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Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What's so great about Halo?
Review: If you were like me, then you have heard about what a great game Halo is, but you couldn't figure out what was so great about it or what made it so special. It first glance, it looks so ordinary. You look at the box and see that you are fighting a bunch of aliens with laser guns and assault rifles. Sounds like a cliche doesn't it? But what is so great about this game is that it is just really fun to play. It gets all of the little things right. Halo isn't innovative as far as setting and storyline go, but it is a big breakthrough as far as gameplay goes. (Gameplay, remember that?) Even during the mind-numblingly repetitive spots, it still manages to be somewhat fun.

Here are five reasons why Halo is a great game:

1. Weapon balance - every weapon in the game is useful, and none are overpowered. Every weapon has at least one advantage, and one disadvantage. The pistol is accurate at long range, which gives it an advantage over the assault rifle, which is lethal, but only at a short range. The plasma rifle is good for taking down shields, but can't hold much ammo, and the rocket launcher is very powerful, but also slow to reload. You can only carry two weapons, but you will frequently find yourself changing them out for various situations. The fact that all of them are useful gives you all sorts of ways to fight differently.

2. Fantastic AI. The aliens in the game (called "The Covenant") give you some very smart enemies to fight. They will use cover to let their shields regenerate and if you are trying to run them over in a vehicle, they will dive out of the way. They will also use grenades sometimes to flush you out, as well as try to rush you and/or outflank you. Sometimes they will jump onto nearby turrets or vehicles. Not only do the enemies have great AI, but so do your marine teammates. This all makes for some very exciting battles, which never quite play out the same twice.

3. The game actually makes you use your skills and tactics, instead of memorizing where enemies are scripted to ambush you. I love this aspect. There are very few surprises in Halo. Winning battles requires skillful use of cover, smart weapon selection, and good use of grenades too. I am kind of spoiled now, because every other first-person shooter (except for maybe Serious Sam) seems inferior in this area. Most games require you to abuse the "quick save" key in order to get through the game.

4. In Halo, you are always moving forward. The game just flows so fast. This is due in large part to the regenerating shields mechanic, which is being copied by lots of other games. This simple innovation means that you can fight 15 or 20 battles without losing any health, as long as you are smart when you fight them. Thus, you don't have to backtrack all afternoon for a powerup. In addition, the game throws lots of ammo your way, so you don't have to spend much time scavenging for it.

5. Halo has vehicles and turrets seamlessly integrated into the game. There are vehicles scattered throughout the game that you can get into and use to mow down your enemies or fly around and blast them from the sky. When you get into the jeep, marine squadmates will jump in with you and take the gunner positions. The vehicles in this game are so much fun. Sometimes the best way to defeat a group of enemies is to drive around the perimeter and let your gunner blast away at them.

6. Surprise, surprise, grenades are not only useful, but crucial to surviving the game. This is thanks to a separate hotkey just for throwing grenades. You can be firing your assault rifle and throw a quick grenade, and then fire your rifle some more. You don't have to switch weapons to throw grenades, so they become that much more useful. This is another very simple innovation that substantially changes the gameplay.

OK I lied, that was 6 reasons. There are actually more, like the wonderful soundtrack, which makes the game's big battles so memorable. Lots of people dislike Halo's repetitiveness, especially towards the end. The infamous "Library" level gets pretty boring, but this is still really a great game despite being two years old and having some technical problems.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: rocks
Review: this game is SICK even tho it is late. and the first reviewer is wrong about a few things. first off the master chief and the rest of the dead spartans(yeah its not sparticus its spartans, you seriously need to read the book.) were created before the covenent was discovered. and as i have said earlier its not spartICUS II. its SPARTAN II. retard.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A little dissapointing
Review: Halo for the PC is a pretty good game. The single player just lacks some and leaves you feeling bored. The real draw is its online multiplayer which is really fun but I wouldnt say its better than Battlefield 1942 or Unreal Tournament.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Come again?
Review: Halo rocked our world when it reared its covenant-slaying head and gave some gamers thousands of hours of enjoyment. It came fully packed and ready to rock with four difficulty settings and a totally awesome muliplayer mode. The only glitch:
It was for the Xbox, and only for the Xbox.
Finally it has landed with almost all the features and more on your local PC and is ready to entertain you almost as much. the basic IDEA of playing Halo without burning a one hundred eighty dollar sized hole in the gamers wallet may excite some, and not others.(Expecially the Xbox owners.) There are some drawbacks, though. the graphics can be pretty, but turn out to slow your machine worse than a 56K modem is on the net. You can turn them down, but then they are not so pretty and smooth. Even though the PC version concentrates on multiplayer, the CO-OP mode was removed and replaced with things that the net can support. This is a crippling blow to the game, but it wouldn't have worked well and was never going to catch on with lower powered connections. You have to watch out for online chat, though. swears and bezarre coversations can take place. (can you spare me some digital lasagnia?) Also, the team slayer thing REALLY gets out of hand when the people like my brother (0001 or 1110) ignore safe distance and go next to a team mate and fires his rocket launcher or heavy weapon. if there is none, he throws a grenade. people are truly wierd in some cases and will attack anyone they see. just avoid team play as much as possible and you can enjoy this experience. (note: you can turn off friendly fire in your own game, but nobody seems to do it.) Its all in the multiplayer.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great for Multiplayer only..........
Review: For the most part I enjoyed this game. I gave it a rating of 1 star to get your attention and to point out that this is only HALF a game. It offers both single player and online multiplay.

If you love multiplayer games and have a broadband connection...this game is awesome. WARNING - Most of the Halo Multiplayer servers, groups and games I played were filled with immature 14 year olds that curse 4 letter words at you and accuse you of cheating all the time because they can't shoot straight. I prefer more mature surroundings!

If you are looking for a great single player experience...forget it.

First of all the graphics are pretty...but dated. Look at UT 2003 on a high end vid card and compare it to Halo. Halo is bland, the levels are redundant. The outside levels are pretty but nothing impressive.

Even on the hardest settings this game is way too scripted, the enemy AI is pathetic and predictable. It is not intelligent AI. All the programmers did was setup scripted actions and triggers to generate hoardes and hoardes of enemies to come at you at set intervals as you proceed through a level.

Want to beat them easily? Say your in a level exploring...just walk slowly until you trigger some enemies to appear, back track a bit for protection and keep your back to a wall. Kill the enemies as they approach, then step back to where you triggered the enemies, see if you can trigger more and repeat these instructions until you are clear. Proceed and investigate further until you trigger more enemies. Repeat this strategy throughout the level and the rest of the game.
If you get into a heated, heavy battle, just use cover...pop out, shot some aliens and duck again. They almost never pursue you. Only the weird, mutants chase you. Just shotgun them. Nice and simple.

There are some tiny little parasite style aliens that are more annoying than dangerous. Don't waste your ammo on them, just let them crash into your shield, let your shield recharge and proceed. PIECE OF CAKE. I walked through this game on the hardest settings, without breaking a sweat, the AI is disappointing. Not horrible, but very PREDICTABLE.

Online Multiplay is where this game shines...the weapons are so-so...but having vehicles to drive around is a blast.

If you are thinking of buying this title...I would wait. February 3rd, 2004 is the release of Unreal Tournament 2004.

************ Unreal Tournament 2004 **********
It has vehicles, awesome weapons, a huge online following and BOT AI that will bring you to your knees. I have sampled the beta versions of it and all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Perhaps there are no terrific graphics, but look closer....
Review: This game, while three years old, still manages to impress myself and my friends. We have distinct taste in games, and are not impressed easily. As such, we were not all that thrilled with the slightly (very, very slightly) outdated graphics. But once we played for a little while, our jaws slipped ever closer to the floor as we took turns firing guns, chucking grenades, and hitting Covenent scum upside the head in a completely different way with each weapon we discovered. "Wait -- is that Banshee reflective?" "Check out the grenades!" We soon found that placing a grenade underwater resulted in a shower that puts Old Faithful to shame. Shooting the ground with the chaingun in the back of a Warthog crates a small, but noticeable, spray of dirt and sand.

Of course, there are flaws, as in any game. The level designers did get a little lazy, and Halo may not run perfectly on all but the best computers, but overall, Halo is a stunning performance delivered with style. The developers decided not to put a bit sign on the Needler (an alien gun) saying "This gun is really, really cool. Try shooting multiple shots into one guy and see what happens!" Because of this, all weapons are used equally. I am not stating that the Plasma Pistol is as effective as the Rocket Launcher, I am saying that the guns are fairly distributed, without the "cooler" ones being used more.

This game is terrific. You just have to get to know it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great graphics, boring though.
Review: This game is boring.
I don't know what the big fuss about it is...the multiplayer is BORING...it's not even exciting.

Graphics are amazing...boring, stupid plot though.
Try Call of Duty for a good FPS this year.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Warning: No co-operative play
Review: Halo PC was a Christmas present from Santa. My boys love co-operative play on the X-box - it is their main way of playing all the First Person Shooters. So we were severely disappointed that it was missing from the PC version.

What was the point of two licenses if they can't play together?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Run and shoot, need I explain more?
Review: Ahhh, I remember the days of going over to a friend's house and playing Halo for hours. I hoped for the same with the PC version, but it's not quite as fun.

Maybe it's the fact that I can't mock my friends after killing them, but Halo is missing something. Maybe it's the voice communication or co-op play, or maybe it's that most of the multiplayer maps are way too huge, even when 16 people are playing at a time.

Ok, so enough of the bad for now. Halo is fun. Multiplayer has many modes of play such as King of the Hill, CTF, Deathmatch, and Race, which should be played much more. The community of players can be annoying, but they seem to be improving since I haven't seen anybody go postal in the last couple of weeks.

In the PC version a few new weapons have been added such as the flame thrower and a plasma mortar (fuel rod gun). New vehicles like the flying Banshee and Warthog with a rocket launcher also appear. Nice additions, all of them.

The campaign is pretty good and covers some new ground but leaves a majority the same. After you uncover the secrets of Halo it may seem more like Doom with hordes mindlessly following you. This is rather odd since the aliens you face earlier in the game have genius AI that, on the higher levels, don't have a problem with beating you into oblivion.

Lets face it. Run, shoot, throw grenade, move to next room is the basic formula. The outdoor environments are gorgeous and the insides can be interesting. Rendering these hills and plains does take quite a card and system though, so be sure to look at the system requirements first.

Halo's fun, but not too fun. After awhile it gets kind of old and you need to move on to something else. It's a nice little game that was made into a solid shooter.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Even QUAKE was better...
Review: Halo, the game of the year (like three years ago) is on the pc and it is the worst piece of junk ever. My computer is not even one year old, and its graphics card is good. However, I can't enjoy the simple pleasures of seeing my gun flare when I shoot, because it makes the video jump and lag like crazy. Not only this but the graphics look like an N64 game. The multiplayer stinks because its full of morons and unoriginal gameplay which can be found in about a million other games... even free ones.

Don't waste your money.


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