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Platform Filters:   All Platforms  Xbox   GameCube   PlayStation 2   PC   Game Boy Advance   Site Sections:   Updates  News   Games   Publishers   Developers   Reviews   Previews   Release Dates   Editorials   Glossary   Contact Us		Review:       17th April 2002: Halo  Take traditional FPS gameplay, throw in a sci-fi setting, some of the best graphics ever seen, add some amazing detail and set pieces and you'll be getting close to the greatness that is Halo. Posted by Marc Hull - Xbox - UK and Europe It seems as if Halo's been in development for ages, having jumped from Mac to PC to Xbox over the years, and the screenshots and videos released close to its launch looked quite a bit different from those early on in the dev-cycle. However, now that it has finally been released, as a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox, it's good to see that those years of tweaking, adding new ideas and throwing out ones that didn't work have really paid off, producing quite possibly the best first-person shooter yet on any platform. You begin the game on the Pillar of Autumn; a human battleship which has attempted to lure an alien race called The Covenant away from the Earth by jumping to a random sector of space. However, the Covenant have beaten you to your destination, and are now attacking the ship. Your only hope is to land on an unusual ring-shaped artificial world called Halo and attempt to fight the battle from the ground. You play as the Master Chief, a genetically-engineered soldier inside a state-of-the-art battle suit specially designed to fight the Covenant as part of a project called SPARTAN-II; making you the toughest member of the ship's crew. When you first take control you find yourself coming out of cryo-sleep on-board the Pillar of Autumn, and after a brief tutorial on how to operate your suit you're sent to find Captain Keyes to receive your orders. However, the action begins before you even leave the room. As soon as you set about finding the Captain, the Covenant strike, and soon the ship is a mass of explosions and shoot-outs between its crew and the attacking aliens. Without a weapon, you have to carefully pick your way to the bridge where the captain fills you in on the situation. After that - you've got to get off the ship, fighting off any Covenant scum that may stand in your path and trying to save as many of your shipmates as possible. The whole thing is brilliantly executed, with action happening all around you, and the detail is immense. Looking through any of the ship's windows reveals the ring-world, Halo, in the distance, as well as the Covenant battleships and escape pods flying off into space. However, there's little time to stand around and stare at the surroundings, you've got to get on one of those pods before they're all gone! Right from the start of the game, Halo will amaze you with great graphics, nice set-pieces, some excellent artificial intelligence and a story that will have you begging for more. However, it's only once you arrive on the ring-world itself that you can fully appreciate the effort that's gone into the game. The place is like a paradise, with vast landscapes full of grassy plains, long golden beaches, forests and mountains in the background; it really is incredibly impressive. Also, despite each level being huge, loading times are rarely a problem. The game utilises the Xbox's hard disk to copy the required files across at the start of each level, and then streams them off when they're needed. The result is a reasonably large load at the start, but hardly a second's worth of gameplay is sacrificed when moving between areas. As you begin to explore Halo and encounter the ever-present Covenant force you'll start picking up some of the many weapons available in the game. These are divided into two distinct sections; there are the human weapons, that are found around escape pod crash sites or (God forbid) dead marines, and also by killing off the various aliens on Halo you can pick up the Covenant weapons too. While initially you'll start off with tame artillery such as a pistol or an assault rifle, soon you'll move onto the cooler firearms such as the rocket launcher, shot gun or plasma rifle. However, soon decisions need to be made on which weapons you'll keep and which you'll throw away, as the game only allows you to carry two at a time. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages; heavy artillery such as the rocket launcher is only supplied with a few rockets at a time, the sniper rifle is great for picking off prey from a distance but lousy at close-range combat and the alien weapons can shoot through the Covenant's protective shields but are prone to overheating after short periods of intense firing. Of course, all feel great to use, such as using the sniper rifle scope, which has an added blur affect outside the aiming circle, to scout an area before you go in with the assault rifle, and even the pistol is satisfying, with just the right kickback and sound effects to give it that extra hint of realism. Just as you thought you'd seen much of what Halo has to offer, it'll manage to amaze you again. While working through the second level you'll come across the Warthog, a kind of 'buggy' with a machine gun mounted on the back, which can seat three marines. This is when you'll discover that piloting any craft in Halo is quite a bit different to what you may be used to, but it's actually quite simple. You see, all you need to do is point the camera in the direction you want to go, and the game will swing the vehicle round to move in that direction. It may take a little while to get used to, but soon you'll be doing 360-degree donuts on the beaches, or driving down corridors inside military installations, running down aliens as you go. Of course, not a game to do things by halves, Halo doesn't just give you one vehicle to control, but there are many others to find throughout the game, including tanks, hovering craft called Ghosts, and Banshees, which are extra rare to find unattended, that can fly. The sound in Halo is also top-notch. The marines you meet in your travels around the ring-world will talk to you, asking for backup, or complaining when you shoot an alien that they were aiming for. The Covenant also growl and sometimes speak, although this is usually reserved for the Grunts who get scared and start shouting out in panic. The weapons sound like they should do, with even the alien weapons having that certain ring of authenticity to them, even though they're fictional! Musically, the game has a mostly atmospheric, orchestral soundtrack, that changes depending on the situation. This works to great effect as you delve deeper into the game, when at key moments the music will suddenly speed up and become more dramatic. For length, the game also gets the top score. Each level is vast, and split into smaller areas separated by checkpoints, which allow you to return to the start of the area if you get killed, so you don't have to play through the entire level again. The times when you'll come out of an enclosed, underground complex full of narrow corridors to find another, huge expanse of game world ahead of you are innumerable, but because of the great gameplay, the perfect learning curve and the engrossing story, you'll love every minute of it. Even once you've completed the single player game, there are loads of multiplayer modes, including a 2-player co-operative option, 4-player deathmatches and 16-player LAN battles using the system link-up cable. While the deathmatches may not contain quite the same number of customisation options that other games have, there is an impressive range of preset games, and a fair few multiplayer-only arenas to battle on too. The game seems to chug along pretty happily in two-player splitscreen mode, with minimal slowdown or loss of detail, however 4-player can get a bit sticky. The best option, if your mates own Xboxes (if not, why not?) is to invite them round for a system link-up fest, and play four player across four TVs, so each player has an entire screen to themselves. Graphically, as you may have guessed, Halo is pretty much the most pleasing game around at the moment. If the scale of the environments, and the final detail such as being able to see every blade of grass in the terrain texture isn't enough for you, then surely the range of environmental effects and bump-mapping will be. However, possibly the best news for European gamers is that it runs full-screen and full-speed in both 50hz and 60hz modes! Those who were dreading the thought of turning on their brand new £299 console only to see glaring black bars and a jittery frame rate can cast aside their fears - Halo is perfect. Overall, Halo is a perfect cumulation of the best bits from many past first-person shooters, with some great bursts of originality to top it off. It's a superb launch title, which really everyone with an Xbox should own. Oh, and if you haven't got an Xbox, this should make you seriously consider one. The only disappointing aspect is the long wait we can expect before a sequel emerges. Sigh. Marc Hull             Latest Images:		Review Scores:    Graphics:   Sound:   Gameplay:   Length:   Overall: Click here for our Review Score Guidelines.  Review Summary:  Halo combines some of the best graphics ever to grace a first-person shooter with fun gameplay, an engrossing story and a great soundtrack. The sheer scale of the terrain is a sight to behold, and better still you get to tear it apart with some great weaponry! Need we mention the great ally and enemy AI, controllable vehicles including tanks, 2-player co-operative mode or the 16-player LAN option to convince you to buy the game? Thought not.  Related Games:  Halo for Xbox  9  Screenshots  1  Review Click here for All Game Information.
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