FPS Heaven. (Halo (Xbox))

Member Name: benjmeister

Product:	Halo (Xbox)
Date:	23/02/03 (200 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Much Too, Much For Me, To Mention

Disadvantages: Occasionally repetitive, Halo 2 is too long away

Simply put, Halo is the most immersive FPS I've played since Goldeneye soaked up what must have been thousands of hours of my time - and what a long time ago that seems like now.

Bungie deserves all the acclaim it will rightly get for creating a FPS with such an immersive storyline, mesmerising graphics, top-notch controls (even on X-Box's somewhat bulky pad) and what stunned me more than anything : the intelligence of the foes you face.

Never before have I faced a situation in a game where I had to plan so strategically which enemy to take out first, whether or not I'll need a grenade to help me, and which gun I should equip to help the task in hand.

Never before has a game seemlessly blended in different genres into such a well rounded enjoyable romp as this. Ride in jeeps with other soldiers, man a tank, drive in an alien ship, it's all there and whats more amazing is that it's all incredibly fun. And that's what a computer game should be - one little word: Fun.

There's nothing overly revolutionary about the game when you analylise it in greater depth, it's just all the things which have made other FPSs not particularly stand out from one another have all been enhanced to almost unbelievable proportions.

The graphics are amazing - look on the floor you see individual blades of grass swaying in the late afternoon breeze. On one particular level I got killed after examining the beauty and intricicy of the detail in the wall in the corridor I was standing in. This sounds ridiculous but it's true, and for those reading this with the game I insist you check out the corridor walls on the alien ship level. The way light shimmers off the surfaces just shows how the power of the X-Box can be used to such trivial, but brilliant effect nonetheless.

In outdoor and indoor environments the varying levels you play on are noticably different from one another and all beautifully re-enacted.
In one level you're battling in an alien ship, on another you're on a vast snow-ridden mountain swept environment, and on another you're at the front leading a WWII-esque surge up a tide-swept beach.

The Co-operative mode - in which you and a friend battle through the main story mode of the game is a neat touch, one which I hope most ot
her action titles will offer also in the future.

Indeed finding flaws in this mammoth of a game is tough, but if I had to name a few the lack of more types of weapon would probably be one, and another little thing maybe is near the end of the game where some of the levels look a bit too similar, but like I say to criticise these minor flaws would be just nitpicking.

Frankly put if you like fun, if you like shooting things, if you like a good storyline and if you like... well gaming in general you will absolutely adore Halo. Frankly if it was a woman I'd strip naked and offer to have it's babies right now.

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