Master Chief starts the fight with a style in this classic console shooter.
So what's so special about "Halo"? To figure it out I need to go back to 2001 and take a look at some of the games of that period. 2001 was a good year with such releases as "Max Payne", "Black and White", "Silent Hill 2", "FF X", "GTA III" and many others. But focusing only on first person shooters there were games like "Red Faction", "RTCW" or IMO disappointing but praised by critics "AvP2". So "Halo" had quite a competition but it also had a significant advantage - on Xbox it was alone. It quickly gathered much critical acclaim and actually saved Xbox from total failure. You can call it a post-"Half-life" sci-fi shooter with some ambition. Mentioning "HL" is not without a reason. It's not hard to see it was one of the inspirations for "Halo". But nevermind history, let's see how "Halo" stands on its own.
Comparing it to other 2001's games is looks very good, especially all the effects that were nowhere to be found in PC games. I don't think there was in 2001 a single game on PC that used pixel shaders and "Halo" did. Realistic water, shiny walls and weapons, ice that looks like ice etc. Back in the day it was pretty amazing. The sound is also very good and every bit of it just feels right. The most impressive part of all this is music. "Halo" has an absolutely outstanding soundtrack and if there's one reason to play this game it is the music.
Fortunately, "Halo" is more than just a pretty presentation. It plays well on the gamepad and it's probably the first really good console FPS. It's a very solid game with a long campaign (at least for today's standards) and not a bad story with some twists. Some say it reinvented the genre. Hmm, I don't think so. For me reinventing the genre is doing what games like "Quake" and "HL" did. Maybe it's just that "Halo" did it for consoles, I don't really know. Also one of the most impressive things in "Halo" is AI that is actually better than in some games nowadays.
Besides making a pretty fun shooter Bungie manged to create an iconic character of Master Chief. By giving only scraps of info about him and not showing his face for the entire game they gave player something to wonder about. Besides that, his armor just looks cool ;)
"Halo" is good enough to enjoy it even today and I think that speaks for itself and really doesn't need an additional recommendation.