Halo: Combat Evolved - Master Chief Tells James Bond to Kiss It

Author's Rating:

Pros: graphics, gameplay, story, Master Chief is so cool

Cons: lame indoor environments, a couple of bad frame rate drops

The Bottom Line: 
Halo and KOTOR are the reason to own an Xbox right now.

Author's Review
Out of all the system releases, out of all the different games available at launch, there has only been one system that has REALLY peaked my interest, and that system would probably be the Dreamcast with Soul Calibur, followed by the Gamecube with Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. In November 2001, two consoles were to be released within 3 days of each other, including the Gamecube (which I of course waited 6 hours in a Wal-Mart layaway to get) and the new Xbox (which I absolutely hated at first). But even though I hated the Xbox at the time, I still couldn’t deprive the system of its flagship title, Halo.

Plot/Story

Normally when it comes to first-person shooter video games, their prime focus isn’t going to be a deep and engaging story, nor even a simply lame story; but is on the action that goes on in the game. The first-person shooters that do focus more on the story, come out with very lame gameplay (an exception would be Deus Ex, wonderful game it is, both in gameplay and story).

So with that said, I wasn’t expecting any kind of story that would really interest me, however once I had gotten the game and played through the single-player on my own, I knew that I had gotten a lot more than I expected. I’m not really entirely sure if I’ve gotten the story understood, but here’s what I made out of it. A long time in the future (like 20?? or 21??), the race of man has been able to colonize other planets. Now when a group of aliens called the Covenant decide that they don’t like this, they try to take out all of mankind and the origin of the race, Earth. But we’re not going to let them do that are we? Hell no, so a group of marines are sent in to defeat the covenant from taking over the Earth, including a super-human that was created to aid the Marines in such a crisis named Master Chief.

That, is as simplified as I can make the story for those who like to read simple English, so if you’re someone who plays the game and understands a deeper meaning to the story, go for it, I jsut gave a simplified outlook on the game’s story, so for those who are interested in what I had to say, they might go play the game for themselves. To be in a genre where a good story almost never stops by, Halo’s story does a wonderful job of creating the mold for FPS games, with an excellent story that can really suck you in, and there’s even a plot twist near the middle of the game.

Gameplay

Much of Halo’s success comes from the multi-player aspect, but the single-player is still a blast to play. First, there are three types of game modes to choose from, Single-player Campaign, Co-op Campaign, and Multiplayer. In single player, you’ll romp through 8-9 levels of kicking alien butt (do they have those?), continuing in the story, and controlling really cool vehicles. In co-op mode, you and another friend can romp through the single player campaign together. Then there’s multiplayer, which is what has made Halo one, if not THE, greatest multiplayer game ever, lots of old Goldeneye fans saying “Golden-who?” Whether it be a four player deathmatch in your room/living room/basement/etc., or a 16 player brawl through the system link using four Xbox’s, 4 TVs, 16 controllers, and 16 friends that you can beat the snot out of (well, 16 including yourself).

I know a ton of people, and I know there are even more, that have had the game since it launched, but have yet to even touch the single player campaign because of the extremely addictive multiplayer. Before getting my Xbox and Halo, I was awestruck as to how this game’s multiplayer could be so damn addicting, but after experience it myself in my own home for nearly 6 hours straight, I’ve seen the light (green light that is). The cooperative play I’m sure most of you can understand because it’s pretty self-explanatory. As for multiplayer with three other friends, there are tons and tons of different game modes like CTF (capture the flag), deathmatch, team deathmatch, and also a variety of maps to play on, most of them being unlocked after playing through the game after certain sequences. That’s one reason why I wondered how they could never touch the single player game, is because they wouldn’t have very many options to choose from.

Now that I’ve touched upon the multiplayer aspect of the game a little, lets explore the single player a little, shall we? First of all, which I think I’ve already stated, the game consists of 8 or 9 different levels that range from jungle areas, to indoor environments, to a covenant mother ship itself. There are no level completions or anything, nor will you even be able to tell when you’ve completed a level, because the game will just continue through until the end, with little captions telling you when you’ve entered a new “scenario”, but not a different level. I like this form of playing because it doesn’t let up on the action to go to a mission accomplished screen, and lets you do your thing all the way through.

The majority of the game, you’ll be on your feet walking from place to place with weapons in tow, and as you progress, you’ll often times be accompanied by other marines, which have some of the smartest AI (artificial intelligence) I’ve ever seen in a game. Whenever you’re fighting alongside any marines, they won’t just stand in place and shoot at nothing, and instead they’ll be moving around taking cover when they’re being fire upon. The alien AI is also extremely smart; for example, if you throw a grenade in the middle of a group, they all scream and scatter. Speaking of grenades, there are also two types of grenades (imagine that); Marine grenades and Covenant grenades. The marine grenades are your standard grenade that you throw and wait a couple second to explode, while the Covenant grenades are some kind of orb of energized plasma that sticks to anything you throw it on, and it’s SUPER fun to throw it on one of the aliens and watch them run away trying to get it off of them, especially the little grunts that run around with their arms above their heads screaming “Get it off! Get it off!”. Often times the game featured tons of hysterical scenes, including the small and weakest aliens in the Covenant, who run around like paranoid monkeys, and sound like a gremlin (from The Gremlins) when they squeal. It’s so hard to not laugh when they run around like that.

As far as weapons go , there are two types of weapons you can use, plus grenades. There are Marine weapons, and there are alien weapons. You can only carry two weapons at a time and although tedious when you run out of ammo, a very nice feature. When you want to pick up a different weapon, you’ll have to choose which weapon to drop in order to pick the new one up, and this shouldn’t be too hard, because I usually get rid of the ones that I don’t have any ammo left in. The marine weapons include shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, etc. that of course look super realistic, and then the alien weapons which include different cosmic like pistols, which shoot out what looks like little orbs of energy. Even though you’d think that using the Marine’s weapons would be better, they’re actually not, and by picking up one of the Covenant weapons, their own weapons are actually stronger against them, so if you’re out of ammo or something, pick one of em’ up.

Like I said, a majority of the game will have you walking from place to place, unlocking doors, solving simple puzzles like activating a switch that powers something up, but most of the time you’ll be blasting away at aliens, which in most scenarios, you’ll have to defeat all the enemies in a certain area in order to proceed to the next part of the game. In some situations you’ll get to drive/pilot a jeep that is super hard to control at first, a futuristic looking jet so you can reach higher places, and a hover craft that resembles a snow mobile, only it hovers.

Graphics

Being a first-generation title for the Xbox, even now, a year later, they’re still damn near amazing, with excellent character models (such as Master Chief), and some marvelous looking environments. First off the frame rate, which runs slower than I had thought at 30 fps (frames per second), however it is not going to be noticeable by all people. Yea a nit picky experience gamer is going to notice the slower frame rate, but for the people who play the game to have fun instead of tear it apart, they’re not going to notice anything wrong at all. As much activity that is happening on-screen at once, 30 fps is damn near perfect, because at times there is a ton of gunfire shooting across the screen, and between 20 and 30 enemies at a time, attacking you from all sides.

While the indoor environments were far from special since everything was so bland and looked the same, the outdoor environments are breathtaking and look really, really cool. In the outdoor environments there are lots of places to go, however in the indoor environments you follow un-inspiring and boring hallways to the center of the place you’re in or something, and then you have to follow the same route you took to get th, to et back up to the surface. Now this wouldn’t have been a problem if it weren’t for the boring hallways and caverns that all looked the same. Thankfully, there are arrows on the ground to help you navigate, so if you followed the arrows down to get where you need to be, the just follow the arrows that are pointing the other way, simple.

The alien models also weren’t that bad, as you had different types that range in size, color, and strength. The smallest ones are very simple, while the medium sized ones will jump around and shoot at you, and the big ones will stand there and look like BA’s WHILE shooting the crap out of you. Yea that was kind of irrelevant to the game visuals, but the alien designs are really cool in my opinion.

Sound

The audio aspect of the game was done well, and although I don’t have a 1000 dollar surround sound system (not YET anyway), the sound did go “boom”. First the sound effects are brilliant, with explosions all over, the different types of sound that the weapons make, and other effects like that which make the game very enjoyable with the speakers up.

When you're playing through the game, whenever you’re with your Marine allies they’ll scream different orders out, and while you’re fighting they’ll scream as they get shot. It’s also really funny what comments they’ll reply with if you shoot them yourself. The alien “voices” are the same, only you can’t actually understand what they’re saying, but the sounds they make are hilarious, such as the little grunts who sound like Gremlins from the movie The Gremlins.

Overall

So, after three times through single player on the Normal, Heroic, and Legendary difficulty levels, and about 2 weeks worth of multiplayer with my buddies, I do have to say that Halo is one hell of a game. There is a way to play online, but it’s not through Xbox Live, so sadly online play will ahve to wait for Halo 2, which I am TOTALLY stoked for. Halo is the kind of game that people will keep buying and buying and buying, and eventually there will be hardly anyone else left to buy the game.

happy gaming