It was February of "03" when I bought this game. I was getting recommendations left and right, for this game. I remember, before I bought this game all I did was play the demo. I had never really played FPSers (First Person Shooters) but when I played Halo, I was hooked.
Story:
The year is 2552. On Reach, the Covenant are obliterating anything the see. Reach is where the super-soldiers of the SPARTAN II project are being held. These super-soldiers fare well against the Covenant but there are too few of them. All the Spartans have been killed but one The Master Chief. Since Reach wasn't too far from Earth some one had to lead the Covenant away. One ship, the
Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last SPARTAN II and makes a blind jump into deep space. The thing is that the
Pillar of Autumn wasn't fast enough to out run the Covenant Cruisers. When they caught up the Covenant decide to infiltrate the
Pillar of Autumn hoping to maybe capture the Captain to find out the human home world, Earth.
Game-Play:
The greatest thing about game-play is that it's always fun, no matter how much you play. One cool thing is when you play Campaign you hear conversations of what is going on with people in other places, and status reports. You aren't alone, you also have some marines with you. For the most part they are useless unless you go and do all there work. It's like every time they would encounter an alien, there first reaction would be to roll and throw a grenade pretty much any where. The cool thing about them is that they say great lines like "Hey Muchacho", "Thats one way to save ammo" and plenty of others, but sometimes they are rare and you'll only hear them once. The thing about the soldiers is when you kill around two of them, the rest turn on you. The thing is that out of nowhere they get much better aim when there against you, so don't kill them.
During the game you can ride up to four different vehicles. The most dominant of the vehicles is the Scorpion Tank. My favorite vehicle would have to be the Warthog. The Warthog has a rail gun on the back, one driver seat and a passenger seat. The thing that is cool is that it may be hard to control at times, and it looks so cool when you make a quick turn, if your lucky it could flip over. Some vehicles can not be destroyed(Human Vehicles), however the covenant vehicles can. The Covenant Vehicles include a Ghost, Banshee, and the Wraith(can not be rode on). The ghost is a ground vehicle that hovers and is very quick. It also has blasters on the front. The banshee flies around and included with the blasters it has a fuel rod cannon. The wraith is the slowest moving vehicle. It is a tank that Shoots out really BIG plasma things.
Since this game is a FPSer you need a couple of guns. In this game you will use Rockets, Snipers, Pistols Shotguns and Automatic Rifles. The Covenant also have there little selection of plasma weapons. They have Rifles, Pistols, Plasma Grenades (That Stick To You),and the Needler. I also have to say that most people are going to the needler pretty useless. The weapon shoots out needles, but most of them never hit. You'll also find that the human pistol will be the all time favorite for some gamers.
I've mentioned the Covenant but never said anything about them. Well, the Covenant is a group of different races on something they like to call
The Great Journey. Although the are together it doesn't mean that they like each other. The more numerous of these races are the Grunts. These aliens are the most cowardly and weakest of them all. Next in the ranks would have to be the Jackals. These aliens carry around shields, and have vulture like faces. The Grunts and Jackals don't show it during game-play, but they hate each other. Next up are the Elites, they aren't as numerous but quite powerful. These aliens have a shield around there bodies and will rely on brute force to take you out. The biggest, baddest, and scariest of these aliens are the Hunters. These aliens are usually found in places that need to be guarded, like doors or control rooms. There are also other secrets of Halo that I won't tell you.
Multi-Player
After playing campaign I bet you would want to play some Multi-Player. There are are 2 ways you can play multi-player Split-Screen(Max 4 Players) and System-Link(Max 16 Players). System-Link is the linking of up to 4 Xbox's and t.v.s for each one. Split-Screen is having up to 4 players on one Xbox competing.
There are several different maps, and with different maps comes different game types. One of the most well known types is death-match, which is when people try to accumulate a certain score to win. One very popular one is CTF(Capture the Flag). In this game type you have two bases with a home flag. Your goal is to get the opposing teams flag and return it to your base. Like I said before, this game has really fun game-play so multi-player is a great way to play with friends.
HUD(Heads-Up-Display)
What is your heads-up-display? Your heads-up-display is your screen, that gives you a heads up on whats happening. On the top right-hand corner you'll notice your health bar. When your shield depletes, your health is in risk of going down, so hide.On the top left-hand corner you'll see The amount of ammo you have left in a clip and in total. All the way down on the bottom of the screen you'll see your motion tracker, which detects any movement within maybe about 15 meters. When you do notice something move it will be either red for hostiles or green for ally. The most important thing on your HUD is the cursor, used you weapon on the desired target.
Controls:
The controls are pretty basic, you should get used to them very quickly. To move around you will use the joy-stick on the left side of the controller. You'll notice that there is a joy-stick on the right side which is used for aiming at enemies and just plain looking around. You can do commands like Melee(B button), Switch Weapon(Y button), Reload Weapon(X button)and Jump(A button). On the top, back whatever you want to call it you can see two triggers, the L(Left) and R(Right). The R trigger is used for firing your weapon and the L is used to throw grenades. Now, depending on what controller you have, the white and black buttons may be above or below the X, B, A, and Y buttons. The white is used to turn the flashlight On/Off. the Black is used to Switch the type of grenade you are using Plasma/Frag.
Graphics:
To this day the graphics are still amazing. The environment looks good even after a few years.In the game you will see nice looking water falls and structures are simple but good looking. There are also great looking effects like explosions and gun fire. When you walk on water, you see splashes for every step you take and no later. Even the ugly looking aliens look great, despite there ugliness.
Sound, Music, and Voice:
This game wouldn't be complete without sound and music, which usually gets you in the mood. The music fits the Sci-Fi game perfectly. You also have sounds like gun fire, that is never off key. If you listen hard enough you can notice the sounds off walking and your armor swishing. During cut-scenes the voice acting is pretty good. Most of the voices go together with the person and fit the lips.
Random Information:
1-2 Player Campaign
2-4 Players (2-16 System-Link)
Genre: FPSer
Price: $30.00
System-Link $10.00-$20.00
If I've persuaded you to buy this game or if you already have it, check out my opinion on
Halo 2, one of the greatest sequels of all time
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