Games you should still be playing / Halo edition…yes the first one |
|
| BY Mike Wehner Jun. 29th, 2008 | More on: |
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I can hear you all yelling at your computer monitors right now, “You’re living in the past!”. Well, while that may be true in some aspects (I still pretend that Futurama and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 were never cancelled), I can safely say that it is not the case when it comes to videogames.
The original Halo title could arguably be the only reason we have the Xbox 360 today. Halo made FPS titles a viable option for consoles and showed everyone that you can have fun in a shooter without using a mouse and a keyboard. It also put the original Xbox onto the wish lists of gamers everywhere, and without the moderate success that the Xbox was it’s possible we’d have never seen the lovely, overheating darling we know as the 360. All that aside, it’s a pretty damn good game, and one you should probably play again or for the first time if you never got the chance.
The game, as if you didn’t already know, follows the adventures of Master Chief as he attempts to save the human race from certain doom via a holy war being waged by the Covenant, a particularly nasty group of badass aliens. That may sound cool, but I’d honestly advise you not to get too personally invested in the storyline as it will just lead to heartbreak further down the road. Master Chief is good, the aliens are bad… kinda.
I say “kinda” because while the Covenant are indeed a problem, about ¾ of the way through the game you’re going to face an even bigger one. I’m speaking of course of The Flood. The Flood are an endless, um, flood of disgusting bug-like creatures and infected warriors that operate much like locusts. They just go from planet to planet trying to absorb and kill any kind of resource at their immediate disposal. The Covenant turn out to be responsible for the release of The Flood, but we won’t hold that against them…
In all honesty, there’s no reason why anyone who’s reading this shouldn’t have already played this groundbreaking title. However, many of you haven’t, as is apparent by the fact that the original Halo sold roughly 2 million less than the record-shattering Halo 3. That’s 2 million people who probably never got to see how the series started, but have already seen its ending. This might seem like a major spoiler and negate the reason for anyone to go back and play the first title, but that would be an incorrect assumption. The gameplay, graphics, and legacy are more than enough reason to go back and enjoy this one over and over again.
- The Game: Halo
- System: Xbox, PC
- Release Date: Nov. 15, 2001
- Rarity: Xbox: Common, PC: Common
- Average Price: Xbox: $10, PC: $5
June 29th, 2008
at 4:06 pm
Played the Xbox version, didn’t really feel it lived up to all the hype. I prefer the arena style FPS’s.
June 29th, 2008
at 4:41 pm
VERY good game, funny thing is Ive never beat it on the Xbox, I played it when it came out for computer. But just the other day I received the Xbox version in the mail from Goozex, so its on my to do list.
June 29th, 2008
at 5:52 pm
I always thought the first one was incredibly disappointing. In fact I didn’t really think Halo nailed what Bungie wanted it to do until the third one single player wise.
June 29th, 2008
at 7:52 pm
Good post. The first Halo was, by far, the best of the series. If you haven’t played it, you’re really missing out. I bored of online multi player years ago after thousands of matches of various Quake engine games so single player campaigns are very important to me. Not to mention the crowd you find in online Halo matches is about the worst thing about the game. Do yourself a favor, go get Halo 1 right now if you haven’t played it already.
June 29th, 2008
at 9:21 pm
Reasonable post, but it ignores the history of FPS on consoles by a fair margin. If you’re looking for the original breakthrough console FPS, then you need go no further than Medal of Honor, a console exclusive (at the time) that spawned an initially very good although now declining heritage. It even had a (well-selling) sequel on the PSOne and PS2 before the 360 was even released. And was an absolute blast - I still have and play the PSOne originals, and while they’re no COD4, they’ve got their charm. I’m also not sure of the timing, but I’m pretty sure the original Timesplitters predated Halo as well. Halo is a great game, but arguing it is the first to do a good FPS on a console shows a lack of gaming pedigree in the author. Halo might, however, have been the first ridiculously over-hyped console FPS…..
June 30th, 2008
at 2:25 am
“If you’re looking for the original breakthrough console FPS, then you need go no further than Medal of Honor,”
Um, no.
If you want to slam someone who “ignores the history of FPS on consoles by a fair margin.” then look in the mirror.
Medal of Honor on PS1 was released in 1999, not long before the launch of PS2. It was but a blip on the FPS radar at the end of the PS1’s life. Goldeneye 007 was a vastly superior game in every respect and released 2 years prior in summer 1997. But even that was not the first breakout. Turok:Dinosaur hunter released 6 months before goldeneye and was far more significant than the PS1 medal of honor (it gave us the cerebral bore, arguably the coolest FPS weapon EVER). Turok even had a sequel out before the release of the first Medal of Honor. Hello, even Doom64 was released in 1997 if I recall correctly. Not the greatest port but a pretty significant early console FPS to be sure.
So, don’t slam someone for a lack of education unless you know what you’re talking about first.
The authors point wasn’t that Halo was the first and only breakout FPS, but that it was vital to the future of the xbox. And he is right.
June 30th, 2008
at 2:55 am
Thank you very much cisco, I don’t think I could have said it any better myself.
Axe, you’re correct in saying that Medal Of Honor was important in the fact that it showed that an FPS could be done with a D-pad alone and no analog stick, but anyone who played Goldeneye knows that an analog stick really does blow the D-pad out of the water.
Also, Cisco hit the nail on the head in that I wasn’t trying to say that Halo is the only reason FPS game succeeded on the console. I look at it this way:
Goldeneye showed us that an analog stick was needed for an outstanding console FPS experience.
Medal of Honor (and a few others) showed that an FPS COULD be done on a console without an analog stick, but none of them ever matched the quality that Goldeneye achieved almost overnight.
Halo made us CARE about console FPS’s and introduced THE best way to control them.
Keep your eyes open for more Games You Should Still Be Playing because Halo isn’t the only vintage FPS you should still care about ;)
June 30th, 2008
at 5:45 am
I think this is the part where I tell you kids to get off my lawn. Anyways since Medal of Honor was brought up, if you kids didn’t know the original M.O.H. story was created by Steven Spielberg and continued to until Allied Assault the PC game which was developed by the founding members of Infinity Ward.Just had to drop a bit of knowledge on you kids.
- Josh
July 3rd, 2008
at 1:02 pm
Even though the first Halo wasn’t the best of the series, I still think that it totally rocked. That Christmas I played it for hours (considering that was the Christmas of GTA 3, Max Payne, and Metal Gear 4). I also think that the original Halo had the best gun ever - the pistol! You guys remember that? It was ideal for midrange and short range attacks.