Great story, great single player and great multiplayer equals to a great game!
Graphics: 6
Sounds: 8
Value: 10
Tilt: 9
When Halo was released back in 2001 it was regarded as the darling and saviour for the Xbox. To be honest, I have no idea of why this is so. All I know at that point in time was Halo was originally made for the PC as a strategy type of game with a 3rd person viewpoint. Well, things have changed back then and eventually what will be a success for the Xbox will eventually be ported over to where it once belong; to the PC.
I've always asked the dying question of ‘What's so great about Halo?’. Naturally I really couldn’t get any decent answer besides ‘It rocks hard’ or ‘super co-op mode’. Really people, the PC already have these ‘super’ traits. Nevertheless, I bought the game, installed it and played it – twice! Yep, you heard (read) it. I really enjoyed Halo as for me it was a different approach to that ever-saturated FPS genre. So sit back and enjoy reading this review.
Halo starts off in the cruise ship ‘The Pillar of Autumn’. After narrowing escaping The Covenant during the ‘Reach Wars’, they catapulted close to the orbit of Halo. The ship has a precious cargo on board, one of the last Spartan Warriors named ‘Master Chief’ who is a bio-engineered freak-a-zoid is the centre of all things. Well naturally, the ship is under attack, Keyes orders Chief to escape to Halo with the most important cargo, the AI named Cortana. If Cortana is captured (along with Master Chief) the last known place of humanly will be discovered and ultimately destroyed. Now this sounds like a typical Sci-Fi story however as you participate further in the game, the tale does actually gets interesting and to say the least, the third party named ‘The Flood’ is one of the best introduction in any FPS game I have witnessed and the forth, the Forerunner Sentinels will provide that aura of mystery.
The gameplay is naturally in the style of a FPS. However because it’s a ported Xbox game, I felt that the controls are a little awkward at first. All the weapons have no alt fire and the entire pace of the game was a little too slow. However as you progress in the game, it actually suits fine as the combat in Halo is not what you’ll expect in most PC FPS.
Firstly, Master Chief can only carry two weapons so there’s going to be some tactical thought in those firefights. Secondly, duck and cover will be your bread and butter of this game as the AI are extremely cunning. Speaking of which, I thought the developers have made considerable effort with the AI as every enemy and allies act accordingly to what you’ll expect. To those lowly Grunts whose main game is strength in numbers, to those Jackels that will hide behind their glowing shields, to the elites who are painfully hard to kill as they tend to use cover to heal their build-in shields and to those extremely tough Hunters that uses pure brute strength. To add all of this, there are different variants of Grunts, Elites and Jackals (some have invisibility whilst some will carry very large weaponry) and naturally there are many different variants of The Flood (I’ll keep this one a secret). Lastly, Master Chief’s armour regenerates (if stationed long enough) therefore health packs are very limited.
As mentioned before, the combat style in Halo CE is what attracted me to this game. Combined with the intelligent AI, one thing I have noticed that many other FPS failed to utilised are the grenades. I’m a big fan of grenades however always disappointed in their role. Yet in Halo CE, expect plenty of lobbing grenades and finding cover. And what is good for the goose is good for the gander – that is the AI will do the same. Another distinctive innovation was the perfect balance of the entire vehicle collection. All vehicles are distinctive in style; that is the Warthog which is like a buggy with a nasty gattling gun in its rear; the scorpion – a battle tank; The Ghost - Covenant Reconnaissance and Rapid Attack Vehicle and the Banshee - Covenant Aerial Assault Aircraft. As you can see, there are land and air vehicles to suit all needs.
If there is a weak point to this game I say it will be the graphics. Considering the PC's release date was 2003, even though the entire outdoor environments are visually beautiful with cascading waterfalls, soaring mountains combining with nice looking architectures and less not forget that awe-inspiring Halo that archs upwards from the horizon, the indoor environments reminded me of Tron; not a bad thing however certainly behind the times. You have the Unreal 2 engine and the Chrome engine in its fullest glory and comparing these to Halo CE, I wished that the entire engine was rending by one of those. Nevertheless, the movements of friends and foes are very fluent and nothing to complain about.
When I initially heard the soundtrack to Halo CE, it really caught me by surprise. I was expecting some grungy type rock scores however Bungie used more of that melodic, Georgian monks chants and surprisingly enough blends very well within the game. It was so pleasant to hear I actually bought the CD. Other sounds are also well constructed. The sounds of gun fire and explosions are well composed however I was more impressed of the sounds that you normally don’t take any notice. I’m talking about the shuffling sounds when you spin around on shiny surfaces, those horse-trotting clatter when the Grunts move around to those sickening sounds produced from The Flood. If you decide to play the game, take notice of those sounds that you normally take for granted; they are really impressive. The voice-acting was also on par and well performed. Master Chief does sound like a heroic type, Captain Keyes a proud commander and so forth however I really didn’t like the sounds of the Grunts. They sound like little children – literally.
Halo CE is quite a lengthy game as far as FPS goes. Even though the entire single player is not that long however considering the style of combat as noted above will slow down the game hence will take some time to finish; maybe 15 - 20 hours max. Halo CE also have four levels of difficulty and if you managed to finish off the legendry mode, there is a small bonus ending which is definitely worth viewing.
Just because you finish off the single player is not the end of the game. The PC version has a well developed multiplayer mode that’s not to be missed. I personally not a fan for multiplayer however considering all the efforts of polishing it up, I really enjoyed this aspect. There are many game modes to choice from (from Death Match to Capture the Flag and so forth) however as mentioned before, because of the perfect balance of Halo’s CE vehicles, there are even game play styles that specifically taylored for vehicles, like racing! Take note that just like the single player, going gun-ho with all guns ablazing will guarantee death therefore slow-and-steady will win the race. I was burnt many times as coming from fast-paced multiplayer action like Unreal Tournament and Quake this came to me as a surprise however I have paid my dues.
I felt that Bungie have made considerable efforts to make Halo CE a successful port as normally ported games are just that – ported across with no efforts to adjust to a different platform. The reality is that consoles are consoles and PCs are PCs and it seems that Bungie understood this. That said, there were some aspects that I wished they improved on, namely graphics however graphics isn’t everything. For what I have read, I felt that most PC FPS ‘veterans’ thought that Halo CE is nothing more than a boring ported console game. I beg to differ as even though it’s tagged as a FPS, the tactics behind this game is what made it different therefore if players alter their game play style (and admittedly I was one of them as I’m a huge UT/Quake fan) they will also appreciate this wonderful game.