Halo Zero

Halo Zero was a fan-made 2D platformer shooter PC game created by Dobermann. The game was loosely based on the Battle of Reach, before Halo: Combat Evolved took place. The game was not endorsed by Microsoft or Bungie, and thus, is considered non-canon.

Plot
Set during the Battle of Reach, the Master Chief fight his way through waves of Covenant forces invading the Complex. Once he made through, the Master Chief then transported to a Covenant cruiser to rescue Vice Admiral Whitcomb. Once rescued, the Master Chief boarded a Pelican which was later shot down by a Banshee. With the crew dead, the Master Chief then made his way from the crash site to a Covenant-occupied UNSC base. It was revealed that Sergeant Johnson is trapped inside the base. The Master Chief saves the Sergeant and together fought against the Covenant forces until a Pelican arrives to pick them up.

Gameplay
The game had a Campaign mode and Multiplayer mode. Campaign mode had five difficulty settings, Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic. Mythic difficulty would be unlocked by finishing the game in all other difficulties.

The keyboard arrow keys were used for movement, and the mouse acted as a free look, while the left mouse button and the right mouse button shot and threw grenades, respectively. All other functions such as Melee, Switch Weapon and Jump were subject to be changed by the user, but the mouse controls were unchangeable.

Multiplayer maps were based off of existing Halo Multiplayer maps such as Zanzibar and Blood Gulch.

Weapons
UNSC Weaponry
 * M6D Pistol
 * MA5B Assault Rifle
 * M90 Shotgun
 * S2 AM Sniper Rifle
 * M19 SSM Rocket Launcher
 * Frag Grenade

Covenant Weaponry
 * Plasma Pistol
 * Plasma Rifle
 * Needler
 * Energy Sword (Unlocks if you kill a Zealot Elite after you beat the Mythic mode)
 * Plasma Grenade

Enemies

 * Minor Grunts
 * Major Grunts
 * Jackals
 * Minor Elites
 * Major Elites
 * Zealot Elites
 * Hunters
 * Banshees

System Requirements

 * 1GHZ Processor
 * 256MB of RAM
 * 22MB free disk space
 * A keyboard and mouse
 * A high speed Internet connection

Developmental Notes
Notably, the game had many bugs, and had many misleading concepts, such as the fact that the game didn't shoot where the cursor pointed, but where the Master Chief was aiming at, and that headshots didn't do more damage than body shots. Many problems in collision detection occurred as well, such as Jackals being hard to hit due to their shield absorbing the first hit they take (unless hit by a rocket), making a melee attack the most efficient way to take them out.

On May 31, 2009, the official site and therefor server of Halo Zero was deactivated due to a lack of money to continue to keep the site running. The final game version was 1.8.6.3.

Halo Zero Level Editor
The Halo Zero Level Editor was a program that allowed the user to create and edit levels compatible with Halo Zero.

Halo Zero 2
Halo Zero 2 was a planned but never completed 2D platformer shooter PC game. The project was canceled due to the bandwidth costs of maintaining the game site and having no funds to pay it.