What are the Halo TV series reviews like and how will UK fans get to watch the show?

The eagerly-anticipated TV adaptation of much-loved video game Halo has finally arrived. After multiple attempts and a 20-year wait, the Paramount+ series has dropped in the US today (Thursday 24 March).

The $200m, nine-part adaptation follows the exploits of main character Master Chief - the towering, genetically-engineered supersoldier of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC). Like the video game, the action takes place in the 26th century, when the ruling UNSC finds itself under attack from an alien force known as the Covenant.

Halo became one of history’s most popular video games franchises after the first-person shooter launched on Microsoft’s Xbox in 2001. Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and District 9’s Neill Blomkamp have all been involved in projects that have sought to bring an adaptation to the screen.

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Now it is finally here and the reviews are in. But they aren’t exactly glowing.

The Guardian gave it three out of five stars. The newspaper described it as a ‘middling’ adaptation with ‘impressive visuals and not much else’.

Reviewer Ben Child added: “Fans of the games who just want to see their nightly battles with giant space monsters played out on the TV screen will no doubt be more than content with Kyle Killen and Steven Kane’s adventurous if somewhat insipid reimagining. Unfortunately, those of us who don’t recognise every re-enacted power-up bleep and helmet-cam vision of destruction will probably find ourselves wondering, much of the time, quite what is going on.”

US tech magazine Wired was perhaps even less impressed. Its review said Halo had under-estimated gamer audiences.

Critic Will