Through his eyes, the player must journey through layers of concrete and neon-lit Hell to reunite with their squad. This one-off story follows a group of ODSTs stuck in the middle of occupied New Mombasa, with the player taking control of a faceless, voiceless protagonist by the name of the Rookie. In this case, Halo 3: ODST is technically a narrative expansion for Halo 3 that actually takes place during the events of Halo 2. The Halo franchise is no stranger to spin-off stories. While Halo: Reach does contradict the book, Halo: The Fall of Reach, it does a fantastic job of telling a self-contained story that meshes well with the games as opposed to the novels. It is tonally one of the strongest games in the series, thanks in large part to its excellent visual style and musical direction. This provides a backdrop for a very human story of heroic sacrifice and survival. The game details the gradual fall of the Human fortress world, Reach, to an invading Covenant armada. This makes them memorable and allows the player to form connections with them over the course of the narrative. Each member of the squad has a distinct personality, simplistic as they are, with each fulfilling a particular archetype both in personality and visual design. Putting the player in a spartan squad during the fall of Reach made for an epic, tragic sendoff for the franchise at the time.

With this in mind, the selection of best Halo stories has been updated, adding Halo: Infinite to the list and seeing how it compares to its predecessors.Īs far as spin-off Halo stories go, Halo: Reach is easily among the better ones in the series. This raises the list of major releases in the Halo series to an even 10 and is the third game to be developed by 343 Industries, (Halo Wars 2 was developed by Creative Assembly). With the release of Halo: Infinite back in 2021, 343 Industries took the franchise in a new direction and gave fans a new story to add to the list. Updated on November 23, 2023, by Gregory Louis Gomez: The debate over which Halo games have the best story continues among longtime fans of the franchise. Here is a list of how the major games in the franchise compare to one another. Many fans still debate over which of the games features the best story over two decades and ten major releases later. In an era where story-based campaigns seem to be given less and less attention in the genre, Halo has continued to be associated with quality single-player experiences. Halo is often included with other all-time greats of the genre, such as Half-Life and System Shock in this regard. One of the other significant things the franchise is known for advancing in shooters is storytelling.