In March 2002, the first Microsoft console was released in the PAL territories. The XBox launch was also accompanied by a pretty good selection of games, including Dead or Alive 3, Amped, Project Gotham Racing, and Halo: Combat Evolved. Little did any of us know at the time, that the Bungie-developed Halo was going to be such an influential and beloved game, thus forever cementing its place in the gaming hall of fame.
The XBox launch lineup was actually pretty decent, giving us all quite a few options as to what to buy with our consoles, though it was perhaps Halo that stood out for many early adopters. Following the release of the XBox in North America, I heard a lot of glowing comments about Bungie’s first-person shooter, but I really didn’t know what to expect. On launch day, I bought the console along with Halo and Dead or Alive 3, and playing Bungie’s FPS for the first time, this awesome game blew me away for having bought the XBox on day one.
Now, eight years later, having played through the campaign with it fresh in my mind, I have to say that Halo: Combat Evolved is as good as it originally was. That’s not to say it was ever perfect; as the game had a lot to like, but was sadly a whisker or two away from perfection.
But momentarily forgetting about its imperfections, Halo: Combat Evolved did a lot of work for a relatively young industry, not just carving out elements that would appear in future FPS games, but gaming in general. The reload shield, one-button grenade launch, and the tactical choice of which two weapons to carry were all little things that Halo popularized and many others would later borrow.
The game’s backdrop was the eponymous Halo: a paradise planet (at least in the open) that held many secrets waiting to be discovered. But this is not where the campaign began, but as the fully equipped Cyber Soldier Master Chief; we had escaped from the ruins of Reach (covered in the Fall of Reach novel, and Bungie’s upcoming Halo: Reach will also take us back to these sad events) and were aboard the ship Pillar of Autumn. Unfortunately, the ship was raided by an alien race we came to know as the Covenant (a coalition of different alien species), and was then forced to crash-land on Halo’s titular planet. To some, the well-acted story was sci-fi nonsense, but others drank in its rich and well-realized universe.
The Master Chief himself was a character of few words, and though he was later given the mundane name of John, his facial features remained a mystery. There was a certain mystique surrounding the character, although we learned that he is the last of his kind and that the rest of the Spartan soldiers were wiped out by Covenant forces on the planet Reach. Perhaps this was the reason why he had so little to say in the game, suggesting that he felt very alone in this imaginative universe.
However, during the early stages of the game we realized that the planet Halo is not completely different from ours. There’s greenery, blue skies, and flowing rivers, though later, the interiors of rather boring, repetitive, and uninteresting alien structures proved quite different from the buildings we’re used to here on earth. There were also a few excursions into the interiors of ships, not only to the Pillar of Autumn (where the game begins and ends), but also to a Covenant ship.
Engaging the enemy for the first time in The Pillar of Autumn, they proved to be a smart bunch: staying out of the way of the grenades and generally running around as if they were fighting for their own survival. Each type of Covenant also reacted to you differently, some rushed you for example, others took more caution and there was also a cowardly race that ran away from you, screaming loudly. Then came the Flood.
About halfway through the game, Halo became something else entirely. At this point, the Flood stepped in and were a stark contrast to the clever Covenant army, attacking instead in dangerous numbers, rushing at you, until they managed to kill you or you killed them. The Flood was a controversial breed among fans, as smart gunfights became more of a brainless first-person shooter, and your approach became more Doom-like when it came to your relentless shooting. However, the Flood came as a pleasant surprise and the Covenant thankfully reappeared later, with their brains intact.
To combat both the Covenant and the Flood, the Master Chief had a protective energy shield and a well-balanced arsenal of Covenant and human weaponry. The recharge shield was one of Halo’s biggest hits, while Bungie wasn’t brave enough to completely remove health bars and medkits, when the Boss shield was down it made you feel very vulnerable, until it went down. gave it time to recharge. , you were in mortal danger and your health bar would start depleting with every hit you received. Halo’s weapons (where you could only carry two at a time) were also a satisfying selection, with a very reliable assault rifle, a powerful close-range shotgun, and the Covenant’s more otherworldly plasma weapons among them. The one-button grenade throw was also a masterstroke in game design, and the Covenant’s plasma grenade was a guilty pleasure: a well-placed one would stick to enemy bodies, resulting in plentiful mayhem.
The last Spartan wasn’t alone during parts of the game either, instead he was accompanied by a smart group of human marines. These guys did everything they could to stay alive, although watching the alien races dwindle in number made you feel like you were superior to a normal, flesh-and-blood human being.
The Marines would also accompany you in any vehicle that could contain them, and said vehicles were another Halo surprise, switching to third person every time you got into one. There were both human and Covenant forms of transportation, including the jeep-like Warthog, the destructive Scorpion tank, and the one-man flying ship that was the Banshee. The vehicles could be commanded by either the Master Chief or his enemies, although while the Spartan soldier could make use of enemy transport, the Covenant AI was never seen taking over any of the human vehicles. The vehicles also had their own weapons (some of which could be manned by Marines) and the controls had you use both sticks, with the vehicles traveling in the direction of the camera. This schematic seemed tricky at first, but when understood, it all made perfect sense, proving to be a masterful way to control your machine.
All this awesome action was complemented by one of the best soundtracks ever heard in a game. Halo’s music was unique, delicious and really very special. The theme song in particular is just as memorable as game themes, and is as much a part of Halo as, for example, the famous Star Wars theme was to the George Lucas movies.
So Halo’s campaign was very, very good and was only let down by some repetitive environments and the Flood controversy, but it was also a very strong multiplayer game. This was obviously before XBox Live came along, so it was limited to split screen and system link, up to four players on the former and sixteen (four consoles connected) on the latter. Unfortunately the multiplayer had no bot options, but the game was playable throughout the campaign with another player at your side and there were several other multiplayer options to delve into: deathmatches, king of the hill, and racing between them. .
When all was said and done, and the dust cloud settled from the titular planet’s destruction, Halo: Combat Evolved was a game that produced many moments of wow. Still to this day, the game remains one of the most truly organic FPS experiences and has influenced the entire industry in more ways than one. In short, Halo: Combat Evolved is a true great that I will always remember fondly.