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Halo: Combat Evolved

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Revision as of 06:30, March 14, 2015 by 90.199.120.8 (talk)

{{Game Infobox |name= Halo: Combat Evolved |image= Halo Combat Evolved cover.png |developer= Bungie Studios |publisher= [[Microsoft Game StudioAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

|title-3=Organizations|

|title-4=Locations|

|title-5=Events|

|title-6=Weapons|

UNSC

Covenant

Usable
Unusable

|title-7=Vehicles|

UNSC

Usable
Unusable

Covenant

Usable
Unusable

|title-8=Technology and equipment|

Equipment
Other

}}

Gameplay

Halo: Combat Evolved's gameplay was characterized by several features which set it apart from less acclaimed first-person shooter games of its time.

  • Storyline execution: Halo: Combat Evolved's gameplay and storyline are tightly interwoven, delivered in a convincing manner consistent with the flow of the game.
  • Vehicular incorporation: Halo: Combat Evolved's includes the option for players to control multiple land and air based vehicles in third-person view. This vantage brings a welcomed sense of immersion and enhances specific points of gameplay, again setting Halo apart from contemporary first person shooters.
  • Weapons system: Halo: Combat Evolved's new weapons system is unique in two major respects. The first is only allowing players to carry two weapons at a time, thus forcing the player to make trade-offs as they progress throughout the game. The second is a single, separate button for throwing grenades, making them much more significant in both campaign and multiplayer games.
  • Artificial intelligence: Halo: Combat Evolved's AI is quite sophisticated for its era. With a brand new advanced AI system, actions performed by the AI such as panicking after the death of a superior, diving out of the way of an oncoming vehicle, or taking cover from explosives and suppressive fire, helped Halo stand out from the rest of the first-person shooters being released at the time.

Movement in Halo is similar to other first-person shooters, allowing the player to move forwards, backwards, and strafe left and right (including diagonally) independently of their aim. On the Xbox, moving and aiming are normally separated between the two analogue sticks, and on the PC, between the keyboard and the mouse. Halo also allows the player to crouch and jump, although jumping from a high ledge will often result in death, or at least major fall damage. Damage from falling can be reduced or negated entirely with a well-timed crouch right as one lands. Additionally, if the player crouches at the peak of his jump, he will be able to land on something slightly taller than if he were to jump without crouching. Also, if the player is jumping from a cliff he can make sure he is touching the wall periodically while he is falling. This will count as if he is touching floor, and every time the player touches the wall, the damage counter goes to zero (there is no visible damage counter during gameplay).

Environment

Halo: Combat Evolved features a wide variety of environments including human and Covenant star ships, ancient buildings on Halo itself, and expansive outdoor climates. The first level, Pillar of Autumn, is fought entirely on the human star ship of the same name. The next level, Halo, takes place in a temperate highland climate with open-air Forerunner structures scattered about. This level also contains the famous "Blue Beam Towers". Truth and Reconciliation begins in a rocky desert, but the setting changes to the titular Covenant cruiser about one-third of the way through. The Silent Cartographer occurs on a tropical island, with substantial combat both outdoors and inside futuristic Forerunner installations. Assault on the Control Room takes place in a snowy, icy area of towering cliffs and underground tunnels as well as high-tech suspension bridges and oft-repeated Forerunner structures built into and through cliff walls.

343 Guilty Spark is a significant departure from these majestic environments, with combat in gloomy, exotic swamps and equally gloomy underground complexes that host the player's introduction to the Flood. The player is then teleported to the second of three entirely indoor levels, The Library, encountering repetitive, forbidding hallways and massive elevators. Master Chief returns to the snowy climate of Assault on the Control Room for Two Betrayals, visiting almost no new areas but, interestingly, traveling in the opposite direction. Keyes occurs in the same Covenant ship from Truth and Reconciliation, albeit now heavily damaged, but this time the Flood are present in huge numbers. Finally, The Maw is set on the Pillar of Autumn with three major differences: the presence of the Flood, the heavy structural damage, and access to the Engineering section and service corridors of the ship, which were previously off-limits. In total, six of the ten levels feature a substantial amount of combat outdoors.

Player damage system

In Halo: Combat Evolved, the player has a limited, non-regenerating health, which can be fully restored by picking up health packs. Running completely out of health will result in death, but having lower health does not impede player actions. A player's health can be reduced only if his shields have been depleted. If the player's health is at minimal levels they will faintly hear John-117's heartbeat.

Serving as the second layer of protection is the shielding system specially built for the MJOLNIR Mk. V armor. The shield will decrease in strength every time it is hit by a weapon and will fail after taking too many hits. The amount of shield drain depends on the attacker's weapon but will quickly regenerate if it is not hit for a brief period of time. The shield represents a marked departure from most first-person shooters, in which one's health bar is basically augmented by picking up "armor".

Campaign

The campaign in Halo: Combat Evolved can be played by single-player or cooperatively. In cooperative play, the second player takes control of an identical copy of the Master Chief. This second player, however, will not appear in any cutscene in the game.

The game's campaign consists of ten levels:

  1. The Pillar of Autumn - "Escape intact as Covenant forces board your ship."
  2. Halo - "Seek out surviving Marines and help them fight the Covenant."
  3. The Truth and Reconciliation - "Board a Covenant ship in an attempt to rescue Captain Keyes."
  4. The Silent Cartographer - "Search for the map room that will lead you to the secrets of Halo."
  5. Assault on the Control Room - "Defend the Control Room against wave after wave of Covenant troops."
  6. 343 Guilty Spark - "Creep through a swamp to meet the only enemy the Covenant fear."
  7. The Library - "Fight your way through an ancient security facility in search of the Index."
  8. Two Betrayals - "Re-activate the weapon at the heart of Halo... and learn the truth."
  9. Keyes - "Stage a one-cyborg assault on a Covenant ship and bring back the Captain."
  10. The Maw - "Destroy Halo before Halo destroys all life in the galaxy."

Multiplayer

Up to four players can play together using the same-console splitscreen mode. It is also possible for up to 16 players to play together in one Halo game over a local area network, using Xbox and/or Xbox 360 consoles that have been connected through an ethernet hub, or via Xbox Connect. The game's seamless support for this type of play, and a few large maps that can accommodate up to 16 combatants, is a first for console games. Since the game was released before the launch of Xbox Live, mainstream online play was not available for this title.

A total of 13 multiplayer maps are available:

Development

Design

Main article: Pre-Xbox Halo
File:Halo 072199.jpg
The first official screenshot of Halo.
File:Oldhalo.jpg
The old heads-up display and a Halo that has fallen under disrepair. This design was eventually incorporated into Halo 3.

On July 21, 1999, during the Macworld Conference & Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Halo would be released for Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.[1] Before this public announcement, game industry journalists under a non-disclosure agreement had previewed the game in a private showing during E3 1999, and were reportedly amazed.[2] Bungie Studios later stated an even earlier development build of the game centered on real-time strategy and was "basically Myth in a sci-fi universe."[3]

At E3 2000, the first trailer of Halo was well-received.[4] The version shown there differed greatly from the one exhibited previously, marking the first major overhaul in the game's development.[5] At this point, Halo was a third-person action game, in which a transport starship crashlands on a mysterious ring world that orbits a star. Early versions of Covenant aliens appear in great numbers and loot what they can, and war erupts between them and the humans. Unable to match the technologically advanced alien race, the humans on the ring world resort to guerrilla warfare.[6]This version of the game featured Halo-specific fauna, which were later dropped because of design difficulties and the creatures' "detract from the surprise, drama and impact of the Flood."[7]

Microsoft announced on June 19, 2000 that it had acquired Bungie Studios.[8] Halo became an exclusive game for Microsoft's Xbox, and Bungie Studios rewrote the game's engine, heavily altering its presentation and turning it into a first-person shooter.[9] Originally a key element, the game's online multiplayer component was dropped because Xbox Live would be unfinished at the time of Halo's release. While a playable demonstration of the game at Gamestock 2001 was well-received,[10] critics had mixed reactions to its exhibition at E3 2001.[11][12][13] The game was released in North America simultaneously with the Xbox, on November 15, 2001; the "Combat Evolved" subtitle was an addition by marketers at Microsoft, who felt that Halo alone was not a descriptive enough title to compete with other military-themed games.[14]

Audio

 
Cover Art

Halo's soundtrack was created by Bungie Studios' audio director, Martin O'Donnell, and received a large amount of praise from many critics. Martin O'Donnell has stated that his goal was to provide "a feeling of importance, weight, and sense of the 'ancient'."[15] He designed the music so that it "could be dissembled and remixed in such a way that would give [him] multiple, interchangeable loops that could be randomly recombined in order to keep the piece interesting as well as a variable length". Development involved the creation of "alternative middle sections that could be transitioned to if the game called for such a change (i.e. less or more intense)."[16]

Martin O'Donnell has remarked that he "sat with the level designers and 'spotted' the level as though it was a movie, with the knowledge that the music would have to be malleable rather than static... [T]he level designer would tell me what he hoped a player would feel at certain points or after accomplishing certain tasks". Based on this information, O'Donnell would "go back and develop appropriate music cues, then have the designer script the cues into the level, and then we'd play through it to see if it worked as desired."[17] He explained that the use of music in Halo is sparse because he believes that "[music] is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player and it works best when used least", and that "[if] music is constantly playing it tends to become sonic wallpaper and loses its impact when it is needed to truly enhance some dramatic component of game play."[18]

Halo: Original Soundtrack

Main article: Halo: Original Soundtrack

Halo Original Soundtrack, composed and produced by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori for the video game Halo: Combat Evolved, is one CD comprising 26 tracks. Some editions include a bonus DVD with game trailers for Halo 2. Most of the music from Halo: Combat Evolved is present on the CD, although some songs are remixed and some tracks are intermixed with others in medley form. It was released in 2001.

Marketing promotions and release

Demonstration

Main article: Halo E3 2000 Trailer

In 2000 at E3, Bungie showed off a trailer of the upcoming game to the public. This trailer featured Marines along with the Master Chief scouting out a Forerunner structure and the Covenant fighting them. During this trailer there was still no active AI so all the Covenant was actually controlled by Bungie. This trailer was before the conversion to the Xbox as an FPS.

Viral campaign

Main article: Cortana Letters

Before Halo: Combat Evolved was released, a series of cryptic emails were sent to marathon.bungie.org. The emails were supposedly written by Cortana, but the contents written were greatly out of her character. Her hacking skills, however, were shown, having some of the messages from other email accounts and even from the 1.3 version of the Bungie game Myth: The Fallen Lords CD. These messages provided a small glimpse of the Halo Trilogy plot.

Reception

Halo was the main launch title for Xbox and is said to be the game that made the Xbox what it is today. It was widely renowned for saving the fledgling Xbox platform, as the Xbox lacked any titles to compete with Sony's PlayStation 2 or Nintendo's GameCube. Halo became an overnight success and managed to drive the platform from the brink of an early death. It went on to sell 6.43 million copies; in other words, 26% of all Xbox owners also owned Halo.[19][20]

It was also critically acclaimed. IGN gave the game a 9.7 out of 10 and stated it to be the best Xbox game of all time. X-Play gave it a perfect 5 out of 5. The game got a perfect ten from EGM, and was 2002 Game of the Year for IGN, EGM, OXM, and AIAS. It got a 9.5 out of 10 from Game Informer, and an average meta-score of 97 out of 100, making it the most highly rated Xbox game of all time. It Also got a score of 9.0 for the PC version and 9.7 for the Xbox version from Gamespot. It was also called the game that reinvented a genre. OXM rated Halo: CE Number 1 in a list of the 100 best games of recent memory, saying "The Xbox did not create Halo, Halo made the Xbox".

Rereleases

  • 2003 - Rereleased for PC and Mac platforms as Halo PC.
  • 2004 - Rereleased as part of Action Double Pack which included Brute Force and Halo: Combat Evolved.[21]
  • 2005 - Rereleased as part of the Halo Triple Pack which contained Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.
  • 2007 - Rereleased as part of the Halo History Pack (Japan only), which contained Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and a sneak peek of Halo 3,[22] and as part of Xbox LIVE's Xbox Originals.
  • 2011 - Remade as Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary to tie in with Halo's tenth anniversary.

Original Halo team

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Production notes

  • Halo: Combat Evolved was not the original title made by Bungie; the original title of the game had always been intended to be simply "Halo". The subtitle "Combat Evolved", which Bungie has stated they "hated", was suggested by Microsoft Game Studios during the Halo's development phase in order to make the title more descriptive and indicative of a shooter game.[23]
  • There are 8,087 lines of dialog, most of them randomly triggered during combat.[24]
  • The Halo: Combat Evolved box art shows the Banshees in the background in their pilotless stance, yet they are still flying. Similarly, they are shown firing thin beams, rather than the bolts that they actually fire in-game.
  • Halo: Combat Evolved was originally going to have most of the weapons that were introduced in Halo 2 and Halo 3, but due to time constraint, most of the weapons were cut from the final version.[25]
  • In the game's manual, the plasma rifle's blueprint is an overlap of a needler underneath and the rifle on top.
  • Halo was originally planned to have a changing weather system which was mentioned in the August 2000 issue of PC Gamer magazine.[26]

Gallery

  • Title art.

  • The "Platinum Hits" cover for the game.

  • A promotional image for the game.

Sources

  1. ^ IGN: Heavenly "Halo"
  2. ^ PC Gamer: Your first look at... "Halo"
  3. ^ Bungie.net: Inside Bungie: History
  4. ^ Blue's News: Blue's News Best of E3 2000
  5. ^ halo.bungie.org: Frequently Asked Questions about "Halo"
  6. ^ Computer Gaming World: Games That Will Change Gaming
  7. ^ Bungie.net: One Million Years B.X. (Before Xbox)
  8. ^ Microsoft: Microsoft to Acquire Bungie Software
  9. ^ GameCritics: "Halo" (Xbox) Preview
  10. ^ IGN: Playable "Halo" at GameStock
  11. ^ halo.bungie.org: "Next Generation Magazine"
  12. ^ FiringSquad: 2001 E3 Part 1'
  13. ^ halo.bungie.org: "GamePro"
  14. ^ Edge: A Space Odyssey ("Quote" Jaime Griesemer: At the time, Microsoft marketing thought Halo was not a good name for a videogame brand. It wasn't descriptive like all the military games we were competing with. We told them Halo was the name. The compromise was they could add a subtitle. Everyone at Bungie hated it. But it turned out to be a very sticky label and has now entered the gaming lexicon… so I guess in hindsight it was a good compromise. But the real name of the game is just Halo.)
  15. ^ Xbox.com: Just the Right Sense of Ancient
  16. ^ Music4Games: The Use and Effectiveness of Audio in "Halo": Game Music Evolved
  17. ^ Music4Games: The Use and Effectiveness of Audio in Halo: Game Music Evolved
  18. ^ halo.bungie.org: Producing Audio for "Halo"
  19. ^ VG Chartz: Halo: Combat Evolved
  20. ^ VG Chartz: Platforms
  21. ^ IGN - Call it Halo Force
  22. ^ Gamespot Halo History Pack
  23. ^ ComputerAndVideoGame: Microsoft forced Bungie to accept 'Combat Evolved' name
  24. ^ halo.bungie.org, Halo Dialogue Statistics - November 12, 2007
  25. ^ Youtube: Evolution of Halo Part 2: Pre-Xbox 1999 Version to 2000 Demo
  26. ^ halo.bungie.org: PC Gamer August 2000

See also

External links

Template:Halo Games

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