Halo, and We're Not Talking about Angels here....

Halo has long been one of my favorite video games. Up until this point of my gaming life though, I did not feel I could write a review worthy of the game. Now, after beating the game on all levels and playing it 23 hours a day I think I finally have grasped enough of this legendary game to write a review on it.

The Story

One of the great things about Halo is the in depth story line of the game. I don’t know the exact year, but humans have been expanding around the universe due to advances in space travel and weaponry. Somewhere during their exploration of space, they run into an alien race known as the Covenant. The Covenant are an extremely religious group and they see humans as a threat to their religion and seek to wipe them out. Despite having advanced technology, the humans are basically lunch meat to the Covenant. To combat the aliens and prevent them from reaching or finding the location of Earth, the humans developed cyborg soldiers to battle the aliens. Unfortunately for the humans the Covenant locate the developing facility and destroy it before the soldiers can be placed in mass production. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the lone prototype, Master Chief. This is where you take over. The POF is under attack and you have to evacuate to a ring world known as “Halo.”

Gameplay

Halo features two game modes, Campaign and Multi-player. Multi-player is the belly of the beast so I will get into that part later on, first a little on the campaign!

The object of the campaign mode is simple, kill anything that moves and stay alive. You can play by yourself or with a friend, which I strongly advise, especially on the more difficult game settings. Another advantage of playing with a friend is you can use more strategy in your attacks, ex. Hide one player on the warthog behind a rock and lure the aliens to you so your buddy can blast them with the .50 caliber machine gun. Tricks like these come in handy on the Legendary mode.

There are lots of enemies you will face in this game. Usually they try to swarm you with their masses so it is key to keep on the move at all times or find a good place to snipe the crowd down to manageable numbers. There are several different kinds of aliens you will face. The first and easiest to kill are the grunts. They are the smallest of the Covenant and usually appear in small groups. They are easily scared and will often run and make hilarious comments as you pursue them. They put up a fight in groups but once you single them out they flee and you can easily kill them with a melee attack. Next there is an insectile like alien which I forget the name of. They usually carry a shield which you either have to pour enough ammo in to break or just bash them with the butt of your gun and then kill them. Other than the shield they are not terribly tough to deal with.

Next you have the real baddies. The Elites and the Jackals. These are large two-legged monsters who use Needlers or Plasma Rifles and have a shield system similar to yours. They pose the largest threat to you and are deadly in numbers. They can also be cloaked and sometimes carry energy swords which kill you in one swing. It takes quite a bit of ammunition to kill them as well. After these bad boys you have the largest weapon in the Covenant arsenal, the Hunters. Hunters are huge, spiked and heavily armored beasts that carry fuel rod guns. One shot from this weapon can drop your shields like a bad habit and sometimes kill you instantly. If that wasn’t bad enough, Hunters can only be shot when their back is turned to you or you get in a well placed head shot.

Later on in the game you will come against the Flood, a deadly group of diseased aliens that are more powerful and ruthless than even the Covenant. I won’t spoil that little surprise for you though.

Not to worry though, you have several great weapons at your disposal for dealing with these enemies. Usually you will be using Human weapons, but you can also pick up the weapons the Covenant drop, which come in handy for dealing with certain enemies. Here is a rundown of the weapons.

Human Weapons
Assault Rifle – like the guns in ALIENS and Starship troopers, high rate of fire, little accuracy.
Pistol – a very accurate weapon, packs a punch despite its small size and has a zoom scope for sniping enemies.
Sniper Rifle – capable of killing even major enemies with one shot, has a 2X and 10X zoom scope so you can hide out and pick off the bad guys, ammo is scarce so don’t waste shots, also slow to reload.
Shotgun – The best weapon in my opinion, capable of dropping even the strongest enemies with one or two shots, but you have to be up close and personal to get the best damage.
Fragmentation Grenades – basic frag grenade, you throw it and it blows up in 3 seconds, good for taking out groups of aliens

Covenant Weapons
Plasma Pistol – fires green energy blasts at a decent rate. Can be charged up to release a large energy blast that takes out minor enemies in one shot and does decent damage to bigger targets, also tracks enemies if you have a lock on.
Plasma Rifle – basically the same as the human assault rifle but packs a bigger punch and more accuracy. Overheats easily so watch your battery meter.
Needler – this is a unique weapon that fires little pink needles that chase your target. If you fire enough of them they will latch onto the target and explode like a grenade, killing the target instantly.
Plasma Grenades – Same effect as Frag. Grenades but with an added bonus. Plasma grenades will stick to your target if you hit them with it, causing them to run around until they explode.

Items and Vehicles
Health Packs – recharge your health meter, critical to find these in later stages
Over Shields – add 2 extra layers to your shields, helps when you are fighting a lot of enemies
Active Camouflage – You become cloaked for a limited time and enemies cannot see you from a distance

Warthog – a 4 wheel drive, indestructible jeep you will use in several missions. Has a .50 caliber machine gun which you can use and the side driver can fire at enemies as well.
Scorpion – A human tank with a large cannon and machine guns, this is the ultimate Human vehicle and you can use this to wreck havoc on the Covenant, if you stay alive long enough to find it.
Banshee/Ghost – I forget which is which, but these are Covenant vehicles. One is like a hovercraft, you can fly around and blast enemies with the dual plasma cannons. The other is a small aircraft with plasma cannons and missiles, these can be very effective if you learn how to handle them.
Others – You will also find stationary guns in some stages which fire high energy plasma bolts at a decent rate. Learning to use these cannons to take out large crowds of enemies is essential.

Ok, now that you are totally bored with all the technical stuff, here’s the meat and potatoes of campaign mode. Basically you go through each stage and accomplish the objectives which will be updated every once in awhile through your in suit A.I. The missions are diverse, ranging from rescuing your troops from an alien ship to scouting out the Halo ring control center. Everywhere you go you will be greeted by your good Covenant friends so be ready for battle and learn how to use your weapons effectively.

Multiplayer Mode is the best part of this game. It allows up to 16 players to enjoy a free for all killing fest. All of the weapons, vehicles and items from campaign mode are available in multiplayer. I haven’t played all of the multiplayer modes but I have played several of them. Most of the time it has just been me and 3 of my friends so I have not experienced the 16 player mayhem. You can team up with another friend and play 2 on 2 or have every man for himself. The games range from slayer, which is the standard death match to 15 kills, to capture the flag where the player who lives longest with the flag wins. As you unlock more modes you can play with only rockets or sniper rifles and can play with no shields or grenades. There are a lot of options in multiplayer.

The best thing about Multiplayer is the game maps. There are several maps that are can be used for multiplayer. Each map has it’s strengths and weaknesses, certain maps are good for several players while other maps are frustratingly large if you are only playing with 3 or 4 people. There are enclosed areas which promote close up firefights and large open areas which are great for hiding out with sniper rifles or using tanks and banshees.

Controls

Halo makes great use of the entire Xbox controller. You use the two analog sticks to control your movement and field of vision. If you press down on the left stick you will go into a crouching position and pressing down on the right stick allows you to use your scope, if your weapon has one. You can invert your movements too if you prefer this type of control. The 4 buttons on the controller can be configured to switch weapons, pick up new weapons, use your melee attack and to jump. The left trigger is used to throw grenades and the right trigger fires your weapon. The little black and clear buttons on the lower right side of the controller are used to turn on your flashlight and to switch grenade types if you have both plasma and frag grenades. The controls do not take a long time to learn, after a mission or two in campaign mode you are usually good to go in terms of controlling Master Chief. There is even a tutorial on the first level which teaches you how to look around and other movements. Overall I found the controls fairly easy to use and very smooth during the game.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Halo are excellent for the most part. Character detail is very well done. Energy blasts and bullets make marks on the walls and grenades always leave burn marks on the ground. Alien blood spatters when they are hit with weapons. Friendly and Enemy characters move very fluidly. The detail on the vehicles, both large and small is excellent and the detail of each weapon is also very well done. Gunfire and explosions look very realistic. The only issue I have with the graphics is that at first when you are playing the game each environment looks vast and endless and amazing. After playing the game for awhile, you will soon realize that each level is basically the exact same map just with different markings and scenery. There are rocks and trees here and there, but the detail to the outdoor and indoor environments is not that great. The good thing here is you are usually too involved in the game to even worry about this so it’s not a totally bad thing. Overall the graphics are very good, worthy of a 9 out of 10.

Sound effects in Halo are excellent. I think the coolest thing is how the aliens react to your presence. The grunts are such wimps, when they see you coming they shout things like “It’s Him!!!” and “Run for your life!!!!” It’s very humorous. You also here grunts and insect like noises from other aliens. The Jackals and Elites make this weird grunting sound whenever you spook or encounter them and they have this very beast like scream when they die. They also laugh at you if they kill you, which is actually pretty funny. Marines will talk to you whenever you are around, saying things like “thank god you’re here” and “we’ll follow your lead.” They also scream when they are hit with weapon fire and exclaim, “It Burns It Burns!” The weapon sounds effects are very realistic and explosions sound just like you would expect them to in real life. When you are driving or flying a vehicle it actually sounds like a real 4 wheel drive vehicle or a hovercraft. If a Covenant drop ship approaches your area, you here the hum of it’s engines as it drops in to deliver more enemies. Whenever you come close to a computer bank or an energy output you here the sound of the energy humming. There is also background music during certain times. When you get into a serious battle or go on a rescue mission there are great rock tunes that get you pumped up for battle. There are also eerie sci-fi like tunes for when you enter an enemy hideout or a scary looking environment. The sound effects are very well done and worthy of a 10 out of 10.

Overall

Overall I think Halo is one of the best videogames ever made and it has left me salivating for the release of Halo 2. I know that sometimes sequels do not live up to their billing but it looks like Halo 2 is going to be a lot better, if that is possible. I think the best thing about Halo is that not only is it a great first person shooter game, but it really involves you as the player in the story line. You almost feel like you are in a movie while playing the game, with each in depth cut scene bringing your more into the story. The only problem I had with the story is that the ending is just like every sci-fi/alien movie, blow up the ship and escape the giant fireball at the last minute.

This game will keep you entertained for quite some time, well until Halo 2 comes out anyways. The campaign mode features 3 different difficulty modes and beating the game on Legendary is an accomplishment that is very hard to attain. Ammunition and health are scarce and hard to come by. Normal and Heroic are not to bad, with plenty of ammo available and health packs laying around everywhere. This game will keep you busy for awhile, with each mission taking at least 20 minutes or so to complete. The first time my friend and I played this game we played for 5 straight hours and were only through the first 4 stages. The levels are huge. If you get tired of campaign mode there is always the exhaustless multi player mode. Killing aliens is fun, but nothing beats having 3 of your buddies over and having an all out brouhaha. Overall I think Halo is one of the best videogames ever made and I would buy and X-box(if I had the money) just to play this game.

As always I hope you have enjoyed this review and I welcome any comments or suggestions! Thanks for reading!