Wow, that ring sure is purdy..almost shining (Halo (Xbox))

Member Name: ~Shibby~

Product:	Halo (Xbox)
Date:	17/10/03 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great sound, good graphics, vehicles

Disadvantages: lots, and LOTS of aliens

Ok, about a week ago, I got so tired of hearing the name 'Halo' that I was about ready to puke. And the sad part is, I couldn't do anything about it! Then,my problem was answered. Halo for the PC had arrived on shelves. Well this was my big break. My chance to see what all the fuss was about. Unbeknown to me, the game was not at all like I expected it to be.

From the get-go, I knew there would be shooting, exploring, etc. However, by shooting I didn't mean taking on mass armies of thousands of aliens at the same time, so I was in for a surprise. It took me a minute to get use to the feel of the mouse movement, which was a bit awkward at first. You begin on a ship, and soon you find yourself blasting aliens away. Yes, I found this amusing as well. Soon you end up on "Halo", a giant ring-like planet. You walk around for a while, checking out the cool jungle world and terrain, etc. As for the plot, well, I don't want go give away any spoilers, so I'll leave that to you to figure out.

Perhaps one of the biggest parts of any game are the graphics. Ahh..the graphics. I knew that Halo was known for its stunning visuals and eye-gawking spectaculars. I suppose that I was a little let down on this part of the game. Now don't get me wrong, Halo is a nice looking game,very smooth and rounded. However, for a PC game, the graphics were merely up to par, perhaps slightly over. Now before you stop reading this because you think I'm a douche bag for saying such evil things, hear me out. When reviewing a game that originated on a console and went to a PC, you have to imagine seeing the same things on your computer screen as you would on your TV as if you owned the console, (which, I don't). In other words, I'm sure that if you took the same game and put it on an X-Box, the graphics would be great. But as for the PC world, they were "pretty good, I guess." Things like sun reflection, terrain detail, charac
ter cinematic, weapon elements, etc, were all taken into account. Let's just get one thing out of the way: the guns, just plane cool. Downright badass at times. I mean, what isn't to like about skyrocketing an alien with your hefty rocket launcher...eh? EH?! Yeah, that's what I thought. One aspect of the game which I thoroughly enjoyed was that the engine used for the graphics allowed there to be thousands of things in motion at once. You will find yourself battling hundreds of aliens at the same time. Very cool.

Can you hear me now....Good! On to the sound department. Let's get another thing out of the way: the soundtrack for this game just kicks. The opening theme song just puts me in that mood that says: "I want to kill something. Now." And killing things you will be, but I'll get to that later. They really went overboard in the sound division. Explosions...gun fire...aliens screaming..ahhh the essence. Each thing in the game has a distinct sound, and the PC version has a 5.1 Dolby surround option available. There's nothing like playing a game where explosions shake your floor.

What's that? You want gameplay? I'm sure you do. This, unfortunately, was the only part of the game that I had a few tweaks in. When you begin, you are surrounded by your own army units, vehicles, etc, which is very cool, don't get me wrong. You'll find yourself driving numerous things...and flying. However, I found that the 'exploration' part of the game was lacking, as where there is usually an obvious path to where you should go, which I thought took down on the "go wherever" feel to the game. Don't get me wrong, Halo is definitely a massive coagulation of..well..a lot of stuff. I will say one thing, I found the outside levels to be much more "free for all" than the inside, which were closed in at times. And this goes both ways as well. For instance, on many of the levels in which you
are inside, you will find yourself wondering around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go, feeling almost overwhelmed at times. However, once you figure it out, it is generally a clear shot to your destination. Throughout your roaming you will be shooting things. Lots of things. Later in the game, you will be flying solo, blasting aliens by yourself. Now here is where my biggest grievance comes in. Shooting aliens is cool and all, but after you have killed your 11,342,164,811,025,395th alien, things start to get a little old...ya' hear me? By this I mean the following: from about mid-way to the end, you will be killing things pretty much nonstop throughout the entire rest of the game. I found this to turn the game into more of a mindless shooter, like Soldier of Fortune or Goldeneye, than to be challenging and more tactic-based. They just keep coming in swarms, non stop, until you JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. *breaths heavily* Things especially get worse at the level called The Flood, which was more annoying than fun. I really wish that they had cut down on the alien blasting and emphasized more on the exploration/adventure type, perhaps like Metroid Prime or Zelda. I realize that Zelda sounds fairly wimpy compared to Halo, which it is, but the truth of the matter is that it took me roughly 3 or 4 hours to complete Halo, and God knows how long for Zelda. Even Metroid Prime required a good 20 hours for completion. I guess what I am saying is that the battle scenarios and fighting scenes are spectacular, but after you've done it for 4 hours straight...you get the point. It's sort of like watching the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan 12 times in a row.

Perhaps it is because I am playing the PC version of the game that puts it down slightly. I can easily see where it would make a great console title. I wish that when transferring the game they didn't leave out the aspects that made it so great on the X-Box. The sound is
grea
t, graphics pretty good, plot was great, and the gameplay was fun, but used a few minor adjustments. If you don't own an X Box, I would easily recommend Halo, because it was a great play. However, if you do own an X Box, skip the PC and just go for it. You know how it goes....say Halo to my little friend!!
~Shibby

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