Some awesome games and consoles have changed gaming history as we know it. This is one of those awesome games & consoles that are important and influential pieces of gaming history. The first installment in the Halo franchise, this is the official launch title for the Xbox on November 15, 2001. Over 20 years later, it still remains of great importance. Several sequels and spin-off titles were released after the successful release of this game. But, despite their flaws, Microsoft has still retained their importance digitally. This company, interestingly enough, has never released a game under the title "Halo". As far as I am also concerned, they have never released any games for Kinect, either.
This game's original codename was Monkey Nuts, but for some reason it was quickly replaced with BLAM! It started out as RTS, something the franchise would not incorporate until Halo Wars in early 2009, and went through multiple genres before becoming the form of game it currently is. It was originally announced at MacWorld in 1999, three or four years after the game's development first began (it was either in 1995 or 1996). Before Bungie was acquired by Microsoft, it was originally going to be ported to the PlayStation. It also spawned a remake of the game in September 2011, known as Anniversary, which upscaled the game to modern graphics and remade the music and weapon sounds.
It's the first first-person shooter in the 6th generation to use a second analog stick for precise aiming, which is now the awesome controls standard for nearly all modern shooter gameplay using controllers. It also had outstanding graphics for its time and incorporated graphical details that weren't common at this point in gaming like reflective shading. These are still commonly used in interactive media today. The layout and design almost looks similar to one of my cult classic favorites, DOOM. Even the shaking and trembling effects of explosions, though a little bit janky, are really awesome.
Unlike a traditional health and armor like other FPS games, you instead have a shield generator to prevent you from being harmed. Each hit from an enemy lowers the shield but when not in combat or in hiding, the shield regenerates. Should the shield fully deplete, you will be vulnerable to damage and must pick up a health pack to restore your health as it doesn't regenerate. This is proved in the beginning of the game.
The multitude of weapons, both human and alien, are also interesting. Human weapons and some alien weapons need to be reloaded but don't overheat, while other alien weapons overheat and use a battery which when depleted becomes useless. The alien weapons are more abundant than the human weapons due to the Covenant having these weapons themselves. In addition there are two types of grenades: both fragment (very useful for corners) and plasma (they can stick to enemies).
The world of Halo is really interesting, especially the fact that the artificial ringworld known as "Halo" may look like a planet when in reality, it is a weapon of mass destruction. Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced super soldier with armor that weighs approximately half a ton, must fight off the Covenant and solve the mystery of "Halo" and stop an even greater threat to the universe, the Flood, a parasitic race that devour and control its prey. Master Chief must also prevent the activation of Halo, which will destroy all life in the galaxy and in the process fight off 343 Guilty Spark who hopes to activate Halo to stop the Flood from spreading over the universe.
The level design is really good, with the levels set on Halo and "The Silent Cartographer" being a notable standout. But the very infamous "The Library" level is widely considered to be one of the worst Halo levels ever, because all you do is follow that annoying 343 Guilty Spark (one of my least favorite characters in the franchise, after the Arbiter) around while he opens doors and you fight off the Flood (more on that later), which is really boring in comparison to the rest of the game. I almost gave up playing because of this, but I still enjoyed this game for the most part.
I especially appreciate the voice acting, especially with Steve Downes (who still has his daytime job as a local disk jockey in my area) as Master Chief and Jen Taylor (who's from Seattle and is known in particular for also voicing Nintendo characters, including Princess Peach, Toad, and Toadette) as Cortana, who was originally envisioned as having a foreign, cultured accent. The marine's dialog, interestingly, may have been carried over from the Colonial Marines (who may have inspired this game's faction) in one of my favorite movies, Aliens. Much of the enemies' dialog is in fact processed audio clips of my favorite character in the franchise, badass Sergeant Avery Johnson. For example, the phrase "WORT, WORT, WORT!" is actually Johnson saying "GO! GO! GO!" (which is actually heard at the beginning of one of the early levels) slowed down and in reverse.
There are many other factions to battle, such as the alien race known as The Covenant, the zombie-like Flood, and 343 Guilty Sparks' infamous Sentinels. These enemies are really great in variety, including but not limited to:
- Grunts: They are small (and somewhat annoying) but deadly cannon fodder type enemies, as they can gang up on you if you don't take them all down. They can also run cowardly like children if their leader is killed.
- Elites: They are more powerful types of enemies in The Covenant, due to their shield and weapons but can be put down fast with a plasma pistol and a human weapon.
- Jackals: They aren't hard hitters, but they have a powerful energy shield that blocks gunfire.
- Hunters: They are easily the most powerful enemies to fight, as they have powerful armor and are armed with a fuel rod cannon that can destroy anything in its path. To kill one instantly, shoot it in the ass with a magnum.
The Flood, while may look like space zombies at first, get more terrifying, due to their creepy backstory and the fact that they can utilize both human and alien weapons. I am almost very annoyed with encountering them when they continuously and endlessly appear, but they're called the Flood for a reason, y'know? We're always walking through these dark hallways like in DOOM or Quake or Wolfenstein or Resident Evil or something and we fight against these endless arrays of continuous enemy guys. We blow 'em up to smithereens, but they just freaking keep on coming, man! When do we get to hit the pause button? When do we get to turn off the power and put away the joystick and just veg out with some AMC or HBO or SHOWTIME or STARZ? When do we have to switch the Flood off so we never have to keep seeing that evil race again?
As for the multi-player, it couldn't be working until a few weeks after the original game shipped. It has some of the best local multi-player modes in gaming, with a multitude of game types such as Capture the Flag, Slayer (a deathmatch mode), Juggernaut, Oddball, and Race modes, and up to four player split screen and 16 players by system link. Additionally, many of the maps are really good also, with Blood Gulch being the most popular Halo map. The Chill Out map has a funny description: dude, you just really need to...
When it got ported to PC, it was pretty good for the most part, as it not only contained new multiplayer levels and weapons, but also spawned a standalone game known as Halo: Custom Edition. The PC version, while good for modding, suffers from some downgrades, such as broken bumpmaps, missing visual effects (such as transparent shaders), some more bugs, bad FOV, etc. Speaking of modding, the Master Chief's character's face was suspiciously being kept as a secret by the developers so whoever modded the game would actually see an extra mask or helmet underneath the real helmet.
At one point, a working demo was made for the DS, but that project never went into development. This game, however, is still a favorite of mine, and it shows importance.