Halo: Branching Sickness Is The Horror Game We Never Knew We Needed

4 days ago 14

Published Feb 7, 2026, 6:00 AM EST

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond.

Halo fans have a lot to look forward to this year, with the official Halo: Campaign Evolved launch scheduled for release and rumors of Halo 2 & 3 remakes to come. The remake will send players back to where it all began to re-experience the epic original Halo story on modern platforms, including Halo's premiere on PlayStation consoles.

However, there's another bold new fan-created Halo game in development that players will absolutely want to keep on their radar, and they've recently posted some exciting new updates. Branching Sickness is a standalone Halo game currently in development, made entirely by fans, created in Unreal Engine 5, and featuring horror-based gameplay with iterations of the infamous flood enemies from the series.

Halo: Branching Sickness Is A Fan Game With Real Potential

It's A UE5 Fan-Created Horror Game Set In The Halo Universe

Branching Sickness is an ambitious passion project from a team of Halo enthusiasts that has been in development for the better part of the past ten years. While there's still no planned release date or demo available, developers have conveyed through the official Discord server that play-testing will begin as soon as the "functional quality [meets] the visual quality."

Based on the teasers and screenshots released by the dev team, progress appears to be well underway, giving players a glimpse at the general UI, atmosphere and ambiance they are shooting for, as well as the sort of gameplay players can expect to see in the Unreal 5 engine. Think a much scarier Halo Infinite with vastly improved gameplay and multiplayer components, and you've got Branching Sickness.

Branching Sickness thrusts players into a unique, completely original story set in the Halo universe, following the main character, Noah, against a massive invasion of flood. Additional details about the narrative have not been revealed as the developers want to focus on "gameplay and multiplayer" elements first and foremost.

While Halo Studios' upcoming Halo: Campaign Evolved promises to showcase Halo gameplay in UE5, there's something extremely exciting about a community-driven project and a horror backdrop that has fans just as hyped as the official Halo: CE remake, not to mention it won't feature AI-generated content either.

Halo Fans Should Definitely Keep An Eye On This One

A Game By And For Halo Lovers

Halo Master Chief Collection soldier standing by a tree

It's hard to say exactly if and when players will actually get to dive in and start exploring Branching Sickness for themselves. With play-testing not even on the horizon yet, it doesn't seem like there will be a viable full release of the game anytime soon. Further, it's unclear if the project will need to clear some legal hurdles in order to fully release without being cease-and-desisted to death before it sees the light of day.

That said, players can follow the progress of Branching Sickness by joining the game's official Discord server. If you're a Halo fan who has been looking for an authentic modern horror experience in the universe that fully takes advantage of the technical possibilities of the Unreal 5 engine, Branching Sickness needs to be on your radar.