Halo: Combat Evolved
Description official descriptions
Humanity is in the midst of a long war against an alien alliance called the Covenant which has been wiping out colony after colony. Your hero is Master Chief, who is given no name beyond his rank in the game itself. He is stationed on the Pillar of Autumn, a ship which, per protocol makes a jump in a random direction to retreat to avoid revealing the location of Earth. They find themselves at the titular Halo, a planet-sized ring of mysterious origin, and function with the Covenant on their heels. Master Chief must repel the Covenant assault and discover the secrets of Halo with the assistance of the female AI Cortana who lives in his suit and gives missions.
Halo: Combat Evolved is a sci-fi first-person shooter with considerable driving elements. Features include friendly NPCs who fight alongside the Chief, squad-based AI where enemies groups work together to flank you under the direction of a leader unit and can be demoralized by his death. They also use cover, set ambushes, etc.
Only two weapons may be carried at a time: one active and one on backup. There are five human weapons and three Covenant with distinct art styles for the two groups. Human weapons look basically like real guns and fire projectiles. Covenant are sleek and purple and fire energy. For the most part, weapons are not just left around the environment and must be procured from fallen enemies though there are supply points.
Your life is armor and health as in most games of the genre, however, rather than armor being an item that is picked up, it is a force field which quickly recharges itself after several seconds without taking damage, which emphasizes finding cover.
One of the most significant features is vehicles. You can drive a variety of vehicles in both single-player and multiplayer, some of which have additional seats for passengers or gunners which can be used by AI characters. Vehicles also come in distinct human and Covenant varieties with their design philosophies. Human vehicles roll around the ground on wheels and covenant vehicles hover or fly.
Halo also has a significant multiplayer component with basic deathmatch (called slayer here), capture the flag with the unusual addition that the flag takes your weapon spot while you are holding it, so shooting your way in and out of the base on your own is not an option, territories, and some options unique to the game, such as oddball, where you must hold onto a skull for the longest time, race where you score points by getting to checkpoints and juggernaut, where one super-powered player must get points by killing the others and the other players try to kill him to steal his powers. There is also a game editor which allows you to set custom rules for all the basic game types. All the playable weapons and vehicles from the campaign mode are available in the multiplayer maps with the ability for members of the same team to share the game's distinctive Warthog vehicle, which is essentially a small truck with a mounted gun on the back.
Spellings
- ăă¤ăăź - Japanese spelling
- ĺ ćďźććčżĺ - Simplified Chinese spelling
- ćĺžä¸ć° - Traditional Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Console Generation Exclusives: Xbox
- Games made into books
- Games made into comics
- Games made into movies
- Games made into TV series
- Halo series
- Launch title: Xbox (North America)
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Setting: Space station / Spaceship
- Technology: amBX
- Xbox Best of Classics releases
- Xbox Best of Platinum Hits releases
- Xbox Classics releases
- Xbox Platinum Hits releases
Screenshots
Promos
Videos
See any errors or missing info for this game?
You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.
Credits (Xbox version)
185 People (107 developers, 78 thanks) · View all
Project Lead | |
Lead Producer | |
Producer | |
Programmers | |
Art Director | |
Assistant Art Director | |
Artists | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 91% (based on 112 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 418 ratings with 26 reviews)
A fantastic 'smart' first person shooter-- miles ahead of everything before it.
The Good
The Basics: Xbox release title Halo, by Bungie, ported to the PC by Gearbox. Science fiction FPS which follows the Master Chief (player character) on the strange artificial world of Halo as he tries to stop the Covenant, a horde of aliens intent on destroying humanity.
Graphics
Halo looked fantastic when it came out for the Xbox, still looked good when it came out for the PC almost two years later, and looks just as nice today. Alongside well crafted models and top-notch texturing, fancy effects such as projected textures for flashlights and specular mapping on metal surfaces make the game quite visually attractive. Character animation is fluid and believable.
The draw distance is fantastic. You can stand at one side of a large plain and see all the way to the other end without any fogging. This goes especially well with the maps, which generally have a good deal of interior and exterior design and are very, very large as FPS maps go.
There are also a lot of nice little touches here. Thereâs a great blurring effect with sniper zoom, real shadows cast by objects; Banshees leave behind fancy trails in the air, and when you get the invisibility power-up in multiplayer the player model doesnât just go transparent; it becomes translucent, slightly warping what you can see through it, a really fantastic effect.
High display resolutions are supported. The only real way this field suffered in the port to the PC is that it runs just a bit slower than it really should, especially at low detail levels. Only people with fairly powerful computers will be able to get the most out of the game.
Score: 4.5/5
Audio
Haloâs sound effects are top notch. Every weapon has distinctive sounds that fit it perfectly; every enemy also has unique sounds, often voice clips also. Not only that, but their AI makes use of these speech clips perfectly; grunts will shout out to take cover when you throw a grenade their way, panic if theyâre hit with a sticky grenade, etc. Your human allies have great voice acting that is also utilized flawlessly by the game. All the main characters are well acted throughout.
Halo also features a phenomenal musical score. Itâs one of the best Iâve ever heard in a game. Itâs the kind of score so good that you can just launch the game and sit back and listen to the main menu for five minutes. It never seems to intrude upon gameplay but always improves it.
Score: 5/5
Interface/Technology
Console portsâ weak point is almost always the interface. Itâs rare when a gameâs control scheme is successfully ported from a console controller to a mouse, keyboard and/or joystick system, despite the flexibility of the latter. Halo, however, does not fail in this aspect. Any FPS regular will be right at home here; the standard mouselook, WSAD movement control system works flawlessly and the game is very responsive to input. They didnât fix what wasnât broken with controlling vehicles, and the wonderfully intuitive navigation system works perfectly on the PC.
The game has some problems stability-wise. After first getting a report that the game was incompatible with my drivers, which were brand new, I had to frustratingly downgrade them; after that it ran fine, but crashes are not unheard of here. Unfortunately, theyâre rarely pretty crashes either. While Iâve gotten a couple âcleanâ crash to desktops, more often than not after a few hours of play the game would lock up cold on me. I have not, however, experienced any trouble with memory leaks.
The gameâs utilization of technology is sound as far as graphical appeal goes, and it doesnât actually require a great PC to run, but if you donât have one itâll look pretty bad and run quite slowly. Itâs frustrating how steep the system requirements are for even the low-detail game, in fact; thereâs no way the engine was optimized as much as it could have been.
Iâve also experienced problems with collision. Now and then you actually fall out of the map; vehicles can occasionally be driven through other objects. Itâs good, but itâs far from perfect.
Score: 3.5/5
Single Player Gameplay/Balance
The single player campaign is a treat to play through and no doubt about that. The story is a bit weak at parts, but itâs generally quite engaging and the flawless voice acting and musical score help keep you completely immersed. From the moment youâre woken up on board the Pillar of Autumn, youâre IN the game.
There are plenty of weapons in the game, but you can only carry two at once, which makes for plenty of interesting tactical choices. Weapon balance is quite sound, but not perfect. The needler and assault rifle weapons are rather underpowered. Apart from that, I never noticed any problems. Placement of ammo and health packs was sensible.
Enemies are a real challenge to fight. Theyâre extremely intelligent, knocking Half-Lifeâs marines from the top spot as far as enemy AI goes. Theyâll hurl grenades around corners, duck, dodge and jump out of your fire, sneak up on you from behind, and overall simulate real enemies trained for combat. The marines on your side are just as good; not only that, but thanks to well recorded and fantastically implemented voice acting, theyâll shout warnings when a grenade falls nearby, tell you to get out of their line of fire, et cetera. Theyâll also take the gunnerâs seat in vehicles, which is a big help
Vehicles are great, as mentioned before. There are plenty of human and covenant vehicles to play in and theyâre all well balanced, well modeled, and easy to control.
The biggest complaint I have is with the level design, in that interiors are quite repetitive. Exterior worlds do not have this problem but the claustrophobic, dark metal tunnels do. After youâve been through what seems like the same base for about the eighth time, it gets very tiring.
Score: 4.5/5
Multiplayer Gameplay/Balance
Multiplayer is fantastic from the beginning. The server search is powered by Gamespy, and whatever you think of their business, their game services are fast and reliable. There are several game modes, the usual suspects with FPS games, the most enjoyable being in my opinion capture the flag. There are a good deal of fun multiplayer maps to play on which have a couple secrets each but mostly just take a bit of getting used to and then eons of experience to master.
Vehicles are incredibly fun in multiplayer, especially running people over in the warthogs. Youâll occasionally get people complaining about this or that vehicle being âlameâ or âfor noobsâ but in point of fact the balance is impeccable.
The PC version of the game features two new multiplayer weapons, the fuel rod gun and the flamethrower. The former is nice and useful; the latter is mostly just nice to play around with and very rarely get a kill.
Teamwork becomes crucial if you're playing against experienced players, which only makes the game funner. There is nothing quite like getting a successful flag capture with a handful of dedicated allies.
The many layers of tactics, well designed and balanced weapons, and fantastic vehicles make Halo a truly amazing game to play online. It has flaws, however. Most notably it lags a good deal more than games such as Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, etc. Thereâs also an annoying cap on the length of messages you send, which did not exist in the aforementioned games and I have a hard time believing is necessary. The game also messes up now and then on who killed who; if someone is shot out of their vehicle, jumps out and hits the ground alive but dies from the impact, for example, the game often reports that kill as the shootersâ.
Score: 4.5/5
The Bad
There are no criteria for the game that fall below three out of five, but I will recap the problems it has:
-System requirements are too high for too low frame rates
-Some minor balance issues in single and multiplayer
-Rather unstable
-Lag issues in multiplayer
-Collision problems
-Repetitive interior levels
The Bottom Line
Halo is a masterpiece, and one that revolutionized first-person shooters. Many games have followed in its footsteps, notably Unreal Tournament 2004 with its vehicular multiplayer action, but Halo retains a unique glory of its own. It is a treasure; great to play through in single player and with potentialy endless hours of multiplayer enjoyment. This is easily one of the best first-person shooters ever made, and if you have a computer that can handle it, it is a must-buy.
Final Value: 4.5/5
Windows · by ShadowShrike (277) · 2003
Not The Best FPS, But Hardly The Worst
The Good
Halo is one of those games that was in development for a long time. What began as a third-person action/adventure for the Macintosh, became a Windows game. And then became a first person shooter for the Xbox. Love it or loathe it, Halo made the Xbox the success it is today.
In Halo, the last inhabitants are embroiled in a losing war with aliens known as âThe Covenantâ. They are a pious group that see humanity as a threat. A super solider known as the âMaster Chiefâ, is the only hope of the Earth. In Halo you are the Master Chief. You are given a rude awaking when the fanatical aliens board your ship. From here you must fight you way past them, and escape the vessel, to land on the strange and ancient ring world known as Halo.
Halo is seen as a reward for the Covenant. The truth is soon revealed. And you know you must keep the aliens from using Halo at all costs. Or humanity will be lost.
Halo plays much like any other FPS. You explore levels kill enemies, find ammo, better weapons, etc. Health is unique in that you have a recharging shield, that protects your health, it must be drained first for you to die. The recharge takes time however. In combat you strafe, shoot, jump, and use grenades to flush out aliens. The most unique aspect of Haloâs gameplay comes from the use of vehicles. An all terrain vehicle known as the âWarthogâ, a flying âBansheeâ, âGhostâ, and tank like âScorpionâ. Are all at your disposal. Many vehicles can house many, and human troops will join you in the fight. And in COOP mode two human player can use the same vehicleâŚsweet!
Speaking of multiplayer, like most FPS of today Halo packs in multiplayer fun as well. You can play on the internet, if you run your Xbox through your PC, this however is a little complicated, so most will likely just play via split screen, or better yet system link. Modes include standards like DeathMatch, CTF, and Domination. As well as less common COOP. In which two players can play the campaign together. This is great fun, more so than playing alone.
The Graphics are very good for early Xbox. Of course later games like Doom3, Half-Life 2, and Halo 2, put them to shame. The graphics are clean and crisp. Nice lighting effects here as well.
The Music is epic and grand when it needs be. And fast and rocking when it needs be. Haloâs score really puts itâs sequel down. The sound effect are top notch. And as one would expect from a newer game the voice overs are solid.
The Bad
Some levels donât feel right. Such as the level in which you board a Covenant ship. The difficulty is unbalanced. Easy is too easy. And Hard is to hard.
The game ends with a driving stage, WTF? Oh and you know a sequel is coming. Even before Halo 2 was announced.
Halo also spawned a lot of crap ass games, like Darkwatch, Killzone, and Pariah. This is a very bad thing. Despite what others say.
The Bottom Line
Overall, Halo is an enjoyable game. And now is a Platinum Hit. You afford $20...right?
Xbox · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006
The Good
I played halo on both platforms at the same time. I played it on the PC in Legendary settings and on Normal on the Xbox. I come from the PC and so it is not so easy for me to use a gamepad. There is no doubt that a mouse/keyboard is a better combination, but a gamepad works too if you allow the game to be more forgiving by using the Normal settings.
Plot: Very interesting, finally something that brings back memories from Wing Commander fight with the Kilrathi. It was interesting enough for me to consider buying Halo fiction. I loved the fact you got to meet TWO races, both the Covenant and the Flood.
AI: Amazing, especially in Legendary. You really have to think before you take your moves. There is no way you are going to survive by running and shooting everything,
Sound: If you got the right speakers, it is superb! Amazing work on the 5.1 Dolby digital.
Graphics: Considering it is a port, they are awesome. True, they are not as good (or even close) to Far Cry's, but they are good enough.
Action: This is what really rocks. There is always something going on. You move from challenge to challenge. It is hard to put it in words, but the game keeps you so much involved, which is a rare thing for an FPS. You can drive an APC, a tank, fly two types of crafts, use both human and alien weapons. WOW!!! So many tactical decisions that you have to make all the time. I don't think there was an FPS till Halo that offered that much.
The Bad
Performance: Obviously the game takes a ton of resources and it should not. It was not that much of a problem for me (CPU 3Ghz, Radeon 9700 PRO, etc.), but I did have to turn the resolution down to 1280x1024, something that I did not have to do with any other game from Halo's release date.
Level Design: This has been said by many people, certain levels are repetitive.
The Bottom Line
You can probably find Halo for $10 or less, I suggest you take the ride now!
Windows · by The Gay Elf (12) · 2006
Trivia
1001 Video Games
The Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Demo
The end of the PC demo features a 49 second infomercial-style video, narrated by Sgt. Johnson, which extolls the virtues of buying the full version. "Buy one! Heck, buy two!"
Development
Halo went through many changes during its development. As originally conceived, it was a real-time tactical game for Windows, something like a sci-fi version of Myth. The focus shifted toward direct control of one of the individual units and it became a third person shooter and work began on a Macintosh version as well. This is how the game was originally announced.
After Microsoft bought Bungie, Halo was shifted to being an Xbox exclusive. Around the same time, it became a first person game, with Bungie saying there wasn't any way to get precise aiming to work in third person. Many of the art assets changed too, with the Master Chief's armor in the game as shipped looking quite different than the original trailer. Eventually, Halo was ported back to its original platforms of Windows and Macintosh bearing no resemblance to how it started.
Ending
Beat the game in Legendary difficulty and you get an additional funny cutscene at the end.
Engineer
Halo has a strange enemy hidden in the game code called the Engineer. You can only access it using a mod chip. It's a pink, blobby thing that just sort of floats around. It's the same creature as seen in one of the earliest videos of the game, the one with the marines going into the huge building.
Gags
- If you look closely at the shotgun shells taken out when Master Chief reloads, you'll see there are hippo heads pictured on them.
- If you highlight the "Edit Gametypes" section in the multiplayer section of this game, you come across an image of Master Chief with text that, to the reader, seems to be schematics for each of his body parts. If you look closely, some of the text aren't schematics, but text: Text on Head/Gun: "UV Protectant Sun Visor for Protection from Elements". Text on Upper Right Leg: "Sometimes I give myself the creeps, sometimes my mind plays tricks on me" (lyrics from the Green Day song "Basket Case"). Text on Lower Right Leg: "Hydraulic Suspension Thigh Pads with cool Kevlar crap". Text on Left Leg: "Directional Locks MJOLNIR cyborg dealer parts". Text on Arm: "Action/Reload see may flexible joint system". Text on Torso: "All your base are belong to us".
Halo: Custom Edition
On May 5th, 2004, Halo: Custom Edition was released for free. It is a multiplayer only, 170MB standalone version of Halo PC which enables gamers to play user created content created with the halo editing kit. It requires the original cd and a valid key to play. Download it here.
Machinima
Halo is used to film the machinima web series Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, which is currently in its fifteenth season.
Novel
As of July 2017, there are a total of twenty-one Halo tie-in novels. The first three being: Fall of Reach (prequel), The Flood (novelization of the game), and First Strike (successor).
Rating
Halo was originally rated T for Teens.
References: Marathon
- At the center of the Halo logo, you can see the
Marathon logo (Marathon being the FPS series Bungie was previously famous for). The Marathon logo can also be seen in several places throughout the game, including on the hull of the human battleship, on Captain Keye's uniform, and on several of the doors found around Halo. The character design of 343 Guilty Spark, one of the game's pivotal characters, also strongly resembles the Marathon logo. - The cyborg Master Chief wears a suit of Mjolnir battle armor. The hero of the Marathon series was a Mjolnir class cyborg.
- The alien grunts sometimes scream out "They're everywhere!" in combat. The human civilians from Marathon would also scream the same thing during the alien invasion.
- Certain weapons have similar names and appearances in both games, such as the SPNKR rocket launcher.
- Both games have very whimsical chapter names, like "Wait! It Gets Worse!" or "Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys to Superweapon" in Halo or "Kill Your Television" or "You Think You're Badass? You're Going to Die Badass!" in Marathon.
- Rampancy, or "When AIs go nuts and rebel against humanity", played a major part of Marathon's story. If you kill the command crew in Halo's opening level, Cortana will complain that you've gone Rampant and will sic the Marines on you.
- The hero of the Marathon series spend most of his time taking orders from Durandal, a megalomaniacal A.I. named after a mythological sword who had few qualms about breaking a few eggs (using humans as expendable pawns) to make an omelet (liberating a slave race). The hero of Halo spends most of his time taking orders from Cortana, an A.I. named after a mythical sword who's beginning to show signs her ego is expanding, and who has few qualms about breaking a few eggs (destroying Halo and killing the marines on it) to make an omelet (saving Earth).
- Much of the dialog of the "Grunt" characters is taken from the Human characters in the first Marathon: "Thank God it's you" was spoken by characters called "Exploding Bobs", which were sythetic Humans who would run at the player and explode. The line "They're Everywhere" was spoken by frightened Humans the player would come across.
- The architecture in Halo is very similar to Jjaro architecture - the Jjaro were an equally ancient race in Marathon.
References
Some of the dialogue spoken by the marines, comes directly from the film Aliens.
Sales
- As of 2005, Halo is the best-selling Xbox game of all time. It has sold three and a half million copies.
- On August 31, 2003 has Halo (Xbox) won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Timeline
Many people believe that Halo takes place during a one-hundred-and-thiry-nine year gap in the Marathon timeline, in which the creators wrote "This century intentionally left blank. Seriously, nothing really happened."
Voice acting
Much of the dialogue spoken by the Covenant Elites is in fact dialogue by the human Sergeant, reversed, with some pitch alterations.
Windows and Macintosh versions
- Gearbox took over programming of Halo PC and discovered that they can't use much of the existing networking code (for the XBox). They had to rewrite that entire section, delaying the title for PC by several months.
- The PC version (and probably Mac, too) of Halo adds a few bonus features for the multiplayer mode, these include two weapons: a Flamethrower (which was scrapped from the game at the last minute) and a Fuel Rod Gun (the weapon that the Hunters use in the main game) as well as allowing you to use the Banshee and a rocket-launcher version of the Warthog.
Awards
- 4Players
- 2002â Best Xbox Action Game of the Year
- 2002â Best Console Multiplayer Game of the Year
- 2002 â #2 Best Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- Computer Gaming World
- March 2004 (Issue #236) â Year's Biggest Letdown
- Electronic Gaming Monthly
- April 2002 - Game of the Year
- GameSpy
- 2001 â Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
- 2001 â Xbox Action/Adventure Game of the Year
- 2003 â #6 PC Game of the Year
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/2008 - One of the "10 Coolest Levels" (for the level "The Silent Cartographer". It combines all fun elements from the first person shooter genre into one level.)
- Interactive Achievement Awards (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences)
- 2002 - Game of the Year
- 2002 - Console Game of the Year,
- 2002 - Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year
- 2002 - Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
- PC Powerplay (Germany)
- Issue 03/2005 - #1 Biggest Disappointment
- Issue 12/2006 - #9 Hype Disappointment (was no longer impressive when it was ported two years after the console version)
- Retro Gamer
- October 2004 (Issue #9) â #18 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
- The Strong National Museum of Play
- 2017 â Introduced into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
- Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD)
- August 31, 2003 - Gold Award
- Walk of Game
- 2005 - Member
Information also contributed by ~~, Ace of Sevens, Alan Chan, BurningStickMan, Kartanym, Kasey Chang, Maw, MegaMegaMan, Ray Soderlund, Sciere, Xoleras, Zack Green and Zovni
Analytics
Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!
Related Sites +
-
Beyond Fragging
An Apple Games article about the Mac version of Halo, with commentary being provided by Project Manager Marc Tardif and MacSoft President Peter Tante (November, 2003). -
Halo PC
Official Site - Bungie -
Halopedia
A wiki covering all Halo games -
Microsoft: Halo Website
Official website for Halo with overview of title. Includes link to Javascript pop-up window with screenshots, movies and more details on the title (only available through above link, no separate URL for pop-up).
Identifiers +
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by JPaterson.
Xbox 360 added by Kartanym. Windows added by kawaii. Macintosh added by Kabushi.
Additional contributors: Istari, Kartanym, Unicorn Lynx, Entorphane, karttu, tarmo888, Kabushi, Pseudo_Intellectual, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Zaibatsu, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, yellowshirt, SoMuchChaotix.
Game added November 17, 2001. Last modified March 25, 2024.