My Halo: Combat Evolved review

[RobertR1]

No, it's not an old thread or a typo I've never played the Halo series up until Halo 3 beta. Same thing for a good buddy of mine. So we decide to go out and buy Halo 1 and 2 to catch us up.

Starting of with co-op on the difficulty right below "Legendary" things looked pretty easy for a bit. Now that we're on level 8 of 10, The Two Betrayls, we're getting out ass kicked!!!

Our motto is now "These colors run!!!" Anytime we see the flood and the covenant fighting, we make a run for and never look back. Yes, it's cowardly but I don't care! beats dying. This game is also really long. We've put over 11hours into it, all co-op and just keeps getting harder with each level longer than the last.

The story line is damn good though. Funny enough, for a game in 2001, it plays quite well. Frame rate is stable in huge battles and yes, they're huge battles compared to most of today's FPS and all the weapons are useful, regardless of scenario. All in all, this is a great game and we're both glad we picked it up. Hoping to finish it up tonight or tomorrow! and then move onto Halo 2.

How a single player can beat this on Legenday, alone is beyond me. I have to say, after playing Halo, my aiming using the controller has gotten a lot better since you're forced to play at a fast pace throughout the game.

 

[scooby_dooby]

How a single player can beat this on Legenday, alone is beyond me. I have to say, after playing Halo, my aiming using the controller has gotten a lot better since you're forced to play at a fast pace throughout the game.

Ya, Heroic is about my limit for single player, even that can be extremely frustrating (rewarding as well).

Legendary is the only way to go for co-op though

 

[RobertR1]

Trust me Scooby, we're cowards, not Legends

 

[AlNom]

Legendary in the first game isn't too too bad. It really is more about patience I think (or kamikaze plasma grenades on co-op ). It's once you get to Halo 2 where Legendary can be downright unfair (sniper jackals ), especially in co-op because there is no respawning on Legendary (just revert to last checkpoint).

Way back when I was introduced to Halo, we started out on Heroic Co-op too, and I think that's just the way it should be. The battles are practically one after another, so it's this constant non-stop action with your buddy. I think after awhile when you finally get to know how the AI "works" and what weapons to use (plasma pistol + any human weapon against elites, plasma rifle or even grenades against jackals, that kinda thing) it gets a whole lot easier. Hm... well, at least that's where the patience comes in, waiting and sneaking up on the elite with your charged plasma pistol. Those Flood guys are deadly when you don't have a shotgun!

I thought it was really cool way back when they suddenly introduced the flood in that 5minute cut-scene with that first person camera view of Pvt. Jenkins. And then just watching the Flood duke it out with the Covenant was something I hadn't really seen before on that scale. The big battle at the end of Two Betrayals was really quite something to behold IMO back in 2001.

What really pulled me in was the music. The game felt like a movie with all those cut-scenes and the music was chiming in at appropriate times. I guess it helped that we were first playing on a big projection screen TV too. And well, that movie-like feeling just continues with the rolling of the credits + music and then that extra bit after the credits (ala Pirates of the Caribbean).

 

[Falkster]

Legendary in the first game isn't too too bad. It really is more about patience I think (or kamikaze plasma grenades on co-op ). It's once you get to Halo 2 where Legendary can be downright unfair (sniper jackals ), especially in co-op because there is no respawning on Legendary (just revert to last checkpoint).

Way back when I was introduced to Halo, we started out on Heroic Co-op too, and I think that's just the way it should be. The battles are practically one after another, so it's this constant non-stop action with your buddy. I think after awhile when you finally get to know how the AI "works" and what weapons to use (plasma pistol + any human weapon against elites, plasma rifle or even grenades against jackals, that kinda thing) it gets a whole lot easier. Hm... well, at least that's where the patience comes in, waiting and sneaking up on the elite with your charged plasma pistol. Those Flood guys are deadly when you don't have a shotgun!

I thought it was really cool way back when they suddenly introduced the flood in that 5minute cut-scene with that first person camera view of Pvt. Jenkins. And then just watching the Flood duke it out with the Covenant was something I hadn't really seen before on that scale. The big battle at the end of Two Betrayals was really quite something to behold IMO back in 2001.

What really pulled me in was the music. The game felt like a movie with all those cut-scenes and the music was chiming in at appropriate times. I guess it helped that we were first playing on a big projection screen TV too. And well, that movie-like feeling just continues with the rolling of the credits + music and then that extra bit after the credits (ala Pirates of the Caribbean).

Agreed. I always focus quite a lot on game music, and the music that O'Donnell and Salvatori created for Halo 1 and 2 impressed me far more than pretty much every other game. I'm a big final fantasy fan, and love Nobuo Uematsu's songs, but I still prefer the music in Halo. Even the music in the Halo 3 announcement trailer kicked a lot of ass. As nerdy as this sounds, many of Halos' songs make it onto my play list quite often!

 

[rbushner]

It gets easier if you play through it a couple of times. I just finished a legendary run through of Halo. Some parts are hard, but most of it just takes a bit of strategy and good use of weapons, because ammo is tight in a couple areas.

What really pulled me in was the music.

The music is great in the first game, they tried to make it too popular type music in Halo 2, and it lost it's epic feel IMO. The last level of Halo was such a cool experience the first time through.

 

[ninelven]

Reminds me... two of my friends went through the first few levels of legendary w/ melee only.

 

[AlNom]

Agreed. I always focus quite a lot on game music, and the music that O'Donnell and Salvatori created for Halo 1 and 2 impressed me far more than pretty much every other game. I'm a big final fantasy fan, and love Nobuo Uematsu's songs, but I still prefer the music in Halo. Even the music in the Halo 3 announcement trailer kicked a lot of ass. As nerdy as this sounds, many of Halos' songs make it onto my play list quite often!

I really dig orchestral and operatic music in the games. It just adds that much more immersion and sense of quality.

The announcement trailer was really kick-ass with the slow build-up and then the big pay-off with the string instruments. It was epic. I'm hoping they're sticking to the larger orchestra for the rest of Halo 3, but that quasi-E3 music video did seem a step down in some respects. It's like comparing the E3 2003 version of "Earth City" to what we finally got in the game, which sounded crappy.

The music is great in the first game, they tried to make it too popular type music in Halo 2, and it lost it's epic feel IMO. The last level of Halo was such a cool experience the first time through.

I feel the same way regarding Halo 2. They were trying to be too cool with the rock and roll and the use of other bands' music. That said, I really loved the Volume 2 soundtrack with some tracks from the first volume spliced in. I've currently got a playlist that incorporates the "real" Halo music from Volume 1 with all the stuff from Volume 2 such that it's like playing through the game. Volume 2 was supposed to do that on its own, but they didn't repeat some of the Volume 1 tracks.

But yeah, comparing the main theme from Halo: CE to the second game... The first one has this mysterious/epic feel, whereas the second theme felt like it could have been a rock and roll music video.

 

[Cyan]

It gets easier if you play through it a couple of times. I just finished a legendary run through of Halo. Some parts are hard, but most of it just takes a bit of strategy and good use of weapons, because ammo is tight in a couple areas.

Halo 1 Legendary was a piece of cake for me perhaps because I purchased my Xbox in December 2004 (Halo 2 Xbox Crystal pack) and I finished the game in Legendary after some marathon battles through the campaign. Halo 1 Legendary always felt to me like playing Halo 2 in Heroic difficulty mode.

 

[RobertR1]

Just got done beating the game and all I can say is "HELL YEAH!!!" talk about intense! The last level is something all together.

I'd rate the Library as the worst and the last level as the best in the best.

This weekend = Halo2

 

[pjbliverpool]

I loved Halo. Im playing Halo 2 now but definatly not getting the same feeling from it. I can't tell though if its just because my tastes have moved on, im now playing with a pad rather than a Key/mouse, or im playing in windowed mode (due to the lack of widescreen support). Or the obvious one of course - its just not as good!

 

[pc999]

IMO, Halo is still one of the best games, Halo 2 is not as good.

Bu ti t ia interesting that you mention the dificultty, because as much as it is hard to play to the end it is not a hard game to finish, I mean as long as you invest enought time it is almost sure that you can finish the game. I an a "old days" game that you just died and come back to the begining of the level used to be much harder IMO.

 

[kyleb]

...or im playing in windowed mode (due to the lack of widescreen support).

Eh? Halo 2 supports widescreen.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Eh? Halo 2 supports widescreen.

Its very limited. There is no support for 1360x768,1280x768, 1440x900 or 2560x1600 I believe. I game at 1360x768 but can manage 1280x768 in a pinch.

 

[AlNom]

ah... on Vista. Kinda strange how Halo PC could get all sorts of resolutions that the monitor supported yet it clearly isn't the same as on Halo 2. Wonder what they did differently... Wasn't GFW supposed to remedy the resolution issues that games can have with various monitors?

 

[patsu]

I loved Halo. Im playing Halo 2 now but definatly not getting the same feeling from it. I can't tell though if its just because my tastes have moved on, im now playing with a pad rather than a Key/mouse, or im playing in windowed mode (due to the lack of widescreen support). Or the obvious one of course - its just not as good!

IMHO, they broke Halo 2.

Halo 1 is great because it's simple, well-balanced and has great enemy AI. I can jump out and fight an Elite in the open (on Heroic or Legendary) anytime I want to. Even at this micro-level, it's a great mini-game. With a team of enemies, it becomes even more interesting -- especially if you can take advantage of the terrain.

In Halo 2, the one-hit-kill Jackal sniper and the increased Elite's strength overshadowed the AI and limited Master Chief's moves. It became a grind to me (Stop and fire, stop and fire, ...). I also played Halo 2 on Legendary co-op and it was a pain. If one of us died, we would go back to the last (often distant) checkpoint. One time, it checkpointed at the wrong moment and I get caught in an infinite death sequence and had to restart the entire level. Another time, I would fell through the floor and died (after a difficult fight). Another time, one of us would trigger an event, it became incredibly hard for the second player to recover, ...

 

[kyleb]

Its very limited. There is no support for 1360x768,1280x768, 1440x900 or 2560x1600 I believe. I game at 1360x768 but can manage 1280x768 in a pinch.

What aspect ratio are you after? 1360x768 is 16:9 but the second one you listed is 15:9 and the other two are 16:10. Anyway, Halo 2 Vista's resolution support is horriblity limited regardless of aspect ratio; but as for 16:9 resolutions it does support the widescreen HDTV standards, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. I use 720p on my 1366x768 display as 1080p is just a bit much for my PC to push, at least with all the image quality settings cranked.

 

[pjbliverpool]

One time, it checkpointed at the wrong moment and I get caught in an infinite death sequence and had to restart the entire level.

Lol, I did that once on a PC game were I was only using one save slot to record my progress. Had to restart that entire game!

 

[pjbliverpool]

What aspect ratio are you after? 1360x768 is 16:9 but the second one you listed is 15:9 and the other two are 16:10. Anyway, Halo 2 Vista's resolution support is horriblity limited regardless of aspect ratio; but as for 16:9 resolutions it does support the widescreen HDTV standards, 1280x720 and 1920x1080. I use 720p on my 1366x768 display as 1080p is just a bit much for my PC to push, at least with all the image quality settings cranked.

Im after 16:9 however 15:9 with borders is fine. The problem is my TV doesn't support 720p from the PC (although its fine with the 360) and thus Halo 2 doesn't give me that option in full screen mode. I have to play 720p windowed which is a huge dissapointment given that it wasn't a problem with the original, and 'Games for Windows' is supposed to make this kind of thing better.

 

[RobertR1]

Lol, I did that once on a PC game were I was only using one save slot to record my progress. Had to restart that entire game!

I had to do the same on Halo1 on 2 levels! Once on two betrayls. My buddy feel into a deep spot and when I died, I respawned there. Had to restart the level.

Once on the last level. Blew up the last reactor core and the tube started coming at me. Thought it was an escape tunnel! So I stayed in it. Then he died and joined me in there.