As a launch title, Halo shows the whole world what the Xbox is about. And that is to enjoy great titles like these.
Story:
One of the best supportments of Halo is its story. The game begins on a ship where you play as the well-known cyborg in a Spartan suit, Master Chief. Master Chief was awakened from a deep sleep in order to help out on a special objective. In the first level, you must walk Chief through your way to Captain Keyes; since he is the one who wanted him awaken. Keyes will tell him why he was awakened. The alien race, the Covenant, invaded the ship and is attacking. And there's also potential of the ship being blown up, so Master Chief is assigned to take out the Covenants as he goes and escape with a computer personal named Cortana, who will help you through the entire game. From there, you will arrive on a ring-shaped plant called Halo. From that point, you will progress through the rest of the game learning about the game's storyline.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is the whole reason why Halo is so popular. Sure you get your normal FPS elements, such as picking up weapons, throwing grenades, ECT. But brand new elements in the FPG genre are introduced in Halo. When you have a weapon, you can press the B button to hit the butt of your weapon against aliens or objects. Also, in a couple levels, you can drive awesome vehicles, such as a floating snowmobile-like Ghost, the 4x4 terrain Warthog, a large tank with the name Scorpion written all over it, and many of types of artillery. The grenades you through also have some special purposes.
The levels in the campaign of Halo are very large. Most of the 10 campaign levels take at least a half-hour to complete, but a couple levels may take nearly an hour if you don't exactly know what you are doing. Despite the large size of the levels you encounter in the campaign, many of them are not very difficult to figure out. The difficultly of the levels vary depending if you choose out of the 4 difficulty traits. Cortana will guide your through the levels, so you can't really get lost if you pay attention to her. Depending on the story of each level, there may often be altered mission objectives you need to complete. All of the campaign levels play well and are very impressive. The campaign levels of Halo, however, aren't without flaws. A couple levels can be a little repetitive, which can bring down the gameplay experience a little. Thankfully it isn't often though, so it does not ruin the entire campaign.
You cannot have an outstanding FPS without a multiplayer mode, and that's exactly what Halo offers. Options include Co-op through campaign levels, split-screen multiplayer showdowns, and system-link for multiplayer showdowns. The multiplayer arenas have good variations. A couple arenas are in canyons, which are perfect for using vehicles, and some are just in sci-fi levels for other actions. There's definitely a good amount of arenas that everyone will love. There are different types of gameplay modes in multiplayer that many FPS already have, such as Slayer (Deathmatch), Team Slayer, Capture the Flag, and several others. The only flaw I have with the Multiplayer mode is that there are no bots. The action in multiplayer levels would've been a lot cooler with bots, but that just doesn't seem the case here. So your enjoyment in multiplayer levels come with you play with your friends.
Halo has a great concept in its gameplay, overall, and there is no doubt on how good the quality is here.
Graphics:
As a launch title of the Xbox, the graphics were superb back in it's time. The graphics during the gameplay were well detailed and features cool special effects. Unfortunately, the cutscenes in Halo, which run of the in-game graphics engine, lack a little polish from when you play in the game. But the high points in the graphics are the huge environments you will sometimes encounter. There is very little pop-up as far as the eye can see, and most of everything in the levels are polygonal. Another impressive element in Halo is the frame rate. Its rock solid throughout most of the game, but it can chunk down a little in very intense situations in the campaign levels. The slowdown can be noticed sometimes in the multiplayer arenas as well. But these minor flaws shouldn't hurt much on you gazing on how great the level design is made and how great it looks.
Sound:
The musical score didn't standout for me a lot throughout Halo, but the good orchestra, dark chorus, and military theme of the songs do fit very well into the game and can be supportive on your experience. The campaign can have moments of no music, and moments with music. The multiplayer arenas have no music though, but that's not a big problem, since the action can be fun without a lot of sounds. The voice acting in Halo is very exceptional. The main characters of Halo have good voices and do well on acting as well. The Covenants have odd voices, but they fit in well on what they are about. The sound effects are great, from the shooting differences of your guns, to the engine noises of the Warthogs. The audio-presentation of Halo, to sum it up, is great like a FPS should sound.
Conclusion:
As a launch title for the Xbox, Halo showed to us a bright future for Microsoft's first console, and what a future it is. The graphics were great, and so was the gameplay. While there are other fantastic games on the Xbox, such as Halo 2, Fable, and Project Gotham, Halo was the true game that gave us light on our Xboxs. If you are a big fan of FPS's and still to this day not own Halo, then you are a fool. This is a great game, overall, and deserves most of its popularity.
Pros:
-Outstanding FPS gameplay with some new elements.
-Levels are huge
-Graphics can be beautiful to look at, thanks to some of the clever designs.
-Music is very impressive, as well as the voice acting and sound effects.
Cons:
-A couple levels in the campaign are sometimes repetitive.
-The multiplayer would've been more fun if bots were included.