Halo: Combat Evolved

Not wasting any time after finishing Shadows of Undrentide, I went straight into playing Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo had been out a while on PC/Mac and even longer on the Xbox. For an older game, I thought it held up remarkably well. At 1680x1050 resolution with all details turned up to max, it looked great. Using a keyboard and mouse is almost always better than playing first-person shooters with a console controller.

Did it live up to its massive reputation? For me, it did. The story was decent and the graphics were still impressive. It was the gameplay elements, however, that made it really enjoyable. At first, I wasn’t convinced that I would like the armor with regenerating shields and a limit of two weapons. After playing it for a while, I was sold. Having the shields definitely changed my tactics. It was nice to feel like you still had a chance to survive, even after suffering major health damage. I thought the two-weapon limit would be a downer. Usually, you play a walking armory in most FPS games. This added a nice challenge in selecting the best weapons for different situations. I have to also credit the squad-based elements and commendable AI that made the single-player campaign more like multiplayer (in a good way). Finally, the inclusion of vehicles was an outstanding addition to the game. In fact, the campaign concluded with a driving level. Master Chief drove a Warthog in a race against the clock as the Pillar of Autumn starship was about to explode.

This was definitely one of the best shooters I’ve ever played. I’ve added it to my All-Time Favorites list.