MobyRank MobyScore
Windows
83
3.4
Xbox
95
3.8
Xbox 360
...
3.0

Description

Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter with considerable driving elements and the first game in the popular Halo series.

Humanity is the midst of a long war against an alien alliance called the Covenant who have been wiping out colony after colony. You hero is Master Chief, who is given no name beyond his rank in the game itself. He is stationed on the Pillar of Autumn, a ship which, per protocol make a jump in a random direction to retreat to avoid revealing the location of Earth. They find themselves at the titular Halo, a planet-sized ring of mysterious origin and function with the Covenant on their heels. Master Chief must repel the Covenant assault and discover the secrets of Halo with the assistance of the female AI Cortana who lives in his suit and gives missions.

Features include friendly NPCs who fight alongside the Chief, squad-based AI where enemies groups work together to flank you under the direction of a leader unit and can be demoralized by his death. They also use cover, set ambushes, etc.

Only two weapons may be carried at a time: one active and one on back-up. There are five human weapons and three Covenant with distinct art styles for the two groups. Human weapons look basically like real guns and fire projectiles. Covenant are sleek and purple and fire energy. For the most part, weapons are not just left around the environment and must be procured from fallen enemies though there are supply points.

Your life is armor and health as in most games of the genre, however, rather than armor being an item than is picked up, it is a force field which quickly recharges itself after several seconds without taking damage, which emphasizes finding cover.

One of most significant features is vehicles. You can drive a variety of vehicles in both single player and multiplayer, some of which have additional seats for passengers or gunners which can be used by AI characters. Vehicles also come in distinct human and Covenant varieties with their design philosophies. Human vehicles roll around the ground on wheels and covenant vehicles hover or fly.

Halo also has a significant multiplayer component with basic deathmatch (called slayer here), capture the flag with the unusual addition that the flag takes your weapon spot while you are holding it, so shooting your way in and out of the base on your own is not an option, territories, and some options unique to the game, such as oddball, where you must hold onto a skull for the longest time, race where you score points by getting to checkpoints and juggernaut, where one super-powered player must get points by killing the others and the other players try to kill him to steal his powers. There is also a game editor which allows you to set custom rules for all the basic game types. All the playable weapons and vehicles from the campaign mode are available in the multiplayer maps with the ability for members of the same team to share the game's distinctive Warthog vehicle, which is essentially a small truck with a mounted gun on the back.

Alternate Titles

  • "最後一戰" -- Chinese Title (Tradition)
  • "光晕:战斗进化" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
  • "Halo: Kampf um die Zukunft" -- German Title
  • "Guangyun: Zui Hou Yizhan" -- Chinese Title

Part of the Following Groups


Merchant Title Platform Price  
ebay.com
Halo: Combat Evolved    
amazon.com
Halo: Combat Evolved Windows $19.99  
Halo 2 Xbox $27.99  
Halo 2 Windows $44.99  
Xbox Live Headset Halo 2 Edition Xbox $9.05  
Microsoft Xbox - Game Console (Special Edition HALO Version) Xbox $113.98  
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User Reviews

A fantastic 'smart' first person shooter-- miles ahead of everything before it. Windows ShadowShrike (313)
Solid gameplay engine, MILES AND MILES OF CLONED CORRIDORS Xbox Vance (97)
Hey look, it's Marathon 4! Windows Maury Markowitz (203)
To date, my all-time favourite game. Xbox Jeff Sinasac (318)
The only game i've played that is this superb. Xbox bob harrison (4)
Not The Best FPS, But Hardly The Worst Xbox MasterMegid (704)
A good (NOT great) game that is overhyped to the extreme Xbox *Legion* (141)
An important step in the evolution of console gaming... Xbox Kartanym Bronze Star Contributing Member (9975)
WOW! What a wonderful ride! Windows The Gay Elf (13)
Same old levels, same old guns, same old enemies, then..back again. Xbox Gareth Day (9)

The Press Says

Game industry News (GiN) Xbox 2002 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars 100
Mac Gamer Macintosh Dec 17, 2003 99 out of 100 99
Game Over Online Xbox Dec 03, 2001 97 out of 100 97
IGN Xbox Nov 09, 2001 9.7 out of 10 97
Jolt (UK) Windows Oct 13, 2003 93 out of 100 93
Xboxdynasty (XD) Xbox Apr 05, 2005 9 out of 10 90
ActionTrip Windows Sep 29, 2003 87 out of 100 87
Jeuxvideo.com Xbox Mar 08, 2002 17 out of 20 85
IGN Windows Sep 27, 2003 8.2 out of 10 82
All Game Guide Xbox 2001 4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars 80

Forums

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Trivia

The storyboards for the FMVs were drawn by the same artist who did the storyboards for The Fifth Element.


This entry was contributed by Kartanym Bronze Star Contributing Member (9975), kawaii (16), Kabushi (39145) and JPaterson Bronze Star Contributing Member (9180)
 

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