Halo Games Ranked From Worst to Best

Ranking the Halo games is not a task to take lightly. There are few video game series as iconic as Halo. Not only did the deep-space first person shooter help legitimize the Xbox, it created a deep and vast mythos, launched its maker Bungie into a strata of superstardom, and helped make console online play what it is today.

From behind the mask of Master Chief, millions upon millions of players across the world battled against the looming Flood, explored corroded worlds, manned tanks and spaceships alike and, of course, shot aliens by the thousands.

The most interesting about the Halo saga, which debuted all the way back in 2001, is how it (and its combat) evolved. Each game has its own intricacies and interpretations of what it means to be a Halo game. With Halo Infinite somewhere on the horizon, we thought it would be the perfect time to look back at the series. Here are all the major release Halo games ranked from worst to best.

9. Halo Wars 2

Okay, who was this even for? The 2017 follow-up to the largely meh RTS Halo Wars, Halo Wars 2 was a confused and confusing release. It’s not that it’s inherently bad, just unnecessary. It certainly understands the purpose of an RTS and has good mechanics, not to mention a great display of all the creatures and tech from the Halo universe. But, if one is looking for an RTS game, there are better places to turn to.

Halo Wars

8. Halo Wars

Much that could be said of Halo Wars 2 could be said of the original 2009 Halo Wars. It’s a real head-scratcher: not only are these games far removed from Master Chief and from Halo’s iconic first person shooter, they’re just not that stellar. Again, Halo Wars isn’t bad by any means. It just feels like a watered down version of classic RTS games like Age of Empires. Like the many novels the Halo universe spawned, these two games are for the lore diehards only.

7. Halo 5: Guardians

Halo 5: Guardians is, to put it simply, a big old mess. Meant to encourage cooperative play on Live, this 2015 Xbox One debut instead felt muddled, distracted, and at its worst, downright annoying. The game worked okay when you had three people to play with at the same time. But, solo runs were hellacious and tedious. Additionally, Halo 5 continued to take more and more of its control structures from other famous franchises like Call of Duty, with limited success.

6. Halo 4

2012’s Halo 4 saw the Halo franchise leave the hands of Bungie — and you could tell. A reboot of sorts that followed the end of the original Master Chief trilogy, Halo 4 isn’t bad — it just isn’t good. Or at least, it isn’t good enough to reinvigorate a franchise. Halo 4 did indeed look fantastic, but some of the changes to controls and combat felt superfluous and a little cheap.