I have been an off-again, on-again gamer ever since my father got me the original NES when I was in grade school for making all A's. Over the years, cinema has become my new favorite hobby, but occasionally I crave for that ability to blow something up (the perfect de-stressor to the corporate world). I must begin by saying that I am the college generation of "Goldeneye" for N64, so I place the bar pretty high when it comes to any FPS that teeter on the thought that they are "the best ever". I remember when "Halo" was released, causing a rift in the gaming world. People couldn't seem to get enough of this game, addictions ran high, and Halloween costumes of Master Chief seemed to be popular. That was back in 2001. It is currently 2006 and last night (after two months of random playtime), I beat this game and let me be the first to say this (although I am not) I was not impressed.
"Halo" begins flawlessly. With big guns ablazn' you play as Master Chief, a dutiful soldier that is taken out of hibernation to do what the rest of the military cannot, stop the Covenant. Similar to "Goldeneye", you have the unique ability to pick up weapons, use the terrain as your shield, and literally, blow everything up. The excitement of this game comes when you realize that you have the mighty grenade in one hand, with a choice of two weapons in the other. The weapons are creative, but nothing spectacular, and as the game develops further, it adds to the painful repetition due to the fact that as you progress, no new weapons become available. Thirty minutes into the game, you can pretty much count the weapons you will get to use in one hand. "Halo" attempt to keep the player's attention by changing scenery as much as possible, giving the Covenant some impressive A.I. ability, as well as slowly introduce a better arsenal of weapons used solely for the enemy. This game at times reminded me of the television show "G.I. Joe" because while Cobra definitely had the best weapons, the Joe's would always be victorious I could never quite see the math behind that. Quickly, I would like to apologize about my constant critique of the weapons of the game, but for me, a person that wants to be able to pick up anything and constantly want to upgrade the arsenal, the weapons seemed cheap and dull.
Just when a level of comfort settled in, the developers decide to throw some new enemies in which does allow for some hectic moments mainly because these new enemies, the FLOOD, fight anything that moves even Covenant. This means that grenades are flying everywhere, or you can be like me and duck for cover and watch the destruction happen from the comfort of a corner. Just like with the weapons, you have the ability to ride in vehicles for both good and evil. Let me be the first to say, I hated the Warthog. Who could control this beast? I was surprised I was even able to get to the ship at the end of the game, because I was cursing the engineers that developed this vehicle. Apparently, you needed a special driver's license to operate this machinery and my Master Chief could not properly study. I couldn't control it, and it caused me to further lessen my enjoyment of this game. Yet, and I don't mean to point fingers, but the Covenant's choice of vehicles were easy to use, well equipped with weaponry, and fun. Why couldn't our team's stuff be more like that (yet again eluding to my Cobra reference from above)? Slowly, the annoyance factor because to erupt
"Halo" did have one plus to its name, and that was the controls. Outside of driving the Warthog, I felt that the controls were relatively easy to learn and use. By the end of the first mission, I thought that I could easily evade any baddies along the trip. But, no matter how easy the controls were, where "Halo" suffered the most was in the development of the story and scenery. This game was exciting for the first two-three missions, but after that, we just fell quickly into the world of repetition. The background felt like it remained the same, the evil-doers jumped out of the most normal of places, and eventually I got to the point where I just wanted to finish the game because I was getting bored. "Halo", the game that defined the X-Box, literally bored me. My fingers were getting numb, the story was stale, and my eyes were bored. If I could use one sentence to summarize my "Halo" experience, it would be the previous one. I expected more because of the hype surrounding this game, but I never got it. Visually, it started out well, but eventually it just became old very very quickly.
Overall, I think everyone should give "Halo" at least one shot. "Halo", for me, needs to get better for me to enjoy the entire series. I am looking for a stronger story in "Halo 2", as well as more captivating bad guys, a stronger score (for those that speak highly of this watch Akira, you can find the same music there), and more weapons. I thought it was good, but not the greatest FPS ever created. I will still put "Goldeneye" on the top of the list as being the forerunner in this category. Oh, I nearly forgot, what also annoyed me about "Halo" was the ending. I thought it was rather cheap for the amount of time that I put into the game. I want strong, money spending development from beginning to end. "Halo" pulled some cheap shots, and now, six years later it feels dated.
Grade: **1/2 out of *****
"Halo" begins flawlessly. With big guns ablazn' you play as Master Chief, a dutiful soldier that is taken out of hibernation to do what the rest of the military cannot, stop the Covenant. Similar to "Goldeneye", you have the unique ability to pick up weapons, use the terrain as your shield, and literally, blow everything up. The excitement of this game comes when you realize that you have the mighty grenade in one hand, with a choice of two weapons in the other. The weapons are creative, but nothing spectacular, and as the game develops further, it adds to the painful repetition due to the fact that as you progress, no new weapons become available. Thirty minutes into the game, you can pretty much count the weapons you will get to use in one hand. "Halo" attempt to keep the player's attention by changing scenery as much as possible, giving the Covenant some impressive A.I. ability, as well as slowly introduce a better arsenal of weapons used solely for the enemy. This game at times reminded me of the television show "G.I. Joe" because while Cobra definitely had the best weapons, the Joe's would always be victorious I could never quite see the math behind that. Quickly, I would like to apologize about my constant critique of the weapons of the game, but for me, a person that wants to be able to pick up anything and constantly want to upgrade the arsenal, the weapons seemed cheap and dull.
Just when a level of comfort settled in, the developers decide to throw some new enemies in which does allow for some hectic moments mainly because these new enemies, the FLOOD, fight anything that moves even Covenant. This means that grenades are flying everywhere, or you can be like me and duck for cover and watch the destruction happen from the comfort of a corner. Just like with the weapons, you have the ability to ride in vehicles for both good and evil. Let me be the first to say, I hated the Warthog. Who could control this beast? I was surprised I was even able to get to the ship at the end of the game, because I was cursing the engineers that developed this vehicle. Apparently, you needed a special driver's license to operate this machinery and my Master Chief could not properly study. I couldn't control it, and it caused me to further lessen my enjoyment of this game. Yet, and I don't mean to point fingers, but the Covenant's choice of vehicles were easy to use, well equipped with weaponry, and fun. Why couldn't our team's stuff be more like that (yet again eluding to my Cobra reference from above)? Slowly, the annoyance factor because to erupt
"Halo" did have one plus to its name, and that was the controls. Outside of driving the Warthog, I felt that the controls were relatively easy to learn and use. By the end of the first mission, I thought that I could easily evade any baddies along the trip. But, no matter how easy the controls were, where "Halo" suffered the most was in the development of the story and scenery. This game was exciting for the first two-three missions, but after that, we just fell quickly into the world of repetition. The background felt like it remained the same, the evil-doers jumped out of the most normal of places, and eventually I got to the point where I just wanted to finish the game because I was getting bored. "Halo", the game that defined the X-Box, literally bored me. My fingers were getting numb, the story was stale, and my eyes were bored. If I could use one sentence to summarize my "Halo" experience, it would be the previous one. I expected more because of the hype surrounding this game, but I never got it. Visually, it started out well, but eventually it just became old very very quickly.
Overall, I think everyone should give "Halo" at least one shot. "Halo", for me, needs to get better for me to enjoy the entire series. I am looking for a stronger story in "Halo 2", as well as more captivating bad guys, a stronger score (for those that speak highly of this watch Akira, you can find the same music there), and more weapons. I thought it was good, but not the greatest FPS ever created. I will still put "Goldeneye" on the top of the list as being the forerunner in this category. Oh, I nearly forgot, what also annoyed me about "Halo" was the ending. I thought it was rather cheap for the amount of time that I put into the game. I want strong, money spending development from beginning to end. "Halo" pulled some cheap shots, and now, six years later it feels dated.
Grade: **1/2 out of *****