Halo: Combat Evolved is a fun but flawed game that unfortunately shows its age in quite a few ways. This game shines brightest when it shows off its unique and incredible locations, each with their own incredible atmospheres, and ties it all together with its very interesting story. Unfortunately however this game is not always at its best. A good portion of the game is spent navigating tight corridors, often seeing the same rooms copy and pasted over and over again, and fighting the same bunch of enemies. Master chief is fun to control in combat, however a few controls feel a bit outdated or awkward, such as the vehicle controls and lack of a zoom button while shooting. This game also suffers from not really having a proper waypoint system. Despite all of the levels being pretty linear it's still very easy to get lost due to the often confusing and repetitive map design. Overall Halo's biggest problem is its repetitiveness. Whether it be enemies, weapons, or maps, after a certain point you'll start to feel like you're just doing the same thing over and over again. The story is definitely still interesting however and though repetitive it is fun. Despite its rough patches I'm very glad I completed this game and would still recommend checking it out.

replayed via Master Chief Collection w/ co-op partner MagesticSapling on Heroic

Hmmm, not much I can say for this log or review. I will say that I am gonna concede a bit and admit that the common critique of repetition and exact room layout does show itself now that I've replayed it after a good while. People rightfully point to Library as the quality falloff, but Assault On The Control Room's when the ugliness shows. Having to do the same objective three times amidst constant onslaughts of enemy waves, as both of us haphazardly and confusingly figure out where to go despite our previous outings with the game, kinda sucked! Same goes for the "boss" fight at Maw, dunno why they'd expect you to keep scrounging for explosives for a precise shot against shafts at the top. I don't really mind that the back half of the game's just a mirrored reflection of the prior levels though, it makes sense from a narrative standpoint and some of the best moments, such as Keyes and 343 Guilty Spark, are found here anyway.

It's not truly nostalgia that's keeping me from marking it lower - this is actually the third Halo game I touched after 2 and 3, and one I've played the least of - because I still find the overall package to be pretty stellar despite its obvious and glaring trappings. Seeing a streak of explosions happen from grenades, Needler shots, rockets, Flood carriers, shit all of the above, activates a tank of dopamine within my head, even if later game's soundscapes (music included) are better on that front. Plus, I dunno, playing this on Heroic is still a fun time, and there's some quirks from either the AI or weaponry available that makes it pretty exhilarating that's either understandably or unfortunately lost later on that keeps it from feeling too obsolete from its sequels. Maybe I'm just a bit of a masochist though...

I've always maintained Halo's stories, within the games themselves anyway, don't become interesting and like, 'layered' with themes until the next one, but looking at this from the perspective of a pseudo-continuation of Bungie's Marathon trilogy makes it a little more exciting, Monitor and Cortana being the AI standees as they drivel and spout against one another. It's pretty cool, even if at certain points I check out and go through other stuff on my phone. Also listen I know this is pretty much something everyone brings up but like, oh my god, the Anniversary graphics suck so much ass. Just the absolute pinnacle of a """remaster""" missing the point of the original's art direction. The only time Sap and I found the remaster graphics to be an actual addition to what the original was doing is with Keyes' Alien homage fuckery.

I played this intermittently of reading I'm In Love With The Villainess' first light novel volume, the Kase-San& manga series, as well as Boogiepop Phantom and its preceding LN volume. Clearly, this was what Microsoft and Bungie wanted to happen all along, and I recommend you do the same. Or just go through those separately, idk I ain't the boss of you.

Firefights in shooters are usually defined by positioning more than anything. Where your Zombiemen and Imps are pretty much defines how the whole thing is gonna go down, and just pulling out the right weapon for the job is pretty much the big decision the player makes when engaging. Halo is different. Positioning matters, but it's not always due to the designers hand that the player and enemies end up in their positions - it's the aliens themselves choosing where they go. Reloading a save for the same encounter will still often see it going drastically differently each time, and this is due to a multitude of factors: Master Chief has a limited arsenal at all times, and the enemies you fight directly tie into this. You will actually need to consider which weapon you want to keep as you can't predict which enemies will be ahead of you, or what they'll be equipped with, or where they'll be. Master Chief also has a shield system that will work alongside your healthbar, with which you get a brief window of protection from oncoming strikes but not full-blown protection; giving you just enough time to perform any risky maneuvers you may need. Everything you do is slightly delayed; from jumps to grenade throws and explosions to reloads delaying your fire to punches landing, giving you a constant need to think about every action you take. The real icing on the cake here though is the intelligence of the Covenant enemies, and how they interact with everything else.

The Covenant has, by no stretch of the imagination, probably the best artificial intelligence ever seen in the genre. The designers have claimed they merely attempted to make them seem smart rather than be smart since they weren't sure how to do that, but I'd argue they hit two birds with one stone. The real trick is that they're reactive, and equal. Reactive in the sense of emotionally expressing reactions to almost every situation, but reactive also in the sense of seemingly playing alongside the player for each gunfight. They'll flank you, toss grenades whenever you get into a comfy position too long or just overwhelm you with numbers. For almost every strategy you have, the Covenant have something up their sleeves to counter it usually. Each Elite has a shield system of their own, so every single fight you get into with an Elite will likely lead in you both taking cover to regenerate since Halo knows to also give the foes some self-preservation instinct. Want to charge in and just damage the Elite? They'll probably do the same; get pissed off and charge at you just hoping to kill you before you put them down. Hell, you might try sniping an Elite only for him to hop in a Banshee and start circling you in the air, and the thing is; this is only the Elites, and while yes: they are the most intelligent Covenant enemies, the true magic is emergence. This is only describing one Elite, what about two? What about his squad of Grunts? Well if you leave the Elite alive they'll have the confidence to charge in and try attacking you on their own terms, but if you take out the Elite first you'll be opening yourself up to them and the Jackals fire. Your assault rifle will make short work of the Grunts, but can it counter the Jackals and Elites shields? That's something new to consider, so you'll want to keep multiple types of weapons on you at once for this situation. What if there's too many to take out? Well there might be a Warthog nearby which you could straight up crash into them with, or just have a Marine fire for you as you strafe around them. Every single encounter requires you to rethink and preplan how you'll handle things, and you'll always need to keep on top of ammo/charge per weapon too; so you can't rely on, well, old reliable, forever.

Just when you've gotten comfy, the game throws the Flood at you. As divisive as they are, and as arguable the Library's quality is, I'd wager they're a necessity. They're a great shake-up to the more strategic combat centered around the Covenant, requiring you to pretty much treat every encounter with them as a gauntlet as they eat up bullets and plasma but just don't go down, and will revive other enemies as more of themselves. But just as is the case with the Covenant, emergence is their true strength. Late-game Halo: Combat Evolved has you overseeing armies of Flood and Covenant fighting to the death and it's your job to just get by while the games systems play their own little RTS as you go off shotgunning more zombies.

The truth to Halo's design is it's multifacted, and it makes the most out of very little. Compared to your average shooter there's not much variety in the enemies or weapons but the core behaviors are so nuanced and dynamic that they change moment-to-moment, encounter-to-encounter. It gives you a sandbox of weapons and vehicles against decently tough enemies (though this will vary depending on the difficulty you pick, but I recommend Heroic as it seems to be the intended experience) and asks how you will deal with it. Halo gives you tons of ways to play, but the enemies can play at that game too and utilize basically anything you can. It leads to an immense creativity in encounters that comes from the most fun form of problem-solving that makes it, in my eyes, one of the crowning jewels of the genre. None of the sequels rivaled the quality of the combat, because it's already the pinnacle of evolution.

As a result of me writing off fps games when I was younger and having parents who would've NEVER let me play a game like this before my teens, I never grew up with Halo.

With my first experience with the series being as an adult a lot of this games' flaws were very apparent. The second half just kinda shits itself with the amount of assets reused combined with how much it spams flood in the last four levels.

Despite that however I had a lot of fun going through the campaign and there is undeniably a lot to appreciate in what it achieves graphically and narratively. There are moments like stepping out of the ship in Mission 2 and the final vehicle sequence in Mission 10 that stick with you just for how cool they are.

While far from a favorite, it's not hard to see why this is still looked back on fondly as a classic two decades later.

It seems like story-driven FPS titles often pick between nailing the controls or nailing the aesthetic. Halo: CE is the rare gem that does both.

~ ~ Control ~ ~

The most critical element of this game's controls is found in Bungie's use and development of aim assist. The Halopedia outlines it like this:

"There are four types of aim assist in Halo titles: Snapping, Friction, Acceleration, and Magnetism. Magnetism defines and outlines how far a bullet will "bend" in order to hit an enemy. [...] Snapping reorients the player's camera toward enemies whenever a player's reticle are in proximity to their target. Acceleration makes it so that when the player pegs their aiming stick in one direction, the player's reticle will start moving slowly in that direction then pick up speed. Friction slows the player's turn rate as soon as their reticule passes over an enemy."

The amount of care that went into the aiming in Halo is astounding. The game doesn't require surgical precision, but it doesn't lock on to enemies either. It gives you silent, near imperceptible buffs that make YOU feel like you're a crack shot. The balance it struck nearly 20 years ago has continued to ruin other shooters for me, as Halo's aiming just feels better.

~ ~ Aesthetics ~ ~

In previous reviews, I've echoed the adage that constraints breed creativity. Halo's world and level design are yet another beautiful example of this trend. The second generation of 3D consoles allowed for big environments, but we weren't anywhere close to the detailed textures and models we see today. What Bungie created within those limitations was an angular, gorgeous style of architecture that made both the Halo ring and the interior of UNSC ships feel real and defined.

When you play the Anniversary edition of this game, the environments are detailed into oblivion. They're overdesigned to the point that they have no soul, no sense of identity. But the dark, unsaturated purple tones of Covenant structures illuminated by blue light make Halo: CE feel lived-in. The whole game is so visually cohesive that each separate level seems to fit together perfectly.

At the beginning of the review, I remarked that Halo struck a difficult balance with its campaign. But we've gotta talk about the meat and potatoes.

~ ~ Slayer ~ ~

Like Goldeneye before it, Halo: CE has a great single-player mode (though the co-op here was a welcome difference), but the multiplayer is where it truly shines. In 2001, this game gave us 16-player deathmatches. Console gamers had never seen anything like it. Getting a few consoles together with kids in the neighborhood & lugging bulky CRT TVs around led to some of the best gaming moments I've ever had. To this day in the Master Chief Collection, Halo: CE shines brightest when real people are trying to blow each other's heads off with the GREATEST PISTOL EVER KNOWN TO MANKIND.

It's funny. Looking back, I used to think that "Combat Evolved" was such a dumb nothingburger of a subtitle. But reflecting on the game, the title couldn't be more accurate.

When focused on more traditional closed shooter sections Halo is an almost alright game. The (few) enemy variety does not make that much difference since Master Chief Rambo is always rapidly firing those giant auto targeted aliens anyway. Likewise, the so praised AI, that I do not doubt that is very worked on, rarely ever shines due to how fast the pacing is, so one questions the importance of this “revolution” when the actual behavior of the enemies is way less charming than something much simpler like Doom enemies getting to fight between them (I’m assuming and hoping that the IA praise isn’t towards the dumb wheel eater allies). And comparing with Doom, remember the worst levels that consisted of big empty arenas full of enemies? That’s about half of Halo, but even worse somehow.

It’s funny to me that the advancements that this popularized in the genre that I perceive are exactly the things that I still find unconvincing after 20 years of iterations. The regenerative health not only causes what happens in almost any FPS ever of hiding behind a wall for a couple of seconds doing nothing, but in the way decreases the supposed greatness of the enemy intelligence as they are incapable of taking the vanguard on your most obvious state of crisis. Worse than that, it probably helped to popularize adding variety in shooting games by reducing the actual shooting with anything else that happens to be worse. I think what pisses me off the most is that the only thing mildly interesting in the combat, the constant movement due to the open space and enemy designs (even with a pretty standard movement), is completely tossed away by umm… the worst car that you will ever drive, a turret to shoot standing still while eating bullets, and something called a tank that in reality happens to be a giant hitbox amplifier since for some reason any bullet that hits the vehicle damages you directly.

Evolve combat? Sure, but please, not like this.

Halo Combat Evolved is a solid enough fps with a couple limitations slapped on, but ultimately it's not one that aged too well. Despite this, it actually still ends up being the best campaign on offer in the series, mostly due to how the enemy AI and projectile design works on Legendary, with most arenas being excellent playing grounds for weaving between bullets. From elites who dodge shots and flank, to flood that overwhelms you, this plus your limited toolbox makes movement and positioning really key and emphasized. It's also attached to a schlocky somewhat fun if a bit tonedeaf story.

Unfortunately, even though it reaches grand as hell peaks, it doesn't help that a lot of it is simultaneously flawed. About 1/3 of the levels are uninteresting rehashes, and The Library especially is full on awful, with continuous open areas for enemies that use hitscan weapons. It pushes it to a cover shooter of the worst regard, and even though it never reaches a low as big as this, it's a stark contrast that demonstrates how weaker the latter half is (other than Keyes, that mission slaps).

The multiplayer is similarly busted, with actually garbage maps and stupid fundamentals. Specifically, the way spawns work turns multiple firefights into grenade camped hallways, absolute mayhem that will end up with team fights that are incredibly one sided. It's definitely the part I think should've been left behind when it came to PC.

As the first of a long line of the series, its age is definitely going to show in some spots. It ends up fairly well in scrutiny but it's definitely a flawed experience under the highlights overall. I still recommend playing it, it's a good shooter. But even with the best campaign of the series, the highs from games after in 2/5 multiplayer are better off exploring.

É muito fácil se deslumbrar com a gameplay de Halo logo de cara, os controles intuitivos e combate são muito bem feitos, talvez o que envelheceu um pouco foi a velocidade de movimentação, por não ter um botão de corrida, que existe na maioria dos FPS hoje em dia, mas isso é algo que dá pra se acostumar durante o jogo.
A progressão do jogo tem alguns problemas de "repetição", depois da metade, o jogo meio que volta aos cenários que eram novidades no inicio e o surgimento de inimigos novos, que são muito mais resistentes e volumosos dão uma cansada.
Tenho que dizer que com mesmo com algum dos seus problemas, a experiência de jogar Halo pela primeira vez, foi algo que me deixou muito empolgado pra conhecer os outros jogos da franquia e como ela conseguiu aprimorar cada vez mais essa formula, que é muito competente até hoje.

[Played on Easy because it was a lazy Sunday] This game is really funny. It starts because your ship is under attack by some aliens, then you go to fuck them up for a bit and find out you landed on a giant weapon. So you go to find out more about the weapon and a floating robot teleports you around for a bit before you find out the weapon is actually going to kill the entire galaxy so the zombies can't spread. And the game ends with you not blowing up the galaxy or something. Shooting is fun, the pistol is great, the Flood are a scary enemy to face, and the enemy sounds are goofy. Looking forward to playing Halo 2 and the rest.

(Replayed on MCC on PC with gamepad, Legendary, skipped The Library)

Honestly a lot better than I remember. I think the common praise and complaints about this game are mostly correct in kind if not always magnitude, so let me discuss some interesting specifics.

The Library is awful and you should skip it if possible. The campaign's pacing is significantly improved without it, it emphasizes everything bad about the game while downplaying everything good, Bungie devs have stated multiple times that it shouldn't have been shipped, etc. Everyone knows it's trash and I'm going to pretend like it doesn't exist now, moving on.

Weapon balancing here is my favorite in the series. Everything feels powerful and situationally useful. The pistol, shotgun, and power weapons are obviously good, but the plasma pistol has great accuracy and damage even with the primary fire, the plasma rifle stuns enemies who take sustained hits, and the needler is a great Elite killer if you have the positioning for it. Even the assault rifle occasionally comes in handy against Grunts or Flood.

A huge issue with this game is the difficulty balancing. Heroic is hilariously easy for some reason, with even high-rank Elites quickly melting to plasma pistol fire. Legendary has a lot of nice changes to health (Elites don't die instantly), enemy encounters (more enemies with higher ranks), and AI (dodges grenades and fire more often), but you also take tons of damage, especially on your shield. This makes it easy to get stuck on one health pip for long periods, which makes the game into more of a cover shooter, encourages the linear playstyles like plasma pistol overcharge sniping, etc. This could have been fixed by simply placing more health packs (occasionally this does happen, why does Keyes have so many?) or perhaps raising the minimum health value like Reach did. All that being said, if you are good at single-player FPS I would still recommend Legendary, or maybe Heroic with some specific skull combination.

Enemy design and AI (of the Covenant) is stellar. This is well-known and discussed, see here and here for some other people's writeups.

Flood, not so much. A melee-focused swarming faction is an okay idea on paper, but they don't have anything close to the Covenant's differentiation, AI behaviors, or health/shield tradeoff. Fighting them isn't horrible, but I'd be lying if I said I ever looked forward to it. Special dishonorable mention to the infection forms, which block checkpoints and are constantly a chore to clean up. Thankfully, many of your encounters with the Flood are in infighting scenarios where they can be toyed with or ignored.

The level design isn't as bad as most suggest IMO. It's less that they reuse environments, and more that a bunch of the missions are too long. Assault on the Control Room has you fight in the same room + bridge geometry 3 times, but they try to mix it up with different enemy compositions (especially notable: the bridge with Elites blocking your path while Hunters on the other bridge shell you across the gap). But there aren't enough unique ideas to totally sustain the momentum, and I suspect they would have had difficulty adding more.

Let me elaborate. There are broadly two styles of FPS enemy design. On one end is Doom, whose enemies are simple but highly differentiated, and form interesting situations with how they are placed and combined by the mapper. On the other is Half-Life and FEAR, whose enemies are complex but similar, and present new situations via the dynamism of their AI. Halo is great because its AI belongs to the latter school, but its enemy designs bring in much of the former's differentiation.

A side effect of this though is that the levels in general don't feel as distinct from each other as e.g. Doom maps might, since the enemies and weapon economy are less sensitive to small tweaks in placements and terrain. Halo 3 gets around this by using tons of setpieces, though this has the tradeoff of needing more budget and potentially feeling gimmickier (and 3 has the unforced error of worse fundamentals than 1). Perhaps they could have made more arena geometries, but I suspect the lowest hanging fruit was all picked, so the game should have just been a bit shorter.

After this playthrough, I'm comfortable calling Halo my favorite of the "dynamic AI driven FPS", (with classic Doom the king of the opposing style) and Halo 1 tied with 3 for my favorite entry in the series. Great stuff!

Sempre olhei pra as capas de Halo e pensei: "Futurista, eca". Agora eu penso: "Master Chief, maneiro".

A história é interessante, imagino que seja mais aprofundada com os jogos sucessores (que ainda vou jogar), mas aqui já apresenta momentos marcantes. O Master Chief parece um personagem bem marrento e no final ainda fala: "Eu sou o Halo." (Deixando bem claro que ele é o Halo e não faria sentido nenhum, se a franquia tivesse esse nome, por causa de um planeta que é explodido no final do primeiro jogo, nada haver).

As partes que dão pra usar veículos são as mais legais, pois eu de verdade gosto dessa dirigibilidade de virar com a câmera, principalmente quando se trata de veículos flutuantes ou voadores.

As poucas armas do jogo são legais de usar, só não gosto da metralhadora padrão, pois os inimigos não parecem sentir muito ela. As armas dos ets são legais também, mas minha favorita foi a pistolinha padrão mesmo, que me lembra uma magnum, sendo que os inimigos parecem sentir bem mais seus tiros.

Agora, falando dos problemas...

Tem algumas partes que a gameplay te manda pra lugares idênticos, o que pode dar uma cansada, além de que algumas vezes os check points não funcionam direito.

(This replay was done on Heroic)

Coming back to any game can be eye-opening, no less one that you haven't played for nearly a decade. If there's one thing I recognize more than ever about Halo, it's the absolutely pristine balance that every single facet of the gameplay lives in. And if there's one aspect of this balance that I would consider especially standout, it would be the game's approach to health, and how it balances its two different types of it.

A regenerating shield meter gives you enough leeway to take risks in combat, but a separate, non-regenerating health bar makes sure that you remain aware of the long-game. However, we could also flip this dichotomy around, and end up with another observation: whilst generous at full capacity, your health bar still doesn't last long under intense pressure, but that allows a regenerating shield to give you a consistent reserve of life that you can always fall back on. There's a consistent back-and-forth going on as you try to balance these two sides of the coin; even if your shield is topped off, you're going to approach an encounter ever-so-subtly different depending on how much health you've managed to keep.

Of course, there's more of these kinds of relationships at play. Human weapons are good for raw damage, Alien against shields, and individual weapons naturally have their own specific standout qualities, not to mention the grenade types. The two-weapon limit requires the player to juggle which qualities are most important at any given time, but there's still breathing room through being able to easily pick up weapons as they come along.

The radar gives you some valuable situational awareness, but doesn't account for enemy types, height positions in more vertical arenas, and there's some occasional stealthy enemies that further downplay its power.

When all of these systems are met with a main enemy roster that's nothing short of, bluntly, fucking perfection, it gets elevated even further. One particular concept I really appreciate about the Covenant races is the relationship between enemy danger, enemy abundance, and aiming demands. Grunts are weak and shield-less, but come in more numbers; clearing them out is easy, but it can take some time. Jackals come in slightly fewer numbers, and their shields give them good endurance, but a good aim can overcome that. Elites are the bulkiest, dodgiest against grenades, and are generally the most damaging, but come in even fewer numbers. They take the most effort to kill (outside of using power weapons), but are also still manageable on their own. Maybe it's good to clear out weaker mobs before taking them on…or you can kill them first, and watch as said mobs get disorganized, fleeing in terror. Even here, there's a balance in the way that you juggle which route to take. There's even ample opportunities to try your hand at stealth kills.

As individual enemies, Hunters are the odd one out, for me. Usually, they just become a simple case of "circle-strafe and hit the weak point in the back", only taking longer depending on the weapon you're using. When they do appear in larger fights, this strategy doesn't change much up-close, but the new difficulty in approaching them does give their powerful, single-shot blasts more time to shine.

Weapon types, weapon prioritization, health, movement, positional awareness, against these dynamic aliens…the interplay of it all is still truly sublime. To shamelessly insert the term into my own review, this strange ring-world really does become your sandbox: everything serves everything, and it's hard to say that anything is superfluous; the one mechanic I would give that label to is the flashlight's battery, which drains so slowly that it ends up never becoming a problem.

This is the force that allows the game to still remain strong in its second half, in spite of its flaws, but also gives me a gateway for commenting on the game's lowest point: objectively, The Library is on the shorter end when it comes to this game's levels, going off of the time to finish it, yet it can't help but feel like it takes forever. The repeated use of rooms, something this level is wholly guilty of, is a pervasive problem that crops up even before the halfway mark, but could be glossed over in light of good encounter variety. Considering the genuine perfection that is the enemy design of the Covenant races, I would even say that mostly rings true. Ultimately, what this is to say is that I don't find the Flood engaging enough to stay as the only focus for even two or three fights in a row. It's good that their general behavior is that of an enemy focused on rushing into your face, as a counter to the Covenant, but it doesn't give much room for encounters with them to evolve, especially when all three follow the same blueprint (though the ones with weapons are alright, the occasional Rocket wielder gives you a good "Oh shit" moment). Even Grunts try to dodge grenades. The Flood don't really do anything as close as interesting, when it comes to movement, at least.

Infighting with the Covenant is their saving grace, thankfully. It's certainly skewed when vehicles are involved, but there's still opportunities in Two Betrayals to use that brief chaos as an opening. Even so, being on smaller scales, the subsequent levels do show it more effectively.

The checkpoint system is also super wonky. I had too many instances of it not marking one down, only to have it do so after replaying an encounter due to dying. In the later stages, I'll admit that it was on me, usually for not killing the little Flood bugs, and it did end up becoming less severe...though I'm still giving myself room to complain.

Some unfortunate stumbling near the end (a trait shared by the story, due to some comical logic leaps, and, ironically, I'd say it starts at the exact same time as the gameplay's dip), but it's not like everything comes to a horrible halt. This game's first half is incredibly strong, and that momentum still stays strong, enough for it to end on a fun note, and for me to look at the credits and reflect on both how fun this replay was, and what it is that makes this game so remarkable. It turned out to be many a thing.

What if the US occupation of Afghanistan but the Taliban are aliens who only communicate with grunts/guttural laughter/high-pitched Flea in THE WILD THORNBERRYS gibbering, and Afghanistan itself is the weapon of mass destruction, and it's all of the worst aspects of ALIENS (which is most of ALIENS) and none of the good but with zombies, and we just make everything after "The Silent Cartographer" a beyond tedious grind with copy-pasted corridors so we can shove this thing out the door on time.

tl;dr JockJamz MARATHON, or the BIOSHOCK to that game's SYSTEM SHOCK. Some interesting/compelling production design and gameplay dynamics throughout (hopping in a Warthog with a buddy is all-time and the assault rifle feels great) but otherwise utterly fucking dire even when playing co-op with a friend, not to mention grossly jingoistic and racist without the polish or design muscle to make it worth fucking with. Just skip to the sequel imho.

Esse jogo é sensacional.
Mesmo após vinte anos Halo continua com uma gunplay extremamente dinâmica. Toda arma é ótima de se utilizar e possui uma função bem definida que se intercala com diferentes inimigos. Jogar Halo CE é como dançar ou jogar xadrez, e o jogo exige uma constante readaptação às circunstâncias apresentadas.
A apresentação é ótima, porém alguns setores se tornam repetitivos no campo visual, mas nada que tire o brilho do gameplay. Muita gente reclama da Biblioteca, contudo acho disparada a melhor parte do jogo. Há tantos inimigos e um uso constante de combate a curta e média distância com armas humanas que te deixam vidrado no confronto, apesar disso consigo entender quem se incomode, pois deixa o jogo muito mais agressivo que o habitual.
A história é simples, mas carrega um carisma com frases de efeito e exibicionismos que te motiva do começo ao fim. Halo posteriormente se tornaria extremamente cínico em suas histórias, o que faz com que revisitar esse jogo seja de ótimo tom.
Minha única reclamação é a sessão final de explodir os geradores, que poderia ter sido deletada, melhoraria muito o pacing

Having never played Halo growing up, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the series with no nostalgia. Fortunately Halo: Combat Evolved proved that good game design is timeless.

There was something oddly heavy about the movement that took a while to get used to, but other than that the game was a blast to play from the beginning. Shooters live and die on the feel of the guns and every gun in Halo is unique and gratifying. Except the assault rifle. That one just sucks.

Most of the levels are pretty solid. Unfortunately the game has a lot of maze-like interiors with identical looking corridors which I struggled to navigate and often I wandered in circles for a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out how to progress. And while I don't think reusing levels is automatically bad, I didn't think it was done in a way that added to the game and it just felt like padding, possibly because the developers started running out of time.

I do think this game is subject to a bit of overhype from fans, but I don't believe it's overrated. I think you just had to be there at the time to feel the transformative effect it had on console shooters. Without that context, it might be puzzling why it's so revered when nothing it does seems that crazy today. I wasn't there, so I'll never really get it. But ultimately it's still a great shooter that stands the test of time.

Halo envelheceu muito bem!

Finalmente, depois de muitas promessas pra mim mesmo durante os anos eu finalmente zerei Halo e devo dizer que foi uma escolha muito boa. Pra deixar claro minha experiência foi com a Master Chief Collection e eu joguei em coop com um amigo.

Depois de assistir o vídeo do Crowbcat sobre Halo eu me senti inspirado em jogar e definitivamente foi uma experiência bem divertida, foram cerca de 8 horas de gameplay que forneceram muitas risadas mas também algumas frustrações devido ao nível de dificuldade em que jogamos (hard) mas isso faz parte kkkk. O ponto é que Halo é um jogo que se sustenta muito bem até hoje, em vários momentos eu e meu amigo ficamos comparando os gráficos do jogo original com o do remaster ja que a master chief Collection tem a função de mudança de gráficos em tempo real, e realmente, o primeiro Halo até que envelheceu muito bem, tanto em questão gráfica quanto em mecânica, ficamos impressionados com os reflexos nos cenários, a fisica dos inimigos, a reação aos tiros e aos cenários que mesmo pra um jogo de 2001 são bem vastos que com bastante exploração.

Em questão de jogabilidade, o jogo envelheceu muito bem, o único problema é o pulo do personagem que é pouco preciso e dificil de controlar, mas de resto tudo perfeito do jeito que é. Quanto a trilha sonora... Meu Deus que trilha sonora boa, varias músicas empolgantes e que te fazem se sentir num filme de ação. Na questão de história o jogo é bem sólido e consistente, não é uma história pra te fazer chorar mas até que serve pro propósito do jogo.

Em questão de problemas, minhas unicas reclamações são alguns bugs de legenda que acontecem durante a gameplay, mas isso é culpa da master chief Collection. E algumas partes no jogo que são extremamente longas e entediantes, partes que poderiam muito bem durar no máximo uns 5 minutinhos mas que o iogo resolve prolongar de um jeito que fica massante, isso acontece com muito mais frequência na segunda metade do jogo que perde um pouco a mão no ritmo da história.

No geral Halo : Combat Evolved é um jogo muito bom e que se torna melhor ainda se você jogar em coop com um amigo, recomendo experimentar!

My life changed when I first played this game…

I still remember it vividly…

Being in an uncle’s house for a family reunion, suddenly, my uncle offers me and my dad (who was also a gamer back when he was fun) a look at his playroom, where he kept a massive flat screen, alongside an Xbox and several games.

I was ecstatic, and immediately chose one of the games from the bunch…

Halo.

The cover, the colors, the main menu…. It all spoke to me in a way that words can not describe…
If you know the feeling, you know it, simple as that.

Then my dad and uncle both left the room to got be adults again, and left me in there, in a dark room, sitting on a fluffy cushion really close to the TV, with the muffled sounds of the outside world, to experience Halo for the first time…

And good god, was it enlightening.

Landing on the Halo ring for the first time, was literally breathtaking.

As the music softened until an eventual stop, and the air whistled through the long, alien-looking trees, and the water slowly filled the silence, first with a flowing river, then with a crashing waterfall, it captivated not my attention…… but my curiosity.

Something far more important, and difficult to achieve.

The following few hours of action, chaos and adventure forever remain sealed in my heart as one of the most iconic gaming experiences of my life, and, eventually, when I grew up…. I realized I wasn’t alone.

Almost everyone celebrated Halo as a cultural phenomenon, and immediately set it as one of THE most important gaming steppingstones of all times, wether because of its fascinating story, fun multiplayer aspect, or absolutely revolutionary gameplay advances.

Its importance can’t be denied.

And if you do, it’s nothing but mute words, as evidence firmly swipes away any attempt to reduce this game’s impact…

Halo, is one of the most important videogame releases in history… and it will always remain that way.