Volume 12

Draco here and it's time for another review. Todays topic, Halo.

Personally when i first played the demo of halo i didn't really like it. But now I've beaten the whole game. how did it stand up? read on to find out.

Smooth and crisp the graphics were frankly top notch. with surprising draw distance and nearly no popup it's clear to me that this game was made to show off what the X-box could do. All the cinemas in the game are done with the in game 3d models so don't expect anything to flashy.

Control with the game could be better. however once you get used to the controls they work surprisingly well for the game. Driving a vehicle can be rather difficult but thats usually because you want to correct a slide forgetting that the game will do that for you. This usually makes it so that half the time your in the vehicle and the other half of the time your flipping it back over so you can run more aliens down. Really more the players fault than any fault of the game. In fact the biggest trouble i had was with the controler itself as I kept hitting the black and white buttons when i didn't mean to.

The sound was good. the music was good. But it needs to be because this is one of those games best played loud. Subtle sounds sometimes missed when the game is played low, along with a good memory, is what will keep you alive in this game. not that thats really a problem as you automatically have infinate lives but staying alive will save you a lot in extra walking. Anyway the sound effects of the game are also well done with booming explosions and bone chrunching cracks when you beat someone over the head with the butt of your gun. It's no Medal of Honor: Frontlines though so turning up the sound all the way with nothing else in the background won't give you the feeling of being there....but oh i wish it did.

Story? where did this come from? Whats FPS actually has a story worth mentioning? the answer....All the good ones. Golden Eye, Perfect Dark. Both had great stories but unlike These games Halo actually very smoothly mixes in story while you are actually playing. This is done by actually having the Starships AI with you at all times. The story is simple. Earth has made first contact with a group of aliens called the covenant. We tried to make peace but they declaired us unholy and went off on some Crusade to get rid of us. naturally we fight back. On land we kick some ass. In space....well.....we get our asses handed to us. So during one such space battle your ship, which you are in cryo-stasis on, makes a blind light speed jump to get away. Once they come out they find Halo, which is, as one character put it,"Gods own anti-Son-of- a-Bitch Machine or a giant hola hoop". In truth halo is a ring built to mimic a planet in every way. It has atmosphere and water and a dark little secret...all on the inside part of the ring. Well. you get woken up. the ship gets boarded. you make a mad unarmed dash to the bridge. get the AI....then get the hell out of there. And thats just the begining. Entertaining no? well..Luckliy the plot points are usually spaced out pretty well with plenty of baddie blasting, and a few more mad dashes. Luckily...your only unarmed for the first one.

Hell yes! Finally a first person shooter that incorperates Strategy into the mix. as you can only have two weapons at any given time Strategy now playes an important part in the multiplayer of the game. And a great miltiplayer it is. Capable of playing with up to four people in large levels, Halo successfully allows for an interesting play evperience with no bots what so ever. Unfortunately all the players are the same person only a different color. personally i would have liked to play as a Covenant but thats just me.

Players: 1-4
Genre: FPS

Halo to me is a great game. Unfortunately, while the game is hard to put down the first time through it lack replay value after you beat it the first time and the levels are so long that even thoug you can pick any mission to play after you've beaten it once, it can take you quite a while to get to the part you most enjoyed. Multiplayer has the minor disadvantage of being easy to learn. Especially when the person that owns the game is a master with a sniper rifle and knows the best spot to sit to use it. However as i see it the strikes against the game aren't so much in the game itself but in the console, namely the controler and less than emersive sound. Come on X-Box...you can't let the PS2 be better than you. It's the least powerful system on the market!

Draco give Halo an 8 out of Ten and looks steadily towards the future..and Halo 2

Draco's Game Reviews © Ben C. Broome 2002+