Epic Games’ Fortnite is launching one of its largest updates yet with the Battle Royale Chapter 6 Season 4: Shock ‘N Awesome. Here, players will be able to join the O.X.R., the Island’s anti-bug military defense force, to take on an invading infestation of massive alien bugs similar to Helldivers’ Terminids. By taking out invading bugs and hostile players, players can unlock brand-new free and premium cosmetics in this Fortnite’s season Battle Pass, such as Lt. Ripp Slade and Power Rangers Outfits based on the Green Ranger and Dino Megazord. However, one new Halo-themed Outfit could spark an argument to bring back one classic Halo multiplayer feature in future Halo games: traditional red and blue teams.
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Halo’s History With Fortnite
Over the course of Fortnite’s eight-year-long existence, several famous film, TV, comic, music, and gaming icons, such as Alien’s Ellen Ripley, David Corenswet’s Superman, Gears of War’s Marcus Fenix, and Sabrina Carpenter herself, have crossed over into battle royale titles via outfits and other cosmetics. Routinely, these cosmetics are only available for a limited time before they’re vaulted away for extended periods of time or have other characters from their franchises appear in future Fortnite events. Such was the case with Xbox’s flagship franchise, Halo. In late 2020, 343 Industries and Epic Games chose to release Master Chief as the next Gaming Legend for Fortnite’s Chapter 2: Season 5 in coordination with Halo Infinite’s initial release date of November 2020.
Besides the Master Chief Outfit, players could have additionally acquired the Battle Legend Back Bling, a Gravity Hammer Pickaxe, a UNSC Pelican Glider, a Lil' Warthog emote, and a Matte Black alternate style of Master Chief’s Mark 7 armor. However, Master Chief didn’t stay in Fortnite’s shops for long and only briefly returned in March 2021, August 2021, September 2021, May 2022, June 2022, and December 2024. While several Halo fans have called for other prominent characters from the sci-fi franchise to appear in Fortnite, such as Cortana and Arbiter, Epic and Halo Studios haven’t added other Halo characters into the game until Shock ‘N Awesome.
How to Unlock Fortnite’s New Halo Cosmetics
Master Chief isn’t returning to Fortnite in Shock ‘N Awesome, nor are other major Halo characters, such as Cortana and Arbiter, making their Fortnite debut. Instead, Epic and Halo Studios are debuting a new female UNSC Spartan Outfit based on Halo Infinite’s default MJOLNIR GEN3 Mark 7 Cavallino armor for Spartan-4s. This Outfit comes in red and blue styles and seemingly debuts alongside a Covenant Energy Sword Pickaxe. To unlock this new Halo Outfit in Fortnite, players can acquire it for free by reaching Level 100 starting Tuesday, August 26, or instantly unlock it by purchasing this season’s Battle Pass or accessing it through the Fortnite Crew monthly subscription service.
Halo’s History of Red and Blue Teams
Since the early days of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, traditional multiplayer matches have divided players into two teams: red team and blue team. It was common for video games at the time to divide players into red and blue teams, with the hit Halo Machinima Red vs. Blue building off of that common concept in comedic ways. As Halo games evolved over the 2000s, red and blue teams remained the standard appearance for multiplayer players, with few exceptions, such as Halo 2 allowing some custom secondary colors to appear in red and blue teams. No matter what armor players wore or what species they played as, multiplayer teams would always be colored in red or blue.
By the late 2000s and early 2010s, Bungie first and 343 Industries (now Halo Studios) later allowed some game modes to alter players’ appearances beyond red and blue. For example, Halo 3’s Grifball made the holder of the Grifball turn orange, and Halo: Reach’s Infection made zombies appear in a pale green color while survivors wore their custom colors. Multi-Team matches even introduced other color teams beyond red and blue, such as orange and green teams. This team color system remained relatively the same throughout most mainline Halo games, with even spinoffs such as Halo Wars 2 dividing players into red and blue teams. However, this system changed with 2021’s Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite’s Optional Team Outlines and Potential Return of Red and Blue Teams
Instead of instantly changing players’ armor into red or blue colors in multiplayer, Halo Infinite introduced an optional outline and color system to use in all multiplayer matches. In Infinite’s default settings, rival teams will always be colored in a red outline over their customized armor, while friendly teammates will be colored in a blue outline. However, players can change the colors of these outlines into alternate colors such as green or yellow. According to Halo Infinite’s Community Director, Brian Jarrard, the decision to forego traditional red and blue teams was to “...support and embrace our goals and our aspirations about leaning more into player expression.”
While the option to change multiplayer outlines can be beneficial, especially for color-blind players, the inclusion of red and blue Spartans in Fortnite showcases the iconic nature of Halo’s red and blue teams. It’s rumored that the expected Halo: Combat Evolved remake will not have multiplayer, but Halo Studios could bring back traditional red and blue multiplayer teams in Halo 7. Instead of restricting multiplayer to just colored outlines, Halo 7 could debut with traditional red and blue teams but allow players the option to change teams' colors or use outlines like Infinite. This could allow Halo 7 to play like traditional Halo games and make it easier for certain game modes to return, like Grifball and Infection in their original forms.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 94%
- Released
- September 26, 2017
- ESRB
- T for Teen - Diverse Content: Discretion Advised, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Epic Games
- Publisher(s)
- Epic Games
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