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To only associate Bungie with Halo would be a great disservice to the company, though. Bungie has also been responsible for multiple classic Mac OS games, as well as Destiny. Overall, the developer has created quite a few titles that are worth checking out.
Updated on March 18, 2022, by Jack Pursey: Following Microsoft’s acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision, many people assumed that Sony would be making a significant investment of its own sooner rather than later. However, few expected that Bungie would be the company joining the blue brand, considering that they birthed Microsoft’s most iconic mascot character, Master Chief.
Sony’s acquisition has made Bungie a major talking topic in the gaming industry as of late, so we’ve decided to update this list to include some more information about the studio’s releases.
11 Oni (73)
Release Date: 26 January 2001
Available Platforms: PlayStation 2, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 10 hours
Best Feature: The fast-paced, engrossing action gameplay
The bottom game scoring a still-respectable 73 is a testament to Bungie’s ability to consistently release enjoyable games. Oni was released in January 2001 on the PlayStation 2 and PC before coming to Mac OS later in the year.
Oni is a third-person Beat-Em’-Up that takes place in a futuristic dystopian landscape. The game was praised for its enjoyable combat mechanics but criticized for lackluster graphics and weak plot.
10 Destiny (76)
Release Date: 9 September 2014
Available Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Main Story Completion Time: 11.5 hours
Best Feature: The quintessential Bungie-style combat
Destiny was Bungie’s first console game to release after the company’s iconic Halo series. Because of this, Destiny had a heap of expectations on its shoulders before its 2014 release.
Unfortunately, the game didn’t reach the lofty heights of the Halo series. It was praised for featuring the feel of Halo’s well-designed and fun online gameplay, but was criticized for its underwhelming story.
Destiny Expansion Scores:
The Dark Below (63)
House of Wolves (72)
The Taken King (89)
Rise of Iron (73)
9 Halo 3: ODST (83)
Release Date: 22 September 2009
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 6 hours
Best Feature: The campaign, which features one of the series’ best storylines
Halo 3: ODST may not have been the Halo 4 that fans had been eagerly waiting for, but it still had the pressure of living up to the legendary trilogy that came before it.
The 2009 game had many skeptics due to its full $60 price, especially considering its reduced campaign length. Despite this, Halo 3: ODST had excellent sales figures and was one of the year’s best-selling games.
8 Destiny 2 (87)
Release Date: 6 September 2017
Available Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia
Main Story Completion Time: 12 hours
Best Feature: The engrossing progression system
Destiny 2 was released three years after its predecessor, receiving considerably more favorable reviews. The game was praised for its offering of open-world exploration, improved combat, and implementation of RPG mechanics. Furthermore, Destiny 2 won multiple awards, including Best PC Game by Game Critics Awards 2017.
Despite this praise, the game has proven to be very divisive. Its 87 Metacritic score is in stark contrast to its current 4.4 user score.
Destiny 2 Expansion Scores:
Curse of Osiris (61)
Warmind (68)
Forsaken (86)
Shadowkeep (78)
Beyond Light (77)
The Witch Queen (89)
7 Myth II: Soulblighter (88)
Release Date: 28 December 1998
Available Platforms: PC
Main Story Completion Time: 9 hours
Best Feature: The unique base-building and army recruitment mechanics, which differentiate it from other game’s in the genre.
Myth II: Soulblighter is a unique real-time tactics game as it excludes one of the genre’s most key mechanics. Base building and army recruitment don’t feature in the game. Instead, players begin with pre-determined bases and units, allowing them to put all of their focus on combat.
RELATED: Every Halo Game, Ranked (According To Metacritic)
The game was released in late 1998 on Mac OS, Linux, and Windows PC.
6 Crimson: Steam Pirates (88)
Release Date: 1 September 2011
Available Platforms: iOS
Main Story Completion Time: N/A
Best Feature: The surprisingly high level of strategic depth
After releasing their final Halo game, Halo: Reach, the gaming industry was curious to see how Bungie would follow their iconic series. Anyone who claims that they predicted an iPad strategy game would be the company’s next title is almost certainly lying.
Crimson: Steam Pirates is a real-time strategy game that gave players a Steampunk crew and ship to control as they battle other ships and complete campaign objectives.
5 Myth: The Fallen Lords (91)
Release Date: 7 November 1997
Available Platforms: PC
Main Story Completion Time: 15.5 hours
Best Feature: The visuals, which were ahead of their time in 1997
Like many of the games on this list, Myth: The Fallen Lords won numerous awards shortly after its release, the most notable being PC Gamer’s Strategy Game of the Year award.
Similar to its successor, base building is not a feature of The Fallen Lords. The game was notable for being extremely difficult, with many players reportedly giving up after only the first couple of levels.
4 Halo: Reach (91)
Release Date: 14 September 2010
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 8 hours
Best Feature: The cooperative modes
Halo: Reach was Bungie’s final Halo game before the torch was passed to 343 Industries. The fifth game in the Halo series was a prequel to the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved.
The prequel was a fitting way for Bungie to bow out of its legendary series. The game itself was praised for having one of the series’ best campaigns and stories, as well as its excellent range of customization options and tools available to players.
3 Halo 3 (94)
Release Date: 25 September 2007
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 8 hours
Best Feature: The online multiplayer
Halo 3 was released at an important time for Microsoft. PlayStation’s disastrous PS3 roll-out had handed Microsoft’s Xbox 360 an audience of gamers on a silver platter. However, a year had passed since the console’s release, and the PS3 was finding its feet.
Microsoft responded in style with the modern classic Halo 3. The game contributed to a spike in console sales, as the game’s online multiplayer in particular offered hours of fun with friends that consumers didn’t want to miss out on.
2 Halo 2 (95)
Release Date: 9 November 2004
Available Platforms: Xbox, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 9 hours
Best Feature: Like Halo 3, Halo 2’s online multiplayer stands out as the best feature, even above the excellent campaign
Bungie didn’t disappoint when it followed up on one of the greatest FPS games ever made, with Halo 2 almost surpassing the original game in Metacritic score.
Halo 2 didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken and kept its core gameplay and single-player experience similar to its predecessor. The game is notable for one addition, though: the online multiplayer mode that Halo games are synonymous with first appeared in Halo 2. It was the most popular Xbox Live game for just under two years after its release.
1 Halo: Combat Evolved (97)
Release Date: 15 November 2001
Available Platforms: Xbox, Xbox 360, PC
Main Story Completion Time: 10 hours
Best Feature: The high level of innovation that is seen throughout the classic game
Microsoft has tried and failed on many occasions to replicate other products, such as Zune and Bing being nowhere near as successful as the iPod and Google. The Xbox may well have been another of these failures if Bungie didn’t introduce the world to Master Chief.
Halo: Combat Evolved is one of the best launch titles ever released, not just because it’s an incredible game, but because it immediately put Xbox on the gaming industry map, with one of the best single-player campaigns in FPS history.
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