Although I am a gamer as a hobby, back in 2001 I was very much into my Nintendo, having played it since the NES came out as a child. I took a break for many years and then got back into it with the Xbox 360 but of course I had missed some games which then went on to become franchises and game-changers. One such game was Halo and, although I was there for the sequels, it never really appealed to me as the clips I saw seem to involve a lot of hits required to kill any enemy – so the game looked to me like a lot of running backwards while holding down the trigger hoping the enemy runs out of energy before you run out of bullets. As a result I gave it a pass and it was only recently when someone pushed the revamped version of this game into my hand that I gave it a try.
It took me a minute to get into the swing of the game but once I did I found that it was much more tactical than I had imagined and I was surprised that the game play (and the original graphics) stood up as well as they did for a game over a decade old. The basic plot sees you taking the battle to a race of creatures called the Covenant, but this is just the starting point as other creatures and robotic AI come into play – all of whom are each other's enemy and it makes for a nice device that you can occasionally use these various groups to help your progression, in so much as they will battle each other and you just need to saunter in and clean up whoever was left standing at the end – not every often, but it is a nice tool. The device does also work well as a plot since it constantly mixes up who are the "baddies" in the story as it is only ever black/white for a short time with any one group and it made you rejig your priorities in a narrative sense.
The game play was really good on the whole. My worries about enemies sometimes taking a lot of hits to kill did stand up but it was not an issue because I actually liked the way they had shields and energy like I did, it made me play smarter, using certain weapons for them rather than the weaker enemy. This fitted in with the general strategy of the game; I would have liked more options (similar to the "sneak or storm" options of many games now) but there were still many ways of playing here. One thing that I did really like was that ammo was always a challenge – in some games it can be tough early on but leveling up or earning money makes it go away; here I constantly faced at least one of my two weapons running empty and I enjoyed the challenge of making calls regarding which gun to us and when. Although the action can be frantic, it mostly had an intelligence to it and, as a COD player at heart, it was a very nice change of pace to see too.
The one area I did really hate was the handling of vehicles – in particular the Warthog. All through the game I struggled with it but never really was forced to get good at it since it was only an occasional use and it was always just an option. That was the case at least until the final level, when the game decides to become a driving game for the final 5 minutes, running through a timed obstacle course as the last level. It only took me 8 attempts but let me tell you that every one of them was full of swearing and cursing as that vehicle seemed to do its own thing consistently. I'm sure it is me just not getting the hang of it, but I hated it. As I had been given the remastered version of the game, I did play with the revamped graphics and audio and they were really good. Every now and again I did switch to the original setup and, although more basic, I was still impressed by how good they looked and it did make me realize why the game had been the hit it had at the time.
So, although I am a good 13 years to the party, I did really enjoy Halo. The game play may be frantic and involve lots of holding down the trigger, but it is also surprisingly tactical and open to different styles. The plot is also simple in terms of how it flows, but the different factions add a satisfying complexity to the narrative and the way the game plays out. Halo 2 is also on offer for me to borrow, and I suspect it will not be too long before I jump into that as well, since this first game in the franchise was so enjoyable and engaging.
