Halo: Combat Evolved for Windows

HALO - Combat Evolved (or just HALO for short), one of the industries most successful game franchises and one of the games with the most turbulent history is about to go into it's next stage of existence. While HALO 3 is about to debut on the XBOX 360, HALO 2 will make it's appearance on PC's armed with Windows Vista (and DirectX 10) in the near future. Time to take a refreshed look at HALO - Combat Evolved, the 3D shooter on the PC.


making HALO, a journey throughout the systems

Bungie Software, the company responsible for HALO, originally intended HALO to be a game for Apple Macintosh computers and Windows PC's. Unlike what it turned out to be, HALO was first supposed to be a real-time-strategy game - that was in 1999. On the E3 in 2000, HALO's first official trailer video was presented and showed a 3D shooter game (with a 3rd person perspective at that time) that back then was rivaled by nothing that any other software company could offer. Graphics of incredible detail were shown, the player would have the ability to drive a jeep-like vehicle (known to everyone who has played HALO as the "WARTHOG") with a very accurate physics engine behind it. Since DOOM revolutionized gaming over the network, of course one of the features was playing in a team, fighting against others - where, on top of that, one person could drive the Warthog and the second could man the gun. Gamers were in turmoil. A game like that on the PC could easily swipe away all the other shooters out there and even the ones scheduled for release.

Rumors were spreading though, that Microsoft was going to buy Bungie Software and thereby acquiring the rights to HALO. Those rumors proved to be true in mid 2000, when Microsoft officially announced that it bought Bungie Software. It soon became very clear (and later confirmed by Microsoft) that HALO was supposed to become the main killer application for Microsofts X-BOX console, which was in development at that time. PC users and Mac owners were initially supposed to be left out - HALO was planned to be X-BOX only at first. The decision quickly got revoked though and Microsoft promised porting the game to other systems after it's initial release on the X-BOX. Microsoft did not specify when that would be 'though. PC users were full of hope at that time, because the X-BOX was mainly a PC in form of a console. CPU, graphics card and other X-BOX components were just slightly modified PC parts. So converting HALO shouldn't take much time...


HALO for the X-BOX

After the news was announced that HALO was the new X-BOX child of Microsoft, it became quiet around the development of HALO, apart from a few pictures and videoclips. It took another full year (and a couple of months) for the game to come out, partially because it was a launch title for the X-BOX so of course, the game doesn't come out before the console. Development of 3D shooter games on PC picked up in a drastic pace in the meantime. Having seen what Bungie Software did, other software companies tried to come up with similar graphics, effects and gameplay. And those games were getting better and better and with HALO nowhere in sight, especially on the PC, HALO's technical advantage began to shrink fast. Meanwhile, Bungie Software made HALO into what it is today for the X-BOX: A 3D-shooter with team-playing capability and a pretty extensive Sci-Fi background story.


The release...

HALO finally came out on November 15, 2001 and WAS the killer application for the X-BOX. More than 50% of all people buying the X-BOX within the first two months also purchased HALO. In under a year, over a million copies of the game sold. HALO was well received by all the critics and celebrated as one of the best 3D shooter games of it's time. It was a success story... on the X-BOX.

It took Microsoft another two years to bring HALO out on the PC as it finally got released on September 30, 2003. By that time, it was nothing more than a nice 3D shooter game amongst countless others on the computer it was originally designed for.


The story...

Mankind is at war with the Covenant - an alien race determined to destroy mankind. The last hope of mankinds survival is the secret SPARTAN II project (basically turning soldiers into cyborg-superhuman-mega soldiers). The project fails, as the covenant destroys the entire SPARTAN-II army while they are gathered on a colony for "further enhancements". Only one SPARTAN-II soldier survives onboard the starship "Pillar of Autumn". In an attempt to draw the attackers away from earth, the Pillar of Autumn initiates a random jump to light speed. The covenant forces find the Pillar of Autumn and follow her. Both starfleets reach something that can only be described as a ringworld. It looks like a ring worn on a finger, with a planet-like surface on the inside - HALO. As the Covenant attack the Pillar of Autumn, it is clear there is no chance of survival. The captain of the ship awakes the last SPARTAN-II soldier out of his deep-sleep just as the Covenant army boards the ship. While the alien army fights it's way through the Pillar of Autumn, the captain hands the ships A.I., named Cortana, over to the SPARTAN-II soldier who is only addressed by his rank: Master-Chief. His mission: To land on HALO and to make sure the covenant never get their hands on Cortana as the knowledge and data contained within her would doom mankind. And while Master Chief fights against the Covenant, gathering survivors from the Pillar of Autumn and forming a resistance, he finds out what HALO really is. And that secret is threating to destroy all live in the universe.


playing HALO

As said earlier, HALO is a 3D shooter game in it's purest form. Seeing the game out of the eyes of Master Chief, you make your way on HALO in different missions. The storyline is told through cutscenes within the game engine, which connects the levels in the game. The size of the levels is pretty big. But while the first half of the game brings new aspects to level design with every new area the Master Chief fights in, the last half of the game is just a boring, repetitive array of vast game areas without any new design elements. Level designers seem to have made heavy use of the "copy and paste" feature in their level editors to artificially bloat the size of levels and to increase game time by just sending the player through identical (!) looking areas over and over again. On top of that, it almost seems like the game was supposed to end half way and then Bungie said "I know how to expand the time to play and finish HALO - let's make the player run the whole area back again!" This is no joke. A big part of the game is actually walking the same way that you came back in the other direction. While it might make sense in the story and is actually explained pretty nicely, the fact stays that you fight through the same levels multiple times. And those levels are not very interesting in design to say the least.

The controls are pretty easy and standard. If you have played one 3D shooter on the PC, you can play HALO too. Keyboard controls the movement and weapon selection and the mouse controls the direction in which you fire or look.

One of the cool features of HALO is still the fact that you can control vehicles. The Warthog and a battle tank are only the ones from your side. Later you get to have some of the Covenants vehicles too, being a motorcycle-kind of glider and a small flying, uhm... jet thingie. The physics engine is very accurate (although by now, games like Half-Life 2 are way better in that field) and it is fun to drive around. Computer controlled teammates automatically man the vacant spots in the vehicles and actually help by shooting back. You can see 'though that initially, the Warthog was the star of the vehicles. It's the only really cool one. Others are kind of fun and sometimes even more practical, but it shows that Bungie concentrated on making the Warthog the ultimate driving experience.

Another difference towards most shooters like Quake for example is the fact that you can only carry two weapons. You usually start with a machine gun and a pistol. You are able to switch the weapons for any other lying around (all enemies drop the weapons which they were using when you killed them), but you can never have more than two. The only two things available in addition are two types of grenades. While that sounds pretty cool in theory, practically it doesn't impact gameplay very much at all. There is basically only one usable weapon (the alien rifle) with which you can get through 95% of all battle situations. That and the grenades are the only things you really need. While other rifles, pistols, rocket launchers or even sniper rifles with scope and night vision are available, you don't really need them. And while that feature was something different compared to game like Half-Life or Quake, it's nothing new. Counter-Strike offered the same thing years earlier.

In fact, a lot of things seem to be copied from Counter-Strike, from the inspiration of having a wide array of weapons that are still one class (there are three types of rifles for example) up to the extensive reloading animations and the fact that there is limited ammunition per clip.


The graphics

By the time HALO came out on the X-BOX, the graphics were still very good, albeit not as impressive as they were when the first demos were shown, especially compared to PC games. When it came out on the PC, the graphics were even further outdated. And now? Well,lets put it this way... play this game for historical or gameplay purposes. If you are looking for a graphical feast for the eyes, you will be a little disappointed, even on the highest detail setting and even for the little money HALO will cost today.

On the plus side... even slightly outdated computers can handle HALO just fine. You will rarely experience choppy graphics and some of the level design is pretty cool and visually nicely done. For some Sci-Fi freaks, the graphics will seem a little too colorful though. If you are a Star Trek fan, and one of he reasons you hated Babylon 5 was the overly colored special effects, you might experience some turned stomach in this game. Still... it looks neat...not overly cool or visually stunning, but neat.

To put in techincal terms: I have a 1.6Ghz notenbook with a gig of RAM and a 64MB graphics card. The game runs perfect in any resolution.


The sound

The sound landscape is pretty devided. The intro music and some of the music in the levels is pretty good. Some people go as far as to label it awesome, impressive and the best game music ever made, but I wouldn't even remotely agree. It's good, but that's about it. The sounds in the game are fitting but nowhere near awesome. Some of the alien sounds are even outright silly. Compared to the scary ambient sound that games like Doom 3 offer today or even the self-made soundset of Counter-Strike the game HALO doesn't really stick out. Don't get me wrong, the sound and music is good...but far away from outstanding.


Multiplayer

One of the reasons why HALO is/was so immensely popular was it's multiplayer capabilities on the X-BOX. It pretty much has all the battle modes implemented you would expect from a multiplayer shooter, from the sheer deathmatch type of game to capture the flag and more . The fact that there are different weapon classes available in the game is really useful in multiplayer scenarios and a lot of fun. And the vehicles in the game add the real fun factor.

But... notice anything? All those features might have been pretty cool when the X-BOX came out, but on a PC? Again, Counter-Strike already had everything in it in 1999 /2000 except the vehicles. Multiplayer wise, there is nothing that could really lure a PC gamer out of his basement. Especially now, in 2006, all those features are just simply expected. There is no way this game can compete even remotely against Battlefield and all it's clones.

But again, don't forget the old computers or casual gamers. If you cannot run Battlefield, if you just want a quick kill-fest that is not overly realistic, or if Sci-Fi is more your thing, you might want to take a look.

One thing to keep in mind. HALO doesn't offer the insanely big add-on community that other shooter games of today (and back then when it came out) have. While HALO might be cool for a quick multiplayer round, you will never have the replay value of games like the Quake series, Half Life 2, Counter-Strike, the Unreal franchise or the Battlefield games.


Putting HALO against it's competitors and the final verdict

HALO on the PC was never a match for the games available when it came out. There were better stories in single player mode and there were better multiplayer games out there. And today, it only has gotten worse. Would it not be for it's low price of under $20, there would be no reason of recommending HALO, except you desperately want to play every shooter that ever came out.

The graphics are nice but outdated, the weapon choice is useless in single player mode, the gameplay was nothing new in 2001 and is even less today. The multiplayer mode might be packed with all kinds of cool scenarios that even include vehicles, but it is only good for nothing more that a quick kill round. It might be fun if you get the right group of people together, but hey...with the right group of people, I can even today play Quake 3 which came out in 1999. HALO is just simply outdated in every single technical aspect of the game.

But, it is under $20 bucks now and HALO 2 is expected in the near future. If you are interested in the HALO universe and you want to experience the story, go ahead and get it. The story might be a little predictable, but in terms of a video game, the storyline is pretty good.

Bottom line: For the PC, HALO never really was an awesome game. It was good, but not remarkable. The graphics were kinda cool but never amazing. The story was interesting, but never really gripping. And multiplayer had it's features, but they were never really innovative. HALO lacks the immense modder community that other shooters have.

And today? Well, other than historical reasons, I cannot really think of a reason to buy HALO. Yes, it's cheap now and if you are really interested, it does not hurt your wallet that much. But honestly? Wait until HALO 2 comes out. You will probably get a combined package pretty soon after that.

In my opinion, the only really good thing HALO ever spawned is RED vs BLUE, a hilarious comedy series made with the HALO video game. Read my review on that and take a look at RED vs BLUE.