Halo: Combat Evolved Review
Even nineteen years later, Halo: Combat Evolved remains the most impressive FPS I’ve ever played. Sure, there have been shooters since it’s release that have had superior level design, better shooting mechanics, or more impressive scores, but I contend none of them would have existed (or at least, not in the same way) had they not stood on the shoulders of Halo.
The story - at least the portion of it communicated in the game - is pretty barebones. You, the Master Chief, wake up out of cryo on the spaceship ‘The Pillar of Autumn.’ You’ve just arrived at a strange artificial ringworld, and are under attack by the Covenant (a coalition of various alien races). You and a group of space marines exit the ship in escape pods, and the captain crashlands the ship on the titular Halo. Story ensues as you explore Halo and fight aliens.
This second chapter of the game, aptly named ‘Arriving on Halo,’ blew me away the first time I played the game, and while it’s efficacy has dwindled slightly in the intervening years (and increasingly non-linear FPS campaigns), still does a wonderful job of drawing you in. You explore the rolling hills of the level first on foot, and then in a Warthog (a big old jeep with a gun on it). There’s just something so enthralling about exploring this alien world for the first time. You don’t really know anything about where the story is going, you’ve only seen a couple of enemy types, only found a few different weapons. You feel like anything could happen, like anything could be around the next corner or over the next hill. The game does end up being more corridor than wide-open zone, but there’s a good balance of each style of level design.
Even though each subsequent Halo has had better gunplay than this, I was pleasantly surprised that Bungie’s first attempt at a console first person shooter is like, 90% there. Just running around popping caps into bad guys feels SO GOOD in this game. Even just playing the ‘gray box’ version of this game during the development process must have been a blast
Something I think we owe to Halo is the fluidity and versatility of combat in first person shooters. To my knowledge, Halo was the first game (or at least the first popular game) to put both melee AND grenades on their own buttons. No more scrolling through your weapons trying to pull out your crowbar or frag grenades. Come face to face with an alien around a corner? Hit a button to whack him in his dumb alien face. See a bunch of Grunts all gathered together? Hit a different button to chuck a frag grenade that will explode with the force of a TACTICAL NUKE (seriously, the frag grenades in this game deal so much damage and have such a large radius it feels like committing a war crime every time you use one).
Visually, the game is dated. I think it goes for a style that still holds up, but technically… it doesn’t look great. Funnily enough, even the remaster doesn’t look that good, seeing as it’s almost (checks wikipedia) nine years old itself. Regardless, it is certainly an upgrade, and seeing as you can swap back and forth between the two modes at a push of a button, you can easily figure out which style you prefer and stick with it. Or be me, and mash the everloving PANTS off the switch graphics hotkey, trying to see all the differences between the two.
As with the gameplay, graphics, and almost every other part of Halo, the music, while great, is mostly just a starting point of where Marty O’Donnell (Composer) would take the series moving forward. Heroic guitars riffs, mysterious choirs, moody ambient pieces, it all fits whatever situation you find yourself in. I still listen to it out of game on a regular basis.
All of this comes together and gives Halo an indescribable vibe that I have yet to experience in any other series. Sometimes you feel like a total badass, popping headshots and blowing dudes up. Other times you’re given a sense of mystery and intrigue. What’s the aim of the Covenant? Why does the Halo ring exist? Even knowing the answers to all these questions, replaying the game still makes me feel like there’s more to discover, if I just knew the correct places to look and right questions to ask.
And we haven’t even talked about the multiplayer! I can’t even guess how much time I sunk into the demo, playing 8v8 capture the flag on Blood Gulch. Nine year old me wasn’t able to sell my folks on a rated ‘M’ game, so all I had was the Silent Cartographer and Blood Gulch for a long, long time. But that’s okay, because it was great! As are the rest of the maps and game modes.
I spent the last week playing Halo multiplayer, and was glad to find it’s still a blast. I’d recommend the 8v8 big team battle modes, as the more serious 4v4 games tend to restrict what weapons and vehicles you can use to a larger degree. In 2020, the year of the ranked mode, esports, serious business games, there’s something refreshing about just taking it easy on Blood Gulch, doing donuts around the enemy team in a Warthog.
Taken all together, Halo still rocks it in 2020. Any dips in pacing (such as The Library chapter) are easily ignored, as you were probably having a ton of fun immediately before, and will be having a ton of fun immediately after. Multiplayer still rocks and has a healthy user base (at least, at the time of writing this, on the PC Master Chief Collection). If you’ve never played it, go do so now. And if you have, well, you’re probably overdue for a replay.
