Halo: Combat Evolved

"Actually, it’s more like “Combat Unevolved,” but it's still fun"

I remember one day around Christmas 2001. I did not get a next-gen console that year, so I was still stuck playing my Nintendo 64. However, my friend down the street got one: an Xbox. He got two games with his Xbox: Halo and Madden 2002. I had heard so much about the Xbox, and my local church was even raffling one off (I didn’t win, though), so I couldn’t wait to get over there and check it out. We played a little Madden first, and I loved that game. After about two games in which I was completely mutilated (apparently my friend had been playing the game a lot since Christmas), he put in Halo. I loved Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, so I figured a game like Halo, which had a ton of hype surrounding it for a long time, would be a game I would immediately fall in love with. We didn’t go right to multiplayer, I figured I’d watch him play a little single-player first. I was immediately impressed by the awesome graphics of the game, and I laughed out loud at the hilarity of the enemies. The battles were heated and challenging. After watching him play one level, he allowed me to take control. I started playing the next level and loved it. It was fun to just wipe out tons of aliens with little pretense. Then, as the game wore on, I became more and more disappointed. There were so many things that I was disappointed with. I had lofty expectations due to the hype, and although I had fun with the game, it certainly wasn’t better than Goldeneye or Perfect Dark.

Halo was probably the most hyped up and anticipated game of 2001. This was to be Xbox’s launch title, and was soon to be hailed by many people as “the greatest FPS ever” or even “the greatest game ever!!!!!!” I only have one simple question: how? Halo is a very fun game, yes, but it is so far from innovative that you cannot give it such a lofty title. Now, before all you Halo fanboys go out and cry to your mommies, hear me out. (Remember, I said the game is fun, and I admit that.)

Graphics: 10/10
Yes, I remember seeing the graphics of this game for the first time. My jaw dropped in awe when I saw the spaceship drifting through space. I was even more impressed when I reached the second level down on the Halo. The graphics are awe-inspiring. The units are detailed and realistic, and some of the alien creatures are so fearsome that I was terrified. Microsoft and Bungie paid a lot of attention to graphical detail in this game, and it shows as one of the most graphically impressing games on the market today. Even better is how the action rarely even lags during heated battles. The landscapes even look like photographs they are so realistic. The graphical capabilities of the Xbox were certainly pushed to the limits with Halo.

Story: 8/10
The story is pretty much your everyday sci-fi fare. The human forces and the covenant forces have been in tension for a long time now and eventually an all-out war breaks out. The action begins on a human space ship, which falls under attack from the covenant forces. Eventually, the combat moves from the space ship to the Halo (which is a ring near a planet that is actually like a planet in itself), where the battles really heat up and the story unfolds. The story is kind of interesting but most of it is told in between levels and is not really anything new. There are no FMV either. The story can be captivating and has some twists that you would never expect as the game goes on, but it’s not new. I could swear I’ve seen it somewhere on a sci-fi movie.

Sound/Music: 9/10
The music in this game is pretty cool in some places, but you really don’t hear it much during the game. The game is programmed to kick in some cool music whenever a heated battle is impending, but other than that you won’t hear much to speak of. The music there is, however, especially the battle music and the title screen music, is pretty catchy and fits the mood.
The sound is another department in which this game shines. The sounds that the weapons put out are pretty standard, but what is really great in the sound department here is the voices. Occasionally, your teammates will shout out something and even get cocky, taunting the enemy. The big alien creatures let out deep grunts and roars, while the smaller ones sound like evil little gremlins. I really like when a smaller alien gets scared and begins to run off, screaming and crying. The development team paid a lot of attention to the sound in this game, and it makes for an enjoyable and quite humorous experience.

Gameplay: 8/10
This is where many gamers will yell at me, screaming, “You have no idea what fun is, you Nintendo Fanboy!!!! Halo is the greatest game ever!!!” I thoroughly disagree. Like I said earlier, this game is fun, but it lacks in one critical department: innovation.
Halo could pretty much be defined as the cookie-cutter FPS with some AI and programming twists thrown in to disguise it. For starters, here is the basic level structure: go here, killing everything on your way; when you’re done with that, meet up with your team here, killing everything on your way; when you meet with your team, help them kill everything there; lather, rinse, repeat. In fact, there is one level where I swear they just repeated the same hallway, room, bridge, hallway, room, bridge, hallway, room, bridge…sequence over and over and over again, while changing the number and type of enemy in each to mix it up. On top of that, the levels are very long, making for a very grueling and often repetitive adventure. The objectives of each level basically consist of nothing more than “go here, go there, things go bad and get out.” The combat is very fun, mostly because of the great AI, but it would have been much better if there was a broader arsenal at your disposal. There are only ten weapons in the game (forgive me if I missed one or two): the plasma pistol, the standard pistol, the plasma rifle, the assault rifle, the shotgun, the needler, the rocket launcher, the sniper rifle, the fragmentation grenade, and the plasma grenade. This is unlike, say, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, which have nearly about 50 or more weapons each. On top of that, you can only carry up to 2 weapons at a time and 2 types of grenades. This adds a strategy element, but it would have been much more fun to carry a huge arsenal around and have fun blasting up enemies with a million different weapons.
The camera can also be a bit of the problem, especially when riding on a vehicle in caves. The camera gets stuck behind a wall and begins to jitter, and you can’t really see much when the camera is moving around like its controller is having an epileptic seizure. Other than that, though, the camera poses little problem. Now that I’m done with the bad, let me move on to the good.
This game’s AI is unmatched in any other FPS. The enemies will hide from you, even in the fray of battle, then wait for you to pass them then ambush you from behind. The enemies dodge your attacks and take cover when necessary. They run from grenades and know when they are being overpowered, at which time they retreat. Some of the really big and threatening enemies will rarely hide from you, but the smaller ones tend to be much more strategic. The dwarfish creatures are there basically for comic relief, as they run from you frequently and scream, then you shoot them from behind and they fall flat on their faces. Hilarious.
The game also plays with the magazine ammo system, which was used in Battlefield 1942. This means that you must be conservative in reloading, since you could be throwing away ammo needlessly. This forces you to reload towards the end of your magazine, unlike Perfect Dark and Goldeneye, which do not use the magazine system and encourage you to reload all the time. This adds an element of challenge.
Probably the best feature of this game is the vehicles. Unlike many other games, you have a large assortment of vehicles at your disposal (my personal favorite is the Banshee, the flying vehicle), which can be found around the levels and usually right before a heated battle. These vehicles include tanks, flying units, hovercrafts, and gun-mounted jeeps, to name a few. These are even more fun in multiplayer, which is very enjoyable, but don’t really have many ambush spots or hiding places. Nevertheless, there are a ton of different multiplayer modes and levels (although not as many modes as Perfect Dark, but more than Goldeneye). Multiplayer becomes very fun when four people get involved, especially when you play a team game with vehicles.
The gameplay is fun and the AI is impressive, but the game certainly could have used more innovation and variety.

Challenge: High
This is actually one of the more difficult games I’ve played. Easy mode is kind of a breeze, but anything higher than that presents a significant challenge, especially Legendary mode, which is brutal. The game’s difficulty is significantly downplayed by the high number of checkpoints throughout levels, which serve as spawn points for every time you die, instead of starting all over again (which is kind of welcome since the levels are so long, but they could have had less checkpoints).

Replay Value: 8/10
With four difficulty modes, a long single player mode and a deep multiplayer mode, you’ll be playing for a while, and you’ll want to come back for more if you really like the concept of mindless killing.

Good Points:
-AI is the best I’ve ever seen in a FPS
-Presents a good challenge
-A wide variety of vehicles enhances the single-player and multiplayer experience
-Multiplayer is fairly deep
-Awesome graphics
-A long single-player experience will keep you captivated for a long time

Bad Points:
-Not very innovative
-Level structure is dull and repetitive
-Only ten weapons overall
-Very little and often no in-game music

The Bottom Line:
This game is very fun, don’t get me wrong. I just think it’s a little too over-hyped. There are better FPSs out there. Halo is not the best FPS ever, but Halo 2 fixes the problems Halo had, Halo 2 could certainly be a serious contender.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/04/04