As the second Halo title from 343 Industries, and the first “next-gen” Halo game, Halo 5 had a lot to live up to – and it was a bit of a mixed bag. But can Halo 6 really do much better?
Going from what we know so far, it’s likely we’ll see 343 Industries shift attention back onto Master Chief, delving deeper into the Reclaimer Saga that Halo 4 kicked off and Halo 5 failed to resolve. It’s still early days for this Xbox exclusive, but everybody knows it’s on the way. Here’s everything we know so far about 343 Industries’ plan for Halo 6.
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Halo 6: Everything you need to know
Halo 6 release date: When’s it coming out?
We saw and heard absolutely nothing about Halo 6 at E3 2017. This is likely to mean it won’t be making an appearance on store shelves over the next year to 18 months – taking a 2018 release date out of the question entirely.
This is supported by a blog post from 343 Industries that seems to imply Halo 6 won’t be arriving in 2018. Community manager of 343 Industries, Brian Jarrard, wrote: “2018 has arrived and with it, the promise of new fun times to be had and adventures to be embarked upon. No, not those adventures, but plenty of exciting ones regardless.”
Jarrard’s cryptic message is almost certainly referencing Halo, 343’s biggest money-maker and leading series. It doesn’t take a genius to read into his message that Halo 6 is unlikely to arrive in 2018.
Historically, there’s often been a three-year gap between each main entry into the Halo series. For example, Halo 5 Guardians was released in October 2015 – three years after Halo 4’s 2012 release date. Going by the same release pattern, Halo 6 should land in late 2018 but, as we’ve deciphered, Halo 6 is not likely to be out this year.
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Halo 6 announcement: When can we expect a Halo 6 trailer?
It’s unclear when we’ll see Halo 6 announced. You could interpret Jarrard’s message as saying there’ll be no signs at all of Halo 6 in 2018. If this is the case, you can bet it will skip Gamescom for another year and won’t make an appearance at E3 2018 either.
However, with Microsoft in dire need of news on the exclusives front, 343 Industries may use E3 2018 to launch its Halo 6 marketing campaign. It’s likely we’ll see teaser footage at E3 2018 in June and then a full announcement at Gamescom in August 2018.
Halo 6 story and the Reclaimers: What will Halo 6 be about?
As the sixth entry into the main Halo series, Halo 6 isn’t just another sequel: it’s the concluding game in the second trilogy that began with Halo 4. While there may be no concrete details around Halo 6’s story yet, we can make some educated guesses thanks to the open ending of Halo 5.
Without wanting to dole out spoilers – although it’s been nearly three years, so you should have played Halo 5 by now – things didn’t look good for Master Chief at the end of Halo 5. Cortana and another rogue AI were working together to take over the galaxy, all while Master Chief was being chased down by the UNSC who believed he was the bad guy in all of this. Now, though, Master Chief is partnered up with his assailant-come-newfound-allies, and is heading out to reclaim the galaxy from these rampant AI.
It’s expected that, this time around, the focus will be squarely on the Master Chief. Halo 5 alienated some long-term series fans as so much of the game was spent outside of the Chief’s boots. 343 should have seen this coming: Halo 3 did something similar, with sections jumping between the Arbiter and Master Chief, and people were not best pleased.
Speaking to GamesTM, franchise development director Frank O’Connor revealed that the team “took some digs for the storytelling,” with Halo 5. “We definitely marketed in a way that we hoped was going to bring surprise, but for some fans and certainly fans of Master Chief, it was a huge disappointment because they wanted more Chief.”
Halo 6 gameplay: How will it play?
Chances are that Halo 6 will play very similarly to previous Halo entries. Aside from Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach, the main entries of Halo haven’t really mixed up gameplay beyond keeping up with general trends in first-person shooters. Don’t expect this to change.
However, Microsoft Studios’ corporate VP Bonnie Ross confirmed at DICE 2017 that Halo 6 will bring back split-screen co-op multiplayer. For some reason, 343 Industries made the decision to remove it for Halo 5 and that didn’t go down well with fans. An online co-op will still be included, but now players have a choice again, which is always welcome.
Will Halo 6 be Xbox One X optimised?
I can say with certainty that, when Halo 6 does eventually arrive, it will run like a dream on the Xbox One X. There are already some great games optimised for the Xbox One X, and Microsoft will be targeting the Xbox One X as the ultimate showcase of its flagship shooter series, promising silky-smooth 60fps 4K gameplay to boot.
Obviously it will also run on the Xbox One S with no problems and, thanks to Microsoft’s new Play Anywhere initiative, it’s likely to come to PC as well. Even Xbox head Phil Spencer said he doesn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t arrive on PC, which is great to hear despite the fact that both Halo 4 and Halo 5 haven’t yet made their way onto Windows 10.