Game Review: Halo

Years ago, I recall having my dad buy me Halo: Combat Evolved with an Xbox. I was addicted for 3 years, spending almost every hour of my day replaying the game, over and over. In my sleep I had dreams becoming a Spartan and living the life of one. Halo: Combat Evolved was the beginning of the Halo trilogy.

Game play:
Halo: Combat Evolved is viewed through a first-person shooter perspective throughout the entire game. You see and interact with things through Spartan 117’s eyes.

The game features vehicles ranging from human armored jeeps and tanks to alien aircrafts and hovercrafts. While controlling a vehicle, the game switches to a third-person perspective for pilots and gunners. Passengers keep their first-person view.

The main character’s hit points are portrayed as an energy shield and a life bar located as a blue bay in the upper-right hand corner of the screen. Damage will reduce the character’s energy shield and when depleted, more damage will reduce the health level of the character. The energy shield will recharge if the character has constant cover from damage for a short time.

Halo: Combat Evolved has unique weaponry consisting of weapons from science fiction. Human weapons need to reload and require ammunition, Plasma weapons require time to cool if fired repeatedly and are powered by un-rechargeable batteries. Every weapon can be used to punt an enemy silently without alerting other enemies. Players can only carry two weapons at once-so a strategy is required for selecting and wielding weapons. The character can carry eight grenades at a time; four frags-they bounce and four plasmas-they stick.

The main antagonist of the game is the Covenant-religious aliens with a hierarchy system. Their characters-Elites also have energy shields like the player’s.

Multiplayer:
The game was released before Xbox Live had even been created, LAN was the main choice for party gamers. Two players may also play co-operatively through the game’s campaign mode. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Graphics:
Halo was the beginning for the original Xbox-it was the best at the time. The amount of detail put in is nothing compared to today’s games, but no one ever noticed before we had HD. Rated 5 out of 5 based on 2001’s standards.

Audio:
Playing on a 27 inch television with speakers the size of ear buds was not very entertaining, especially when the old folks next door keep telling you to turn it down-so I rate it a 4 out of 5 while listening at the sound of a freaking whisper.

Overall:
Even though this game may be hella old, I found that it was worth it to review and was one of the most anticipated games ever. Graphics at the time were horrible, and I moved away from the damned old folks. 4.5 out of 5.