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Halo (Xbox)
It doesn't quite live up to the hype, but Halo is a great shooter and easily one of the best Xbox launch titles.
By - Sal "Sluggo" Accardo
Getting Down To Business
When you get right down to it, Halo plays like most first-person shooters. You have an arsenal of weapons, a set of objectives, and many, many, enemies to defeat along the way. Your onboard AI (a female construct named Cortana) constantly monitors the surrounding conditions and gives you instructions on what to do. To help you get started, much of the first level acts as a training mission, teaching the basics of movement, targeting and other functions of the controller.
Although it takes some getting used to, the controls themselves are laid out pretty well. Movement is fairly intuitive, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the analog targeting stick pretty high -- longtime console players should have no trouble jumping in. Even at the highest sensitivity, though, you can only turn around so fast -- veterans of PC shooters may often find themselves wishing the game had mouse support of some kind until they get the hang of the controls (especially after realizing your player doesn't move very fast).
A good look at the HUD -- armor, health, radar and weapons. |
In an interesting twist, you can only carry two weapons at any given time -- a much welcome departure from the Super Space Marine Carrying Seventeen Weapons On His Back. You'll need to closely monitor your weapons and ammo status and evaluate if you should trade your current arms for others lying around, and it makes for some interesting gameplay. Kudos to Bungie for taking a chance on an innovation like this, which could have easily backfired -- there was only one point during the entire game where I thought the inability to carry a third weapon hampered gameplay; overall it gives the game a solid tactical component without dragging things down.
In another interesting move, the standard health / armor system seen in many shooters has been replaced with one more in line with your character and the story. As Master Chief, most of your protection comes from your armor, which is pretty strong, and recharges itself regularly when damaged. Once your armor is down, however, you're extremely vulnerable, and health packs are not easy to come by. There are plenty of occasions where you'll want to retreat and let your armor recharge before heading back into combat.
The weapons themselves are a mixture of human and alien design. On the human side, you'll probably stick to your trusty assault rifle, which gives the Xbox controller a satisfying rumble when gunning down Covenant forces. Other human weapons include a shotgun, sniper rilfe, rocket launcher and pistol, while the aliens carry a variety of phasers and other energy-based weapons (which you can also use).
Various weapons are better tailored for specific tasks (phasers, for example, will cut through shielded enemies), so you'll need to take this into account when managing your arsenal. You can also use two varieties of grenades, and unlike most games, they are essential to advancing in the game -- they're perfect for taking out (or at least weakening) groups of enemies, knocking them off ledges, or at the very least, conserving ammo for other weapons.
Opposing Forces
While Halo contains no shortage of enemies, there isn't a whole lot of variety among Covenant forces -- there are a number of subtle differences, but you'll likely remember them as "tall" and "short." On the lower difficulty levels, the short guys are more of a nuisance than anything else (when they're not chucking grenades, that is), and many of the big guys have shields to make life tough on you.
On the higher difficultly levels, however, it's a whole different story. Enemies split up, dive away from grenades, hide behind objects, and are generally more aggressive - the AI is quite impressive, and as if this wasn't enough, you also take far more damage at the higher difficulties. Take into account that you'll also encounter various Covenant spacecraft attempting to dish out death from above, and you'll quickly find you
have your hands full.
Piloting the Ghost hovercraft. |
Thankfully, you have some help on your side. Many of the levels feature human AI and other forces that will thin out the enemy for you when you're reloading or recharging your armor. Granted, they're not always the sharpest tools in the shed, but are extremely handy to have on board when you're driving a jeep around or low on ammo. You also have a radar display that tells you when enemies are close, (provided they're not hiding), which comes in handy for launching offensives and getting the jump on the enemy.
While I was a bit disappointed that you didn't fight a wider variety of races within the Covenant, it should be noted that there are other threats in the game that (purposefully) haven't been mentioned in previews or shown in screenshots. I won't give away any spoilers here; suffice it to say that they're not in short supply...and many may find them eerily reminiscent of another popular game...
Next: Driving, saving and Halo's greatest flaw...
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