Halo's gameplay has shown to be very simple. Through what Bungie calls the "Golden Triangle of Halo." This consists of three things, firing, melee, and grenades. This triangle has remained throughout the whole series, not with a change. The player has to use this to fight off other enemies or other players. They also have recharging energy shields to help with the health of the player. If the shield is depleted, then the player resorts to their health, which is risky because you can easily be killed off. The weaponry of the Halo games has significantly changed. The most notable weapons were the Magnum, a pistol, and the Sniper Rifle. These 2 weapons have been able to remain throughout the entire Halo series.
In Halo, the player is able to change the difficulty in the Campaign, or in Firefight. Firefight was made in Halo 3: ODST, and more known in Halo: Reach. This feature was taken out in Halo 4, but a similar mode to firefight was named Warzone. Warzone came out in Halo 5: Guardians. The player is can change difficulty to 4 options, Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. Easy was more used by beginners in Halo. Normal was used by more experienced players that wanted to play the game and not rage or gain achievements without dying too much. Heroic and Legendary was used by players wanting to challenge themselves to fight better. In Halo 2, if you used Legendary, there was a more than likely chance that you were going to die since players found that the Jackal snipers have been very accurate with their shots, while the player barely stood a chance against them. The Difficulty can also be affected by the skulls the player puts on, such as Iron or Mythic. Skulls were made in Halo 2 and has been used since then. In Halo 2, when you picked up the skull, the skull on the mission was activated. You were not able to activate the skulls in the menu. In Halo 3 and Halo 5: Guardians, you had to find the skulls in the specific missions to unlock it in the menu, but the skull did not activate. Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4, the skulls were unlocked in the menu so that the player can use it and not find it in missions.
In Halo 2, the player was able to "dual wield" 2 weapons. Although, these weapons needed to be a small weapon, Magnum, SMG, Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, and Needler. You are unable to dual wield other weapons like the sniper rifle or the assault rifle. In Halo 3, this feature was kept, but you are now unable to dual wield the Needler, due to balancing, but you are now able to dual wield a new weapon called the Mauler. When dual wielding, you are able use weapon combos, more significantly the Plasma Pistol and the Magnum. This is usually referred to as the "Noob Combo" by many Halo players, as you can charge upo the Plasma Pistol and shoot it at the player to deplete their shields. Then you can easily shoot your Magnum at the player's head or body within a couple of shots.. You are also able to get double the ammo, such as 2 SMGs, or 2 Magnums. With these goods, there is a bad, as you can not melee, throw grenades, or in Halo 3, use equipment. If you try to melee or throw a grenade, your second weapon will drop automatically, and you will melee or throw the grenade. Another disadvantage is that the accuracy is decreased and your ammo gets depleted twice as much. In Halo 4 and 5, you are able to dual wield, but you can only hold the Magnum and the flag. This feature is only used in multiplayer for Halo 4 and 5.
In the Halo series, aiming has not been a much needed thing. The accuracy of the weapon has been very accurate. Although some weapons were able to be zoomed in, such as the Battle Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, etc. The main weapons, such as the Assualt Rifle and Plasma Rifle, were unable to be zoomed in, but your helmet binoculars were put in place. When you zoom in with the main weapons, you cannot shoot with the weapon, as you are immediately zoomed out and your weapon fires. In Halo 5: Guardians, this was changed as how you are able to zoom in with any weapon and a Smart Scope appears into the weapon like the Assualt Rifle. The zooming has not changed with the snipers, as you can still scope in 2 times.
Vehicles in Halo have been apart of the Halo series since the beginning. The main vehicles that the player was able to use in Halo: Combat Evolved, was the Ghost, Banshee, Scorpion, Warthog, and the Wraith. Each vehicle has been unique, as the ghost in a 1 man Covenant vehicle with 2 plasma shots being able to come from the vehicle. The banshee is a 1 man flying Covenant vehicle, with similar abilities to the ghost, but in recent games it is able to shoot a green explosive and strafe. The scorpion is a 1 man human vehicle, similar to a tank. It has explosive rounds the player can shoot and it has a look similar to a real scorpion. In Halo 3, the Scorpion changed as another player can go on a machine turret on the Scorpion. The Warthog is a 3 man human vehicle, consisting of the driver, passenger, and the machine turret a player can use. Throughout the games, many variants of the Warthog have been made, such as a Guass Warthog, Rocket Warthog, and a Passenger/Troop Tansport Warthog. Then there is the Covenant Wraith, in which it is a Covenant 1 man artillery tank. The Wraith is able to shoot out plasma mortar shots and is able to boost forward for a second. Through out the games, many vehicles have been included for one game. Some vehicles was the Spectre, Covenant version of the Warthog, Mongoose, 2 passenger human vehicle that has been through the games from Halo 3 and on. In Halo 5: Guardians, the Mongoose has 2 different variants. There is the regular mongoose, a Mongoose with turrets the player driving can use. This Mongoose variant is named as a "Gungoose."
The Halo multiplayer is widely known through its gamemodes, such as infection, capture the flag, and slayer. Halo allowed people to be on split screen on multiplayer and on the campaign, until Halo 5: Guardians. Although this feature is supposed to comeback in future Halo games. Lastly, there is a feature, added in Halo 3, that allowed players to make or mess around with maps. This is called Forge. Forge allowed players to make things on maps, modify it, or destroy it. The Halo games have kept this feature, improving it as time goes on.