With a little more than a month left to go before Microsoft's and 343 Industries' Halo 5: Guardians drops on the Xbox One, Master Chief fans are surely polishing their first-person shooting skills by playing previous installments in the franchise. Long-time gamers of the series should certainly be excited for the title's release, especially with a campaign length that's double that of Halo 4's. However, a lot of fans who plan to pick up Halo 5 on day one due to its multiplayer might be disappointed at first due to the fact that a much-vaunted new mode for the feature will initially be absent, as no big team battle will be available at launch.

Regardless, the marketing campaign for the title rolls on, as a new intro cinematic revealed the game's Fireteam Osiris a few weeks ago, and more trailers are likely to crop up as the days continue to draw closer to Halo 5's release. Now, the team behind the FPS' acclaimed podcast based on the franchise have announced the extension of the audio series with Hunt the Truth Season 2 starting today.

With more than 6.7 million listens, the serial's story has garnered tons of fans, and has been ranked as high as #1 in Video Games and Games & Hobbies on the iTunes Podcast Charts. Season 2 features an all-star cast and picks up shortly after the events of Season 1 with journalist Benjamin Giraud’s exposé of a massive military cover up and conspiracy possibly having come to an unpropitious end.

Keegan Michael Key of the popular sketch-comedy series Key & Peele reprises his role as Giraud, while Season 2 shifts its narrative focus to FERO (voiced by Janina Gavankar of True Blood fame) the rebel leader who helped the now-discredited journalist. The most notable of other cast members joining the tale are Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Serenity), Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy, Spy), and Vanessa Marshall (Metal Gear Solid 2, Star Wars Rebels).

In reference to the Hunt the Truth podcast, 343 Industries' Franchise Development Director, Frank O'Connor says:

“In Season 1, Giraud was like an active audience member within the fiction. He was piecing together facts and false truths from week to week as he was pulled along and redirected by various sources, and in the end, we still left a lot of open questions – mainly, who could he actually trust? In Season 2, we’re taking the hunt further, from the perspective of probably the most credible of those sources – FERO.”

Previous installments in the series have revealed major details about Master Chief's origin, and have also given us a more in-depth understanding of some of the Halo franchise's more ancillary characters. Plus, in one audio diary titled “Boxing Story”, fans were given information making them question the true motivations of the universe's most famous Spartan, and whether or not ONI (the Office of Naval Intelligence) is to be trusted.

While viral marketing campaigns are nothing new, the fact that 343 Industries is offering additional stories for Halo 5 with such high production value for free should be pretty cool for hardcore fans of the series. Not to mention, the narrative for Hunt the Truth could potentially hook casual listeners and reel them in to purchasing the upcoming title once it goes on sale, especially if they leave the audio serial on a cliffhanger.

Halo 5: Guardians is set to release on October 27, 2015, exclusively for Xbox One.

Source: HUNT the TRUTH