Let’s destroy the human race
Massive overpopulation has forced many of the citizens of Earth to pull up their roots, and begin to colonize other inhabitable planets, thanks to faster-than-light speed travel, and the support of the United Nations Space Command. An interstellar naval yard was established at the planet Reach. Reach is conveniently close to Earth, and provides a lot of resources for scientific and military activity. About 32 years ago, contact with one of the outer colonies, Harvest, was lost. A battle group was sent out to investigate Harvest, but only one ship returned to Reach. The crew of the ship told a story of a seemingly unstoppable alien warship which had annihilated their forces with little effort.
The group of aliens were known as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in a fanatical devotion to religion. The Covenant elders declared humanity as an affront to the gods, and waged a holy war upon them. After a series of defeats, a protocol was established by UNSC Admiral Preston Cole, which stated no UNSC ship was to lead the Covenant back to Earth. If a ship was under attack it was to avoid Earth-bound vectors. Vessels in danger of capture were to self destruct.
On Reach, a new project started which involved the creation of cyborg super-soldiers. The project was known as the SPARTAN-II. These soldiers were racking up incredible records against the Covenant, but there were too few of them to turn the tide of the war. All active SPARTAN-II soldiers were recalled to Reach for augmentation for a special mission; an attack on a Covenant vessel to learn the location of the Covenant home world. Just two days before the mission was due to begin; Reach was obliterated by Covenant forces. With the Covenant on Earth’s doorstep, the only surviving ship, the Pillar of Autumn, makes a blind jump into hyperspace with the only surviving SPARTAN-II soldier on board, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth.
You control the last SPARTAN-II soldier, named Master Chief, through 10 chapters of non-stop action. During these chapters you’ll use an expansive cache of weapons, as well as being able to take control of a variety of vehicles, and lead squads of human marines around the countryside, as well as experiencing some decent plot development along the way.
Halo features an array of Covenant enemies, including Grunts, Elites and Hunters. Each enemy has brilliant AI, with completely different patterns for each unit type, as well as a variety of strategies based on the situation they are in. For example, when a Grunt fights you, he’ll begin to run away when he realizes he is losing, and hide behind some debris until he summons up the courage to attack again, while an Elite will hide behind cover and take fire at you, and make a suicidal charge when his shield has run out.
There is a large cache of arms for Master Chief to use. These include the normal humanoid weapons such as a pistol, pulse rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, sniper rifle and grenades, but Master Chief can also utilize all (but one) of the enemies weapons as well, such as plasma rifles and sticky plasma grenades. Chief can only carry two weapons and 8 grenades at a time due to his limited cargo space, but this will only add to the strategy that is required by the player throughout the game.
On top of the weapons, there are a number of vehicles that the player can take control of. Human vehicles include the Warthog (jeep) and Scorpion (tank), while the Covenant have Ghosts (almost like a motorbike) and Banshees (planes), as well as a tank that isn’t able to be controlled by a human. From the way the vehicles work, to the intensive amounts of physics calculations going into the way they function, one can see just how much work has been poured into Halo over its long development cycle. Controlling the vehicles may take a little getting used to at first, but once you’ve nailed it, it will be clear to you why Bungie has chosen to have things control they way they do.
Halo features one main single player campaign, as well as a slew of multiplayer options. A two player co-operative mode has been included, which allows you and a friend to play through the entire single player campaign (bar the introductory level). Other multiplayer games allow for up to 16 players at a time (4 players over 4 Xboxes) in many types of game modes, such as death match, team death match, capture the flag, and so on.
The main problem in Halo’s gameplay comes in the form of level design. The later levels seem to have sections which have been cut and pasted several times throughout the level, not to mention that some levels may need to be revisited later in the game. Co-operative mode has a slight annoyance in that you and a friend must play split screen – there is no option to play co-operative over a system link. The other main annoyance I experienced with Halo was the non-functional 60 Hz mode. The 60 Hz mode was not created properly, and it stutters and jumps – in fact 50 Hz is actually far smoother. Bungie have promised to correct the problem for Halo 2, and have apologized for any inconvenience.
Halo is one of the few titles on the Xbox that truly demonstrates the power that the console has under the bonnet. This includes big special effects such as lighting, bump mapping and real time reflections, but there are also a variety of little details that are really pleasing when you see them, such as the sun shining through the gaps in a tree. Environments are expansive, with natural barriers to keep them looking realistic, and also quite varied throughout the game, as you’ll visit beaches, snow-filled wastelands, mountains, and even inside Covenant spaceships. The attention to detail and effort that has gone into designing these environments is astounding.
Character designs and models in Halo have also seen a ton of work. The humans are typical members of our species, with realistic looking skin tones, facial experiences and real-time reflective body armour, as well as amazingly realistic animations. The Covenant are ugly bastards that come in a few different varieties, small, medium, large and invisible. The small guys are the grunts and jackals, the medium and invisible are the Elites and the large guys are the Hunters. Each is animated differently due to their size, and all species look completely different from each other.
There are some slight frame rate troubles within Halo. These usually take place when the action gets very hectic, such as in co-operative play or death match with more than about 6 players. The slowdown doesn’t get to the point where the game is unplayable, but is rather unpleasant and will have an impact on the gameplay.
A brilliant soundtrack has been included in Halo. It’s mainly an orchestral affair, but it pumps up a lot when the action gets started. The main title screen theme will be synonymous with the game for the rest of time. Sound effects are excellent and do much to increase your immersion in the game, and enhance your overall experience. Paired with Dolby Digital 5.1, Halo’s sound is at the top of its game. Halo’s voice acting is good on the whole, with a variety of accents featured by your team-mates, including Australian and British accents. The dialog is interesting and well-written, and the majority of the main actors unleash the dialog with a passion. The only quibble I have is the choice to have the Covenant speak English – I like my aliens to speak in foreign tongues with subtitles – it just makes things more believable.
Halo is 10 chapters of gun-slinging goodness, which is probably equal to about 8-10 hours of your time on the normal difficulty. It’s not a walk through the park by any means – anyone confident in their abilities with first person shooters on consoles should immediately go for the Heroic difficulty. The top difficulty, Legendary, is recommended only for purists and co-operative play, as the odds are stacked firmly against you. In conjunction to the 10 hours of play you get, the repetitive nature and cut-and-paste methods of level design will only help to make the game become dull a little more quickly than it should have.
I am in a slight predicament as to what to score Halo. Sometimes, I almost wished reviews didn’t carry numbers on them, but that wouldn’t really help those who just read them to see what the overall score is. The first half of Halo is easily a 9, as it is an experience filled to the brim with quality. Somewhere after the chapter Attack on the Control Room, Halo starts to slip. Earlier levels of the game are revisited, which doesn’t help with the cut ‘n paste design of some of the levels. Further on, an event happens in the game that almost destroys the enjoyment of the title – mentioning it would be a huge spoiler. The score I have given Halo is still indicative of a great game (heck, buy anything eight or over) and gives us room for scoring when games which are better than Halo are released (Halo 2). If you’re unhappy with the score, feel free to mouth off at me - stonedwal@palgn.com
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