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Halo: Combat Evolved

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Template:Game Info Box Halo: Combat Evolved is a First Person Shooter science fiction video game, created by Bungie Studios, which was at that time a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios. It was released for the Xbox game console on November 15, 2001, to wide critical acclaim, and is backwards-compatible with the Xbox 360. It is one of the most popular video games for the Xbox, with over five million copies sold. Its sales are rivaled by its sequel, Halo 2 and later by Halo 3.

It is available as an Xbox Original title on December 4th, 2007 for download on Xbox Live Marketplace for 1200 points [1].

Gameplay

Main Characters

UNSC

Covenant

Forerunner

Flood

Summary

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

  • Storyline execution: Halo's gameplay and storyline have been known for being tightly interwoven, delivering a convincing manner being consistent with the flow of the game.
  • Vehicular Incorporation: Despite being a first-person shooter, Halo includes the option for players to control multiple vehicles, both ground and air.
  • Weapons system: Halo's new weapons system was unique in two major respects; the first being its allowance of only two weapons to be carried at any given time (forcing the player to make trade-offs as they progressed throughout the game), and the second being its implication of a seperate button used for the throwing of grenades.
  • Artificial intelligence: Halo's AI was quite sophisticated for its generation. 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 even taking cover from explosives or suppressive fire, helped Halo stand out from the rest of the first-person shooters being released at the time.

Movement and aiming

Movement in Halo is similar to other first-person shooters, allowing the player to move forwards, backwards, and strafe left and right independently of their aim. On the Xbox, moving and aiming are normally separated between the two joysticks; and on the PC, between the mouse and the keyboard.

Halo also allows the player to crouch and jump, although jumping from a high ledge will often result in death. Damage from falling can be reduced or negated entirely with a well-timed crouch, right as one lands.

Damage system

Main article: Health
  • Health: The player in Halo has a finite, non self-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 only be reduced if his shields have failed. If the player's health has one bar left (full health has 8 bars), he/she will hear the Chief's heartbeat.
  • Shields: The player carries a shield which protects all parts of his body from damage. The shield will decrease in strength every time it is hit by a weapon, and will fail after taking enough hits, but will quickly regenerate if it is not hit for a 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," and it is entirely possible, in the single-player campaign at least, to simply not have enough health points to survive the next section of gameplay. Halo players, on the other hand, have a more-or-less permanent buffer of health at their disposal (assuming they manage to find time to regenerate the shield), making it less of a disaster to take hits in combat.

Powerups

There are three types of powerups available in Halo:

  • Health Pack: Fully restores the health of the player.
  • Active Camouflage: Drastically reduces the player's visibility for approximately 45 seconds, making all but a faint outline of him transparent. This effect is reduced if the player is hit by weapons fire or if he or she fires a weapon.
  • Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which is three times the strength of the normal one. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield - when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In the single player game, the overshield is reduced only when the player is hit, while in the multiplayer game, it weakens gradually overtime. In Multiplayer and Single-Player campaign, one fully charged Plasma Pistol shot can take out the Overshield entirely. In addition, while the overshield is charging, the player is completely invincible against every type of damage, including a charged plasma pistol shot.

Enemies

The A.I. in Halo (unlike many other games at the time) was sophisticated enough to attack other enemies in the vicinity, not just the Master Chief. If there is another faction in the area, they will engage them in the same way they might fight the Master Chief.

Three factions of enemies are encountered on Halo:

Weapons

Main article: Weapons

All usable weapons in Halo belong to either the Covenant or the UNSC. The player can only carry two weapons at a time, in addition to up to 8 grenades (four fragmentation grenades and four plasma grenades).

Covenant weapons are better suited for reducing shields, and typically fire faster than their human counterparts. With the exception of the needler, they do not require ammunition or reloading; instead, each weapon comes with its own battery which is not reachargable. Once it's battery is depleted, the weapon must be discarded. Covenant weapons can also overheat (except the Needler) if fired for too long, after which, they must be given time to cool down before they can be used again. There are a total of 4 Covenant weapons in the Campaign, three of which are usable by the player (Plasma Pistol/Rifle and the Needler (not counting the Plasma Grenades)). There is an additional weapon in the PC multiplayer, the Fuel Rod Gun.

Human weapons, on the other hand, require both ammunition and constant reloading. They are better suited to reducing health, and do not overheat. However, on easy and normal difficulty level settings the difference is often negligible. There are five human weapons (not counting Frag Grenades) usable in the campaign and six in the multiplayer of the PC version.

UNSC Weapons

  • M6D Pistol - The 6D Pistol, Or M6D is a powerful, Accurate weapon that can be used up to 124 meters, it has good ammo capacity, a 2X scope for sniping, and it's bullets create a small explosion on impact.
  • MA5B Assault Rifle - Most of the time you start off with one. Assault Rifles are fully automatic weapons with a rapid rate of fire. It has low damage per hit, and low accuracy. This weapon is good for close and medium ranges. (a good weapon against infection forms, grunts, and invisible Elites as well)
  • M90 Shotgun - the M90 Shotgun is the player's best friend when it comes to picking off Combat Forms and Carrier Forms and kills them in 1 hit, provided you are close enough to the enemy. It also maintains high effectiveness against Elites. It shoots a burst of 15 bullets, causing enemies in close range to be completely decimated in less than a second. Medium range is not so effective, and long range is useless altogether. Its close range capabilities are what makes it so effective against the flood.
  • SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle - the S2 variant of the Sniper Rifle features a night vision enhancement to the scope, which plays an essential part at the start of the Truth and Reconciliation Level, and can be used to see invisible enemies. Its devestating power and range make it a formidable part of your arsenal. A definite 'grab me whenever you can' sort of weapon. It carries 4 bullets per magazine and can pick off most enemies instantly, depending on their rank and the difficulty the player is playing on.
  • M19 SSM Rocket Launcher - The rocket launcher is a devastating piece of equipment when used right. The Rocket Launcher will kill anything in one shot, as long as a direct hit is made.
  • M9 HE-DP Grenade - The M9 HE-DP grenade, more commonly known as a Frag Grenade, will kill off anything without a shield with blistering ease. Its bounciness gives it the edge in distance over the plasma grenade, and it also packs a lot of force, which means it is better for grenade jumps
  • M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun - The LAAG is always equipped on the back of a Warthog, it serves purpose in the fact that it eliminates enemies and vehicles quickly and effectively, and can rotate on xyz axis, making it capable of firing anywhere.
  • M7057 Defoliant Projector Flamethrower (usable only in multiplayer in Halo PC)

Covenant Weapons

  • Energy Sword (Non-usable) - A deadly weapon, used by Zealot Elites. It can kill the player in one hit, so it is advisable to dispatch the wielder quickly. It is not usable in the game, due to a built-in failsafe.
  • Plasma Rifle - It is a common light weapon in the Covenant army, primarily wielded by Elites. The Plasma Rifle has a high rate of fire and deals out a moderate amount of damage.
  • Plasma Pistol - The Plasma Pistol, like the Plasma Rifle, is a directed energy weapon that fires bolts of superheated ionized gas (i.e. plasma) instead of traditional Human ballistic ammunition. Its ability to instantly and completely deplete shields regardless of strength make it an invaluable weapon in multiplayer as well as in Campaign against certain enemies, especially Elites, Jackals, and Sentinels.
  • Needler - The Needler fires semi-homing crystal shards that explode approximately ten seconds after being launched and ignore most forms of personal energy shielding. While one explosion produces fairly light damage, several crystals exploding in succession can multiply the damage to fatal amounts, and even more crystals in the same enemy will produce a large explosion.
  • Fuel Rod Gun (only usable in Halo PC Multiplayer) - The Fuel Rod Gun is used by both the strongest and weakest of the Covenant species. It is carried on the shoulders of many SpecOps Grunts, and a modified version is directly attached on the right arm of Hunters.
  • Plasma Grenade - The Covenant plasma grenade is one of the more clever weapons in the game. Once activated, its outer layer converts to plasma, enabling it to fuse to whatever it impacts.
  • Shade - A stationary gun turret, manned in third-person like a vehicle. They consist of a stand and a floating mobile turret-like seating with control systems to its gun.

Vehicles

File:4wiki.jpg
This image shows vehicle-on-vehicle combat, a motif that is repeated throughout the game

The vehicles available to the player are listed below:

  • M12 Warthog LRV - UNSC Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, the Warthog has on it's back, a 50mm M41-LAAG Ground To Air/Ground Gattling-type rotary auto-cannon turret.
  • M808B Scorpion MBT - UNSC Battle Tank
  • Ghost - Covenant Reconnaissance and Rapid Attack Vehicle
  • Banshee - Covenant Aerial Assault Aircraft

Note that the Banshee is unavailable in multiplayer in the Xbox version.

There are also several vehicles that are not player controllable, like the UNSC Pelican dropship, and the Covenant Spirit dropship. The only tactically interesting of these vehicles is the Covenant Wraith Mortar tank, which fires large plasma bombs in parabolic arcs towards its enemies. These bombs, if they score a direct hit, will often destroy vehicles or kill a Spartan if he/she is not equipped with an overshield. They can be taken down most effectively with explosive weapons such as the Scorpion's main cannon, the rocket launcher, or the Banshee's fuel rod gun. If those are unavailable you can just ram them with the Scorpion as sometimes they do flip over.

Environments

Halo features a wide variety of environments in which combat occurs, including both human and Covenant starships, ancient buildings on Halo itself, and expansive outdoor climates. The first level, Pillar of Autumn is fought entirely on the human starship 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 rocky deserts and 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.

Multiplayer

Up to 4 players can play together using the same-console split screen mode. It is also possible for up to 16 players to play together in one Halo game over a local area network, using Xbox's and/or Xbox 360's that have been connected through an Ethernet hub, but also can be played on Xbox Connect which is a way of tunneling a connection via a PC. The game's seamless support for this type of play, as well as a few large maps that can comfortably hold 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. The PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved officially adds online play, also new vehicles (The Banshee and the never-before-seen Rocket Warthog), weapons (The Fuel Rod Gun and the never-before-seen Flamethrower) and maps (see list below) for multiplayer. The PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved does not support split screen multiplayer.

The box art for Halo: Combat Evolved on PC.

Multiplayer maps in Halo: Combat Evolved:

Storyline

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Halo's storyline is linear; there is only one ending (in contrast to other first person shooters such as Deus Ex). It is presented to the player through an instruction manual, scripted events and conversations during the game, and a number of cut-scenes rendered using the game's graphics engine. This method of storyline delivery is common among modern video games. The Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved allows one player to play the campaign alone, as well as allow two players to play through the campaign in split screen. The PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved allows only one player to play through the campaign, unless the Halo Custom Edition program is being used, in which case, the campaign is disabled completely.

File:Halo.gif
Halo Art

Halo Combat Evolved Campaign levels:

Brief summary

Halo, like previous Bungie releases such as the Marathon series, has an intricate plot.

The "Halo" in the title refers to an enormous artificial space habitat similar to a Culture Orbital discovered by the warship Pillar of Autumn, which the central character, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, is aboard. With the help of his fellow marines and the ship's artificial intelligence, Cortana, the Master Chief discovers some of the secrets of Halo while fighting off members of The Covenant, archenemies of humanity who, presumably, wish to find Halo's secrets for themselves.

Backstory

The events which transpire in Halo's gameplay must be understood in the context of its backstory, created by Bungie and elaborated in several novels written after the release of the game. Noteworthy is its use of the oft-used battle between monoculture radicalism and liberalism. Also present, although less pronounced, is the likewise popular theme of blind religion (Covenant) versus free-thought secularism (UNSC).

A summary of this backstory is presented below.

Early Conflicts

Main article: United Nations Space Command

2160-2200: This is a period of brutal unrest in Human history in which Governments and Factions fight for control of Earth and its colonies.

As overpopulation and unrest mounted on Earth, a number of new political movements were formed including the left wing Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov and the neo t Jovian Frieden (which attacked the UN Colonial Advisors on the moon) and UN-sponsored military forces begin a pattern of massive buildups which culminated in the first Interplanetary and Rain Forest Wars of the Jovian Moons Campaign. After the successful Marine attack on Mars, recruitment drives and propaganda tactics strongly bolstered UNSC forces. They defeat the Koslovics and the Frieden on Earth and crush their remnants throughout the Solar System: both factions were defeated in the face of massive, unified UN military.

The Human Colonization of the Orion Arm

Main article: United Nations Space Command

In the year 2291, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) successfully develop humanity's first Slipspace drive, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. For the first time in history, the rapid colonization of other worlds is made possible. By 2390, 210 worlds have been occupied by humans, and are being actively terraformed to suit man's needs. These worlds are to become known as the Inner Colonies. By 2490, the UNSC's fledgling interstellar empire has expanded to over 800 planets throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. During this period, the planet Reach becomes the headquarters of the UNSC military, and is destined to become the most heavily fortified world under human control.

The Fall of the Outer Colonies

Main article: United Nations Space Command

Cole's fleet manages a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of Human commanders, Covenant technology guarantees a four to one kill/loss ratio in most battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall below the onslaught, and by 2535, virtually all have been destroyed.

The Spartan Project

Main article: SPARTAN

By 2517, several years before contact with the Covenant was made, the UNSC military embarked on a secret project to create a group of elite soldiers that would deal with occasional unrest in the Colonies. Codenamed SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of 6 into a life of battle, and became a great asset against the Covenant. While humans suffered defeat after defeat in space, they could almost always prevail with the help of the SPARTANs in ground engagements. The main character of Halo's gameplay, the Master Chief, is a veteran SPARTAN of the SPARTAN II project after an unfortunate failure of the first SPARTAN program. All SPARTANS were given special armor designated MJOLNIR, which can increase their strength and speed. They were the only ones who could wear it as those without upgrades would be thrown into convulsions and die.

The Battle of Reach

Main article: Battle of Reach

By 2552, many of Humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant. In a move of desperation, UNSC orders a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using a SPARTAN task force and find the coordinates of their home planet. A group of SPARTANs, led by the Master Chief, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted ship known as the Pillar of Autumn (under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes). This plan, however, is interrupted when the Covenant launch a surprise attack on the fortress world of Reach.

During this battle, Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet is obliterated. Worse still, the Master Chief thinks that all of the SPARTANs but himself are killed on the surface of the planet. The (supposedly) last remaining SPARTAN, the Master Chief, escapes with the Pillar of Autumn. In accordance with the Cole Protocol, the Autumn makes a blind Slipspace jump, and emerges in the vicinity of an unexplored and remarkable world.

Arrival at Halo

Main article: Alpha Halo

The Pillar of Autumn exits Slipspace to find a mysterious ring shaped space station orbiting a gas giant. The ring, quickly named "Halo", is obviously artificial and teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Captain Keyes initiates the Cole protocol - all records of Earth's location are erased, and the Autumn is crash landed onto Halo. The ship's AI construct, Cortana, leaves the Autumn with the Master Chief in a Bumblebee escape pod which also crash lands on Halo.

Gameplay begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon landing. The player will soon discover the origins and purpose of this world - and uncover a threat that forces even the Covenant into retreat.

As a literary sidenote, the ring, "Halo", borrows heavily from the Ringworld of Larry Niven and the Culture Orbitals of Iain M. Banks.

Main Characters

Main article: Characters
  • The Master Chief: The only SPARTAN-II known to have survived the battle of Reach at the beginning of the game. He is the character the player assumes during gameplay.
  • Cortana: The Pillar of Autumn's AI construct, removed from the ship by the Master Chief in accordance with the Cole Protocol. During most of the game, Cortana is connected directly to the Master Chief's neural interface, and acts to deliver tactical information and mission objectives.
  • Captain Jacob Keyes: The distinguished Captain of the Pillar of Autumn, renowned for his tactical brilliance in key battles prior to the fall of Reach. He was also part of the expedition to find candidates for the SPARTAN project, the first of which was the Master Chief, subject/candidate 117.
  • 343 Guilty Spark: The Monitor of Installation 04.
  • The Marines: The Marines of the UNSC are the best, but are struggling and fighting a losing war against the Covenant. The marines are your allies in the game.
  • Sergeant Johnson : Sergeant Johnson commands Marines during the game. He also provides comic relief and is the only human besides the Master Chief and Blue Team (Fred, Will and Linda) to make it back to Earth alive. He is seemingly the toughest Marine in the game.

In-game plot

The first levels of the game deal with an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. It is soon discovered that the Covenant have accidentally released something from an ancient containment facility on the ring, The Flood, a parasitic race which gets its name from the way it devastates potential hosts with sheer numbers. The Flood then sweep across Halo and devastate human and Covenant forces positioned on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric Artificial Intelligence who commands Halos containment forces, the Sentinels , to try to activate Halo's defense system, a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all life in the galaxy large enough to be hosts for the Flood. Technically, that installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other installations as well, effectively killing all life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe if they escape confinement from Halo by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source large enough to sustain them.

Naturally, this would wipe out Humanity as well as the Covenant, and so the final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires.

The game leaves the story open to further developments, with the revelation that there are several Halo ringworlds in the galaxy, due to Halo being numbered "Installation 04" by 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of the installation. It is revealed in Halo 2 that there were seven (Bungie's favorite number) Halos before Installation 04's destruction. Template:Endspoiler

Halo: Original Soundtrack

The cover of the Halo: Original Soundtrack.
Cover Art

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.

Future developments

The next episode in the Halo story, Halo 2, was released on November 9, 2004. [2] Like the previous fan-beloved Marathon, Halo 2 has a return of old characters and new technology in attempt to further a complicated plot line, the object of which is to be deciphered by the end.

A free mod for the computer game series Battlefield 1942/Vietnam called Homefront features Halo-esque and original content for online multiplayer games with up to 64 players.[3]

Not only this mod, but many, can be found at various sites on the Internet at places like halomods.comand other sites. The customizable map option has become quite popular with the downloadable custom edition of the PC version, many maps can be found on these sites, ready to be opened and played. These maps can be made with 3D Studio MAX and the Halo Editing Kit.

Trailers

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. This trailer was before the conversion to the Xbox as an FPS. Originally the game was to be a RTS as a computer game.

Trivia

  • In the video review for Halo by GameSpot, Joe Fielder explains the co-op mode for Halo and when he talks about respawning, he says that one needs to get out of combat or "finish the fight", the advertising tagline for Halo 3.
  • Halo was originally being developed for the Mac and PC before Microsoft took interest in its development and purchased Bungie Studios (therefore owning a promising video game to use exclusively with its upcoming video game console, the Xbox).
  • On the campaign level "Two Betrayals", in the first cinematic shot, the Master Chief is wielding an MA5B Assault Rifle. After the cinematic shot ends, he is armed with a Plasma Pistol and an M90 Shotgun. This happens on other levels as well like The Maw and 343 Guilty Spark.
  • There are 8,087 lines of dialog, most of them randomly triggered during combat.[4]
  • On the Halo: Combat Evolved cover the Banshees in the background are shown in their pilotless stance, yet they are still flying.

References

  1. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/xboxoriginals/default.htm
  2. ^ http://www.bungie.net/News/Story.aspx?link=5B522E9E-A265-409E-9267-EB2EDCFD50B4
  3. ^ http://www.planetbattlefield.com/homefront/
  4. ^ Halo Dialogue Statistics, from the source - HBO, November 12, 2007

Related Links

Internal

External

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