The game that touched the hearts of many and sets an example of how first-person shooters should be. But is it perfect?
Released in 2001 exclusively for the Xbox console in time for it's debut in stores and developed by Bungie as a successor to the Marathon series Halo is a typical FPS with a good story, great controls, multiplayer for CO-OP and competitive matches but unlike the other shooters that came before on the PC there wasn't any well known original shooters for consoles and most of the ones that did come on consoles were shoddy ports e.g. Doom or Quake and the only FPS for a console at the time that was original was Medal Of Honor. So with that Halo already had something special. Anyway let's get on with the game itself, how does it fair...very, this was an instant classic the moment I first played it. The controls and gameplay are smooth and solid for a launch title, the number of weapons have a different impact on the way you play, if you prefer to be up close and personal then its the shotgun you want, wanna be steathy and take out foes from afar go for the sniper-rifle or just blow **** up grab a rocket launcher. Controls on Halo were impressive for its time having only to carry two weapons at a time to make the game feel realistic compared to the shear amount you can hold on Doom, and able to utilize the trigger buttons on the controller to make it feel like you're firing a gun. This style of gameplay has now been evolving into countless other games for consoles its now been over a decade, sometimes similar controls like Halo's had been implemented into games that weren't shooters in the first place like Portal.
Now on to my favorite part, the story, we can all say that Halo's story and the mythology it created is one of the best in gaming history on par with Deus Ex and Metal-Gear-Solid. It's about a robotic soldier who is the last of his kind battling a common enemy for mankind and steps onto another world...ok its a little cliche but the reason its good is because it was done very well, the way characters interact with each other and the acting felt like something from a movie especially with how Halo was presented like a blockbuster.
So how does it fair now...well it certainly aged ok but to honest there were so many other games like Halo that came out before (most obviously being Half-Life) and have done so much better and had better sequels and development, so even though Halo made a great impression for video games it could've done so much more. But I'm' still giving Halo a Whopping score of 9.5/10, not perfect but certainly close, I'll see you next time.
This is Spartan AW19 signing out.