You are the last of your kind. Bred for combat, built for war, you are master of any
weapon, pilot of any vehicle . . . and fear no enemy.
You are, Master Chief.
TITLE: Halo Combat Evolved NTSC
PUBLISHER: MS
DEVELOPER: Bungie
DATE RELEASED: 2002
Xbox System Link: Up to 16 players with 4 Xboxs
ESRB: M
This is easily one of the, if not the best game there is available for Xbox right now. This is also the best first person shooter that has ever been released, but there are just a few flaws that keep it from being perfect.
Control: 10/10The control scheme in this game has got to be one of the best setups ever created for a first person shooter on a gaming console. It is fluid, and quick moving and you will always be able to control your character to his fullest ability. The default control setup goes like this: the L trigger is used to toss grenades, the R trigger is used to fire weapons, the Black button switches between plasma and fragmentation grenades, the White button turns on your flashlight,the B button does melee attacks to enemies, the Y button switches between your two armed weapons, the X button reloads, or picks up another weapon that you have found, the A button jumps, the Left joystick moves Master Chief forward and backwards, as well as strafing left and right, the R trigger turns him left and right, and has him look up and down, pushing in on the left joystick has him crawl, and pushing in the right joystick enables you to zoom in with weapons that have zoom capability. You can change it to inverted aim, and inverted flight control. Another first time feature I have seen in a first person shooter is the ability to change the look sensitivity for your controller. This helps some people in multiplayer who love to sit and snipe their enemies all the time. This makes it easier for them to control their crosshair and rack up kills easier.
Gameplay: 9.9/10The gameplay in this game is just simply amazing. The computer A.I. is some of the most advanced I have yet to see in a game. It makes for a very challenging experience no matter what difficulty you decide to play on, and will keep you going for hours. Enemies are now smart enough to come after you in packs, and if you take out the stronger enemies first, then the weaker ones run away until they can gather more people to help them out. If the elites, or little guys are outnumbered, they will hide behind things so you won't know where they are, and then pop out and chuck grenades at you or ambush you from behind. Bungie has allowed you to get in vehicles such as a tank, a banshee which is a flying alien aircraft, a warthog which is just a offroad jeep basically, and one or two other things that will make your gameplay experience just that much better. Your marines who help you in battle are also fairly smart as well, but they die pretty easily. Bungie has also made it realistic in the fact that the Master Chief can carry only two weapons on him at a time, but he can switch them at will. Most of the levels are designed really well, and the story is incredible and really keeps you wanting you to know what happens next. There is one specific level that is pretty horrible designed. They could have made it better, but I can see where they're coming from when they developed this level. You basically just do the same thing over and over four times in a row. All the other levels are devloped really well, and are fun and call for strategic actions when playing them. Most of the levels take around an average of an hour or so, but if you play several of them on legendary then it could take you three hours because of certain areas you get stuck on. The multiplayer in this game is incredibly fun. You can get up to 16 people playing simultaneously in teams or by themselves going at it in many different modes. There are probably around 20 match types including death match, capture the flag, snipers, rockets, invisible, tag, and many more. You also have the opportunity to modify each type to your fitting, such as having infinite grenades, or all vehicles available in the level. They also created some awesome levels for these multiplayer games. They have some big and spacious levels, that are very exciting to fight in, that make for great sniping arenas. Others are very small and closed in that makes for some heated combat but if playing with a more skilled player, it may make it boring or frustrating for someone else who isn't so skilled.
Graphics: 10/10The graphics in this game are another amazing feature. It is just outstanding how much big and massive these levels are. There are usually around 5-10 enemies on screen at one time, plus the marines and your player, they manage to get all this on screen without any slowdown. You can also see the ring, which is Halo, from pretty much every outdoor level which just shows how much time and effort they put into designing each of these levels. Explosions in this game are very realistic looking, even though some of them are blue fire instead of normal colored because of the plasma grenades that the Covenant carry. The many vehicles that you are able to control throughout the game look seamless and amazing. The banshee is done really well for a flying vehicle. The two weapons it carries look sweet, especially when you shoot the green grenade like weapon and you see it blow up killing a bunch of enemies. The blood is also sweet looking in this game as well. When you shot enemies the blood sprays out of their bodies and into the air. If they were standing in front of a wall, then the blood will stain the wall with whatever color their blood is, may it be purple, blue, or the nasty brown color blood that the flood have. The enemies all look equally amazing, and the character design is great. They all run realistically, and their bodies look amazing. The best example of the detail put into the characters would be on the Hunter from the covenant. His armor is highly detailed, as well as his body parts and weapon. The explosion his fuel rod gun makes as it hits a person or wall is just downright impressive. The green blast just looks awesome and reminds me of some toxic grenade blowing up.
Sound: 9.9/10Yet again, the sound in this game is amazing. The music plays along really well when you get to certain points in each level, and it really makes your anticipation rise upon seeing certain things. When you come upon a long stretch of area that is towards the end of the level, the bass increases, and the beat begins to go faster and faster. They also play music louder depending on the situation you are at, and the tempo and things are controlled by this as well. They also play music depending upon which enemies you are facing as well. When going up against hunters, they also play louder and faster music, which is very helpful when trying to play out your strategy to beat the current level or area you are in. The enemy noises are incredible, and are funny as well. When you come upon a group of grunts by themselves, they all squeal, start yelling, and go running around saying "he's here" and stuff like that. Other enemies will say stuff such as "bow down to me" and things of that nature. It's actually quite interesting to just sit there for a minute or so and listen to the enemies talk and stuff. The different noises enemies make and stuff also helps out your strategy immensely, making it so you don't just go rushing into a room that will carry elites and hunters or something. The only negative thing about the sound is the fact that it doesn't support the ripped soundtrack feature, but the music is good enough that people rarely complain about it.
Overall: 9.8/10Overall this is one amazing game, and is definitely one of, if not the best first person shooter I have ever played. It is immensely fun, and with the multiple difficulties and multiplayer options, this game will keep you occupied for a long long time.
Halo Combat Evolved - Ntsc, Bungie
Oct 17 2003, 09:35 PM
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ohh well personally I would give halo 8.5 out of 10.... only because Halo 2 will be 10 out of 10 
