The Halo saga, as we know, has a vast lore distributed among the games of the main series, the various spin-offs such as Halo Wars and countless novels and comics. Unless you are super-passionate, it is therefore difficult to keep everything in mind: let alone for whom, with Halo Infinite,will have its very first contact with the Master Chief series.

The new title coming out today is thought of as a kind of "reset" of the previous story, but that does not mean that it will not be full of references to past events; although it is fully enjoyable in itself, it does not hurt to keep in mind a few important elements. Here are summaries below!

Who is Master Chief?

It is impossible to briefly summarize the entire story of the little man in green armor, but suffice it to say that behind that golden viewer hides a man named John. He is a soldier, but not a simple marine: he is a Spartan,belonging to a group of genetically modified super-soldiers initially established bythe UNSC (United Nations Space Command)to quell a human insurrection, and later employed in the war of the Earth against an alien group called covenant . John was chosen by the military at the age of 6, and taken away from his family, thanks to his intelligence and superior strength, starting a long and painful training and transformation process until he became what he is today, at the age of 50.

Due to his valor in battle and his successes in the war against the Covenant, the Master Chief is the most famous Spartan among humans and the most feared of the aliens, who have given him the nickname "Demon". On the armor he bears the number 117,his Spartan code, and Master Chief is both his military rank (translatable as Commander in Chief)and his nickname.

Who is Dr. Halsey?

Dr. Catherine Halsey (69 years old in Halo Infinite)is the founder of the Spartan-II program and we could say that she is therefore the "creator" of master chief, as well as other Spartans. She is recognized as a brilliant scientist, but also as a war criminal as she had the most promising children kidnapped to fit them into the training program, torturing them and brainwashing them.

Dr. Halsey also created Cortana,the AI that accompanied the Master Chief in all previous games, basing her image and personality on herself.

Who is Cortana and what happened to her?

And we obviously come to one of the pivotal characters of the saga. We could say that she is (or was) the Best Friend of the Master Chief, despite being an AI. John-117 has carried her in his helmet during numerous missions with the task of protecting her, and the two have therefore become very close, tightening a symbiotic relationship very important for the dynamics of the saga.

In Halo 4 Cortana began to suffer from "anger", an AI malfunction that occurs when too much information is acquired. This led her to have sudden changes in personality, inducing a strong push to power and violent behavior. AIs like Cortana should be turned off after seven years to prevent them from entering the state of anger.

At the end of the game, Cortana begins to lose control and eventually sacrifices herself for the Master Chief, but a fragment of her essence manages to survive and rises again in Halo 5: Guardians as a real villain. Here Cortana creates a new ai-only faction called the Created,in the belief that, to protect the galaxy, humanity must be subdued or annihilated. At the end of the game we see her reach the UNSC Infinity ship in orbit near Earth, determined to destroy it with one of its imposing Guardians,but the vessel manages to escape her through an emergency jump into hyperspace.

John has been devastated by this sort of betrayal of Cortana, and at the same time feels that he has failed in the task of protecting her by also becoming very wary of AI in general.

What are Rings?

Rings are galactic weapons created by an ancient race, antecedent to humans, called the Precursors. They were created to eradicate the Floodsfrom the universe, zombie-like parasites that can infect almost any living organism, doing so in a rather radical way: instead of directly killing the Floods, the Rings were intended to eliminate the food that the Floods fed on, that is, every living creature in the galaxy.

But the Rings are not just weapons: they are fully habitable circular worlds with environments and ecosystems similar to those of Earth, and host research facilities to discover alien species and conduct experiments. Their task is also to reseed life in the universe after the sterilization of all life forms has been completed. Each Ring is unique and different from the others.

There are seven Rings: the first game took place on Installation 04, the second on Installation 05 while Halo Infinite takes place on the mysterious Zeta Halo.

Who are the Exiles?

We conclude with the main enemies of Halo Infinite:the Exiles. It is a rebel faction that escaped from the Covenant, composed of mercenaries belonging to different alien races, mainly Brute (similar to large monkeys). Their leader is Atriox,and he and the Exiles were the main villains of Halo Wars 2. These arrived on the Zeta Halo before the start of Halo Infinite,and the outcome of their confrontation with the UNSC Infinity is narrated in the opening sequence of the game.

Now you just have to launch yourself headlong into the Halo InfiniteCampaign: have fun!