Breaking precedents and re-redefining the genre, Halo is among the best first person shooters of all time.
User Rating: 9.8 | Halo (Xbox Collection) XBOX
Ever since it exploded onto the scene in November 2001, Halo has been widely praised as the greatest first-person shooter on the market, creating hopelessly obsessed fanboys devoting countless hours of their lives to defeating the relentless hordes of hostile alien armies. Single-handedly saving Microsoft's console from a life of embarrassing obscurity, Halo is believed by many (myself included) to be one of the greatest games of all time. The player controls Master Chief, Spartan supersoldier and Earth's secret weapon against the malevolent alien race the Covenant. The Master Chief is one badass spacecowboy, and he's got the massive stature and the strong-silent-type attitude to prove it. Blasting through round after round, level after level of inexorable foes, assisted only by an overpowered pistol and a somewhat annoying purple virtual vixen. The game plays as one would expect-- lots of shooting, running, grenade throwing, etc.-- but it executes nearly all aspects flawlessly. In addition, some of the best vehicular combat you're likely to encounter in any game, bar none. One of the things that makes this game so much fun is the sheer intensity of the gameplay. Often faced with several opponents at once, you'll quickly get the feeling that everything on the planet is hunting you, vying to murder you in cold blood. Using your razor-honed trigger finger and biomechanically enhanced reflexes, you should have some advantages of your own. You'll have a wide variety of weapons at your disposal, including a veritable armory of human guns, as well as a formidable arsenal of your fallen enemies weapons. The assault rifle/pistol will usually be your primary/auxillary munitions, but depending on the circumstances, you may need to use the sniper rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, or any of their several Covenant counterparts at your discretion. Creating an interesting new element of strategy, you can only carry two of these weapons at a time, meaning you can no longer rifle through your stash of infinite artilleries, searching for the gun you need, you'll actually have to think about what lies ahead, quantities of ammo, etc. Another thing that makes Halo stand out is the AI. While greater digital intelligence has been created today, in 2001, enemies taking cover and returning fire intelligently was a thing of amazement, apparently. The vast majority of the fighting will be done by the Chief himself, but you do get some teammates from time to time. The biggest advantage they'll give you is providing your enemies something to shoot at other than you, but they can do some respectable damage given a turret, or on a very rare occassion a well-placed grenade toss. The game itself is split into two parts, split screen and single-player campaign. You can choose to either battle a friend (anywhere from 2 to 16 players, via Xbox link cable), or tackle the single-player mode together. While the developers claim the story and single-player was the main focus of the game, the fast-paced, intense deathmatches and capture the flag modes (as well as several other equally engaging gametypes) will beg to differ, and have you and your friends hooked, staying up to the wee hours of the night to play "just one more game". Very luckily for us, Halo looks as good as it plays, with models and environments on-par with some low-end PC games of the day, as well as some of the most amazing hi-resolution textures ever to be seen on a console. Clear and realistic animations punctuate your fighting, and the game runs at a smooth and silky framerate, even in large firefights. The intricate and almost perfect lighting effects nicely complement the game's futuristic, technologically advanced theme. The beautiful environs range from glimmering and flashing purple corridors to lush, wide-open beaches, and everything in between. This brings me to one of the game's biggest (and only) flaws. However nice looking the settings are, they are sometimes recycled far too much, some levels in particular. Sound plays a relatively big role in any first-person shooter, and Halo doesn't disappoint in that respect. All the guns sound realistic (as if I would know), which really adds to the intensity when twenty or thirty of them are being fired at you at the same time. The voice acting for all the characters is well done, even for the Covenant. Walking slowly and wearily across a now desolate battle field, there's nothing more jarring than a loud "WORT WORT WORT" from behind you, and spinning around just in time to cap that one last Elite before moving onto the next area, a job well done. Fairly average in length the first time through, with ten reasonably long levels, the single-player game will provide a challenge on the harder difficulties long after Normal mode has been defeated. As I said, the various multiplayer modes will have you coming back for months, possibly years to come (or they would have four years ago), adding greatly to the replay value of the game. Quite possibly the greatest launch title of all time, saving the Xbox as we know it, Halo is an amazing game on more than one level. Launching an epidemic of Halo-fever and a crazed and obsessed fanbase that makes Trekkies seem casual, it's legacy is one that will not be easily replaced or forgotten. As much as upcoming games profess themselves to be the real "Halo killer", there really can't be any cheap knockoffs that come close. 
