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Gameplay

Main menu

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The main menu is a series of menus and lobbies that players interact with in all Halo games.

The main menu is reached after a series of logos for the companies that produced the game and a splash screen. Sometimes the music of this sequence leads into the music of main menu itself. Examples of this are in Halo 2 and Halo Wars 2.

Upon reaching the menus and lobbies, one can access a number of gamemodes, settings and options, and view the Message of the Day (MotD). The Season is also often shown in the menu too. In the options section, one can change their control schemes.

The gamemodes that can be accessed through the menu include campaign, multiplayer, firefight, Spartan Ops, Warzone, Big Team Battle, Custom games, Theater, Forge, and File Share. Downloadable content such as new campaigns, Battle Passes, the Store, and The Exchange are often directly accessed through their respective lobbies or areas of the menu.

A player's service record, which includes Commendations and Achievements, is usually also seen somewhere in the main menu.

CustomizationEdit

In most games, the ability to change one's Armor permutations and armor effects is accessed through the main menu in some form. So to for Skins for weapons and vehicles as well. In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, The Exchange is only accessed through the main menu.

One's Loadout, Avatars, Stance, multiplayer emblem, service tag, and nameplate are also all changed through the main menu.

Seeing one's unlocked REQs or unlocked Blitz cards can be found here too; on top of purchasing the related packs.

By gameEdit

Halo: Combat EvolvedEdit

Main article: Halo: Combat Evolved

The Halo: Combat Evolved menu is set in orbit of Installation 04, with the camera rotating and moving about it showing its interior, the exterior shell, and Threshold. The music heard is Halo Theme and the final part of Brothers in Arms.

  • Custom games menu

Halo 2Edit

Main article: Halo 2

Pre-releaseEdit

  • Pre-release campaign lobby showing a cut Halo 2 level

  • A pre-release multiplayer lobby with various player names coming from characters from the Halo universe.

ReleaseEdit

The menu of Halo 2 features a background of the Solemn Penance, next to the Mombasa Tether in Mombasa, East African Protectorate. The music heard is the Gregorian chant in Prologue, Ghosts of Reach, Heavy Price Paid, the last minute of The Last Spartan, and Unforgotten.

  • The custom games menu from Halo 2 for Windows Vista.

  • Behind the scenes image of the menu version of Mombasa.

  • Behind the scenes image of the menu version of Mombasa.

Halo 3Edit

Main article: Halo 3

The main menu of Halo 3 features an animated view of a cliff at the edge of the Portal at Voi with several Covenant starships circling it, and Banshees patrolling over it. Movement, Never Forget, Choose Wisely, the beginning of Honorable Intentions and an unidentified choir track will rotate as the backing music.

Halo 3: ODSTEdit

Main article: Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST's main menu is set in the UNSC Say My Name, with Jonathan Doherty sleeping in his M8900 drop pod. Overture accompanies it.

Halo WarsEdit

Main article: Halo Wars

In the background, scenes from the Halo Wars announcement trailer as well as cutscenes from the campaign will play. Spirit of Fire is the music that accompanies it.

Halo: ReachEdit

Main article: Halo: Reach

Pre-releaseEdit

ReleaseEdit

Halo: Reach has a variety of lobbies all using their own artwork(s). The music used in the lobbies is Overture, though sometimes no music at all will play and instead, the sounds of distant gunfire and other fighting will play.

IllustrationsEdit

Most of the artwork used in the various menus and lobbies of Reach were actually pieces of concept art created by Isaac Hannaford. Depending on the lobby, the artwork would be different. As well, the artwork on the main menu would be different depending on which campaign level(s) were last played.

  • Start screen image, and menu art until the player reaches the level Nightfall.

  • Main menu art upon reaching the level Tip of the Spear.

  • Main menu art upon reaching the level New Alexandria.

  • Main menu art upon reaching the level The Package.

  • Menu art for the multiplayer lobby as well as for the Beta.

  • Menu art in the Firefight lobby.

  • Menu art in the Forge lobby.

  • Menu art in the Matchmaking lobby.

  • Menu art in the Theater lobby.

Halo: Combat Evolved AnniversaryEdit

Main article: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

The main menu for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was designed very similarly to the original Halo: Combat Evolved menu. When selecting multiplayer however, the menu was change to one more designed like and using from Halo: Reach.

  • Multiplayer menu

  • Main menu for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

IllustrationsEdit

  • Multiplayer menu art, reused from the Halo: Reach forge lobby.

Halo 4Edit

Main article: Halo 4

Pre-releaseEdit

In an alpha menu, the background was to be the broken planet around Installation 03. Two versions of To Galaxy were to play; one of just the strings used in the song and the other of the background electronic "drums" as well as an unknown track that was later used in the Halo 4 epilogue, Halo 4 lobbies in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and at the beginning of the track Blue Team in Halo 5: Guardians.

  • Pre-release menu.

  • Early build of the armor selection menu.

  • An early design for the Spartan Ops menu.

  • An early version of the Spartan Ops menu.

  • An early version of the Spartan Ops menu.

ReleaseEdit

The released main menu is of a debris field around Requiem. When reaching the title screen and for a time in the main menu, Atonement will play. It will change to Wreckage then the first minute or so of Green and Blue and rotate through all three while on the menu. When Infinity multiplayer lobby is selected, the image will move into the bridge of the UNSC Infinity where the first minute of To Galaxy will play on repeat.

  • Release armor selection menu.

  • The Spartan Ops menu.

Halo: The Master Chief CollectionEdit

Main article: Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Uniquely, depending on the lobby for which game that will be played, the menu music for that game will be played. Uniquely, for Halo 4 lobbies a new track was added. This being the unnamed Epilogue track (used in the early Halo 4 menu and the opening for Blue Team).

  • The old launch main menu.

  • Custom games menu from 2019.

  • Halo 3: ODST Firefight settings menu in 2020.

  • Cross-campaign playlist menu in 2014.

IllustrationsEdit

Prior to the August 2022 Update, the Season and certain lobbies used to determine menu backgrounds. Following the update, players were allowed to directly customize the art themselves.[1]

  • The original menu background until 2018.

  • Menu background of Season 1: Noble.

  • Menu background of Series 3: Recon.

  • Menu background of Series 4: Reclaimer.

  • 2018 Christmas menu background.

  • 2018 Christmas splash screen.

  • The Yappening splash screen.

  • The Yappening menu background.

  • Artwork used in some Halo 4 lobbies.

  • Artwork used in some Halo 3 lobbies.

  • Artwork used in some Halo: Combat Evolved lobbies

  • Artwork used in some Halo 2 lobbies

  • Artwork used in some Halo 3: ODST lobbies

  • A previously cut menu background.

Halo 5: GuardiansEdit

Main article: Halo 5: Guardians

Pre-releaseEdit

In the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta, the menu was set in an orbital facility of some kind (the skybox of which is used on Breakout Arena) with SPARTAN-IVs, Naval personnel, and scientists at various computer and hologram stations.

Musically, the menu opens with parts of Osiris Suite, Act 1, then moves into On Deck, before finally playing parts of Osiris Suite, Act 4. The music will repeat in that order.

ReleaseEdit

The menu consists of a profile shot of the UNSC Infinity in orbit of planet Kamchatka. Various UNSC starships and dropships will fly by, dock or move about the Infinity. These include Anlace-class light frigates, Winter-class prowlers and D79-TC Pelicans.

When getting to the start screen and for a time afterward, Halo Canticles will play. The music will then rotate through Rock and Ice, about a minute of Blue Team, Dominion, the first minute of Jameson Locke, about a minute of Osiris Suite, Act 3, and two minutes of Osiris Suite, Act 4. After returning to the menu from playing a multiplayer match, On Deck will play.

If sat on the main menu for long enough, the Floating Grunt Easter egg will play out.

Halo Wars 2Edit

Main article: Halo Wars 2

Pre-releaseEdit

ReleaseEdit

The menu is composed of a tableau scene of several units from either the Banished or UNSC. The menu background is chosen at random upon the game's launch. The music heard in the background is Cratered. After purchasing Awakening the Nightmare, the menu can also be Voridus or Pavium themed.

Halo InfiniteEdit

Main article: Halo Infinite

Pre-releaseEdit

During the Halo Infinite gameplay demo, the menu was set in grasslands on Installation 07 with the title placed in the middle of a ring-like Forerunner machine. The accompanying music is Reverie.

ReleaseEdit

SourcesEdit

  1. ^ Halo Waypoint, MCC - August Update (Retrieved on Sep 8, 2022) [archive]
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