Halo: Combat Evolved

Title: Halo: Combat Evolved
Platform: Pc, Xbox
Developer(s): Microsoft, Bungie
Release Date: 2001
Genre(s): First Person Shooter
Online/Single player: Online/Offline
Rating: 6/5






Info:  

You are the last of  your kind. Bred for combat, built for war, you are the master of any weapon, pilot of any vehicle... and fear no enemy.

Halo is the first game of the Halo series, that is still ongoing to this day, although only the first three games are directly associated with Master Chief.
(I counted out Halo 4 and 5 because these games are developed by 343 Industries, and not Bungie)

You play as Spartan 117, more commonly known as the Master Chief. Before the game begins, you have fled from the battle of reach, and has entered a "blind jump" in which your ship jumps randomly in order to escape the enemy fleet. Unfortunately for you, the Covenant got there before you and was waiting for you. As your ship, the Pillar of Autumn, is being sieged by Covenant soldiers, your task is to flee the ship with an AI that holds all information about humanity, and land on a mysterious ring-like object, named Halo. When you land on Halo, you must save your fellow human survivors, and discover the dark secrets that Halo contains.

Enemies and Allies
Your allies are the humans, which are mainly marines. Your enemies are members of the Covenant alliance, which seeks to destroy humans because apparently our appearances are "mocking" their gods.

The marines are strong in comparison to the majorities of the aliens, which are the Grunts and the Jackals. However, they need superior numbers to beat an elite or a hunter.
To the right: Master Chief facing The Arbiter
(I know Arbiter wasn't introduced until Halo 2)
The enemy is the Covenant, an alliance of alien species that consist of Grunts, which are the most common foe, usually just a meat shield, Jackals, which are either snipers or shielded infantry, Elites, in which the strength varies depending on their armor color, and hunters, which are the strongest of them. In later games we are also introduced to Brutes, which are stronger but also less intelligent than Elites, and drones, which can fly.

                                                                               
Gameplay

Perspective
The game settings are put in a first-person perspective. This means that you view things from the main characters eyes. Your HUD display is set to match Chief's visor view, and displays navigation, weapon, ammunition, health and shield.





Weaponry
The weapons in Halo are set to be futuristic. The human weapons use bullets like today, as we haven't
evolved as fast as the Covenant has, however they still have a more futuristic look to them. The Assault rifle, the shotgun, the rocket launcher, the sniper, and most powerful of them all, the pistol. Yes, the pistol was the most powerful of them all. In fact it was so overpowered that in later games they had to nerf it to the point where no one used it anymore.

The Covenant weapons consist mainly of plasma weapons. The weapons are the Plasma rifle, the Plasma pistol, the Fuel Rod cannon, and the Energy Sword. The energy sword couldn't be worn by players until later games though.
Conveniently, the Human weapons seem to be more powerful in the game than the Covenant weapon does. The plasma weapons however drain shields more effectively than the human ones though.


Campaign
The most beautiful part of Halo is the campaign. Except from the beginning where you play on the
ship, the game takes place on the ring world Halo. The story to Halo is an amazing work, so I won't go too deep in it and let you explore it yourself. The first Halo game is difficult to find today, but should you get a copy of it, it also works on Xbox 360 in case you don't have the original console.
You can also pirate download it to your PC. Be careful though, a lot of these files can contain viruses.