Halo: Combat Evolved

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. There’s 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 doesn’t 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

Halo’s 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 they’re 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. It’s one of the best I’ve ever heard in a game. It’s 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 ports’ weak point is almost always the interface. It’s rare when a game’s 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 didn’t fix what wasn’t 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, they’re rarely pretty crashes either. While I’ve gotten a couple ‘clean’ 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 game’s utilization of technology is sound as far as graphical appeal goes, and it doesn’t actually require a great PC to run, but if you don’t have one it’ll look pretty bad and run quite slowly. It’s frustrating how steep the system requirements are for even the low-detail game, in fact; there’s no way the engine was optimized as much as it could have been.

I’ve also experienced problems with collision. Now and then you actually fall out of the map; vehicles can occasionally be driven through other objects. It’s good, but it’s 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 it’s generally quite engaging and the flawless voice acting and musical score help keep you completely immersed. From the moment you’re woken up on board the Pillar of Autumn, you’re 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. They’re extremely intelligent, knocking Half-Life’s marines from the top spot as far as enemy AI goes. They’ll 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, they’ll shout warnings when a grenade falls nearby, tell you to get out of their line of fire, et cetera. They’ll also take the gunner’s 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 they’re 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 you’ve 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. You’ll occasionally get people complaining about this or that vehicle being ‘lame’ or ‘for noobs’ 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. There’s 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 shooters’.

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

The Good
Halo has three stand-out features: enemy AI, teammates, and controllable vehicles.

Much has been said about the AI of the Covenant. Indeed, after Half-Life's marines, Halo's Covenant have perhaps the most advanced and interesting behavior patterns I've seen in an FPS. Although after a while they begin repeating themselves, it was a nice feeling at first to deal with organized groups of enemies that actually employed some tactics. Stronger aliens would elegantly side-step, take cover, and generally behave in a smart, believable way. Smaller ones would block your attacks with shields or try to compensate strength with quantity. Perhaps the most memorable enemies are the Grunts, who get easily demoralized, running away at the sight of a defeated Covenant leader.

The marines will actually help you in this game, fighting on your side. It is a somewhat welcome change from the usual "lone hero saves the world" philosophy. Don't get too excited, though: the AI of your teammates is just functional, far from being revolutionary. But at least those allies are not completely useless, they won't throw bombs at you or get killed at the first opportunity.

I absolutely agree with the other reviewer here on MobyGames: praising the character AI in Halo only reveals the general weak state of AI routines in games. Halo did what every first-person shooter should have done. That is not to say that the AI in this game is amazing. After a short time, you'll learn to predict enemy patterns, their AI being less of an obstacle than their high endurance.

The best feature of Halo are the vehicles. That could be the saving grace of the game for those who have the patience to endure the rest of its gameplay. Vehicle segments are the only ones that feel genuinely exciting. While driving the Warthog is just moderately fun, things change when you get hold of cool alien technology. Hovering or flying around while shooting at poor unsuspecting Grunts or destroying the same vehicle controlled by a fearsome Elite warrior is very fun. Vehicle levels are usually large, and the choice of strategies is quite vast. Getting our of a damaged vehicle and quickly occupying another one before an enemy gets there certainly belongs to the most entertaining moments Halo has to offer.

What else? The weapons work reasonably well. There is just enough variety and balance to try out different stuff - though in the end, I found that aliens take a while to kill no matter what you are using. Naturally, rocket launchers and alike shred them to pieces instantly, but the other weapons inflict more or less the same damage. The feeling of using human and alien technology at once is quite rewarding, though. The two-weapon system, which forces you to choose instead of just grabbing whatever is available, is a good idea. I also liked the implementation of grenades: they were easy to find, easy to use, and caused considerable damage that made me choose them over other approaches from time to time. Melee attacks also work well, and were actually more useful than they usually are in this type of games.

The Bad
Halo is, at best, an average FPS with fundamental, unforgivable weaknesses. The level design is among the worst I have ever seen in a FPS. Indoor locations of Halo consist of identically-looking rooms and corridors that were put together without any care or attention to detail. Most of them were designed with such crudeness that I almost couldn't believe they made it into the final product. Outdoor locations are slightly better, but only because they are outdoors. Natural components are more interesting than the plain, yawn-inducing materials they chose for the indoor locations.

The level of detail is disastrously low. Every room is as bland as possible. Those rooms are just rectangles, mathematical constructions without any soul. At one point, you explore an alien battle cruiser. What can you say about it? That it consists of dozens of identically-looking purple corridors. Nothing else! There are hardly any objects in the rooms, and if there are, they repeat themselves verbatim, copy-paste style, ad nauseam. Those rooms serve no purpose and are simply there, dull and tiresome.

Ignoring this as a small flaw would be, in my opinion, equivalent to forgetting what makes first-person shooters enjoyable and immersive in the first place. When I play an FPS, I want to be a part of its world. It doesn't depend on the premise that much. The premise of Halo is not bad: a mysterious planet, alien civilization, two different alien races, place of religious worship, etc. It's the execution that is horrible. Just before Halo, I played Blood II; it hardly has a better premise, but the colorful locations make it actually more entertaining than this miserable collection endless corridors.

Halo destroys a long, respectable tradition of FPS design philosophy. What we loved doing in those great FPSs of the past is no longer there. It is really amazing how "successfully" the game eliminates from its gameplay nearly everything that made shooters involving. Forget interactivity. Forget destructible environments. Forget secret areas. Forget puzzles of any kind. Forget different goals and objectives in every location. Forget humor, forget setpieces, even forget boss battles! It is as if Duke Nukem 3D got forbidden, Half-Life was released on the moon, and No One Lives Forever never saw the light of the day. Even Doom had by far more variety and depth than Halo. I can only imagine that lack of knowledge of FPS history and the game's initially console-only origins greatly contributed to its popularity. Then again, the console-exclusive GoldenEye 007, released four years earlier, beats Halo in every respect.

With the exception of vehicles, which is really the only gameplay element Halo does convincingly, the entire game consists of shooting waves upon waves of enemies. Sure, the AI is good, but how many times do you want to shoot the same mechanically appearing Covenant group? At what point does it become tedious and boring to outsmart yet another Elite and finish off yet another fleeing Grunt? By the time the Flood enters the scene, you are already bored. But the Flood finishes the deal. I wouldn't be hurt by their primitive AI if they had anything else to offer, but the poor bastards aren't even scary.

Everything else in Halo is average. The plot is a rather ordinary science fiction tale that has been done many times before. Cutscenes are competently made, but something is missing in the presentation, something that would give it more personality and appeal. You don't really feel the grandeur of a mysterious alien civilization. Emotions run low in this story, leaving you cold and indifferent. The story greatly lacks detail and therefore can't compete with good sci-fi material. For example, we learn nothing about the different races that constitute the Covenant. The whole idea of the Flood and the ways to stop it is contrived and unconvincing. The dialog is completely unremarkable as well. At its best, it's just "normal"; at its worst, it becomes corny, with occasional awkward, badly done comic relief.

The funniest (well, actually, saddest) part of it all is how Master Chief became the first video game character to make it into Madame Tussaud's museum. Think of your favorite video game characters and now think that Master Chief, of all people, got this honor! I vote to immediately replace him with Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior. At least he is funnier and has more personality.

The Bottom Line
Halo has a solid premise, controllable vehicles, and good enemy AI. But all this means little compared to its glaring flaws. Repetitive gameplay and awful level design kill this game. Halo feels like a fancy AI-testing held in amateurish 3D constructions with no appeal whatsoever, resulting in a shallow and ultimately boring experience.

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!