Every Halo Campaign, Ranked

For almost 25 years, Xbox has introduced people to numerous enthralling single-player and multiplayer games across its four console generations, but arguably none of them have been as impactful to Xbox's long-term success than its very first franchise, Halo.

Originally created by Bungie as a first-person shooter, Halo has gone on to become a multimedia juggernaut, having dozens of books published in its universe, a live-action TV show adaptation, and several spinoffs, remasters, and remakes exploring more of its sci-fi universe and characters.

With Halo's first remake having recently been released in the form of Halo: Campaign Evolved, now is the perfect time to look back at each Halo title's campaign and rank them by their story, gameplay, co-op functionality, and fun side features.

16 Halo: Spartan Strike

A Pointless Simulation

Among all of Halo's varied campaigns, the worst is undoubtedly found in the twin-stick shooter mobile game, Halo: Spartan Strike, due to how pointless its story and its main protagonist were.

Halo: Spartan Strike doesn't really feature a proper story at all, as the game is centered around an unnamed Spartan-IV Headhunter playing through simulations of the Battles of Mombasa, Installation 03, and New Phoenix aboard the UNSC Infinity, with the Headhunter replacing ODSTs and other Headhunters that actually took part in these battles.

The game's only new feature compared to its twin-stick shooter predecessor, Halo: Spartan Assault, is the debut of Promethean enemies, but their focus points to a lore issue as the game is centered around finding a Forerunner Conduit to prevent Prometheans from traveling to Gamma Halo, even though books and comics already showed Prometheans appearing on the ring before without the Conduit.

15 Halo: Spartan Assault

Palmer's and Davis' Forgettable Adventure

Following the release of Halo 4, 343 Industries' first brand-new follow-up to Master Chief's latest journey was with the twin-stick shooter Halo: Spartan Assault, originally designed for Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.

Much like Spartan Strike, Spartan Assault follows UNSC Infinity cadets as they play through simulations of Spartan-IVs Sarah Palmer and Edward Davis' experience during the Battle of Draetheus V in 2554 against Merg Vol's Covenant remnant faction.

Despite featuring the much-maligned character of Palmer as the game's protagonist, Spartan Assault's campaign was fairly fun if mostly forgettable for a mobile game, with probably its best aspects being able to dual-wield weapons and drive the fan-favorite M850 Grizzly tank.

14 Halo 5: Guardians

The Worst Mainline Halo Game

Without a doubt, the worst mainline Halo game in the entire franchise was 2015's Halo 5: Guardians, as not only did its marketing lie to players, but it featured some of the most infuriating plots and gameplay mechanics seen in Halo titles.

Halo 5: Guardians' campaign is unevenly split between Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris, with the game offering no explanation of who any of these characters are, and having them immediately kill Covenant remnant leader Jul 'Mdama only to mostly fight Prometheans for the rest of the game, led by an imperialistic and genocidal fragment of Cortana.

The Halo franchise is still recovering from this game's poor story decisions over a decade later, but what made the game all the more frustrating to play was the introduction of annoying, teleporting Promethean Soldiers, constant boss fights against the Warden Eternal, and the complete lack of split-screen co-op despite featuring four-Spartan squads.

13 Halo: Fireteam Raven

A New View on the Battle of Installation 04

Oddly enough, one of 343 Industries' better Halo releases in recent years wasn't a traditional console, PC, or mobile game, but rather an arcade cabinet, with that game being Halo: Fireteam Raven.

Taking place simultaneously with the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Fireteam Raven sees one to four people embodying the ODST Fireteam Raven as they take part in the Battle of Installation 04, often helping Master Chief in the background and taking part in fights first depicted in the novel Halo: The Flood.

For an on-rails arcade light-gun shooter, Fireteam Raven is pretty fun, but it's held back by being officially limited to arcades, requiring money or tokens to repeatedly play, and not offering any alternate difficulty settings or side features.

12 Halo Wars

Halo's First Proper Spinoff Game

In the late 2000s, Microsoft strove to expand the Halo franchise beyond Bungie's FPS titles, and while many of those initial projects fell through, one succeeded to become the franchise's first proper spinoff game: Ensemble Studios' Halo Wars.

A console-focused RTS, Halo Wars is set in 2531, six years after the Human-Covenant War began, and follows the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire and Spartan-II Red Team as they attempt to defend the human colonies of Harvest and Arcadia before traveling to a Forerunner Shield World to prevent the Covenant from obtaining Forerunner ships.

The story of Halo Wars is interesting even if its main characters are a bit cliché, but its gameplay is incredibly fun and intuitive for a console-based RTS, with players being able to easily control UNSC ground forces, aircraft, and other vehicles seamlessly in single-player or online two-player co-op.

11 Halo: Combat Evolved

A Timeless FPS Campaign

In 2001, Microsoft needed a big hit to launch their debut Xbox console, and they got more than they bargained for with Bungie's absolute masterpiece Halo: Combat Evolved.

Originally designed as a PC RTS before transitioning to a console-based FPS, Halo: Combat Evolved featured an incredible single or two-player co-op campaign following the Spartan-II Master Chief, the AI Cortana, and the crew of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn as they fight the alien Covenant on the ringworld, Halo, only to find ancient horrors within.

Combat Evolved's campaign practically defined FPS storytelling and gameplay of the sixth and seventh console generations, with its innovative third-person vehicle gameplay, wide-open areas, and freedom for players to explore and experiment with Halo's environments, weapons, and enemies.

10 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

343 Guilty Spark's Time to Shine

In 2010, Bungie officially left Microsoft to develop Destiny, but Microsoft wasn't done with Halo and quickly organized 343 Industries, now known as Halo Studios, to oversee the continuation of the franchise, with its first official project being 2011's Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

An Xbox 360 remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved made to celebrate Halo's 10th anniversary, Halo:CEA featured the same base campaign as Combat Evolved but with new remastered visuals based on Halo: Reach and Halo 3 that can be seamlessly switched back to Combat Evolved's original graphics at a push of a button.

While Halo: CEA does feature Combat Evolved's base story, it was greatly expanded upon with the introduction of collectible Skulls, Kinect voice commands, online campaign co-op, and hidden video terminals following 343 Guilty Spark's lonely life monitoring Alpha Halo for thousands of years up until the ring's destruction.

9 Halo: Campaign Evolved

A Fun But Limited Campaign Remake

To celebrate Xbox and Halo's 25th anniversary, Halo Studios, Microsoft, and Abstraction decided to create Halo: Campaign Evolved, a campaign-only remake of Halo: Combat Evolved using Unreal Engine 5 and elements from other Halo titles.

Much like CEA, Campaign Evolved mostly follows CE's core story, albeit with a few levels being completely reworked and implementing modern gameplay elements such as sprint, vehicle hijacking, rechargeable shields, four-player online co-op, crossplay across Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC, and over 40 Skull modifiers.

What makes Campaign Evolved's campaign slightly better than its CE predecessors is the introduction of a prequel campaign following Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson fighting the dogmatic Sacristan Covenant, the use of Brutes and Flood Pure Forms, space combat, and the return of many weapons like the Needle Rifle and Spiker.

8 Halo Wars 2

The Banished's Exciting Debut

2009's Halo Wars infamously ended on a cliffhanger with the Spirit of Fire being lost in space and after Ensemble Studios' closure, many fans feared that the Spirit's storyline would never be followed up on, but that all changed in 2017 when 343 Industries and Creative Assembly launched Halo Wars 2.

Set shortly after Halo 5, Halo Wars 2 sees the Spirit mysteriously find itself orbiting the Halo-producing Ark Installation 00, cut off from humanity, only to find the Ark taken over by the Brute-led Covenant remnant, the Banished, and its menacing leader, Atriox, who strives to control the Installation and wipe out any and all UNSC forces.

In terms of gameplay, Halo Wars 2 plays fairly similarly to its predecessor, but its story is greatly improved, with the Banished being a highly intriguing and enthralling faction, while the new AI Isabel is a standout addition to the Spirit's crew, not to mention that its campaign DLC Awakening the Nightmare allowed players to play as Brutes for the first time in a Halo story.

7 Halo Infinite

The Many Battles of Zeta Halo

Following the abysmal reception to Halo 5 and the widespread love for the Banished in HW2, 343 Industries decided to follow-up on both titles in one single game while simultaneously creating a spiritual reboot for the Halo series with 2021's Halo Infinite.

Taking place one year after Halo 5, Halo Infinite initially sees the Infinity attempt to thwart Cortana and her Created faction at Zeta Halo, only to be ambushed by Atriox and the Banished, resulting in the Infinity being destroyed and UNSC personnel struggling to survive on the ring whilst the Banished prepares it to become the Brutes' new home.

In many ways, Halo Infinite's story was designed to right Halo 5's many wrongs, and it mostly succeeds by featuring a highly emotional journey following Master Chief, a new AI called The Weapon, and Pelican pilot Echo 216 struggling to fight the Banished whilst implementing Halo's first proper open-world, allowing players to explore a large part of Zeta Halo and complete side quests.