Halo, a review 6 years late from a guy that thought it was lame but never tried it.
I finally picked up a copy of Halo about a year or two ago and played the first level and didn't touch it again. Then I started seeing ads for Halo 3 and all the hype around it and I figured... maybe I should try it. So I played it. (I was always a halo basher though I never picked up the game... boy was I kind of lame) I was playing it and knowing it was old and a lot of mechanics are now standard if not "used" too much in FPS games I found myself finishing almost half the game in one sitting.
It wasn't that special to me but it was very very fun. However, the vehicles controls are insanely evil. What the hell was Bungie thinking putting fps controls onto a car? And making that the final level makes me believe that Bungie knew the controls sucked and made a warthog end level with a timer because they knew how hard it was to control the damn thing. I have to admit this almost killed the game for me the first time I tried to "drive." Also, I never felt a full connection with Master Chief. When he died or when something happened I never felt for the dude. The last thing was the library. I never understood what people meant by "they hate it," but know I do... Really it could have had only that one wave and be done with it. But I"m sure Bungie needed more "hours" put on the game so they just made it really really stupid long...
With those two things aside, the introduction of the Flood was great. That's when the gamed picked up for me. Seeing Covenant and Flood fight each other made me see... so that's how that style of gameplay got big. After the swamp level (minus the library) I actually wanted to play the game, finish it and see what happens to the Marines, Cortana, and even Master Chief.
All and all seeing that this is a 6 year old game and I enjoyed it more than most games out now I have to say I missed out big. 6 years ago I would have said Halo? pffft whatever. Now, I want to get the second one and the third just to see what happens, not to "finish the fight" ... and get some Mountain Dew...