Halo took the gaming community by storm when it was released
as a launch title for the Xbox console. It has since broke the 1-million units
sold mark. Halo is regarded as the most successful Xbox title to date, and there
are tons of reasons why. I’ll detail a few of them throughout the review, but
plain and simple, if you have not picked this game up, you haven’t played a First
Person Shooter on a console yet, at least not the right way.

As you begin the game you’ll find yourself taking the role of the Master Chief,
straight out of the cryo-chamber in The Pillar of Autumn, your battlecruiser.
Your battlecruiser has been invaded by an enemy life-form known as the Covenant.
Your first duty is to get Cortana, the AI for the Pillar of Autumn to
safety on the ring-like world known as Halo. The ship
is brought up to full combat status and your journey begins.

The Master Chief is a cyborg, lending well to the mission at hand, and he’s no
slouch either. Your Marines hold you in high regard, often making statements like “I though we were done til you showed up, Sir!“. The Master
Chief has an energy shield that will take quite a bit of fire before he takes
physical harm. Bungie was smart when they did this, taking out the need to search
for power-ups to continue, after about 5 seconds of safety, your shield will automatically
regenerate. If you stumble on to an Overshield power-up, you’ll be able to take
even more damage until it wears thin.

Before you even get off your ship, you’ll notice the work that has been put into
this game. Turn your flashlight on and see the lighting effects on the walls,
your Marines and enemies. Toss a grenade and watch the explosion reflect off walls,
helmets, vehicles, and of course the flying bodies of your foes. Once you make
it to the world of Halo you’ll see the lush environments, complete with waterfalls,
canyons, underground tunnels, and some pretty impressive Covenent-created battle
stations. The graphics run at a rate of 30 frames per second, and in campaign
mode with muiltiple players are flawless. Life-like explosions and gravity effects
add to the mix.

Halo is a FPS (First Person Shooter) that takes about fifteen minutes
to get used to, after that tossing grenades, mowing down a Hunter with your rifle,
sniping an enemy clear across the battlefield, or sending an enemy Ghost vehicle
into orbit with you rocket launcher is second nature. Vehicle control for the
most part uses the camera to control, which seems a bit awkward the first time,
but quickly becomes one of the funnest parts of the game. Hopping into any of
the vehicles and roaring into battle is extremely easy and mindless.

The most signifigent part of the game is Campaign mode, where you play start to
finish, through quite a few huge levels, all brought together by an excellent
storyline, triggered events, and friendly and enemy AI that seems to think through
their battle plan. Wether your playing alone, or cooperatively with a friend,
your Marines are there for you. They talk to each other, shout out battle commands,
take the perimiter, everything you would expect from a seasoned veteran in the
field. Hop on the Warthog and your comrades will hop in the gunner seat, and shoot
and kill the enemies for you, all the while shouting out commands. Some of the
things they say is quite comical, like “Get up, so I can shoot you again!” and “You want more?“

Don’t think you’re going to be in for a straight run-at-you, run of the mill FPS
enemy either, as these foes sneak around, hide behing objects, and try to work
together to pin you into a situation you’d rather not be in. The majority of the
enemies are fairly small and easy to kill, known as the Grunts, but I wouldn’t
take them for granted in numbers. You’ll find that the Elite and the Hunters will
give you the most trouble. But that’s OK, if you can catch them napping, you can
sneak up on them and kill them with one blow from behind, or just keep your distance
and pick them off with your sniper rifle. Put into the situations at hand, you’ll
feel like you’re a real Marine, in the midst of battle.

Multi-Player mode, although not exactly what Bungie had in mind, deals out some
intense multi-player gaming. The levels are detailed and fairly large and seem
to have been made for more than just a couple of players. You can connect up to
four consoles together for a match-up of up to 16 players through the system-link
feature, a bit unrealistic that you would have that many consoles and televisions
laying around, but the possibilities are there and through a couple of different
ways you can connect through the internet to play as well. Capture the flag with
8 or more players is a blast, while CTF with only 2 or 3 gets to be a tag match.
The one aspect that could have made Multi-player with fewer players even better
would have been the introduction of AI enemy forces, this way their is always
someone to shoot! Not to take anything away from the game, the options are there,
tons of game levels and variables, to make for a game tailored to suite your style.

This is by far one of the most appealing titles to play over, and over, and over!
By the time you finish the first level, you’ll want to play it again. Being able
to change the difficulty setting adds to this, and having Multi-player support
will have this game glued to your Xbox.

Overall – 10/10 [Not an Average] – Halo
rakes in a perfect score!

Filed under: Reviews

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