Wake Me When You Need Me: Halo: Combat Evolved

The game that changed everything. Halo:CE literally altered the playing field for console FPS. Not only did it run well, play like a dream and look fantastic, it gave us shooters in a space they’d traditionally been average in. We were introduced to non-linear level design on a scale previously unthought of. The universe of Halo was so rich that being dropped into it didn’t feel strange, you felt immediately at home.

I have an embarrassing story about Halo:CE that I am at pains to tell as it is rather ridiculous. When I was about 12/13 I was actually kicked off a Halo demo Xbox at a retail store because I had been playing it for an hour. I didn’t realise it had been that long but the retail attendant sure made me feel like like a jackass for basically just enjoying the game.

This was the sign of things to come for me though. Once I had convinced my step-dad to buy me an Xbox and Halo, I never looked back.

Campaign/Story:

We all know it by now but let’s recap anyway. As Master Chief, you are awoken on the Pillar of Autumn, a ship that has just made a blind slipspace jump from Reach. The Covenant (an amalgamation of different alien species) had attacked Reach and destroyed the entire planet. As you wake up the Covenant are attacking the ship and are about to board it. The first part of the first mission sees you just running through the ship without a gun and witnessing the Covenant boarding.

Once you get a weapon you’re unleashed and clear the ship of any threat. After you have Cortana (the ship’s AI) safely inside your head, you get off the ship and land on a mysterious floating ring world in what could still be one of the greatest levels of all time. ‘Halo’ gives you the task of helping out other marines who have crashed on the planet by visiting isolated areas on a bigger map and helping them hold off their attackers until they can be retrieved by evac.

After this mission you start to unravel what the ring is and why it’s important to the Covenant. This basic premise leads you across differing terrain and levels with fantastic geometry. One of the single best parts of the whole game is the introduction of The Flood: a second enemy with a different agenda, The Flood are one of gaming’s best twists and allow for some fantastic three way battles to rage.

The story eventually follows Chief as he, Cortana and Sgt. Johnson take on both the Flood and the Covenant to stop the use of the Halo in eliminating all life. If you ever needed a goal or an end to work towards, not having all life in the universe end is always a great one. While fairly generic, Combat Evolved managed to actually set a great tone and starting point for one of the great stories in gaming.

Gameplay:

This is where Halo excelled. It gave console players a decent control scheme and felt natural, fluid and easy to play. This is one hell of a feat considering the original Xbox’s controller was a hulking great monster. Essentially FPS had never been done this well and even now it’s not awful, it does feel a bit dated but you can see where a lot of modern day FPS controls came from when playing Halo.  

Shooting felt satisfying and every shot connected with weight and impact like no game before it. The AI was something of a game changer; never before had enemies been so smart as to run for cover when they were flanked or run away when overwhelmed. The grunts always made me laugh when they would run around screaming after their Elite commanders had been dispatched.

The single greatest thing Halo brought though, in my opinion, was vehicle handling. The way that the analogue sticks controlled the acceleration and movement at the same time is a type of genius that I still haven’t seen beaten to this day.

Graphics:

For the time, Halo blew the competition away with its massively lush open world levels. Unfortunately, it’s starting to show its age. With muddy textures and blocky terrain, the game isn’t much of a looker over ten years on. With no movement in the characters apart from their heads slightly moving when they talk, things look a little silly now.

Animations are still surprisingly okay, while nothing next to Halo 2 which was released on the same console, enemies still jump out of the way and move in a semi-realistic way. Unfortunately, there are many janky movements when characters move in and out of their pathfinding. Stopping and starting animations looks a little weird but it’s not something that so bad it’s impossible to play with.

Overall, Halo is not the best looking game in the series, but it’s not so impossibly bad that it affects the way the game plays over ten years on, and that is a triumph in itself.

Best Bits:

Many people will argue over the best bits in this game, but I think the opening two levels are the pinnacle of game design. Starting as a claustrophobic corridor shooter before blowing that away with the open world elements of ‘Halo’ (the level) is just a master stroke of pacing and game design that, to this day, are still to be topped.

Besides those two levels we can never forget the storming of the beach in ‘The Silent Cartographer’, and finally, the last level and the great escape in the warthog at the end; driving across the exploding body of The Pillar of Autumn. Both massively bad-ass moments that are also iconic Halo/gaming moments in their own right.

Mulitplayer:

Now, I didn’t get to play much multiplayer when it came to Halo: CE. Instead I played mostly co-op, and I can say this game is one of the best co-op games I’ve ever had the pleasure of completing… Multiple times… On legendary. This game made me and my friend want to complete the game over and over again on the different difficulties just to see if we could. That’s something that is seldom lacking from shooters, and games in general, today and something I really wish would be more of a priority for developers.

The warthog sections on co-op were a particular favourite of ours. While I became an expert driver (he’d always argue otherwise) my friend became an expert in dealing death with the minigun mounted to the back. We would routinely hold up somewhere where a button required pressing, or something required a more personal touch, and I would get out to complete the task while he stayed in the minigun and covered me. Times like this I do truly miss.

Personal Opinion:

Halo: Combat Evolved is still a fantastic story, while maybe a little dated looking and even feeling, it still holds its own against any modern shooter. While my view of it may have been slightly bent by time and nostalgia, I still remember it fondly as a game that changed my love for video games and shooters in general. And for that I am truly grateful.

Next is Halo 2. Possibly the best sequel of all time. Possibly the best console FPS of all time.