It's been over two years since Halo 5: Guardians was revealed, in which time it's morphed from a story about Master Chief wandering about in a dusty monk's cloak into a cross-media behemoth with a two-pronged storyline and about a thousand multiplayer modes.
Which, naturally, means there have been lots and lots of trailers to watch, study and parse. I've collated (I'm pretty sure) every single one of them, from the original tease right up to the campaign's opening cinematic. Consider this your one-stop visual education as to what to look forward to from the year's premier sci-fi shooter.
This introductory trailer still poses questions that haven't been answered. Things like "why does Master Chief need to wear a cloak?", or "who did he buy that cloak from? Because presumably he is famous enough that he had to buy it while not wearing the armour that he wanted to cover up, so it would have looked like he was buying a cloak many sizes too big for him. Isn't that weird?".
Multiplayer Beta Trailer
Given the nature of betas, half of the stuff shown in this probably isn't the same anymore.
The Bullet
A miniature trailer that exists almost entirely to be slowed down and pored over, mostly badly.
The Twins
Two warring trailers, each contradicting the other, laying out a blueprint of failure and triumph for the characters we'll be playing as. Which is the truth? (Spoiler: neither, they're probably both made by an ads agency on a very constrictive brief)
Animated Poster
The weirdest of the lot. This is actually a series of close-ups of the game's cover art, like someone's gone mad with Comixology's guided view feature. Bonus: the only surviving reference to that first teaser trailer exists in the Promethean/Forerunner beast in the background.
Warzone Intro
Halo's MOBA-nabbing enormo-mode gets a fittingly bombastic first showing here, but explains little enough that when I actually came to play the thing at Gamescom, I had absolutely no idea what to do and my team lost horribly.
Campaign Gameplay Demo
Look, I know this doesn't technically fit the bill, but the start and end are very trailer-y, so just be quiet and watch some shooting and bangs.
Multiplayer Trailer
For those confused by how multiplayer works in this new era of Halo, here's your explanation. Arena and Warzone are definitively split - primarily because one of the sections of the trailer has some baritone bastard shoutcasting all over it.
Opening Cinematic
If I can actually run across the tops of two Ghosts and pull the driver out on the move, I'll eat my hat and smile while doing so.
The Death
This is what they call "dramatic irony".
