It doesn't happen much, but sometimes a video game so influential is released that it redefines an entire genre. Halo Combat Evolved not only did this, but started one of the most well known franchises in the world today. I can just refuse to elaborate further, and pull up the insane numbers: over 40 novels, 16 games, 81 million copies sold, and so on. It takes nothing less than a masterpiece to spawn a series this groundbreaking. The very first game, while over 20 years old at this point, still manages to be among the best in the series and one of the finest in the sci-fi shooter genre. While there is no doubt much more to Halo than its plot, it would help to explain what goes on in this enormous game universe which rivals the size of our own. A universe mainly concerned with the player character, an alien alliance trying to destroy humanity, and an ancient ring of unimaginable power.
Halo CE begins in September 2552 on a large spaceship called the Pillar of Autumn. While not shown in game, the ship has just fled from the planet Reach, a human colony world that was just utterly annihilated by the Covenant: a conglomerate of different alien races who are at war with humanity. Captain Jacob Keyes, commanding officer of the Autumn, orders everyone to their battlestations when he is told by Cortana (the ship's female holographic artificial intelligence) that Covenant ships have been following them all the way from Reach. The player assumes the role of John-117. Commonly known by his rank of Master Chief, John is the human race's trump card against the Covenant, being a member of a near mythical batch of supersoldiers known as Spartans. Chief is awoken from sleeping in a cryogenic pod meant to preserve his lifespan just as Covenant boarding groups begin to infiltrate the Autumn, knowing Cortana is onboard. John makes his way to the ship's bridge and is given orders by Captain Keyes to get Cortana off the ship. If the Covenant capture her, they will learn where Earth is and humanity will be doomed. John fights his way through swarms of alien attackers and makes it to a lifeboat, which jettisons from the Autumn and crash lands on a huge ring shaped world called Halo. As Chief attempts to link up with marines who survived in other lifeboats, he fights his way through more Covenant, then receives word that Keyes has been captured by the aliens. He is next tasked with infiltrating the Truth and Reconciliation, a mile long Covenant spaceship that is holding Keyes hostage. After rescuing him, Cortana analyzes Covenant records and learns that they believe Halo is some kind of weapon which controls the fate of the universe. After finding out that Halo has its own control center from which it can be activated, John and Cortana set out to find the Cartographer: a map room that will show them its location. Facing heavy Covenant resistance, they make it to the control center in order to discover Halo's true purpose, but Cortana senses something is wrong. She finds out an ancient race known as Forerunners built it in order to rid the galaxy of something horrible they had encountered, and Keyes is about to unknowingly uncover it. Cortana urges John to rush out of there and find Keyes before it's too late.
Chief arrives at a dimly lit and eerie swamp area, where all the normally staunch Covenant soldiers are fleeing in horror from some unseen enemy. After entering the nearby Forerunner facility, John finds out that the place was made to contain a terrifying adversary: the Flood. The Flood are a highly virulent alien parasite that cause the extinction of other lifeforms by infecting them and absorbing their memories, and were responsible for almost wiping out the Forerunners millenia ago. After fighting his way out of the Flood infested area, John is confronted by 343 Guilty Spark, the Halo ring's monitor. He is a floating, robotic construct built by the Forerunners tasked with looking over Installation 04 (Halo's official name). He wants Chief's assistance with making sure the Flood does not escape the ring, so he teleports him to The Library: an ancient security facility crawling with Flood. It houses the index, which is the key to activating the ring itself. Once the index is in John's possession, he returns to Halo's control room and reunites with Cortana, but she is not happy. John is convinced activating the ring will destroy the Flood, but Cortana exposes the truth; Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food source. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them, and without any other thinking aliens or humans to parasitize, they all die. John asks the monitor if this is true, and he says yes. Spark turns on Chief and wants him to give up Cortana (and the index) so the ring can be fired, but he refuses. As a result, Chief now has to deal with being caught in a 4 way war between himself, the Flood, the Covenant, and Sentinels: flying robots with lasers that are tasked with containing Flood outbreaks.
Cortana tells John they need to destroy Halo in order to prevent Spark from getting his wish and activating it. To do this, John needs to destroy 3 generators that amplify Halo's signal. After this, he is teleported to the Truth and Reconciliation in order to search for Keyes. The ship is now disabled and swarming with Flood forms, who wish to repair the ship, use it to escape Halo, and infect other worlds (possibly Earth). Another 3 way battle ensues onboard the ruined and chaotic hallways of the cruiser, and John discovers the horrible truth upon entering the bridge: Keyes has been taken over by the Flood, who need his knowledge of Earth in order to infect it. John punches through Keyes' decaying skull and retrieves his neural lace, which is required to access the Pillar of Autumn's subsystems. The Covenant sends in special operations teams to deal with the Flood, and Chief must fight them on his way out.
After stealing a flying Covenant vehicle known as a Banshee, he makes his way to the crashed Pillar of Autumn, now infested with Flood. He uploads Cortana into the ship's command interface, and she initiates a countdown timer to destroy the ring by detonating the ship's reactor. However, Spark interrupts the process, so Chief must cause the ship's engine to blow up manually by venturing into the engine room and pulling back the exhaust couplings that lead to a fusion drive core. Once this is accomplished, Chief gets out as fast as he can since the whole place is going to blow soon. He is taken by elevator to a very long corridor that runs along the ship's spine, and drives a Warthog (an armored jeep with a gatling gun on the back) through hordes of Covenant, Flood, and Sentinels. John makes his way to a hangar bay which contains a large Longsword jet fighter. After boarding it, he pushes its engines to their limits and escapes Halo's atmosphere just as it explodes. When Cortana tells him they are the only two who made it off alive and that Halo is finished, John says they're just getting started and removes his helmet, though the view is obscured from the player.
This game is awesome. While the gameplay itself feels a little dated, the story is still as interesting today as it was in 2001. If you like science fiction, it should go without saying that you'll be interested in Halo. Marty O'Donnell absolutely kills it with the soundtrack, and the main theme of this game with the Gregorian choir has become rather iconic. The weapons and vehicles are all fun to use and viable options for the most part, which isn't the case in later games. Ironically, the most useful weapon is the humble pistol, as it fires huge .50 caliber rounds and can headshot enemies, killing them instantly. The alien plasma weapons are battery powered, and must be replaced when they are depleted as humans don't know how to recharge them. Halo CE's story mode is quite fair, and while it is difficult on the highest setting, it's very possible. There are many who can beat the whole game without dying once, as CE contains basically no unpredictable encounters that can kill instantly (almost). Probably the most obnoxious enemies are the handful of Flood forms that spawn with rocket launchers, a feared weapon that can eliminate anything up to a large vehicle in a single shot. All the Covenant races behave differently in combat, but the biggest threat to you are the Elites, as they have the same full body shielding system that you do. If you damage them but give their shields a chance to recharge, you basically just wasted your ammo.
Overall though, beating the campaign on legendary is a rewarding experience and you won't feel cheated if you get killed, as most of the time, it's your fault. While it's been surpassed in many ways by later games, CE still remains a fun game to play online as there are many different game modes and maps to choose from. For me, I will always enjoy how customizable the game is, and to this day people are still making their own mods, weapons and maps for it. There will never be another game like Halo.
Halo CE begins in September 2552 on a large spaceship called the Pillar of Autumn. While not shown in game, the ship has just fled from the planet Reach, a human colony world that was just utterly annihilated by the Covenant: a conglomerate of different alien races who are at war with humanity. Captain Jacob Keyes, commanding officer of the Autumn, orders everyone to their battlestations when he is told by Cortana (the ship's female holographic artificial intelligence) that Covenant ships have been following them all the way from Reach. The player assumes the role of John-117. Commonly known by his rank of Master Chief, John is the human race's trump card against the Covenant, being a member of a near mythical batch of supersoldiers known as Spartans. Chief is awoken from sleeping in a cryogenic pod meant to preserve his lifespan just as Covenant boarding groups begin to infiltrate the Autumn, knowing Cortana is onboard. John makes his way to the ship's bridge and is given orders by Captain Keyes to get Cortana off the ship. If the Covenant capture her, they will learn where Earth is and humanity will be doomed. John fights his way through swarms of alien attackers and makes it to a lifeboat, which jettisons from the Autumn and crash lands on a huge ring shaped world called Halo. As Chief attempts to link up with marines who survived in other lifeboats, he fights his way through more Covenant, then receives word that Keyes has been captured by the aliens. He is next tasked with infiltrating the Truth and Reconciliation, a mile long Covenant spaceship that is holding Keyes hostage. After rescuing him, Cortana analyzes Covenant records and learns that they believe Halo is some kind of weapon which controls the fate of the universe. After finding out that Halo has its own control center from which it can be activated, John and Cortana set out to find the Cartographer: a map room that will show them its location. Facing heavy Covenant resistance, they make it to the control center in order to discover Halo's true purpose, but Cortana senses something is wrong. She finds out an ancient race known as Forerunners built it in order to rid the galaxy of something horrible they had encountered, and Keyes is about to unknowingly uncover it. Cortana urges John to rush out of there and find Keyes before it's too late.
Chief arrives at a dimly lit and eerie swamp area, where all the normally staunch Covenant soldiers are fleeing in horror from some unseen enemy. After entering the nearby Forerunner facility, John finds out that the place was made to contain a terrifying adversary: the Flood. The Flood are a highly virulent alien parasite that cause the extinction of other lifeforms by infecting them and absorbing their memories, and were responsible for almost wiping out the Forerunners millenia ago. After fighting his way out of the Flood infested area, John is confronted by 343 Guilty Spark, the Halo ring's monitor. He is a floating, robotic construct built by the Forerunners tasked with looking over Installation 04 (Halo's official name). He wants Chief's assistance with making sure the Flood does not escape the ring, so he teleports him to The Library: an ancient security facility crawling with Flood. It houses the index, which is the key to activating the ring itself. Once the index is in John's possession, he returns to Halo's control room and reunites with Cortana, but she is not happy. John is convinced activating the ring will destroy the Flood, but Cortana exposes the truth; Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food source. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them, and without any other thinking aliens or humans to parasitize, they all die. John asks the monitor if this is true, and he says yes. Spark turns on Chief and wants him to give up Cortana (and the index) so the ring can be fired, but he refuses. As a result, Chief now has to deal with being caught in a 4 way war between himself, the Flood, the Covenant, and Sentinels: flying robots with lasers that are tasked with containing Flood outbreaks.
Cortana tells John they need to destroy Halo in order to prevent Spark from getting his wish and activating it. To do this, John needs to destroy 3 generators that amplify Halo's signal. After this, he is teleported to the Truth and Reconciliation in order to search for Keyes. The ship is now disabled and swarming with Flood forms, who wish to repair the ship, use it to escape Halo, and infect other worlds (possibly Earth). Another 3 way battle ensues onboard the ruined and chaotic hallways of the cruiser, and John discovers the horrible truth upon entering the bridge: Keyes has been taken over by the Flood, who need his knowledge of Earth in order to infect it. John punches through Keyes' decaying skull and retrieves his neural lace, which is required to access the Pillar of Autumn's subsystems. The Covenant sends in special operations teams to deal with the Flood, and Chief must fight them on his way out.
After stealing a flying Covenant vehicle known as a Banshee, he makes his way to the crashed Pillar of Autumn, now infested with Flood. He uploads Cortana into the ship's command interface, and she initiates a countdown timer to destroy the ring by detonating the ship's reactor. However, Spark interrupts the process, so Chief must cause the ship's engine to blow up manually by venturing into the engine room and pulling back the exhaust couplings that lead to a fusion drive core. Once this is accomplished, Chief gets out as fast as he can since the whole place is going to blow soon. He is taken by elevator to a very long corridor that runs along the ship's spine, and drives a Warthog (an armored jeep with a gatling gun on the back) through hordes of Covenant, Flood, and Sentinels. John makes his way to a hangar bay which contains a large Longsword jet fighter. After boarding it, he pushes its engines to their limits and escapes Halo's atmosphere just as it explodes. When Cortana tells him they are the only two who made it off alive and that Halo is finished, John says they're just getting started and removes his helmet, though the view is obscured from the player.
This game is awesome. While the gameplay itself feels a little dated, the story is still as interesting today as it was in 2001. If you like science fiction, it should go without saying that you'll be interested in Halo. Marty O'Donnell absolutely kills it with the soundtrack, and the main theme of this game with the Gregorian choir has become rather iconic. The weapons and vehicles are all fun to use and viable options for the most part, which isn't the case in later games. Ironically, the most useful weapon is the humble pistol, as it fires huge .50 caliber rounds and can headshot enemies, killing them instantly. The alien plasma weapons are battery powered, and must be replaced when they are depleted as humans don't know how to recharge them. Halo CE's story mode is quite fair, and while it is difficult on the highest setting, it's very possible. There are many who can beat the whole game without dying once, as CE contains basically no unpredictable encounters that can kill instantly (almost). Probably the most obnoxious enemies are the handful of Flood forms that spawn with rocket launchers, a feared weapon that can eliminate anything up to a large vehicle in a single shot. All the Covenant races behave differently in combat, but the biggest threat to you are the Elites, as they have the same full body shielding system that you do. If you damage them but give their shields a chance to recharge, you basically just wasted your ammo.
Overall though, beating the campaign on legendary is a rewarding experience and you won't feel cheated if you get killed, as most of the time, it's your fault. While it's been surpassed in many ways by later games, CE still remains a fun game to play online as there are many different game modes and maps to choose from. For me, I will always enjoy how customizable the game is, and to this day people are still making their own mods, weapons and maps for it. There will never be another game like Halo.