Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
and on top of that, 2 April 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This is highly recommended, fighting the Covenant is good fun, 4 levels of difficulty make it more interesting, and half-way through you meet the real bad-guys, turn up your gamma if you're afraid of the dark. What I wanted to point out is that in the other reviews I find no mention of Halo online - this is what gives it its long-life, I've been online-ing for two or three years now, making friends and killing them all over the world. So highly recommended.
|
|
|
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Return of the Prodigal, 1 Feb 2004
When Halo finally arrived on the PC, it had its work cut out. Firstly it had to soothe the hurt feelings of PC gamers slighted by its ‘treachery’. Secondly, first person shooter standards are far higher in PC gaming than they are in console land. Thirdly, a little spit and polish aside, the game was already three years old before it came to the PC – making it practically middle-aged by gaming standards. How would it cope?
This game – as the title suggests – is a genuine evolution of its genre.
Though this is not immediately obvious from the first few scenes. We start off on board the space ship Pillar of Autumn (such a nice name) which is attacked and boarded by an enemy known as the Covenant, who are intent on destroying it and everyone on board. Once the opening scenes explaining the plot and a thinly disguised tutorial level are out of the way, you will find yourself wandering through corridors (a first person shooter staple) encountering several local skirmishes between Covenant and human forces as you go. It’s solid enough but, as I have said, fairly straight forward.
The game really begins in earnest when you go down to the Halo itself. It is here, in Halo’s open spaces where the AI is free to do its stuff, that you realise you are not playing just another shooter.
One of the main features of Halo’s combat is its use of vehicles. Its selection of small and large, land and air, alien and human vehicles are a key factor in the dynamic, occasionally epic nature of the battles you must fight.
The Warthog is probably the most well known of the vehicles. This is the light reconnaissance vehicle used by your troops. Its three barrelled mounted machine gun cuts a swath through infantry, but its, shall we say, ‘enthusiastic’ suspension means that it is prone to rolling over when sharp manoeuvring is required.
But Halo is not simply an average shooter with a vehicle gimmick tacked on. Most of the time, you are have to negotiate the enemy on foot. Bungie have made sure that each element of this experience pulls its weight. Each weapon has its benefits and its drawbacks.
In addition to your standard issue weapons, you will be able to acquire many other types of weapons from the battlefields of Halo; both alien and human. Human weapons include assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers and fragmentation grenades. Covenant weapons that can be procured include plasma grenades, plasma handguns and rifles, which over heat and temporarily lock up with sustained fire (a game play balancing trick to compensate for not having to reload them, I suspect).
If the player were able to acquire all these weapons, he/she would become an unstoppable cannonball of death about half way through the game. To prevent this, Bungie have limited the player to just two firearms and four of each type of grenade at any one time. This frequently left me agonising over which to take and which to leave behind. You need a rapid fire small arm for all the foot soldiers you meet, of course, but what should the second weapon be? Do you take the rocket launcher to deal swiftly with any big boys you might encounter? Or do you take the sniper rifle to thin out their numbers before you move in?
This is something you have to really think about before paying serious attention to your battle plan. One of the reasons for this is the game’s saving system. Unfortunately for those PC gamers whose index finger is always hovering around the F5 key, there is no quick save. Instead, the game awards you with a checkpoint; usually when you reach a certain point in the game but sometimes when you have cleared an area of the enemy. Some people might complain about this being a relic of its console origins, but it is more than that. The fact that you cannot simply fire off a couple of rounds, hide behind a rock, quick save and repeat means that you have to think more about what you are doing and the possible consequences of any tactical mistakes you make. Besides, Halo is generous with its checkpoints; you will never find yourself having to repeat more than just the last few minutes, and the organic nature of the combat means that no two battles are ever the same anyway – even if it is the ‘same’ battle as the one you just croaked in.
Another interesting tweak is the shields of your personal body armour. If left alone (i.e. you are not taking any damage) they will recharge themselves. The good thing about this is that you will never find yourself in a situation where you are half dead with no shields and progress is virtually impossible. The fact that you can always enter a field of combat with a full shield means that you always have a fighting chance.
Halo: Combat Evolved is a truly superb game, one by which others of its genre will be measured. It is a must for all fans of first person shooters and even worth a try for those who aren’t. Even my own brother, who had always despised shooters, was singing its praises in the end.
If there is one area in which Halo might disappoint, it’s the technical details. Whilst there are always some people who experience problems installing and running games, Halo seems to have caused more than its fair share of nervous breakdowns regarding sluggish performance and other miscellaneous technical issues; awakening painful memories of GTAIII. Even so, most people, providing they are realistic when it comes to scaling to game’s graphics options, should be able to run this game perfectly well and enjoy the elements that make Halo: Combat Evolved what it is.
Play Halo, you won’t be disappointed. I promise.
|
|
|
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but update ur graphics drivers first, 22 Jan 2004
I dont know what that other guy was on about, but after updating my graphics drivers on the internet halo ran fine on my pc (2400 athlon, 128mb geforce 4600).Gearbox have done a reasonable job in porting it over to the pc. The game plays well in single player, and multplayer is great fun. There are only really 2 snags in my opinion, first up there is no co-operative mode as in the xbox version which was half the fun of the original. second, large multiplayer games can get quite laggy, but this is perhaps more due to the hardware of those hosting the games, than the game itself. Aside from these points Halo for the pc is well worth getting. If u've never played the xbox version u will immensely enjoy single player. But even veterens of the xbox version will get a great deal out of the multiplayer mode (provided u have broadband). Hope this helps.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
