Summary
TheHalofranchise has long had a place of honor in the hearts of FPS fans, producing some of the most memorable storylines and combat systems in the history of the genre. Since the firstHalogame was released in 2001, the franchise has grown and managed to stay near the forefront of the shooting game industry.
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While this has been partly due to the mechanics and multiplayer modes, theHalofranchise also has some incredible campaigns. Often in an FPS game, how the campaign rounds off is one of the biggest concerns, leaving fans satisfied with the ending of the current story while potentially teasing future installments to keep them interested in what comes next going forward.
6Midnight (Halo 4)
Midnight is a well-remembered mission among fans, and it is the final playable mission of theHalo 4campaign. This was also one of the most heart-breaking missions in theHalofranchise,ending with Cortana sacrificing herselfin order to save Master Chief’s life.
That alone sets this apart from otherHalogames and makes this a great final mission, but the pursuit of the Didact’s ship and the absolute carnage as Master Chief makes his way through it are not to be dismissed either. Great final missions, particularly in FPS games, come down to high body counts and an excellent feel of ramping up towards a grand climax.Halo 4managed to do all that in Midnight, while really focusing on the bond that Chief and Cortana have shared, and how well they work together and have needed each other.
5The Maw (Halo: Combat Evolved)
Though the graphics have aged, the final mission in the first-everHalogame is still a fantastic one, andthe game itself is still belovedas one of the very bestHalogames. The Maw is all about Master Chief charging brutally through everybody left on the wrecked Pillar of Autumn. The morality of his and Cortana’s decision to destroy the ship to stop the Covenant Fleet is slightly questionable, but more than that, the gameplay of this mission just had it all.
The Maw involves a standard rush through a huge number of enemies, but it builds beautifully towards an epic conclusion where the player has five minutes to make a frantic Warthog drive to get back to the ship bay before the Pillar of Autumn detonates. The victorious feeling of beating this mission for the first time is a huge part of what made players fall in love with theHalofranchise, The Maw being a perfect example of an FPS game ramping up to a particularly grand and satisfying conclusion.
4The Great Journey (Halo 2)
Halo 2is considered by many fans to still be the best game in the whole franchise. While this is arguable, part of what makes it so great is definitely The Great Journey. This final mission was a strange one, in that the player didn’t control Master Chief but instead the Arbiter as he looked to finish the Covenant civil war and stop the activation of the Halo.
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It was strange narratively to not control Master Chief in these final moments of a game, butHalo 2had such a great story surrounding the Covenant and characters like the Arbiter that this still felt like a hugely satisfying conclusion, from starting the mission in the vehicles to the final epic battle with Tartarus. The final cutscenes, both the revelation of the Ark being a place to activate all Halos and Cortana beginning totalk to the enormous Gravemind, meant huge things for the future of the franchise.
3Lone Wolf (Halo: Reach)
Halo: Reachcan be called theRogue Oneof theHalofranchise, it isstill considered a high-tierHalogametoday. A direct prequel to the events ofHalo: Combat Evolved, this tells the story of Reach, one of humanity’s last colony planets and the former base of the UNSC. At war with the Covenant,Halo: Reachfollows the Noble Team as they tackle a Covenant invasion of Reach, and eventually, simply try to escape the planet with the alien artifact that proves key to unlocking the secrets of the Halos.
The sacrifices that the Noble Team makes all the way throughout the invasion are epic, leading to the final mission where the objective simply reads “survive” at the beginning. While running around as the seemingly invincible Master Chief has always been fun, watching the other members of Team Six sacrifice themselves before Six eventually does the same was a bittersweet ending that reminded players what being a soldier really involves, the fact that players knew by now their sacrifices were leading to the destruction of the Covenant makes it all the better.
2Coastal Highway (Halo 3: ODST)
Halo 3: ODSTis an interesting game,focusing on the Orbital Drop Shock Troopersinstead of Master Chief and setting itself during and after the events ofHalo 2. These bold choices paid off and the story of the team trying to fight the Covenant in New Mombasa, in a losing effort, was a great one.
The ending ofODSTwas even better, giving players the kind of frantic vehicle gameplay inHalogames that they love while getting to set it on Earth for a change. Similarly toReach, players were frantically trying to escape New Mombasa before it was destroyed instead of saving it, but needed to survive this time and make sure that the Engineer actually got out. The setting and frantic pace make this one of the most complete and beautifulHalogame endings yet, and it isa shame the franchise hasn’t done anything similarsince.
1Halo (Halo 3)
Despite having made many games since this one,Halostarted out as a trilogy instead of a wider franchise, and the end of that trilogy remains one of the most complete and satisfying missions the franchise has ever created. Simply calling the final mission Halo to showcase how rounded out the franchise was up to this point,Halo 3ends with Master Chief activating a Halo himself in order to destroy the Ark at last.
Having already defeated Truth and effectively ended the Human-Covenant War once and for all, Chief only wanted to finally eliminate the Ark and any chance of all Halo rings being activated simultaneously. The mission itself feels like an homage to The Maw from the first game, with a similar rush to escape the ring before it is destroyed. A beautifully designed level that ramps up the excitement while being pretty difficult to navigate makes for the most memorable ending of all in theHalofranchise. With the franchise currently struggling,a remake of a classic game likeHalo 3could be a great idea.
