Halo: Online

Halo: Online, is a free-to-play version of the popular Halo Franchise. The game is featured in the first-person perspective and takes place on multiple planets. The game will be available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC in late 2016.

Development
Halo: Online, was announced and began development in the Summer of 2014. However, in early 2015, co-developer United Gaming went on a brief hiatus to focus on other games while 343 Industries was tasked with completing Halo 5: Guardians.

Development and new information regarding the game resurfaced in Summer 2016 and a beta was also announced to be held sometime in August of that same year.

Halo: Online, will fully release in late 2016 and have support for up to three years but more than likely much longer than that. It will also utilize dedicated servers, which developers and players can create at any time.

Gameplay
Halo: Online, is similar to that of the matchmaking found in Halo 4 with some minor improvements. The game does feature a twenty mission campaign in a style more of its own, however its main focus is that of Matchmaking.

Settings
The game takes place on various planets including Earth, Requiem, Balaho, Reach, and Mars. Each world features six different multiplayer maps both original and based on maps featured in previous games. Forge World and Forge Island will make a return as well as a new Forge City map.

The returning worlds of Earth, Requiem, and Reach will have little changes to them other than visual updates and some areas previously unseen, while the new base areas of Balaho and Mars are being imagined from scratch.

The campaign takes place over the course of 2521-2560. Due to the nature of matchmaking and other modes, all the worlds will be as if they were untouched as the wars taking place within matchmaking are completely separate and considered to be an alternate-universe to the campaign.

After the game's initial release, two new areas have been confirmed to be in development. The "worlds" of Installation 04 and the Moon will take players to both new and unexplored areas as well as fan favorites.

United Nations Space Command
The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) is the world's leading space and military program home to the legendary Spartan program as well as the lesser known Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST). A trusted group of dedicated, yet sometimes cocky, Marines can also be found within the UNSC program.

The UNSC is playable in both the campaign and matchmaking. During the campaign, the player can choose to play as a Marine or ODST (this choice does effect gameplay and story heavily) and in matchmaking, can choose to play as a Sergent Marine, ODST, Spartan, or Commander.

The Rebellion
Also known as "Space Pirates" by the UNSC, The Rebellion is a group of outcasts who do not believe in the UNSC's existence and believe it's just a stunt the government is using to lure more and more humans off into space to do their dirty work such as colonization of other planets that usually leave many dead or wounded.

The Rebellion is playable only in matchmaking and only has one class simply known as "Space Pirate" however the advantage to playing as this class is the engineering capabilities and operation of vehicles is heavily improved as their knowledge and technology is much more than the UNSC.

The Covenant
The best known alien species and enemy to the UNSC is that of The Covenant. Led by "Prophets" and "Brutes", The Covenant is not only at war with the human race, but a civil war between their own kind is on the verge of breaking out and can drastically alter their chances of domination.

The Covenant are only playable in matchmaking and feature multiple classes including Special Operations Grunts, Elites, and Brutes. All classes have their own benefits such as Grunts, who are best at operating heavy weapons, Elites that can wield and assassinate unlike any other with a sword, and Brutes have the tendency to last longer than others on the battlefield.

The Flood
This parasite alien species have the power to infect their hosts and transform them into one of their own. To this day, not much is known about them other than if you see one, either shoot quickly or find a safe zone..

The Flood is only playable in the Infected gametype of Matchmaking. The player starts out as a single moving spore and can take over and control a host once the infection has begun.

Plot
Details on the main campaign plot are currently being developed and will be shared in the future.

Game Modes
Campaign: Fight to ensure humanities safety in this single player campaign.

Matchmaking: Compete against others in various gametypes and prove who's best.

Firefight: Take on waves of enemies alone or with others.

Commander: Lead your team in both combat and strategy to defeat the enemy.

Xbox 360 Port
A port of Halo: Online will be released on the previous generation Xbox 360 console. It will only feature the campaign and firefight modes of the game with a lesser presentation in terms of graphics and sound. Firefight mode can be played with up to four other people however and stats will carry over once the player upgrades to a newer version of the game.

Downloadable Content
Various additional worlds, weapons, characters, and more will be made available as downloadable content all for free. There will also not be any microtransactions other than cosmetic items. Information on DLC will be released as it's made available.