Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

This year I randomly decided to play the halo series through for the first time. I’ve played some of the multiplayer before a bit, but I never have played through the campaigns in their entirety before now.

Starting with Halo Combat Evolved, I see why so many like this game.

First of all, as an FPS the gameplay is extremely satisfying. It controls real nice and satisfying. The guns, though there are not many, are all very unique and serve a specific purpose. And man, that pistol. Best pistol ever. The AI too is better than most modern games. There is a good enemy variety and challenge. I love the enemies in this.

Second, I was supposed by the depth of the lore and story. It isn’t necessarily spelled out, rather it’s show not tell. The storytelling is very environmental. And I personally really love that. It keeps the mystery and lets the player interpret. It’s excellent, surprisingly. It made me pick up some of the halo novels lol.

The only negative to me for this, is the repetition of the environments. They get very repetitive in some parts. Sometimes you feel like you go through the same room and the same encounter 10 times in a row (though that is the correct way to go). Also the vehicle sections are not my favorite.

Anyway. I really enjoyed halo 1!! It’s still great to play in 2025.

Halo combat Evolved is a 2001 first-person shooter game.Bungie, the game's producer, and Microsoft Game Studios, which is distributing the game, have done a great job.The story of the game is as follows.There is a ring-like planet called Halo, and this planet is dominated by aliens.A spartan soldier named Master Chief is given the task of destroying the planet halo.The gameplay is as follows.in this game consisting of 10 episodes, you are trying to kill the aliens and pass the episode.The music of the game is beautiful.The graphics of the game are not bad.My rating for the game: 10/10 (y) Good games to everyone 🙂

I can understand why this game was considered revolutionary back when it was released, it was a shooter at a scale that was just never seen before on console. The graphics were stunning, the levels are large and open and the battles that take place in the game are huge.

However, all of that doesn't save this game from being pretty weak, sure the game has it's moments but for the most part it feels like moving from one arena to another killing fairly similar enemies over and over again, at parts it can get so bad that you're literally moving from the same room copy and pasted over and over again, which makes you wonder if you're even going the right way.

So sure, this game is revolutionary for it's time, but I don't think that it's anything that'll interest modern gamers, especially given the fact that the multiplayer is no more.

Halo: Combat Evolved has been around for 20 Years... And it still holds up. It never gets old. Nothing has beaten the first in my opinion and I doubt any Halo game ever will.

Halo: Combat Evolved is, of course, the very first Halo game, and playing it 20 Years after release, you'd expect it to have aged poorly, but it hasn't. The game still feels amazing and is a master class on how to get FPS gameplay right. I mean... It set it on the map and not many FPS games have been able to top it.

The gameplay is great. Unlike games like Call Of Duty, every firefight can be tackled in different ways. This game encourages creativity with how you approach each situation and the game compliments this well with its AI. The AI in this game is incredible. The Marines who fight by your side feel important, they actually make the fights more intense instead of them wandering around like idiots. The enemy AI has aged so well. Every fight feels like a game of chess. Every enemy has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and will react to your actions in a smart and clever way. Your actions will cause a reaction... For example, an Elite will play very offensively, but once you break its shield, they start using cover and playing more defensively. If you throw a Plasma Grenade at them and it sticks, they will run at you to take them with you. If you kill an Elite, all the Grunts will panic and start running around. It's so fun using the sandbox of weapons and tackling the situation... My firefight compared to yours can look completely different. It's great.

The music is brilliant. I can't express how much people have praised the soundtrack. It deserves it. The music with the amazing sound design makes for compelling and fun gameplay throughout.

The story is simple but effective. You follow Spartan John 117. Better known as The Master Chief. He and his AI companion Cortana crash land on a mysterious Ring called a Halo. The story is about finding out why the Covenant are so interested in the Halo, fighting the parasitic creatures known as The Flood, and saving humanity. The story is told well but what the game gets right is the level design (At least in the original version.. The Anniversary Edition sucks). It serves the story so well as it gives off a sense of mystery and intrigue and much like how Master Chief is discovering these things, so are you.

If I had to find a complaint... I guess it would be the level design feels very repetitive. Levels like The Library which people have been using as an example for years is a great example. All the rooms look the same and it can be easy to get disoriented and lost.

But damn I love this game and everything that it is. This game has aged so well and if there is any Halo game I would play again, it would be this one

4/5

Would Recommend

This is my fourth or fifth play-through of the original Halo. The game revolutionized the FPS-style video game and still to this day is amazing to play. The weapons and vehicles are all fun to use and the characters and enemies are well designed and original. The story itself, while not too complex, is enjoyable especially given the amazing setting of the game. Some aspects of Halo can be repetitive, but the good aspects of the game more than make up for that. Overall, I would highly recommend this game to anyone who loves first-person shooters. If you can get your hands on the anniversary edition, I'd recommend it for the graphics, but even the original is well worth playing.

4.00/5.00

See my full review here: https://watchreadgame.com/halo-combat-evolved/

You can't really overstate how pants-shittingly exciting it was to play Halo: Combat Evolved on a brand new Xbox in November of 2001. It felt utterly bleeding edge. From the sleek sci-fi aesthetic, to the powerful music, to the thrilling combat based around excellent enemy A.I., to the hilarious and highly competitive multiplayer, it felt like gaming grew up a little bit here. Not only did it usher in the Xbox era, it set a new bar for AAA first person shooters, console exclusives and franchise world building.

Also, best video game pistol of all time.

I played the SPV3 Remaster on Heroic difficulty. Added 60FPS, better graphics, and added content (weapons, levels, and enemies)

This is the first time I've ever played an FPS campaign in its entirety, and it was a ton of fun.The story was alright, the music was pretty good, but I loved the gunplay, I felt like such a bad ass mowing down grunts and elites.

Playing Halo brought me back to when I was ~8, playing endless hours of Halo 2 multiplayer with my friend on his XBox.