An Oldie But a Goodie – Halo: Combat Evolved
January 26, 2009 1:07 am Games for Fun, Gaming
Yes, that’s right. The first Halo. I recently finished played though it again (on normal, which was difficult enough) since I had never done a proper play through back in the day. I played sections of it at friends houses, played some multiplayer here and there, but I never played it from beginning to end. Shhh, don’t tell anyone – I never owned an original Xbox.
So how does Halo hold up over all these years? It’s interesting. Some parts of the game hold up really well, while others make you wonder why it got above a 90%. I guess combat has evolved over the past few years.
What stands out the most is how solid the game is in general. Even today, there aren’t many shooters that have such varied and interesting weapons. There’s enough different types of enemies and vehicles to keep game play interesting and the story and presentation are very well done. Another suprising thing is that you don’t come across many bugs or unpolished features.
There are of course a few things that don’t hold up, but they’re mainly technical issues. The environments are pretty sparse, but that’s what I’d expect from a nearly nine year old game. The weapon sounds don’t have a lot of punch, but maybe that’s a Bungie thing as I noticed the same sound style in Halo 3. Halo feels like a long game, but mainly because there are so many environments that are copied and pasted. You end up going through the same hallways and rooms, fighting the same sets of enemies then going back through those environments fighting different enemies time and time again. It’s great from a design stand point to be able to re-use an environment for another level, but it happens so often it makes you wonder if they did it to extend game length.
The worst part about Halo? The Library and The Maw. I’d heard that the Library pissed people off, but I never understood why until I played it. I also now understand why so many people hate the Flood. I don’t think the Flood as an enemy type are bad (okay, how often they melee you can get annoying), they just got a bad wrap because they got put in a terrible level for their introduction. The main problem with the Library is that you’re following a sassy robot through lots of flat, open ground with no cover while alien zombies attack you from all angles. If you stop to fight, you tend to die horribly, so you keep moving, only to have a Flood slap you in mid air. A few more slaps and you’re dead. Because there are so many Flood around, the checkpoint system rarely kicks in, so you have to attempt sections of a level multiple times. It’s very stressful and frustrating.
The Maw isn’t as bad as he Library mainly because the Maw is not nearly as long. However, the driving section at the end of the game stressed me out so badly. See, a timer kicks in and you have to make it off the Pillar of Autumn (your giant space ship which is on the surface of Halo) before it explodes. You need to drive away using a Warthog, which handles terribly indoors due the confined spaces. Also, lots of geometry sticks out of the walls and makes if difficult to maneuver, especially considering how “slidey” the Warthog is. It’s interesting because the final level of Halo 3 is so similar in design, but it’s so much fun in Halo 3 because you’re out in a big open space. Anyway, hitting one bump sends the Warthog out of control and causes the Chief to jump out. Then you have to flip the Warthog under enemy fire, but the vehicle is usually facing the wrong way. Nothing is more frustrating than Austin Powersing the Warthog under Sentinel fire then dying and having to do it all again, all while a timer ticks down.
Okay, so barring the Library, the repetition of environments, and the semi-frustrating ending, Halo: Combat Evolved is still an awesome game. Not a lot of games can get driving and on-foot combat right while in the same, open environment, even today. The vehicle combat in general is really well done. We tried to do vehicle combat on COD3, and the reason it didn’t do well is because in Halo you’re fighting aliens in a sci-fi setting, and in COD you’re fighting humans in a realistic setting. Sounds weird, but people expect human enemies to be smarter than an alien in general, otherwise the encounter feels odd. If you rolled up in a Panzer IV (world war 2 german tank), you’d expect human enemies to retreat or hide, because they are no match for you tank – and that’s not much fun to play. If the enemies attack you out in the open (like the AI shooting your tank with an MP40), it makes the situation seem silly – they’re attacking you with a weapon that can’t hurt you. In a game like Halo, the aliens can actually hurt you while in a vehicle. Plus, they’re more fierce and aggressive because hey, they’re aliens with energy weapons and engery shields. From a design stand point, sci-fi gives you lots of options because none of it is real or has happened. Suspension of disbelief for the win. Uncanny valley be damned.
The on-foot combat is really well done too. It’s a combo of the openness of the environments along with really good AI. Again, even today, there aren’t a lot of games that have so many AI states. I’m most impressed with the Jackal, who has a shield which takes different types of damage depending on if you’re using ballistic or energy weapons, or can have his shield removed completely if you blast it with a charged plasma pistol shot. The Jackal will then retreat (going into another AI state with it’s own animation set) once his shield is gone. The morale system (killing an elite makes the grunts scared) makes the game play interesting as well, since it gives the player an option to kill the big guy to break down the system and move on at the risk of taking a pounding from grunts, or take out the grunts then the big guy, but having to endure more combat overall. These really basic combat choices keep each encounter engaging.
Plus, you end up switching through so many weapons, that the gun play doesn’t get old either. I can only recall a few times where I held onto a weapon for a long time – the first time you get a sniper rifle and fighting the Flood with a shotgun. For the most part, weapons, environments and engagement distances keep changing so that you need to swap to a different weapon (or you run out of ammo, which is actually cool in my opinion).
The story still feels epic, even today. When the Halo music kicks in you feel that prideful surge to kick some ass. The cut scenes are well done (some of the animation is starting to age though, especially blending between locomotion and scripted states), and the gameplay and story fit together so that everything makes sense. I never got lost, and the story didn’t ever feel disjointed – it just flowed together smoothly. Again, when you can just make up stuff because it’s a sci-fi setting (like landing a space frigate on a ring world, Computer AI with personality, Humans encased in metal armor which makes them more powerful in every way and so on) somehow what takes place is more believable (or less unbelievable).
Anyway, I’m glad I played through Halo from beginning to end. It’s a great game, and it really gave me a deeper appreciation for Halo 3, and the Halo series in general.