Halo: Combat Evolved

I just wanted to add that as great as Halo is there is a big part of the game where you keep going into very similar surroundings over and over again. As a single player experience I would guesstimate about 30% is very samey and it can be a bit boring going through these levels. However the majority of the game is great fun and some brilliant level designs but there is some padding of the levels to make the game last longer. This is not a perfect game but its still fantastic. Graphically it is wonderful. Sound is superb. Its fairly smooth with only occasional slowdown. Handling and control is very good. The story while simple is enough to keep you interested. There is a lot of variety in the gameplay generally.

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.

I'll be commenting on both the PC and the Xbox.

Xbox: As you maybe have heard, Halo is definitly the best thing that happened to the Xbox. The single player is worth every penny, and the multiplayer is good too. The best part is the cooperative mode, where you and a friend can battle out the aliens together. The only real flaw is driving the warthog. It just doesn't feel natural. Despite that, all you FPS fans will definitly want to pick this up. A perfect ***** outta *****.

PC: If you don't own an Xbox, and you want to own Halo, you're in luck. 'Cause it's on the PC too! The game looks almost the same on the PC. And the multiplayer is online this time. Only one problem. No cooperative mode! That was my favorite feature on the Xbox version, and it's gone on the PC! Oh well. All the other good things are on the PC. So I give the PC version an almost as good **** outta *****

This game is absoulutly addictive. When i first saw it showed (on game network) it looked okay but not brilliant. Then ages later i played it.....it was amazing after we completed levels it so addictive that me and my co-operative partner decided to attack each other. I haven't played the multiplayer yet but by the sounds of it it sounds like another decent Perfect dark multiplayer. From what iv'e heared you can use tanks,aircraft and the worthog (A jeep). I don't have an Xbox, i have a gamecube, because in my opinion it is better. But this game changes my mind, i think that they should bring out a sequal or for a change a prequal. All in all i give this game 9.9/10

Let me preface this review by saying that when the next generation consoles (PS2, XBOX, Gamecube) arrived, I purchased my PS2 with the intention of not purchasing another console. Like many, I was skeptical about Microsoft's leap into the console fray and Nintendo's N64, while at times great, left me feeling like they just weren't trying to get anything good onto their system that wasn't a first party title (with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark being glaring exceptions to that). Halo was 75% of the reason for me to purchase an XBox. With that said, I get the feeling that some of the less friendly reviews of Halo stem more from contempt towards Microsoft, the XBox, and the idea that Bungie "sold out" when Microsoft purchased the company than any problems with the game itself.

Now, when I first saw Halo, my jaw dropped. The graphics are amazing. While I do tend to focus on graphics (especially in reference to clean animation) I don't necessarily hold it as equal to game play and it certainly isn't more important. But, one look at Halo and I thought "This is the most beautiful game I've ever seen." To this day after almost a full year of playing the game, I'm still prone to getting capped in the back of the head while enjoying the serenity of the blades of grass in Blood Gulch, or the majestic cliffs and water of Battle Creek. Lighting, shadowing, color, effects...just beautiful.

Sound...basically everything I said about graphics, you could change the context and apply it to sound. Nothing totally immerses you in the Halo experience quite like hearing a sniper's bullet whiz dangerously past your head only to hit the Warthog behind you with a loud "plink" while in "System Link" play.

The single player game play is good. It isn't the most entertaining game I've played but it holds its own. The story is good (and although I don't know first hand, I have heard talk of unoriginality...seems the Bungie guys "borrowed heavily" from another story) wherever its origin. The characters, mainly the enemies you fight against, are great. Nothing is quite as satisfying as sticking a plasma grenade to the face of an unsuspecting grunt, only to watch him flee in terror into the arms of his doomed comrades...KAPLOOIE!!! The sound, graphics, story, enemies and their AI, and control make the game a joy and had I never experienced multi-player Halo I might think more highly of the single player game.

Multi-player Halo: God's gift to the XBox gamer with friends...especially friends who also have XBoxes. I've saved this part for last because this is where the game truly shines. Multi-player Halo comes in several forms, a fact that in and of itself is impressive.

-You can play the single player game with a buddy. While this can be highly entertaining and is a great concept and much appreciated, it does suffer from serious frame rate reduction at times. If Bungie had designed this feature to be compatible with the "System Link" style (more in a minute) of play, it might have reached its apex.

-In "Split Screen" mode, as the name implies, you and up to 3 other Spartan Cyborgs can go head to head. Well, maybe head to head trivializes it. There are a myriad of game types and customizable options that leave multi-player Halo something to be tweaked and experimented with for months (but for the pending release of Halo 2, I would dare to say years) after you first play the game.

-"System Link" is the most novel feature of Halo. It is no longer just a game. It truly becomes an experience. You (with the expensive list of equipment in your inventory - 4 televisions, 4 copies of Halo, 4 XBoxes, and 16 controllers) can potentially play with up to 16 players! That's right, 16 players on a console game, with the work split up with 4 players at each XBox. While I've never played with more than six people at any one time, I still find this the most enjoyable way to play. Having an entire 27"+ screen to enjoy a multi-player console title this beautiful is a treat beyond explanation. The weapons selection and vehicles available become most appreciated in this style of play. Which brings me to another point: while the selection of weapons is varied, it isn't vast. Not that I'm complaining. Between the space marine and alien plasma weapons, there is plenty to work with. I should also note, that other than 4 grenades of each type (plasma or fragmentation) you can only carry two weapons at a time(i.e. a combo of two weapons which you can use one at a time, switching between them at your leisure). The genius of the game play becomes very apparent when you start to realize how well balanced and important the weapons you select can be.

I cannot say enough about this game. It is obvious that the people at Bungie really knew what they were doing and they really knew who they were making this game for. If you have an XBox and you don't have this game, you're missing out.