Halo Revisited

by Tiberius Jonez

In November of 2001, Microsoft released the original Xbox, and the game touted as the console's "killer app" at launch was Halo. Halo was a trend-setting game in many respects, such as the auto-recharging shield, which has been adopted by virtually every major shooter since, in the form of auto-regenerating health systems like those used in Gears of War and Call of Duty. It was also the first major game to limit you to carrying two weapons at a time. Another first was the Warthog, Master Chief's favorite armored 4X4. Halo was the first game I can remember to present driving in a shooter in an accesible, fun and satisfying way.

At the time of its release, the Xbox was far superior, technically, to the Playstation 2, and Halo showed us exactly what the new-kid-on-the-block console could do; and the results were stunning; no game had ever looked this good. The first time you emerged from the drop ship and stepped into Halo's ring world is a moment permanently etched in the minds of many gamers. The Xbox was the first console to include a hard-drive, and as such, programmers were able to stream information from the hard-drive, lightening a considerable load for the processor and RAM. The ability to stream from the hard-drive allowed Halo to become the first single-player game to offer an entire game world free of loading screens, so there was nothing to pull you out of the experience; an absolute technical marvel at the time.

While Halo was a trend-setter, it was also just plain fun. It was the first console game to spawn a serious LAN party following; something previously reserved for blockbuster PC titles. In fact, before Xbox Live was even born, loyal players had already figured out a way to play Halo online using their PC's and "tunnel" software. I admit, I used the Xbox Tunnel software to play Halo online with my brother. Even though it was a less than smooth online experience, when it worked it was great fun, and it gave us a taste of things to come.

Sure, it took PC veterans a while to adjust to using a controller in a shooter...but Halo proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a console shooter with a gamepad control scheme could work, and work well. Seven years later, I now prefer an Xbox 360 controller over a mouse and keyboard anyday.

I recently installed Halo on my PC to see what I thought of the game today, and somewhat to my surprise - it holds up amazingly well, even by today's graphical standards. The animations are excellent, the textures, while not high-res by today's standards, are bright and crisp, and the environmental effects like flying dirt, smoke and muzzle flashes still look very nice.

What made Halo the complete package was its story. Bungie crafted a legitimate sci-fi masterpiece that told an imaginative and well-written story using strong dialogue and the occasional plot twist. It didn't hurt that the game's voice-acting was universally strong...for once voice acting didn't make you cringe - quite the opposite - even today, Halo's voice work sucks you in and keeps you there for the duration.

Some may say the end portion of the game is cheap by virtue of the fact that you essentially play the game's levels in reverse. But in reality, it sticks with the story - you have to go in deep to complete your objective, and you have to get your ass back out of there in one piece to escape.

Another area in which Halo excelled was enemy A.I.. Few games today can match the cunning and unpredictablilty of Master Chief's many foes.

Aside from the weak story, many Xbox fans consider Halo 2 to be the better game, but not me. Sure, Halo 2 had it all over the original in terms of online play, with its fantastic matchmaking and bazillion game types. But the original Halo set the stage for that game and Halo 3 as well as virtually every other online shooter released since on any platform, both in terms of gameplay and presentation.

More than seven years after its original release, I enjoyed Halo as much today as I did then, and in some ways I enjoyed it more now, mainly due to the new respect and admiration gained with the perspective of time. If you've been living under a rock since November, 2001 and have somehow never played Halo, please, do yourself a favor and play it now. I guarantee you will have some fun, whether you play it on the Xbox, Xbox 360 or the PC.