 at Gamescom and showcased at a number of video gaming conventions before release. Two open betas ran during the final year of the game's production so the development team could make adjustments to the game based on player feedback.
Halo: Silentium is a military science fiction novel by Greg Bear, based on the "Halo" series of video games. The book was released in March 2013 and is the twelfth "Halo" book (the eleventh novel) and the last book in the trilogy of novels focusing on the Forerunners, called "The Forerunner Saga". "Silentium" was released in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook following 2012's "Halo: The Thursday War", the second book in the separate "Kilo-Five" trilogy. "Silentium" concludes the efforts of the Ur-Didact and the Librarian to stop the Flood from destroying the universe. The book reached number eight on the New York Times Bestseller List for Hardcover Fiction.
Blood Gulch is a multiplayer map in the first-person shooter series "Halo". It first appeared in "", and was remade for "Halo 2" as "Coagulation", as well as for "" as "Hemorrage" and "" as "Bloodline". It also had a spiritual successor in "Halo 3"'s "Valhalla", as well as for "Halo 4" as "Ragnarok" and appeared in "Halo Wars". Taking place in a canyon on the Halo ringworld that resembles the American Midwest, it was designed for the Capture the flag game mode but can also be used for other modes, such as deathmatch. Blood Gulch was critically praised as "Halo"'s most iconic and defining multiplayer map, and played a significant role in the machinima series "Red vs. Blue".
Creative Assembly's studio director Tim Heaton said the gameplay of "Halo Wars 2" would not be similar to their "Total War" series. Their approach was to build upon the foundation established with "Halo Wars". With "Halo Wars 2", the development team hoped to introduce new players to the strategy game genre while appeasing experienced gamers by including a range of multiplayer modes that a wide spectrum of players could enjoy. They also wanted to extend the purpose of leader units and their abilities by giving each of them a more defining role in the style of play they represent. Creative Assembly thought the game needed more artillery units capable of performing long range attacks, however there were currently no suitable vehicles in the "Halo" universe. So they created two new vehicles for the role and checked they did not feel out of place using reference material supplied by 343 Industries. Creative director Alistair Hope viewed staying true to the source material as an important factor for all of Creative Assembly's games, but stated that the team were given more freedom to explore and expand the "Halo" universe than they had anticipated. Hope praised the control scheme used in "Halo Wars" and aimed to enhance the system by ensuring "Halo Wars 2" would be intuitive to play on a console. One common control feature included in many PC RTS games but absent from the original "Halo Wars" is control groups, which lets sets of units be manually assigned to a key. As "Halo Wars 2" was developed for console and PC, the designers were keen to include the feature for both versions of the game. 343 Industries had initially considered supporting cross-platform play between Windows and Xbox One devices but the feature was ultimately excluded from the game at launch.
The Blitz game mode resulted from experimenting with ideas for a fast-paced and accessible variation of RTS gameplay. The development team wanted to streamline mechanics, such as base building and resource management, which players typically viewed as being complex and intimidating. The initial design of Blitz involved players having an army roster, like in tabletop war games. After playtesting this version, they realized that the scale of battles would shrink and become less appealing over the course of the match. They revised the mode by implementing a card-and-deck system for unit deployment and introducing randomly spawning resources on the maps. Blitz was influenced by the Warzone game mode from "Halo 5: Guardians" and Blizzard Entertainment's collectible card game "Hearthstone", taking design cues from the card collecting and deck building systems. 343 Industries' head of strategy games Dan Ayoub cited multiplayer online battle arena games as impactful on the design of Blitz, since they replaced resource management with individual unit combat.
"Halo" franchise development director Frank O'Connor explained that "Halo Wars 2" would be more integrated with other fiction in the universe than its predecessor. The story of the first "Halo Wars" is set 20 years before "" and is largely isolated from other games within the series. This was to prevent it from interfering with other projects ("Halo 3" and "") that were also in development at the time. Consequently, "Halo Wars 2" is set in the contemporary fictional timeline following the events of "Halo 5: Guardians", and is said to have a "sense of scale" that the first game was missing. This decision also opened a narrative thread in "Halo Wars 2", in which the returning characters are placed in an unfamiliar universe with outdated technology. Narrative director Kevin Grace said they took most of their inspiration for the game's tone from "Halo: Combat Evolved".
"Halo 4" and "" were both officially announced on June 6, 2011, at the E3 2011. "Halo 4" is the first installment in the Reclaimer Saga of "Halo" games. The studio's creative team, which included nearly 200 people led by creative director Josh Holmes, started developing the game as early as 2009. Prior to the release of the game, Microsoft Studios Vice President Phil Spencer stated that the "Halo" franchise is the "most important entertainment product in the company" and that "Halo 4" was the most expensive game that Microsoft had made. A demonstration of the game's campaign was first shown at E3 2012. The developers described it as a pivotal moment in development, as it was the first time the game had been shown publicly. The positive reaction was a morale boost for the team, who were unsure how the public would react. On July 7, 2012, a pre-release build of "Halo 4"s Forge mode was showcased by 343 Industries and Certain Affinity at RTX which took place at the Austin Convention Center. On September 26, 2012, O'Connor announced that the game's development was complete.
Halo: Primordium is a military science fiction novel by Greg Bear, based on the "Halo" series of video games. The book was released in January 2012 and is the tenth "Halo" book (the ninth novel) and the middle book in the trilogy of novels focusing on the Forerunners, called "The Forerunner Saga". "Primordium" was released in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook following 2011's "Halo: Glasslands", the first book in the separate "Kilo-Five" trilogy. "Primordium" reached number seventeen on the New York Times Bestseller List in Hardcover Fiction.
On July 19, 2011, Tor Books revealed the cover, title, and release date of the second book in the Forerunner Saga. On October 12, 2011 the book was completed and submitted to the publisher. On December 28, 2011 the first chapter of the book was made available on the publishers website and chapters 2, 3, and part of 4 were made available on the Halo Waypoint website. Video game website Kotaku was given a five-minute audio clip of the book being read by Tim Dadabo, who voiced the character of 343 Guilty Spark in previous Halo games. At a Comic-Con panel on the Halo Universe, Frank O'Connor stated that the book would have "resonant connections" with Halo 4. Bear stated that the interactions of the humans and the Forerunners were some of his favorite parts of the Forerunner trilogy. On April 12, 2013 Tor Books ran a promotion giving away the entire book trilogy to one participant.
A collection of Halo short stories, Halo: Evolutions, was simultaneously released in print and audiobook formats in November 2009. Evolutions includes original material by Nylund, Buckell, Karen Traviss and contributions from Bungie.[132] Tor re-released the first three Halo novels with new content and cover art.[133] Science fiction author Greg Bear wrote a trilogy of books focusing on the Forerunners, called The Forerunner Saga. The first book, entitled Halo: Cryptum, was released in January 2011,[134] followed by Primordium in January 2012 and Silentium on March 19, 2013.[135] Karen Traviss wrote the Kilo-Five trilogy, which takes place after the events of Halo 3 and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.[136] The first book, Halo: Glasslands, came out October 2011, followed by Halo: The Thursday War on October 2, 2012, and Halo: Mortal Dictata on January 21, 2014. The fourteenth Halo book (the thirteenth novel) was released in November 2014: Halo: Broken Circle by John Shirley, the author of novels based on BioShock, Borderlands, and other games.[137]
The Halo Array is a group of fictional megastructures and superweapons in the "Halo" science fiction franchise, consisting of ring-shaped worlds known as Halos and a control station called the Ark. They are referred to as "Installations" by their AI monitors, and were created by an ancient race known as the Forerunners. The series' alien antagonists, the Covenant, refer to the Halos as the "Sacred Rings", believing them to form part of a greater religious prophecy known as "The Great Journey". According to "Halo"s fiction, the Forerunners built the Halo Array to contain and study the Flood, an infectious alien parasite. The rings act together as a weapon of last resort; when fired, they kill any sentient life capable of falling prey to the Flood, starving the parasite of its food. The installations are at the crux of the plot progression for the "Halo" series.
Marvel announced at the 2009 Comic Con that two new comics, a five-part series written by Peter David and a second series written by Fred Van Lente, would appear the coming summer and winter.[146] David's series, Halo: Helljumper, is set prior to Halo: Combat Evolved and focuses on the elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The five-part series was published between July and November 2009.[147] Lente's series, originally titled Spartan Black, revolves around a black ops team of Spartan supersoldiers assigned to the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence.[148] The rebranded comic, Halo: Blood Line, debuted in December 2009.[149] A comic-retelling of the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach was the most recent comic series entitled: Halo: Fall of Reach. Fall of Reach was split into three mini-stories: Boot Camp, Covenant, and Invasion.[150] Two new series were announced in 2013. A three-part series, Halo: Initiation was released August 2013 with Brian Reed returning as writer.[151] Also announced was Halo: Escalation, an ongoing comic series covering the period directly after Halo 4.[152]
Paul Lipson served as audio director on "Halo Wars 2". The game's soundtrack was composed by Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White and Brian Trifon. White and Trifon had collaborated with Lipson on the music of previous "Halo" projects, such as "" and the "Halo" Channel application. The composers analyzed design documents, artwork, and early versions of the game to learn about the story and motivations of characters. This research helped them to determine the emotional tone and instrumental choices for the music. They wanted to incorporate the customary components of "Halo" scores such as the use of a large orchestra, a choir, and electronic music, while also taking the music in a new direction. As "Halo Wars 2" was considered a spin-off to the core "Halo" games, the composers were not as beholden to Martin O'Donnell's established sound of the series. This gave them the opportunity to experiment with the soundtrack and introduce elements like brass instruments to the music.
In a July 2008 interview with MTV, Microsoft's head of Xbox business, Don Mattrick, stated that Bungie was working on a new Halo game for Microsoft, independent of other Halo projects. An announcement of the new Halo project was expected at the 2008 E3 game exposition, which Bungie stated "has been building for several months", but was delayed by their publisher Microsoft.[54] The Halo announcement was to be part of Microsoft's 150-minute E3 presentation, and was cut to trim the presentation down to 90 minutes; Microsoft stated it wanted to give the game its own dedicated event.[55] After the release of an ambiguous teaser trailer on September 25,[56] the project was revealed as Halo 3: Recon, later changed to Halo 3: ODST. Set between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3, players take control of elite human soldiers called Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST). The game was released on September 22, 2009.
In 2017, 343 Industries and Creative Studios released a sequel to Halo Wars titled Halo Wars 2. The soundtrack was composed by Gordy Haab, Brian Lee White and Brian Trifo under the direction of Paul Lipson who had helped in the audio and music of nearly every previous Halo title. The Halo Wars 2 soundtrack featured many melodies from the music that Stephen Rippy had composed for the first Halo Wars but with new arrangements and more melodies to represent the individual characters. The original game soundtrack was released on February 17, 2017 and released digitally on February 21, 2017.
At Gamescom in August 2015, Microsoft Studios announced "Halo Wars 2" for Windows PCs and the Xbox One video game console. Trailers featuring cinematics from the game were released from the announcement of the game up to its launch. The announcement trailer at Gamescom 2015 showed an injured UNSC soldier being dragged away and Atriox taunting. The trailer shown at E3 2016 was created by Blur Studio, and depicted the leaders of both factions—Cutter and Atriox—facing off as their forces are engaged in conflict. At RTX 2016, 343 Industries revealed a teaser of the in-game cinematics, illustrating "Spirit of Fire"s arrival at the Ark and Spartan supersoldiers encountering the Banished. At The Game Awards 2016, a trailer focusing on Atriox's background and motives was presented. On February 9, 2017, Microsoft released two live action trailers showing Cutter and Atriox confronting each other in comedic real-life scenarios. Multiplayer modes from the game were available to play at a number of video gaming conventions and expos including E3, RTX, Gamescom, and Paris Games Week. 343 Industries and toy maker Mattel announced a partnership to create a new line of "Halo" toys based on "Halo Wars 2". In August 2017, Dark Horse Comics published the first issue of "Halo: Rise of Atriox", a five-chapter comic book limited series about the games' primary antagonist.
"Halo Wars 2" was initially scheduled to be released for Windows and Xbox One in 2016, however it was delayed until February 21, 2017. It is the first "Halo" game to launch simultaneously on console and PC. The game was released as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program which allows a digital purchase to be playable on both Windows and Xbox One. THQ Nordic handled distribution of the European retail PC release. An Ultimate Edition version of the game included a downloadable content (DLC) season pass, access to the game four days early, and a copy of "Halo Wars: Definitive Edition"—an enhanced version of the original game for Windows and Xbox One. "Halo Wars 2" debuted in second place on the UK's weekly retail sales chart.
Following the launch of "Halo Wars 2", a demo, featuring the campaign's opening mission and the Blitz Firefight mode, was released on the Xbox One and Windows. 343 Industries and Creative Assembly supported "Halo Wars 2" post-release with additional content and updates. A multiplayer ranking system was withheld from the game at launch as the development team wanted gameplay to be as balanced as possible before its release. The DLC included new units, leaders, Blitz cards, and two extra campaign missions. The content was distributed on a monthly basis beginning in March 2017. A campaign expansion, "Awakening the Nightmare," was revealed on June 12, 2017, and released on September 26, 2017. It also features new leaders, maps, and a cooperative mode. In late October 2017, "Halo Wars 2" received a number of visual enhancements for the Xbox One X. Additionally, cross-platform play between console and PC was enabled.
In Book Three, the darkest part of the saga, ten years have elapsed and Halo has become a soldier serving in a Vietnam-style guerrilla interstellar war which has appeared as back-story in the previous two books, and is courted by a famous, fearsome-looking general, Luiz Cannibal. The series ends with the cessation of hostilities, after which Halo commandeers a spaceship and deserts, determined to take charge of her own fate.Other places she had visited or spent time in included Proxima IV, Vescue, Sirius, Skinner's World, and Popotoplec. Although it is mentioned that she met the famous historical figure Sally Quasa, this meeting does not take place in the first 3 books.
In addition to the standard retail version, a Limited Collector's Edition of "Halo Wars" was made available. To attract "Halo 3"s player base, Microsoft bundled early access to the Mythic Map Pack, a collection of three "Halo 3" multiplayer maps, with the collector's edition. A 48-page, half-size hardcover graphic novel was also included; titled "Halo Wars: Genesis", it was created by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine, and Eric Nylund. It explores the background stories of Anders, the Arbiter, Forge and Cutter. Other bonuses included a unique in-game vehicle, trading cards, and a "Spirit of Fire" patch. Players who pre-ordered the game from certain retailers received a special in-game Warthog vehicle with flame decals. GameStop announced that on February 28, 2009, one thousand stores in the United States would hold "Halo Wars" tournaments, and two thousand GameStop stores held midnight releases for the game. European markets sold a "Best of "Halo"" bundle of "Halo Wars", "Halo 3" and an Xbox 360.
In 2009, Microsoft Studios launched "Halo Wars", a real-time strategy spin-off from the first-person shooter series "Halo". It was developed by Microsoft subsidiary Ensemble Studios. While "Halo Wars" was a commercial success, Ensemble Studios was shut down after development. Before its closure, the studio had started planning a story for a sequel. According to "Halo Wars" lead writer Graeme Devine, this script explored the history of the Forerunners and involved "Spirit of Fire" arriving at a Forerunner station tracked by Anders. In 2007, Microsoft formed an internal division, 343 Industries, to develop "Halo" products, and the studio searched for a developer to partner on a "Halo Wars" sequel. They viewed working with other developers and using external experience as key to maintaining quality across their projects.
Halo: Cryptum is a military science fiction novel by Greg Bear, based on the "Halo" series of video games. The book was released in January 2011 and is the eighth "Halo" book (the seventh novel) and the first in the trilogy of novels focusing on the Forerunners, called "The Forerunner Saga". "Cryptum" was released in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook following 2009's "", a collection of "Halo" short stories. It is succeeded by "", published in January 2012, and "", in March 2013. Bear was given little restriction on the story of the novel; the "Halo" universe had not yet been explored in that time period.
In 2008, while 343 Industries was still in formation, Microsoft approached Starlight Runner Entertainment to help assemble the ""Halo" bible". Starlight Runner is a New York-based company that specializes in creating and producing transmedia franchises. Their job was to examine all content of the "Halo" universe, clean it up, and make it coherent and understandable for the people involved with the creation of "Halo" games and media. Frank O'Connor, a content manager at Bungie, assisted the team with the creation of the ""Halo" bible" before moving to 343 Industries to become "Halo" franchise development director. Unlike the original trilogy, the story for "Halo 4" was designed to be part of a multi-game arc from the beginning. In addition, 343 Industries aimed for "a more complete connectivity between all of their future media than before"; relating "Halo 4"s story to the "Forerunner Saga" and "Kilo-Five Trilogy" novels as well as using terminals in "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary" to introduce background knowledge on the Forerunners.
343 started with a staff of roughly a dozen people, but grew to nearly 200 through development. "Halo 4"s development team included former employees of more than 25 triple-A studios. Prospective employees could not be told they were going to be working on "Halo 4". "We had people who we hired who hated "Halo" because of 'X,'" said Frank O'Connor, 343 Industries' franchise development director. "But what that really meant was, 'I feel like this game could be awesome because of 'Y input' that I'm going to bring into it. I want to prove it, and I'm passionate about proving it.' So we ended up with a bunch of people who were genuinely passionate about the product. That is a huge advantage, and that helped in hiring and forming our team." This rapid hiring and growth occurred during development of the game, creating issues; because the team was committed to a delivery date, "Halo 4" executive producer Kiki Wolfkill said that the team was forced to make "necessary mistakes", with production difficulties and a team inexperienced with working together contributing to development difficulties. Nine months before shipping, the developers restructured the game's production pipeline and gave individual teams more control due to bottlenecks in development. With so many developers from different backgrounds, forging a common goal and company culture was different. Creative director Josh Holmes recalled that an "epiphany moment" that proved the team was headed in the right direction was early in development, when the team completed a section of the game that was "very traditional ["Halo"]". Despite positive feedback from testers, 343 Industries discarded the prototype as too traditional, but felt that it showed the team could work together.
Following Bungie's departure from Microsoft in 2007, 343 Industries was eventually given complete control of the "Halo" franchise including servers and data on March 31, 2012. The studio's development of "Halo 4", which began in 2009, was completed ahead of schedule the same year in September. It was released on November 6, 2012, as the first title of a new "Halo" Reclaimer Trilogy which will include at least two more installments over the years. At E3 2013, Microsoft and 343i announced the next "Halo" installment set for release on the Xbox One. Shortly after the announcement, the Reclaimer Trilogy was confirmed by Microsoft Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer to be expanded into a Reclaimer Saga. The following year at E3 2014, the official title was revealed as "Halo 5: Guardians" along with plans for its release on October 27, 2015. Microsoft, in a contract with Mega Bloks, is in conjunction with 343i to manufacture a new line of toys and other memorabilia for the upcoming "Halo" saga. "" was released on October 27, 2015, with semi-exclusive content to those who purchased select Mega Bloks sets. 343 Industries has since released free monthly content updates since Halo 5's launch.
"Halo Wars" garnered generally positive reviews. The game has an average of 82/100 on aggregate web site Metacritic. Critics were split on whether "Halo Wars" was a successful console translation of the RTS genre. GameSpy's Allen Rausch argued that, as "" showed that first-person shooters could work on consoles, "Halo Wars" "is an RTS ... on a console ... and it works". Tom Price of TeamXbox said that gamers have been waiting a long time for a console RTS "to get it right", and "Halo Wars" did so; reviewers for "Official Xbox Magazine" credited Ensemble with creating a strategy game that felt "absolutely at home on the console", rather than a "poorly shoehorned ... port" of a PC game with clumsy controls. 1UP's Thierry Nguyen was neutral about whether it was a good RTS game or "Halo" title, but called it a "solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS". Digital Trends' Scott Steinberg said that, while not perfect, "Halo Wars" made a strong case for the viability of RTS on consoles; "There's certainly the potential to have PC holdouts seriously reconsidering hoisting the controller." Peter Hartlaub of the "San Francisco Chronicle" offered a dismissive summation of the game as "a remedial game—real-time strategy for dummies", and stated that the game offered relatively little innovation when compared to other "Halo" titles.
Although Ensemble had to re-create all of Bungie's assets from scratch, Bungie had produced a large amount of reference material for the "Halo" film adaptation that the "Halo Wars" team used for inspiration. Another reference point was art from the "Halo" first-person shooters; however, as the art was from a forward perspective and "Halo Wars" takes place from a bird's-eye view, the team exaggerated shapes to make the units recognizable. Lead designer Graeme Devine noted that the Warthog Jeep is "actually jumping three times as high as it does in "Halo", and it goes four times faster than it does in "Halo", and all these things—but it looks the same. Very different, between look and accuracy." To ensure artistic continuity between "Halo Wars" and previous games in the series, Ensemble created a set of guidelines for their artists to follow; for example, the Covenant were to retain their curvy, organic look, while the Forerunner and UNSC were to keep the same geometry angles. UNSC structures and units were given a green tint, with gold specular highlights. The Covenant were textured with a repeating honeycomb pattern, with small blue lights against a purple base color.