Halo: Cosmos

Halo: Cosmos is a first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Games Studios on Steam.
Halo: Cosmos was released on December 12th, 2025 internationally to critical acclaim. 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: Cosmos was announced in 2023 during the fourth annual Microsoft World Expo on the Gold Coast, Australia. Alongside the announcement was an official cinematic teaser trailer and a panel on the development of the game. Further information on Halo: Cosmos was revealed alongside a second cinematic trailer and a short gameplay reveal at the MWE and E3 2024 respectively. The final gameplay trailer for Halo: Cosmos was revealed during MWE 2025.
Unlike prior Halo games, Halo: Cosmos was a PC exclusive. This was due to the emphasis 343 Industries had put on community development and the integration of the Steam workshop, alongside the "Ultimate Forge" feature, a simple-but-complex development kit released to the public for free on release. Despite not being available for Xbox Series X players, Halo: Cosmos was highly successful monetarily both due to game sales and in-game transactions for membership subscriptions and cosmetics, such as armour and skin, and the continued income from cosmetic sales and membership subscriptions improved the game's longevity and value. 
Unlike any other Halo game, community creations have a chance of being directly incorporated into the game.
== Synopsis ==
=== Setting ===
Halo: Cosmos, as a primarily multiplayer game, takes place across an increasingly vast number of different places and regions within the Halo universe, ranging from iconic locations such as the Ark and Earth to never before seen locations such as Mars and even the Andromeda galaxy.
Alongside it's main feature, the extensive multiplayer portion of Halo: Cosmos, the game featured a well-praised and moderately long singleplayer campaign that took players to various locations in the galaxy during the Forefather War.
Due to the integration of the Steam Workshop and community content into the game, the large number of locations portrayed by Halo: Cosmos only continues to climb.
=== Setting ===
Halo: Cosmos is shown from the perspective of Theo-783, a Spartan-II Supersoldier of Class II and a veteran of the Human-Covenant War. The story for much of the early game is bleak and dark in order to showcase the true nature of the extremely bloody Forefather War, however the more hopeful, fast-paced style of action common throughout the Halo series returns as the story shifts towards Installation 01.
The primary antagonist of the story is the S'southi, an ultra-advanced race from beyond the Galactic Rim that utilises semi-organic vessels and vehicles to great efficiency. 
==Features==
===Steam Workshop===
The Steam Workshop allows the player to access a library of community-created content, ranging from high quality maps and armours to simplistic but fun gamemodes and gameplay tweaks. Players have the ability to vote for content that they would like to be implemented into the game, and are able to upload their own creations provided they abide by the workshop's rules.
===Community Servers===
Community Servers are free for players to host and play on with their friends or any other gamers who could join through the main menu's Community Server browser. The settings of these servers can be changed in numerous ways, ranging from player speed to custom workshop content, and allows for gamemodes such as a recreation of the Garry's Mod classic Murder to be hosted by dedicated groups of players. Community Servers can also be joined through standard matchmaking if the player's filters allow for it.
===Ultimate Forge Kit===
The UFK, or the Ultimate Forge Kit, was a free software development kit that was free to download and use. It allows players to develop their own creations and use them in their own servers or in community servers where their creations are installed. The types of creations a user can make using the UFK vary greatly, with the user being able to develop everything from simple weapon skins to custom gamemodes to custom maps entirely.
The UFK received heavy praise by the community, and it's integration with the Steam Workshop made the sharing of player-created addons and mods easy and fast. The development team working on Halo: Cosmos updates integrates some of the more popular and stable addons made using the UFK into the game often.
====Heroic Kit====
The Heroic Kit was an addon to the Ultimate Forge Kit released shortly after launch. It was free to players and users who had a currently active Premium subscription at the time of the game's release, which included those who pre-ordered the game. The current price for the Heroic Kit stands at $40.00 USD.
The Heroic Kit adds the ability for players to use the Ultimate Forge Kit to create custom Campaigns and Campaign missions which could be released on the Steam Workshop. The depth and complexity of the Heroic Kit makes it rather hard to use for the inexperienced developer, however when used in capable hands it is a powerful and efficient tool.
===Plasma Engine===
The Plasma Engine was a game engine specifically created by 343 Industries for the next generation of Halo games following Halo: Infinite. The engine was capable of extremely high detail while maintaining good performance, and was specifically designed for usage with PCs. A variant of the Plasma Engine intended to be used for the cancelled Xbox Series X port of Halo: Cosmos, known as the Elite Engine, was left unfinished following the cancellation of the project.
Alongside it's performance and detail advantages over past engines, the Plasma Engine was designed to be versatile and robust, allowing for the easy production of community creations while not sacrificing the stability or performance of the engine.
==Gameplay==
=== Campaign ===
==== Campaign Levels ====
# September Fire - The Battle of Sedath
# Final Stand - Initial engagements of the Fall of Antis
# Martyrdom - Closing engagements of the Fall of Antis
# Archive - Battle of the Great Archive
# Descent into Darkness - A cinematic displaying a brief look at the events between 2562 and 2566
# Point Charlie - Opening engagement of the Second Battle of Installation 01, attack on the Library
# Silent Strike - Battle of the Control Room and the assassination of Kalam
# Fortification - Defense of the Control Room
# The Abyss - Battle within the Forerunner structure known as The Abyss
# Vengeance - Continued battle of The Abyss and the death of Sark
# Arrival - Battle of the Confluence, Installation 01's arrival to Installation 00 and the destruction of Arrogant Theory
# Restore Hope - Continued battle of the Confluence, the destruction of Binding Enlightenment the UNSC's escape from the ring
# Light over Darkness - Cinematic displaying the activation of Installation 01, the destruction of the S'southi fleet and the end of the Forefather War.
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