Halo 5 Gets Official Name & Rough Release Date

The announcement last week of the new Halo title for Xbox One, Halo 5: Guardians, sent waves of euphoria crashing through Halo fans the world over, with Twitter and other social media rife with rumors of what the game will include. Halo 5: Guardians marks the second game in the Halo Reclaimer Saga, and a return for everyone's favourite MJOLNIR clad Super Soldier Master Chief.

After losing companion, and weird, creepy cyber-love of his life Cortana at the end of Halo 4, The Chief must be pretty inconsolable. In the trailer released at E3 2013, we see Chief walking through a dusty, barren wasteland wearing what can only be described as a glorified poncho, clutching on to the last remaining memory he has of Cortana. I've seen many a man moping around having lost a loved one, but never in the desert.

He then pulls out what looks to be Cortana's dead data chip, grasping it tightly to really show his loss. In a then complete 'fuck my life' moment, the biggest bloody Promethean bird/ dinosaur/ ugly beast causes the ground to give way and Chief's hood to be thrown back. Damn.

http://youtu.be/blW40AVWXrE

The trailer ends there, and doesn't give a whole lot away apart from the fact we know The Chief has donned his Armour again in the quest to defeat the the as yet undefeated Covenant/ Promethean alliance. One thing we do know is that Chief looks battered and bruised, but when doesn't he? That look was SO Halo 2.

Fast forward to 2014 then, and the official title of the game is announced, and a fresh image released sparking an out pour of rumors of what it could mean.



From Cortana to Sarah Palmer to Master Chief's new suit, everyone was wondering who in the blue hell this new character was. It's an interesting question, but more on that in a bit. First let's take a look at what we can see about the environment. From artwork and screenshots released, we see a number of different environments. The arid wasteland of the above image looks inhabited by Forerunner structures, suggesting another Forerunner planet. The fact that Forerunner beasties are also coming out of the god damn ground also suggests that at least part of the game is set on one of their worlds.

Other released artwork show what appears to be both a UNSC base, and a Covenant base in another. Infinity returns, as do the Sangheili. Sanghelios is therefore another possible location, and given their alliance with the Promethean's, it's not entirely unlikely, especially as it's somewhere the UNSC, and especially Infinity and ONI, are well acquainted with.



Depending on when Halo 5: Guardians is set, Reach could be a feasible location for the UNSC base. However, it would have to be a whole 32 years later than the events of Halo 4. With Chief firmly in the picture, it's unlikely he'd still be kicking ass and taking names at the ripe old age of 78. So the more likely location is a battered and bruised Earth. A left field choice for the below image could be Venezia, given that it seems to show a Covenant ship, along with Infinity floating above. Those who have read the Kilo-5 trilogy will know the significance of that place, and links in nicely to my theory later on.



Now on to the bit everyone has been gossiping about. That character. Well, we know it's not Sarah Palmer, Cortana, or a rejuvenated Chief. 343 Industries said so. What we do know is that it's a new character. What we don't know is whether that means new to the games, or new to the Universe as a whole.

We can see an ONI badge on the suit, which may lend itself to the following theory; With Serin Osman now Admiral and head of ONI, having taken over from the wicked witch that is Margaret Parangosky, could the new Spartan in fact be Naomi-010? Naomi was of course a part of Kilo-5 (and had ties to Venezia), and both Osman and her would have known Chief from their Spartan-II days. With Naomi unwilling to give up her life as a Spartan, could it be that Osman has sent her in to help Chief in his time of need? Or, as usual, do ONI have their own agenda?

One thing is for sure, with more announcements to come from E3, along with an announcement regarding Spielberg's Spartan spin-off TV Show, E3 2014 is bound to be a good one for Halo fans everywhere.