Halo: Dark of Night

Halo: Dark of Night is a first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft. Halo: Dark of Night was released on the November 11, 2020 in Australia, Brazil, India, New Zealand, North America and Singapore; November 12 internationally and November 15 in Japan.

The game is rated Mature 16+ for blood, gore, violence and heavy language by the ESRB. It is rated MA 15+ in Australia and New Zealand by the OFLC.

Halo: Dark of Night, unlike other Halo games, was revealed at the first annual Microsoft World Expo in Melbourne, Australia, in 2019. Further information, including a cinematic trailer, was released at E3 2019 alongside Halo Infinite's trailer.

Halo: Dark of Night is a mostly multiplayer-driven game, with it's campaign being heavily multiplayer-focused and encourages it to be played online or with friends through 4-player split-screen, however singleplayer is also available. The multiplayer consisted of the basic Halo gamemodes at launch, but has since incorporated popular fan-made modes into the official selection, notable examples being Drive or Die and Gun-game. Alongside the traditional forge mechanics, an additional mechanic was made available later through free downloadable content which allowed users to create their own campaigns and share them through the Halo file-sharing system. A monthly contest is held by 343 Industries, with most of the categories pertaining to Forge creations.

Characters and setting
Halo: Dark of Night spans over four different settings, beginning with Solstice, a Forerunner research facility in deep space, then transitioning to the Sentinel Crisis on Baphilas, then to the UNSC Ivory Coast, and finally within the decrepit, damaged Society Catacombs. Similar to Halo 2, Halo: Dark of Night follows two protagonists, from the United Nations Space Command and Lights of Purity respectively. The game follows Theo-783, a Spartan II of Class II, and Khisze 'Hagramai, a Sangheili Zealot within the Lights of Purity.

Plot synopsis
The Theo-783 storyline begins with a retrieval mission aboard Solstice, a Forerunner research facility within deep space. Fighting alongside Rose-788, the protagonist mainly encounters numerous Sentinel forms before reaching the facility's catalogue, in which Kayode Adetola is found close to death. Cassandra, a Forerunner - Human hybrid AI, would warn the two Spartans of the facility's true nature, it's purpose being to research a cure to the flood, and would request they destroy it. Rose-788, Kayode Adetola and Cassandra would evacuate the structure, leaving the protagonist alone to fight their way to the core of the facility and initiate it's self-destruction sequence. The player would encounter several flood forms during their escape, and would eventually return to the UNSC Carefree, a heavily modified Charon-class Frigate operated by the UNSC Black Operations Command.

Jumping to Khisze 'Hagramai's perspective, the Lights of Purity would discover that the Sentinels on Baphilas, the capital planet of the faction, had been activated, and had destroyed an entire Yanme'e hive in the planet's caves. Being deployed with a special operations team alongside a large number of Yanme'e, the player would fight their way through the caves in multiple levels, engaging and destroying many Sentinels and saving many Yanme'e hives. The player, after multiple levels underground, would be redeployed to the surface where they'd engage a number of Sentinel Enforcers in a unique aerial warfare level.

Back to Theo-783, the UNSC Ivory Coast would have exited slipspace following coordinates provided by research teams on the UNSC Carefree. However, the coordinates had been sourced from Cassandra, who had led the vessel and it's crew into a trap, where they'd be engaged by a large number of Covenant remnant forces. Being overwhelmed and eventually boarded, the player would have to repel the boarders before transitioning to the exterior of the ship, where the protagonist would engage special operations and EVA forces that were attempting to sabotage the Archer pods. After defeating the boarders, the Covenant remnant would retreat, however it would be discovered that Cassandra, who had been brought with them, was missing. Following the retreating vessels, the UNSC Ivory Coast would pursue them to their destination through slipspace, arriving at the glassed world of Society.

A cutscene level would take place, depicting the Lights of Purity discovering Cassandra's involvement in the activation of the sentinels on Baphilas, and deploying Khisze 'Hagramai to intercept, capture and force Cassandra to end the onslaught.

Theo-783 and several ground teams would be deployed to Society's surface, with UNSC forces battling the remnant outside an entrance to the catacombs. Once the forces were defeated, the UNSC would enter the catacombs with a large number of armoured vehicles, and a level would begin that'd mainly take place within a Scorpion tank, which'd see the player leading a battalion of marines towards the structure's control center. The player would receive reports of the arrival of a new fleet from slipspace, which would turn out to be Khisze and the Lights of Purity, who'd engage the remnant. Following the arrival of Theo-783 at the control center, the player would switch back to Khisze 'Hagramai and would lead a special operations team of Sangheili and Unggoy towards the control center of the structure, using the structure's access shafts to rapidly move towards the control center. Playing as Khisze, the player encounters remnant, human and sentinel enemies before arriving at their objective.

Upon both arriving at the control center, a shootout would begin, with the marines being beaten back and Theo-783 taking cover as the numerically superior Lights of Purity suppress them. The remaining remnant in the room would attempt to make an escape with Cassandra, moving towards Khisze, believing the Lights of Purity to be remnant forces. Engaging and neutralising the remnant, Khisze would retrieve Cassandra and the special operations teams would begin their retreat. The player would now play as Theo-783 as he would chase the forces through the catacombs on a Warthog, ultimately failing to make it in time, and setting up the plot for the up-coming downloadable content.