HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED Game Review

Introduction

Halo: Combat Evolved, popularly known as Halo 1 was the first game of Halo series was one of the most successful games. A combination of amazing plot, awesome graphics and gameplay Halo 1 was awarded as game of the year in 2001 by many premier game magazines. Launched on November 15, 2001, Halo 1 was a huge success with over five million copies sold worldwide till November 9, 2005.
Development

Halo 1, was developed by Bungie Studio a pioneer video game developer of America. This game was basically designed for X-Box gaming system. Later on Microsoft launched PC version of this game for Microsoft Windows in 2003.

Plot

Set into the twenty-sixth century Halo 1 depicts the future where Earth has colonized in various parts of Galaxy. In the game, player act as “Master Chief”, a cybernetically advanced soldier, who has to destroy an alien ring planet called “HALO” and to save the earth from a race of aliens called “Covenant”. The force of Covenant includes Elites, Grunts, Jackals, Hunters and Flood all with different powers and abilities. While some of these enemies are easy to take over, some powerful covenants are hard to defeat. Master Chief is accompanied with “Cortana” an artificial intelligence system to help him in mission.

Thumbs Up:

Halo 1 is one of the best first person shooter, focusing on combat in 3D environment. Plot of Halo 1 is great with engaging story. Advanced weapons used in Halo 1 are great, each with different features, abilities and above all have a unique purpose. Game features various vehicles such as, Armored Jeeps (Warthog), Tanks (Scorpion), Alien Hovercraft (Ghost), and Aircraft (Banshee). Flying on Ghost and Banshee is really very exciting, but you need good skills to master these vehicles. The best thing about the combat is that artificial intelligence in Halo 1 is heavily supported. Combat becomes exciting when enemies take covers, use suppressive fire and grenades, and sometimes when their superiors are killed they retreat. This gameplay demands the player to be very tactical and increases the pleasure of combat and to win. Locations and scenes where combat takes place are really well designed and look great. Background music and sound effects of Halo 1 are remarkable. Created by “Martin O’Donnell”, audio director of Bungie Studio, this soundtrack received admire from various media.

Thumbs Down:

Although Halo 1 was a good game, there are some disappointing things about this game. At some moments it contains frustrating type of repetitive gameplay that leads to lose in interest at some points. Weapons in Game are limited and player cannot carry more than three weapons at a time. One other negative point of Halo 1 is that its extremely violent. But this may be a positive point for most of the game-lovers that are used to of such games.

Response:

Halo 1 broke all past sales records of video games with over 1 million units sold within 6 month of its launch. Almost every game magazines and game lovers critically acclaimed it. Halo 1 also won 5th annual Interactive Achievement Award by Academy of interactive arts and sciences.