Pros: Awesome Graphics! Good storyline! Terrific gameplay!
Cons: Some levels are too repetitive...
The Bottom Line: You won't be disappointed. Beautiful graphics, fun storyline and plenty of action! It is worth buying the xbox just for this game alone!
jamesbay's Full Review: Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox
I have just finished completing this game and I must say...
Way to go, Bungie!
Right from the beginning, I got hooked on the story behind Halo. I love sci-fi so this wasn't difficult. Even though I don't usually enjoy playing First Person Shooter type games, I made the exception here because of all the hype I read about this game. Boy! Am I glad I did! The storyline is very interesting (although, admittingly, not the most original).
The story takes place in the future, the year 2552, where our own planet Earth has become over-populated. Faster-than-light travel has become a reality so Earth’s unified government, the United Nations Space Command (or U.N.S.C.) has begun colonizing other planets in other solar systems. All this is centered around the planet Reach which is close to Earth and where all the ships, colony ships and warships for the U.N.S.C.’s armed forces, are being built. The planet Reach is also the center of military and scientific activity.
32 years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battle-group was sent out and then almost completely destroyed. Only 1 badly-damaged ship made it’s return back to the planet Reach. It reports' an alien warship of some kind wiping out the U.N.S.C.’s armed forces with seemingly no effort. This marks humankind’s first encounter with the group of aliens who we come to know as “the Covenant”. The Covenant are a collective group of aliens who are united by their fanatical religious devotion and have declared humanity an “affront” to the gods. The warrior caste of the Covenant has declared holy war against us...
In an effort to win against the fanatical alien group known as the Covenant, the U.N.S.C on planet Reach develop a military program to create cyborg super-soldiers. The project is called SPARTAN-II and initially becomes successful. Unfortunately, there are too few of the super-soldiers to turn the tide of the war.
There is a new plan in the war against the Covenant: board a Covenant vessel and learn the location of the home world. But just 2 days before the mission begins, Covenant forces lead a strike against Reach and destroy the colony. Earth is close by so 1 ship,“the Pillar of Autumn”, escapes with the last SPARTAN-II (the character you will play in this game) and makes a blind jump into deep space leading the Covenant away from Earth.
Their blind jump lands them near a large, planet-sized “halo” shape floating in outer-space. With the Covenant (who have faster ships than ours) fiercely attacking the Pillar of Autumn, the crew and the last SPARTAN-II abandon ship and crash land on “Halo”. Your character has taken along “Cortana”, a highly advanced AI who is uploaded into your battle-suit for safe-keeping and who helps you by intercepting the aliens communications and hacking into all the computer systems. She also helps guide you in the right direction and with strategy.
Once on Halo, you will explore this unique and fascinating planet and discover it’s amazing secret! You will have different missions such as saving the other human survivors, finding the map of Halo, saving the captain of the Pillar of Autumn and of course...destroying a new dangerous species of aliens, known only as “the Flood”, that the Covenant have let loose (accidently?) on Halo and who are hell-bent on hunting any living thing as a source of food....including the Covenant themselves!
The controls on this game were perfect! Although, it does take some time to get used to controlling your character's movements. The only other FPS game I've played was "Goldeneye" for the Nintendo 64 so this took some getting used to. You use BOTH joysticks on your controller to move your character. One moves the head up, down and side to side. At the same time you use this joystick to look around, it also directs your “targeting reticle” (which basically is a computer display of the crosshairs on your weapon and helps you aim.).The other joystick allows your player to physically move forward, backwards and side to side. So you can see how by using these 2 joysticks together to move your character AND to see where you are going can be a trick in itself. But with some practice, you will get the hang of it.
Also, I appreciated the different difficulty levels to choose from. I chose "normal" which was fine for me, but there other levels from “easy” to “legendary”.
The graphics were just plain awesome! What else can I say? The planet Halo is spectacular! The ships and other transports are very realistic and the aliens are down-right UGLY (but in a good way!). Even though the story timeline was “futuristic”, everything looked so real! Nothing looked out of place in this game. Perhaps one of the best aspects of the graphics I have ever seen in any game was the alien “invisibility” devices (which can be found on certain levels of the game). Finding one of these babies turns you invisible and the effect is just like the camouflage effect used in the movie “Predator”. Very cool! Of course, this works both ways and the aliens use these devices too. Now, you too, can know the feeling of playing “Arnold” and hunt or be hunted by these seemingly invisible aliens! It was fun exploring Halo just for the graphics alone...
There are so many levels to enjoy. Many beautiful environments and interesting areas. With Cortana guiding you, you should have no trouble finding your way around. And if it gets too long to walk around...have fun riding the different vehicles to help you explore including alien hover-crafts, flying one-man ships and of course...the Warthog!(talk about the ultimate S.U.V.!)
I should also mention the terrific job done on the sound. Although, I did not take advantage of the Dolby Digital Surround Sound offered by the Xbox, I was still very impressed by it. There were times in the game where you could judge the distance of the aliens determined to destroy you by the loudness of their voices. I’ve even been startled a few times while playing just by hearing how “close” the alien’s voices were during times I thought I was alone! They can sound like they are right behind you! Arrrgh! You can even hear your own footsteps as you are exploring and this sound changes depending on what you are walking on (for example: ice, dirt, steel floors etc.). It’s these kind of fine details that will make you appreciate this game.
I do have to say this though, it does get repetitive. Especially, if you are like me and don't typically enjoy these type of games to begin with. There are times where all you are doing is shooting unimaginable hordes of relentless aliens who seemingly come out of nowhere just to destroy you by any means necessary. This may sound like fun to some people, but it was one aspect of the game that I did not fully appreciate. I KNOW this is a shooter-type game, but there were those few times where the sheer volume of carnage became ridiculous.
All in all though, this is a terrific game to play and I highly recommend buying it! I’ve already completed the game and I find myself playing again for a second time! Yes, it’s an FPS game (which is not necessarily a plus for me), but there is so much to appreciate in this game. My opinion only lists a few. This is definitely a step-up from the “Goldeneye” game for the N64 (which I consider to be one of the best games ever for that system) and I have no doubt that whoever tries this game will enjoy it.
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