Halo: Combat Evolved
Bent on humankind's extermination, a powerful fellowship of alien races known as the Covenant is wiping out the Earth's fledgling interstellar empire. You and the other surviving defenders of a devastated colony-world make a desperate attempt to lure the alien fleet away from Earth. Shot down and marooned on the ancient ring-world, Halo, you begin a guerilla-war against the Covenant. Fight for humanity against an alien onslaught as you race to uncover the mysteries of Halo.
Halo takes you deep into the future, with the fate of planet Earth hanging on your shooting skills. After a massive battle, only one ship is left and its crew is stranded on an abandoned space station. You must do whatever it takes to keep the Covenant from reaching Earth.
Experience the ultimate Halo challenge with all-new online multiplayer for up to 16 players. Take on the world in any of the 15 multiplayer maps including 6 brand new maps never before seen. Unleash destruction with incredible weapons and vehicles including brand new armaments for intense online multiplayer games. Voted Game Of The Year by IGN.com, Electonic Gaming Monthly, and Xbox Magazine.
More often than not, when a game is in development for more than three years, it does not live up to the hype. Bungie's Halo is the exception. Not only does it meet expectations, it greatly exceeds them. This sci-fi first-person shooter is a nearly perfect blend of gameplay, graphics, and sound. The story revolves around the conflict between humans and an alien race known as the Covenant. The aliens have discovered a powerful artifact--on the ring-shaped planet called Halo--that will shift the balance of power, and it's up to the player to stop them. In addition to several first-person-shooter levels, the game offers numerous opportunities to engage in vehicular combat. Both the enemy and allied artificial intelligence are extremely impressive. Enemies will use the terrain and layout to put you in tight spots. Allies will know when to cover and aid you. For instance, if you hop into a jeep, an ally will know to jump in and man the turret on the back of it. The graphics are exquisitely detailed, but only move at 30 frames per second rather than 60. The sound effects and voice acting are superb. The level design is among the best ever; most of the game is engaging and challenging without being frustrating. There's also high replay value thanks to the built-in single-player, cooperative, and deathmatch modes. Much like the outstanding GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64, Halo raises the bar for console first-person shooters. All console action games will be measured against Halo for years to come. --Raymond M. Padilla Pros: - Outstanding game design
- High replay value
- Impressive AI
Cons:- Several maps are used multiple times
- Save functions could have been better implemented
- Graphics move at 30 frames per second, not 60
This action shooter takes place on a mysterious alien world. It offers a combination of team-based first-person-shooter gameplay (reminiscent of Tribes) and third-person vehicle combat elements. Gameplay kicks off with the player heading down to the planet's surface in a troop carrier, à la Aliens. As the player and fellow marines exit, the remaining troopers form a flank in reaction to an oncoming onslaught of human and alien enemies. It's this smart AI system that makes for a noticeably unique gameplay feel. Another very nice feature is the seamless transition into vehicular elements. As you venture through mission objectives, a variety of enemy flyers and on-ground buggies are yours for the taking. Come across a vehicle and the camera will pull back to a third-person view as you strap in and motor through crossfire. A co-op mode allows a friend to join you in the single-player missions. For chaotic fighting action, up to four players can duel in split-screen deathmatch mode or link systems for LAN play. However you choose to hero your way through Halo: Combat Evolved, the action should break in your new Xbox in explosive style.
Halo: Combat Evolved Accessories
Halo: Combat Evolved Reviews
First of all, Halo is a first person shooter game. The graphics on this game are stunning. The sound effects and music sound amazing! There are 8 different weapons (not very much of a selection) and 2 different kinds of grenades. There are 4 different vehicles you can drive and pilot. Halo includes 4 difficulty levels including easy, normal, heroic, and legendary.
There are 10 levels:
The Pillar of Autumn, Halo, The Truth and Reconciliation, The Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, 343 Guilty Spark, The Library, Two Betrayals, Keys, and The Maw. As you can see there are a lot of levels.
This game has a good story line and is still fun when other games get boring.
Old skool game that still keeps my love for halo mayhem alive. received within reasonable time and enjoying it.
Being new to the Xbox 360, I had been wanting to try out the Halo franchise that garners so much praise and hype. However, never owning an original Xbox, instead having both a PlayStation 2 and a GameCube, I figured it would be best to start off with the first game of the series. So, I recently purchased Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox. The game plays quite well on the Xbox 360, with the exception of minor frame-rate drops everytime multiple enemies occupy the screen at one time. This is a minor problem, but the frame-rate is still smooth enough to allow for fluid gameplay.
The story is quite compelling, and quite unique as well, and does a great job of grabbing the players' attention. The story takes place in the distant future where space travel and planet colonization is standard practice by humans. Humans have colonized a planet known as "Reach" and use this planet to genetically alter humans into cyborgs known as "Spartans". This practice has infuriated an alien race known as The Covenant. The Covenant has begun attacking the planet Reach and destroying Spartans and humans. One ship manages to escape with a Spartan on board. The ship is known as the Autumn Pillar, and the Spartan is Master Chief Petty Office John-117, better known as simply Master Chief. Covenant begin boarding the Autumn Pillar, and leave Captain Keyes with no choice but to release Master Chief and other Marines in escape pods. Before launching the pods, Master Chief picks up the central control of the ship, known as Cortana, and fuses her connection to his own cybernetic suit. The two crash land and must find and gather any humans who have survived. The two must then go on to rescue Captain Keyes, who has been captured by The Covenant and imprisoned on their ship. Keyes issues a command to Master Chief to locate the control panel of the Covenant's main weapon, Halo. Halo is a giant ring-like structure that contains massive energy and could cause serious extermination if activated. Along the way to the control panel, Master Chief discovers that the Covenant have woken a dormant alien race known as the Flood. Now the fight between humanity includes a new enemy, as the Flood continue to spread rapidly. Master Chief is left facing some difficult decisions as the story progresses further.
The gameplay consists of run and gun shooting that occurs at a fast pace. Enemies are very intelligent on the higher difficulty levels, and even the inclusion of an automatically regenerating shield is sometimes not enough to survive the enemy onslaught. The lands are very detailed, but sometimes can become extremely repetitive. Many of the levels consist of the same room design repeated over and over again, making it feel like you aren't really getting anywhere and are simply running in circles. Some levels become tedious at times, and the feeling of "repetition" begins to grow as the level progresses. This rule definitely applies to the later levels where it feels as if you are simply re-entering the same two rooms over and over again in some sort of infinite loop, each time the rooms contain the same enemies as well, making the level feel even more repetitive. Stages that aren't so repetitive are quite compelling and fun to play in, but these are limited to the first few stages, as the game progresses the level designs lose their luster, becoming mundane and boring. The graphics hold up quite nicely for a last gen game, and the gameplay is smooth and addictive. The weapons the player picks up from the enemies are very effective and with enemies appearing by massive quantities, it's always easy to find another weapon to replace your current one upon running out of ammunition.
Another complaint I have regarding the original Halo: Combat Evolved is in regards to the controls of the vehicles. Some vehicles such as the Ghost and Banshee pilot beautifully, giving the player amazing control over the vehicles. However, the Warthog can be unruly and almost impossible to control and navigate, especially in tight corridors where obstacles are abundant. This is what makes the last level of the game almost impossible to beat since the Warthog has such a hard time maneuvering properly without hitting obstacles. The steering of the Warthog has greatly been corrected in the later games though, but in Combat Evolved it is a vehicle I like to try to avoid driving.
Co-op is a great mode, and adding multiple users really makes the game even more exciting, especially on the higher difficulty levels. The ability of players to "re-spawn" their allies when not in combat allows you to continue the level without excess dying. Had the levels been more unique, and less repetitive, I would have given this game a perfect score, but with the repeating rooms, and lengthy stages, this game's flaws are too drastic to go unnoticed. I enjoyed the game, and I can definitely see why people love this franchise. The game is not as good as its sequels, due to poor level design, awkward Warthog steering, and fewer weapons, but it truly innovated shooters on many levels and has quickly become one of my favorite franchises ever. If you want to follow the complete Halo storyline then you should start with Combat Evolved, but if you want to simply get the feel for Halo for the first time, I say skip Combat Evolved and start with Halo 2.
Awsome game when i played it on the original xbox and still a Awsome game on the 360. i highly recomend!
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