My Halo: Combat Evolved review

[AlNom]

Its been awhile but i think i basically kept running out of ammo in the library level requiring me to have to rush headlong into them to wack them with the rifle butt in order to pickup their ammo. I think i had a terrible weapon combo for that section consisting of the pistol, shotgun, and rocket launcher. Caused me to die a lot. Got tedious really quick.

When im facing levels where im going against seemingly endless waves of enemies i want them to throw ammo at me like its confetti.

Hm... I've not had that problem in The Library in particular... You really only need the shotgun and a backup weapon (assault rifle) for cleaning up the leftovers when you need to reload the shotgun. I've found that on Legendary or Heroic, the Flood tend to carry more shotguns too, so once you pop them, it's ammo haven (at least 12 rounds per dropped shotgun). It also helped that you carry 72 shells and that they did a ridiculous amount of damage to the Flood. Of course, on legendary that just means you'll die in one direct shot from them.

I guess the experience varies...

Those are two instances of simply really poor QA in my opinion.

Well, from what I recall, Halo:CE's development was quite rushed towards the end and the Library itself was one that kept changing due to hardware constraints; those blue glowing panels you see from time to time along the hallway were supposed to be more interesting things to give an idea as to why the level is called The Library (genetic repository of some such).

That's not to say it couldn't have been better.

 

[infinity4]

Aliens, you play the first level in Halo, then watch the first ~45minutes of Aliens. The sgt in Halo say's the EXACT phrases as the sgt in Aliens, the Pilar of Autum looks 95% like the main ship in Aliens. Even the armoury room in Halo is like the twin of the 1 in Aliens. Im suprised Bungie havent been sued over the likeness.

serious? i thought it's only koreans who directly copy off its foreigners' games!

 

[patsu]

Its been awhile but i think i basically kept running out of ammo in the library level requiring me to have to rush headlong into them to wack them with the rifle butt in order to pickup their ammo. I think i had a terrible weapon combo for that section consisting of the pistol, shotgun, and rocket launcher. Caused me to die a lot. Got tedious really quick.

It also depends on how you play it. In many cases, as long as you passed the spawn points, you don't have to fight that many enemies. If you hang around in every areas, you will face more waves of attack.

I use needler as backup because of its long range, seeking feature. It can often set-off the bobs to clear a path for me. Assault rifle is good too.

 

[RobertR1]

In co-op we used the shottie/rifle combo to deal with the library section. Jump in, shottie to the face and then clean up the little guys with the rifle. This way we conserved ammo on the shottie.

 

[TheChefO]

All this talk of Halo1 is making me want to go back and play it again ... too bad it isn't rendered 720p on xb360...

I wonder if they'll do a halo1 remix ... sorta like the Nintendo Mario Brothers Allstars game on snes.

Up the res, add some env fx, up the poly counts/textures, up the audio sample rates, add some 3d grass etc..

Add a new level or two...

I'd buy it!

 

[pjbliverpool]

All this talk of Halo1 is making me want to go back and play it again ... too bad it isn't rendered 720p on xb360...

I wonder if they'll do a halo1 remix ... sorta like the Nintendo Mario Brothers Allstars game on snes.

Up the res, add some env fx, up the poly counts/textures, up the audio sample rates, add some 3d grass etc..

Add a new level or two...

I'd buy it!

Or you could always just get the PC version and play at whatever res you want with crazy amounts of AA/AF

 

[kyleb]

No AA in the PC version of the original Halo, but any reasonably modren gaming rig will push 720p easy.

 

[pjbliverpool]

No AA in the PC version of the original Halo, but any reasonably modren gaming rig will push 720p easy.

Yeah now that you mention it I do remember the PC version lacking support for MSAA.

Still, even a 9800pro can rock at 1280x1024 + 16xAF so few worries about image quality

 

[function]

As for Arbiter vs Chief... temporary stealth is sweet, but there's a skull that you can grab on Delta Halo that gives the Chief the same ability in place of the flashlight

I'll have to have a look for that skull!

 

[AlNom]

I'll have to have a look for that skull!

Spoilers/hint:


You have to be on legendary for the skull to give you that ability. And it's on one of the roof platforms just prior to the first pelican that drops those weapon canisters (it's the area where you have to get rid of the tank).

 

[function]

Hm... I've not had that problem in The Library in particular... You really only need the shotgun and a backup weapon (assault rifle) for cleaning up the leftovers when you need to reload the shotgun. I've found that on Legendary or Heroic, the Flood tend to carry more shotguns too, so once you pop them, it's ammo haven (at least 12 rounds per dropped shotgun). It also helped that you carry 72 shells and that they did a ridiculous amount of damage to the Flood. Of course, on legendary that just means you'll die in one direct shot from them.

I guess the experience varies...

I found myself awash with ammo in Halo's Library level (and even more so in Quake 4 come to think of it), I suppose how you play makes a big difference. I'm a big fan of making shots count and firing short, controlled bursts and so shotgun and assault raffle were my ideal combination (pistol and AR are great against the Covenant). Chaingun and shotty were my favourite guns in Doom too, come to think of it...

I think a lot of people are unaware of how Halo's recoil system works for the assault rifle - it doesn't give you a visual indicator (on the crosshairs like Counterstrike does) of how much less accurate the gun is getting and so it's something you might miss if you just hold the trigger down. It's a much better gun than it at first seems (I was well into the game before I worked it out!).

I can't wait to use the revised assault rifle in Halo 3 ...

 

[function]

Spoilers/hint:


You have to be on legendary for the skull to give you that ability. And it's on one of the roof platforms just prior to the first pelican that drops those weapon canisters (it's the area where you have to get rid of the tank).

Superb! I finished it on Legendary, but wasn't big into looking for the skulls. This demands a replay!

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Superb! I finished it on Legendary, but wasn't big into looking for the skulls. This demands a replay!

I still love grabbing the low-gravity, happy birthday grunt party, and invisibility skulls. The middle one makes for especially great moments. Seeing how high you could get a body was a nice sort of challenge too. Heheheh.

 

[SugarCoat]

I found myself awash with ammo in Halo's Library level (and even more so in Quake 4 come to think of it)

Well Quake 4 i was doing on the hardest difficulty where in Halo i wasnt so i guess thats suppose to be my fault. Still though on that difficulty in Quake 4 the enemies take crazy amounts of damage before they went down, and i found that the developers didnt increase the amount of ammunition you could get in any given level to help with that. Like i said in halo too i went into the library with a terrible weapon combo, im sure the assault rifle would of helped quite a bit. The level was repetitive enough, but literally depending only on the ammo you picked up off what you killed to get through the next section truly made it suck.

 

[dlm]

Superb! I finished it on Legendary, but wasn't big into looking for the skulls. This demands a replay!

You should also find the Grunt Birthday Party skull. Whenever you headshot an unshielded opponent, it causes a plasma explosion. It's hidden in one of the Banshee sections of the first Arbiter level.

All the skulls except Blind are only on Legendary (Blind can be found on any difficulty in Outskirts). But as long as you don't turn off the console, they will apply to any game you play.

I actually had one save spot at each skull (except I Would Have Been Your Daddy, which is too freaking hard) so I could set them up quickly.

Based on the Bungie podcasts, they'll just be options in Halo 3... which is far less annoying.

 

[TheChefO]

Or you could always just get the PC version and play at whatever res you want with crazy amounts of AA/AF

meh - I bought the console for a reason - I don't want to dump any more money into my pc's than is necessary.

Anyway, the point was to not just have the res upgraded (though that would be a baseline requirement), I'm thinking more like improved models, textures, sounds, etc.

Repackage the same old Halo1 (maybe Halo2 as well) but with improved AV experience for those that missed out on the first (or second) and/or are new to the xbox platform.

Nintendo did the same thing with "Mario All Stars". The took the same old mario games, but bumped the graphics and sound for SNES.

 

[AlNom]

Anyway, the point was to not just have the res upgraded (though that would be a baseline requirement), I'm thinking more like improved models, textures, sounds, etc.

Repackage the same old Halo1 (maybe Halo2 as well) but with improved AV experience for those that missed out on the first (or second) and/or are new to the xbox platform.

The thing is that Bungie isn't really in the habit of remaking older games, and I believe they've mentioned in interviews that they are only looking towards the future instead of revisiting past IPs. Still, that doesn't quite rule out hiring another studio to do the job, as was the case with Marathon: Durandal on XBL. Of course, that was relatively low budget...

I mean, they did have their chance already with the PC ports, which could have been updated appropriately to compete with other PC titles of the same release year, but they didn't do too much with the graphics.

hm... that reminds me... The ammo packs in Halo 2 were noticeably lower resolution than the ones from Halo:CE on Xbox; you'd be able to zoom in with a scope on them in Halo: CE and be able to read the ammo description clearly, but in Halo 2, they were a blurry mess.. Are they back to being "high-res" in H2V?

 

[pjbliverpool]

meh - I bought the console for a reason - I don't want to dump any more money into my pc's than is necessary.

Anyway, the point was to not just have the res upgraded (though that would be a baseline requirement), I'm thinking more like improved models, textures, sounds, etc.

Repackage the same old Halo1 (maybe Halo2 as well) but with improved AV experience for those that missed out on the first (or second) and/or are new to the xbox platform.

Nintendo did the same thing with "Mario All Stars". The took the same old mario games, but bumped the graphics and sound for SNES.

I guess that would be nice but I wouldn't count on it for a few years if ever. Right now the best way you can experience Halo (graphically) is on the PC.

Remember its an old xbox game aswell so won't exactly suck up a lot of power. A modest R3xx or NV3x will run it much better than the xbox did.