Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)

Well what can I say. At a launch of a new console, the flagship games are always vitally important. If they don't sell, the console won't sell. Luckily for Microsoft, Halo:Combat Evolved has become one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time, selling over five million copies worldwide. A personal favourite for me, a game I'll never be able to forget, and a game I'll never stop playing...EVER. A true masterpiece, no one can deny Halo's dominance ...
...Minor Details:

Developer - Bungie Studios
Publisher - Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date (NA) - November 15th 2001
(PAL) - March 14th 2002

PLOT:

The game begins as the Pillar of Autumn begins their journey into space, where they identify a strange ring shaped structure called 'Halo'. The Captain tells the Master Chief that the Covenant have invaded the ship, and the fight has begun. ... more

Well what can I say. At a launch of a new console, the flagship games are always vitally important. If they don't sell, the console won't sell. Luckily for Microsoft, Halo:Combat Evolved has become one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time, selling over five million copies worldwide. A personal favourite for me, a game I'll never be able to forget, and a game I'll never stop playing...EVER. A true masterpiece, no one can deny Halo's dominance and how it has changed first-person shooters.

Minor Details:

Developer - Bungie Studios
Publisher - Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date (NA) - November 15th 2001
(PAL) - March 14th 2002

PLOT:

The game begins as the Pillar of Autumn begins their journey into space, where they identify a strange ring shaped structure called 'Halo'. The Captain tells the Master Chief that the Covenant have invaded the ship, and the fight has begun. The player must now seek the Covenenant and and kill them with weapons you find along way. It is later revealed that while you on the ship, it becomes too damaged for anyone to stay on. Cortana advises the Chief to take an escape pod. However, Captain Keyes stays on the ship, determined to land on Halo.

Captain Keyes survives the crash, but is later captured by the Covenant, creating a new storyline for the player. After the Chief and Cortana land from their escape pod, Cortana advises the Chief to search for other survivors (marines) and to eventually rescue the Captain. He tells both the Master Chief and Cortana to find Halo's control, and that it must be destoryed so that Halo cannot be activiated. The fourth level is called the Silent Cartographer, where the player will find the control room. At this point, Cortana enters the Covenants systems, and finds something wrong. She quickly tells the Chief to leave and to find the Captain. In his search for Keyes, the player will find out that hte Coveneant have released a strange race called The Flood, by accident (trust me, these guys aren't nice). Captain Keyes becomes captured by this race while on mission with other marines. This in turn reveals the character of 343 Guilty Spark, who asks the Chief to retrieve an item known as 'The Index'.

After this has been found, both the Chief and 343 Guilty Spark attempt to activate the Index, but not if Cortana has something to do with it! She warns the Chief that if the Index is activiated, it will destory all life, thus wiping out the flood, something 343 Guilty Spark forgot to tell the Chief. When the Chief aggressivelly asks 343 about this information, he does tell him that yes it would destory all life, but only within a radius of 25 thousand light years! (Typical robots).

The Chief now faces a war on THREE fronts, because he has to fight the Covevnant, the flood AND 343's sentinels. However, the player will find that most if the time, these are battling eachother, and won't take notics of the Chief...most of the time anyway. When they both find Captain Keyes, they discover that it is too late, and that he can't be helped. Cortana now activates a self-destruct sequence, the only way to destory Halo. Unfortunately, 343 Guilty Spark doesn't want this to happen and DEACTIVIATES the sequence, discovering everything about human life. The Master Chief now has to manually cause the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors to begin to break down, thus giving the player fifteen minutes to escape from the Pillar of Autumn. This part of the game is full of great scenes of fights between the Covenant and The Flood., and looks good while you're escaping in a warthog (you'll have to be quick though). The Chief and Cortana escape in a ship, leaving covenant and flood fighting for survival, before the ring explodes. Bring on Halo 2 when the ending just shouts "SEQUEL" when the Chief says "I think we're just getting started..." - CLASSIC.

(Comments on Plot) -
This is an brilliant, well thought up story. And unlike most games, it lasts along time, meaning that when you reach the end, you feel extremely satisfied that you've kicked countless alien butts. All the different levels flow extremely well, keeping you up to date and splashing out secrets and twists along the way, changing the course of the player's destiny. I love the story so much, that I want to believe this is real. It's told beautifully, and makes for great gaming.

SETTING:

Halo:Combat Evolved takes places in a number of places, as you know, the first part of the game is set in space, where a battle is commencing. From here on, the game is mostly spent on Halo itself, apart from when the Chief enters the Covenenant ship for example.

CHARACTERS:

Master Chief - Main character. He's superhuman and he doesn't take any rubbish from anyone...especially those Elites. He is very brave and would do anything to save human life. Plus, we never get to see his face. Something that is extremely iconic.

Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson - A seargeant within the game who typically leads marines into battle. Can be seen smoking a cigar.

Captain Jacob Keyes - Captain of the Pillar of Autumn. Very brave. Mentioned in Halo 2 when his memory is awarded with a medal of bravery.

Cortana - She is more or less the brain of all human life, advising the Chief on what to do. She knows EVERYTHING! Got to love her though, without this AI, the Chief wouldnt know where to go.

Carol "Foehammer" Rawley - You hardly ever get to see her, but you here her voice many times. without her, the Chief would still be on Halo.

THE COVENANT (Alien Race)

343 Guilty Spark - Evil robot who doesnt tell the Chief exactly everything.

Elites - These are the military version of the Spartans. They are tall, scray and very very powerful. Try not to meet one with a plasma sword.

Hunters - Every time I see one of these, I always hide and make sure they never see me. Because if they unleash theire green, powerful weapon, then you're toast. WHtas even more dangerous is when they run towards you, with their big, mounted shield/weapon.

Jackals - Very annoying with their croaky voice and their sheilds. You need a well placed shot to take down these. If you do, I promise you satisfaction.

Grunts - So easy to kill when they're alone, and it provides the player with a laugh when they run away. However, DO NOT underestimate them when they are with an Elite....they can get nasty.

SOUND/MUSIC/DIALOGUE:

One thing that truly brings Halo alive is the sound. Without it, the game wouldnt be as half as good. This is because the music really drags the player into the Halo Universe, pushing them along to complete another level and to feel truly 'macho'. When battling against the Covenant, the music playing is that of a fast-paced action movie scene, encouraging the player to pump lead into everything that moves, becoming the ultimate warrior. On the other hand, when the player meets a cutscene, something usually magnificent appears, thus introducing the 'monks' to the games. This is widely considered as the game's theme tune. It represents power, religion and importance. As well as this, the dialogue is fantastic. Cortana is occassionally giving her perspective of the outcomes of the game, usually sarcastic but very dominant...an artificial woman NOT to be messed with. One great feature of the game is the dialogue between the marines. When battling against a group of aliens, the marines will always show confidence, and occassionally fear. This represents what war is truly like, and how working as a team can get the job done. And a truly magnificent payoff was not giving the Covenant much dialogue. This keeps the secrets and the wonders of the aliens a mystery, not letting us know too much about this dominant race. If there had been too much dialogue, the aliens would become more human-like, ruining the gameplay of Halo.

MULTIPLAYER:

As you know, Xbox LIVE wasn't released until some time after the release of Halo:Combat Evolved, so the game did not support this. However, it was possible to play through LAN, having up to 8 players, battling against eachother. Conversely, with the same Xbox, 2 players can go through the game co-operatively, or up to 4 players can fight eachother on a multiplayer map.

RELEASE: (Gamer scores)
IGN - 9.7/10
EGN - 10/10
Gamespy - 85/100
Gamespot - 9.5/10
Edge - 10/10

Halo:Combat Evolved is not just a flag ship game, it's a revolutionary game. A game that will go down in history as one of the greatest games of all time. The story is amazing a long in length. It's graphics beat all other competitors within the sixth-generation of gaming (Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube) and the main character...Master Chief...is one of the most notable characters of all time, along side Mario and Sonic. I loved this game. And I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

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