So after months of having an Xbox 360, I thought it was finally time to experience the groundbreaking franchise on the platform. I had played Halo years ago on the PC (mostly multiplayer mode), but never on the Xbox, mainly since I didn't have one, and the thought of playing an FPS back then without a mouse and keyboard was unnatural to me. Recently, that changed when I played the Bioshock demo and suddenly had the urge to play some console FPS'. I figured what a better place to start than with Halo: Combat Evolved, since it was a highly praised console FPS and it was downloadable via XBLM.
I was a little disappointed that it came up in 4:3 display instead of covering up the entire screen when I loaded it up, but I soon forgot all about it as I started to get sucked into the game. I chose normal difficulty, thinking I could handle a little challenge. As I played, I began to realize what all the fuss was about. For a game thats almost 7 years old, it has some pretty nice graphics; the aiming system is spot-on as well, and it has a pretty good soundtrack.
Sci-Fi isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I enjoyed the story. Difficulty-wise, the Normal difficulty seemed about right. It wasn't too hard or too easy. That is, of course, until I ran into these little bastards called The Flood.
My first encounter with The Flood kinda creeped me out. These hideous abominations of God coming up and whackin on me, taking away nearly half of my shield; and those ever-so-annoying, headcrab-like things crawling all around the room made them a fucking CHORE to kill. Since most of these things creep up on you and and hit you rather than shoot at you, it put a big dent in my ammo and health. At some point in the game, I thought I was going crazy because I could've sworn these things seem to spawn out of thin air, and they never seem to truly die, which makes it a fucking CHORE to get through some stages.
There is a major spoiler ahead, so if you haven't beaten the game yet, stop reading or skip the next paragraph.
After the Flood started appearing, there were some areas where I would just 'nade my way through the masses, hoping to reach a checkpoint or a health pack. There came a point in time where I had to rescue the captain from the Covenant's ship, only to find out he's been infected by the Flood. 30 minutes later, I said 'Screw this" and turned it off, because it is damn near impossible to get past the flood AND the new black covenant troops. Mind you I'm only playing through normal difficulty, God only knows how hard these assholes are on Legendary.
I figure "y'know what, I've played through a decent portion of the game and have seen what it has to offer". I'm not in any way bashing the game; It's a solid FPS that pulls off alot of gameplay innovations well. I think that if the Flood's annoyingness (thats right, i said it) was turned down a notch, I might've played the game through entirely. I've heard they're not so much of an annoyance in Halo 3 as they are in Halo 1, so thats good news.
In the end, I enjoyed what I played of Halo: Combat Evolved. I'll definately pick up Halo 2 and Halo 3, hopefully the Flood will be much less of an annoyance.
UPDATE: Well I finally beat Halo. Its an excellent game for its time, the only real gripe is that the driving controls are extremely wonky, and it makes it extremely evident during the final scene of the game. I surprisingly escaped by the skin of my teeth.
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