Halo: Out With a Whimper

Halo: Out With a Whimper is a fan-made 2D platformer shooter PC game supported by and hosted on TriBlox's official forums. The game has had five demos officially released and plans to continue to release demos until the game is completed. The game is not endorsed by Microsoft or Bungie, thus considered not canon.

Plot
Not much has been revealed about the plot thus far other than it takes place on a Human mining colony called Atlas and centres around six Spartans, part of Red Team, in a group called Subdivision Beta. This section will be updated accordingly as new information is released.

Gameplay
Out With a Whimper's gameplay has evolved over the released demos from the control scheme to the enemies the player would face and game mechanics used.

Controls
Halo Out With a Whimper uses a set control scheme, but the game's programmers plan to have a control system finished for the next demo.
 * A and D - Move left or right (Hold S to crouch walk)
 * S - Crouch
 * W - Jump
 * E - Swap with weapon on ground, Enter/exit vehicle
 * Q - Dual wield/Tear off turret
 * R - Reload
 * Left Mouse Button - Shoot
 * Right Mouse Button - Grenade
 * Space - Melee
 * S+Space - Spinning-kick
 * G - Change grenade type
 * Z - Scope (Only on scoped weapons)
 * CTRL - Switch weapons
 * Use Mouse position to aim weapon

Forge Controls

 * Enter - Enter/Exit forge mode
 * W - Move
 * Space - Menu for objects
 * Left Mouse Button - Grab/let go
 * Right Mouse Button - Object Properties
 * Delete - (While grabbing) delete
 * Up/Down Arrows - Rotate item/Scroll through pallet
 * Left/Right arrows - Go through pallet

Weapons
UNSC Weaponry
 * MA2B Assault Rifle
 * MA5K Carbine
 * MA5C Assault Rifle
 * BR55HB SR Battle Rifle
 * M6G Magnum
 * M7/Caseless Submachine Gun
 * M90 Shotgun
 * M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher
 * Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle
 * M7057/Defoliant Projector
 * Sniper Rifle System 99D-S2 Anti-Matériel
 * Close Quarters Combat Weapon System
 * Confetti Maker
 * Gauss Cannon
 * AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun
 * M247 General Purpose Machinegun

Covenant Weaponry
 * Plasma Pistol
 * Plasma Rifle
 * Brute Plasma Rifle
 * Covenant Carbine
 * Needler
 * Beam Rifle
 * Spiker
 * Energy Sword
 * Fuel Rod Cannon
 * Brute Shot
 * Gravity Hammer
 * Plasma Cannon
 * Mauler
 * Gravity Wrench
 * Honor Guard Pike

Vehicles
Though they were not included in the July 2008 Demo, 2 vehicles have been completed.
 * Mongoose
 * Ghost
 * Chopper
 * Warthog
 * Gauss Warthog
 * Transport Warthog

Playable

 * Spartans
 * Elites

Allies

 * Marines
 * Spartans

Enemies

 * Grunts
 * Jackals
 * Brutes
 * Brute Chieftain
 * Jackal Sharpshooter

System Requirements
Many people complain of lag on their PC's, and in an effort to rectify the problem, TriBlox member Makar has tested the game on a plethora of PC's, and has narrowed it down, at least from his and other members of the TriBlox community have stated, to the following;

Minimum

 * Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 1.8 GHz
 * Any Windows-based OS
 * 384 MB RAM
 * DirectX compatible Graphics Card with at version 8.0 or later
 * Keyboard and Mouse

Recommended

 * Any processor clocked above 2.5 GHz, Dual-Core recommended
 * Windows XP
 * 1GB RAM
 * DirectX compatible Graphics Card with at version 8.0 or later
 * Keyboard and Mouse

Operating System note
OWaW has not been tested on any Windows-OS under XP, and has not been fully tested on Vista, but reports of freezing have occurred. Additionally, OWaW will not run on a Linux-based OS, due to issues of reading .exe files. OWaW has not been tested on any Mac-based OS as well.

Production History
The first demo was released on July 28, 2007 on the HaloSprites Forums showcasing only a campaign mode with one level, but included player customization, InnerRayg's Halo sprite kit, and basic enemy and ally AI. The level was scrapped later on and was not shown in any other demo.

On November 1st 2007 a map editor was released to allow players to create their own unique map with almost a hundred different tiles, over a dozen usable weapons, and five enemy AI. Over the next four months, the game was completely updated in every aspect. Its graphics were changed to a new style that was created by InnerRayg and the game engine was started over from scratch. On April 9, 2008, a new demo was released with a new campaign level, more player customization, better AI, and a map editor. Fans thought this version was amazing compared to the July demo. Then on May 24, a Forge Playtest was released for users to test out the new Forge mode. This version did not contain a working campaign level or classic map maker. The latest demo of OWaW was released on July 7, 2008 to celebrate Bungie Day. It featured brand new physics, 20+ weapons, playable Elites, and a new map based off of Blood Gulch to play. This version was more of an updated version of the previous demo. TriBlox entered OWaW in SAGE 08 (Sonic Amateur Game Expo), but were unable to produce a demo for it, and were "grayed-out" of the contest in the first two days, but despite that, just the the alone made it one of the most popular non-sonic games of the Expo. For Christmas of 2008, TriBlox released another demo featuring a rough preliminary level of the first level for the finished game. Since then the entire engine was scrapped and rebuilt almost completely from scratch by Appo and Killpill. TriBlox has announced it will be returning to SAGE 09 this year, with a new demo, the first since the 2008 Christmas one.

Graphics
Halo Out With a Whimper has been praised for its graphics. Most have been 100% custom made by either InnerRayg or the members of the TriBlox or HaloSprites forums. As of December 2007, the graphics have been updated to the fan dubbed "New-Rayg" style, after the artist who created it.

Music
Halo Out With a Whimper has also been praised for its music's quality. Since the March Demo music for OWaW has been composed for the game by Jonathan Churchill.

TriBlox Team Members

 * Appo - Team Leader / Main programmer / Secondary Graphics Lead
 * Torrent - Secondary Team Lead / Head Forum Administrator / Graphics
 * Killpill28 - Website Lead / Secondary programmer
 * InnerRayg - Graphics Lead (On hiatus)
 * Makar - Plot Lead / Graphics
 * Jonathan Churchill - Custom Music / SFX
 * newguy2445 - Media
 * 13thShorty(The Misfit) - Graphics
 * Voho - NRE (New-Rayg Expansion, a public release of the graphics in OWaW) Lead
 * Jangos_Legacy - Programming