Halo: Side Factions

Halo: Side Factions is a first-person tactical shooter video game, developed by Gearbox Software and published by Microsoft Innovative Arts for the Xbox 360 console. The game entails a direct chronicle, directed by 343 Industries, which will be based on the science fiction events and settings of the Halo Universe.

At E3 2012, Gearbox announced to the Halo Nation that Side Factions will delve into the lore of the franchise like few games before it. For instance, the roots of the battle-hardened Orbital Drop Shock Troopers will be explored for the first time. The game revolves around the initiation of Battle of Earth by the Covenant Empire till the sudden activation of the ancient The Excession. With regard to technology, the game is being built atop a gaming engine called the "Marathon Engine" which is incorporated with the Havok Engine.

The game focuses on the troops of Oscar and Victor Squad as they fight on multiple locations on Earth to save the human inhabitants and the planet from a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. The player assumes the roles of Corporal and Gunnery Sergeant XXX, squad leaders of Victor and Oscar respectively.

Characters and setting
Halo: Side Factions takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting on the planet Earth, in between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. After the fall of Reach, the UNSC started to combine all of its fleets and forces to Earth, the last military power and defense of the human civilisation. This lead to the formation of the three Orbital Defense Lines based off the alignment of Orbital Defense Platforms orbiting around Earth. When the first Covenant fleet arrived, the first two of the Orbital Defense Lines fell and Earth was invaded and was sparsely occupied by the Covenant forces on multiple continents around Earth.

The game focuses primarily on Corporal, the main character, and Victor Squad (consisting of Private First Class Christiaan van Zyl, Lance Corporal Roland Huffman, Private First Class Tomas Navarro and Lance Corporal Sarah Hyuk Lee), and some side characters such as Gunnery Sergeant XXX of 17th Shock Troops (Oscar Squad), Captain Veronica Dare of Special Detachment 7th Shock Troops (Noble Squad), Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne and Senior Chief Petty Officer Maria-062.

In the primary storyline, the player takes control of Corporal, a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper and one of the few survivors of the fall of Reach. In the secondary storyline, players take control of Gunnery Sergeat XXX. All four members of each squad are available for play in the campaign and multiplayer modes.

Some of the characters in Side Factions received voice-overs from previous game titles. Lance Corporal Roland Huffman is voiced by John DiMaggio, Private First Class Tomas Novarro is voiced by Orlando Jones and Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne is voiced by Michael Ironside.

Plot
The game's overall plot is still similar to its predecessor, however this time through the eyes of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. In the campaign mode, the player will be given the option to take the role of a corporal of the 22nd Shock Troops or a Gunnery Sergeant of the 17th Shock Troops. The game will be the first in the Halo universe to feature a more militaristic style, which sets a darker tone than most other games that are a part of Halo. Gearbox stated that, "if the other media are seen from the point of view of the Spartan, then the 17th and the 22nd Shock Troops are from the point of view of the ODSTs."

The game's primary plot begins with the 22nd Shock Troops returning from Operation: LONGHAWK. Shortly after their rest on the Orbital Defense Platform, the "Eritrea", a Covenant Expeditionary Fleet invaded Earth's defense grid. As the space combat continued, a number of Orbital Defense Platforms were disabled, one of them includes the "Eritrea" and a few Covenant warships began occupying major population centres around Earth. The 22nd managed to drop down to Earth safely, albeit had its members separated. Once united, the 22nd journeyed into the heart of Mombasa and assisted the UNSC in a number of locations, protecting key structures and individuals. The 22nd got caught by the slipspace rupture produced by the flagship of the Expeditionary Fleet.

After the slipspace event, the 22nd rendezvoused with the other UNSC units back to Crow's Nest, the UNSC primary ground-based headquarters on the African continent. Throughout their journey to their rendezvous location, the 22nd collected intelligence reports regarding the Covenant's activities on Earth and transmission between the flagships currently on Earth and the High Prophets in the Covenant's Holy City. Using the gathered intelligence, the 22nd was sent to several locations to delay the Covenant's activities by means of eliminating key figures and structures.

The game's secondary plot begins with the 17th Shock Troops travelling around the world and eliminating Covenant-associated figures and structures. The 17th's storyline is darker and gloomier than the 22nd's; the 17th's experienced conflicts between its members which eventually caused the disbandment of the 17th Shock Troops. The storyline also involves the ethics and morality of war as most of the missions requires sacrificing civilians to achieve victory, as well as forcing the players to witness the Covenant's slaughter of civilians. Various content of the 17th's storyline have caused some controversies ever since it was stated officially in numerous interviews. The campaign of the 17ths requires players to travel from Russia to Mexico. Within each operation undertaken by the 17th, key characters mentioned in the Halo lore will make an appearance. Such example is Senior Chief Petty Officer Maria-062, a SPARTAN-II which will assist the 17th in the European continent.

Gameplay
The game features unique gameplay elements that resemble features in other first-person and tactical shooters, including Bungie's Halo series, LucasArt's Star Wars: Republic Commando and Tom Clancy's Advanced Warfighter. The game utilises the stylised Heads-Up Display of the ODST and VISR database feature from Halo 3: ODST and a simplified context-based manoeuvre system that resembles the squad order system featured in Republic Commando.

In terms of actual gameplay, Side Factions follows the styles previously used in Halo 3: ODST. Players can only single-wield a weapon and are given limited access to equipments throughout the course of the campaign. The game is presented almost entirely from a first person perspective, aside from vehicular combat. Side Factions primarily focuses more on tactical shooting system rather than the first-person shooting system used in most Halo titles. With that said, movement and player position plays a large role. Shooting while moving dramatically decreases accuracy and holding down the firing button will produce blooming reticule. The amount of damage done by a weapon varies considerably depending upon the body part the weapon hits; Covenant's plasma-based weapons works considerably well on all occasions but are harder to handle whereas the UNSC's projectile-based weapons are far more accurate and are more lethal on unshielded opponents.

Squad control system
The most important feature in the game is that the player will be able to issue commands to their squad members through the context-based manoeuvre. Every ODST operator has a unique speciality -- such as being an elite marksman but lightly-armoured -- and tactical approach (i.e. the amount of equipment carried affects squad performances), and that each detail plays a significant impact in gameplay. Similar to Halo 3: ODST, players will find that the ODSTs are not as superior as the SPARTANs due to the absence of the shielding system.

The context-based manoeuvre system is simple; locations in the game environment will highlight on the player's HMD and will prompt as to asking which manoeuvre their squad members should perform. In addition, the player can rearrange his/her squad's formation to their advantage; squad formations comes in offensive, defensive, stealth/guerilla, reconnaissance and split.

Interface
The game features an interface system almost similar to its previous titles, though there are several distinct changes in interfaces and user settings. For example, the shield bar has been removed from the game and will be replaced with an armour pressure system to give players a sense of realism. The new armour pressure system views the amount of damage the player's armour can withstand before solely presenting the initial damage on the player.

The HMD design received a visual and graphical update and differs insignificantly from Halo 3: ODST. VISR database will be available to the players, albeit being far more accessible and informative to their surroundings. With regards to the HMD special features, Side Factions recycles an absent feature from Halo 3: ODST which is the "windshield-wiper" feature, a feature that cleans off fluid from the environment, be it blood, rain or smudge. The player damage system (explained in the following section) has changed considerably from Halo 3: ODST but still stays true to the Halo formula.

Player damage system
The damage system in Halo: Side Factions is somewhat different from its previous predecessors, though shares some similarities to Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3: ODST.


 * Health:
 * The player has limited health -- divided into seven bars and signified from green to red -- which is protected by their Pressure Bar; they will start taking health damage once these are depleted. Health can be restored either by automated regeneration (restoring health to a certain degree) or with a health pack. When a player's health is reduced to zero, the player is not killed but merely incapacitated temporarily for a minute. They can be revived with a limited amount of Stim-packs carried by members of the squad. However, once revived, only a quarter of the health bar will be restored. The game will end for the player when all members of the squad are incapacitated at once. If the player receives additional damage before the health score could recover to the nearest bar, their physical abilities such as sprinting and melee attacks will be reduced.


 * Pressure Bar:
 * The ODST Ballistic Battle Armour utilised by the players can withstand several plasma-based/projectile-based fire. This is indicated by the non-regenerating supply of Pressure Bar -- presented in percentages --  integrated into the ODST's HMD. The Pressure Bar will decrease each time it start taking damage and will be fully-depleted after reaching a certain threshold.

Campaign
The campaign mode is separated into two militaristic-styled theatres; the 17th Theatre and the 22nd Theatre. Both theatres features an array of levels. The campaign mode can be played through single player, with two-players on one Xbox 360, or played cooperatively with up to three players locally, via Xbox Live online service or System Link. Like Halo 3, cooperative gameplay does not lead to players playing as identical ODST; the first player takes role of the leader of the squad, the other players are allowed to choose the squad members as their game model. Many classic weapons and vehicles from previous Halo titles returns.

Side Factions 's campaign also features a competitive scoring method for cooperative play that was previously used in Halo 3 called the "meta-game". Players are awarded points for defeating enemies while completing a level in the campaign. Extra points are awarded for specific actions (such as successfully launching a stealthy assault on specific locations or reviving an incapacitated ally), and are lost if the player gets incapacitated and lost the game or killing an ally. Side Factions also introduces several new features that are absent from previous Halo titles. One such feature is the ability to revive incapacitated members by means of forcefully injecting a Stim-pack into the chest. Another feature is the squad control system which allows the player to issue commands to their squad members.

Multiplayer
Like its predecessors, Side Factions allows players to compete with each other over the Xbox Live online service or System Link, for 16 players on the Xbox. The multiplayer features Firefight mode, a cooperative gameplay mode present in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach for four players, Forge editing program with some additional settings which were not made available in previous titles and the Armoury armour customisation system.

Major Characters

 * UNSC Faction
 * 22nd Shock Troops (Victor Team)
 * Victor-17 (Corporal ) (first appearance)
 * Victor-11 (Private First Class Christiaan van Zyl) (first appearance)
 * Victor-03 (Lance Corporal Roland Huffman) (first appearance)
 * Victor-20 (Private First Class Tomas Navarro) (first appearance)
 * Victor-27 (Lance Corporal Sarah Hyuk Lee) (first appearance)


 * 17th Shock Troops (Oscar Team)
 * Oscar-14 (XXX) (first appearance)
 * Oscar-15 (XXX) (first appearance)
 * Oscar-19 (Gunnery Sergeant XXX) (first appearance)
 * Oscar-20 (XXX) (first appearance)
 * Oscar-27 (XXX) (first appearance)


 * Senior Chief Petty Officer Maria-062 (first appearance)


 * Network AIs
 * Black Hat of Basse-Normandie, European Network (first appearance)
 * White Hat of Mombasa, African Network (first appearance)
 * Media Pro­to­col Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence SRR 0405 – 0 (first appearance)


 * Covenant Faction
 * Prophet of Disdain of Pleiades (first appearance)
 * Fleet Master Lepidus (first appearance)

Minor Characters

 * UNSC Faction
 * Master Gunnery Sergeant Nolan Byrne (first appearance)
 * Sergeant Timothy N. Biscuits (first appearance)
 * Special Detachment 7th Shock Troops (Noble Squad)
 * Captain Veronica Dare
 * Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck (mentioned only)
 * Corporal Taylor "Dutch" Miles
 * Lance Corporal Kojo "Romeo" Agu
 * Private First Class Michael "Mickey" Crespo
 * S-II Special Detachment "Blue" Team
 * Chief Petty Officer William-043 (mentioned only)
 * Chief Petty Officer Linda-058 (mentioned only)
 * Senior Chief Petty Officer Frederic-104 (mentioned only)
 * Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson
 * Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (mentioned only)


 * Covenant Faction
 * High Prophet of Regret of Pleiades (mentioned only)

Other Characters

 * UNSC Faction
 * UNSC Marines
 * UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Troopers
 * UNSC Army Infantrymen
 * Special Operations Aviation Reconnaissance
 * Office of Naval Intelligence Personnel


 * Covenant Faction
 * Sangheili
 * Mgalekgolo
 * Unggoy
 * Jiralhanae
 * Kig-yar
 * Yanme'e
 * Lekgolo
 * Huragok
 * Special Purpose Sniper (first appearance)
 * Alien Trooper (first appearance)
 * Seraan (first appearance)

Weapons

 * UNSC
 * BR55 Battle Rifle
 * MA5 Series
 * MA5C ICWS
 * MA5K Carbine
 * M6 Sidearm Series
 * M6B Handgun
 * M6K Handgun
 * M6C PDWS (SOCOM)
 * M7 Series
 * M7/Caseless Sub-Machine Gun (SOCOM)
 * M9 HE-DP Fragmentation Grenade
 * M19 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher
 * M90 CAWS
 * SRS99C-S2 AMR Sniper Rifle
 * M247 General Purpose Machine Gun
 * M247H Heavy Machine Gun (campaign only)


 * W/AVM6 G/GNR "SPARTAN Laser" (campaign only)


 * Covenant Empire
 * Type-1 Antipersonnel Grenade "Plasma Grenade"
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol "Plasma Pistol"
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle "Plasma Rifle"
 * Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher "Needler"
 * Type-50 Sniper Rifle System "Beam Rifle"
 * Type-51 Carbine "Carbine"


 * Type-17 Anti-Armour Weapon (Covenant Demolition Assault Rifle) (first appearance & campaign only)
 * Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon "Fuel Rod Cannon" (campaign only)
 * Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword "Energy Sword"
 * Type-2 Energy Weapon/Hammer "Gravity Hammer"
 * Type-25 Grenade Launcher "Brute Shot"
 * Type-52 Directed Energy Support Weapon "Plasma Cannon" (campaign only)

Vehicles

 * UNSC
 * M12 Series
 * M12 "Warthog" LRV (Anti Infantry)
 * M12A1 "Warthog" LAAV (Anti Armour)
 * M12G1 "Warthog" LAAV (Anti Armour)
 * M800 Tactical Transport
 * M831 "Warthog" TT (Troop Transport)
 * M274 "Mongoose" ULATV
 * M800 Series
 * M806B "Damon" Main Battle Tank
 * M808B "Scorpion" Main Battle Tank (first appearance)


 * D77H-TCI "Pelican"
 * D41-TC "Snowhawk" (first appearance)
 * D11H-U/C "Albatross"
 * GA-TL1 "Longsword"-class Fighter/Interceptor
 * GA-SR1 "Shortsword"-class Bomber
 * FQ-77 "Farian" UCAS
 * Orbital Defense Platform
 * "Daring"-class Frigate
 * "Shield"-class Support Ship (first appearance)
 * "Black Cat"-class Subprowler (first appearance)
 * "Triton"-class Destroyer (first appearance)


 * Covenant Empire
 * Type-25 Assault Gun Carriage "Wraith"
 * Type-25 Rapid Assault Vehicle "Chopper"
 * Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicle "Ghost"
 * Type-33 Troop Transport/Assault Vehicle "Spectre"


 * Type-25 Troop Carrier "Spirit"
 * Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft "Banshee" (campaign only)
 * Type-31 Exoatmospheric Multimission Fighter "Seraph"
 * Type-47 Ultra Heavy Assault Platform "Scarab"
 * Type-52 Troop Carrier "Phantom"
 * "Adjudicator"-class Carrier
 * "Venerable"-class Carrier
 * "CAR"-class Frigate
 * "Farscape"-class Corvette
 * "CCS"-class Battlecruiser (first appearance)
 * "CPV"-class Destroyer (first appearance)

Miscellaneous

 * Semi-Powered Infiltration Armour "Mk II"
 * Cellular Optical Particle Imaging (C.O.P.I.)
 * USNC Weapon Ref.#31 (Gel-Drop)/Reentry Unit/M-spec
 * TR/9 Anti-personnel Mine

Design
During the development of Halo: Reach, 343 Industries began recruiting contractors that could assist them in creating the next Halo title. While brainstorming in creating a new Halo content, the Creative Development team, headed by Creative Director Frank O'Connor, felt that the the ODSTs had a worthy potential to set up their own legendary reputations like the SPARTANs as seen in Halo 3: ODST. The Creative Development team also considered returning to the Great Schism, a Covenant Civil War which split the Covenant Empire into two factions, and expanding the event through the eyes of a Sangheili.

343 Industries began development on Side Factions in September 2009. Works began around the expanding the tales of the ODSTs, with the project titled Halo: Recon, later changed to Halo: Special Forces. Using ODST as their main reference, the team began constructing a plot that took place on the planet Earth. This development later expanded and the project title was changed to Halo: Side Factions. After several concepts, 343 Industries began developing a new design direction with Side Factions, aiming to be a more gritty and militaristic atmosphere. In order to achieve this, the development team decided to alter the Halo formula by introducing a simple squad-control system and a realistic gameplay mechanics, something akin to the designs of Tom Clancy: Advanced Warfighter. The development team referred to commissioned concept paintings previously used in ODST to decide how to construct Earth and its major cities in the 26th century. To achieve the realistic atmosphere from the ODST's perspective, 343 Industries consulted several ex-US Special Forces personnels to understand how they view the world.

Audio
The Halo: Side Factions Original Soundtrack was composed by Gearbox Software's contracted audio architect, Justin R. Durban, with some assistance and advice from Bungie's audio directors Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori. It comes in a two-disc set featuring all the music heard in-game. In addition, it has been confirmed that several musical pieces from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3 shall be referenced, with some to be re-recorded to suit the new atmosphere of the ODSTs. In contrast to Halo Trilogy's signature choral music (i.e. Gregorian chant), the audio directors of Side Factions referred the audio design as being more "somber, more grittier and militaristic" to reflect the ODST's wartorn nature. Due to Side Faction 's shift towards a militaristic atmosphere, Durban wanted to create new music that was evocative of Halo, but branched in a different direction.

Firefight
Firefight is a competitive campaign mode, where up to four players can co-operate with one another via system link or Xbox LIVE and fight against waves of Covenant forces in multiple environments. The game mechanics of Firefight in Side Factions is relatively similar to those present in Halo: Reach. However, customisation options for Firefight in Side Factions has been severely limited to a small array of options. Firefight in Side Factions introduces multiple gametypes for Firefight, each designed to enhance player's gameplay experience. The following are examples of confirmed gametypes for Firefight:
 * Classic
 * The standard gametype like its previous incarnation. Classic offers five Waves in a Round, and three Rounds in a Set. Classic causes all skulls (Tough Luck, Catch, Black Eye, Tilt, Famine, Mythic and Iron) to be activated in random orders.


 * Onslaught
 * Causes Waves to spawn every 7 minutes, even if the previous waves have not been eliminated by the player. Onslaught offers six Waves in a Round, and three Rounds in a Set. If all enemies were killed within the time limit, the player would be rewarded with bonuses such as more weapons deployment. However, succeeding in killing all enemies within the time limit would decrease the spawn timer by one minute. Additionally, if the player fails in eliminating a wave within the time limit, there would be a score penalty. Uprising disables skull activations as each Waves completed within the time limit increases the score multiplier.


 * Uprising
 * Causes Covenant Units to be promoted/rank up with each wave. Uprising offers seven Waves in a Round, and three Rounds in a Set. Uprising causes all skulls (Tough Luck, Catch, Black Eye, Tilt, Famine, Mythic and Iron) to be activated in random orders.

Service tags
The service tag is a social feature which enable quick identification for players on the battlefield, instead of the long names and complex number combination. The service tag is composed of two letters followed by three numbers. A few examples of registered service tags are ST107 and GS343.

Armour Customization
The armour customization in Side Factions is relatively similar to Halo: Reach 's armour customisation such as Radio Backpack (Body), Biofoam pack (Legs), Scope Gear (Head), Combat Knife (Arms).

HMD
The HMD (Helmet-mounted Display) contains the following readouts:
 * A gauge tracking the quantity of ammunition available for weapons carried.
 * A counter tracking the number and type of grenades carried.
 * A targeting reticule.
 * Acknowledgement lights from other members of the wearer's team.
 * In Halo: Side Factions, communication between members of the player's squad is through the acknowledgement lights. A brief detail of this is similar to SPARTAN Signals.


 * Maps and information uploaded over the wearer's TACCOM/VISR.
 * A Fiber Optic Probe is installed to integrate Tactical Situation.
 * The Pressure Armour Bar is located at the top center of the helmet.
 * A Pressure Bar indicates how much damage the ODST Battle Armour can handle before the player takes in actual damage to their health.

Forge-World
The Forge-World is a "map editor" that can be used to generate custom-created multiplayer maps. It should not be confused with Forge, the object editor present in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach.

In Forge-World, players are provided tools such as environment control (i.e. applying snow or changing from day-time to night-time), textures developer (texture generator and uploader) and the terrain editor (i.e. raising/lowering terrain). Instead of actual object spawn markers (those which provide a degree of interactivity), players are given object category markers to place around their custom-created map. Once placed, the program will spawn a random object according to its category. For example, instead of placing an Assault Rifle spawn marker, players can only place a weapon marker in the map. The same applies to vehicles and equipments. Players are able to place building and structure spawn markers wherever they like.

Unlike previous titles, Forge-World is not playable nor it is available for matchmaking. Forge-World is simply a map generator program built into Side Factions.

Theatre
Similar to Halo 3's, the Theatre mode allows players to save films from the Campaign, Multiplayer, and Film Mode, and also get film clips and screenshots.

Trivia

 * Halo: Side Factions was created long before Halo 3: ODST was announced. This fictional game was inspired by Star Wars: Republic Commando which explores the origin of the Republic Clone Troopers.
 * Halo: Side Factions aims to explore the origins of the ODST and why they became one of Halo universe's most popular side faction.
 * Halo: Side Factions' sister project is titled Halo 3: The Covenant, a pre-quel to Halo 2 which explores the culture of the Sangheilis and how the Covenant Empire was dissolved.

Related Articles

 * Halo: Semper Fidelis
 * Halo 3: The Covenant
 * Halo: Side Factions Announcement Transmission
 * Acknowledgements and Credits