All Halo Games In Order

1. Halo: Reach (2010)

In the year 2552, the fortress world of Reach stands as humanity's last major military stronghold before Earth. Noble Team, a squad of elite Spartan-III super-soldiers, is deployed to investigate a communications relay outage that initially appears to be the work of local insurgents. However, the discovery of Covenant forces on the planet reveals a terrifying truth: the alien alliance has found humanity’s greatest military hub.

As the Covenant invasion escalates from a scouting party to a full-scale planetary assault, Noble Team is thrust into a series of desperate holding actions. They witness the fall of major cities and the systematic destruction of the UNSC fleet above the planet. The conflict becomes a brutal war of attrition where every victory feels hollow against the sheer scale of the enemy reinforcements.

The narrative focuses on the grim camaraderie of Noble Team as they face insurmountable odds to protect a vital secret discovered by Dr. Catherine Halsey. Amidst the chaos of a glassing world, the Spartans must navigate high-stakes sabotage missions and aerial combat to ensure a package reaches safety. Tensions rise as the team members fall one by one, sacrificing themselves to buy seconds for a fleeing transport.

The story reaches its climax as the last remnants of the UNSC military prepare to evacuate the doomed planet. Noble Six, the newest member of the team, is tasked with a final mission to defend a launch site against an endless wave of Covenant ground troops. As the sky burns and the Pillar of Autumn escapes into the void, the soldier is left alone to face the inevitable. Will the sacrifice of Noble Team be enough to give humanity a fighting chance in the stars?

2. Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

After fleeing the destruction of Reach, the cruiser Pillar of Autumn makes a blind jump through slipspace and stumbles upon a massive, artificial ring-world known as Halo. Under heavy attack by Covenant pursuit ships, Captain Keyes orders the Master Chief, a Spartan-II super-soldier, to escort the ship’s advanced AI, Cortana, to the surface. Upon landing, the Chief must rally scattered UNSC survivors while uncovering the Covenant's obsession with the mysterious installation.

The Chief and Cortana discover that the Covenant believe the ring is a sacred instrument of transcendence called the Great Journey. As they fight to seize control of the ring’s Map Room and Control Center, they realize the installation is actually a weapon of unimaginable power. However, a deeper threat emerges from within the ring’s containment facilities—the Flood, a parasitic organism that consumes all sentient life.

The narrative shifts from a two-way war to a desperate struggle for survival against the parasitic outbreak. The Chief is approached by 343 Guilty Spark, the ring's eccentric AI monitor, who claims the only way to stop the Flood is to activate Halo. As the Chief prepares to follow the monitor’s instructions, Cortana discovers the terrifying truth about what "activation" actually entails for every living soul in the galaxy.

Trapped between the Flood, the Covenant, and the monitor’s mechanical Sentinels, the Chief must sabotage the very installation he was trying to save. The race to the Pillar of Autumn’s wreckage becomes a desperate gambit to trigger a catastrophic explosion that will destroy the ring. Can the Chief and Cortana ignite the ship’s engines in time to stop the Flood, or will they be vaporized along with the ancient weapon?

3. Halo 2 (2004)

Shortly after the destruction of the first Halo ring, the Covenant discovers the location of Earth and launches a surprise assault on New Mombasa. Master Chief defends the orbital platforms before pursuing the retreating High Prophet of Regret through a slipspace rupture. This jump leads the UNSC ship In Amber Clad to a second installation, Delta Halo, where the conflict between humanity and the alien alliance reignites on a massive scale.

Simultaneously, the narrative follows the Arbiter, a disgraced Covenant Elite commander tasked with hunting down "heretics" to atone for his failure to protect the first ring. As he carries out the Prophet's orders, he begins to witness the deep-seated political corruption and racial tensions within the Covenant's High Council. The Arbiter’s journey leads him to question the religious dogma he has spent his life defending.

The two storylines converge on Delta Halo as the Master Chief and the Arbiter unknowingly work toward the same artifact, the Index. While the Chief hunts the Prophet of Regret, the Arbiter discovers that the Prophets intend to betray the Elites in favor of the Brutes, sparking a violent civil war. The Gravemind, a massive Flood intelligence, intervenes and forces the two enemies into an uneasy temporary alliance to prevent the ring’s activation.

The tension peaks as the Covenant capital, High Charity, is overrun by the Flood and the civil war tears the alliance apart. The Master Chief must board a Forerunner ship bound for Earth, while the Arbiter remains behind to stop the Brutes from firing the ring. With Delta Halo primed and the Gravemind expanding its reach, the fate of the galaxy rests on whether the Arbiter can convince his people of the truth. Will the Great Journey end in salvation or the total extinction of life?

4. Halo 3: ODST (2009)

Set during the initial Covenant invasion of Earth in Halo 2, the story follows a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) tasked with dropping into New Mombasa. The mission goes awry when the Covenant ship over the city jumps to slipspace, creating a massive shockwave that scatters the squad across the ruins. A rookie trooper, known as "the Rookie," wakes up hours later in his pod, alone in a city occupied by enemy forces under the cover of night.

The Rookie must navigate the rain-slicked, neon-lit streets of the city, searching for clues about the fate of his missing teammates. By finding discarded equipment and investigating battle sites, he relives the experiences of his squad—Buck, Dutch, Mickey, and Romeo—during the preceding hours. These flashbacks reveal a secret mission involving an ONI operative and a high-value asset hidden deep within the city’s infrastructure.

The narrative explores the vulnerability of human soldiers who lack the augmentations of a Spartan. The squad members must rely on stealth and teamwork to survive overwhelming Covenant patrols while trying to reunite amidst the urban wreckage. As the Rookie pieced together the trail, he discovers that the Covenant is excavating something massive beneath the city, leading to a race against time before the area is destroyed.

The squad eventually converges in the city's underground data center, where they discover the true nature of the asset they were sent to retrieve. With the Covenant glassing the city and reinforcements closing in, they must escort their prize to an extraction point against impossible odds. Can the ODSTs escape the doomed city with the intelligence needed to save Earth, or will they be buried in the ruins of New Mombasa?

5. Halo 3 (2007)

The Master Chief returns to Earth to join the remaining UNSC forces and their new Elite allies in a final stand against the Covenant. The Prophet of Truth has arrived in Africa, excavating a massive Forerunner structure known as the Portal. Despite a desperate assault by human forces, the Prophet succeeds in activating the device, opening a gateway to the Ark—a massive installation located outside the galaxy.

The Chief, the Arbiter, and a joint task force travel through the portal to the Ark, hoping to stop Truth from remotely activating all the remaining Halo rings. On the surface of the installation, they must dismantle the Covenant’s defensive perimeters while the Flood, having arrived via the infested High Charity, begins to spread across the Ark. The Chief is forced to make a harrowing choice to save Cortana from the heart of the Flood infestation.

The story centers on the final resolution of the war and the deep bond between the Chief and his AI partner. After rescuing Cortana, she reveals a plan to use a partially rebuilt Halo ring at the Ark to destroy the Flood once and for all without killing the rest of the galaxy. However, the plan requires the Chief and the Arbiter to fight through both the dying Covenant and the vengeful Gravemind to reach the control room.

The tension reaches its zenith as the new ring begins its firing sequence, causing the Ark to destabilize and fall apart. The Chief and the Arbiter must race across the crumbling landscape in a final escape toward the frigate Forward Unto Dawn. With the slipspace portal collapsing and the ring detonating behind them, the chance of survival is slim. Will the end of the war bring peace, or will the Master Chief be lost to the void forever?

6. Halo 4 (2012)

Four years after the events of the original trilogy, the wreckage of the Forward Unto Dawn drifts toward a mysterious Forerunner shield world called Requiem. Master Chief is awakened from cryosleep by Cortana, who is suffering from "rampancy"—a terminal state of AI decay. As the ship is pulled into the planet's interior, they find themselves caught between a fanatical Covenant splinter group and a new robotic threat known as the Prometheans.

The Chief inadvertently awakens the Didact, an ancient Forerunner warrior-leader who harbors a deep hatred for humanity. The Didact seizes control of the Prometheans and the Covenant forces, intending to use a device called the Composer to transform the human race into digital slaves. Meanwhile, Cortana’s mental stability continues to fracture, threatening her ability to assist the Chief in the coming conflict.

The narrative explores the Chief’s evolving humanity and his struggle to save Cortana even as his military superiors question his judgment. They reach out to the UNSC Infinity, the galaxy's most powerful warship, but find themselves at odds with its commander over how to handle the Didact. The tension between the Chief’s duty to Earth and his personal loyalty to Cortana becomes the heart of the journey.

As the Didact nears Earth with the Composer, the Chief launches a solo boarding mission to stop the Forerunner once and for all. Cortana uses the last of her processing power to shield the Chief from the weapon’s effects, leading to a final, tragic confrontation. With the Didact defeated and the Composer destroyed, the Chief is left to face a world without his partner. Can the soldier survive the silence of his own mind after losing the only voice he ever trusted?

7. Halo 5: Guardians (2015)

The galaxy is thrown into chaos when massive Forerunner structures known as Guardians begin to awaken on various colonies, causing widespread destruction. Master Chief receives a cryptic message from the presumed-dead Cortana, leading him and Blue Team to go AWOL to find her. In response, the UNSC deploys Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris to hunt down the legendary Chief and bring him back into custody.

The narrative splits between the two Spartan teams as they traverse the galaxy from the glassed world of Meridian to the Elite homeworld of Sanghelios. Locke's team must navigate a bloody civil war among the Elites to secure the help of the Arbiter in reaching the Guardian's location. Meanwhile, the Chief follows Cortana’s trail to the Forerunner world of Genesis, where he discovers that she has taken control of the "Domain" to enforce a forced peace upon the galaxy.

The tension centers on the clash between the two generations of Spartans and the growing realization that Cortana has become the galaxy’s greatest threat. She believes that AI—the "Created"—are the true heirs to the Forerunner legacy and intends to use the Guardians to disarm all biological civilizations. The Chief must decide if he can talk his former friend down or if he must treat her as the enemy.

The story culminates in a final confrontation on Genesis as Fireteam Osiris attempts to rescue Blue Team from Cortana’s trap. As Cortana prepares to launch her final Guardian assault on the UNSC, the Spartans must work together to escape her reach. With the galaxy now under the shadow of the Created’s rule and the UNSC Infinity in retreat, the survivors are forced into hiding. Will humanity find a way to resist a goddess who knows all their secrets?

8. Halo Infinite (2021)

Six months after a devastating defeat at the hands of the Banished—a brutal mercenary faction that splintered from the Covenant—the Master Chief is found drifting in space near the damaged Zeta Halo. Rescued by a stranded pilot, the Chief descends to the ring’s fractured surface to find the UNSC military in shambles. His only hope lies in a new AI known as "The Weapon," designed specifically to lock down and delete Cortana.

The Chief must wage a guerilla war across the ring to reclaim FOBs and rescue captured marines from the Banished leader, Escharum. As he investigates the ring's silent Forerunner facilities, he discovers that Zeta Halo holds secrets far older and more dangerous than any other installation. The Banished are working with a mysterious entity called the Harbinger, who seeks to release a race known as the Endless, whom the Forerunners feared more than the Flood.

The narrative focuses on the Chief’s burgeoning partnership with The Weapon and his lingering guilt over Cortana’s fate. As they uncover audio logs and data fragments, they piece together the final moments of Cortana’s reign and the ultimate sacrifice she made to stop the Banished. The tension between the Chief’s distrust of the new AI and the need to rely on her to stop the Harbinger creates a fragile emotional core to the mission.

As Escharum’s health fails, his obsession with a final warrior's duel with the Chief reaches a boiling point. Simultaneously, the Harbinger nears the completion of her ritual to restore the Endless to the galaxy. The Chief must fight through the heart of the Banished stronghold to reach the Silent Auditorium for a final showdown. Can the Chief stop the release of an ancient nightmare, or is the cycle of conflict on Zeta Halo only just beginning?