Revisiting the Halo universe: Halo: Combat Evolved Review.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Price: £30 (Originally), £10 (New), £1-5(Second Hand)
Age Rating: M for Mature or 16+
Previous Score: 10/10
Release Date: Out Now
Format: Xbox and PC
Format Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: FPS

Halo recieved a huge amount of good press when it was first released 5 years ago and rightly so. It introduced a large amount of new ideas and influenced every First Person Shooter that followed it, but has it stood the test of time?

The first cutscene plays, I decide to watch it simply for nostalgias sake, after the cutscene has finished I leap straight into the fight. Thats when it hits me Halo has aged, but not in a bad way. It uses the same control shceme as games that follow it, but it feels better. It uses a shield system like millions of obvious followers, but it has a better way of doing it, Halo is simply perfect to handle.

After I have made my way through the small corridors that make up the body of the first level (The Pillar of Autumn for those aren't Halo versed), the second level dispells most of the doubts I had. Everything fits, the AI works so fluently, the Covenant are as interesting to simply watch (and listen to, see next paragraph) as they were 5 years ago. The combat AI never ceases to astound with enemies using high ground, standing firm and fleeing for there lives whenever appropriate.

Then the music cuts in and I begin to notice that game music and dialouge can both be good, at the same time! The Grunts scream, Elites roar, and Jackals... urm... what do they do? Everytime the first chord from that classic Halo tune is struck I drift off to a wonderful place... The music is perfect.

Although by now it may seem that I may be showering praise upon the game, unfotunately Halo is far from perfect. By the Library the game begins to dwindle slightly, with the fast paced action becoming fun in short bursts. After the Library an entire map is repeated, despite having some of the best outdoor sections in the game, replaying the corridors within the level is a bit annoying.

The multiplayer can still entertain but when compared to the wealth of releases that have fairly equal Multiplayer modes, with Xbox Live, it can and will be missed, although if you have friends (real ones) then it is fun for an hour or so.

Obviously time has passed since Halo so the Graphics aren't top range anymore, but Halo can still astound the player with the variation of colours and textures. Halo is a colourful game, but it manages to not seem garish, although to use a brilliant phrase, compared to other shooters it looks like it "has been vomitted on by rainbows".

Conclusion

Although Halo has aged considerabley over the last five years thus rendering it imperfect, certain areas of the game hit unparraleled hieghts, it has become a timeless classic. 9/10