For my first review, I shall be reviewing Halo: Combat Evolved, for the Xbox (well, technically, I?m playing it on an Xbox 360, but does it matter?).
For those of you who are dead (even the person on the cave on Mars has heard about Halo), Halo was a game released by Bungie Studios in 2001, during the release of the Xbox console, and proceeded to sell like Crack in Compton, and many credit it for single handedly keeping the Xbox alive during that first year, preventing from going the same route as such esteemed consoles as the 3DO, Jaguar, and Dreamcast. It?s rated M for Mature, even though nobody pays attention to rating systems one bit. It?s also on the computer, but I?m too lazy to find a copy of that, and I already have an Xbox copy (picked it up along with the Fruit Container and Psychopath: Stained Currency for the 360).
Basically, the object of the game is to blow shit up, preferably these fanatical aliens called the Taliban - sorry, the Covenant - who want to annihilate Western civilization - sorry, once again, - the human race. Your job is to stop them. You do this by shooting them. Shooting them with human weapons, shooting them with alien weapons, and - the most satisfying one - running over their four asses with a vehicle. Mmmm, I can hear them bones cracking! And, yes, while it may sound repetitive? which it is? it?s actually very, very fun. Their?s also a split screen multiplayer, both co-op, which is fun (if the person your playing with isn?t so stupid that he ruins the game) and a competitive one, which can hold up to sixteen players if you connect four Xbox?s together. But, honestly, whose going to go to all that hassle? With one console, their?s a maximum of four players, and that is the de facto maximum for the game.
Like I said before, this game is actually really fun. Playing on heroic difficulty, the enemies are tough to face, and are actually fairly smart. For example, on the third level of the game, I am moving up a tight pass attempting to reach a wide open area where a gravity lift is in which is the entry way into the structure. Using my last sniper rifle bullet, I took out a pathetic grunt in his turrent. Little did I know their were three more torrents in the area, which proceeded to lay down withering fire upon me. Retreating back to some cover, I was kept under this suppressing fire long enough for several Grunts and an Elite to flank my position and rape me with hot plasma (I survived, but just barely). Examples of this abound in the game, and thus is the beauty of what otherwise would have been a bland game. The game?s controls are easy as anything to pick up and use, which is also a good help. The left trigger controls grenades, and the right shoots. You pick up weapons with the X Button (you pick up grenades automatically if there is room for them). The game lasts about ten or so hours, which is a little short, but not so much that it doesn?t seem worth it.
Graphically, the game has aged fairly well. It?s nothing fancy, both when it was released and now, but gets the job done. One thing I must applaud it though for is the color palette. Unfortunately today, most first person shooters, such as Cogs of Battle and co., seem to based their colors on the ones found in bus stop restrooms. Halo, on the other hand, employs a rich range of colors. In particular, the aliens are colored in various colors, from Orange for the lowly grunt to a light purple for the highest ranked elite. It is a welcomed change of pace. The sound is gorgeous, recreating the din of battle brilliantly. Plus, it sometimes provides helpful clues on who you are about to face, as each type of enemy has it?s own range of sounds.
Unfortunately, however, Halo does not hold up the most to repeated play through. The campaign, like I said, lasts only about ten hours, and is fairly linear (the environments still are massive, but even the outdoor levels confine you to roughly one corridor of playing, with large cliffs blocking further exploration on both sides). Also, the multiplayer does not connect to Xbox Live, as it was not available at the time, seriously limiting an otherwise fun multiplayer aspect to split-screen.
However, despite such shortcomings, Halo is still easily one of the greatest, if not the greatest, first-person shooters ever made, and it is well worth your time to check it out, especially if you are a fan of the genre, or just like blowing shit up in general.
FINAL SCORE:
BUY IT RIGHT NOW OR I WILL CLAW YOU LITTLE BEADY EYES OUT.
For those of you who are dead (even the person on the cave on Mars has heard about Halo), Halo was a game released by Bungie Studios in 2001, during the release of the Xbox console, and proceeded to sell like Crack in Compton, and many credit it for single handedly keeping the Xbox alive during that first year, preventing from going the same route as such esteemed consoles as the 3DO, Jaguar, and Dreamcast. It?s rated M for Mature, even though nobody pays attention to rating systems one bit. It?s also on the computer, but I?m too lazy to find a copy of that, and I already have an Xbox copy (picked it up along with the Fruit Container and Psychopath: Stained Currency for the 360).
Basically, the object of the game is to blow shit up, preferably these fanatical aliens called the Taliban - sorry, the Covenant - who want to annihilate Western civilization - sorry, once again, - the human race. Your job is to stop them. You do this by shooting them. Shooting them with human weapons, shooting them with alien weapons, and - the most satisfying one - running over their four asses with a vehicle. Mmmm, I can hear them bones cracking! And, yes, while it may sound repetitive? which it is? it?s actually very, very fun. Their?s also a split screen multiplayer, both co-op, which is fun (if the person your playing with isn?t so stupid that he ruins the game) and a competitive one, which can hold up to sixteen players if you connect four Xbox?s together. But, honestly, whose going to go to all that hassle? With one console, their?s a maximum of four players, and that is the de facto maximum for the game.
Like I said before, this game is actually really fun. Playing on heroic difficulty, the enemies are tough to face, and are actually fairly smart. For example, on the third level of the game, I am moving up a tight pass attempting to reach a wide open area where a gravity lift is in which is the entry way into the structure. Using my last sniper rifle bullet, I took out a pathetic grunt in his turrent. Little did I know their were three more torrents in the area, which proceeded to lay down withering fire upon me. Retreating back to some cover, I was kept under this suppressing fire long enough for several Grunts and an Elite to flank my position and rape me with hot plasma (I survived, but just barely). Examples of this abound in the game, and thus is the beauty of what otherwise would have been a bland game. The game?s controls are easy as anything to pick up and use, which is also a good help. The left trigger controls grenades, and the right shoots. You pick up weapons with the X Button (you pick up grenades automatically if there is room for them). The game lasts about ten or so hours, which is a little short, but not so much that it doesn?t seem worth it.
Graphically, the game has aged fairly well. It?s nothing fancy, both when it was released and now, but gets the job done. One thing I must applaud it though for is the color palette. Unfortunately today, most first person shooters, such as Cogs of Battle and co., seem to based their colors on the ones found in bus stop restrooms. Halo, on the other hand, employs a rich range of colors. In particular, the aliens are colored in various colors, from Orange for the lowly grunt to a light purple for the highest ranked elite. It is a welcomed change of pace. The sound is gorgeous, recreating the din of battle brilliantly. Plus, it sometimes provides helpful clues on who you are about to face, as each type of enemy has it?s own range of sounds.
Unfortunately, however, Halo does not hold up the most to repeated play through. The campaign, like I said, lasts only about ten hours, and is fairly linear (the environments still are massive, but even the outdoor levels confine you to roughly one corridor of playing, with large cliffs blocking further exploration on both sides). Also, the multiplayer does not connect to Xbox Live, as it was not available at the time, seriously limiting an otherwise fun multiplayer aspect to split-screen.
However, despite such shortcomings, Halo is still easily one of the greatest, if not the greatest, first-person shooters ever made, and it is well worth your time to check it out, especially if you are a fan of the genre, or just like blowing shit up in general.
FINAL SCORE:
BUY IT RIGHT NOW OR I WILL CLAW YOU LITTLE BEADY EYES OUT.