LogFAQs > #970591614

66. Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/7/AABKTfAAEDj1.jpg

I played through Doom and Quake for the first time last year, and now I moved on to Halo, the "evolution" of FPS combat. I've played it multiplayer before, but never went through the campaign. It's interesting to compare this to those classic games, though they aren't that similar, especially due to Halo's focus on story. Halo's story is solid, and does a good job driving you to play more, but it's not amazing or anything. Cortana is more of an exposition machine than a character most of the time, and Master Chief only has dialogue on like three levels for some reason. The game feels like it's trying to be extra cinematic in general. Even outside of cutscenes, there'll be parts where the screen goes extra widescreen for dramatic effect (the timing is usually poor though so this didn't often work for me), and sequences where stirring music cuts in. The music was a useful gameplay cue too, since it meant a big fight was about to happen.

The combat was generally alright, and the basic mechanics of combat are fun. Only having two weapons works for the game, but I don't feel like the limitation makes it more fun in any way. The weapon selection is alright, though most of them aren't particularly exciting to use. Combat encounters aren't super well designed and feel repetitive, definitely not on the original Doom's level. Regenerating shields are an interesting mechanic, and I can see why they went with it - it means you can count on the player to have full shields every encounter, without having to litter the game with health packs. But ducking behind cover to let the shield recover during a fight is boring and bad. Not sure how that issue could be fixed. The level design was my main problem with the game. Lots of levels are huge for whatever reason, but that mostly makes it easy to get lost. There's tons of repetition in order to make those levels big, too, with identical areas that made me get lost even more. I guess levels this big were a novelty for the time, but the design is way behind the better '90s FPSs. Kind of a letdown overall.

Next game hint: what if Zelda 1 was even more mysterious? (2022)