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Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox Videos >>
Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox
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Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox
372 reviews   4.64 of 5

Product Description

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Summary

Since its release, HALO has ganered unprecedented attention from gamers everywhere. Quite frankly, Im not sure why. HALO is without a doubt, one of the most over-hyped games that has ever been released. Sure, HALO is an excellent game, and a wlecome addition to any XBOX library. But it is nothing more than an above-average FPS. IS HALO the greatest game of all time? No. Is it one of the top 3 games of all time? Not in my opinion. Is it an enjoyable offering, and an additive multi-player game? It certainly is. Im not saying it isnt a great game. It just didn't live up to the hype in my opinion. I am not an avid fan of FPSs, but I certainly enjoy them. Though HALO was the best FPS I have ever played, it doesn't deserve the accolades that it is receiving. It is not worth forking over $250 for an XBOX just to play HALO. If you have an XBOX, you need this game, but if you don't, don't go out and buy one, because your money could be better spent. Multiplayer and music carry this game, because without them, this is just a repetitive alien-busting save-the-world killfest. If thats all you are looking for, then HALO awaits.

Sound

Where this game really shines. Easily the best score avideogame has ever had. Hands down. It creates an incredible mood, and really brings you into the HALO universe. The final level's music makes it seem like a movie, and the music is worth listening to without the game. I can't put it into words. Ironically enough, the part of the game most people overlook is the only part of HALO that is above and beyond the average video game. Great job to all the musicians.

BOTTOM LINE: A good game, and worth every penny. Not the greatest game of all time, as without multiplayer, its just another shooter.

Gameplay

Co-operative is the only way to play this game. So much of the combat experience comes from interacting with a partner while in the game. So much is lost when you are playing alone. Without a partner, it becomes a pretty generic FPS. A mindless alien-killing shooter, the initial fun value wears off after about the second time through the game. Very little replay value, because the levels are extrmely repetitive. Extremely compelling story makes you want to play on, although once you experience all the twists and turnss and beat it once or twice, the ambiance around the game fades, and you really lose the drive to play. Vehicles are a nice touch, but the thing that keeps this game alive is the multiplayer. Easily the best I have ever had the privelage of playing. In one word: addictive.
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Summary

Regardless of your history with FPS you will enjoy this game. Game play is great, graphics are out of this world(literally), and the sound effects are good. I would rate this game between 4.5 and 5. There are some minor things that could be done to improve the game as there always are(nothing is ever perfect), but there is nothing that will prevent you from enjoying this game beyond measure.

I think that the best part about this game is the AI. It changes drastically depending on your difficulty setting. Easy settings the AI tends to be fairly stupid and easy targets, but as you move up the difficulty settings they get more intelligent. Like in legendary they will dive out of the way when you throw grenades at them, or the smaller enemies will call over there bigger(stronger) counterparts when they see you coming. I also like that if you use the plasma(sticky) grenads on the more difficult settings that instead of running away from you the enemy will run towards you so you will do damage to yourself if you are not careful. I think this is set so well that someone of any skill level can play and really enjoy the game. You can use the easy difficulty levels to build up some of your skills then try legendary when you feel you are up to it. Only part that I saw that I felt the missed is that if you drop a grenade on legendary setting next to a guy near a cliff he will jump off of the cliff to avoid the grenade, minor oversight but also somewhat amusing to watch.

I also think it is a great addition to have more specialized characters like the hunters that are so heavily armored that they have to be hit in specific spots. I also like that you can shoot him in the head to knock it back enough so that you can take your next shot in his vulnerable throat for the kill. Or how about those nasty sword weilding aliens that can tear up any number of allies if you let him get too close. And just to make you work with a little more tact they threw in some invisible guys that you must be on the watch for, and they love to throw those in the same area as other groups of enemies.

I think that the 2 weapon limit is a great addition to this game. I am so tired of shuffling through 50 different weapons on all of the other shooters. I think that this minor touch also adds another element to the tactics used in the game and helps to increase the difficulty of the game. There is a decent variet of weapons to choose from but you are limited to only 2 at any one time to carry with you. You can select weapons from the classic sniper rifle to a pistol to a rocket launcher, enough variety to please anyone regardless of their fighting style(blowing things up, sniping, or just laying down cover fire).

I think the vehicles were a great addition. They weren't overpowering and were fairly easy to control and handled with fairly realistic physics.

Story line is about average to slightly above average. Same basic alien story line as all the others with a few minor twists, but who plays shooter games for the story line anyway.

Overall if you haven't played the game yet it is worth purchasing the xbox for this game alone. At the very least borrow or rent it.

Sound

You will be too involved in the game to notice the sound much, but it has good sound, tends to be fairly realistic sounds and I love the comments that are made between the aliens(have to listen closely too them).

Gameplay

Overall gameplay is great, good single player and even better multi player modes.

I think the interaction with both allies and enemies is great. I like that your allies will fight with you independant of any commands from you. I like that you can get faster kills if you get head shots. I like that the AI can be very intelligent and they will use shields or hide behind buildings, boulders, etc...

I think that the comments made by the AI are very amusing at the least. If you listen closely when you throw a grenade into a group or if you stick a grenade to one of the smaller guys the comments made are hilarious.

I think the variety in character types and tactics make the game enjoyable for everyone. You start with the more intelligent covenant, fewer but much more difficult to kill. Then you transition to the flood with almost overwhelming odds(legendary) for those who just like to shoot eveything as fast as they can and blow stuff up.
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Summary

This game is a great game but is not the best FPS ever. It has great graphics and good music and even better gameplay but there a few flaws that kepp this from being Amazing. First off the story is really hard to follow at times and its not that im a stupid person its just that some of the characters talk to fast. For example there is this monitor thing that floats around you in certain levels. He has the same voice as a C-3PO who needs to take a large amount of ridilin. And Cortona, one of the other charcters, sometimes starts freakin out and talking so fast you want to tell her to shut up and slow down but you cant, she just keeps talking faster and faster. I had to play the game a second time threw just to understand the story. Overall however this is a very good game and I would recommend it to any x-box owner. Maybe you will follow the storyline alot better than me.
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Sound

GREAT

Gameplay

Ok, Halo can be described in three words... Greatest Game EVER. The gameplay is awesome. Let's start out with the basic campaign. This is just too cool. You are a US marine known as the master chief who basically kicks everybody's ass. The levels are very intricate and long. This is good. You can save as you go when you hit certain checkpoints which is also good seeing how some levels can take days to beat.
Another sweet part of the campaign portion is the ablility to play cooperative. This means if you are having trouble with a level, you can call up one of your buddies to help you beat it. My friend and I beat the game together in one day (a whole 24 hours). The only downside to cooperative gameplay is the inability to save.
The greatest part of this game is multiplayer. No other game can compare, not unreal or bond. Yeah it's fun playing with one of your buddies a couple of times, but it can get a little boring on the enormous levels such as blood gulch and sidewinder. This is where the system link comes into the picture. This game has the ability to link with 3 other XBOXs. This means that a total of 16 players can play. This is totally awesome. Me and about all of my friends get together every weekend to link and play. We do not sleep at all. The game is so addicting and the only way to find out is to play it. This is the ultimate game.

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Sound

Sound is the best I've heard. From enemy's reacting verbally to grenade's being tossed, to the hilarious soilders, this game beats it all!

Gameplay

Despite repetitive gameplay level design, the gameplay will have you overlook that in no time. The balance in the single player missions is a big factor in keeping this game fun. I'm not claustrophobic, but after a while, killing off those not too friendly covenant aliens inside of buildings get's a little boring. But, bungie, in their wisdom, gave great balance to inside and outside levels. Nothing like flying that banshie! Hopefully, in halo 2, banshie's will be available in multiplayer.
Speaking of multiplayer, this is the cream of the crop. I can't tell you how much fun this is. Bond can't even compare!
The only other thing I can think of that might be detrementale to halo, is the drop in framerate when alot of action is going on (i.e. 4 player split screen). Because Bungie used every ounce of power from the xbox, this doesn't allow for perfect gameplay, but then again, what is? Besides, you WILL get over it!
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Sound

You know i never really noticed the sound at all, which is probably saying something. I was too emersed in the gameplay.

Gameplay

Gameplay is AWESOME. Playing on the hardest level with my neighbor was legendary and it is abosloutly awesome on single player. Anyway the enemies use strategies, the human soldiers work with you with no help needed from you (although they die a little easy) but when your driving a scorpoin or warthog and they are on the sides shooting the enemy up, it is legendary. The best and funnest vechal would have to be the banshee, you swoop in and kill a few covenant soldiers and fly away only taking a few hits.
The stages are also cool, they are HUGE and take at least an hour to get through one(on legendary setting) the enemies are numerous so you never get nothing to shoot at.
And i personaly like the whole two weapon thing, it stops the player from getting too much power.
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Sound

The music is not really music of now. It is more cultural and religous, but this makes the game better. Because it sounds cultural and religous it exsemplifies the story plot. Because it is a religous war against the Humans like the crusades, it has music that sounds churchy. And during action, the fast paced songs give you the sense of urgency. And when the situation looks bleak, and the story takes and turn for the worst, the sounds show it. And the gun sounds sound very real. Even when the spent cartiges fall, it sounds like the real thing. And environment sounds like the wind are very good. Sound is one of the best things about this game.

Gameplay

The game is like any FPS except for a few aspects. One is that the AI is very good on the levels. It follows difficulty very well. This AI does not just stand there and let you shot it like in James Bond or something. No, it runs behind cover allowing itself to recuporate or it strafes. It even calls for help and alerts the others. Two is that the levels use the 3-D environment and the shotting is not left up to the ground. There are some vehicles that allow one to fly or to drive on the ground. This gives the sense of being a super solider. The terrain is different like a planet should be. There are bumps and hills and ice and canyons. This does not resemble the very flat and boring levels of other FPS. This all works good together. And Three, the story behind it is pretty good that is not stupid like other things. And if one gets into it, one can feel with the Earthlings. Even though it is the future, you can only hold two weapons, but this is to add difficulty. Even though it is the future, this is very resemble. This game is very good because it is like other shotters, but has more intelligence behind it.
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Summary

If you have noticed, the reason I wrote $400 for price is because I bought it as part of the Halo Combat Pack - which consists of Halo, an XBOX, A DVD Playback kit and a free DVD of my choice. Also I bought it in Australia so it is in AU$.

Halo was so awesome while i played it. It lasted about three months for me, until I had finished every level on every difficulty. Thats how great it was. However I am different to other gamers. I have only played multiplayer 3 times with my friends. I never got into it. I wanted to with my brother, but he hates halo. I still wantto learn but nobody wants to. So... This is just singleplayer I am reviewing.

Now, I loved it for ages. But the funny thing is, as soon as I finished every level 4 times, I have never played it again. Fair enough i guess, Any game would be tiresome after that. But it just so suddenly stopped being fun. If it had another difficulty setting though, I would play through it again!

Anyway. This is a summary, so; Halo has such good controls, they are just so natural and comfortable. Another funny thing. I started playing halo on normal controls. A few months later i was talking to some friends at school and they both said they used inverted controls. And just saying that i transfered the controls to inverted. After that I couldn't go back. Then just after I finished the whole game (every level, every setting of difficulty) I went back to normal and inverted feels weird again. I think it is because of other games you play. Since Halo I have bought Splinter Cell, Rocky and 2 days ago finally got round to buying Rallisport challenge. Plus I have 8 issues of the Official Australian XBOX magazine with over 50 Demos total!

Anyway back to Halo. The graphics are so realistic and cool looking. The sound was good too, but like some other gamers only have a crappy mono speaker built in so i dont worry about sound too much. Replay value: I played this for 3 months before i got sick of it. Then, unlike me you can get into the multiplayer side of it which can last a lifetime! The levels are so massive, they can last hours and hours. You walk out on a bridge, go to the next section and keep playing. 2 hours later you come outside, look up and see where you were standing before! It is a really good game.

So as you can see, every aspect of Halo is brilliant!
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Summary

I'll make this short and sweet. I never paid much attention to all the praise Halo has been given, but of course it's one of Xbox's best games so when I decided I had to have a Box I had to get a copy of the game. Even though I wouldn't call me a big FPS fan. Last one I played was Red Faction, last one before that was probably Goldeneye on the N64 for a couple hours at a friends house. Point is, I'm not a big FPS gamer so I didn't expect myself to really like Halo. And for about the first two hours I wasn't having the greatest time because I was struggling with the controls and I just wasn't into the game. After the two hours I was going to give up and come back the next day, but the thing is is the game kept drawing me in. And in my head I just kept thinking well I passed this part let's do the next. Another two hours later I turned it off, not because I wanted to but because otherwise I would of played all night. I've only played through the first four levels, but with the exception of the first level the others are incredible amounts of fun. I won't go into everything because there are already 300 reviews on this game, but I'll say this game definitely earned it's Game of the Year Award.

Sound

Very nice. You can tell a lot of work went into the sounds to make them as realistic as possible. Gun shot sounds are different depending on your environment, the little Covenent bad guys and marines talk, you only hear music toward the end of a level but it serves it purpose.

Gameplay

Best thing about it is that you can barely distinguish where a level ends and where the next one begins. Well I shouldn't say that there is a loading screen between levels, but each level is broken up into sub-levels. The only way you can tell the start of a sub-level is the name of it appears in the lower right hand corner of the screen, other wise the whole level in continuous. No pause in the action at all and I think this is one of the things that makes it so addicting. Whole levels are huge, it can take you anywhere from 15 minutes (really flying) to 45 minutes (more my speed) just to get through one level. The gameplay is great though. Fast in parts, but some slow down was definitely noticable (not enough to negatively effect gameplay though). Enemy AI is pretty good, as well as the marines that work with you in missions. I was impressed.
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Sound

Almost as astounding as the graphics Halo's sound is crystal clear especially on a surround sound system.Covenant sound varies from helium like whales of the grunts to the deep shrill of Elites it's great fun just to listen to what they say(and it almost never repeats).The soundtrack to Halo is possibly one of the best I've ever heard.Think gothic monks singing with a mix of techno and rock.In summary Halo is a fantastic FPS and an absolute must buy,however it could of been better definetly not a succesor to Half-Life.

Gameplay

The combat in Halo is the most intense I have ever been in.Enemies flank you,marines support you with out any direction,Covenant run in fear of you.It's fantastic,the sheer amount of action going on around you.Unfortunatley there is a major downside to Halo-levels.From the opening scene to the final encounter Halo goes downhill.I'm sad to say the levels after the third are repetetive.This is mostly due to the developers that rushed the game,a big mistake because if Halo had just had a little more time it would of made a world of difference.But don't get me wrong it's not as bad as I say it is,the longer you play the more you notice...
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Sound

The sound is really good.It didn't win best reason to get surround sound for nothing.It has realistic explosions and gunfire.The voice acting is very good too.5 out of 5 sound.

Gameplay

The gameplay is great.Halo has great controls and you dont just walk around holding down the fire button.Lots of good games have the same or similiar controls.It has a good selection of weapons and vehicles and when you are driving it is easy to control.I love how you can hop on to the side of the tank and I have fun dogfighting with covenent air vehicles.There is a big variety of enemies and they aren't just all based on the same thing.There are lots of levels and it is a long game but it is not impossible like some games.All the levels are in different places and have different climates.The gameplay is overall very good.
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