Halo: “Has a story” Me as a kid: Shoot the aliens

“The Arbiter we care about, called the Arbiter...”

Video that no one asked for but everyone needed

I introduced my friend to Halo and as he watched the trailers he said. “So what I’m getting is you are a green space dude in a motorcycle helmet shooting religious talking monkeys.”

14 year old me: “I think I’ll dive into Halo’s lore” Narrator: *”and he was never heard from again”*

In conclusion: a long time ago, a ridiculously advanced civilization wiped out another ridiculously advanced civilization, sh!t hit the fan, sh!t continued to hit the fan, and sh!t hasn’t stopped hitting the fan since

They missed Halo 3 ODST, but aside from that this was perfect lol. Buddy went beast mode for "Five" Minutes.

This is the most educational video IGN has ever released. Props to the guy who covered it.

8:27 Active duty soldier beats crippled elderly man in his wheelchair *GRAPHIC*

This is like the 3rd video I’ve watched for the timeline, and I’m still confused

This video simply convinced me that Master Chief really needs a vacation.

“Walking moral grey area” has to be the best explanation of Dr Halsey ever! 😂😂😂

“A hero need not speak. When he is gone, the World will speak for him.”

"The Arbiter that we care about called The Arbiter" is my favorite line.

Captain KEYES. WITH AN ‘S’. NOT KEY.

June didn’t escort cortana, June escorted Halsey off the planet but noble 6 escorted cortana to the pilliar of autumn

8:46 I think it's incorrect to think of the Arbiter as "Covenant Spartans." The Arbiter is a title of religious and political importance specific to the Sangheli (Elites), bestowed upon Sangheli who have been dishonoured in their society. Only one Arbiter can exist at a time (more like the Pope, but not really) and past Arbiters are sent on perilous missions of high importance to the Covenant, so that the Arbiter may gain back some honour in death and completion of the mission. Spartans are "multi-purpose tools" but for highly specialized tasks. You send the Spartans on dangerous missions because they're trained and ready for it. You don't want to send them on suicide missions (unless you have to) because each Spartan is a valuable asset, where one Spartan is worth that of a platoon. The Spartans are very expensive to grow and train. Now don't get me wrong. I do see where you drew the parallels. Master Chief is a very different case to Spartans before him. Each mission Chief is sent on is a suicide mission, because it is absolutely required of him for the continuation and success of humanity. The Arbiter is a pariah in both the military and Covenant society. A high-ranking pariah, but an outcast all the same. Spartans are seen as heroes of the UNSC. Maybe not the rest of human society at large, but definitely within the military. It might be more appropriate to see the Arbiter as a "Covenant John-117," and not just a regular Spartan due to the reputation of both characters. Then again, there might not be an appropriate comparisson. Sorry for the long comment.

Can we all talk about what an awesome narrator this guy is. Absolutely loved his presentation.

This video might cover its story in roughly 22 minutes, but it will never be able to encapsulate the 22 days' worth of gameplay that is totally worth it.

The Chief is such a badass

I realized after watching this movie that I didn't actually play all of the Halos to understand them.

That’s a long five minutes

So I'm gonna have to watch this at least 12 more times until i get it

Hey IGN Get this man a raise!!!!

I often forget how amazing this story is until I decide to replay the games.

I've never heard storytelling perfection like this. Tone, humour and critical accuracy.

“2500 years later humanity is once again a space-faring species” More like 6 million years later but ok

17:10 Growing up on Halo and reading the books I was so happy for this reunion!

alright i’ve played a few halo games but never looked deep into the lore. the first 3 minutes of this video up until the current humans in africa blew my damn mind 😂😂

I understood nothing but watch it anyways😂

"Walking moral gray area, Dr. Halsey." Ain't that the truth

I lost you at the end of halo 3

Going into campaign tomorrow and this was such a lifesaver. Thank you Swaim and IGN!

Needed this video badly. Thank you and amazing video! Gives me a new found respect for this series.

For real Halo has a one of the better game stories after i finished this video.

Props to Swaim. Glad to see you back since cracked.

i though jun just escorted halsey off reach but the the surviving members died trying to get cortana off planet

Absolutely enjoyed this recap as some things weren’t fully clear to me in the whole story. This video definitely help spur some much needed excitement for me while waiting to play Halo Infinite. I miss that sweet spot with the story and games Halo was in between Halo 3, Reach and Right up to Halo 4. Halo waypoint was a phenomenal way to engage with the story and games. I really hope Halo Waypoint or something similar makes a return along with Infinite.

I lawled a bit too hard at 9:00 when the words "Death Loops of Destruction" were said xD

Wow, I've been playing these games since the beginning and had no idea the story was this expansive and deep. Now I want to play every game from beginning to end in chrono sequence and read all the books.

8:50 Thel Vadamee is his name. Later, Thel Vadam when he defected from the covenant

Cortana's "death" was the saddest death in video game history IMO.

Bro this stuff is more complex then actual human history

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKIN THIS! instead of doing a 48 hrs of campaign work on the xbox, I get to watch this under 25 mins!

Would love to see some ancient humanity structures or ships in Infinity.

Bravo sir you deserve a raise or bonus for this. Absolutely outstanding!

Love your humor. Really enjoyed this video!

Playing halo series for the first time I’m on reach and it’s amazing**!!

Man so glad to watch this again just before the release of Halo Infinite.

Game: "Haha shooting aliens is fun lol" Lore: A tragic war is going on between humans and a advanced army cult, filled with many species that are manipulated into a false journey. There is also an outbreak of a dangerous virus that is mutilating the aliens and humans into disturbing creatures that are terrifying. But all of this was saved by blue lady and green halo man. Including squid face dinosaur and his civil war allies. Also there was ring planets that was going to be used by alien cult as weapons, but they failed because of green halo man. Halo 4 and 5 won’t be talked about.

So much story that can be brought to life in the new series.have to wait for episode 2 of Halo series

the arbiter we care about is called thel vadame(not sure if thats spelled correctly) arbiter is a title not a name

I've missed you since the Cracked days Michael Swaim, glad to see you are still educating clueless gamers 😂

And people say that Halo doesn't have a story...

I’m literally 70% through Halo Infinite and haven’t even been a Halo fan before playing this one and therefore had NO idea what the heck was going on other than a beautiful looking and sounding game and probably one of the best native Dolby Atmos games out there right now. This video was a HUGE help!

Who created Halo’s story, it sounds like something that happened in History.

Why does this make so much sense. The creators really thought this out

11:30 “soo halo 3.... so master chief Plummets into the earths atmosphere, yeah-“ 😂 no big deal

Great video!!! Thank you for explaining the story of Halo!!!

8:45 The Arbiter we care about is called Thel Vadame

"Doughnut death star" lmao

Props to the narrator. Halo has such a rich, deep, well-thought out history that kinda coincides with our own.

Very well done. Bullet points, in linear format. Much better than the other videos that gives you unnecessary info making it hard to follow.

This is so cleverly written! Well done 👏

there were a few incorrections, but mostly correct.

2:40 The naming of things can be blamed on the Human AI constructs, which had to translate the original names to things we'd understand. That is why all the names have an English flair.

that was the most informative and to the point wrap-up I've ever watched. thank you.

Forunners chose humanity to reclaim the mantle not the precursors. Last precursor alive was the primordial which unleashed the flood during the forerunner time

7 & 1/2 minutes in before I realized this was Swaim as narrator lol. Oh Cracked. You sure used to be a thing.

"Choking. It's the new punching." Idk why but that made me lol

well done bro, great work! And thank you for the effort :)

A cool tidbit of lore, is that 343 Guilty Spark is actually the consciousness of an ancient human named Chakas. This was from the prelore. 100,000 years BCE. Why he can't remember who he once was is that after thousands of years of looking over his Halo and waiting for life to reboot, he decided to delete that consciousness. Leaving just his core logical side, which is why 343 is so matter of fact when he speaks. Where as other Oracle's especially the one from Halo 5 seem almost human in personality.

My man... You forgot the dark, jazzy times of ODST

The Swaim laying down the lore!

Love watching these video while I'm at work

Great work! Thanks IGN 🙌🏼🔥

“The arbiter we care about called... the arbiter” 😂😂😂

Like a few said there are a lot of inaccuracies here, but over all it's a fairly solid run down for people who need it. For example yes Harvest was the first contact it was actually just more of the Brutes finding Harvest while looking for relics vs the whole Covenant. It wasn't till the Prophets of Truth, Mercy, and Regret learned the truth that their machines were not detecting Forerunner Relics, but Humans who were marked as the Reclaimers the ones who had the rightful claim on the technology and relics. The trio decided to never share this information and use it as a way to raise their own positions, over throw their current leaders and establish themselves as the Hierarch. The whole war on humanity and the great journey religion was all just lies to keep their seats of power.

This was a great watch, thank you

Nice job! Looking forward to Halo Infinite and the TV show coming to Showtime. I been playing Halo since the 1st game launched and even followed the 1st game during its production years through my month video game magazine subscription.

Never played a halo in my life, this made me buy every halo game

this is one of the best IGN videos in a while. like, a long time.

This was the longest and best 5 minute video I've ever seen

Overall, well done. It's as concise as you can possibly get without leaving out vital details. I see everyone already flipped out on the Jun/Noble 6 mix/up, whatever. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous to see how bad IGN would butcher my beloved Halo franchise, but hats off. I think this will help a lot of new players or people who haven't played the games since H2/H3 and want to brush up on the story.

Oh snap Michael Swaim! I have never been happier to click on a random IGN video!

As I'm playing Halo Infinite after playing 1/2/3 back in the day, I'm constantly going: what's the deal with the Cortana going evil references? So lemme get this straight, Microsoft named their windows voice command thing after a rogue A.I.?

Corrections and other things: 1. It's Arcadia, not Acadia 2. Even though you got it right a couple times, the surname of Jacob and Miranda is KEYES, not Key 3. In Halo 2, the idea to use the In Amber Clad to blow up the ring was Cortana's idea, it was not an order from Chief 4. Halo 4 takes place four years after Halo 3, not two. Cortana even tells Chief he was asleep for four years, seven months, and ten days 5. While Jul 'Mdama's Covenant is called the Remnant Covenent, it's mostly referred to as the Storm Covenant or Jul 'Mdama's Covenant 6. "Kamchatka" is pronounced as "Kam-chat-ah", the K is silent 7. It doesn't really matter, but it's zero-three-one, not o-three-one 8. 20:32 2559, not 2859 9. Anders went on the Ring by herself, the Spirit of Fire and its crew were left on the Ark

I just love going back to play the masterchief collection

What a wonderful story, sadly they no longer capitalize on its strengths.

Me: Hey the narrator of this video sounds like... Video: By Michael Swaim Me: Yeah him!!!

What an epic story.. cannot wait to see more.

What an actually AMAZING video from IGN!

Due to technology advancements the 5 minute video feels like 22 min what a time -IGN 10/10

Bummed Halo 3:ODST didn’t get an honorable mention. I know had nothing to do with the overall progression of the story but great twist on a normally linear halo campaign

My favorite line from Master Chief “Captain Key”

Hell yell IGN !!! Great put together.

You have a lot of little details wrong, but the story overall is ok

Halo: has a story Me: haha laser go bzzzzzzz

This was awesome and hilariously well written

Brilliant, thanks for all of that information, I’ve not played the game but was interested to the graphics, how things have changed over the years…and now they have a tv series coming out….