While some people may consider the Xbox a computer in disguise, it's main function is still a game machine. For a lot of us non-PC gamers, this is a blessing. The FPS genre has always ruled the PC with a few exceptions such as Goldeneye, but Halo has finally bridged the gap and made consoles a major contender in the FPS war.
The game puts you in control of a space marine who's just been pulled from your long slumber in order to combat an alien menace. The game immediately thrusts you into a movie like environment, even taking a few of it's opening battle scenes from Star Wars. The developers even incorporated training into the regular game, so there's no need for any boring training missions.
Fellow marines will assist you along the way, at least for as long as they can stay alive. Unlike other games, these marines have common sense and will hide behind objects, duck for cover, strafe, and blow enemies away. Of course, there are a few irritating moments where you'll find yourself popping a few in the back of the head with a plasma rifle. The AI's greatness doesn't end with the marines as the enemies are not only smart, but display distinct personalities. The lower level grunts will run away from players when shot, while hunters will pursue the player better than raptors from Jurassic Park. This can also be used to the players advantage as players can stick a plasma grenade to a grunt and watch him run into a crowd of his own kind and blow them all to pieces. Doing this to a hunter however will cause them to run at you and take you down with them.
The game provides an outstanding challenge, especially on some of the higher difficulty levels. For those players who need help, call up a friend and have them play through the game with you in the co-op mode. This allows for a huge amount of strategy and setting enemies up for a sniper shot from your friend provides players with an awesome adrenalin rush. Should he miss the sniper shot though, it's of to the multi-player frag fest where you'll be allowed to take out your frustrations on them. Any of these well designed levels can provides endless replay value, easily worth the price of admission.
Article comments
1 - Adam M.
Isn't this review about three years late? Halo was a launch title for the Xbox in November 2001. The sequel is due out this coming November, in fact. Why the late post?
2 - Matt Paprocki
Sure it is (and it was written about that time too), but so are a lot of my DVD reviews. Besides, with the sequel coming, that's the best time for a review like this. Oh, and this was written for another site I write for, www.digitpress.com , first but there's not a reason why it can't be here as well.